The head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, did his thing this week in a speech stating fossil fuel companies are the “godfathers of climate chaos,” as well as many other great lines that will be repeated in headlines around the world. He sure knows how to deliver a message!
This speech has set off a tidal wave of reactions, but for me, the part where he’s challenging the marketing and PR industry to drop fossil fuel clients is not enough. Sure, stop fossil fuel advertisements, but what about the automotive industry, the airline industry, cruise companies, and anything with the word fast in it – fast fashion, fast food, fast furniture, and on it goes? There are A LOT of businesses doing great harm in the world.
Just check the content in today’s reads. One example, fish are becoming sterile because we’re excreting pharmaceuticals into the world’s water supplies in such vast quantities it’s having a HUGE impact on all life below the waves! Not very clever my friends.
Seriously, if we want to tackle the polycrisis, we must look at the scale of the issues, because to reduce fossil fuels, we’ve got to reduce what we use fossil fuels for. One industry that is using a lot of fossil fuels is the fashion industry, but don’t worry, it’s rapidly transforming into an earth friendly industry – not!!
Let’s just look at Shein, which is looking to go public on the London Stock Exchange. Here’s a hot tip. You might make a lot of money if you buy into this public offering, and in return you will be significantly contributing to multiple issues, including: excess fossil fuel use; supply chain disruption; novel entities in our air, water and land; microplastics in our bodies; infertility in males (human and all other living beings); paying for slave labour and terrible suffering in brutal working conditions; etc, etc, etc. I hope the investment is worth it!
But equally, Gen-Z – what the hell with all the excessive fast fashion shopping? I thought your generation actually cared about the earth. That’s something we need to get a handle on, so parents, please talk to your kids, because all of us need to buy less, buy higher quality, and stop contributing to this madness.
Another happy topic, war. It was wonderful to hear four hostages made it home today in Israel, although it appears the “cost” of extraction was very high for Palestinian civilians, with children reportedly killed in the operation. But two pieces – the cost of rebuilding Palestine will come at a HUGE climate cost, and in Ukraine, scientists are tallying the grave environmental consequences of the Kakhovka Dam disaster – it’s not good.
We can’t afford war, we never could.
Not only are men being impacted in many ways by the planetary crisis, and we talked about microplastics found in every teste tested a couple of weeks back, but there are dire impacts on women and girls too, including decreased fertility, or if you’re lucky to get pregnant, you face risks too. Whether it’s young girls experiencing puberty much earlier due to air pollution, the very high risk of death or losing children because Malaria has moved into your warmer neighbourhood, or losing your baby or delivering it pre-term, because it’s just too hot to be pregnant… the costs are mounting.
You might have heard about AMOC or the Atlantic Meridional Occidental Current, which is being discussed a lot right now because it’s the 20-year anniversary of Day After Tomorrow (my favorite disaster movie of all time), but I really do recommend watching this speech. An expert with 30 years studying the AMOC, he knows what he’s talking about.
I know it’s all a bit grim, but that’s the truth of this time, and it’s why we need to do everything we can to turn things around. But we’re not doing it. We’re not doing even a tiny fraction of what we need to do right now.
Some potential entertainment coming up. Keep an eye out for stories on Dolly Parton this week, because an article published in The Federalist decided it was a good idea to attack this global treasure, and well, I’m not sure that’s going to go well for them. Do you agree?
Favorite visual this week
Friends content and mine
Super appreciative of the shout out from Damian Corbet in this article How CEOs can make the most of social media (part 2). Do follow Damian if you’re a business leader that wants to master the art of social leadership.
Praveen Gupta delivers again, and this is an important dive into colonialism and nature. Boy we’ve made a mess of things. Follow Praveen, he’s doing wonderful work – 52nd World Environment Day: Shedding the coloniser in us! | illuminem
Big shout out to Robin Hicks for joining us on Climate Courage. So insightful to hear the intricacies AND challenges of being a journalist in Asia.
Plenty more to read, listen to or watch, so do click through to the reads at the image below, and a reminder, this platform (elink.io) means the articles go back weeks, so have a scan and read/watch/listen to whatever jumps out at you.
Let me know what caught your attention? Or share with me what has your attention now? There’s a lot going on, which means none of us can cover everything. Besides, it’s always great to get feedback so I know I’m delivering something of value.
Cheers
Andrea
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