Environment News – Is This the Future of Cargo Ships? What the Big Banks Are Doing To Us. And, It’s Not What We Expect.
Some bite-sized pieces of news from the environment this week.
24 June, 2019
News snippets
Banks provided almost $ 2 trillion to fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement was signed. That’s a HUGE, unimaginable amount of money. The idea behind the Paris Agreement was to stop new fossil fuel development, in order to help prevent a catastrophic climate crisis. Funding these companies is simply daft, particularly as $600 billion went to companies that are most aggressively expanding fossil fuels. The 4 biggest culprits are JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Bank of America. They’re ruining our future.
How wonderful! Costa Rica is building a carbon-neutral wooden ship with canvas sails and an electric engine to carry cargo around the Americas. Most ships use dirty bunker fuel. The wood is sustainably harvested, and the team are planting more trees – they want to show that you can still make a profit and be green. The government there supports renewable initiatives, including fossil-free public transport. But the people do too.You’ll find electric car charging stations along popular ecotourism routes to reduce the use of gas-guzzling cars, and electric vehicle enthusiasts host free festivals and car shows to educate the public on petroleum-free transportation. Yes, it CAN be done!
more below……
more snippets
Did you know that biggest threat of climate change is probably the one we least expect – rain. Gosh! Of course there’s devastation from drought, hurricanes, heatwaves and wildfires. But in the US, it’s rain that causes the most damage. The last 12 months have been the wettest in U.S. history. As well as the general destruction of communities and damage, farmers were able to plant only 58 percent of the corn crop (compared to 90 percent at the same time last year), and soy planting this May was forced behind schedule by over 30 percent. Rain is a serious problem in these quantities, and it affects our food.
The UK government has pledged to go net zero emissions by 2050 -that sounds great! So it is considering adding a “carbon charge” to flights, in order to raise awareness of the harm of flying.. The extra money would be used to offset emissions. Sadly, the transport secretary is already back-tracking on the idea. Also, perhaps the government should look to itself – making Heathrow Airport even bigger and funding fossil fuel companies is going completely the wrong way.
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Warm regards,
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