Outrage Optimism

Collaboration with nature and each other is the only way forward - clearly illustrated by our stories of optimism this week… while our stories of outrage echo the emergency warnings being sent to us every day by our home planet 📣 🌱 OPTIMISM 1: To help combat flooding Chinese urban planning firm Turenscape have designed nature-based “sponge cities” which work with nature rather than against it, soaking up and retaining stormwater before releasing it back into the environment. 🔥 OUTRAGE 1: Meanwhile, flooding intensifies across the globe and the World Weather Attribution, found that the recent heavy rain in Kerala that resulted in hundreds of deaths was more intense because of global warming. 🌱 OPTIMISM 2: The International Court of Justice will clarify states’ legal responsibility for impacts of climate change. Although non-binding, its opinion will matter for thousands of climate lawsuits. This could be “one of the most consequential developments in climate policy since the Paris agreement” 🔥 OUTRAGE 2: An El Nino-induced drought which has wiped out crops across Southern Africa has left 68 million people (17% of the region’s population) in need of aid. 🌱 OPTIMISM 3: A new study looked at the factors influencing our chances of staying within 1.5C limit of warming and found the ability of governments to implement climate policies effectively to be the most important. A reason for optimism OR outrage, depending on how you look at it… we choose stand in a place of stubborn optimism, knowing that the task at hand is physically achievable. 🔥 OUTRAGE 3: The Mediterranean Sea reached its highest temperature on record 15 August, breaking last July’s record with a daily median of 28.90ºC. 🤔Which news stories touched you this week? Note: Each item we’ve included is a complex story in its own right, reduced here to a single line as a potential signpost for further reading. You can find the links to the news sources in the comments. 🎧 Feed your ears with more outrage and optimism - we’re on a podcast break for a few weeks, but you can find our brilliant back catalog here: https://bit.ly/OOeps #outrageandoptimism #stubbornoptimism

It’s all very complicated, and also very simple. 🌱🌱🌱 If you enjoyed our miniseries Our Story of Nature earlier this year, look out for a special release of the full uncut guest interviews - details of how to access coming soon 👀

Climate tipping points are approaching faster than we thought. We must act now, balancing a sense of urgency with ‘realistic optimism’. 👉To learn more, look up Johan Rockström’s recent @TED talk ‘The tipping points of climate change — and where we stand’ which provides an excellent summary : https://lnkd.in/eenMg8Sj 👉For more in-depth analysis. find the study ‘Achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions critical to limit climate tipping risks’ co-authored by Rockström here: https://lnkd.in/e5UnvnRc 👉To learn more about the planetary boundaries, listen to our conversation with Johan Rockström and Sandrine Dixson-Declève ‘The path to sustainability is equity’ https://lnkd.in/eKruTetP

Climate tipping points can be hard for our brains to compute. These excellent visuals from The New York Times make it easier to see where we are with coral reef mass death, permafrost thawing, loss of rainforest, Atlantic current shutdown and other tipping points - and when we might be likely to cross them. https://lnkd.in/gBdVkQqy

This is outrageous beyond belief. Head to Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative to find out more and read the open letter here: https://lnkd.in/ennzGy4w And if you want to learn more about the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty have a listen to our episode ‘The Journey Matters: Ending Fossil Fuel Supply’ with Founder Tzeporah Berman: https://lnkd.in/e8DBiKK8 #fossilfueltreaty #summitofthefuture

Fires rage and so do we 🔥… while at the same time making space to see the progress that is happening 🌱 In this week’s stories of outrage and optimism (because we need both): 🔥 OUTRAGE 1: Major wildfires have spread to the edge of Athens. The “wall of fire” has already destroyed forests and burned homes, with thousands of people being evacuated. Holiday makers are still heading to Greece. 🌱 OPTIMISM 1: China has released an action plan to build a new electricity system to ensure energy security, working towards a “circular development economic system” by 2035. 🔥 OUTRAGE 2: Climate change deniers like Ted Cruz make up nearly a quarter of US Congress: 100 in the House of Representatives and 23 US senators deny the existence of human-caused climate change, all of them Republicans. But at the same time… 🌱 OPTIMISM 2 ...the American public has been moving significantly in the other direction, with less than 20% denying climate change and over 50% now “alarmed” or “concerned” about it, according to ongoing surveys from Yale University. 🔥 OUTRAGE 3: We are at risk of losing the Great Barrier Reef for good. It now faces an ‘existential threat’ having suffered irreparable damage as a result of record ocean temperatures caused by climate change. 🌱 OPTIMISM 3: Kamala Harris’ new running mate Tim Walz is a forceful advocate for tackling climate change, with a strong track record in his home state of Minnesota where he has led effective measures towards a clean transition. 🤔Which news stories touched you this week? Note: Each item we’ve included is a complex story in its own right, reduced here to a single line as a potential signpost for further reading. You can find the links to the news sources in the comments. 🎧 Feed your ears with more outrage and optimism - we’re on a podcast break for a few weeks, but you can find our brilliant back catalog here: https://bit.ly/OOeps #outrageandoptimism #stubbornoptimism

"If we don't feel some sense of responsibility as being one tiny, tiny, tiny fragment of the universe, that we have some obligations towards the whole of it, then we are surely lacking in a culpable and profound way." David Attenborough in Episode 1 of Outrage Optimism, back in 2021. You can listen to the full conversation, and all of our brilliant back catalogue here: https://bit.ly/OOeps

The space between complacency and despair is ACTION 💚 ----- We're on a podcast break for a few weeks butget your fix of O O with our brilliant back catalogue: https://bit.ly/OOeps

What if...? This was one of the questions that came up in #OurStoryofNature miniseries earlier this year, in which Christiana, co-host Isabel Cavelier and a stellar line up of guests explored how our rupture from nature came about and how healing that rupture might be the key to... well, everything 💚 Listen back to the series wherever you get your podcasts. #ourstoryofnature

Camping of the future? 😳 Let's choose a different path. Comic by the brilliant Safely Endangered via Rewriting Earth