#climate lab

hi! this isn’t bopo but this is a super interesting/important video about the environmental impact of free 2-day shipping. i’ve never talked about this here but aside from bopo my other passion is the environment :). so please watch & share!

also check out this cool website for more vids: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/climate-lab.

& ok while i’ve got ur attention:

pls recycle!

& compost!

& turn off ur lights when ur not home!

& turn off ur computer when ur not using it!

& bring ur own reusable coffee mug! (there are cute ones ok way cuter than some starbucks non-recyclable garbage)

& don’t waste food! store ur food properly!

& don’t throw away old clothes! donate them instead!

& use public transportation! or biking! or walking! (when u can! don’t worry i’m reasonable!)

Going green shouldn’t be this hard

Updated by Andy Murdock, University of California

Lauren Singer lives a nearly waste-free life. How near? Her total trash for the past four years fits into a single Mason jar.

If that makes you sputter with disbelief, you’re not alone. Singer’s lifestyle provokes strong reactions: Some people think it’s great and want to learn how she does it, some insist that she’s a fake, and others respond like her way of life is somehow an attack on theirs.

“They feel like they're under a microscope, like the fabric of what they believe in is being threatened,” she said.

Singer experienced this reaction close to home. In college, she tried to persuade her mom to switch to organic milk. It didn’t go well. Her mom felt like she was being backed into a corner, like Singer was criticizing her choices. So now when Singer talks to people about living a zero-waste life, she takes a different approach.

“Once people are presented [with] the topic in a way that breaks it down a little bit, they realize, oh, this isn't so hard. This isn't so isolating. This is something simple,” she said.

Singer herself didn’t get to zero waste overnight; it was a process. She learned to make her own toothpaste and realized how easy it was. Then she started taking reusable bags to the grocery store until it became routine. And she kept going like this until several pounds of trash a day turned into zero.

This may work on an individual level, but can we also do this at a scale that really makes a difference to a global problem like climate change?

The question of how to get society as a whole to make greener choices goes well beyond the issue of waste, but the worries are similar: Going green will be too hard and too expensive, and will require far too much sacrifice.

California has long enjoyed being a contradiction to these arguments, and Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, has had a front-row seat to the state’s climate change successes since the 1970s.

“Every time we approach the possibility of tightening up a regulation or setting a more aggressive goal, we hear some of the same concerns. ‘This time you're going too far. This time it's going to require actions that are going to be too expensive, too burdensome, that the public won't support,’” she said.

This hasn’t been the case. Going green has hardly been terrible for California, even with some of the most stringent regulations and ambitious climate goals in the US.

“We have seen the economy overall in California outpace the national average, investments in green technologies have flowed to California in much greater numbers than any other place in the US, and whole new businesses have risen, grown up, or moved here,” said Nichols.

Watch the video above to see Singer, Nichols, and others explain how going green not only is not terrible but can be a benefit in many surprising ways.

Five countries in southern Africa have joined forces to launch a research centre that will work on combating climate change in the region. South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Zambia and Namibia signed a declaration on Wednesday to base the initiative in the Namibian capital Windhoek.

Last week, the USAID focused its attention on resilience from an international perspective and specifically exploring ways to do business to avoid crises in the future. Of particular interest to the USAID is the horn of Africa where we held PopTech's Climate Resilience Lab this past February. USAID explains:

While we can't stop catastrophes from occurring, we can do more to help people withstand them so that they don't shatter development gains or give rise to violence that can set countries back decades. USAID is committed to strengthening food security so that droughts no longer lead to food crises. We are committed to expanding our focus from relief to resilience-from responding after emergencies strike to preparing communities in advance.

For more, check out the conference and related conference papers and read the Communique for the Joint IGAD Ministerial and High Level Development Partners on Drought Resilience in the Horn of Africa (pdf).

Carbon map infographic: a new way to see the Earth move