SUSTAINABILITY  

IPCC report summed up

Last week's report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) looks at the causes, impacts and solutions to climate change, and provides the clearest indication to date of how a warmer world is affecting all living things on Earth. Here's five things we learned from it: 

1. Things are worse than we thought: From the melting of the Greenland ice sheet to the destruction of coral reefs, climate related impacts are hitting the world at the high end of what modellers once expected. Currently, around 40% of the world's population is "highly vulnerable" to the impacts of climate change.

2. Loss and damage gets scientific backing: Loss and damage is defined as those impacts of climate change that can't be adapted to, or slow onset events like sea level rise. It has been very controversial because it is tied up with the long-term historical responsibility for emissions, and richer nations fear being dragged through the courts to own up and pay. Now the IPCC clearly states that the observed impacts of climate change include "widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people."

3. Technology is not a silver bullet: According to the IPCC, the use of some technologies designed to limit warming or reduce CO2 could make matters worse rather than better. There are also worries that machines that suck CO2 from the air could simply trigger the release of more warming gas.

4. Cities offer hope: While large cities are hotspots for climate impacts, they also offer a real opportunity to avoid the worst impacts of warming. As cities continue to grow they can push for renewable energy, greener transport, and buildings. This could limit destructive climate impacts for millions.

5. The small window is closing fast: While this is a bleak assessment of the impacts now and in the future, the authors remain convinced that the worst impacts can be averted - if we act in time. The IPCC says this opportunity for action will only last for the rest of this decade, as the final sentence in the new report underlines.
 

INNOVATION

Re-Fill

‘Re’, the ground-breaking reuse model and circular economy initiative, developed by Beauty Kitchen, has announced that UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge is granting £3 million in funding specifically for the wider development and roll out of ‘Re’ across the UK. Re will become the new spearhead of the national effort to fulfil the UK’s Plastics Pact which aims to alter the UK’s relationship with plastic packaging. So far, the trial of the reuse model has saved over 4 million bottles from landfill, and Re has an overall target to save over 100 million bottles from landfill within the next 3 years. As the ‘Re’ project moves forward with the new funding, consumers will now be able to easily find all of Re’s Refill Stations through their 'Refill' app. Advocating a collaborative approach, Unilever became the second customer of Re, with a successful launch of three in-store Refill Stations as part of ASDA’s Sustainability Store in Leeds. Through launching the programme, Re is dedicated to proving to all industries that refillable product models (circular models) can be successful, scalable, and profitable.

THE LOW DOWN

• Innocent TV ad banned for claiming its drinks help environment
• Germany sets 100% clean energy target for 2035
• Ford launches separate EV business
• EY offers free Masters degree in sustainability to all staff
• Amazon debuts 'conscious' brand, Amazon Aware
• Space junk slams into moon and causes new crater

#ShowerThoughts

• Penguins are the least bird-like birds, while bats are the most bird-like non-birds.
• When we talk over the phone, our voices travel faster than the speed of sound.
• A person who is unafraid handling guns is either a gun expert or a gun idiot and there is no in between.
• There's no such thing as a baby butterfly.
• When you’re little you see your parents as heroes, villains when you’re a teen, and as the people they really are when you’re an adult.
  
  r/Showerthoughts

#RiddleMeThis

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avalanche - Christian French

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