65: Climate Week and the Climate Corps
Mostly good news to brighten your week! :)
I hope your week is off to a good start! Can you believe September is almost over? Oh, and happy fall!! I think now is an appropriate time to pull out the sweaters and order pumpkin spice flavors (although I can’t remember the last time I tried a pumpkin spice flavored beverage, is it even good? I work at a coffee shop so obviously I will have to try it, but I personally prefer actual pumpkin!) :)
Current events this past week
Flying taxis?! Ohio invests half a billion dollars in electric air travel - Invest seems like a poor word choice there… Specifically, $477.5 million is being spent on Joby Aviation’s electric aircraft, with manufacturing to begin in 2025. One plane will only hold 4 passengers and a pilot, and 500 will be made at the Dayton International Airport. Their maximum range is only at 100 miles, which is on average 1-2 hours in the air or 2-3 on a train. But why do we need to create new costly “sustainable” infrastructure when we already have perfectly good, underfunded options like trains?!
Sources: ABC News, The Hill, Dayton Daily News
Biden administration announces the American Climate Corps! - Honestly the highlight of my week! This new initiative, inspired by the Depression era Civilian Conservation Corps, is an exciting new program expected to hire 20,000 young people for community aid, environmental restoration, like increasing invasive species removal and fence construction, and more. From Mother Jones, “A poll released in 2020, conducted by Data for Progress and the Justice Collaborative Institute, found that 80 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of Republicans wanted the Civilian Conservation Corps to return.” I’m looking forward to learning more!
Sign up here to learn about joining!
Sources: Colorado Sun, NYT
Did you know?
L.L. Bean, an example of lack of transparency in “sustainable” apparel
Some good eco news
France used 10% less electricity last winter; 3 lessons to fight climate change (UPI)
Florida has become a zoo. A literal zoo. (Vox) - 500+ non-native species, the majority of which are invasive, reside in Florida, largely due to local pet trade.
The summer that reality caught up to climate fiction (Grist)
Inside the Great British Seaweed Race to Save the Earth (Daily Beast) - “A 2021 study from the University of California, Davis found that mixing a small amount of seaweed into cow feed over five months reduced Earth-polluting methane emissions by 82 percent—making it a potential green goldmine.”
How I Use Homemade Leaf Mold in My Garden (Treehugger)
Wrap-up
I hope you enjoyed this issue! It’d be super cool if you would participate in the poll, and if you haven’t gotten Ecosia yet, it’s a super simple and free search browser that uses ad revenue to plant trees from your searches (about 1 tree per 45 searches)!
Thanks for the shoutout!