Good day!

The US Open is entering the 2nd week — the business end of the tournament, Trump’s mugshot is starting to infiltrate my dreams, and fires (both wild and urban) have wreaked havoc in Canada, Hawaii, Greece, and South Africa to name a few places. Let’s start there.

N.W.T. fires have released 97 megatonnes of carbon, says European agency — 277 times what its people emit

Fires in the Northwest Territories (NWT, the name of a Canadian state, if you will) have released 277 times more carbon that what its population emits annually. Begging the question, should we even bother with lowering our carbon emissions?

Two things here: 1) Yes, my god, yes. While fires are natural and would occur with or without humans, our impact on the climate is ripening the conditions for bigger, more frequent fires. Reduce the human-caused environmental impacts, and you reduce the likelihood of fires and the human suffering that they cause.

2) Those numbers are misleading. NWT is about the same size as France plus Spain plus Poland. It’s massive, yet it has a population of 45,000. It’s basically a giant, uninhabited forest. If NWT had the populations of France plus Spain plus Poland (152 million), assuming my calculations are correct, the fires would account for only about 8% of the emissions that the 3-country Euro zone’s population accounts for (assuming they emit the same amount as NWT residents). Still significant, but in more relatable context.

Paper drinking straws may be harmful and may not be better for the environment than plastic versions

I’ll say what everyone is thinking. Paper straws suck. No pun intended. They are crap. They feel like you are sucking on wet cardboard, which is essentially what you’re doing.

Now, evidence suggests they aren’t any better for the environment than plastic straws.

I have a radical solution to the soggy straw problem. This may get me on the straw lobby hitlist but I’ll say it anyway — let’s get rid of straws. Really, they’re unnecessary. We all know how to drink from a glass, and we can still entertain the idea of lids for the time being, but why do we need straws? They are convenient for when you want a sip of your drink while on a bumpy ride, agreed. But, you can just wait a minute until your transit is finished or you hit a smooth patch. #teamnostraw who’s with me?

Do you have a good reason for wanting a straw? Please enlighten me.

EU watchdog monitors surge of cash going into biodiversity funds

It looks like biodiversity funds will be the next wild west of the ESG frontier. This means we’ll need stricter regulations and oversight to prevent beewashing (I think that term might catch on) and companies will have to make sure they are taking the necessary steps to comply with biodiversity reporting standards. Asset managers will need to be sure that the companies they admit into their biodiversity funds are actually responsible companies committed to biodiversity.

As well, we should all prepare ourselves for the anti-bee movement (not sure that will catch on). You know that when Telsa is omitted from biodiversity funds, Elon Musk will tweet (or X) that the BeeSG movement (that’s my favourite one so far) is the devil, and Republicans will decry that BeeSG is an attack on American business.

I always maintain that the funds are the problems with these initiatives. ESG is a smart business risk mitigation strategy. ESG funds are poorly regulated schemes to entice investments from climate conscious consumers.

My Latest

Speaking of beewashing, here is a relevant article that I wrote about greenwashing, and particularly how companies can be sure that they don’t get caught unintentionally greenwashing. I also cover some of the prominent greenwashing legislation in the USA, EU. Canada, and UK.

The Step-by-Step Guide To Avoid Greenwashing and Save Brand Reputation

Have a great week and I’ll check in next Monday!