Joy is not made to be a crumb

Dear friend,

It’s all the feels as we celebrate recent multilateral wins while wrapping our heads around the harsh realities of a global system that still rewards extractivism, with devastating impacts. 

The complex emotional response human beings experience after successfully navigating great difficulty was palpable as conference President Rena Lee brought down the gavel on a new UN treaty to protect the ocean and all the species that live in and move through it. 

A few days after that the EU, working to strengthen its climate position ahead of COP28 agreed to push for a phaseout of fossil fuels, saying it “will systematically promote and call for a global move towards energy systems free of unabated fossil fuels well ahead of 2050.”

Inclusion of the word ‘unabated’ meant this politically important move, attracted inevitable criticism and debate from various quarters within the climate community.  The energy transition is definitely underway, it’s also complicated and messy. See, for example, commentary from opposing groups on the U.S. government’s approval of an $8bn oil drilling project in Alaska: the Willow oilfield. 

Before the news broke on Willow, we’d just read the stomach churning announcement from Saudi Aramco of a record breaking $161.1bn in profit (which is even bigger than the recent record breaking profits of BP, Shell, Exxon and Chevron combined) following rising energy prices and high demand for its fossil-based products, which cause and exacerbate the climate crisis. The news comes as Mozambique suffers horrendous damage from the worst ever cyclone in the southern hemisphere.  

While the oil and gas frenzy continues, damaging so many lives and futures, do we dare to take any comfort in the news that most industrialised countries have peaked their CO2 emissions through strengthened structural change? And whether we do or we don’t, how should we continue to mobilise for real change? 

One group of mothers is going on hunger strike this coming UK Mother’s Day outside the UK parliament to demand coordinated action on fossil fuels and food insecurity. Not everyone will agree with their tactics, but it’s hard to disagree with their calls to action. 

And on the subject of whether we agree or not, yesterday @Tom Rivett-Carnac and @Fiona McRaith from the Bezos Earth Fund, launched the first Outrage + Optimism mini-series of 2023 looking at  ‘Perfection vs Momentum?”as complementary and / or conflicting theories of change for transforming the world.

 Tune in for a wide variety of insights from guests including Helen Pankhurst Jerome Foster II , Gail Bradbook, Bill McKibben , Farhana Yamin and Sister True Dedication, along with many other brilliant individuals and / or join the conversation here.  

If you like this ‘dose of Outrage + Optimism’ and haven’t already, do sign up to our full bi-weekly newsletter to make sure you’re not just informed about the climate crisis, but also inspired to be part of the changes we all need to make. 

With stubborn optimism,

The O+O Team

P.s. Why did we entitle this post Joy is not made to be a crumb? Find out here. 

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