Plastic in the deepest place on Earth. But also, a week without burning coal and sexy and sustainable shoes? This week’s Conscious Scoop, freshly curated.
1. The deepest dive ever made by a human inside a submarine uncovered some… plastic?!
Victor Vescovo just dived ten thousand metres down in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, surpassing the previous record for deepest dive by sixteen metres. And according to the underwater explorers, they’ve found plastic. Right now, they’re still in the midst of confirming it, but we shouldn’t be surprised if it is, because plastic is everywhere anyway. (Thankfully, the United Nations also recently announced that almost all the world’s countries have agreed on a deal – the Basel Convention – aimed at restricting shipments of hard-to-recycle plastic waste to poorer countries. Good to know we’re making some global headway.)
Even if it’s not plastic, that doesn’t mean we should be any less concerned.
2. The UK goes one week without using electricity from burning coal for the first time since the 1880s.
Instead of coal, the week of 1 May to 8 may of 2019, electricity was generated from natural gas (46%), nuclear (21.2%), wind (10.7%), and other sources. While carbon dioxide is still produced when natural gas is burnt, coal plants emit twice as much as gas-fired power plants. And, the director of the National Grid Electricity System Operator, Fintan Slye, believes that by 2025, Britain’s electricity system can be operated with zero carbon.
The UK is now en-route to becoming the first major economy to legislate for net-zero emissions.
3. Reformation launched their first line of shoes ever – and everyone’s going crazy.
Reformation is out to touch your feet. The 10-year-old cult favourite just dropped their 11 summer styles, differentiating itself from other conscious brands in the market, with sustainable sneakers and eco-friendly heels. Aside from featuring Jute, the brand made a controversial decision to include leather, viewing it as a by-product of the meat industry and changing up the process slightly to treat the leather with vegetable dyes instead of its toxin-producing counterpart (chromium). Either way, the brand claims that their shoes, compared to most shoes bought in the US, saves 52% carbon emissions, 70% water and 65% waste.
Reformation has done it again.
4. Bill Nye has had it with climate inaction.
The beloved science educator and television personality appeared on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to deliver a public service announcement about climate change. We’ll quote him word for word: “Safety glasses on. By the end of the century, if emissions keep rising, the average temperature on Earth could go up another four to eight degrees. What I’m saying is: the planet’s on f*cking fire!” He then proceeds to torch the globe on his desk, which is equal parts hilarious and terrifying.
We recommend you watch the full video yourself.
5. The UN Secretary-General weighs in: political will to fight climate change has faded.
If the man himself says so, he must be right. Noting the various ways in which we’ve thus far broken ecosystem and climate records in the past months (reminder: the threat of mass species extinction and carbon dioxide hitting an atmospheric level not seen for the past three million years), he remarked that countries are not living up to their 2016 Paris Agreement commitments. More worryingly, things seem to be “getting worse on the ground, [and] political will seems to be fading.”
Image credit: Reformation
