 People
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Trump"s Anti-Environment Scorecard: 76 Rollbacks = 80,000 Additional Deaths per Decade
Every day we at ODP bring you the blow by blow of this Administration's anti-environment actions. But we found this New York Times roll-up of the rollbacks very useful for exposing the big picture. And it's not pretty. Eighteen months in, the President and his team have smashed through 46 regulations and have another 30 in the process of being weakened or eliminated. Add to this all the others that the Administration is simply failing to enforce or implement and one gets a sense of the enormity of their actions. The Administration has had some setbacks -- seven rules that were initially rolled back or eliminated have been put back in place after the Administration lost legal challenges to their action. And there are ongoing challenges to some of the 76 as well that could be successful.
But the bottom line is sobering: an extremely conservative estimate of the impact of the Trump environmental agenda's health impacts done by researchers at Harvard and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) concludes that these rollbacks are "likely to cost the lives of over 80 000 US residents per decade and lead to respiratory problems for many more than 1 million people. This sobering statistic captures only a small fraction of the cumulative public health damages associated with the full range of rollbacks and systemic actions proposed by the Trump administration."
Why This Matters: We may be able to change some corporate behavior through the use of consumer choices and changing demographics inside corporations. But we cannot truly protect the public health in a comprehensive way without government regulations. And the consequences of not protecting the public will be dire -- not to mention much more expensive overall. The true cost of NOT regulating is never really factored into the decisions by this Administration. SAD.
To Go Deeper: We recommend the entire summary, which details each regulation, by Nadja Popovich, Livia Albeck-Ripka, and Kendra Pierre-Louis. This excellent summary is based on two databases -- one at Harvard Law School focused on environmental regulations overall, and another one at Columbia Law School focused on climate change. Check them out as well.
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 Climate Change
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Hindou Ibrahim at the right with women from a nomadic community. Photo: AFPAT
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Climate Change a Serious National Security Threat
In a speech to the UN Security Council activist Hindou Ibrahim said that climate change is affecting the daily lives of people in the vast Sahel region who depend on agriculture, fishing and livestock and are struggling to survive. She said that the UN must consider climate change as a security risk that is fueling extremism, conflict and migration in the region.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that she said the scarcity of resources has fueled internal migration as well as migration through Africa to Europe, sparked local conflicts that become national and regional, and led to the growth of terrorist groups. Ibrahim, an activist from Chad who co-chairs the International Indigenous People Forum on Climate, which promotes U.N. action on climate change, urged the council and the broader international community to take action to help them cope. It is "deep humiliation" if a man in the nomadic community can't feed his family because "his dignity is not respected," Ibrahim said. To preserve their dignity, the options for nomadic men are grim: Either stay home and join a terror group and fight and die, or leave and risk dying in the sea. Member country representatives like Sweden, Nauru, and Iraq all agreed that it was past time to reexamine climate and security issues by the Security Council.
Why This Matters: Action on climate change is often portrayed by politicians as coming at the expense of the economy or national security but the truth is working to abate and adapt to climate change is crucial to both. When resources become scarce, economies stall. When the economy falters, crime and civil unrest rise. The truth is climate change is an economic and national security issue and should be treated as such.
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 Energy
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Interview of the Week: Steph Speirs, CEO and Founder, Solstice, Inc. Steph is a social entrepreneur and community builder who is helping to change the customer base of renewable energy in the U.S.
ODP: Can you explain the community solar concept — are you purchasing the power from an independent solar project or from a local utility? How do you ensure continuity of service?
SS: Eighty percent of Americans cannot install a solar system on their own home because they have an unsuitable roof, they cannot afford the upfront cost, or they are renters/condo owners. Community solar operates almost exactly like rooftop solar, except that instead of the panels being located on your rooftop, they’re located in a shared centralized array in your area. That means that you stay with your local utility, but you get credits for the energy your panels produce — you still see savings, and your energy bill is going to support your local community solar garden. You can also enroll in a shorter-term subscription and see savings right away without an upfront cost.
ODP: How do you improve access to renewable energy for underserved communities? How much savings will customers receive compared to their current energy bill?
SS: At Solstice, we believe the majority of Americans would sign up for clean energy if it were made more accessible and affordable. Our approach is to make the sure that a) people aren’t locked out of community due to arbitrary factors like credit scores (which are a poor metric for predicting whether or not households will pay their energy bills), and b) that the contracts that solar developers offer actually suit people’s needs. To get solar in this country, you typically have to have a FICO score of 650-700 and above, which half the country doesn’t have. So, in partnership with the Department of Energy, we’ve developed the EnergyScore, a qualifying metric specifically designed to predict whether or not households will pay their community solar bills on time. The latest version of the EnergyScore is both more accurate in predicting future bill payment and more inclusive of low and moderate income households, showing that solar financiers don’t have to sacrifice financial returns to build more inclusive projects. We plan to pilot the EnergyScore in a series of inclusive solar projects, including a recently-announced partnership with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to provide community solar to affordable housing residents. We’re also working with our solar developer and financier partners to make the contracts more customer-friendly. For the first time, we’ll collect real data on the payment practices of low-income households, and we’ll have the opportunity to share that data with solar financiers and tell them how to build the inclusive solar project of the future.
ODP: Most of your current projects are in pro-environmental states that incentivize renewables like MA and NY. Do you plan on expanding current operations to more conservative southern states, and if so, what does that plan look like?
SS: Solstice’s mission is to bring affordable solar to every American, and we aim to make community solar happen for people in states that have, to date, prevented people from pursuing community-driven energy models. And there is movement in this area. 18 states already have some degree of supportive legislation for community solar, but utilities in 24 additional states have already implemented at least one community solar project (compared to just a handful of states a few years ago). That doesn’t mean that all of these states have thriving community solar programs, but it does show how much interest there is already out there and how the industry is exponentially growing each year. This brings up an important point, though because it’s not a question of which states incentivize renewables and which fail to do so. The reality is that all of our energy systems are subsidized, and all of our energy markets are policy-driven. It’s an unfortunate reality that no matter how much sense it makes to build out renewable, community-driven energy generation, these resources won’t be able to properly scale in a system that perversely incentivizes utilities to keep building big, centralized, polluting power plants.
ODP: You have projects in places like western MA and upstate NY — most people think solar is for the sunny states. How feasible is solar in the colder, cloudier parts of the country?
SS: We get this question all the time — one of our recent projects was actually sited in one of the most overcast counties in the country! Germany is a global leader in solar and isn’t known to have the highest irradiance. The good news is, as we’ve written on our blog, solar works just fine in northern climates. You lose a little bit of efficiency, but you’d lose a lot transporting the electricity from southern states to where it’s actually used. Solar is still among the cheapest and most reliable sources of energy in northern states, and that’s one of the reasons why northern states like NY, MA, and MN are continuing to scale their solar markets.
ODP: Is it challenging to be a young, female CEO in the energy sector today?
SS: Although I had spent my career prior to energy in male-dominated industries (political campaigns and national security work), there are still moments in this role when I’m surprised by the comments I receive. It is true that the energy industry lacks racial and gender diversity, and energy conferences panels are striking reminders of that. However, there’s great reason to hope. We have been fortunate to have incredible investors, advisors, and partners that are excited to support our team’s leadership, which includes women, people of color, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community. Take a look at our team page at www.solstice.us/team and you’ll see how we are trying to change the face of the industry in our own way. Ultimately, the industry will only be a more inclusive and welcoming environment if we demonstrate that professional excellence can come in a different package than the norm. It’s a challenge we are more than eager to undertake!
Thanks, Steph! We are rooting for you!
To Go Deeper: You can learn more about Solstice by clicking here.
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 Sustainability
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A Plastic Kitchen Makeover
This week's Food Section of our hometown paper, The Washington Post, had some helpful suggestions for how to reduce the dependence on plastic bags, wraps, and foil while still keeping food fresh. We thought we would pass along these ideas - they may not ALL work for you, but maybe some will. We plan to try these and let you know how they work for us!
1. Shop More Often -- Plan meals a few days rather than a week at a time. Not hard for me (Monica) -- I used to wish I was that organized! In addition to the lower stress of remembering everything I need for a once a week shopping trip, I find that I don't wander through the store -- I am a more efficient shopper. And I buy less overall.
2. Zero Waste by TerraCycle -- For a fee, you can pay TerraCycle to recycle items that your city or town will not. It's convenient -- they send you a box with a prepaid mailer. You fill the box with all sorts of things -- Books & Magazines, E-Waste, Home Cleaning Accessories, Office Supplies, Pet Products (non-food), Plastic Cards, Plastic and Paper Packaging, Kitchen Gear, Filters (air/water), Coffee Capsules, and Dining Disposables -- and then mail it back to them. The price varies depending on the size of the box and the variety of items in it.
3. Use Beeswax -- There are now re-usable food wrappers -- most are made of fabric coated with beeswax. These actually form a good seal say over a bowl due to a stickiness of the wax on the fabric. They can only be washed in cold water -- hot water will melt the wax. There are many available online and in stores.
4. Reusable Silicone Bags -- These bags are airtight, can go in the fridge or microwave and are dishwasher safe.
5. Bamboo Paper Towels -- These look and feel just like ordinary paper towels but they can be rinsed and re-used more than a hundred times.
Why This Matters: These are things that many of us can do without difficulty. We cannot control the way things come to us with so much plastic packaging. But we can reduce the use of single-use plastic in our own homes.
To Go To Zero Waste: Check out how these cities in India are cutting out their landfills and working toward zero waste. Or how one D.C. area woman cut her weekly trash down so much that it all fit in a small jar. Wow! Inspiring!
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 Hero
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Hero of the Week: 12-Year-Old Anna Du
Anna Du may not even be a teenager yet but her love of the ocean and the animals that call it home inspired her to build a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that uses infrared to hunt for microplastics. As she recalled, to Boston 25 News "One day when I was at Boston Harbor, I noticed there was a lot of plastics on the sand, I tried picking some up, but there seemed to be so many more, and it just seemed impossible to clean it all up."
As Fast Company reported, Du realized that identifying the location of plastic in the ocean was an important step, and took inspiration from recycling companies that use infrared light to identify and sort plastics. Her new underwater ROV also uses infrared to identify plastic, in a novel system she designed to keep costs low. “I hope to be able to spatially map where microplastics are accumulating,” she says. Eco Watch added that the sixth grader is now gaining national attention for her invention, called the "Smart Infrared Based ROV to Identify and Remove Microplastics from Marine Environments." She was recently named a finalist in the 2018 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge.
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 Food
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The "Marisol" cocktail at RedFarm in NYC
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One Cool Thing: Sustainable Cocktails
Sustainable cocktails are the next wave of craft cocktails that not only taste delicious but are helping bartenders save money and resources. “Sustainable cocktails are drinks that seek to be more in harmony with nature by minimizing precious natural resources, conserving energy, and minimizing pollution,” explains Natasha Velez, a New York-based bartender and brand ambassador for Sombra Mezcal. “They often reuse, recycle, or upcycle ingredients that otherwise would be discarded as trash. This includes leftover citrus juices, citrus rinds, and the seeds and skins of fruits.”
Looking for a fun sustainable summer cocktail to make this weekend? Bar director Edwin Cruz at Los Angeles's Winsome has the perfect recipe for his Tiki Novela.
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You might mistake these two for us, but we assure you it's not! Still, the sentiment is about right! Thanks so much for reading this week. Have a great weekend and we will be back in your inbox on Monday morning! Monica and Miro
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