Good News (Because we need it!)
Hi! Hello!
It’s been a minute since my last post. Like many of you, I’ve been busy livin' my little life and trying to ‘not get too?depressed with the state of the word’. Part of that process included pausing my engagement with this newsletter. Life also got quite busy on the work and family fronts!
However, I finally feel like I have something positive and productive to contribute to the conversation. Thanks for sticking around!
The news cycle has been prettyyy roughhhh lately….So, as my soft introduction back, here are three news blurbs which made me feel rather optimistic.
The US crossed the Electric-Car Tipping Point for Mass Adoption!
In early July, the US crossed a critical threshold in the transition to electric vehicles (EVs). 5% of new car sales are now EVs. This 5% represents the tipping point at which a trend moves from ‘early adoption’ into mainstream. Demand follows an S-curve, so after it hits 5% there is a rapid acceleration. Don’t believe the good news? China, South Korea, and Norway have all crossed the 5% EV threshold and have seen an exponential increase in demand since then!
Auto manufacturers also follow a tipping point, and VW, Ford and BMW are each targeting “50% or more of their global sales to be fully electric by the end of the decade”. To read more about this development, check out this free article from Bloomberg.
We’ve cleaned up 1/1,000th of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The first environmental research project I ever did was on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). In the 7th grade, I wrote an impassioned little essay about the FIVE TRILLION (yes, FIVE FREAKIN’ TRILLION) pieces of plastic currently littering the ocean.
Fortunately, The Ocean Cleanup is a totally gnarly and awesome nonprofit focused on the removal & repurposing of this waste. They use a neat net to catch the trash:
Today marks the day that 100,000 kg of trash was removed from the GPGP!! Read this inspiring blurb from CEO and Founder Boyan Slat:
“Since deployment in August 2021, System 002 (or “Jenny”) has now collected?101,353 kg?of plastic over 45 extractions, sweeping an area of ocean of over 3000 km2?– comparable to the size of Luxembourg or Rhode Island. Added to the 7,173 kg of plastic captured by our previous prototype systems, The Ocean Cleanup has now collected?108,526 kg?of plastic from the GPGP – more than the combined weight of two and a half Boeing 737-800s, or the dry weight of a space shuttle!
According to our?2018 study?in which we mapped the patch, the total amount of accumulated plastic is 79,000,000 kg, or 100,000,000 kg if we include the Outer GPGP. Thus, if we repeat this 100,000 kg haul 1,000 times – the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will be gone”
Little 7th grade Johanna is grinning from ear to ear (and so is 25 year old Johanna!). I remember how insurmountable this challenge felt, and, 1/1,000th of the problem seems like a pretty solid start.
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Solar power is ‘saving tushies’ in Texas.
I’m not particularly interested in saying ‘I told you so’ or berating opponents of sustainability when they come around to its benefits. I find it counterproductive and a bit unkind. But I was very happy to learn that Texas has nearly tripled its solar capacity this summer relative to last summer (despite naysayers)!
Renewables have become cost-competitive with fossil fuels, and they’ve helped manage our energy prices this summer. It’s always cool (pun intended) to think about the fact that, once the tech is built, solar and wind are totally free to harness for energy.
Another energy stat that made me happy was the fact that “the amount of US electricity generated by renewable resources hit a record 28%” in April 2022. Things are really ramping up, and we have more than tripled our renewable energy production since 2001! When we add all the carbon-neutral energy sources together, almost 46% of US electricity in April came from nuclear, wind, hydroelectric, and solar. (woah!)
?It’s easy to say “well, that’s not fast enough” or “I don’t like some of those sources” or “it needs to be quadruple for that to matter”, but I find that folks with that opinion tend to be rather removed from the hard work. We still have a long way to go, but it’s worth celebrating these incredible milestones which likely felt unreachable not so long ago.
PS: I trust my Energy nerd friends to sound off in the comments with their perspectives! This isn’t my specialty, so I look forward to learning from you :)
Personal update: I met the cutest dog in the world earlier this month!
I’ve been hard at work at World Tree and look forward to sharing a bit about my experience in an upcoming newsletter. But in more immediate news, I got to dogsit and snuggle with the sweetest, cutest, most precious little dog in July, and I think we would all benefit from this important content:
Things are extremely far from perfect and it’s a hard time to be a human. Self care & sweetness (wherever you find it) are particularly important right now.
I continue to stand by my belief that one of the best things ANY of us can do is consciously choose to pivot our careers in the direction of impact. Obviously, I’m biased toward sustainability, but we need help transitioning our health-care, education, and overall consumption systems. UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School students - I'm looking at you! I promise you can meet all your professional goals & do good along the way!
Whoever you are, I hope your summer has been okay and that your loved ones are safe & healthy. As always, I am available to serve as a networking resource and enthusiastic environmentalist in your career journey.
Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things!
Warmly,
Johanna ?
Associate at Greylock McKinnon Associates
2 年I loved reading this! Thank you.
Senior Associate at ScottMadden, Inc.
2 年Great post Johanna! I agree with Joshua Haswell and Jonathan Peralta. EV’s and Texas renewables have been bright spots recently! Besides Joe Manchin shockingly supporting $369 billion in clean energy and climate provisions, the other good news I have been following relates to transmission. MISO just approved a $10.3 billion long-range transmission plan than can support up to 53GW of renewable energy projects! That is a significant amount of energy and will be the largest grid expansion ever! It is a big accomplishment given the painstakingly slow/nonexistent development process that has been plaguing the industry for years and has undermined decarbonization goals. I am hoping the MISO stakeholder process will be used as a model for other RTO’s to expedite transmission buildout!
Duke MBA Candidate | US Air Force Veteran
2 年Johanna, great post (and super cute pup!). I am especially amped (pun intended) about your section regarding EV adoption. My husband and I made the jump this week to move from our two Prii to two EVs! Only bad thing is that we jumped on the BEV bandwagon and thus have to wait a couple of months to get our hands on our new Chevy Bolt and Kia EV6!
Associate at ScottMadden, Inc. | Management Consulting | MEM at Duke | MBA at UNC Kenan-Flagler
2 年Great post Johanna! Retweeing what Joshua Haswell said. Also, as EVs become more affordable, as major car manufacturers begin to roll out their EV catalogue to create more options, as charging infrastructure increases, and as people just see more EVs on the road, we're bound to see a huge increase in demand. The next few years will be pivotal, as a lot of manufacturers have already released their "luxury" model and are working their way down to options that more people can afford. A lot of doubts around EVs have wavered, and as the "S-curve" usually pans, we should be seeing a lot more EVs on the road. I actually saw a Polestar 2 in Durham last week, I was like whoa! Solar in Texas is great news. There's so much potential there. As more freak events happen due to climate change, we need more resiliency, and that comes from diversifying our resources. Not only that, but distributed resources helps as well! Despite headlines and false claims, renewables actually overperformed during Texas's time of need, so it's great to see that it's not being held back. This definitely isn't the only piece of the puzzle, but it is still an important one. Thanks for sharing the great news!
Energy Storage Developer | Energy Finance Professional | Military Leader | MBA
2 年Johanna, love the post. Thank you for bringing some of these facts to light for all of us as we work through the hot Summer. This energy nerd is a firm believer in the EV adoption curve ramping up exponentially. Several facts point to this from a demand-side perspective. First of all, the first two EV trucks released in the US are sold out until 2024 or later already, they just started to reach consumers in Q4 21' (Rivian). Second, EVs are being proven as the more economic vehicle if comparing apples to apples over time, there are many articles out there so I won't try to link just one. ?? Solar and other renewables are growing quickly across the country but nowhere faster than in Texas. ERCOT added 3,255 MW of solar in 2021, this is more than any other RTO, in one state. Texas has the blessing of tons of sun and a great wind resource and has become a renewable energy hub despite the traditional energy players. Texas's market structure supports this, you can have very low prices when the sun and wind are blowing but ridiculous prices when resources are tight. Seems like a great place for energy storage... ?? or HVDC I guess. Cheers!??