A clear-eyed, optimistic view of our environmental future, cutting through the everyday panic and focusing on the actions that actually matter.

Why it matters: A practical guide to focusing on what moves the needle most, like reducing beef consumption, shifting to clean energy, and improving crop yields, rather than symbolic but low-impact actions.

#Things to consider

  • The world is much better; the world is still awful; the world can do much better—all are true.
  • Peak per-capita emissions happened a decade ago; most people don’t know.
  • Eating less beef is the single most impactful action for climate, land use, and biodiversity.
  • What we eat matters far more for carbon footprint than how far food travels.
  • Air quality is cleaner than it’s been in centuries—a success story rarely told.
  • Renewable energy costs are in technology, not fuel; sunlight and wind are free.
  • The debate should be low-carbon vs fossil fuels, not nuclear vs renewables.
  • Palm oil, while flawed, is more land-efficient than other vegetable oils.

#Reading log

2024-11-15: I’ve been reading 📚 Not the End of the World and it’s such a refreshing view of our future. I like getting a clear-minded perspective on this and things are not so bad as I sometimes believe. It’s easy to think that we’re near the apocalypse if you see the headlines from newspapers now and then, but it’s simply not true. Peak population growth is already reached and peak population will also soon be reached. Emissions are going down. It’s also good to get some direct tips of what things you can do that actually has an impact. Switching light bulbs is not among them. But eating less beef is. Eating less beef is the single most impactful thing I can do—for myself, and my own health, but also for the planet. It’s a thing I wouldn’t mind much about. I am already eating less meat in general, and picking off beef in particular wouldn’t be too much of an effort. It’s a good book because she provides a rational “no panic, but also no denying” view of what’s going on. You don’t get that picture from the news.

2024-11-18: What I really liked about this book was that it acted kind of like an antidote against 📚 The Ministry for the Future. At the beginning of that book I felt sick to my bones, but the events turned and at the end it painted a picture I’m actually excited to see.