Dear Kids,
Happy Hallowe’en! And Hot Damn. 2016 is on track to being another record-smashing hot year and all our hair should be on fire. NASA says so, NOAA says so, Tom Brady’s wife is all over it, and I am sure he agrees.
We don’t need more evidence. There is only so much of this trend the Earth can stand. Look, if your body temperature went up in one-degree increments over time, from 98.6°F when you were born, in 1987, how would your viscous membranes and fluids respond? At that rate your temperature would be about 128.6°F now! And safe to say we would not be having this conversation.
Knowing you, let’s move quickly to solutions. Elon Musk shows the way. How about a stunning tiled solar roof— gorgeous, efficient, and seamlessly integrated with a sleek battery storage system. Throw in a couple of elegant, high-performing electric cars, and we are there. Channeling Willy Wonka, on Friday evening Musk gathered reporters in a pop-up neighborhood at Universal studios to present the Tesla trifecta. Please, have a look:
So what can you do? Next Tuesday, you can vote for people who get it. You can watch major new documentaries like @YearsofLiving Dangerously and Leo DiCaprio/Peter Fisher’s Before the Flood, both of which were released yesterday (and neither of which I’ve had a chance to see). Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, you can develop a personal cabal of thought-leaders. You know how to do this: start a list of people you like and respect to read and follow and share. I have my favorites and you will too. Maybe it’s Leo, maybe it’s the Pope, maybe it’s Andy Revkin, Musk, or Stella McCartney—or the Stockholm Resilience Institute or the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Take your pick. We’ve all got a different sensory trigger to plug into this issue. For some it’s a disappearing species, like Bufo periglenes aka golden toad (pictured). For others it’s children’s health… near here, far away, so much you can’t picture it: a new report estimates that 300 million children in the world breathe highly toxic air into their developing lungs, from the Bronx to South Asia.
A ton of people in finance are taking big bold steps into the burgeoning new markets of renewable energy, i.e. innovative, clean technology that’s escalating in efficiency and plummeting on price; electric energy that does not use the coal, oil, and/or gas in the ground. Try #CleanTrillion, Ceres’ Investor Network on Climate Risk, Risky Business, @WeMeanBusiness, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Elizabeth Kolbert, @MikeBloomberg’s @C40 and SASB. The Rockefeller family. Bill and Melinda Gates. Zuckerbergs. Justin Gillis, Coral Davenport. Tony Leiserowitz. Emily Carter and Lynn Loo. They’ve all thought it through, and they’re all pitching in. Join these prescient winners.
Cooking Tip. A nasty cold zaps my appetite. I’m drinking lots of water, rum, um and tea. On tea: think of it as a starter. Add what you want. Experiment! This morning I submerged a knob of peeled ginger in my teapot with half a fresh-squeezed lemon and a gooey blob of honey. After lunch I’ll make a fresh batch with mint. By 5, a shot of rum may or may not have found its way in there. More ginger. And by 7, when I am making Jack a delectable fresh arugula garden pesto, why not stir the remaining 1/4 cup of tea right into the sauce! Delizioso!
More soon.
Love, Mom
Photo of Golden Toad, aka Bufo periglenes