Happy Friday everyone and welcome to our very special 1 year anniversary edition!  What an amazing year it has been creating content and growing this community to hundreds of subscribers!  In today's newsletter, we'll first hear from our featured writer as they share some insight and thought about their upcoming project Emergence of Heart.  Next, we'll take you through our monthly headlines - try to stay awake for these!  Lastly we'll take you through the next era in our environmental policy series!  Enjoy the read, and thank you for an amazing year!

Image courtesy of Liv Scott

Featured Writer - Liv Scott

Liv is a multi-disciplinary project manager and systems thinker, who works within and outside of existing systems to nurture their capacity toward ecological, social, and individual healing. Since realizing at five that humans were destroying the home of their beloved stuffed sloth, Liv has been seeking to understand and address the roots of the climate crisis. You can check out Liv's personal website here.

Now, with training in Biology, Systems Thinking, Regenerative Agriculture, and Collective Trauma, Liv uses this understanding of relationships to act at key leverage points to facilitate collective project ownership and growth. This work has led Liv to elevating the intersection of global health and the climate crisis by designing an African-focused UN-side conference featuring the Director-General of WHO to organize one of the first Global Eco Drag Shows. Currently, Liv is creating the project Emergence of Heart, featuring a short coming of age film of a white child learning about the intersection of the climate crisis and their own socialized white supremacy. The film is designed to open up conversations with audiences about the roots of the climate crisis and their own feelings.

Below is a section from Regeneration, a global eco Drag show put together as a fundraiser and community building event for Emergence of Heart. The show weaves together cultural, environmental, and queer visions of a regenerative future.

Click below to read Liv's piece on our blog.

Interested in being a Featured Writer? Fill out this survey and let us know!

Monthly Headlines

Is Climate Change Keeping You Up at Night? The Answer is Yes. (OneEarth, The Guardian, New Scientist)

• A global study published in OneEarth which tracked the sleep of 47,000 people in 68 countries found that humans are losing an average of 44 hours of sleep per year.

• Warming nighttime temperatures are increasing the time it takes to fall asleep, since the body needs to cool down at night.

• Most alarmingly, people in warmer climates are experiencing faster sleep loss rates than others; a population that was previously thought to have been better adapted for temperature rises.

Over 90% of the Great Barrier Reef Bleached… Again (Associated Press, CBS, ClimateSignals)

• For the fourth time in seven years, the Great Barrier Reef has been severely bleached.

• Coral bleaching occurs when high stress caused by rising ocean temperatures results in corals turning white and becoming more susceptible to disease.

• Even more alarming is that this bleaching occurred during a La Nina cycle, in which ocean temperatures in the Pacific are generally cooler.

E.P.A. to Reverse Trump Era Rule, Return Power to States on Pipeline Decisions (New York Times, Axios, Boston Globe)

• The E.P.A. is proposing a new law that would allow states and tribes to make key decisions on oil pipelines.

• This right was stripped during the Trump era environmental rollbacks.

• If imposed, this could go a long way in keeping our waters and protected lands free from pollution.

To read more headlines from this week, click below.

Mt Lafayette, Mt Lincoln, and Little Haystack/ Image Courtesy of Nick Moore 

Education Piece - Environmental Policy 1985-1990

Hi all!

Just wanted to say thank you again for celebrating one year of Climate Roots with us! It has been a long year and we have all learned so much– thank you for sticking with us.

In today's education section, we will be focusing on the environmental policies of 1985-1989, a four-year period that was deeply impacted by the discovery of a hole in the Ozone layer in 1985. The Ozone layer is a “region of the Earth's stratosphere containing high levels of trioxygen, which effectively blocks much of the sun's most harmful ultraviolet radiation from reaching the planet's surface” (Editors). In May of 1985, Joe Farman, Brian Gardiner, and Jonathan Shanklin, researchers working for the British Antarctic Survey, discovered abnormally low levels of ozone over the south pole. The discovery panicked the international community, which spent the next two years trying to understand why it happened, with “...scientists suggest[ing] a host of explanations covering atmosphere dynamics, chemical interactions, and solar physics to decipher the mystery” (N. O. and A. A. US Department of Commerce). The ensuing exploits to solve this crisis is the standard for international climate policy and action; unfortunately not a standard we have lived up to. Today, the Ozone layer is on the mend thanks to swift action and policy.

1986- Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)

Passed in 1986 under a title amendment of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), the EPCRA was created, “... in response to concerns regarding the environmental and safety hazards posed by the storage and handling of toxic chemicals.”(What Is EPCRA? US EPA) According to the EPA’s website, the push for this act came in response to an accidental release of toxic chemicals in Bhopal, India in 1984 that killed 2,000 people. The EPCRA requires each state to have an Emergency Response Commission (SERC), who divide their states into Emergency Planning Districts and to name a local committee for each district (What Is EPCRA? | US EPA). The EPCRA also required “community right to know” reports, which are designed to inform the public about the chemicals at industrial sites in their area.

1987/1988- The Signing and Ratification of the Montreal Protocol

Two years after the discovery of the hole in the Ozone layer, President Regan joined the international community in the signing of the Montreal Protocol. Essentially, the Montreal Protocol “... is a global agreement to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances”(“The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer”). Some common types of ODS include chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were “...used in the manufacture of aerosol sprays, blowing agents for foams and packing materials, as solvents, and as refrigerants,” and halons, which are mainly used as fire extinguishers (N. US Department of Commerce). According to the EPA, due to the ratification of the Montreal Protocol, “Americans born between 1890 and 2100 are expected to avoid 443 million cases of skin cancer, approximately 2.3 million skin cancer deaths, and more than 63 million cases of cataracts”(“The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer”). As of 2022, the Montreal Protocol signees “have phased out 98% of ODS globally compared to 1990 levels” and if the phase out is fully implemented and maintained, the Ozone layer is expected to fully recover by the 2050s (Environment).

1988- Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA)

Passed in 1988, the MPRSA (also known as the Ocean Dumping Act) prohibits the dumping of materials into the ocean that could harm human health and the health of marine life and the environment (OA US EPA). The act also prohibits the transportation of material from anywhere for the purpose of ocean dumping by U.S. agencies or U.S.-flagged vessels and the dumping of material transported from outside the United States into the U.S. territorial sea (OP US EPA). However, ocean dumping can still occur if a permit from the EPA is obtained.

Join us back here next month as we cover policies from 1990-1994!

To read this full piece with works cited, check it out on our blog!

Reflection of Boston traffic  / Image Courtesy of Ryan Scerbo  

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