We're throwing a party! Also society is unravelling but what else is new
Plus, we have some cool climate opportunities.
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It’s called unravelling, this process. Maybe you’ve heard of it. It’s the name for process of the artificial boundaries between man and nature collapsing.
It’s the concept that politicians in windowless rooms and police arresting protestors and birds choking in polluted water were never separate. And now these social, political and environmental crises converge to drag the fragile foundations of our systems down into an unpredictable foreign future.
Looks different everywhere in the world, but the unravelling is universal.
Here in the privileged bubble of Western Europe, I feel the unravelling more than I know it, if you know what I mean. It hits me in flashes. Moments of sobriety in an intoxicating hectic life.
Like Wednesday. Brussels. Cold and windy and static grey, grey, grey. I was standing at a busy crossroads. Had a meeting, of course. In Troon, if you know it. The busy road leads to the European Parliament, lined with towering office blocks.
Someone told me once they’d never live in Brussels because of the air pollution. I think about it every time. Did the outside grey make its way inside me already? Did it already reach my lungs, my heart, my mind, my beliefs?
On the other side of the roads, a park. A small square green box of nature in the grey.
And I’m staring at the red man and Deliveroo drivers are zipping by and I’m on my phone and so is everyone else and just like that, the wild lit up inside me.
Like waking up when you didn’t know you were dreaming. What the hell is going on? Why am I going into the grey when I could go into the green? Why do we have meetings about saving trees in rooms where we can’t even see them?
I had a wild urge to turn around. Type a brief out of office message that says You can find me among the trees. I have been away from home for too long.
Wouldn’t that be the most natural thing in the world? Shouldn’t the next COP take place in the mountains or a disappearing lake? Why can’t I just drag the politicians in their high rooms out to a brown river or yellow field and say What have we done! What are we going to do?
How long can we pretend we are protected from savage things within us and around us?
The moment passed, the wild drew back, and I crossed the road. And I walked further and further away from the park - I always do, in the end - into the grey.
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What’s Going On?
Renewables will be the world’s top energy source within 3 years, says International Energy Agency.
Related: But right now the EU risks creating problems by outsourcing clean energy supply to North Africa.Major legal NGO is taking the Shell board of directors to court for their climate neglect.
Related: There are also 14,000 Nigerian people suing Shell for polluting their land and water.Pro-oil lobby groups spent 27 times as much as climate advocacy groups on advertising and political influencing.
Related: Fossil fuel groups know that carbon capture isn’t an effective solution - but they’re lying and saying that it is anyway.Majority of major global companies have no policies to prevent deforestation in their supply chains, new report finds.
Related: Another report shows that many major companies with net zero pledges are doing very little for the climate.EU says it must leave controversial energy treaty that prevents climate action.
Useful: What is the Energy Charter Treaty and why is it kind of a big deal?
You’re invited!
Update: We’d like to flag that Shiperise were nearly a year late paying their invoice to The Green Fix.
OH YES it’s not a drinks - it’s a whole party!
We’ve teamed up with sustainable investment team Shiperise to organise an afterwork party for anyone who wants to make the world greener & fairer.
24th March, Bambino Central, 18h optional networking and then the party kicks off at 19h.
Loads of stuff to click on because we don’t have a Q&A this week
LEARN STUFF
Listen to this awesome online Q&A on the intersection of stories, indigenous rights and climate action. 23rd February.
Apply for this super-cool 2-week online LGBTI activist academy by the 26th February.
People working in conservation or environmentalism, check out this interactive webinar on wellbeing in conservation careers on the 28th February!
Tune into this panel discussion on how to broach the next frontier of racial justice. 1st March.
Women! Join this webinar on how to turn your strengths into tools and confidence to succeed. 8 March.
TRY SOMETHING NEW
Aged 16-27? Apply to be a HEY Ambassador by the 24th February and help strengthen the ties between climate action and health.
Folks in Belgium: Come along to the People over Polluters conference in the European Parliament on the 27th February!
Youth-led network ReEarth Initiatve are recruiting more volunteers. Get involved by the 28th February.
Young European Leadership are recruiting for a whole bunch of volunteer roles - applications close 28 February.
The Youth UNESCO Climate Action Network is recruiting for its Steering Committee! Apply by 5th March.
CHANGE THE SYSTEM
Support the relief effort following the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
Demand the EU hold businesses accountable for their impact on human rights & the environment!
Under 30? Share your views by 19th March on how the economic system should change to be included in a policy brief by Generation Climate Europe.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Read last week’s Green Fix on why capitalism kind of sucks and we can do better.
A whole bunch of resources on how to find a job that helps the planet.
By the way…
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Oh Brussels… I’m also living in this city in which often I few choked.
Particularly when I bike (and I bike on a daily basis). I tell myself that I’m doing a good thing for the environment and my health while biking however, I “feel punished” because I have to breathe this air which will of course have consequences on me sooner or later… looking forward to escape it and to return home, as you said 🙏🏼