⚡Future
Good morning! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend.
On Thursday, we have our first community event. If you’re interested in hearing from changemakers and their stories, please sign up below! Only 3 spots left.
If you enjoy reading Tomorrow, please hit the ❤️ button above and get your friends to subscribe. If you’ve been forwarded this email and looking to subscribe, do so here.
Let’s get into it!
Future of life on our planet
Representatives from all around the world are gathering in Madrid today for the beginning of discussion on the climate crisis. Recently, the UN released a major report that shows the goal of holding climate change at 1.5°C above pre-industrial average temperatures to be near impossible. This is the threshold where scientists believe climate change will become catastrophic.
Waves hit the shore in Majuro, the capital city of the Marshall Islands, one of the small islands nations pushing for U.N. action at COP25. HILARY HOSIA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
The fix. It’s not easy. By 2100, our little blue rock is on track for 3.2°C of warming, which will result in the drowning of cities. To stay below the target 1.5°C threshold, we need to cut more than 7% yearly between 2020 and 2030. How big of a change is that? Well, this would mean emissions in 2030 would be 55% lower than it was last year.
The summit. In Madrid, the various leaders around the world will attempt to finalize how they’re all going to meet their climate goals.
Debate. An exciting part of the global debate will be setting the rules around international carbon markets. Many countries plan to reach their climate goals by offsetting their emissions and buying carbon credits. These credits allow them to pay for the continual protection of natural resources such as forests and plant trees. Think of all those instagram ads you see of “buy a tee and we’ll plant a tree,” except at a much bigger scale.
Controversy around offsets. Some people don’t like them and you’re probably asking if ‘planting trees’ will make significant impact. Changing how the land will be used, including preventing activities such as deforestation, could influence a quarter of global emissions. On the other hand, some journalists have reported the various issues that could arise with offsets:
It’s difficult to keep track of these trees and ensure they’re not harvested later.
Carbon credits are too cheap to compete financially with the profits that come from deforestation. At the moment, you just make more money through cattle ranching and other activities.
Preventing and tracking double-counting of credits is difficult. Previous conversations would have prohibited double-counting, but of course Brazil, who would host much of the world’s offsets, objected to this. If it could count projects funded by other countries and organizations in it’s own goals, it would make reaching their climate objectives much easier.
The heart of the matter. The Climate meeting in Madrid will determine how the Paris Agreement will be translated to trackable and meaningful action. Literally, the future of life on Earth is in the balance.
9 things to be thankful for
News is often saturated with terribly heavy and depressing things. Here’s some positivity as you’re coming out of the thanksgiving weekend:
1. Extreme poverty has fallen
2. Life expectancy is up
3. Teen births in the US are down
4. Smoking in the US is down, too
5. In the long term, homicide rates have fallen dramatically
6. In the short term, they’re down in the US, too
7. More people in the world live in a democracy now
8. More people are going to school for longer
9. Solar energy is getting cheaper
Beijing vs US
This is a continuation on China and Democracy.
If you didn’t hear, Trump ratified the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. We didn’t have doubts (he really had to sign it) and are happy that he did.
Retaliation. Every action has an equal opposite reaction. The new Act mandates annual reviews of the city’s political situation and possible sanctions. To show their disappointment, Beijing has suspended visits to HK by US military ships and aircraft. China also imposed sanctions on four US-based NGOs including Human Rights Watch and Freedom House. Beijing claims that these organizations have supported violence in their efforts to help protestors. Many people in mainland believe this narrative.
Protests continue. Yesterday, a peaceful march in Tsim Sha Tsui, a large shopping district, erupted into violence as police fired tear gas into the crowd. As you probably know, HK’s economy fell into a recession for the first time in a decade due to protests and the US-China trade war, which is surprising for a place that used to be seen as one of the world’s top financial centers.
Keeping watch. As always, we’ll be keeping you updated on the events here.
Short takes
Legal pot. Hit the shelves in the Midwest this weekend.
One chart on how much billionaires spend on charity.
FB launches tool that allows you to transfer photos to google.
Rating countries on how sustainable their food systems are.
Early instagram employee on how to build meaningful communities.
Tomorrow Today: Intro to Unconventional Activism
🎟️ Thursday, December 5
Only 3 spots remaining.
Password: tomorrow139
Change cannot be achieved alone, only together. In that spirit, we are kicking off community events at our space in New York City. Eat some food, learn from some seasoned, unconventional activists, and meet others aspiring to change the world!
Our speakers:
Anjali Chandrashekar: Anjali is the founder of Picture It, a global social project that uses artivism to raise funds and awareness for various health, humanitarian, and environmental causes. Her projects have been featured by the UN, and she had opportunity to present her work at the Word Economic Forum at Davos in 2011. Anjali also works as an innovation strategy consultant at Doblin.
Karen Mac: Karen is a Business Development Associate at Acumen, an impact investment fund that invests in social enterprises that serve low-income communities in developing countries around the world. Before Acumen, Karen worked at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship and has also spent time supporting female artisans in Bolivia and improving sanitation usage in India.
Why are we hosting this?
For us, community is the center of everything. In an age of prolific digitization, there's a great need for greater human connection. It's almost necessary to carve out time and space to purposefully engage in person. While it's amazing to be able to discuss and interact with multiple people online and exchange stories and insights, we don't think anything beats the experience of sharing a meal.
Is this for you?
If you're an individual making change at your organization or looking to find ways to better impact the world, this is the right space for you!
Igniting Tomorrow
💰 $100k-$250k Pre-Seed Funding
UPDATE: We’ve already had multiple people reach out and share their ideas. It gets us super excited to learn more about the projects and companies everyone is working on. Please keep reaching out. We’ll be releasing more information around this in the upcoming year.
Many of you are either already working on a number of world-changing things or have ideas bursting out of you everyday. Our goal is to see unconventional activists like you succeed. Let us help connect you into the space and access the financing you need to get started. If you’d like to share your ideas (or know a friend working on something exciting), please reply to this email!
If you like what you read, please click on the heart below & continue sharing this newsletter!
Also, please continue to support us by following us on Instagram.
If you ever want to share any feedback or have anything you’d like us to include in the newsletter, please just reply to this email.