Do you know the story of the Rose of Jericho, also known as resurrection plant and flower of stone?
When subjected to drought, the plant curls inward into a tight ball. It can survive in this state for several years, losing 95% of its water. As it dries out, it produces a type of sugar to protect its cells from damage. It looks as if it’s dead, but it’s not. It’s just conserving its energy and waiting for more favorable conditions to arise.
If the drought goes on for an extended period of time, the plant may detach its roots and physically tumble to a new location. Once it comes in contact with even a small amount of water, the sugars and accumulated salts dissolve, it re-roots in its new location if it’s traveled, and the plant revives itself, carrying on with life as if nothing has happened.
What fascinates me most is that it produces that sugar to protect itself so it can flourish when the hard times pass. Also, it doesn’t force itself to stay put during difficulty. It takes action. It detaches its roots in search of nourishment and resources elsewhere.
As we look to the days ahead, what resources do you need to take care of yourself so you can flourish in the future? Can you make them? Can you get them from where you are? If not, where can you go to get what you need? These are crucial questions to ask now so we’re able to buffer ourselves during hard times and also be ready to revive ourselves during more favorable times. More tomorrow…
With everything happening in the world now, hope may feel in short supply. I’ve got something that will help. I had the honor of being a guest on the Art Heals All Wounds podcast with host Pam Uzzell.
During our conversation, I share my journey from growing up on a rural apple farm amidst adversity to becoming a climate advocate. I talk about my passion for reshaping the narratives and storytelling around sustainability and human design, and how my process of healing from cancer in the depths of the pandemic gave me perspective on healing the planet and the collective responsibility we all share for our planet’s future. This echos what the climate scientist, Dr. Michael Mann, calls “channeling dooming into doing.”
I also make the case for kindness (especially in urban settings), the urgency of transitioning to clean energy, and my plans for fostering environmental restoration, rewilding, and community engagement so we grow stronger together. Thank you, Pam, for the opportunity to talk about everything I love.
Hurricanes become especially dangerous when they can spend extended periods of time over warm water. Conventional thinking and history have shown us that when a hurricane reaches land, the land dissipates its strength and the storm, eventually, fizzles. This is why coasts have historically been in greater danger that inland areas. The brown ocean effect changes that.
When land is warm and saturated with water, as happened in Western North Carolina, it acts as something akin to ocean. While it doesn’t typically kick up the wind speed of a storm like Helene, it provides an excess of moisture and heat. Because the ground is saturated, the massive amount of rain can’t be absorbed. This leads to flooding and landslides. The devastation, loss of life, and high number of missing people in Western North Carolina caused by Helene is partially from the brown ocean effect. The heavy rains dumped on saturated land ravaged everything in their path from houses to infrastructure to power and communication lines. There is even footage of a casket unearthed from a cemetery and carried away by the rushing water.
The brown ocean effect can happen anywhere there’s land. As rains become heavier and more frequent from climate change and global warming, it can take hold in many more places. Every land mass can provide ocean-like fuel for a storm.
At the time of this writing, Hurricane Milton is barreling toward Florida. It’s a Category 5 with winds at 180 miles per hour, spinning over the hot waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Stronger than Hurricane Katrina. Even if it weakens, it still has all that water in it that it will drop when it hits land. Also, weakening in this case may be every bit as devastating as wind because it may slow down and pick up even more moisture from the Gulf. The land in Florida is already saturated, as the land in North Carolina was before Helene arrived. It’s a frightening alignment of circumstances.
On Monday night I watched hurricane specialist John Morales get choked up on air giving the news update on Milton becoming a Category 5. These storms are no longer once-in-a-century, once-in-a-lifetime, and perhaps not even once-in-a-season. This may now be our new normal that is anything but normal.
Utilizing the methodology from my University of Cambridge / Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) dissertation, I’m conducting interviews with food retailers, rescue organizations, distribution organizations, institutional food providers, and policy makers to find an unmet need in the market that would help prevent food waste. Today I had my first interview with the largest food rescue organization in NYC. It went very well. I’m excited to continue these conversations and work on this idea.
Solving this dual challenge of food waste and food insecurity is important to me personally as well as from an environmental and business perspective. I grew up in a home that was food insecure and we often didn’t have enough food to eat. We were lucky to have the free lunch program at school. So many are not fortunate enough to have that kind of safety net. My goal with this business is to serve them and protect the planet. If you know someone or an organization I can talk to, I’d love any referrals.
On Thursday night I wound my way through Brooklyn’s Navy Yard. Past industrial buildings, natural gas smoke stacks, and heavy machinery, I found myself at building 269 to celebrate a sustainability milestone in our city.
For 10 years, Billion Oyster Project has used the nature-based solution of oyster restoration to clean the water of the Hudson River to a level unprecedented in the last century. Restored oyster reefs will also protect the coastline from storm surges, a threat the city faces from climate change. To commemorate all their work, and look toward the future, 2,000 guests gathered together this week to sample trays of freshly harvested oysters, enjoy small bites and drinks from over 20 of New York’s best restaurants, and celebrate the efforts of oyster over 50 oyster farmers from all over the country at the organization’s 10th Anniversary Billion Oyster Party — Back to Nature, Back to Health.
New York City used to be the oyster capital of the world, home to half of the world’s oysters. When the Dutch arrived in the 1600s, New York Harbor’s oysters measured up to 10 inches long, the city was known for them, and the oyster industry helped lay the foundation for the city. Liberty and Ellis Islands where the Statue of Liberty now stands and where millions of immigrants landed to begin new lives here were originally known as Oester (Oyster) Islands. New York’s oyster industry ended due to overharvesting, water pollution, and shoreline build-outs from the city’s rapid expansion. The pollution of the river prompted a typhoid scare, and the city shut down oyster farming in 1927.
The book The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky tells the fascinating history of New York’s oysters. The Billion Oyster Project is creating its future. The city’s 220,000 acres of oyster reefs were once homes to whales, dolphins, seals, seahorses, herring, striped bass, and hundreds of other species. Thanks to Billion Oyster Project, they’re on their way to being this home again. Today, the organization has 18 active oyster restoration sites across 16 acres of New York Harbor. Their efforts have restored 100 million juvenile oysters to the harbor. Oysters are starting to reproduce in the Harbor — a clear sign that this once booming industry can be revived and be self-sustaining. Billion Oyster Project’s goal for the next 10 years is to restore one billion oysters to New York Harbor by 2035.
Bee pollinating a dahlia. Photo by Christa Avampato.
As someone who’s inspired by ancient wisdom and modern technology, I have a crush on Ubees. They’re a New York City-based agri-tech startup whose state-of-the-art technology enables remote, real-time monitoring of the health of beehives, the pollination status of the field, and the local weather information. With bee populations under threat, Ubees technology is vital to preserve crop health and yield.
The company is an incredible example of how nature-based solutions and modern technology can support one another to create transformative change. Their technology benefits the bees and the surrounding crops, farmers, and environments. By repopulating and supporting the health of bees, Ubees helps farms boost their resilience and diversify their revenues through regenerative agriculture.
In addition to their connected hives, Ubees is also launching new consumer products. In collaboration with the coffee company Nespresso, they have developed Coffee Blossom Honey and Coffee Blossom Honey Syrup. Launched in August 2024, these products are available in New York City and Walnut Creek, California Nespresso boutiques.
In the past few years, the U.S. has sought to push forward on wind. However, that’s coincided with cost surges, supply chain challenges, high interest rates, permit delays, and opposition from wildlife organizations, local residents, and fishing groups who feel there hasn’t been enough project vetting to ensure safety. Wind’s worries intensified this summer when a 300-foot-long wind turbine blade made by GE Verona collapsed on a wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts. Given the state of our planet and the extensive need for energy transition to clean, affordable electricity, our planet can’t afford to wait.
To get U.S. wind on track, we need to employ what I call the 4 considerations of problem-solving in today’s warming world: creativity, collaboration, connection, and climate.
Creativity With surging costs, scare resources in the supply chain, and safety issues of today’s wind turbines, we need to redesign them with materials that are abundant, affordable, and durable. Sounds like a job for recycled plastics to me. Vestas, a manufacturer of wind turbines, agrees. There are many factors to consider in turbine design and what they’re working on right now might not be the right solution. However, it’s this kind of redesign thinking that’s needed given the numerous challenges.
Collaboration Launching a large-scale offshore wind farm is an all-hands-on-deck project. Government (local, state, and federal), finance, design, engineering, marine science, wildlife advocates, and local communities have to rally around it and pool their talents and efforts. Right now, many of these parties are fighting one another and it’s sinking the projects. If we lose the momentum of this moment to the tired us-versus-them paradigm, we may lose the opportunity to make this energy transition before the worst outcomes of climate change find their way to us.
Connection While China has many operating wind farms, ~16% of its wind power has historically gone unused, costing ~$1.2 billion. This is mostly due to a lack of connections to the grid. The energy doesn’t do anyone any good if it can’t reach them when and where they need it. Like the design of the turbines, we may also need to rethink how we connect new wind projects to the grid.
With all these challenges for offshore wind, I wondered if it was worth it. Should we abandon the wind effort and focus solely on other forms of clean energy such as solar? As I listened to energy experts at Climate Week NYC, it became clear that the U.S. needs offshore wind as part of the energy supply mix. Wind is one of the least expensive and most efficient sources of power. Without offshore wind, the winds themselves may disappear altogether. That’s a scenario none of us can afford.
At the summit, I had the good fortune of sitting next to Neal McCarthy, Associate Director of Digital Programs at Oxfam America. I asked him what work he’s most excited about. He told me about the Digital Doughnut model, an excellent example of researchers and practitioners collaborating and building upon one another’s work to create a better world. The irony isn’t lost on me that my most valuable insight from a summit about digital technology came from sitting next to and talking to someone in-person.
Digital Doughnut Model Kate Raeworth developed the theory of Doughnut Economics. The outer ring of the doughnut consists of the ecological ceiling (maintain balance in the natural world that supports life). The inner ring of the doughnut consists of the social foundation (the minimum standards that we need to live a healthy life). The sweet spot, the doughnut itself, exists in the space between the rings where our societal needs are met, and nature’s boundaries are respected.
In their 2022 pilot workshops, Hannah and Alistair worked with digital technology professionals to:
explore a broad definition of sustainability;
look deeper into the root causes of what is going wrong and how the digital technology industry has been culpable in eroding sustainability;
imagine a better future for the industry and actions that the digital technology industry can take to create that better future for all.
The Doughnut Flower The workshop discussions and insights led to the creation of The Digital Tech Industry Doughnut Flower. It shows which social foundations and ecological ceilings were most related to the digital tech industry.
Discussion themes Three main themes were brought up in the workshops. These theme were woven throughout all of the discussions.
Issues around gender/ethnicity, especially pay inequality and exclusion. differentials of pay, but also exclusion were major concerns of participants. These issues were clearly seen by many attendees as essential — and central — to any meaningful discussion on sustainability.
Work culture was a theme, with “toxic” tech culture referred to repeatedly, as well as exploitation and overlong work hours.
Quality of life issues, and in particular our unhealthy relationship to technology that drive addiction to tech and disinformation.
Solutions The workshops then moved to discuss possible solutions. These solutions showcase four solutions of how the digital tech industry can mitigate its challenges and contribute to a more sustainable world.
Stop the relentless consumption/depletion of resources — attention-based revenue is driving the wrong behaviors.
Pointless — and endless — growth is getting us nowhere — the exponential growth bubble needs to burst.
Build things that last and can be reused — the strategy of planned obsolescence only serves shareholders and not society.
Detoxify tech culture — replace with fairness, inclusion and better ways of working.
What’s next Reading through their website, I’m considering how the Doughnut Economics model could be applied to the strategy and operations of any organization in any industry that seeks to make sustainability its foundation. In my own work at Double or Nothing Media, I’m developing a proof of concept for a new company focused on rewilding and in the research phase of developing a food waste mitigation tech platform. How might you use the Doughnut in your work? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
700 million people have no electricity. 3.1 billion people don’t have enough. Could changing that change everything?
Rajiv J. Shah, President of the Rockefeller Foundation and author of “Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens”, published a New York Times opinion essay this week that makes the case for clean electrification as THE driver to end poverty, reduce violence, and drastically improve well-being including health, nutrition, jobs, and education, not to mention how it would provide us with cleaner water, air, soil, and crops.
I appreciate the holistic nature of the 17 Strategic Development Goals (SDGs). I also agree with Shah that we have to rethink how we’re approaching them by solving the few (or perhaps the one, as Shah suggests) underlying challenge(s) common across all the SDGs. The bureaucracy and complexity of 17 sets of solutions to meet 17 goals is enough to make anyone’s head spin, and it could very well be slowing our progress toward achieving any of them by 2030. These 17 goals may define symptoms, with the underlying disease being lack of clean electricity.
If Shah is right, and clean electrification is the root challenge of all these goals, how might that change financial investment and policy? How might our climate actions and climate storytelling shift if our one united goal was to provide every person with clean electricity by 2030? What would it take to get there?
0.5% of human brain weight today is from microplastics, according to the latest scientific research. It’s also collecting in human lungs, placentas, reproductive organs, livers, kidneys, knee and elbow joints, blood vessels and bone marrow. It contributes to cardiovascular disease, infertility, memory loss, and learning impairment.
These are frightening statistics, and there we can do something about it TODAY to protect ourselves and our families. Many of the answers are in our kitchens. An article in the New York Times interviewed 3 medical doctors and a research scientist about how to reduce our exposure.
1.) Eliminate plastic bottled water (and I’d add eliminate paper to-go cups because they have a plastic lining, especially for hot coffee). Instead, use metal, silicone, or glass to store your water.
2.) Have effective water filtration at home. Brita’s elite filter is a good choice.
3.) Don’t cook with utensils such as plastic spatulas or plastic mixing spoons. Use silicone, wood, or metal.
4.) Don’t store any food or drinks in plastic (especially if they are acidic or warm). Even if they come in plastic from the grocery store, take them out of the plastic when you get home and store in glass, metal, or silicone. Never leave food or drink in plastic exposed to heat (such as in a car).
5.) Don’t reuse packaged food containers you may have like those from butter, yogurt, etc. to store food. Put those right into the recycling bin.
6.) Don’t microwave plastic, no matter what the packaging says is okay.
7.) Hand wash plastic rather than running it through the dishwasher, and use cold water to wash it, no matter what the packaging says is okay.
8.) Replace your plastic cutting boards with wood or bamboo cutting boards.
9.) I would also add don’t eat with plastic utensils, plastic bowls or plates, or paper plates that have a plastic coating on them.
10.) Filter your air at home and vacuum regularly to remove microplastics that enter our home from the air and that we track in from outside.
It’s unfortunate that completely eliminating exposure to microplastics in our modern world is nearly impossible until we have safe, alternative materials to fossil fuel-based plastic. What we can do is limit our exposure as much as possible with these tips.
Christa Avampato 