The Burning Case

Next week, Americans will be voting in a historic election. Not only for their own country but also for the future of the world. As author Mary Heglar puts it "The Whole World is on the Ballot".  As history's biggest polluter and current 2nd largest contributor to climate change, these elections really are a make or break for humanity's future on a liveable future (yep, that dramatic).

To understand what's at stake with these elections, what 4 years of Trump in the White House meant for the environment but also for BIPOC and underprivileged communities, what another term would entail but also what it means to be a youth climate justice activist and whether Biden is the candidate we need for radical climate action, we talked to Gavriela Reiter and Aneesa Khan from SustainUS. 

We also address the importance of intersectional policies and why the social and climate movements in the US are a source of hope for the fight we have to lead!

SustainUS is a youth-led organization advancing justice and sustainability by empowering young people to engage in advocacy.

Lobbying. A word that is often associated with corruption, conflict of interests and secrecy at the highest levels of power. Yes, almost like a spy novel!

But can you really buy a vote by inviting a representative to Bali? Or influence decision making by sliding money under a desk? Rest assured, not really. While it may not be as exciting as movies and TV shows depict it, lobbying can be just as dangerous.

We talk about this with Lala Hakuma Dadci, a fossil fuel campaigner at Corporate Europe Observatory who tells us all about the tactics used and millions (€250 to be precise) poured into lobbying by the fossil fuel industry to weaken and influence climate policies in Europe. You're going to want to hear what happens behind the scenes.

But lobbying can also be an incredible force for good! Yes, it's not just corporations and businesses with their thousands of lobbyists and big money that can have an impact on policy making. You can too! That's what we've learned talking to Alberto Alemanno, EU law professor and founder of The Good Lobby, an organisation that helps citizens make their voices heard at every level of power, from local to European.

From why we've lost the habit of taking part in the democratic life to why the EU feels so distant and unreachable and what is the best tool to influence policy making, we ended our chat full of hope that everyone can become a citizen lobbyist. 

We've seen a big surge in awareness on plastic pollution in the past few years. So much so that living a "zero waste lifestyle" became cool and the European Commission adopted one of the fastest legislation in its history on single use plastics last year.
But then, Covid-19 happened and with it, masks, gloves, single use items mainly made of... plastics!

In this episode, we talk to the experts from Zero Waste Europe. We start by addressing whether lifestyle changes towards less waste are efficient considering the scale of the issue and whether this movement suffers from a privilege issue. We then analyse what the impacts of covid on the battle against plastics look like and how the industry lobby used the pandemic to try and present single use as the only efficient way to fight the virus.

While they thanksfully didn't win this battle, they're working hard to undo the win of the single use directives that bans 10 types of products by intervening in the final stages of the law implementation. We're talking how a petition is trying to remind policymakers of their promises so that they can face down the plastics industry, who right now are hard at work behind the scenes.

We hope you like it! Don't forget to let us know, follow us on instagram and subscribe to our newsletter!

"A new normal", "green recovery", "bailout people". These calls from activists, scientists and citizens to radically change our societies and economies post coronavirus have been heard all around the world.

At a time when billions are literally poured into world's economies to prevent them from collapsing could this be an "opportunity" to radically change and finally put sustainability for the planet and people at the heart of our concerns?

But where does this money come from? How is it going to be distributed? Are we going to have to pay for it through decades long debt? And can we really prevent job losses and invest in a sustainable future at the same time?

In this very first episode of the Burning Case, we discuss all these questions and what a post corona world could look like, especially in the EU with Mika Leandro, campaigner at WeMove, Nieneke van den Akker, healthcare worker and Tuesday Sumortin, flight attendant.