Monday 5 December 2022

The Carbon Column – Hotting up with The Earthshot Prize

Sustainability can be tiring.

Constantly following news, blogs, videos, podcasts and other communication which reiterate the harsh reality that we are destroying our planet. This isn’t wrong but it can be demoralising.

People often talk about creating a better future through an optimistic lens. This exactly the message I received from family members over the weekend. They were optimistic and inspired.

Inspired by The Earthshot Prize.

They told me I needed to watch it and fortunately for them, I had been following it online to see the new innovative solutions and who won their categories.

For those that don’t know, The Earthshot Prize an environmental initiative that was announced at the end of 2019 and launched in 2020. It is funded by the Royal Foundation with a prize fund of £50 million of the next decade.

Each year, five winners are awarded £1 million to continue their efforts to create solutions that will repair the planet.

The five categories are: Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World and Fix Our Climate.

This year, the winners have been empowering smallholder farmers in India, swapping old dirty cooking methods to new cleaner cookstoves for households in Kenya, building the next generation of women rangers to protect the Great Barrier Reef, creating plastic packaging out of seaweed which absorbs carbon dioxide 20 times faster than trees and finally, drawing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by mineralisng it through peridotite.

It's amazing to see what humans can do when we put our minds to it.

These winning solutions are the reason I was receiving optimistic messages from my family. With all the doom and gloom, it is nice to see the glimmers of hope from the extraordinary work these people are doing.

On a Monday morning, a little inspiration can help. So if you want to find out more about The Earthshot Prize, then check out the website here.

I know it is contradictory having high profile individuals fly all over the world to present awards for environmental initiatives. Some people agree with the principle as it raises more awareness, others disagree with it wholeheartedly.

Let me know your thoughts by sending me an email or messaging me on LinkedIn.