Tasmania’s 200% Renewable Target: Tasmania recently announced a 200% renewable energy target by 2040, doubling the island state’s hydro, wind, and solar energy production, with a goal of being Australia’s “renewable energy powerhouse,” looking well past its 100% renewable energy target by 2022.

The island state is located 150 miles south of the Australian mainland, separated by the Bass Strait. It is made up of the main island – the 26th largest island in the world – and 334 surrounding islands. It has a proud history of being a quiet leader on climate action and is building a second interconnector to the mainland to enable export of power from its wind farms.

Thanks to pumped hydro energy storage, Tasmania aims to be the battery of the Australian nation. Its Renewable Hydrogen Action Plan calls for a renewably powered hydrogen generation facility to be up and running by 2024 and to be ready for commercial export hydrogen by 2030. This will create hundreds of local jobs and inject billions into the Tasmanian economy.

New Parks in Chile: Chilean President Michelle Bachelet is establishing a legacy. In 2015, she established two marine sanctuaries covering 350,00 square miles. More recently, she’s established five national parks spanning more than 10 million acres, a swath of territory as big as Switzerland. This was catalyzed by a million-acre gift from a famous “eco-couple,” Doug Tompkins the founder of North Face who died in 2015 and his wife Kristina McDivitt Tompkins, the former CEO of Patagonia. The Tompkins worked to “rewild” much land that had been degraded by industrial practices, but not without controversy. Opposition came from farmers, ranchers, and fish farming. Proponents have successfully advocated the value for tourism and profitable economic development for the long term. The Tompkins also gifted 1.5 million acres of land in neighboring Argentina.

Microsoft’s Leadership:In January, Microsoft, siting the fact that human activity has released more than two trillion metric tonnes of greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere since the start of the first Industrial Revolution, in the mid 1700s, and the fact that humanity continues to pump more than 50 billion metric tonnes of GHGs into the atmosphere each year, announced a bold plan to be carbon negative by 2030. In an official message, Microsoft noted that,” …those of us that can afford to move faster and go further should do so.” Thus the company announced its plan to reduce and ultimately remove Microsoft’s carbon footprint:

By 2030 Microsoft will the carbon negative, and by 2050 it will remove the environment all the carbon has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was found in 1975, including its supply-chain emissions. Microsoft has established a $1 billion climate innovation fund to accelerate the global development of carbon reduction, capture, and removal technologies.  Progress will be published in an annual Environmental Sustainability Report that will detail Microsoft’s carbon impact and reduction journey. The journey includes downstream emissions, empowering customers too, helping them to reduce their footprints thanks to the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator.

8 Billion Trees: In November of 2018, two young men — Michael Powell and Jon Chambers — founded a movement called 8 Billion Trees. Their impetus was to preserve habitat for animals and plants in the world’s most diverse ecosystems. Their organization is focused on saving habitat for orangutans in Indonesia, lemurs in Madagascar, sloths in Brazil, and so many more.

Half of the world’s trees have disappeared in the past 100 years. The Nature Climate Change Society estimates that Earth will lose over half of the planet’s forests by 2050 at the rate we are going, with devastating losses of biodiversity. 8 Million Trees is clear on the multiple benefits of trees for global health. It considers trees the superheroes of the planet. Each second, trees remove 200 tons of CO2 from the environment. 8 Billion Trees’ goal is in its name. The results so far are impressive. It has planted over 1 million trees through its support of full-scale planting operations in 19 countries, it has protected ~25 million trees, and the founders can be proud of saving countless animals.

An acre of trees absorbs six tons of CO2 while reigniting natural water cycles, mitigating the spread of deserts, revitalizing unused areas into fertile farmlands and woods. In developed countries, the average person creates 10 – 20 tons of CO2 each year. Thus it takes 4 – 8 acres of trees to offset each individual’s footprint, some 400 – 4000 trees per person. To my surprise, 8 Billion Trees is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. To donate and be part of its solution, please visit 8billiontrees.com.