Green Lights May 26: Top stories this week
Don't miss a single story: The best from Callaway Climate Insights
. . . . Welcome to Green Lights, our weekly roundup of the best of Callaway Climate Insights. This week, we have the ultimate map for your summer road trip, a surprising list of the top emissions-cutting companies and what they have in common, and a tale of two very different annual general meetings. Plus, we analyze the real, if possibly disappointing, reason some ESG funds outperform. Here are the highlights in a simple and convenient format that makes it easy for our readers. It’s also easy to subscribe.
. . . . Memorial Day honors America’s military men and women who lost their lives in service to their country. The holiday is observed on the last Monday of May, which has become the traditional start of summer. We hope you have a safe and happy holiday weekend, and if you’re thinking of a road trip, good news: Gas prices are down a bit. And, above, a U.S. detail from a map showing the roads of the world. Primary roads are in white, secondary roads are in yellow and tertiary roads are in red. The global map shows 21.6 million km of road. See the full map at Visual Capitalist. Data source: Global patterns of current and future road infrastructure. @PythonMaps.
. . . . Did you know? Despite the controversy over proposed new rules to require public companies to report the carbon emissions of their supply chains and vendors, almost all of the U.S. companies making the most progress in reducing their carbon footprints are already doing it, David Callaway writes. These are not small companies. Some are the largest in the world. Wherever the legal battle over the SEC rules leads, the fact is that investors will increasingly expect their companies to report these emissions and the best ones will benefit from that.
. . . . Environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds have long boasted outperformance over non-ESG funds, arguing that betting on companies that seek to do well will lead to higher profits. But Mark Hulbert has found a study that might explain the outperformance in a less satisfying way, and one that is sure to raise hackles at many fund companies.
. . . . Guest commentators Doug Woodring and Steve Russell argue next week’s UN plastics pollution conference is missing a bigger chance to solve this pressing environmental problem: Instead of stopgap solutions, the world needs to develop a circular plastic economy that will encourage reuse, trade and recycling of plastics to reduce waste and create market opportunities.
. . . . Speaking of not throwing things away, Matthew Diebel explains why he’s not letting go of his ‘04 Honda CR-V and why it still might take decades for EVs to achieve dominance in the U.S.
. . . . It’s a tale of two annual general meetings, where the drama at companies at the center of the ESG world was on full display this week. First up is BlackRock, which prevailed over shareholder activists, while Shell’s CEO had to be protected when protesters disrupted their yearly confab.
More greenery . . . .
What ‘The Simpsons’ taught ’90s kids about climate change: Lisa warned us.
A fake climate change theory is going viral on TikTok after Joe Rogan talked about it
How tiger conservation in India may be helping to mitigate climate change
It’s not about the money: Study quantifies the human price tag of global warming and who will be left out in the heat
From The Los Angeles Times: El Niño is back. What does that mean for an already overheated California?