Lessons on leaving the world better than you found it | Sophie Howe

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Sophie Howe is the world's only future generations commissioner, a new kind of government official tasked with advocating for the interests of generations to come and holding public institutions accountable for delivering long-term change. She describes some of the people-focused policies she's helped implement in Wales, aimed at cutting carbon emissions, increasing sustainability and promoting well-being as a national goal.

This performance was part of the Countdown Global Launch on 10.10.2020. (Watch the full event here: .) Countdown is TED's global initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. The goal: to build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, in the race to a zero-carbon world. Get involved at

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17 Comments on Lessons on leaving the world better than you found it | Sophie Howe

  1. Leave things better than you found them is one of the mottos that I live by, thinking long term, and being kind to future generations.

    Here are some goals for politicians: don’t indebt future generations. It’s completely immoral. Don’t misuse collective force and habituate citizens to its misuse. If it’s not ok for the strong to do it to the weak, it’s not ok for government to do it to a person in the name of the weak.

    Preserve a healthy society for future generations. Healthy societies exist only in the absence of coercion and deceit. Reciprocity and collective action can only happen if there are inviolable boundaries on what we own, starting with our bodies to everything we acquire without coercion and deceit. If there is no respect, the collective loses its strength and dissolves.

    The weak depend on healthy societies; let’s not destroy the source of their wellbeing.

  2. Have kids. Give them everything.

    Don’t go to uni to get “background in equality and diversity” to become “Mum to 5 future generations”.

  3. If you cannot keep doing something forever, this is the very definition of unsustainable. Focusing on human wellbeing instead of economic growth is the kind of thinking that will bring society out of the confines of ancient economic systems and will propel us into a future of sustainable growth. It is not socialism. It is futurism. One of the defining features of our species is our aspiration to be more than what we are. Until now, that aspiration has been individualistic. Imagine what we can achieve if we apply that attitude to our entire society. That’s the kind of future I want for my descendants.

  4. *What you don’t know about climate and energy will kill you*
    50% of humaity will be water stressed by 2025
    50% of thermal & hydro electric power will soon be water stressed
    40% of coal power is now water stressed, and so will 30% of planned hyrdo power
    North Euro offshore wind works 30% of the time, onshore works 22%, and solar 11%
    80% of energy is fossil and 20% is electric of which 4% is renewable 2% solar & wind
    2% of global energy is solar and wind after 20 years trying
    By 2040, 15% of global energy will be renewable, with 28% by 2050
    Most solar panels will be un-recyclable toxic waste growing at 6 million tons/yr by 2050
    Europe burns 80% of wood pellets, and 80% of its recycled plastic/paper for electricity
    Trees grow faster and die younger with increasing temps droughts & fire
    Amazon tree farms take 30 yrs to recoup 10% of Amazon’ tree loss
    Overseas forests are clear-cut & burned for 50% of Europe’s renewable electricity
    Palm and soy grown in the tropics are shipped to Europe to burn in diesels
    Europe burns 50% of its palm oil cargo in diesel engines
    Batteries and bio-energy will wipe out tropical habitat for humans and wildlife
    4% of mammals are wild and battery/bio-energy extraction will kill them off
    The UN failed all 20 bio-diversity pledges from 10 years ago
    There have been 25 UN Climate COPS and 15 Bio-diversity COPS
    There were 1.5 billion flights in 2019

    Earth is heating 46% faster than 50 years ago
    Oceans take 89% of heat air takes 1%
    *Weather* = flash floods + flash droughts + flash mobs + flash infections
    *Climate* = 30 years of weather
    There’s less rain and more storms, what old people call hard rain
    Ozone destroying green house gases increase every year
    Nitrous oxide eats the ozone and is the 3rd biggest greenhouse gas
    Abrupt permafrost deep soil carbon and nitrous oxide loss is not modelled
    350 ppm CO2 will not cool eath, 300 maybe will do it
    We must cut energy use 50% in 10 yrs to stay under 1.5 C
    This never happened in history, and will never happen in the future
    People who are richer smarter and older than you don’t want you to know this

    Batteries and bio-energy will not reduce earth’s heat imbalance in time, and will wipe out tribes and wildlife
    Jets are 68% more efficient, but fly 60X more people over 60 years
    There were 1.5 billion flights in 2019, and only 6 million out of 1.2 billion vehicles are electric
    Petrochemical demand grew 7X human population for 20 years
    EVs, batteries, bio-energy and solar/wind will not stop runaway hothouse mass extinction
    If you want credible sources go to Loki’s Revenge blog because I don’t want your love or money

    The first rule of Loki’s Revenge is that nobody talk about Loki’s Revenge
    Since nobody will like you for it, this is an easy rule to keep
    Same goes for Hansen’s monthly private carbon dividends being real climate justice

    or go to Reddit’s DarkFuturology for links and sources

    zzz

    Nothing To See Here = Runaway Hothouse Mass Extinction
    There are 23 billion chickens on earth, if one sneezes we all get the flu 😉
    Humans and livestock are 96% of all mammals by weight and caused 80% of species extinction — Livestock use up to 80% of antibiotics and cause 25% of all infectious disease

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