December 2021 Sustainability and Public Policy News

Photo by Sunira Moses

Here’s the best of what we’ve read over the last two months.

“The cornmeal that has become a staple of the holiday table reflects millenniums of work by Native Americans — a legacy that Indigenous people are trying to keep alive.”
— A Thanksgiving History Lesson in a Handful of Corn (The New York Times)

“Each year more people die while attempting to protect the world’s most biodiverse places. It’s a trend poised to devastate the planet itself. How can we stem the rising tide of attacks to ensure a safer future for us all?”
— The Violent Cost of Conservation (Audubon)

“The annual meeting of the North Atlantic Right Whale consortium started with a gut punch: there are now only about 336 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, the lowest number in nearly 20 years.”
— The state of the whales: 4 takeaways from this year's Right Whale Consortium meeting (WBUR News)

“Analysis of 163 industry sectors and their supply chains found that over half of the world’s GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services. Pollination, water quality and disease control are three examples of the services an ecosystem can provide. $44 trillion of economic value generation – over half the world’s total GDP – is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services and, as a result, exposed to risks from nature loss.”
— Half of World’s GDP Moderately or Highly Dependent on Nature, Says New Report (World Economic Forum)

“What will the next decade bring? Climate change has come to surpass corporate governance as the most pressing ESG issue commanding investors’ attention, and ESG investing truly has gone mainstream (and is attracting the regulatory attention to prove it). Yet there are new risks emerging for companies, investors and the planet in the coming decade that will test how well we have learned the lessons of the past.”
— 2022 ESG Trends to Watch (MSCI)