There is only one area of the globe left which is largely free of airborne plastic: the Southern ocean. That's bad news for the rest of the world as the very air is infested with micro- and nano-plastics on a scale that is somewhat shocking. Few, if any, are taking aim at the source of all the mischief: microfiber textile manufacturers.

Flat-soled sandals with a thong are by no means new but the vast majority are made from polyurethane foam and stay in the environment for centuries. Algae flip-flops meanwhile, are utterly renewable, carbon-storing, and biodegrade as quickly and easily as the organic plant material they’re made from.

Could there be alternatives to concrete? Materials that did not produce 8% of the world’s CO2 emissions and require enough sand to make a band more than 30m high by 30m wide around the earth? Short answer: yes.

Some 800-million people lack electricity globally. Many sub-Saharan Africans do not have access to either natural gas stoves or electric burners, so they cook with charcoal, which is severely damaging to both the climate and human health. Now, several startups have begun offering affordable pay-as-you-go stoves and phones, expanding access to electricity, communication, and safe cooking methods.

Land, while it contributes carbon to the atmosphere, is in fact a tremendous carbon sink. Rocks, trees and foliage, peat and soil, all can store immense reserves of carbon. With better husbandry of soil, forests, croplands, and water, we could do an untold amount of good for the environment. The two sides of the land-climate coin, the very peril that may be our salvation, is that so many of the solutions on land are so intrinsically simple.

Any threat to the rice yield will affect not only those who depend on it now, but also the 2.5 billion humans we expect to welcome by the end of this century. Yet the conditions that dramatically increase yield and significantly reduce methane, are the same conditions that can lead to a potentially far more serious climate problem: N2O.

Why write a book focused on value and values? And why should we be talking about the benefits that come from acting on values; isn’t doing […]