BRB w/ Nathan P - Cap and Trade, Masoor Dahl & The Mushroom at the End of the World
Diving into Europe's $100 per ton of carbon threshold, a comforting and climate friendly dish, and a reflection on how humans and fungi co-create landscapes.
Hi all,
Welcome back to BRB w/ Nathan P - a weekly newsletter featuring 1 Breakthrough, 1 Recipe, and 1 Book revolving around food & climate. (BRB, get it?)
Before we get started, here are some highlights of food & climate in the news this week:
The secret ingredient that could save fake meat (The Atlantic) *highly recommend*
Revealed: the US is averaging one chemical accident every two days (The Guardian)
New Indian Ocean fishing rules in big win for coastal states (AP News)
💥 Breakthrough: Cap and Trade
Our capitalistic system is at odds with our planet’s future for a key reason: what is cheap is bad for us and the planet, and what is expensive is good for us in the planet. Future generations are counting on us to reverse this. But until we do, we are headed towards near-certain public health crises, climate catastrophe, and biodiversity collapse.
The harm that our activities exert on nature is not priced into our everyday transactions. These harmful consequences with social and environmental costs not factored in are called externalities.
To address externalities, we need more price signals: ways of altering human behavior through pricing. This imposes a charge on negative externalities, making pollution and environmental harm costly and discouraging. A price signal you have likely noticed is the charge on single-use bags at the supermarket. But price signals on pollution and emissions can be trickier.
In 2005, Europe launched the Emissions Trading System (ETS) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and put a price on carbon by the metric ton. Governments first set a cap on how much they want to emit. Then, emitters like energy, transportation, and manufacturing companies are required to purchase emission allowances. How much they can purchase depends on their previous history and commitments. Entities that emit less need fewer allowances and can trade their surplus for profit.
A higher price on carbon is a greater incentive to slash emissions. When externalities reach the right price, financial and environmental priorities start to align.
Last week, the price on carbon in the ETS reached a historic high of $107 or 101€ per ton. That’s a five-fold increase from 2020. I hope the breach of the 100€ threshold will be poignant enough to encourage corporates to further invest in reducing emissions across their value chain. Disruptive technologies that upcycle or use carbon dioxide or methane as feedstocks are bound to see more investments.
A cap and trade system like the European Union’s is one way of putting a price on carbon, though it is politically more difficult in the US. Another initiative (look out for a future post on this 👀 ) is a carbon tax with dividends. In this scenario, the emissions from any product or service are taxed accordingly, and at the end of the year these taxes are equally distributed back to everyone (thus the dividend). It is expected that the bottom 60% of earners in the US would financially benefit from this plan.
While a price on carbon is salient to incorporate externalities, it’s worth noting that most of the current harm to life on Earth is not from carbon. In the past 10 years, the biomass of two-thirds of all arthropods vanished. Arthropods range from insects to lobster and barnacles. I haven’t seen much coverage on this. The current mass extinction of life on Earth has little to do with emissions - it is deforestation, pesticides, overfishing, and the reduction of living niches on Earth. We will need regulation and the right equivalent to a price on carbon to address each of these.
The problem is not just carbon emissions. It is our very way of existing with nature. I fear that a narrow-minded focus on a carbon neutral world - which don’t get me wrong, we need to strive for - is missing the bigger picture.
Nature is remarkably resilient and many ecosystems can recover if given the chance. And my hope is that with a price on carbon and other externalities, what is better for us and the planet will soon start to be cheaper.
🥘 Recipe: Masoor Dahl
Masoor dahl, or spiced red lentils, is a comforting and climate-friendly vegan dish rich in fiber, protein, and fiber. Do yourself and the planet a favor by opting for organic and locally sourced produce if you can.
See my twist on NYT Cooking’s recipe at the end of the newsletter. For your not-so-spice-tolerant friends, feel free to do without the chili.
If you make it, please send pictures :)
📚 Book: The Mushroom at the End of the World
This week, view the world from the perspective of fungi in The Mushroom at the End of the World. It’s a personal favorite of mine on the ecology and anthropology of the matsutake - a mushroom as prized in Japan as truffle in the West. It’s unique in that it resists all efforts to be cultivated and commercialized under capitalism.
This read made me rethink many concepts around existential philosophy - the boundary of the self, the making of worlds, and the divide between culture and nature. These are many of the same topics that post-modernist philosopher Donna Haraway discusses in The Cyborg Manifesto - and I wasn’t surprised to learn that Haraway and Tsing were peers at UC Santa Cruz.
This book explores the lives of East Asian migrants who come to the American Northwest in search of matsutake, which can fetch prices of $500/kg. Like, $80 a mushroom. The activities and livelihoods of humans and matsutake are remarkably entangled. Matsutake like to grow in forests cut, burned, or disturbed by human activity - a result of ‘unintential cultivation’ - even though we are totally unable to cultivate it if we tried. And this mushroom sustains ecosystems and livelihoods. It turns out that together, humans and matsutake co-create entire landscapes.
This book offers a different way of surviving and thriving in the world - one where humans, trees, and fungi are all co-architects.
My favorite quotes to reflect on:
One could say that pines, matsutake, and humans all cultivate each other unintentionally. They make each other’s world-making projects possible… landscapes more generally are the products of unintentional design, that is, the overlapping world-making activities of many agents, human and not human.
Landscapes are radical tools for decentering human hubris. Landscapes are not backdrops for historical action: they are themselves active. Watching landscapes in formation shows humans joining other living beings in shaping worlds.
What is “public property” if not an oxymoron?
We are stuck with the problem of living despite economic and ecological ruination. Neither tales of progress nor of ruin tell us how to think about collaborative survival. It is time to pay attention to mushroom picking. Not that this will save us—but it might open our imaginations.
That is all for today - BRB next week ✌️
Masoor Dahl Recipe
Ingredients (4-5 servings)
1 cup red lentils
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
2 tomatoes or 1.5 cups canned tomatoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 inch knob of ginger, finely diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Fresno chili, finely diced
1 tablespoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon paprika
3 tablespoons of cilantro, finely chopped
Cilantro for garnish
Salt to taste
Instructions (45 minutes)
In a large saucepan, sauté onions and sweet potato with vegetable oil until the onions are translucent. Add in the ginger and garlic and sauté until fragrant.
Add the chili, lentils, tomatoes, and 3 cups of water. Increase heat and stir until it comes to a boil.
Simmer uncovered for 35 minutes until the potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally. The consistency should be watery, but not too soupy.
In a separate saucepan, heat ghee or olive oil with the ground turmeric, paprika, and cumin until fragrant. Incorporate into the Dahl.
Garnish with cilantro and serve warm to your besties :)
About Me
Hi there! My name is Nathan Paumier - I’m an avid reader, food enthusiast, and climate optimist. I started this newsletter after frequent questions on food tech, reading recommendations, and my secret recipes.
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