366 days of threesixtysix

A year on, how is it going?

Kasey McDonnell

08 Jun 2025 — 4 min read

This idea started small, and it’s been beautiful to see it grow.

On a cold June morning last year, I woke up at 4:30am. I couldn’t sleep. This was happening a lot back then – tumult at work, a family death, and a book called The Deluge had something to do with it.

Instead of pointlessly trying to go back to sleep, I brewed myself some coffee and set up a website.

threesixtysix.news.

Today marks 366 days since I started this climate newsletter. What started as a seed I stumbled on and decided to tend to has blossomed into the most meaningful work I’ve done in a long time.

If you’ll let me, I’d love to share how this project started, how it’s going, and what comes next. It’s also a great chance to explain the silly name.

How it started

Starting threesixtysix was an emotionally charged choice.

I’d just finished The Deluge by Stephen Markley. It is a devastating masterpiece detailing a collapsing climate in the near future. Stephen Markley’s vivid story inspired me to try writing about climate change with a distinctly Wellington focus.

My first post, which I sent to one solitary subscriber (myself), had this absolute banger:

Why are we not mobilising a war-level effort to prevent thousands of coastal New Zealanders from losing their homes?

Why are we still building things that will speed up heating the planet? And why is that not illegal when someone born in Petone today could live to see it disappear?

I refuse to sleepwalk into a future this bleak.

I’ve tried to keep this passion seared into every story I write. In the last year, I've intentionally added another idea into the mix:

Running Aotearoa without pollution is SO MUCH BETTER than how we live right now.

Communicating this point is crucial. Cutting pollution means a fucking good world: far better than our current one dripping with congestion, asthma, and expensive energy.

Politicians could transition us to this better future fast. They choose not to. New Zealand’s leaders are denying us a life where people live longer and have their own clean, cheap energy that doesn’t cost the earth.

Everyone deserves a glimpse of the better future we could have so that we can demand that it becomes real, fast.

How it’s going

Just over a year on and I have written 36 articles, gathered nearly a thousand TikTok followers and had writing in local and national publications.

I’ve sat down with experts in public transport and advocated to local councillors. I’ve chatted with countless researchers about our changing climate.

If you have joined recently, here are some of my favourite pieces over the last year:

Writing threesixtysix has inspired me to do very strange things like contact media lines, request comment from organisations, schedule interviews. I was too naïve to think I couldn’t. If you have an idea to explore, take some of my unearned confidence. It really helps.

By far, the best part of this project has been meeting local change makers doing climate work in the real world. It’s refreshing when a lot of government leadership seems to think responding to climate change means writing endless reports nobody reads.

Wtf is up with the weird number name?!

The short answer is “because of when I was born”.

Before the Industrial Revolution kicked off, our atmosphere looked very different to today. For every million particles in the air, 280 of them were carbon. This is known as parts per million (ppm).

Even in tiny amounts, the carbon in the air keeps the world warm. The more carbon you add, the warmer it gets.

By the time I was born, in 1998, humans had pumped out enough pollution to raise the carbon levels to 366ppm. We’ve kept polluting more and more ever since. Right now, carbon is at 430ppm.

The huge plumes of pollution humanity has pumped into the air since are warming the world and causing weather chaos. These little particles are the reason why this whole newsletter exists. I arrived on this earth at 366ppm – and I’d like to leave it with far less than that.

It’s very ironic that my newsletter dedicated to explaining climate change in plain language has SUCH a jargony name. I try to find comfort in the fact that brands are built, not born. So, for now, I’m sticking with my strange, sleep deprived name choice.

The next year of threesixtysix

Knowing me, the next year will probably feature a lot of TikToks and some more rants about trains 🚞

Between now and October, I also want to offer some insight into the local elections. The Government has taken an axe to low pollution transport funding, so local leaders need to step up if they care about this problem.

It’s important to hold their feet to the fire: our councils can make change if they choose to do so.

Then, the general election looms in 2026.

I am openly biased towards politicians that will quickly invest in and deliver pollution cutting projects. We’ll see which politicians offer ideas that meet the moment.

Most importantly, I want to continue shining a spotlight on the cool people and organisations in our city that are doing the hard mahi right now. If you have any groups you know that are doing great work, please share them with me!

Whether it’s about an event, a policy, a community initiative, or a piece of history, my goal is to explain it in an entertaining and accessible way. I’m intensely grateful that each of you has spent the time reading these over the last year. Whether you joined 36 hours or 366 days ago, thank you.

There are many stories to tell you. I can’t wait to spend another year sharing them.