CAT Newsletter #140 - 2022-10-04
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 140 of the climateAction.tech (CAT) Newsletter - your weekly summary of what's happening inside the CAT community, and in the wider world of climate and tech. New to CAT or looking to re-discover the community? Try out our onboarding checklist.
Remember you can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time - the link is at the bottom.
Stay safe & healthy 😌 💚 🐱
CAT Community News
#️⃣ Slack channel highlights
#greener-leadership: What is your experience in project collaboration? Join the conversation and share your approach to leadership.
#green-teams: What have you been working on or struggling with in your Green Team? Share wins and ask questions in this thread.
#greener-webdev: CAT volunteer and channel host Ismael introduced Astro in the channel. From 138kb on Next.js to 7.6kb on Astro. Curious to learn more? Join the conversation in this thread.
✋ Looking for volunteers
CAT Coffee volunteer • 2hrs / month
Help brainstorm on how to improve our #cat-coffee events and/or help facilitate conversations during the event.
#cat-roulette channel host • 30mins-2hrs / week
Check in regularly, improve # of matches that meet, keep an eye on inactive members, and help out if folks need help.
💬 CAT Events in October
If you're looking at organising event in your part of the world, you can ask for help in #events. There's a CAT event support kit, sample deck and so on to help.
TODAY: ☕️ CAT coffee (eastern-friendly): Volunteer Matt will facilitate a discussion on individual responsibility for living sustainably vs holding corporations accountable
Thu, Oct 4th • GMT 8am | CET 9am | IST 12:30pm | CT/SGT 3pm | AEST 5pm | NZST 8pm
▶️ Watchparty: Degrowth vs Green Growth: We’ll be watching this video using the platform Gatheround. Thu, Oct 13th • AEST 6am | NZST 8am | PT 12am | ET 3pm | GMT 8pm | CET 9pm
☕ CAT coffee (western-friendly): #greener-design pop-up + maybe also a #green-teams pop-up (let us know in the channel if you’re up for helping organize / faciliate!)
Thu, Oct 20th • PT 10am | ET 1pm | GMT 6pm | CET 7pm | IST 10:30pm
🍩 CAT Roulette - 30mins - whenever you find a time
Join the #cat-roulette channel, pick your region and get matched with other CATs every other week! It's a nice way to get to know other CATs, and you can start and stop at any time.
💬 CAT Submitted Events
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
Oct 23 - Design for Sustainability and Climate Action - Oct 13 - UK and Remote, 12:30 UK time
Green Tech South West presents insightful talks combining digital design and sustainability from three brilliant speakers - James Chudley from cxpartners, and two speakers from Climate Labs, Ahsan Khan and Phil Spencer.
Nov 23 - Digital Ethics Forum 2022 - Italy and Remote
Two days of panels and conferences on the most relevant ethical issues of the digital transformation of our society.
Check #events in the CAT slack for more.
🎤 Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
Nori: S3E24: When to Quit Your Climate Startup—w/ Annie Duke, author of Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away
We live in a culture that glamorizes grit and derides giving up. But in the world of climate startups, we can’t afford to spend time on projects that aren’t working.
Outrage and Optimism #169. Do The Work
Welcome to this week’s episode - It’s a packed agenda. Our hosts cover everything from nature breakdown in the UK, the threat of nuclear war in Europe, the downfall of a World Bank President and plenty in-between. We also hear from the incredible Helen Clarkson and Catherine McKenna on everything to do with greenwashing, carbon tax and the power of straight-talking on climate. For those of you working in the corporate world and grappling with climate action, this is an episode you do not want to miss.
Climate One: Risky business: Underinsured Against Climate disaster
Home and property insurance is complicated and typically boring – until a disaster happens to you. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people in high-risk disaster areas across the U.S. have been dropped from their insurance policies, leaving them both physically and financially vulnerable. At the same time, premiums have sky-rocketed, putting home and business coverage out of reach for many.
📰 News Highlights
Project Drawdown launches new job climate action guides
A stellar set of guides for CATS have been launched by Project Drawdown. "If you work in💰finance, 📜govt relations, 👨💻human resources, ⚖️legal, 📺marketing, 🖇️procurement, or 📈sales — it's time to take climate action at work."
Australia’s First Climate Law Since 2011 Seals Green Comeback
Strewth! Halfway meaningful action from Oz? Aw yeah, BONZER mate! New policy makes 43% emissions cuts by 2030 legally binding. This is less ambitious than many other rich economies, but soo much less bleak than before.
HTTP Archive’s annual state of the web report launched
The HTTP Archive has an annual state of the web report, and this year there's a dedicated Sustainability chapter, with contributions from many, many CATS. Worth a read.
Analysis: Bolsonaro election loss could cut Brazilian Amazon deforestation by 89%
There are many, many reasons for obsessively reloading for Brazilian election news this month, but from a climate point of view, the records of the two candidates could not be more different. Analys from the carbon brief.
Top 1%’ of emitters caused almost a quarter of growth in global emissions since 1990
Just 1% of the world’s population was responsible for almost a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions growth over 1990-2019, new research finds. The study, published in Nature Sustainability, highlights the inequality in peoples’ greenhouse gas footprints – a cornerstone of the climate justice movement.
Economic estimation of Bitcoin mining’s climate damages demonstrates closer resemblance to digital crude than digital gold
A new study has been published in scientific journal, Nature about the environmental impact of Bitcoin. "We find that for 2016–2021: (i) per coin climate damages from BTC were increasing, rather than decreasing with industry maturation; (ii) during certain time periods, BTC climate damages exceed the price of each coin created; (iii) on average, each $1 in BTC market value created was responsible for $0.35 in global climate damages"
Designers Declare launches aimed at getting designers involved in climate Action
One primarily for UK CATs right now - Designers Declare is a new initiative supported by the Design Council. Inspired by the global emergency declaration movement demanding accountability and action across industries. Designers Declare is open to individuals and institutions working in industrial, digital, graphic, communication and service design.
🎬 CAT videos 🎬
CAT videos, geddit? 10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to topics related to climate.
Can we engineer the ocean to eat more of our emissions?
Marine environments are effective at capturing carbon and storing it for thousands of years. But what if we could engineer them to capture even more? Can they take on this burden?
💼 Jobs & Opportunities
Remember* only jobs listing salary ranges are listed here - to get your job listed, you need to list a salary range. Folks can still look in the #jobs channel.
AimHi Earth - Software Developer - £800 - £1000 - short term contract "Do you believe that truly inspiring, global climate and nature communication can instil the necessary stewardship, compassion and wisdom in people to change the course of history?" AimHi Eerth is looking for a developer to help with a very short contract on a climate data project.
MyWorld, Inc - Senior Software Develop - £60-90k - Scotland / UK remote MyWorld is a mobile app helping users achieve a more sustainable lifestyle - like Duolingo is for language, or MyFitnessPal is for diet. We are building a platform for the 65% of people who want to take climate action, but are not able to pay or donate directly for it - but can influence change through their actions.
MOSA - Full stack Developer in a cycling hardware startup! - £70-85k depending on experience etc.. MOSA is building smart micromobility parking for the green cities of the future. We've signed top tier partners for our pilots including Tel Aviv city, London Olympic park, and Cambridge Science Park. Not only that, we have partnered with Giant - the world's largest bicycle manufacturer - for hardware R&D.
Library of Things - Back-End Developer- £40-50k, depending on experience - Remote/hybrid, monthly meetings in London
"Library of Things (https://libraryofthings.co.uk) is an award-winning social enterprise helping people save money & reduce waste by affordably renting out quality tools from local spaces like libraries & reuse shops. We're looking for a brilliant Back-End Developer to join our passionate team of 25.
Perks include flexibility of time & location, a 9-day fortnight & a culture that prioritises joy and wellbeing. "
Singularity Energy - Product Manager - 100-125k USD - Remote (US) or Onsite (Boston) In order to decarbonize the grid, the world needs better carbon data and analytics. To support this mission, Singularity Energy is building the world's highest quality view of historical, real-time, and forecasted grid carbon emissions. We're looking to grow our team in order to improve the sophistication of our offerings and expand our capabilities to become the 'carbon intelligence layer' for grid operators, utilities, companies, and service providers to build data-driven decarbonization solutions.
Also! Don't forget the super handy "climate careers page" on outline *listing a bunch of useful resources and sites to check.
💚 Thank you to CATS 💚
📝 For adding knowledge to Outline: @melissa @Hamish Hutchings @Katie Robinson @Eirinimalliaraki @Jon @Michael Andersen @Sandy Dähnert @mrchrisadams @Hermione Taylor @Iain M
💰 For supporting us financially on Open Collective: @Luke Watts (CET) @Ben @Michael Napper @Nicola Bonotto @Dan Lewis-Toakley @Jeff Burka @asim @HeatherB @Kasia @fershad @Todd Lienart @Chris Pointon @James Crowley @Michelle Barker @Nic Wistreich
❤️ For volunteering within the community: @roundcrisis @Evan Harte @Siddharth @Siôn @Myf Nixon @Ismael Velasco @Matt Sirkis @Elisa @Evan Hahn @Hannah @Roopak Kandasamy @Marwa Eltaib
🥳 SPECIAL volunteering shout-out for their 1-year anniversaries: @Niklas Jordan @Alja Isaković and @Sigi