CAT Newsletter #141 - 2022-10-09
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 141 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 highlights
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#2-general conversation: Join a chat about how an API that tracks product & recipe-level carbon footprints at scale can make an impact on climate. Melissa is pondering: How do we measure if the API is actually reducing emissions if people are shopping more than they normally would?
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#greener-infra: Mike is asking: What do folks think of this summary of the AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool?
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#freelance: Sigi is looking for pointers on getting remunerated for mentoring/coaching/soundboarding for startups in the climate field. Do you have experience with this?
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#green-teams: Emmet shared challenges and Neil talked about Green Team wins at his workplace — from organizing a clothes-swap, to inviting folks to bring old tech to a repair cafe, or encouraging people to clean up their digital lives. Share your wins or challenges of making a change at work in the 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.
Branch magazine reading group lead • 2hrs / month
Pick an article a month and host a reading group discussion session for our members.
💬 CAT Events in October
▶️ 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.
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.
13th October - 10th November - Green Software Carbon Hack 2022
In celebration of COP27, we are hosting Carbon Hack 22 - a race to build the most innovative carbon aware software solutions using the Green Software Foundation’s Carbon Aware SDK, with a total prize pool of $100,000 USD.
19 October 2022, 12:30 – 14:00 BST: Innovations In Climate Technology: preparing to bid
£5,000 grants available for trialling climate projects in partnership with UK local councils.
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
Catalyst w/ Shayle Khan - How well does soil actually store carbon?
Soil could help us lock away emissions, but there’s still a lot we don’t know about durability — or even how much carbon is in the dirt. In this episode, Shayle talks to Eric Slessarev, a staff research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he studies soil carbon.
The Carbon Copy - Drought is resurfacing lost relics around the world
From ancient villages to Buddhist statues to dinosaur tracks, drought is uncovering history below the waterline. This week, we speak to reporter Dharna Noor about the dinosaur tracks, historical artifacts and even human remains that are being unveiled as global drought progresses.
Outrange and Optimism 168. - From Climate Week NYC: No Other Option But To Solve This
While our special guest this week, the Financial Times columnist, Martin Wolf might not self-identify as an optimist, his conversation with Christiana, Tom and Paul offers a fascinating analysis of the economic, corporate and political forces that we find ourselves at the mercy of, the reasons behind the rise of populism and what he thinks it will take for us to really collectively wake up to this crisis.
📰 News Highlights
New York state to adopt California 2035 EV rules
All new vehicles in New York state will need to be electric or plug in hybrids by 2035, following largely the same policy passed in California earlier this year.
NATO believes Baltic Sea gas pipeline leaks were sabotage
A Nordstream 2 a gas pipeline between Russian and Europe has been ruptured, leaking methane into the atmosphere, in what is considered a deliberate attack on the pipeline. According to Denmark’s Energy Agency, the emissions from the gas leak already correspond to approximately one-third of the country’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
How Kenya Became the World’s Geothermal Powerhouse
An effort that began 70 years ago is poised to propel the country to middle-income status on a wave of green energy. More than 92% of Kenya’s energy comes from renewable sources.
U.S. EPA launches environmental justice office
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched a new office that will be focused on the needs of minority communities overburdened by pollution and oversee the delivery of $3 billion in environmental justice grants created by the recent passage of new climate legislation.
World’s largest reinsurer announces major new oil and gas policy Under the new policy, Munich Re, which underwrites 22% of the global economy will no longer insure or invest in new oil and gas fields, new oil midstream projects and new oil power plants from April 2023. Without insurance, it is much harder for projects to go ahead. Yay bean counters!
Wax worm saliva rapidly breaks down plastic bags, scientists discover
Enzymes that rapidly break down plastic bags have been discovered in the saliva of wax worms, which are moth larvae that infest beehives. The enzymes are the first reported to break down polyethylene within hours at room temperature and could lead to cost-effective ways of recycling the plastic.
Easyjet abandons caron offsets, tries investing in greener planes instead
EasyJet is to stop offsetting carbon emissions by its planes as it unveiled a “roadmap to net zero” emissions by 2050 including introducing hydrogen-powered jet engines. The airline signed a three-year contract in late 2019 to offset all its CO2 emissions – a world first, and a move that was then said to be costing the airline about £25m a year, but it was regarded by some as greenwashing the environmental damage caused by its passenger jets.
All global growth in electricity generation in the first half of 2022 came from renewables
With all the headlines around the energy crisis, it might have been expected that coal and gas use would have increased in 2022. But that is not what happened, at least in the electricity sector. A new report from Ember climate shows that in the first half of 2022, renewables met all the growth in global electricity demand, halting the rise in fossil fuels.
🎬 CAT videos 🎬
CAT videos, geddit? 10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to topics related to climate.
How these tiny microbes could save our food – and us
A helpful intro from PlanetA to match the Catalyst podcast linked above about soil carbon as a climate solution. Most plants depend on soil, and soil depends on microbes. Using them to revitalize unhealthy soils could improve ecosystems and feed our growing population
💼 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.
Also! Don’t forget the super handy “climate careers page” on outline *listing a bunch of useful resources and sites to check.
Granular Energy - Product Owner - Permanent - Remote (Western Europe) - 50000 - 70000 EUR
Product Owner at Granular Energy, a fast-growing start-up developing a platform to help electricity consumers, producers and suppliers move towards 24/7 clean energy. Backed by some of the world’s top early-stage investment funds, our mission is to change how energy markets work to accelerate grid decarbonation.