š CAT Newsletter #167 - 2023-04-23
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 167 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 outĀ our onboarding checklist.
Remember you can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time - the link is at the bottom.
Stay safe & healthy š š š±
CAT Community News
š What did you get up to for Earth Day?
Yesterday (April 22) was š Earth Day! What did you get up to? Share your photos, talks, wins, or reflections in this thread in our #2-global-dialogue channel.
On the organizing team Sandra joined the London Extinction Rebellion get-togethers for The Big One (which CAT was also a sponsor for) and Veronica spent some time doing a Digital Clean Up.
āļø CAT member project highlights
Weāve had three amazing projects that were shared out āShare your project / idea / winā CAT Coffee event earlier this month.
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Andrew O'ReganĀ presentedĀ Climate Ireland
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Lucy HawthorneĀ presentedĀ Climate Play
The presenters are looking for input, advice and connections from other CATs. Find out more about the projects or reach out to the presenters inĀ this thread.
Some of us also had a great time playing Alix Dvorakās climate card game Green House during our western-friendly CAT Coffee last Thursday. If you want to see whether we lost or won āĀ head to our #greener-games channel.
š Branch Reading Group happening next week
HostsĀ PoppeĀ and GaĆ«l invite you to discuss the articleĀ Slowing Down AI with Speculative FrictionĀ onĀ Thursday, Apr 27th.
šĀ Upcoming CAT events
š Thu, Apr 27 Ā·Ā Branch reading group #5: Slowing Down AI with Speculative Friction
ā¶ļø Tue, May 2 Ā·Ā Watch Party: Floating wind turbines: Offshore energy's secret weapon
ā Thu, May 19 Ā· CAT Coffee: Networking
š© Community networking
Our next #cat-roulette matches are going out on Fri, Apr 28! Join the 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.
š¬ CAT videos
CAT videos, geddit? 10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to topics related to climate.
Meet The Plastic Eating Worms | Planet Fix | BBC Earth Lab
These worms can eat plastic. Not only that, but they can digest it too! In the fifth and final episode of 'Planet Fix', we speak to the scientists exploring how nature is fighting back against one of the world's biggest polluters. Note: If you haven't been following too much biotech and what the state of the art is with breaking down plastics from fossil fuels, this 10 minutes is totally worth your time. Also: you will never see ice cream the the same way againā¦
ā Looking for volunteers
ā CAT Coffee volunteerĀ ā¢ 2hrs / month
Help brainstorm on how to improve ourĀ #cat-coffeeĀ events and/or help facilitate conversations during the event.
šĀ 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.
Check #events in the CAT slack for more.
š¤Ā Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
The Week in Green Software: The Hidden Cost of AI
This week host Chris Adams is joined by Asim Hussain and Environment Variables regular Sara Bergman to discuss the hidden costs of generative AI. Whatās really at the tip of this iceberg and how far down does it go? They also discuss just how thirsty AI chatbots really are and developments in platform engineering. Finally, we share some opportunities for development from the world of green software.
How to build more hydropower
Hydropower is the worldās largest source of renewable electricity today, making up more than a sixth of all electricity generated. There is scope for expansion, but how do we add terawatts of hydropower capacity without increasing ecosystem impacts? In this episode, guest host Lara Pierpoint talks to Gia Schneider, co-founder and CEO of Natel Energy, about small scale hydro.
Will Americaās commercial kitchens go electric?
Meet the chef working to convince the U.S. culinary industry to ditch gas.
Outrage and optimisim 196. Earth Day Special: LIVE Q+A on Momentum vs Perfection
Welcome back to an Outrage + Optimism Earth Day Special where we are super excited to share with you this recording of our Live Q&A session recorded on Wednesday 19th April discussing the Momentum vs Perfection series. Tune in to hear our hostsā answers to questions about momentum, perfection, diversity, 'the moveable middle', joy, spirituality and more.
š° News Highlights
One in three people on the planet hit by āmonster Asian heatwaveā
One in three people on earth are suffering under a āmonster Asian heatwaveā with temperature records broken across a dozen countries. The searing heat has spread across large parts of south and southeast Asia in recent weeks, and impacted more than a dozen countries including India, China, Thailand, Laos, Bangladesh, Turkmenistan, Japan and Korea.
Net zero check - A Greenwash detecting Twitter bot
If you are having a hard time with the greenwash around #Earthday, this bot on twitter is worth following: "If your organisation tweets about #EarthDay we'll tweet with an assessment of your climate commitments." Data from https:/.zerotracker.net/
Worldās largest battery maker announces major breakthrough in energy density
In one of the most significant battery breakthroughs in recent years, the worldās largest battery manufacturer CATL has announced a new ācondensedā battery with 500 Wh/kg which it says will go into mass production this year. For context high energy density is around 300 Wh/kg - this energy density wasn't expected to be in production until the early 2030's. (See this paper about the possibility of electric flight at 600 Wh/kg in the early 2030s)
Carbon Brief Analysis: Shell admits 1.5C climate goal means immediate end to fossil fuel growth
The admission that continued growth in fossil fuel output is incompatible with 1.5C is significant, because it comes from one of the worldās biggest public oil and gas companies. Shell had previously claimed that oil and gas production could rise for another decade, even as warming was limited to 1.5C.
New ruling spells mandatory transparency and heat re-use measures for datacentres in Europe
Part of the recently passed Energy Efficiency Directive passed in Europe targets datacentres, and for the first time, anyone operating a datacentre above a given size (500Kw) will have to publicly report of water use, energy use, and what share of their power comes from renewable sources. See also: this industry analysis from trade publication datacentre dynamics
Mysociety Neighbourhood Warmth monthnotes
MySociety's latest monthnotes as they prototype their way to answering the question: "What if the climate transition and retrofit of our homes and streets were designed, owned and governed by the people who live there?".
What Makes People Act on Climate Change, according to Behavioral Science
To get people to shift to more climate-friendly behavior, what works best? Education? Payments? Peer pressure? New research has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, pooled the results of 430 individual studies that examined environment-related behaviors, to look for patterns. Note: the results are summarised in a nice easy to read infographic - go look!
š¼Ā Jobs
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.
TransitionZero - People and Operations Coordinator - Ā£80,000 - Ā£85,000 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
TransitionZero is seeking an experienced and passionate expert to lead our work on commodity data and heavy industry subsectors, with a particular focus on steel. The successful candidate will oversee our heavy industry workstream, including developing and communicating our views on heavy industry decarbonisation, building a team of engineers and analysts to support you, managing our commitments to our partners, including Climate TRACE, and working closely with our technology, product and engagement teams to support the development of tools, such as Future Energy Outlook (FEO) and Steel Asset Transition (SAT) tool.
TransitionZero - People and Operations Coordinator - Ā£45,000 - Ā£50,000 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Our Engagement Analyst will ensure that our data drives impact for our users and partners. This is a technical and outreach role involving data wrangling, making product iterations, answering technical questions and communicating with stakeholders. They will develop and maintain relationships associated with Climate TRACE, a global non-profit coalition we co-founded to track GHG emissions independently.
Green Web Foundation - Operations Assistant - ā¬20 - ā¬35 / hour, depending on experience - Contract - Totally remote
Weāre looking for a freelance Operations Assistant to join our small, ambitious and friendly Green Web Foundation team. We work together with one clear mission: to transition the world to a fossil-free internet by 2030. There is scope for this role to grow over time in terms of pay, hours and responsibilities.
Elemental Excelerator - Teacher Fellow (Contractor) - Up to 20 hours per week for a stipend of $3000. - Contract - Flexible - remote ok
Elemental is seeking a passionate self-starter to join its Equity & Access, Career Pathways team as a Climate Champion Teaching Fellow. In this role, you will support a dynamic partnership between Elemental Excelerator and Subject to Climate (a nonprofit online connector for K-12 educators of all subjects to find credible and engaging materials on climate change at no cost) to establish Climate Curriculum in the Hawaii Education Ecosystem
Elemental Excelerator - EDICT Internship Coordinator (Contractor) - Ip to 20 hours per week at $22/hr - Contract - Totally remote
Elemental is seeking several passionate self-starters to join its Equity & Access, Career Pathways team as an Intern Case Manager. In this role, you will support the internal and external efforts needed for implementing the EDICT summer internship programming becoming the bridge between our interns, host employers and programming teams