đ CAT Newsletter #169 - 2023-05-07
CAT 169 - 2023-05-07
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 169 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 đ đ đą
CAT Community News
CAT town hall
Our town hall is about 3 weeks away! This is an opportunity toâŚ
đ Hear from the organisers about what is happening within CAT
â Ask questions and share feedback
đ Learn more about volunteering
We will also share a Sli.do prior to the event to gather questions in advance! Register on Meetup and please feel free to reach out to any of the organisers with questions.
Event summary
Nine CATs met on Tuesday for âśď¸Â Watch party where we learned about Floating wind turbines. Find the notes here and if you watch the video in your own time and want to join the discussion or share a reflection or learning, please comment in the thread.
#ď¸âŁ Slack highlights
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#films-books-media: Oli shared a video essay on the power of solarpunk as a story-telling method here.
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#greener-marketing / #carbon-footprint: Channel host Claire asked âHas anyone had any experience with calculating the carbon footprint of their digital marketing activities?â. Reply in the thread!
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#greener-webdev: Lots of good conversations in #greener-webdev recently! For example: Michelle shared a tip about fonts in this post and a while ago Daniel started a great discussion with this post by asking how tools like Website Carbon and Ecograder deal with lazy images when determining the page weight.
Speaking opportunity: Ewa is looking for a speaker on climate and tech on May 18th, reply to the thread here. For questions and help around giving a talk, ask in #green-talks.
đ Upcoming CAT events
â Thu, May 19 ¡ CAT Coffee: Networking
âśď¸ Fri, Jun 2 ¡ Watch Party: What is ocean acidification?
đŠ Community networking
Our next #cat-roulette matches are going out on Fri, May 12! Join the channel, pick your region and Donut matches you with other channel members every other week! Itâs a great way to get to know other CATs and you can start and stop at any time.
đŹ CAT videos
CAT videos, geddit? 10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to topics related to climate.
Strange Solarpunk World
Shared in the #films-books-media channel - A 15 minute long video essay exploring the surprisingly radical ecological messages in Disney's Strange World. The movie's visuals are borrowed from old pulp adventure magazines but its theme has much more in common with Solarpunk narratives. A nice way into the topic if solarpunk is a totally new phrase to you.
â Looking for volunteers
â CAT Coffee volunteer ⢠2hrs / month
Help brainstorm on how to improve our #cat-coffee events and/or help facilitate conversations during the event.
đ CAT Submitted Events
Wed May 03 2023 - VentureSouq x Terra.do Job Fair
Join us for this partner fair and meet rising climate companies in the GCC.
Mon May 22 2023 - The Digital Collage workshop
The Digital Collage is a 3h playful and collaborative online workshop. The aim of the workshop is to raise awareness and train participants on the environmental issues of digital technologies. The workshop also aims to outline solutions for more sustainability in Tech.
Tue May 30 2023 - Inventive ways to make plastics more sustainable
Green Tech South West welcomes Neil Morris from Kelpi and Keven Chappell from Pinweld to tell us about their incredible work to transform the ways we use and view plastics.
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.
đ¤Â 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: Data Centers in Space
Host Chris Adams is joined by science fiction author Anne Currie on this episode, where. they discuss the upsides and downsides for data centers in space, sweeping changes in climate reporting law in the industry, how to make Kubernetes clusters Low Carbonetes clusters, and a sneak peak a the new O'Reilly book on green software.
Outrage And Optimism #198. Seeing Through Our Privilege
With our very own 'durational piece of art' Paul Dickinson away this week, Christiana and Tom take a sobering look at the heatwaves affecting so much of the global community right now; analyse Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber's speech at the 14th Petersberg Climate Dialogue; and speak to Okezue Bell, an incredible young social entrepreneur and activist whose focus is firmly on the solution space.
Americaâs green industrial strategy 2.0
Will Bidenâs push for industrial policy centered around clean energy work?
đ° News Highlights
Record ocean temperatures put Earth in âuncharted territoryâ, say scientists
Temperatures in the worldâs oceans have broken fresh records, testing new highs for more than a month in an âunprecedentedâ run that has led to scientists stating the Earth has reached âuncharted territoryâ in the climate crisis.
EPA rules may push power plants to capture carbon. Is the tech ready?
The Biden administration is poised to propose new regulations for coal-and gas-burning power plants appears to call the bluff of organisations championing the technology - will this breathe new life into a long-misunderstood technology, or force a quick switch to replace existing plants with cleaner alternatives?
Weâve introduced an Employee Activism Policy, and we are open sourcing it for others to use
Digital sustainability pioneers Wholegrain Digital (and fellow CATS) on creating and open sourcing theiur own employee activism policy. Nice accessible introduction to the subject.
Googleâs latest climate plan? Skip grid backlog, mimic community solar
EDP Renewables and Google plan to spread a big solar buildout across 80 small projects, with 10% of revenue dedicated to environmental-justice benefits. At least one-third of the solar projects will be built in low- and moderate-income communities, creating jobs and tax revenue on top of the reduced energy costs theyâll deliver. Google and EDPR expect to announce target communities in the coming months.
Google Fails to Defund Climate Misinformation Ads as Promised
In 2021, Google announced that it would no longer run ads alongside content that denied the existence and causes of climate change. However, a recent report by a coalition of environmental organizations and the Center for Countering Digital Hate has accused YouTube of continuing to profit from videos that portray climate change as a hoax or exaggeration. The report found 100 videos, viewed at least 18 million times in total, that violated Googleâs own policy.
The Coming Crackdown on Corporate Greenwashing
Many of the worldâs largest companies have announced plans to achieve net-zero emissions, but their pledges often rely on misleading or false claims. A slew of new rules and recent court cases promises to make it harder for companies to pose as âclimate leadersâ while maintaining pollution as usual.
Topless Italian climate protesters block Rome traffic
Topless climate activists on Thursday blocked traffic on a busy street in central Rome to protest over the Italian government's climate policy after torrential rains killed two people. The stunt marked a change of tactics by the Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) group after Rome's right-wing executive introduced stiff fines against protesters who target monuments and heritage sites.
Google "We Have No Moat, And Neither Does OpenAI"
Leaked paper from search giant describes how advances in open source AI ecosystemm are reducing the lead incumbents have, but also dramatically reducing the resource requirements for training. Choice quote: "They are doing things with $100 (of compute) and 13B params that we struggle with at $10M and 540B".