🌍 CAT Newsletter #171 - 2023-05-21
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 171 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
CAT town hall
Our town hall is about next week! This is an opportunity to…
🔈 Hear from the organisers about what is happening within CAT
❓ Ask questions and share feedback
👐 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.
#️⃣ Slack highlights
-
#carbon-footprint and #news: The new UK regulation for scope 3 emission had us talking across multiple channels. Check out Chris’ post here for a thought-experiment on Google including Chrome in their scope 3 emissions.
-
#greener-design: Owen shared that last Thursday was Global Accessibility Awareness Day and is interested to learn how everyone is integrating inclusion into their design practices. Comment in the thread.
-
#3-ask-anything: Nat asked whether anyone knows if ESG reporting or ranking includes the CO2 emissions of the internet. Know the answer? Reply in the thread.
-
#3-ask-anything: Is carbon aware computing greenwashing? If you're prepared to wade through all the text, there's a pretty in depth discussion started by Ishmael about whether we should be doing carbon aware computing, or whether it's a distraction. Comment in the thread
📆 CAT events
Last Friday six CATs met for a Networking session where we shared climate learnings, life knowledge and our thoughts on the future.
🐱 Wed, May 24 · CAT Town Hall ’22-23 (keep an eye out on #7-cat-community-feedback for async discussions)
🐱 Thu, Jun 1 · Town Hall watch party (eastern)
▶️ Fri, Jun 2 · Watch Party: What is ocean acidification?
🐱 Tue, Jun 20 · Town Hall watch party (pacific-rim)
🍩 Community networking
Our next #cat-roulette matches are going out on Fri, May 26! Join the channel, pick your region and Donut matches you with other channel members every other week! It’s a great way to get to know other CATs and you can start and stop at any time.
🎬 CAT videos
CAT videos, geddit? 10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to topics related to climate.
The space junk cleaners who are saving our satellites
From orbit to junkyard: For over 50 years we’ve been rocketing more and more objects into low Earth orbit. That could soon turn another environment into an unusable junkyard. With increasing reliance on satellites, outer space needs urgent attention and cleanup solutions.
✋ Looking for volunteers
#️⃣ #greener-webdev channel co-host • 30mins-1hr / week
Keep our #greener-webdev channel welcome, active, and safe. You can also work on documenting knowledge from this channel on our Outline page or encourage other members to do so.
#️⃣ #greener-infra channel co-host • 30mins-1hr / week
Keep our #greener-infra channel welcome, active, and safe. You can also work on documenting knowledge from this channel on our Outline page or encourage other members to do so.
📆 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.
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.
Tue May 16 2023 - Sustainable Kubernetes - Scale up, Scale down, Scale to Zero
Kubernetes offers the possibility of automatically scaling applications. Sustainability thinks ahead - how can we carry out the scaling under ecological aspects and switch them off. And the challenge is to turn the application back. Zero becomes Hero.
Wed May 31 2023 - Green Infrastructure Meetup GfK [x] Green Coding Berlin
We are thrilled to announce our upcoming Green Coding and Infrastructure meet-up, which will take place on May 31st at the brand-new GfK Berlin Office.
🎤 Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
Does it matter if the world breaches 1.5C for a single year?
This week a new report was released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that says we are likely to exceed 1.5C of warming for a single year at some point in the next five years. In this bonus 9 minute episode of Zero, Akshat Rathi and Oscar Boyd talk about what the WMO report says and why it matters.
The Carbon Copy: Live: Is advanced nuclear ready for liftoff?
This week, we explore what it will take to build a lasting advanced nuclear industry in America.
Catalyst with Shayle Khan: Unpacking EPA’s newly proposed power emissions rule
The proposed rule would regulate emissions from existing power plants for the first time. If it passes legal hurdles, what will it mean for U.S. power plants?
The Week in Green Software: AWS & Scope 3 Emissions Data
Host Chris Adams is joined by the GSF’s Asim Hussain on this episode of The Week in Green Software. They discuss the latest news about Amazon decision to (eventually) publish scope 3 GHG protocol emission data. We also find out how Python has got its Mojo back and we have a very exciting tool from Catchpoint WebpageTest for measuring site’s carbon footprint.
Outrage and Optimism: 200. Lifelines VS Deadlines: The Need For Science Based Policy (Part One)
This week Paul Dickinson introduces the first of his two-part series on Lifelines vs Deadlines: The Need for Science Based Policy by delving into some of the big, underlying and often nefarious causes currently blocking the implementation of meaningful science-based policy which would accelerate our collective transition to a net zero world. Guests include Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Naomi Oreskes, Amita Chaudhury, Steve Waygood, and Chris Skidmore MP.
📰 News Highlights
Greenwashing era is over, say ad agencies, as regulators get tough
Insiders welcome stricter rules in the UK and EU over the use of terms such as ‘carbon neutral’ in adverts, and claims concerned with offsetting.
UK firms are set to be charged up to £40 per tonne of CO2 emissions misreported under new regulations
Six in ten UK businesses are unlikely to be ready to meet the January 2024 deadline for enhanced climate disclosures set by the EU, a survey of 801 firms has found. Should they fail to disclose their indirect (Scope 3) emissions in line with the requirements of the new European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), they will face potential fines and other penalties.
El Niño could take a $3 trillion bite out of the world economy - The Verge
El Niño is on its way, and when the warm weather pattern arrives, it could take a $3 trillion toll on the global economy, according to new research. That estimate is based on damages inflicted by El Niño in previous years, plus forecasts pointing to a potentially supercharged event this year.
Mind-boggling’ methane emissions from Turkmenistan revealed
Leaks of potent greenhouse gas could be easily fixed, say experts, and would rapidly reduce global heating. Methane leaks alone from Turkmenistan’s two main fossil fuel fields caused more global heating in 2022 than the entire carbon emissions of the UK, satellite data has revealed.
Methane Mitigation in Texas Could Create Thousands of Jobs in the Oil and Gas Sector
A new report finds that methane regulations proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency could spur job growth in Texas as oil and gas operators measure, monitor and mitigate the harmful greenhouse gas.
How robots could dramatically speed up solar farm construction
A number of companies are now using automation and AI to expedite utility-scale solar installations, ease labor shortages and protect workers from unsafe conditions.
Boeing takes flight in sustainability battle with carbon data cruncher
Analytics to grok impact of competing greener tech as industry seeks environmentally friendly path. US aerospace giant Boeing has released a data modeling tool designed to reveal the effects of a range of technologies that the industry hopes will reduce aviation's carbon emissions. Link directly to the interactive tool
Orcas have sunk 3 boats in Europe and appear to be teaching others to do the same. But why?
Orcas have attacked and sunk a third boat off the Iberian coast of Europe, and experts now believe the behavior is being copied by the rest of the population. Researchers think that a traumatic event may have triggered a change in the behavior of one orca, which the rest of the population has learned to imitate. Spiciest take online goes to this toot on Mastodon so far,
💼 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.
Climate Arc - DevOps / API Developer - GBP 50k - 70k - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Climate Arc is building an open data platform to help shifting global finance towards responsible companies. We're currently looking for someone to help building foundational elements of our platform, including DevOps, automation, monitoring and well as develop API layer exposing our data assets externally.
Wikirate International - Full-stack developer - 65,000 EUR - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
We are looking for a full-stack developer who can work within a distributed team on diverse technical challenges. Wikirate’s code, all of which is open source, is primarily written in Ruby and CoffeeScript/JavaScript and is tested using RSpec and Cypress (and, to a lesser extent, Cucumber). The developer will be expected to write automated tests for all new code. All code contributions are team-reviewed as pull requests on GitHub.
Centre for Sustainable Energy - Software engineer - £34,387 to £54,356 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
As a Software Engineer, you will collaborate with CSE colleagues in the Research and Analysis team, across CSE and external partners on the following tasks: Creating innovative software to answer climate change related questions. Designing, planning, developing and testing new software. Supporting and extending existing applications. Using software to help colleagues undertake tasks including statistical and spatial analysis and data management.
Elemental Excelerator - Senior Partnerships Operations Analyst - $68,200 - $106,600 - Permanent - Onsite only
This role will be responsible for project managing both our efforts in building a novel coalition to bridge climate tech’s scale gap and our corporate innovation challenges. The role may also be tasked with supporting cross-functional projects within the greater team to realize new opportunities. If you have a passion for process optimization, organization, and relationship building, consider applying.
Electricity Maps - Chief Operating Officer - 80,000 DKK (around 107k EUR) - Permanent
Electricity Maps is looking for an experienced COO with the mission of bringing the company from 1+ to 10M+ revenue by owning P&L and day-to-day activities, thus creating a space for the CEO to focus on external evangelisation, key strategic relationships as well as product innovation
Leaders for Climate Action - Sustainability Program Manager - €40-60K, commensurate with experience - Contract - Flexible - remote ok
As the Sustainability Program Manager at Leaders for Climate Action (LFCA), you will be responsible for designing and delivering high-quality educational formats that enable practitioners to drive climate action within their organizations. This role can either be located in Berlin or be fully remote.