š CAT Newsletter #181 - 2023-07-30
CAT 181 - 2023-07-30
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 181 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
āļø From the blog
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Sandra shared our July event round-up
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Claire and Caroline introduced the #EcoWeb Initiative: Uniting Code and Content Creation for a Greener Web
#ļøā£ Slack highlights
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#greener-webdev: Dryden shared articles about images and the page weight they take up inĀ this post. This is also an interesting consideration for content creators, marketers (#greener-marketing) and designers (#greener-design)!Ā š”
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#greener-infra: Rahul is looking for green cloud service providers nearby India or within India (in addition toĀ GreenGeeks).Ā Can you help?
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#finance: After Thursdayās CAT talk about sustainable investing & pension funds, Sandra asked: Have you talked to HR about green retirement funds or have you changed your retirement investments yourself?Ā Share your answer in the poll
š CAT projects
š± #EcoWeb: Claire and Caroline are kicking off this project with the goal to analyze the carbon footprint of 500 climate action websites, create case studies, and promote sustainable digital practices. Find more details about the project in thisĀ articleĀ or apply to volunteer by filling out thisĀ form!
š āHow to blow up a pipelineā book discussion:Ā In ourĀ #films-books-mediaĀ MelissaĀ shared that you can download the ebook for free fromĀ VersoĀ with the codeĀ āpipelineāĀ andĀ Melissa and MaryĀ are now planning a book discussion group! Get involvedĀ in the thread.
š Meet with other CATs in person:Ā Folks in ourĀ #local-switzerland,Ā #local-germany,Ā #local-bristol, andĀ #local-swedenĀ channels have been chatting about meeting up in person.
āøļø Donut community networkingĀ and ourĀ regular eventsĀ are now taking a break. These programs will return in September.
š¬ CAT videos
DW planet A: Why you haven't seen these wind turbines around (yet)
While we've grown accustomed to seeing solar panels on rooftops, what about wind turbines? Are they destined to be overshadowed by their bigger counterparts? What challenges are hindering the implementation of small-scale wind turbines and what are possible solutions for more wind power for the people?
CAT videos, geddit? 10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to topics related to climate.
ā Looking for volunteers
š Co-host a summer book club (one-off)
If you want to not just read āHow to blow up a pipelineā this summer but help host a one-off CAT book club event, let us know in this thread.
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.
Sun Jul 30 2023 - 24 hour 'Ask Me Anything' with the founders of Climatize
Our second Climate Investing Club Ask-Me-Anything is with Alba Forns and Will Wiseman, founders of Climatize. Climatize is a very new crowdfunding portal that makes it easy to invest in renewable energy projects (make an investment with as little as $5 and no fees.)
Check #external-events in the CAT slack for more.
š¤Ā Podcasts
The Week in Green Software: Carbon Aware Spatial Shifting
Host Chris Adams is joined by Niki Manoledaki of Grafana and Ross Fairbanks of Flatpeak in this edition of TWiGS focused on Carbon Aware Spatial Shifting. They dive into Amazon's 2022 Sustainability Report, and give a round up of the latest videos from the Linux Foundation Energy Summit.
Catalyst with Shayle Khan: Mining the deep sea
Mining critical minerals on the seafloor could speed up the energy transition ā but it could also harm deep-sea ecosystems. In this episode, Shayle talks to Renee Grogan, an expert in deep-sea mining. She is a co-founder and board director at Impossible Metals.
The Carbon Copy: Rooftop solar boosts grid reliability in fossil-dependent New England
For years, rooftop solar was overlooked as a reliability solution in New England. But in a very sudden reversal, the regionās grid operator now says itās critical to keep the lights on. This week, we talk with reporter Ben Storrow about his reporting on the value of solar. First, weāll look at whatās changed in New England. Then weāll turn our attention to Texas, where renewables have been critical for managing the grid during a sweltering summer that has brought record-breaking power demand.
Outrage and Optimism - 210. A Jolt From Complacency
Pilita Clark, associate editor and business columnist at the FT is our very special guest this week. She discusses with the hosts the changing landscape of climate coverage against the backdrop of the extreme weather events across the globe, delves into her insights from her recent article The fossil fuel industry will not lead us out of the climate crisis, and why exponential growth in climate solutions is a narrative that technology is leaving editors with no choice but to cover
Zero: Best of - The worldās food system needs a radical rethink
Whatās worse for the planet than Big Oil? The worldās food system, argues environmental journalist and campaigner George Monbiot in his new book Regenesis. Monbiot speaks with Bloomberg Green reporter Akshat Rathi about his proposed solutions, which include an end to livestock farming entirely and using new technologies like precision fermentation to meet the worldās rising demand for protein.
Volts.wtf: Enhanced geothermal power is finally a reality
Geothermal developer Fervo Energy has successfully brought online the first ever full-scale commercial power plant sourcing from enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) ā a groundbreaking development both literally and figuratively. In this episode, Fervo CEO Tim Latimer discusses the companyās accomplishment and where flexible geothermal is headed.
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
š° News Highlights
France24: Humanity 'has agency over future': new head of UN climate panel
British professor Jim Skea takes charge of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in a crucial decade which will determine the extent of warming and its impact on the planet for decades or even centuries to come. He told AFP on Thursday he will bring "a judicious blend of realism and optimism" to his leadership of the UN's climate expert panel, including a firm belief that humanity is not powerless to confront global warming
BBC News: Climate change: July set to be world's warmest month on record
Amid blistering heatwaves, July is "virtually certain" to be the world's warmest month on record, say scientists. So hot has the month been to date that researchers are confident the 2019 record will be broken, even with several days to go. UN chief Antonio Guterres said the planet is entering an "era of global boiling". Scientists agree the extra heat is mainly linked to fossil fuel use.
The Guardian: āProject 2025ā: plan to dismantle US climate policy for next Republican president
An alliance of rightwing groups has crafted an extensive presidential proposal to bolster the planet-heating oil and gas industry and hamstring the energy transition, it has emerged. Against a backdrop of record-breaking heat and floods this year, the $22m endeavor, Project 2025, was convened by the notorious rightwing, climate-denying thinktank the Heritage Foundation, which has ties to fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch.
Datacentre Dynamics: WeTransfer claims it cut server emissions by 78% with AWS EC2 Auto-Scaling
Content distribution platform WeTransfer said that it managed to cut its server emissions by 78 percent in 2022. WeTransfer migrated to Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2011 after two years of operations, and used Amazon S3 for storage and sending files. In 2020, WeTransfer pledged to reduce its emissions by 30 percent by 2025. āPeople donāt understand that everything they do uses energyāfrom a video conference to sending an email or seeing an ad - and that energy results in CO2 emissions,ā explains Lina Ruiz, director of social responsibility for WeTransfer.
Climate Home New: UN deep-sea mining talks deadlocked over agenda clash
A dozen countries want to officially debate for the first time in history the possibility to halt deep-sea mining, but have faced opposition from China and the island-nation of Nauru. As crunch talks about the future of deep-sea mining enter the final stretch, governments have not yet been able to agree on the agenda for the meeting at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston, Jamaica.
Energy Monitor AI: Financial giants have invested $1.5bn in dirty Bitcoin mining ā Greenpeace
Despite their climate commitments, American Express, BlackRock, CitiGroup, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard, Vanguard and Visa have collectively invested $1.5bn in largely fossil-fuelled Bitcoin mining, claims a new report from Greenpeace USA.
Grist: More Indigenous and local communities are getting land back
Between 2015 and 2020, Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, along with small, local communities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, gained legal recognition to more than 247 million acres of land ā an 85 percent increase. Thatās according to a new report from Rights and Resources Initiative, a global nonprofit focused on land and resource rights. Hereās why thatās important for the environment.
Heatmap: A Housing Heavyweight Goes Shopping for 10,000 Induction Stoves
The New York City Public Housing Authority is throwing its weight around in the nascent induction stove industry ā and renters everywhere stand to benefit. NYCHA, in collaboration with two New York state agencies, announced Monday they are launching the āInduction Stove Challenge.ā The contest invites manufacturers to compete for a contract to install at least 10,000 induction stoves in NYCHA buildings ā if they can design efficient models that do not require electrical upgrades
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.
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.
TransitionZero - Software Engineer - Ā£45,000 to Ā£65,000 per annum (depending on experience level) - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
We are seeking a talented junior or mid-level software engineer with a passion for sustainability, skills and experience writing back-end data services with Python, and a knowledge of Python development to build data handling scripts, API routes, data models, schemas, migrations, and containerised jobs and services. You will be working on The Future Energy Outlook, an open-source data and modelling platform that aims to make energy systems analysis auditable, accountable, and reproducible, and TransitionZero's new flagship product.
Vayda - Fractional Engineering Lead - $100-200/hr depending on experience - Contract - Flexible - remote ok
Hi everyone! We are hiring our first Eng Leader on a fractional basis to drive development of a data-centric product in the regenerative agriculture and climate space, building off of the company's direct knowledge and experience in regenerative farm operations. The company is a Series A startup backed directly by institutional investors (lead: Ontario Teachers Pension Plan).
David Energy - Customer Support Lead - $90,000 - $120,000 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
David Energy is a new kind of power company. One thatās better for customers and for the planet. Weāre on a mission to transform the electrical grid with 24/7 clean, renewable energy ā and give customers greater transparency and control while we do it. We are seeking a passionate and strategic Customer Support Lead to own our support experience for our residential customers. If you enjoy working on complex problems, excel at creating delightful experiences, and have a knack for elegant solutions and scalable processes, weād love to connect with you.
Cercula - Software Developer - Up to Ā£55,000 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Cercula is an award-winning construction tech & sustainability startup, working towards the decarbonisation of the construction industry. In short, we take a list of materials for a construction project, match each one in our database of materials carbon data, and produce a report on the building's whole-life carbon impact. We're looking for experienced developers to work on our API and databases, at the core of Cercula's business, as well as on our user-facing front-end and AWS deployment. Our stack is primarily TypeScript and Postgres on AWS (including serverless). If you are interested in social and climate change, and want to contribute to solving major environmental problems by decarbonising a high-impact industry, please reach out!
Overstory - Full-stack software engineer - 60-75k eur - Permanent - Totally remote
Full-stack software engineer role to create web appls and data visualizations - mostly of trees! Vegetation is the single greatest contributor to power outages and wildfires caused by our electric grid. Overstory provides utilities with visibility, risk analysis, and optimization recommendations for vegetation management, using machine learning and satellite imagery. Overstory is a flexible and diverse remote-first climate tech startup and this role would suit someone with experience with deep tech / remote sensing / cartography / GIS especially but these arenāt essential.
Revalu Impact AG (IT Partner: i-ways) - Multiple - 15 - 25 LPA - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Revalu Impact AG is an Indo-European start up with a focus on Sustainability in buildings- sector. As part of expanding our teams in India, we are partnering with our IT partner, I-WAYS to recruit multiple senior developers.
Revalu Impact AG (IT partner: i-ways) - Multiple - 15 - 25 LPA - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Revalu Impact AG is an Indo-European start up with a focus on Sustainability in buildings- sector. As part of expanding our teams in India, we are partnering with our IT partner, I-WAYS to recruit multiple senior developers.
Deep Science Ventures - n/a - 50k GBP - Founder in Residence - Flexible - remote ok
Deep Science Ventures is looking for a Founder in Residence to lead the development of a decarbonisation insights platform for industrial plants and help avert 7.5 Gt of CO2 emissions/year. The software developer/data scientist will develop a technical platform that can perform quick techno-economic analysis to allow companies to formulate a decarbonisation strategy and implement it easily for their manufacturing plant.
Root Sustainability - Tech Lead - ā¬55.000 - ā¬70.000 - Permanent - Totally remote
Our approach is straightforward yet powerful. We provide qualitative, data-driven insights across the entire supply chain of products, enabling companies to reduce their environmental impact and effectively communicate their sustainability efforts. We have successfully secured funding and have been accepted into an impact accelerator program in Lisbon. This means you'll join us at a pivotal moment in our journey, with the resources and support to bring our vision to life.