November 4, 2023

🌍 CAT Newsletter #195 - 2023-11-04

CAT 195 - 2023-11-05

Hey CATs,

Welcome to issue 195 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

🐾 Show your CAT PAWS

What did you get up to in 2023? Share Projects, Actions, Wins, or Stuff you learned at CAT (PAWS!) by adding a slide to our CAT member PAWS presentation. These slides will be part of our 2023 - year in review presentation which is shared and celebrated publicly and in our end of year events (eastern-friendly | western-friendly).

🪙 Apply for a mini grants

Got a project in mind for 2024? Applications are open for our next round of mini grants! Apply through this form and your project will be evaluated in December. More info

✏️ From the blog

Branch issue 6 is out and we’ve got a brand new CAT Volunteer Profile on the blog where @Clare Tomassian (she/her) shares recommendations for climate-related speculative fiction, tells us about what’s going on in climate in her region, and shares what keeps her motivated.

#️⃣ Slack channel highlight

• #films-books-media: M shared a video titled Just Energy Transition Partnerships: Market Capture or Climate Justice?. Have you seen it? Reply in the thread

• #greener-data-ai: A was disappointed that in Mozilla’s AI guide the Choosing ML Models section didn’t highlight the models’ environmental impact. Are you disappointed too? Have a look at Alja's post and give some feedback too!

• #greener-infra: T shared an article about GPT-3 water footprint estimations. Have a read and share your thoughts

📅 Online CAT events for the rest of the year

💪 Mon, Nov 6 - Co-working session: 2023 - year in review presentation

🎉 Tue, Nov 21 - Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania: CAT 2023 – year in review and celebration (share your 2023 project/win/action here)

🎉 Thu, Dec 14 - Americas, Europe, Africa: CAT 2023 – year in review and celebration (share your 2023 project/win/action here)

🍩 Community networking

Our next round of #cat-roulette matches will go out on Fri, Nov 10! Join the channel, pick your region and Donut matches you with other channel members every other week! More info

🌱 A cutting from Branch

Issue 6 - Expanding critical approaches to extractivism and mega infrastructure projects

“As demand for minerals, water, and land for ‘green’ transitions and technologies increases, we feel it’s necessary to name the inherently extractive systems at work, and highlight the violence in affected territories. At our workshop in Heredia, Costa Rica, with participants from around the world, we discussed the socio-environmental impacts of digital technologies and their macro-narratives of development in affected territories, in both the Global North and South. The insights gathered here reflect the work of many people sitting and thinking together in a garden.“

* CAT videos

CAT videos, geddit? 10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.

AI is dangerous, but not for the reasons you think

AI won't kill us all — but that doesn't make it trustworthy. Instead of getting distracted by future existential risks, AI ethics researcher Sasha Luccioni (and member of CAT!) thinks we need to focus on the technology's current negative impacts, like emitting carbon, infringing copyrights and spreading biased information. She offers practical solutions to regulate our AI-filled future — so it's inclusive and transparent.

✋ Looking for volunteers

* CAT online event volunteer • minimum 2hrs / month

Help organise and/or run our online events. You can sign up to do this for just a few months or stick around for longer.

* 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.

Thu Nov 09 2023 - Climate x Deep Tech Happy Hour 15

​For those of you in Paris we meet in-person every month to chat about climate, deeptech, science and entrepreneurship. Attendees typically include Founders, scientists, engineers, operators, investors, etc.

Can't wait to meet you there!

Thu Nov 09 2023 - Secondhand Santa! Tips and tricks for preloved shopping online

In this fun festive session we'll be joined by Jess Potter from UsedandLoved.com to share her top tips for preloved shopping online this Christmas and find some new healthier and happier relationships with online retailers. Use CAT for a free ticket.

Thu Nov 09 2023 - Working in Sustainable Tech - Ocean Technology

This month free online event, we’re exploring how developments in technology are protecting our oceans, creating renewable energy and reducing carbon in our atmosphere. Clement Puech from WaveX and Mike Tinmouth from ACUA Ocean will share their stories followed by an AMA

Thu Nov 23 2023 - SDIA Green Coding Summit

The SDIA Green Coding Summit, 23-24 November 2023 in Berlin, invites you to join the leading experts and communities brought together in one historic location to advance a shared roadmap for Green Coding, with talks and free workshops from world experts in the field.

Check external-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

Environment Variables: Mapping Green Software on the Grid

Host Chris Adams is joined by special guest Tony van Swet from Electricity Maps, to talk about the mapping of the carbon intensity of electricity grid. Tony shares some of the work that Electricity Maps has been doing to make it easier to understand how clean or dirty electricity is around the world, where to get open data for doing the same, and ways people can “cheat” at claiming green energy.

Zero: The loudest champion of the climate vulnerable

Saleemul Huq was a pre-eminent climate scientist and champion for developing countries. For many years, he was a lone warrior trying to bring the issues of adaptation and loss and damage to the UN negotiating table. His death last weekend caused an outpouring of emotion across the climate world. Ahead of COP28, Zero hears from some of Saleemul’s colleagues about his life, legacy and the hole he leaves behind in climate diplomacy.

Catalyst: The Volts crossover episode

Some technologies grab the spotlight even beyond energytwitter, and some fly under the radar. Which ones are getting more attention than they deserve, and which aren’t getting enough? This is the episode you never knew you needed: Shayle talks to Volts host and Canary Media Editor-at-Large David Roberts about the most underhyped and overhyped trends in climatetech right now

Wicked Problems: 1.5° C in the rear-view mirror. Part 1

That James Hansen paper, Global Warming in the Pipeline, saying 1.5° C is toast - is it just saying the quiet part out loud, or is he recklessly playing into the hands of doom-mongering delayists? We built up expectations and endlessly repeated 1.5° C as a real thing. Will trust suffer if the message changes, like public health messaging during COVID?

Clean energy analyst, author of Windfall : Unlocking a Fossil Free Future, creator of the #GreenSky community on BlueSky, and climate strategic communications researcher and public advocate Ketan Joshi joins the discussion.

* News Highlights

ABC News: United Nations COP28 climate summit reworks website following greenwashing allegations over 'low carbon' toggle

Nice story in ABC News quoting greener-web-dev CAT regulars Michelle Barker and Fershad Irani about the COP28’s dubious adoption of low carbon modes. “Organisers of the COP28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have reworked their event's official website following allegations of greenwashing over a "low carbon" toggle which was found to have a minor impact on the site's energy usage. See Michelle’s original analysis and Fershad’s recent post along with this thread in the CAT slack for more.

Grist: New battery recycling rules could be a game-changer in the EU’s search for EV minerals

The clean energy transition will require lots of batteries — primarily to power electric vehicles and to store renewable energy that can be dispatched to the electric grid on demand. European Union policymakers are growing more concerned about where the bloc will get all the metals required to build those batteries. One potential source? Dead lithium-ion batteries from EVs, e-bikes, and consumer electronics, which contain lithium, cobalt, nickel, and other ingredients needed to make new ones.

The Register: World checks it's not April 1 as Apple signals support for full US right-to-repair rule

Apple is backing the Biden Administrations' push for a nationwide right-to-repair law but, as with all things Apple, always check the terms and conditions. (Note: this post gives a good summary of the ways large tech firms can support right to repair, while still using techniques like Parts Pairing to exert control over who is allowed to fix devices, and which parts, from which sources can be used when doing so).

Datacenter Dynamics: Solar-powered AI barges loaded with GPUs proposed to bypass AI regulations

Getting to the bottom of a bizarre story doing the rounds about Del Complex, a secretive self-described AI research company, that has proposed militarized solar-powered barges, loaded with GPUs, that could move AI training into international waters, as a way to avoid AI regulations following from President Biden's recent executive order and this week's AI Safety Summit in the UK. This piece sheds light on the origins of the story, and how it was spread.

MIT Technology Review: The growing signs of trouble for global carbon markets

There are growing signs of trouble for the multibillion-dollar global carbon market, as investigative stories and studies continue to erode the credibility of the business world’s go-to tool for cleaning up climate emissions. Useful summarty of trends in corporations use of one of their favorite climate remedies as greenwashing concerns steadily mount.

Carbon Tracker: California Takes the Lead on Emissions Disclosure

In-depth analysis on the significance of the recent change in the law in California with the catchily titled climate disclosure bill, CA SB253. “In early September, the (California) State Legislature passed a bill which requires all companies in the state that earn $1 billion or more annually to publicly disclose their scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions. The measure, which Governor Newsom said he would sign, covers all of the emissions a company creates in its own operations and with its suppliers and customers, and climate exposure.”

Ars Technica: When the natural gas industry used the playbook from Big Tobacco

In 1976, beloved chef, cookbook author, and television personality Julia Child returned to WGBH-TV’s studios in Boston for a new cooking show, Julia Child & Company, following her hit series The French Chef. Viewers probably didn’t know that Child’s new and improved kitchen studio, outfitted with gas stoves, was paid for by the American Gas Association. The industry’s efforts went well beyond careful product placement, according to new research from the nonprofit Climate Investigations Center, which analyzes corporate efforts to undermine climate science and slow the ongoing transition away from fossil fuels.

Guardian: Global heating is accelerating, warns scientist who sounded climate alarm in the 80s

Global heating is accelerating faster than is currently understood and will result in a key temperature threshold being breached as soon as this decade, according to research led by James Hansen, the US scientist who first alerted the world to the greenhouse effect. A high level summary. See also: the (very dense, somewhat scary) linked paper this article summarises.

Gizmodo: Fortnite Influencers Push Shell’s Propaganda on Kids

The oil company Shell is facing some heat from climate activists for its collaboration with the influencers of the popular battle royale video game Fortnite, during which the game’s young user base was encouraged to participate in a gas-fueled virtual road trip.

Science direct: Energy transition will require substantially less mining than the current fossil system

We don’t normally post links directly to papers without a new story summarising it, but we couldn’t find a one for this paper, and the findings are really interesting. Even after accounting the increased amount of rock needed to dig up transition minerals compared to extracting and burning fossil fuels, a transition to clean energy ends up using significantly less mining. This paper quantifies how much, by technology type and the kind of mineral required, from now until 2040.

💼 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.

QuantumScape - multiple roles - Salary ranges from $116k to $213k - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok

We develop improved batteries for electric vehicles that could lengthen range, decrease charging time, improve safety, and be more recyclable than lithium ion batteries. We are hiring in a number of roles, including cybersecurity, data science, data engineering, and software engineering.

Marble - Founder, Critical Minerals (Mining / Refining / Geology) - €2,500 to €3,000 per month - Contract - Flexible - remote ok

We're hiring mining innovators to create new mining companies for critical minerals in the energy transition! At Marble, we're deeply involved in this field and confident in the opportunity to foster new mining champions! We seek entrepreneurial scientists with deep technical expertise with critical minerals. Our next Founders-in-Residence cohort starts late November in Paris.

Green Screen Coalition Catalyst Fund - up to 40k USD project funding - Project based - Remote OK

We’re launching the Catalyst Fund to support the burgeoning ecosystem of actors working on the intersection of digital rights and climate justice to build cross-territorial strategies and weave thematic threads across movements. The Fund seeks to support proposals addressing a range of issues and a range of different scopes. The grant period will be no longer than one year and with a total grant amount between $10k and $40k with three tiers.

Monthly CAT thank you

📝 For adding knowledge to Outline: @melissa @Elisa @mrchrisadams @Alja Isaković

* For supporting us financially on Open Collective: @Poppe Guthrie @Thibaud Colas @Mike Gifford (CivicActions) @fershad @Todd @Nelson Pavlosky @Michael Napper @Chris Pointon @Jeff Burka @asim @HeatherB @Nic Wistreich @Michelle Barker and all you lovely anonymous supporters

❤️  For volunteering within the community: @Hannah @roundcrisis @Siôn @Brett Duboff @Elisa @Łukasz Mastalerz @Claire Thornewill @Owen Rogers @Tom Kennes @Aïda @Caroline Schneider @Nat Darke @Clare Tomassian (she/her) @Ben Tongue @Dan @Matt Sirkis @Gaël Duez @Poppe Guthrie @Evan Hahn @Alja Isaković @Mary Ma
And another extra special shout-out to @Poppe Guthrie and @Brett Duboff for their 1-year volunteering anniversary!