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July 21, 2020

🌎 CAT Newsletter #30 - 2020-07-21 🌏

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Hey everyone!

How are you all doing? It’s Sandra (https://app.slack.com/team/UM9T8D71B) here and I’ve been having a super inspiring week last week. I attended our last CAT Salon West about Big Tech & Big Oil (find the @Roelof Pieters (https://climate-tech.slack.com/team/UJWTB06F9) ’ presentation in #d-cat-salon (https://climate-tech.slack.com/archives/C0144BR1CSX) ), @melissa (https://climate-tech.slack.com/team/UF81YNN8K) taught me a lot about carbon footprint accounting (find her presentation in #d-carbon-footprint (https://climate-tech.slack.com/archives/CT1JBNMHB) ) and I’ve been reading Local Is Our Future (https://www.localfutures.org/publications/local-is-our-future-book-helena-norberg-hodge/) for my sustainability/climate book club (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sustainability-bookclub-10-local-is-our-future-by-helena-norberg-hodge-tickets-105650280834) . A few quotes from this book got me thinking, they might get some thoughts stirring in you too:

Erasing diversity is simply incompatible with life. For that reason, globalization – which systematically replaces diversity with monoculture – is also incompatible with life. (page 110)

Localization isn’t about returning to the past. Instead it asks us to recognise what older cultures did well: They relied on local resources and local knowledge to meet people’s material needs & as a result did so with a minimum of environmental impact; they put high value on community ties, which enabled them to meed people’s psychological need for connection and security (page 111)

(if you want to learn more about the book, you can join the bookclub meetup (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sustainability-bookclub-10-local-is-our-future-by-helena-norberg-hodge-tickets-105650280834) without having read the book — just listening in is fine)

Remember you can unsubscribe (|UNSUB|) from this newsletter at any time.

Stay safe & healthy 😌💚🐱


💬 CAT Events

CAT Salon East: Changing culture — collaboration & activism in the workplace 📅 Tue, July 21st 🇳🇿 NZST (Aotearoa) 8-9pm • 🇦🇺AEST (Sydney) 6-7pm • 🇮🇳 IST 1:30-2:30pm • 🇪🇺🇿🇦CEST/SAST 10-11am • 🇬🇧 BST 9-10am Sign up here (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfEYxrfJJd88C9mI7p6iOfrL4dEr3rAlvtcCjsltI-2LjbArA/viewform) and join #d-cat-salon (https://climate-tech.slack.com/archives/C0144BR1CSX) for more

CAT welcome call (45 mins) 📅 Tue, July 23rd 🇺🇸🇨🇦PDT 10-11am • 🇺🇸🇨🇦EST 1-2pm • 🇬🇧BST 6-7pm • 🇪🇺🇿🇦CEST/SAST 7-8pm • 🇮🇳IST 10:30-11:30pm Register here (https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIudeGqrDorG9d84nntThbehMGd82yLw-YO)

For more CAT events check out our event calendar (https://bit.ly/CATcal) .


🎤 Podcasts The latest climate-related podcast episodes.

Unlocking investment for renewables w/ Phillip Bruner from Enian (https://theclimatefix.com/episodes/unlocking-investment-for-renewables-w-phillip-bruner-from-enian) 📅 July 15, 2020 Planning for a renewable energy plant is a hot mess! Lots of google searches, map queries, phone conversations, and ad-hoc data sets glued together with spreadsheets. It makes it hard for insurance companies to evaluate your risk and banks to lend you money which means less renewable sites get built. ENIAN has built a platform that makes it easier for companies to plan and finance renewable energy. TheClimateFix.com

Food of the Future: Could microbial proteins be on the menu (https://www.terra.do/post/food-future-could-microbial-proteins-menu) ? 📅 July 17, 2020 In this podcast, Ezhil Subbian, CEO of String Bio talks about her startup that leverages methane and is disrupting the way we think about food. With players like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, its very possible that the food of the future will not be reliant on agriculture. Terra.do (https://www.terra.do/climate-change-learning-for-action)

21: S2E21: Buildings grown by bacteria?! and other frontiers in architecture—w/ Dr. Wil Srubar, CU Boulder (https://www.terra.do/post/applying-gender-lens-climate-action-systemic-change)

📅 July 14, 2020 What’s the future got in store for architecture? A return to tried and true organic construction methods like adobe or rammed earth? Buildings that are as alive as human bodies? Something in between? How do we create more beautiful and livable spaces while also making the built environment carbon-negative? The Reversing Climate Change Podcast with NORI (https://nori.com/reversing-climate-change)

182: ROMAN KRZNARIC MEETS SUSTAINABABBLE (http://www.sustainababble.fish/?p=1102)

📅 July 20, 2020 Are you being a good ancestor? Are WE being good ancestors? What the hell is a good ancestor and do I have to buy them a present? Public philosopher Roman Krznaric thinks these are the most important questions we should ask ourselves (well, certainly the first two) if we’re to escape the ‘tyranny of the now’, the hideous short-termism dominating our lives and knackering the planet in the process. Sustainababble (http://www.sustainababble.fish/)

  1. Massive Attack and Saci Lloyd Are Creating Eutopia (https://outrageandoptimism.libsyn.com/61-massive-attack-and-saci-lloyd-are-creating-eutopia) 📅 July 17, 2020 This week, we interview Massive Attack’s Rob “3D” Del Naja and long-time collaborator, Mark Donne to discuss intentional, subversive creation in times of COVID. One such timely creation came about last week when Massive Attack collaborated with Mark and our very own Christiana Figueres to create a sonic experience that evokes an unsettling of the self to expose the dark, dystopian reality that the climate crisis has promised. Based on the backdrop of Sir Thomas More’s 1516 “Utopia” The 3 songs on Massive Attack’s EP “Eutopia” as described in their own words, “have nothing to do with naïve notions of an ideal, perfect world, and everything to do with the urgent & practical need to build something better.” Outrage! + Optimism (https://outrageandoptimism.libsyn.com/)

TIL about carbon capture (https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/til-about-carbon-capture) 📅 Jul 16, 2020 This season, we’ve talked about alternative energy sources that don’t emit carbon dioxide – but what if there was a way to continue using fossil fuels for energy without emitting CO2 into the atmosphere? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned Climate), Dr. Howard Herzog and Professor Brad Hager sit down with host Laur Hesse Fisher to talk about capturing, using, and storing carbon emissions, and how it fits into a clean energy future. TILclimate Podcast (https://climate.mit.edu/users/tilclimate-podcast)

REPAIRING THE ECONOMY AND THE PLANET (https://2ser.com/repairing-the-economy-and-the-planet/) 📅 July 20, 2020 In this episode of Think: Sustainability, we look at how a post-COVID economy can serve the interests of the planet and how to take lessons learnt from one crisis and apply them to the next. Think: Sustainability (https://2ser.com/thinksustainability/)

JOHN KERRY: THE GLOBAL DYNAMICS OF DECARBONIZATION (https://climateone.org/audio/john-kerry-global-dynamics-decarbonization) 📅 July 17, 2020 What will it take to get the world’s major economies off fossil fuels? In late 2019, former US senator and secretary of state John Kerry, declared a World War Zero on carbon pollution. Climate One (https://climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts)

📰 News Highlights

Don’t despair: use the pandemic as a springboard to environmental action | Carlos M Duarte and others (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/11/pandemic-environmental-action-conservation-metoo-black-lives-mattter) This is the moment for the equivalent, in conservation terms, of the #MeToo or Black Lives Matter movements, says Carlos M Duarte and others

Pandemic to Spark Biggest Retreat for Meat Eating in Decades (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-07/pandemic-set-to-spark-biggest-retreat-for-meat-eating-in-decades) The pandemic is poised to usher in the biggest retreat for global meat eating in decades. Per-capita consumption this year is set to fall to the lowest in nine years and the 3% drop from last year represents the biggest decline since at least 2000, according to data from the United Nations. Meanwhile, analysts across the globe are predicting declines not just per-capita, but also for overall demand in their regions.

AFRY and Gapminder in collaboration for a fact-based worldview (https://afry.com/en/newsroom/news/afry-gapminder-collaboration) AFRY has entered into a long-term collaboration with the Gapminder Foundation to identify, highlight and counteract ignorance

France bans VanMoof’s edgy ebike advert for being ‘anti-car’ (https://thenextweb.com/shift/2020/06/30/vanmoof-ebike-advert-banned-in-france-because-its-anti-car-arpp/) A television advert from VanMoof, an ebike maker based in the cycling motherland of the Netherlands, has been banned on French TV for a surprisingly contradictory reason. The 45 second ad, which was released earlier this month, pictures a futuristic looking car melting into the ether, as sounds and images of congestion, police cars, riots, crisis, and protest play over the top.

Biden Outlines $2 Trillion Climate Plan (https://www.npr.org/2020/07/14/890814007/biden-outlines-2-trillion-climate-plan) The former vice president’s initiative calls to chart the United States on “an irreversible path” to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Colossal Six Months for Offshore Wind Support Renewable Energy Investment in First Half of 2020 | BloombergNEF (https://about.bnef.com/blog/colossal-six-months-for-offshore-wind-support-renewable-energy-investment-in-first-half-of-2020/) Global investment in new renewables capacity rose 5% in 1H 2020, defying Covid-19 recession London and New York, July 13, 2020 – Renewable energy

Siberian heat streak and Arctic temperature record virtually ‘impossible’ without global warming, study says (https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/07/15/siberian-heat-streak-arctic-temperature-record-virtually-impossible-without-global-warming-study-says/) Six months of unusual warmth in Siberia, along with a 100-degree temperature record, would not have happened without global warming.

Book review: Bad science and bad arguments abound in ‘Apocalypse Never’ by Michael Shellenberger » Yale Climate Connections (https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/07/review-bad-science-and-bad-arguments-abound-in-apocalypse-never/) A new book that critiques environmentalism is ‘deeply and fatally flawed.’

💼 Jobs & Opportunities

Do Nation / Open Position (https://www.wearedonation.com/about/#join-our-team) As we emerge from Covid-19, demand for our services is picking up significantly and we’re looking to grow the team, helping more and more organisations to really bake sustainability into their people’s behaviours and priorities. 💬 Reply (https://climate-tech.slack.com/archives/CD5NYP079/p1594659926447000) to this conversation on Slack

Community Manager at TIMBY (https://www.idealist.org/en/social-enterprise-job/cc5a7d8ea7284d298706325d908b9e59-community-manager-at-timby-timby-this-is-my-backyard-montreal) As a Community Manager at TIMBY, you will join a fast-paced, collaborative, multidisciplinary team to help groups working on environmental and social justice issues around the world, implement digital tools. 💬 Reply (https://climate-tech.slack.com/archives/CD5NYP079/p1594673916449700) to this conversation on Slack

Microsoft / Open roles (https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/environmental-sustainability) Microsoft is committed to accelerating global progress towards a more sustainable future. We are focused on the areas where we can have the greatest impact, including carbon, ecosystems, water and waste. Join us in our mission to empower the planet. 💬Reply (https://climate-tech.slack.com/archives/CD5NYP079/p1594680470453700) to this conversation on Slack

Midsummer / Jobs (https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/jobs) Join a company that’s going places, in an industry that’s doing good! 💬Reply (https://climate-tech.slack.com/archives/CD5NYP079/p1594816395458400) to this conversation on Slack

UI UX Designer (m/f/d) (https://boards.greenhouse.io/infarm/jobs/4783504002) We are currently seeking a passionate and talented UX designer to join our creative team. The ideal candidate should have 3 to 4 years of full time relevant working experience and a strong portfolio with a clear emphasis on UCD methodology applied to case study for consumer and B2B oriented projects. 💬Reply (https://climate-tech.slack.com/archives/CD5NYP079/p1594864581474800) to this conversation on Slack You made it to the end! 🎉Please share & forward this newsletter to a friend Feedback (https://app.slack.com/client/T4HLEQA3F/CLRPE39NX/thread/C4J8RQ2J3-1568299902.131900) • Subscribe (https://tech.us19.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=08b8a799dd414ce9163cf3474&id=97c1d5f785) • Join CAT (https://climateaction.tech/#join)

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