Dear Reader,
We’ve made it to 50 subscribers! Welcome to all of the newcomers. It is very exciting that some of you are people I don’t know. Please continue to share this - we will do something to celebrate 100.
Build Back Better
President Biden campaigned on a promise to make climate change a top priority. So far his administration has acted through executive action to rejoin the Paris climate accords and stop oil & gas leasing on federal lands.
These are small but positive steps. With the pandemic relief bill behind them the Biden Administration is turning its attention to a large-scale infrastructure and climate bill.
The $2.25 trillion plan was announced this week and has ambitious goals. Let’s be clear, this is only the initial proposal and the road to getting it through congress will be challenging so the plan is all but guaranteed to change.
Nonetheless, I wanted to use this week’s issue to highlight some of the more interesting points so that we have something to reference back to as the legislative process unfolds. You can find a more fulsome summary of what’s included here and the entire proposal here.
$174 billion for electric vehicles including: incentives to buy American-made EV’s, grants to build 500,000 charging stations, and funds to electrify school buses and federal vehicles;
$180 billion to upgrade the country’s research infrastructure with $35bn specifically for climate-focused innovation and R&D. This is a hard one to quantify, but maybe the most important as we are hopeless without R&D to develop solutions for problems like cement and long-term energy storage;
$100 billion to build a more resilient electric grid
$111 billion to improve access to clean water including $45 billion to eliminate lead pipes nationwide;
Create 10 carbon-capture facilities retrofitted in large steel, cement and chemical production facilities. I think of this as important R&D;
Eliminate all tax preferences for the oil and gas industry. I doubt this passes but this is an under-rated proposal since direct subsidies to the fossil fuel industry total over $20bn annually;
The largest allocation is $620 billion for transportation. This isn’t necessarily climate related but proposed transport spending includes $85 billion to modernize public transportation and $80 billion for Amtrak.
There is a lot of criticism coming out from progressives but overall, I like the plan. The government alone is not going to save us - the private sector will need to do its part - and the proposal includes huge spending in critical areas such as, electrifying the grid, reducing emissions from transportation, and funding R&D.
The last major push to pass climate legislation in the Senate was in 2009 when Democrats failed to pass a carbon-pricing system. Not going to lie, I’m anxious about this one. Feels like this is our shot. The planet can’t wait another 12 years for the U.S. to get the right legislation in place.
Amplify
OK. This is really cool.
These are both photos of the Loess plateau in China. The left is from 2007 when the area was an arid desert. The right is from 2019 after scientists successfully transformed parts of it into green valleys and productive farmland.
The Weather Makers, a team of Dutch engineers, have plans to do the same to the Sinai Peninsula.
Within a couple of decades…the Sinai could be transformed from a hot, dry, barren desert into a green haven teeming with life: forests, wetlands, farming land, wild flora and fauna.
Have you read Dune? The Weather Makers and Fremen would probably get along great.
Obviously, this is not going to be easy - Weather Makers Founder Ties van der Hoeven compares the challenge to the moon landing - but the benefits seem massive including carbon capture, lowering global temperatures, and increasing rainfall across a wide swath of the Middle East & North Africa.
As of now, this plan is little more than a dream, but what an amazingly ambitious dream it is. I love to see people thinking on this scale.
Also - looks like the Egyptian government may be getting on board:
the Sisi government seems to have recognized that ecosystem regeneration could fix many problems at once: food security, poverty, political stability, climate goals, as well as the potential for a green project of international renown.
The government is close to signing contracts for the first phase of the restoration plan.
If you are interested to read more about the project and the team behind it, this article from The Guardian does a great job covering it in depth.
Create Accountability
Biomass [noun]: organic matter used as a fuel, especially in a power station for the generation of electricity.
This lengthy but fascinating piece from Politco questions if biomass is a ‘Green Energy’ That Might Be Ruining the Planet. Now this sounds like a perfect thing for us GWGers to investigate.
Biomass energy is largely generated by trees that are compressed into wood pellets and then burned. This started on a small scale as a way to take advantage of wood that otherwise would have gone to waste in places like paper mills, but has now grown into a massive industry with trees being cut down strictly for the purpose of being converted into energy. If that doesn’t sound very climate-friendly to you, you aren’t alone.
In February, more than 500 scientists and economists wrote to President Joe Biden and other leaders to warn that converting wood into power is a carbon disaster, a forest destroyer and an absurdly inefficient way to generate energy.
Ideally that would be it and the world would turn away from this power source. Unfortunately, it turns out it’s not so simple as governments around the world seem to feel differently.
In Europe, “biomass power,” is subsidized as zero-emissions renewable energy.
Europe’s supposedly eco-friendly economy now generates more energy from burning wood than from wind and solar combined.
More than wind and solar combined? My head is starting to spin.
Despite the seemingly obvious climate-contradiction in biomass, the industry is looking to grow and brand themselves as green.
The largest company in the space is Enviva and their motto is: “Displace Coal. Grow More Trees. Fight Climate Change.” Their logo is a green ribbon.
Climate change is a complex beast but this one feels pretty easy to me. I promised to call attention to greenwashing in this newsletter and here is a prime example. At industrial scale, burning trees for energy cannot be green and will almost certainly encourage more deforestation.
GWG Book Club
I think of this one as a textbook, but an engaging and seriously educational textbook. The book was put together by Project Drawdown, a non-profit group committed to climate research and it presents their view of the 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming. They did a ton of research and take a pretty holistic approach. For example, educating girls ranks #6. If you are looking for ideas on how to make an impact, this is not a bad place to start.
Potpourri
Mushroom leather is having its moment! Looks like I’ll be able to get my shoes soon and it’s coming for fashion next.
Correction - In the first issue I mentioned I would be selling a copy as an NFT. Turns out that will not be happening as NFTs have the same issue with energy usage as bitcoin.
That’s All Folks!
Thanks for reading. As always, I would love to hear from you with questions or comments.