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Daily Personalized Newsletter

Earth Catalyst gathers & hand-filters the most recent updates from over 1,000 green tech and sustainability organizations. Here are all of the updates; if you subscribe to our free newsletter, we'll send you 3 each weekday we think will be meaningful to you.

Fire, Water, and Systems Thinking

Writer's picture: Andrea GonzalesAndrea Gonzales

What will it take for society to shift to more systemic, less linear, thinking? The devastating fires in LA will probably present a lot of opportunities for that.

 

Water systems aren’t designed for unlimited demands during wildland-urban interface fires.

 

The constraints on water for putting out fires feels like a very tangible manifestation of concepts from systems thinking like stocks, flows, feedback systems, boundaries in our maps of a system and key leverage points for changing that system. (all famously discussed by Donella Meadows)

 

After the fires are extinguished, by water or time, the insurance market, now facing government intervention like a year-long ban on policy cancelations, will send massive ripples across the US economy and socio political landscape.

 

Systems thinking is of massive importance, we're seeing it pop up in more and more places (like in the required community benefit plans for the massive loans for battery factories from the US Department of Energy)

 

I expect we'll look back at this time in history and be shocked by the absence of system thinking our institutions exhibit; so long stuck on linear, authoritarian, myopic analysis, now with a rising chorus of howling trolls online calling for more of the same, at unfathomable expense to people, the earth, and society.

 

Let's keep working on that shift. Below you'll find a round-up of today's updates from organizations, email subscribers get three personalized recommendations for opportunities to advance this much-needed shift.


-Marshall Kirkpatrick

Earth Catalyst: We'll support your work with our experience, network, and technology

 
Today and every day, our system scans over 1,000 green tech and sustainability organizations for updates. Below, you'll find:

  • A Visual of the Day

  • A digest-style Table of Contents for 176 selected updates from around the green tech and sustainability world

  • (If you subscribe by email) 3 personalized selections just for you and your work

 

Did a friend forward you this newsletter? Welcome! You can subscribe here and get your own personal recommendations each day.

 


Visual of the Day

Greenland's Vanishing Ice

A dramatic aerial view of a melting glacier in Greenland, where meltwater streams carve through the glacial outwash plain, highlighting the accelerating impacts of climate change in the Arctic. According to The Guardian, this glacial retreat is part of a larger pattern where Greenland's ice sheet is losing an average of 30 million tonnes of ice per hour, a crisis that is driving new geopolitical tensions as nations vie for access to newly exposed resources and shipping routes in the region.


Today's Updates

Table of Contents


  • Agriculture (5 stories) - DAS Solar's mountain-friendly panels, ReGen Brands' regenerative agriculture program, and African cassava initiatives reshape farming amid climate challenges and digital transformation in Nigeria


  • Carbon (7 stories) - Record-breaking 0.25°C global rise as Climeworks leads carbon capture talks at Davos; permafrost thaw accelerates while US emissions drop only 0.2%


  • Circular (5 stories) - CET's waste reduction archive launches as UK explores incineration benefits; bagasse bowls offer plastic alternative amid microplastic health concerns


  • Ecosystems (19 stories) - Bighorn sheep populations double in parks, while WRI's Global Forest Watch tracks ecosystems as peatlands face threats; Tanzania pioneers leopard vocal tracking amid Victoria's kangaroo habitat crisis


  • Efficiency (6 stories) - Data centers to rival aluminum industry's power use by 2030; California, Maryland advance building electrification; Getty Center tests fire systems; Midea launches efficient heat pump water heater


  • Finance (8 stories) - BlackRock exits UN climate pact as C-PACE programs expand; Peace Renewable Energy Credits and $31.5T green funding needs drive global investment landscape


  • Grid (11 stories) - Hydrostor's $1.76B DOE-backed air storage project leads grid investments, while Constellation's $30B Calpine deal and Deep Fission's micronuclear plans reshape power generation landscape amid MISO and PJM market reforms


  • Indigenous (18 stories) - Fire exchanges across 8 states unite Indigenous knowledge with modern practices, while UNDP Equator Prize gathers 31 communities for environmental leadership; new conservation area established in Bolivia's Pando region


  • Industry (10 stories) - Siemens launches 52MW electrolyzer in Denmark, RENA claims TOPCon cost advantage over Chinese competitors, while University of Michigan develops CO2-based cement and brain simulation achieves 86B neuron milestone


  • Policy (52 stories) - US Treasury finalizes $3/kg hydrogen tax credits; NY and CA mandate oil company climate payments; $12.5B allocated for federal environmental programs amid pre-election policy shifts


  • Renewables (19 stories) - Record EU power share hits 48% as PERC modules maintain market dominance; major expansions from Alteo Nyrt, Fortescue, and Waaree Energies; breakthroughs in geothermal lithium and solar storage from Vulcan Energy and JinkoSolar


  • Transport (16 stories) - Tesla hits record Q4 sales amid profit concerns, DOT funds 11.5K charging ports, GOGO's Uganda e-bikes thrive, NASA develops hybrid aircraft, while NYC congestion pricing and Formula E innovations advance clean transport




Agriculture

DAS Solar's mountain-friendly panels, ReGen Brands' regenerative agriculture program, and African cassava initiatives reshape farming amid climate challenges and digital transformation in Nigeria



Carbon

Record-breaking 0.25°C global rise as Climeworks leads carbon capture talks at Davos; permafrost thaw accelerates while US emissions drop only 0.2%



Circular

CET's waste reduction archive launches as UK explores incineration benefits; bagasse bowls offer plastic alternative amid microplastic health concerns



Ecosystems

Bighorn sheep populations double in parks, while WRI's Global Forest Watch tracks ecosystems as peatlands face threats; Tanzania pioneers leopard vocal tracking amid Victoria's kangaroo habitat crisis



Efficiency

Data centers to rival aluminum industry's power use by 2030; California, Maryland advance building electrification; Getty Center tests fire systems; Midea launches efficient heat pump water heater



Finance

BlackRock exits UN climate pact as C-PACE programs expand; Peace Renewable Energy Credits and $31.5T green funding needs drive global investment landscape



Grid

Hydrostor's $1.76B DOE-backed air storage project leads grid investments, while Constellation's $30B Calpine deal and Deep Fission's micronuclear plans reshape power generation landscape amid MISO and PJM market reforms



Indigenous

Fire exchanges across 8 states unite Indigenous knowledge with modern practices, while UNDP Equator Prize gathers 31 communities for environmental leadership; new conservation area established in Bolivia's Pando region



Industry

Siemens launches 52MW electrolyzer in Denmark, RENA claims TOPCon cost advantage over Chinese competitors, while University of Michigan develops CO2-based cement and brain simulation achieves 86B neuron milestone



Policy

US Treasury finalizes $3/kg hydrogen tax credits; NY and CA mandate oil company climate payments; $12.5B allocated for federal environmental programs amid pre-election policy shifts



Renewables

Record EU power share hits 48% as PERC modules maintain market dominance; major expansions from Alteo Nyrt, Fortescue, and Waaree Energies; breakthroughs in geothermal lithium and solar storage from Vulcan Energy and JinkoSolar



Transport

Tesla hits record Q4 sales amid profit concerns, DOT funds 11.5K charging ports, GOGO's Uganda e-bikes thrive, NASA develops hybrid aircraft, while NYC congestion pricing and Formula E innovations advance clean transport


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