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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.

On fire, distributed care, and prevention

Writer's picture: Marshall KirkpatrickMarshall Kirkpatrick

The fires in LA continue to rage. Across the updates we've summarized from around the green tech and sustainability world today, the word fire appears 138 times. In aggregate, these updates represent a fundamental shift from relying on centralized fire control to embracing distributed, preventative measures.


The fire specialist community is passing around this article in the LA Times: Inconvenient truths about the fires burning in Los Angeles from two fire experts. In it, fire scientist Jack Cohen and fire historian Stephen J. Pyne argue that these urban fires could have been mitigated if communities had focused more on preventing ember ignitions through home care rather than solely trying to control wildfires. They tell stories of tree canopies standing unburned while tiny embers are blown from house to house by high winds.


Contrast

I think this represents an example of the kind of distributed, collaborative, local, and systemic responsibility I'm hearing so many people shift their thinking toward - a contrast with the strong-man centralized promises of government agencies and arguably especially, the incoming US federal administration. On our failure to prevent explosive fire spread, "Cohen calls it a sense of entitlement that we will be protected, a feeling that is reinforced by fire protection agencies, even when it’s unrealistic."


Or, as a synthetic focus group of 10 personas I ran analyzing this email intro concluded in its aggregate analysis: "our approach to fire management reflects and influences larger patterns of social organization and responsibility."


Many people will likely read this Bloomberg post about the design choices of homes that survived the LA fires. I recommend that readers here also read Kevin Jones' post about the regenerative possibilities opening up and finding momentum in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Helene in September.

 

 

Thanks for joining us here.


-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 137 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

Hay! You can do it by hand

From Romania's biodiverse hayfields, a farmer uses traditional hand tools to maintain centuries-old sustainable agricultural practices that stand in stark contrast to industrial farming methods that have devastated Europe's ecosystems.


Photographer Billy Barraclough's documentation for Atmos magazine captures how these small-scale farmers' commitment to chemical-free, manual techniques has preserved one of Europe's most vibrant wildlife habitats, offering crucial lessons for addressing global biodiversity loss and sustainable food production.


Today's Updates

Table of Contents


  • Agriculture (6 stories) - Idemitsu Kosan-Terviva pongamia project in Queensland; Romanian meadow preservation; Mill Gulch prescribed burn; California crane habitat creation; Australian organic labeling issues

  • Carbon (4 stories) - NOAA and NASA confirm record-shattering 1.46°C temperature rise as California advances $15.5bn climate plan and Cap-and-Trade extension amid devastating wildfires

  • Circular (2 stories) - Lignin Industries unveils bio-based plastic alternative while brownfield redevelopment lags at Commercial Development Co. sites

  • Ecosystems (12 stories) - Fire tornadoes in LA's Palisades wildfire force 200K evacuations amid global biodiversity crisis, as NSW logging threatens koala sanctuary and North Atlantic right whales face extinction; Antarctic marine life endangered by warming, while Highland lynx rewilding faces setback

  • Efficiency (3 stories) - Getty Center's fire system tested by LA blazes while Midea debuts efficient heat pump water heater in North America

  • Finance (6 stories) - Insurance losses mount from California wildfires as ESG content surges; Orennia releases market forecasts while cultivated meat funding drops 82%; developing nations receive fraction of $2T clean energy investment

  • Grid (4 stories) - AI wildfire tech startups raise $277M; Victoria solar tariffs plummet; Deep Fission's 1.5GW borehole reactor deal with Endeavour Energy

  • Indigenous (17 stories) - Fire Learning Network trains 1,000+ in Indigenous burning practices across 8 states; UNDP Equator Prize unites 31 Indigenous communities; Spanish TREX launches first multilingual fire training

  • Industry (7 stories) - ExxonMobil sues over recycling claims while Total and Kasso advance methanol projects; University of Michigan develops CO2-based cement; leadership changes at Shell and Hydro Tasmania

  • Policy (43 stories) - Global fossil fuel phase-out treaty gains 16 nations' support; DOE manages $50B budget; NY enacts $75B climate superfund; US Forest Service launches $200M wildfire grants; Illinois approves clean energy oversight; IRENA leads developing nations' energy coalition

  • Renewables (12 stories) - IRENA Assembly in Abu Dhabi draws 170 nations while Hemlock Semiconductor gets $325M for Michigan plant; major solar tenders launch across Asia as LONGi debuts Hi-MO modules in Vietnam

  • Transport (20 stories) - DOE's $1.67B SAF facility loan and $5B charging network expansion; Tesla's mixed fortunes amid record Q4 but yearly decline; ProLogium's ceramic battery breakthrough; Renault 5's European victory; Formula E's GEN3 Evo milestone



Agriculture

Idemitsu Kosan-Terviva pongamia project in Queensland; Romanian meadow preservation; Mill Gulch prescribed burn; California crane habitat creation; Australian organic labeling issues



Carbon

NOAA and NASA confirm record-shattering 1.46°C temperature rise as California advances $15.5bn climate plan and Cap-and-Trade extension amid devastating wildfires



Circular




Ecosystems

Fire tornadoes in LA's Palisades wildfire force 200K evacuations amid global biodiversity crisis, as NSW logging threatens koala sanctuary and North Atlantic right whales face extinction; Antarctic marine life endangered by warming, while Highland lynx rewilding faces setback



Efficiency

Getty Center's fire system tested by LA blazes while Midea debuts efficient heat pump water heater in North America



Finance

Insurance losses mount from California wildfires as ESG content surges; Orennia releases market forecasts while cultivated meat funding drops 82%; developing nations receive fraction of $2T clean energy investment



Grid

AI wildfire tech startups raise $277M; Victoria solar tariffs plummet; Deep Fission's 1.5GW borehole reactor deal with Endeavour Energy



Indigenous

Fire Learning Network trains 1,000+ in Indigenous burning practices across 8 states; UNDP Equator Prize unites 31 Indigenous communities; Spanish TREX launches first multilingual fire training



Industry

ExxonMobil sues over recycling claims while Total and Kasso advance methanol projects; University of Michigan develops CO2-based cement; leadership changes at Shell and Hydro Tasmania



Policy

Global fossil fuel phase-out treaty gains 16 nations' support; DOE manages $50B budget; NY enacts $75B climate superfund; US Forest Service launches $200M wildfire grants; Illinois approves clean energy oversight; IRENA leads developing nations' energy coalition



Renewables

IRENA Assembly in Abu Dhabi draws 170 nations while Hemlock Semiconductor gets $325M for Michigan plant; major solar tenders launch across Asia as LONGi debuts Hi-MO modules in Vietnam



Transport

DOE's $1.67B SAF facility loan and $5B charging network expansion; Tesla's mixed fortunes amid record Q4 but yearly decline; ProLogium's ceramic battery breakthrough; Renault 5's European victory; Formula E's GEN3 Evo milestone


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