$800M to Keep "Un-F***ing" the Planet | $160M for Vertical Farming | Being Greedy vs. Fearful
Plus, more grim news from the latest UN IPCC Report, 248-page report on Tech for Impact, doing a decarb on heavy industry, and 18 summers with your kids
In case you missed it…
248-Page Report: The Frontiers of Impact Tech (Good Tech Lab)
I mean, wow! 180+ ways science and technology can help reverse climate change while advancing the the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Maybe this one can give you the optimism and sense of abundance that you need to read the latest UN IPCC report on climate change.
It’s Grim: The latest UN report is clear: Climate change is here, it’s a crisis, and it’s caused by fossil fuels. (The Atlantic)
The report is almost 4,000 pages long and cites around 14,000 studies after 8 years of research. So, not quite a paper written during an all-nighter freshman year in college.
“Earth is likely hotter now than it has been at any moment since the beginning of the last Ice Age, 125,000 years ago, and the world has warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius, or nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit, since the Industrial Revolution.”
Global mean temperature is expected to hit 1.5 degrees Celsius in all scenarios by mid-century, and current policies “suggest that the planet is set for 3 degrees Celsius, or more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit, of warming by the end of the century.”
The potential temperature increase at the poles could be 3x this amount. As Dr. Edward Chan put it to me recently: This is a story about the extremes, not just the average impacts.
In the worst scenarios, sea levels could rise more than six feet by 2100 and by 16 feet by 2150.
Decarbonizing Our Toughest Sectors — Profitably (MIT Sloan)
More than 33% of GHG emissions come from “heavy transport such as trucks and planes and the heat-intensive manufacture of materials such as steel and cement.”
If you’ve ever felt like the reduction of these emissions is intractable, rest assured. My former mentor Amory Lovins — Cofounder of RMI and master bear hugger — has a great way of pouring a bucket of ice cold optimism on the fires of fear and pessimism. In this deep dive, he lays out a framework and provides examples of how we can get there.
80 Acres Farms Secures $160 Million in Series B Led by General Atlantic to Accelerate Global Farm Expansion & Product Development (Yahoo Finance)
Other investors included Siemens Financial Services, Blue Earth (formerly PG Impact Investments), General Atlantic's Beyond Net Zero team, Barclays, and Taurus.
Their vertical farms “use 97% less water than traditional farming practices and are powered by renewable energy” and grow the “widest variety of produce commercially sold at scale by any vertical farm to-date, including leafy greens, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and microgreens.” Delicious.
Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital has raised $800 million to “keep unf*cking the planet” (TechCrunch)
Aside from its impact-focused investors, Sacca said: “…to be frank, we were also heartened by those investors who actually don’t care that much about the planet and instead are just chasing financial returns.” Amen. More folks care about profit than the planet. Let’s bring ‘em into the fold.
Below are samples of their portfolio companies to date. And to read some fun language around climate tech VC, you gotta check out their full website.
Some smart money for climate tech?
Then consider applying to join the next Third Derivative cohort — a virtual, 18-month-long program.
Run by my friends at RMI and New Energy Nexus, this is “the best-resourced accelerator in clean energy and climate tech. Ever.”
They like hard science, hardware, and business model innovation, not just software.
Each startup selected receives an optional $100k convertible note and access to $880M+ of potential follow-on funding available from corporate and VC partners.
You’ve got 18 summers with your kids.
As you savor the last days of vacation somewhere beautiful, or swelter in the 95 degree oppression of the hot shower that is Chapel Hill, North Carolina right now, the timing for this book recommendation is apropos.
The key point?
Our kids are in our houses for a very short amount of time — 18 years.
Tim Urban of the Wait But Why blog puts its this way: “When I graduated from high school, I had already used up 93% of my in-person parent time [for the rest of their lives].” Ouch.
The guidance?
Structure regular “board meetings” with each kid one-on-one — think off-site, 3-4 hours at a time, doing whatever they want, with a limit on parental advice given.
So what?
If you’re a parent of young(er) kids, this is perhaps the driver’s car horn shaking us out of the deer in headlights daily routine. That’s what it feels like to me with our oldest now just three years away from college (gasp).
If you’re the parent of older kids, or those that left the house already, maybe you’re feeling a strange salty liquid substance forming in the corner of your eyes right now. Maybe this can inform how you spend time with those big kiddos during the next holiday get together.
“The Family Board Meeting: You Have 18 Summers to Create Lasting Connection with Your Children” by Jim Sheils.
That’s all, folks.
Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.
— Chris
P.S. Are you greedy or fearful?
“I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.”
Warren Buffett — Who still lives in a five-bedroom house in Omaha that he purchased in 1958 for $31,500, despite his net worth today over $100B
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Dr. Chris Wedding
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Entrepreneurs for Impact
The Only Private Mastermind Community for Investor-Backed CEOs, Founders, and Investors Fighting Climate Change
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Want to achieve bolder climate goals along with 10 other climate founders and investors?
Check out the next cohort of our Climate Mastermind.
Application deadline: September 12.
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