If you stop drinking in 2050, does it matter? [climate goals]
Your 3-minute summary of climate tech, startups, better habits, and deep work
Good morning, folks.
In today’s 3-minute read, we’ll cover these 5 juicy nuggets below — as tantalizing as that first month’s worth of biometric data from your Oura ring showing the good and bad of your health habits.
Climate Startups & Investment:
#1 — 💥 2.8 billion reasons that fusion should matter to you.
#2 — 🚫 This is why $4,000,000,000 at two firms is not enough.
#3 — 🍺 If you stop drinking in 2050, does it matter? [climate goals]
Productivity & Living the Good Life:
#4 — 📊 What’s your Positive Intelligence Quotient (PQ)? [Take this test]
#5 — 🤔 “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”
Plus, this one:
🚀 Hey CEOs, want to join this group?
Onward and upward,
Chris
#1 — 💥 2.8 billion reasons that fusion should matter to you.
In case you live under a rock* and missed this…
On December 13, 2022, the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced a historic breakthrough in energy fusion.
What's the big deal?
Fusion could provide virtually infinite carbon-free energy.
After 90 years of research, these scientists achieved a net energy gain for the first time — i.e., producing more energy through fusion reactions than the amount of energy put into the system to start the reaction.
Investors including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and John Doerr have invested oodles of cash into companies working on the dream of fusion. More than $2.8 billion was invested overall last year, with a total of about $5 billion in recent years, according to the Fusion Industry Association.
Fusion requires extreme heat of 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million Fahrenheit) or higher to fuse the nuclei of two atoms, thereby forming a new larger atom, resulting in lots of new energy produced.
The deuterium (common hydrogen isotope) from a glass of (sea) water, with a little tritium added (less hydrogen isotope), could power a house for a year.
Read more from Reuters and CNN.
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* FWIW, when I say “living under a rock,” I’m referring to myself much of the time. Ask me most anything about pop culture, TV, music, etc., and you’d think I was raised by wolves in the wilderness.
#2 — 🚫 This is why $4,000,000,000 at two firms is not enough.
First, the good news.
Climate investment commitments by big financial players are getting bigger.
Two recent examples:
General Atlantic raises $3.5B to invest in climate change fight (Reuters)
Barclays plans £500M investment in green startups by 2027 (Bloomberg)
Now, the bad news.
November's COP27 climate conference in Egypt highlighted the need for $4-6T per year invested in renewables and decarbonization solutions until 2030 (at least).
It’s hard for our hunter-gatherer brains to easily grasp the scale of change needed.
Time to speed up our evolution.
#3 — 🍺 If you stop drinking in 2050, does it matter? [climate goals]
A recent report from JUST Capital shows that the number of corporations committing last year to net zero emissions by 2050 grew by more than 2x.
Great!
But wait…
2050 is decades away.
The corporate leaders that must act by then are not the same ones making the commitments today.
Now, enter a hilarious article from Australia:
Man announces he will quit drinking by 2050 (Source: The Shovel)
The insightful spoof continues:
“A Sydney man has set an ambitious target to phase out his alcohol consumption within the next 29 years, as part of an impressive plan to improve his health.
The program will see Greg Taylor, 73, continue to drink as normal for the foreseeable future, before reducing consumption in 2049 when he turns 101. He has assured friends it will not affect his drinking plans in the short or medium term.”
I won’t spoil the rest, but you get the idea.
Action today matters more than action decades from now.
#4 — 📊 What’s your Positive Intelligence Quotient (PQ)? [Take this test]
“Your mind is your best friend. But it can also be your worst enemy.”
This quote dominates the website from Shirzad Chamine — the author of the NYT bestselling book Positive Intelligence, lecturer at Stanford University, and former CEO of the largest coach training organization in the world.
A key goal of Positive Intelligence is to shift our mindset from one of SURVIVING (negativity bias with our “inner saboteurs”) to one of THRIVING (positivity bias with our “inner sage”).
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Want to measure your Positive Intelligence Quotient (PQ)?
#5 — 🤔 “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”
Or so it was said by Jerzy Gregorek.
What does he know anyway?
As a world champion weightlifter, poetry writer, and co-author of “The Happy Body,” maybe he’s onto something.
Take healthy living as an example.
Fighting our taste buds and universal entropy, we can change our diet and daily habits. But it can be hard.
The reward is decades of life that are easier, with longer and more enjoyable lifespans and healthspans.
Or maybe there’s more to this train of thought:
"Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times."
This comes from G. Michael Hopf — a combat veteran of the U.S. Marines Corps; former bodyguard; and author of books on “post-apocalyptic landscapes, Wild West gunfights, and the creepy world of the paranormal.”
I like both quotes.
But mostly I love seeing how diverse the lives of two humans — and all of us — can be.
🤮 [OK, time to call the sentimental police. Or grab the nausea medicine. Sorry.] 😆
INVITATION — 🚀 Hey CEOs, want to join this group?
I run the only peer group community for growth-stage startup CEOs and investors fighting climate change.
But…
We are not for everyone: Less than 1% of candidates are a good fit to join.
But for those that do, we’re building climate tech companies valued at over $8B and lifelong friendships along the way.
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.
Cheers,
Chris
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Chris Wedding
Founder @ Entrepreneurs for Impact
Climate CEO peer groups | My podcast