Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
I Spent My Life Saving the Whales. Now They Might Save Us (in honor of Roger Payne)
Wednesday Was the Worst Day for Wildfire Pollution in U.S. History (HM)
5,500 New Marine Life Species Discovered in Mining Area (D)
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
CubicPV, a solar manufacturing startup, raised a $103M round led by SCG Cleanergy (BW)
Australian clean energy technology startup Hysata is working with Morgan Stanley to raise a $68M Series B (BBG)
Climate impact verification startup Sustaincert raised a $37M Series B from Partech, Hartree Partners, Citizen Capital, Innovacom, and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund (FN)
Autonomous and electric truck startup Fernride raised a $31M Series A led by 10x Founders, Promus Ventures, Fly Ventures, and others (TC)
Cultured meat startup Uncommon raised a $30M Series A led by Balderton Capital and Lowercarbon Capital (TC)
Woltair, a Prague-based startup accelerating the deployment of heat pumps and renewable energy, raised a $22M Series A extension from new and existing investors (FN)
Battery energy storage system integrator On.Energy raised a $20M Series B led by Ultra Capital (BW)
Industrial-phase battery startup BeFC raised a $17.3M Series A led by Otium Capital (BW)
Australian energy startup Sicona Battery Technologies raised a $15.2M Series A led by Himadri Speciality Chemical Ltd and Artesian (PRN)
Gridware, a startup improving grid reliability, raised a $10.5M seed extension led by Fifty Years and Lowercarbon Capital (PRN)
Magrathea, a startup developing tech for the production of carbon-neutral metal from seawater and brines, raised a $10M seed round led by VoLo Earth and Capricorn Investment Group (FN)
Sensoneo, a provider of waste management solutions, raised a $7.3M Series A led by Taiwania Capital (FN)
Source.ag, an AI provider for greenhouse growers, raised a $4M Series A extension from SK networks and the E14 fund (FN)
Clean energy startup tem. raised a $2.7M seed round led by AlbionVC (FN)
Angsa Robotics, a startup developing an autonomous solution for automated waste collection in green spaces, raised $2.7M in funding from Husqvarna Ventures (FN)
Uncaged Innovations, a biomaterials startup focused on sustainable leather alternatives, raised a $2M pre-seed round from InMotion Ventures, JLRs investment arm, and more (FN)
Battery technology startup About:Energy raised a $1.9M seed round led by HighSage Ventures, Vireo Ventures, and more (FN)
Green Theory
Direct Impact: Helicopters’ strain on society
Among the most unusual-looking human inventions, helicopters have captivated imaginations of would-be fliers for hundreds of years. Born of the military, these aircraft encroach upon more and more of civilian life, whirring across cities and landscapes. Their loudness makes them difficult to miss, and easy to hate. In the age of the climate crisis, helicopters’ devastatingly high emissions are starting to spin up a storm, too.
Helicopters spent the last 80 years clogging up more of our air and soundscapes. It’s time we revisit the assumptions that accompanied their dramatic takeoff to popularity, across many sectors. Do police helicopters keep police cars off the road, or just keep people sleepless while needlessly polluting? Do air ambulances serve patients, or profits? Which helicopter emissions and noise pollution may be easiest to limit?
Pollute & Serve
Recklessly cutting through Los Angeles neighborhoods, the L.A. police helicopters burden society and threaten human health. As relayed by HEATED, UCLA’s Nicholas “Shapiro’s preliminary calculations show that, from 2019 to 2020, L.A. law enforcement helicopters releas[ed] approximately 11,100 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”
These aircraft are responsible for “more than double the emissions from number-one-emitter Thomas Siebel’s private jet last year; five times more than Elon Musk’s; and nearly 11 times more than Taylor Swift’s,” according to Arielle Samuelson, with HEATED.
Samuelson’s investigation into the LAPD’s & Sheriff Department’s whirlybirds goes on to estimate that “total taxpayer cost is likely around $50 million a year.” Samuelson and Shaprio reject L.A. Sheriff Department “claims that helicopters help … cut down the number of vehicles needed for a pursuit from 20 to four.” When Samuelson used Shapiro’s numbers, she found “the average L.A. police chopper uses the same amount of fuel as 73 passenger vehicles.” Looking at operating cost per year, running the average helicopter costs the department the same as operating 204 motor vehicles, rather than a mere 16 cars saved in a chase. The environmental and economic cases for police helicopters can’t quite generate lift.
In another article, Samuelson builds upon the direct emissions costs, highlighting the racist patterns in L.A. police helicopter surveillance.
[Shapiro’s p]reliminary results … reveal that L.A. police fly more often over Black and Indigenous neighborhoods, and watched Black residents twice as many hours as white residents…
The data also showed that L.A. police flew at lower altitudes over Black census tracts…police helicopters often flew under the 1,000-foot threshold recommended by the Federal Aviation Administration. In one hyper-surveilled neighborhood, Watts, police flew a median height of 550 feet … —Arielle Samuelson, HEATED.
Residents of these communities cannot sleep, pray, or focus, when one of the dozens of police aircraft intrudes on daily life. Electrifying helicopters couldn’t offset, or restore, the damage to mental and physical health these police flyovers impose. As we’ve discussed on The Green Bite before—and should come intuitively to sleepers everywhere—robbing society of sleep suppresses human flourishing, and fuels the climate crisis. These runaway police emissions are harming us all, and not reducing crime, anyway.
Air Ambulance: Life saver or ruiner?
Imagine waking up with a $50k bill out of nowhere. If you’re unconsciously put on an air ambulance ride, you’re likely to get slapped with tens of thousands of dollars in uncovered bills. Mostly used to transfer patients from lower- to higher-level care facilities—and mostly owned and operated by private equity firms—these medical helicopters perform an “essential” service for their PE owners: exploiting unconscious trauma patients, and 1970s airline laws. Pushing more air ambulance rides accelerates greenhouse gas emissions, indebts trauma victims and their families, and enriches unfaithful stewards of healthcare.
Despite the appearance of criticality, speedier medical transfers aren’t associated with better outcomes for the average patient. As a 2015 systematic review of 20 studies concludes: “For undifferentiated trauma patients, focus should be on the type of care delivered prehospital and not on rapid transport.”
Spewing 43x the emissions of a passenger car, these medical helicopter trips are often unnecessary, with one in four adults’ and one in two children’s transfers to Level I trauma centers classified as overtriage. Operating with similar costs, privately owned and for-profit helicopter ambulances charge 2-3x the amount that municipal proprietors charge, for the same service.
There’s no consumer force to keep these profiteers in check, since trauma victims are forced to take the air ambulance, regardless of the cost. Insurance networks can’t negotiate collectively, as trauma victims can’t shop for an in-network air ambulance: flying out-of-network in roughly 75% of cases. Perhaps the government will regulate this market failure, but states can’t regulate, given these helicopter firms are classified as airlines. With any luck, the No Surprises Act can help protect society from exploitative executives and air ambulance owners. For now, the new law is still getting started with data gathering, let alone establishing rules.
Intimate Eardrum Tourism
If you still think the average police helicopter or for-profit air ambulance flights represent essential emissions, there’s another large group of helicopter emissions that lacks the same emergency-based excuse: tourism. Private helicopters and tourist companies increasingly pollute New York City: with noise in the most peaceful areas, and frivolous emissions for our shared biosphere. As Op-Ed authors Benepe and Birnbaum suggested in the New York Times in 2016,
New York City’s priority must lie with those who day in and day out have to suffer from the incessant noise and air pollution these tourist helicopters produce, and not with the tourists, who will in any event also benefit from cleaner air and quieter skies. —Benepe and Birnbaum, New York Times Opinion 2016.
New Yorkers in 2023 almost got to enjoy those cleaner, quieter skies, of which 2016 New Yorkers could only dream. Instead, the governor vetoed a helicopter-restricting bill in December of 2022, blaming a procedural breach of airport noise rules. Whatever the outcome, the problem is hardly unique to NYC. From the Manhattan waterfront to the Yosemite valley, helicopter companies prey on rich tourists’ disregard for everyone else.
Chopping the Choppers
Could society benefit from a few fewer helicopter flights? Whether we cut back on tax-wasting police helicopters, economically ruinous air ambulances, or screamingly selfish joy rides, there’s plenty of heedless emissions to drawdown from today’s helicopter flights.