Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
Don’t Fall for Big Oil’s Carbon Capture Deceptions (Scientific American)
Job Function Action Guides (Project Drawdown)
Rainforests provide a public good. The world should pay to conserve them (Economist)
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
energyRe, an independent US clean energy developer, raised $1.2B in financing led by Glentra Capital with participation from Novo Holdings and Denmark’s PKA (FN)
X-energy, a developer of small modular nuclear reactors and fuel tech, raised a $235M Series C led by Ares Management and Kam Ghaffarian (FN)
mylight150, a French clean energy transition platform, raised a $108.3M round from Eiffel Investment Group, Azora Capital, and Andera Partners (FN)
TechMet, a leading critical minerals investment company, received a $50M equity investment from the DFC (BW)
Nth Cycle, a Boston-based critical metals refining company, raised a $44M Series B led by VoLo Earth Ventures and a $7M non-dilutive round led by MassMutual, MM Catalyst Fund I, Caterpillar Venture Capital, and Equinor Ventures (FN)
AM Batteries, a lithium-ion battery startup, raised a $30M Series B led by Toyota Ventures (PRN)
Ionomr Innovations, a Vancouver-based developer and manufacturer of foundational polymer and membrane technologies for hydrogen applications, raised a $20M Series A-4 led by NGIF Cleantech Ventures and Pallasite Ventures (FN)
Pachama, a startup using tech to help companies restore nature, raised a $9M Series B extension from T.Capital, Deutsche Telekom, and Positive Ventures (BW)
Environmental accounting startup Carbon Maps raised a $7.6M seed extension from Daphni (TC)
Subscription solar startup Sunsave raised a $6.7M seed round led by Norrsken (TC)
Databourg, a Luxembourg-based environmental data analytic startup, raised a $1M seed round led by ADB Ventures (FN)
Green Theory
Narrow Open Spaces
How close is your nearest park? With around 4 in 5 Americans living in urban areas, public parks offer a vanishingly rare third place within walking distance—if you’re lucky—where trees, water features, and even wildlife can soothe, energize, and inspire us.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F69fe183a-f936-4bbc-af8a-14deaec536d6_1210x950.png)
City planners in California aim for a park within a half-mile distance of every residence, but access to parks differs widely across communities, states, and beyond. Compare, for instance, the parkland per person in Anchorage, Alaska, versus Santa Ana, in southern California. While Anchoragites enjoy nearly two acres of parks per person, Santa Ana residents are only left with a little over 40 square feet, each: among the lowest in the country.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F42f1b3bb-2674-419b-8722-b53c0e2b4cd4_840x1602.png)
How much of our cities are parks? In aggregate, the US contains nearly 70 million acres of cities and towns (about the size of all of Colorado). Around 10% of our built land is actually parks (nearly the size of Connecticut). This land is anything but idle, as public parks offer communities benefits including mobility, public health, joy, and stormwater management.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffc66f3d7-e046-474a-a2dd-ae316b60a134_1600x362.png)
Still, for all of the splendor of urban parks, they also carry a legacy of displacement and violence. It’s not just national parks, such as Yosemite in California, but also urban parks, like Central Park in Manhattan, where the shared rewards of open space are built on theft from those who lived there before.
Despite protests of the roughly 1,600 residents of what would become the park, their eviction and the destruction of their homes proceeded. Seneca Village, between 82nd and 89th streets, was nearly erased from history. The evicted park residents represented about 1 in 500 borough residents, or the equivalent of over 16,000 New Yorkers today. Honoring and acknowledging the more complete history of our parks is only the first step in opening up open spaces.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6558fb4f-1c13-4c89-b8c0-508846758ee8_1600x1029.png)
Looking toward the future, with cities making lower-carbon living accessible, urban public parks will likely play an instrumental role in reaching or derailing climate goals. If cities feel too stuffy, and parks lack, centuries of urbanization may more seriously reverse, deepening the trend of around 1 million households who shifted from urban to rural living between 2010 and 2020.
On the other hand, if green, open spaces unite and delight cities, the emissions savings of attracting households to cities would be immense. A swing back to cities of just 0.7% of the population (the opposite of the 2010-2020 movement) would produce climate impacts equal to about 4 million gas cars getting decommissioned, or over 20 million tons of carbon-dioxide equivalents per year. Wherever you live, we hope your parks are accessible, safe, and enjoyable.
What do you like about your parks? What would you change?
The Closer
A pair of four-month-old polar bear cubs peek out from behind their diligent mother as she rests on the sea ice near Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. (Paul Nicklen)