Good Morning
Big week for me this week - Speed and Scale, John Doerr’s new book detailing a plan (that can fit on a cocktail napkin) to ameliorate the climate crisis, was just dropped at the SF public library. Would recommend, alongside a few others.
And while we’re on the topic of the arts… Within the wide world of “CliFi,” a new comedy called “Don’t Look Up” just launched in theaters today. It’s directed by Adam McKay (of “The Big Short”) and stars Leo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Timothee Chalamet and Jonah Hill. First climate-change comedy ever? (Axios)
Top Deals of the Week
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F90f5bbf0-4831-4c80-a714-d4dbc697690a_1600x900.png)
Animal-free protein product startup The EVERY Co. raised a $175M Series C led by McWin and Rage Capital (TC)
Hydrofoiling electric boat startup Candela raised a $24M round led by EQT Ventures (TC)
Dispatch Goods, a nearly three-year-old, Bay Area-based reusable container marketplace that partners with restaurants, businesses, and consumers to obtain, clean, and re-distribute containers, has raised $3.7 million in seed funding. The round was led by Congruent Ventures (TC)
One Actionable Item
Compost!
Throwback to our first-ever action item, still one of the best:
Reducing food waste is one of the cheapest, most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Here’s how it helps.
This is the usual path for your food waste if you don’t compost:
Food → Trash bin → Landfill → Methane
Methane is a significantly more harmful gas than carbon dioxide--experts say it can have up to 80x more warming power. Food trapped in a landfill can slowly emit methane for years after it’s dumped.
This is your food waste’s path if you compost:
Food → Compost bowl → Green compost bin → Municipal compost facility → Healthy soil → Farms and gardens
Compost soil can offer a myriad of planetary health boosts including reducing water usage and helping minimize chemical runoff potential.
Action: Start a compost bin if you don’t have one in your place yet--you can just use an open bowl in your kitchen to collect organic matter and then toss it straight in the green bin instead of the black trash bin for pickup.
Green Theory
Re-thinking Bitcoin Emissions Shaming
Critics decry Bitcoin for its energy intensity. But what about the energy intensity of other places to park your dollars?
The S&P 500 represents a popular investment and, as many retirement funds and other mixed portfolios do, holds an aggregate of many industries and markets. They keep roughly 5% in energy and utilities, associated with the 32% of US emissions from dirty electricity generation. The average millennial (25-40) holds $63.3k in retirement funds, and let’s assume each portfolio is compositionally similar to the S&P 500. In that case, the average millennial is profiting off of 72.73 metric tons of carbon per year, simply from investment in their diversified asset.
By comparison, that’s 4.5x the average American’s direct annual carbon footprint (16 metric tons), or about 33 round-trip seats from LAX to JFK (2 metric tons each). How does it stack up against Bitcoin? You can find estimates for one coin’s emissions as high as 191 metric tons, though using US emissions per kWh, based on NYT’s analysis, one Bitcoin would only generate 42.3 metric tons of carbon.
The price of bitcoin hovered around $63k less than a month ago, but at its current price (~$47k), this emissions rate would put one bitcoin on par with one year of one millenial’s diversified retirement fund. While these investments and their associated emissions are choking the planet, we have many more choices of what to do with our dollars.
Carbon Collective’s guide to sustainable investing lays out the leading options available today. Their own fund helps you divest from fossil fuels, fraudulent businesses, and the military industrial complex (fossil fuels’ best friend). At the same time, your redirected dollars connect your gains to successes in clean energy, sustainable food practices, women’s health & education, and more, rather than pollution and cryptographic games. If you’re investing in 2022, this could be the perfect time to stop profiting off of polluters (though this is not financial advice :)). And if you want to defend your obsession with crypto, tell your haters to divest from fossil fuels themselves.
The Closer
“Haters will say it’s photo edited. 😉🤫” -USFWS