Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
Clean Energy Has Driven 40% of China’s Recent GDP Growth (E)
This methane-sniffing satellite will leave climate polluters nowhere to hide (N)
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
Direct-air-capture startup CarbonCapture raised an $80M Series A led by Prime Movers Lab (PRN)
Quaise Energy, a startup attempting to extract terawatt-scale geothermal energy, raised a $21M Series A-1 led by Prelude Ventures and Safar Partners (BW)
Efficient Computer, a startup building a more energy efficient computer processor, raised a $16M seed round led by Eclipse (PRN)
Greenlyte Carbon Technologies, a German direct air capture startup, raised an $11.5M pre-Series A from Earlybird Venture Capital, Green Generation Fund, Carbon Removal Partners, and more (FN)
Furno, a startup building super efficient modular kilns for the cement industry, raised a $6.5M seed round led by Energy Capital Ventures (TC)
Carbonova, a startup turning greenhouse emissions into carbon materials, raised a $6M round led by Kolon Industries (FN)
EV startup Telo Trucks raised a $5.4M round from Neo and Spero Ventures (TC)
Nextron, a Brazilian climate tech startup simplifying access to clean energy for residential real estate, raised a $5.3M Series A led by Vox Capital and Copel Ventures (FN)
Orbio Earth, a startup building a satellite-based methane leak detection platform, raised a $4M seed round from the European Space Agency, Initialized Capital, and Y Combinator (TC)
Glimpse, a startup providing battery quality monitoring solutions for battery producers and electric mobility companies, raised a $4M seed round led by Ibex Mobility and Flybridge Capital Partners (FN)
Suiso, a UK-based startup developing a hydrogen generator, raised a $3.6M seed round led by NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance (FN)
Mexican solar installer Niko raised a $3.3M seed round at a $16M post-money valuation led by Picus Capital and 468 Capital (TC)
Green Theory
Calling all Earth: Humboldt’s Organic Unity
A new perspective can change everything. As 1968 drew to a close, astronauts captured a view never-before-seen by common earthlings: our blue rock rising above the lunar horizon. Some described this picture as the most influential environmental image ever taken, and others credit the shot with igniting the modern environmental movement. Half a century later, one of the astronauts reflected: "We set out to explore the moon and instead discovered the Earth." Indeed, the image helped us see our shared home as one collective mass, and take account of our relative closeness with one another, in the vast emptiness of space.
The vivid blues and hints of green and yellow stand in stark contrast to the colorless shades of lifeless night all around: defiantly distinguishing our planet. While, today, we take hard-won views and insights for granted—such as satellite imagery or the theory of evolution—the art of identifying a new perspective and sharing it with the world long predates Earthrise, and will continue to serve human flourishing as we navigate the climate crisis.
Let’s travel another 200 years back in time, before space travel and photography, to meet the visionary environmental perspective-maker, Alexander von Humboldt .
Who-boldt?
In 1769 Berlin, Alexander von Humboldt was born. Now largely forgotten, he would apply his curiosity, time, and money to discover not only hidden secrets of the enlightenment age, but also innovative ways to broadcast those learnings back to a global audience. Focusing on the mysteries of nature, Humboldt identified the interconnectedness of all living things, how earth systems impact life, and humans’ role in transforming ecosystems.
He sometimes struggled fitting in among his European contemporaries, as his studies and adventures coalesced into a strong opposition to the destruction and violence of colonialism, slavery, and war. At the same time, through bringing visibility to living systems, Humboldt would go on to win the admiration and respect of leaders around the world. From US founding fathers, to the South American revolutionary Simón Bolívar; from German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, to Mongolian military officers in the Eastern steppe—Humboldt captivated a diverse court of pen pals and partners in his pursuit of understanding nature.
By combining his personal data with a global network of scientists, artists, and philosophers, Humboldt could stitch together tapestries of information that recast human knowledge, and inspired generations of scientists, naturalists, and conservationists after him.
The Naturgemälde
Having explored the European Alps and the South American Andes, Humboldt drew parallels that had eluded naturalists locked in their own continents. He saw elevation as a key factor in what plants and animals could thrive, and identified patterns on both sides of the Atlantic where similar life forms congregate in specific elevation bands.
To help others reach his visionary conclusions, he created a detailed illustrative diagram in 1807, called the Naturgemälde, or tableau of nature, to spatially display his data. The style went on to inspire visualizations of living networks for geographies all across the world. Indeed, this view took boring tables and transformed them into a visual experience that helped chart the web of life, but Humboldt’s map-focused graphic was perhaps the greater breakthrough in the formation of climate science.
Isotherms
In the decades that followed his South American voyage, Humboldt organized global climate data into a view that made invisible planetary patterns jump off the page. For the first time, scientists, naturalists, government officials, and curious citizens could all behold the shape of isotherms: or bands temperature-consistent regions that stretch across the earth.
You probably don’t think twice looking at this 1823 English translation of Humboldt’s isothermal chart of the world (above)—interpreting isotherms isn’t anything special, today. If you’re interested in climate, you probably know that prevailing temperatures drop as we move further from the equator. Still, stepping into the shoes of a scientist before the term scientist existed, how mindblowing would this map be?
Calling all earth
Humboldt dedicated his life to unearthing and sharing the organic unity of nature, when many leading Western minds focused on dividing and coldly classifying taxonomies. As early as 1829, his vision of interconnectedness allowed him to identify three human activities impacting local climate: destroying forests, irrigating recklessly, and, “perhaps most prophetically,” releasing “‘great masses of steam and gas’ produced in the industrial centres,” according to Andrea Wulf in her 2015 biography on Humboldt.
When Humboldt died in 1859, he had laid the groundwork for the theory of evolution, greenhouse gasses, keystone species, and more. He pushed back against ruthless exploitative practices of the age, and democratized access to natural science in his books and illustrations. To honor his legacy, schools, cities, rivers, and counties were named for him, including the county with the tallest trees in the world, although he would sadly never get to see them.
While the two world wars would erase his legacy from its place of pride and prominence in UK and US textbooks and schools, perhaps the clean tech boom can help resurrect the memory of this once-venerated natural philosopher.
Humboldt’s last words reflect his endless search for connectedness, as the most unifying life force occupied his final thoughts:
‘How glorious these sunbeams are! They seem to call Earth to the Heavens!’
—Alexander von Humboldt, reproduced from The Invention of Nature (2015)
Will today’s climate leaders follow Humboldt’s unifying light, respecting nature and instigating inspiration across disciplines? What new Earthrises or isotherms might unlock tomorrow’s innovation?
The Closer
“Caught on film during a recent solar farm inspection: A very beautiful raptor posing for Raptor Maps.
More on the most comprehensive inspections platform in solar here: https://lnkd.in/gKJYiipk”