In Between Times 12-29-2023
Red states and green farming, The future of green energy investments, 3D printing and a circular economy, Breakout year for carbon removal
PLEASE JOIN ME, BILL SHIREMAN, TO DEFEAT HATE AND MAKE THE CLIMATE FOR DEMOCRACY GREAT
I am fortunate, blessed, privileged to have a wonderful family, friends, and sense of purpose and direction in my life.
Thank you for being an important part of my reason for being.
I have never used this season to seek support for what I’m devoted to. But this year is different. Our world faces existential threats - to the ecosystems that support life and the hard-won promises of democracy that arc ever toward freedom and justice for all.
Here is how I’m personally spending my holiday time and dollars.
I’m supporting three simple, elegant campaigns that (IMHO) will trigger a cascade of transformative leaps forward in policy and the marketplace.
EarthxAction
10 STEPS WILL SAVE THE PLANET
Mobilize 100,000 moms and top brands to use their buying dollars to support ten steps for healthy air, water, oceans, forests, and climate.
(Public education - tax-exempt, tax-deductible)
Bridge Foundation
PRAGMATIC CLIMATE SOLUTIONS THAT WORK
Assemble and recruit climate pragmatists for environmental solutions that the majority of Americans support.
(Public education - tax-exempt, tax-deductible)
Solution Citizen
POLARIZATION DETOX
Across the political spectrum: Support Commonsense and Amplify the Voices of Problem-Solvers
(Non-deductible voter education)
The first changes markets - by rewarding brands for cleaning up their supply chains.
The second changes policy - by empowering climate pragmatists.
The third changes politics - by rewarding the problem-solvers and detoxing our addiction to polarization.
I’m donating my time and dollars to each of these. Please consider doing the same.
- Bill Shireman
Regenerative farming is making headway in conservative America
A friend of this publication has a large regenerative farm and for years this farmer/rancher/evangelist has made the case to me and others for healthy soil. Regenerative farming practices, though it has serious costs to farmers as they convert, makes for healthy soil. In fact one could say that it’s not just the crops that are being farmed on our friend’s farm but the ground itself -the Earth itself.
What is out of balance on a modern farm is brought back into balance with regenerative farming practices (when done well). This environmentally friendly practice has deep appeal for many in rural America. But converting to regenerative practices takes time and is costly. Yields diminish as the process plays out over multiple years and as vitality returns to the soil. This is a big reason why regenerative ag is not more widespread. But it is making headway even in some surprising (for some) places.
(From Fast Company)
In 2022, Pasa sent a survey to its members that asked if they used or would be interested in using a number of climate-positive farming interventions—agroforestry, cover crops, riparian buffers—without leaning on the phrase “climate change.”
“And we got a tremendous response,” she said. “Not only were people doing these practices already, but there was a real hunger for doing more if there were funding and technological assistance available. We also knew if we said, ‘Do you want to be a climate protection farmer?’ we probably would have gotten a different result on the survey.
If you ask Seiler why he started doing no-till farming, it was the erosion.
Click here for the article.
Chipotle invests in regenerative farming robots
The future is robotic. Physical robots, online robots, all driven by evermore sophisticated AI are pretty much revolutionizing everything right now.
And this includes your lunch burrito.
(From FastCasual.com)
Through its $50 million Cultivate Next venture fund, Chipotle Mexican Grill is investing in Greenfield Robotics, a company focused on making regenerative farming more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable by leveraging AI, robotics and sensing technologies. The Denver-based restaurant chain is also funding Nitricity, a company seeking to tackle greenhouse gas emissions by creating fertilizer products that are better for fields, farmers and the environment.
"The work of Greenfield Robotics to build out a tech-forward alternative to herbicides plays an important role in ensuring a more sustainable future for the agricultural industry," Chipotle CTO Curt Garner said in a company press release. "We will help Greenfield Robotics scale their robotic offerings and explore how their robots can be deployed on farms within our supply chain."
Click here for the article.
In Virginia recycled Christmas trees are being used to build sand dunes
Your editor couldn’t help but run this pretty narrow, local story. He is from Virginia Beach and he has watched the sand dunes since he was a boy.
Sand dunes, more specifically their destruction in Virginia and on much of the East Coast, is a great example of stupid planning policy built upon bad federal policy built upon extreme local shortsightedness.
For years in Virginia Beach people built directly on dunes. More specifically they removed the dunes to build houses that enjoyed “unhindered” views of the ocean.
As a boy I remember surfing off the beach of one of Virginia Beach’s most exclusive neighborhoods and wondering how it was that the $3 million houses, highly exposed to the ocean and waves, were built. It was only a matter of time before a hurricane of significant strength took at least some of them into the sea. This was especially true since the dunes that protected the neighborhood were largely leveled. Who could afford to take such a loss?
Then in college I learned of the federal flood insurance program which subsidized the building of the seaside mansions and which encouraged the destruction of dunes because the property owner, if they lost their home to the sea, would largely be indemnified by the US taxpayer. Then the property owner could build an even bigger house.
It got so bad in the 1990s that the beach on the southern end of Virginia Beach, an area called Sandbridge, pretty much lacked any beach at all for years. Owners built a bulkhead to hold the ocean at bay, but this was soon undermined and the beach was further eroded.
Things are a little better these days. There is a greater understanding of the unproductive effects of subsidized beach houses for the wealthy and the need for protective dunes. So that is why we run this quaint human interest story.
Long live the dunes and recycle those Christmas trees!
Recycled plastic utensils make surprisingly good 3D printer filament
A key to a much greener and sustainable world in the future is embracing technology that makes a circular economy possible.
What if you used a plastic fork at a picnic, put that fork into a receptacle when you were done, and the material in that fork was used to make another fork? (And consider if this could be done for other things easily and cheaply.)
We have the technology. It needs work, quite a lot of work, but we have the technology.
(From TomsHardware.com)
CNC Kitchen uses a custom filament extruder to pull this project off. It works by taking plastic pellets (or, in this case, scrap kitchenware plastic), melting them down, and processing them into a long strand. This strand is then captured and reeled onto a spool to be used as filament by a 3D printer.
Click here for the article.
What to do with 3D printing “poop”?
As you will see in the below video 3D printing has massive potential for environmental good but serious waste issues as well.
This guy is kind of a garage genius in the old school tradition. Never underestimate a smart person with a “shed”.
2023 was a “breakout year” for carbon removal
Carbon removal has become controversial in some environmental circles. There are those who fear that the tech could be used as a “get out of jail card” for the fossil fuels industry. But if carbon in the atmosphere is an issue and there is a technology that is just getting going with potentially massive upside, that could in theory significantly reduce carbon in the atmosphere, why would any climate activist have a beef? Fossil fuels to some degree are going to be a part of our global future for at least the medium term. Currently China is building two coal fired power plants per week with no end in sight. Surely figuring out how to pull that carbon from the atmosphere is probably a pretty good idea.
Good strategies have both offensive and defensive modes. Carbon capture can be seen as a technology that enhances the defensive side of carbon mitigation efforts.
Really, with China (by far and away the largest emitter of carbon, more than twice that of the US and growing) continuing on as it has carbon capture is not really a luxury for those concerned with climate issues.
(From Forbes)
According to CDR.fyi, a non-profit aggregator of carbon removal credit purchases, 2023 saw a 6.5x increase of credit sales from 800 thousand tonnes at the end of 2022, to more than 5.2 million tonnes at the end of 2023. The year ended with over $2.1 billion in carbon credit purchases.
Microsoft led the charge, purchasing 2.76 million tonnes of carbon removals over 11 years from Ørsted’s bioenergy, carbon capture, and storage (BECCS) plant. This project captures carbon dioxide emissions from a biomass plant that burns wood for energy, and then stores the captured carbon underground.
Click here for the article.
Louisiana could be an ideal hub for carbon capture, report says
It makes sense. This is where the fossil fuel knowledge is. The intellectual capital is immense and it would seem unwise to squander it as the carbon capture industry comes online.
(From Cenlanow.com)
Researchers believe Louisiana would make the “ideal candidate” for a hub because of the high concentration of the state’s carbon-emitting industries, along with the extensive amount of underground storage. Louisiana has one of the largest industrial workforces with transferrable skills in carbon capture projects.
“This report affirms the immense opportunity within Louisiana to leverage point-source carbon capture technology as part of a collective effort toward industrial decarbonization,” said Chair and CEO of Carbon Clean Aniruddha Sharma.
Click here for the article.
Event
January 5, 2024
National Day of Dialogue
The National Day of Dialogue is YOUR opportunity to PARTICIPATE in reducing hate and division in the U.S.
Held each year on January 5th, the National Day of Dialogue features
Opportunities to dialogue on democracy with Americans whose views may differ from yours, and
Resources to help you engage constructively with Americans with different perspectives and lived experiences.