Sign in Subscribe

No. 150: Not-So-Permafrost

The permafrost on the Arctic island of Svalbard — home to humanity's backup seed vault — warmed so drastically this year that teams of scientists studying the soil found they no longer needed drills to collect samples, and snowmelt formed large pools of water.

No. 150: Not-So-Permafrost
Photo by Tomáš Malík / Unsplash

Two weeks ago, we dug into a conservation effort in India protecting one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. I mentioned at the time that it reminded me of the Svalbard Seed Vault in Norway: a group of people preserving a corner of our planet for future generations.

So when Svalbard popped up in the news this week with concerns about its resilience, it inspired me to explore its mission once again and the challenges it faces in a warming world. As the permafrost thaws, it releases methane that contributes to more warming, and we'll need an answer for how to break that cycle in the near future.

This week's featured job is a great way to multiply the impact of nonprofits by connecting them to students who build technology to support their missions. I'm also pointing you to a job board from a venture capital firm in the climate space with nearly 1000 jobs at their associated companies. Finding job boards in a niche like this is a great way to focus your search and avoid scrolling endlessly on the aggregator services like Indeed and LinkedIn.

~ Greg

What we're reading

The permafrost on the Arctic island of Svalbard — home to humanity's backup seed vault — warmed so drastically this year that teams of scientists studying the soil found they no longer needed drills to collect samples, and snowmelt formed large pools of water. (Grist)

  • The irony here is profound: we chose this location specifically because it's reliably frozen, yet it's now warming six to seven times faster than the global average. When air temperatures hit 40 °F in February versus the typical 5 °F, you know we're witnessing something unprecedented.
    • Those temperatures prompted scientists to publish a paper about their experience in Nature Communications last week.
    • The seed vault itself isn't in immediate danger, but a 2017 flooding incident serves as a canary in the coal mine for what happens when our forever frozen assumptions prove wrong.
  • Particularly troubling is the feedback loop behind the rising temperatures: as permafrost thaws, it releases methane-producing bacteria that were previously dormant. More methane accelerates warming, which thaws more permafrost, creating a self-reinforcing cycle.
    • When temperatures do drop and the surface water refreezes, the bacteria still produce methane. The ice traps them in oxygen-poor conditions where they thrive, meaning there's essentially no winter shutdown of methane production anymore.
    • Snow and ice also reflect sunlight, and when they are lost, the earth absorbs more heat. Meanwhile, increased atmospheric moisture from warmer conditions creates low-level clouds that trap heat.
  • In effect, there are multiple flywheels at play here: permafrost thawing, lower reflectivity, and atmospheric changes, each in a self-reinforcing cycle.
    • So what can we do about this? It's definitely a challenge we need to address in this generation, particularly given this will only get worse the longer it's allowed to continue. For a spot of hope, check out the Arctic Repair Conference where scientists and engineers gathered to explore solutions, and consider that companies like Real Ice are developing ways to regrow the Arctic ice.
    • Moonshots? Almost certainly, but where there's effort, there's a possibility of change.

Job of the week

This year, I've been especially interested in the ways that we can help nonprofits weather the current financial environment. I've shared some resources to get involved on a volunteer basis in the past – see Catchafire, for example – and this week I have a job opportunity where you could put your full-time efforts behind nonprofit support.

Develop for Good got its start a few years ago as a way for students to build technology to support nonprofits – a classic win-win situation with a social impact chef's kiss. Even the students helping out tend to come from underrepresented backgrounds. These days they're hiring a Nonprofit Partnerships Manager to help them grow their client base, and the role is remote. If you're great at building relationships, be sure to check it out.

Community roundup

  • The group head of sustainable and transition finance at Barclays announced that the bank had made 500 million pounds in revenue last year from sustainable finance. The part that makes this especially interesting is his statement on how that compared to their other investments: lending to customers using sustainable products yielded higher returns. (Reuters)
    • Although not framed this way in the article, this goes back to why companies continue to invest in ESG even if the acronym has lost some of its luster. There was a values-driven component to be sure, but it was also a financial opportunity and risk management strategy: companies investing in good governance and considering their social and environmental impact tend to be conscientious, and profitable, in other areas.
  • Hundreds of millions of people in Africa are not connected to the local electrical grid, and companies see an opportunity to deploy off-grid solar instead. Citi recently arranged a $150 million deal in Kenya for 1.4 million off-grid solar systems. (CNBC)
    • As in the U.S., these systems can be prohibitively expensive for people to purchase. The company behind the systems set up a payment program that allows homeowners to pay for the systems over time and bundled those payments into a security – that's what the big banks invested in.
    • Naturally, it makes me wonder whether something similar could be done in the U.S. We've had tax credits and subsidies for homeowners and renewable energy businesses, but I'm unaware of a case where banks are investing in solar infrastructure under this model.
  • A group of startups has emerged to capture the emissions from smokestacks and convert it into carbon and hydrogen to be used elsewhere. (Inside Climate News)
    • New York University's Carbon to Value Accelerator is designed to support carbon technology startups, and they have graduated 35 companies so far.
    • One of the challenges will be scaling the technology, but they have traction: Graphitic commissioned a pilot project in San Antonio this year and Carbon Free is partnering with U.S. Steel.
  • OpenAI has released a "Study Mode" for ChatGPT that aims to coach students through problems instead of simply giving them the answer outright. (Gizmodo)
    • Back in my day, we used index cards to study. Silliness aside, what stands out to me is the introduction of OpenAI to this topic. For the past few years, I've been impressed by the number of EdTech companies – and teachers with a technology interest – that have thought to use AI to improve educational outcomes.
    • Don't get me wrong: this isn't just about OpenAI responding to the issues they've created in education. There's a financial opportunity as well, as OpenAI has its own pricing tier aimed specifically at college campuses.

Civic corner

  • Here's an unlikely positive impact from the tariffs: aluminum recycling is poised to increase in the U.S. due to the 50% tariff on imported aluminum. (CNBC)
    • The tariffs help aluminum suppliers in the U.S. but puts pricing pressure on manufacturers whose supply chains have relied on aluminum imports. In response, some are trying to make better use of aluminum scrap, and as an added benefit, recycling uses only a fraction of the energy required to produce aluminum from scratch.
  • When the United States dismantled USAID, it put nearly $10 million of family planning products like IUDs and birth control pills in limbo in Belgium. The State Department plans to spend $167,000 to incinerate the products instead of selling them to other organizations in need. (NPR)
    • It seems like a no-brainer to try to recoup some of the losses, and in fact various organizations offered to purchase the products. They were told no because of the "Mexico City Policy" – a Reagan-era policy that has been rescinded and reinstated in based on the political whims of the party in power.
    • The policy states that foreign NGOs can't use federal funding to provide abortion services and related information. Even though the family planning products aren't related to abortion, humanitarian groups said that the U.S. government used the Mexico City Policy as grounds to reject a sale.
  • The EPA officially announced on Tuesday that they plan to revoke the endangerment finding that forms the foundation of greenhouse gas regulations in the U.S. (Inside Climate News)
    • This appears to be in the preliminary stages of implementation. The last time we discussed this topic, the plan had been sent to the White House. Now the plan has been announced. As for when it is officially implemented – stay tuned.
    • As I've said before, the real question is how industries react. I would predict a near-immediate change for the energy industry, for example, whereas automakers may slow their transformations rather than abandon them altogether.

Hot job opportunities

Resource of the week

If you're looking to put your career might behind a big social impact idea, you can do a lot worse than joining a startup on a growth trajectory. One of the best ways to find those kinds of opportunities is to look up venture capital firms in the areas that interest you, whether that's clean energy, education, healthcare, or something equally impactful.

This week, I'm going to point you to the job board at Lowercarbon Capital. VCs often maintain a single job board that compiles opportunities from the companies in which they've invested, and Lowercarbon Capital is no different.

As of this writing, I found 929 opportunities. That's substantial, and if you're looking for a company that aligns with your values, finding a job board niche like this is a great way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Give it a good ol' browse: you might find your next opportunity.

Test your knowledge

Last week I asked you about World Refugee Day and how it got its start. It happens every year on June 20th, and it was designated by the United Nations General Assembly to recognize refugees around the world: the challenges they face, their rights, and their dreams.

The United States has the biggest resettlement program of any country in the world and has resettled 3 million refugees since 1975. In a perfect world, no one would become a refugee. Given our current reality, however, it's good to see countries around the world helping refugees make a new start.

I have another public transit question for you this week after seeing a particularly remarkable instance from Germany over the weekend:

Which U.S. city ushered in the modern light rail era when its trolley system entered service in 1981?

Email me your guess, and I'll send one lucky winner a couple of One Work stickers!

I took a jaunt up to Battle Ground Lake State Park last weekend, and it was packed with kayakers and paddle boarders. Summer is in full swing, and as much as I'm looking forward to fall weather, I have to say it's nice to see everyone enjoying the natural beauty just outside our doors.