This Week in MCJ (3/20/20)

News, help wanted, and other topics from the MCJ community.

Hello MCJ community,

Wow, this is a crazy time. It is a lot to take in for all of us, and it is hard to know exactly what to make of it when we are right in the thick of going through it. Most of all, I hope this message finds you safe and home. I am deeply concerned about both the suffering and loss of lives that will come from COVID-19, but also the economic disruption that is coming along with it. So many people live paycheck to paycheck already and so many businesses operate with little to no margin for error, and I am deeply sad and concerned for what is to come for them, and for our economy overall.

I have found it to be a bit of a challenge to get excited to get out of bed every day focused on climate change. It is not because I don’t find climate change to be a deeply concerning and important problem (It is! It is!), but it is a longer term relative to this pandemic, and we are in the midst of an acute and painful short-term crisis.

Thus far, I have been plowing forward full-steam ahead with the MCJ efforts. Not only is climate a fundamentally important problem, but like COVID-19, it is a thorny systems challenge. While some are worried we will come out of the pandemic with less emphasis on solving climate change, I actually feel like climate will have an even more pronounced focus. And that there will be some lessons learned from this pandemic that we will be able to apply directly. And whether it gets easier or harder for all of us focused on climate change, climate remains a problem worthy of solving (understatement!), and I am going to keep pushing this boulder up the mountain, regardless. If any of you have been wrestling with similar, I’d love to hear how you have been thinking about it.

Also, we are trying this new weekly newsletter format as an experiment. The same way the pod (hopefully!) brings ongoing value, we hope this newsletter will do the same. It is meant to be a curated recap of climate news, climate jobs, projects, and other asks from the MCJ community (largely curated from the MCJ slack room), and other interesting climate topics that we think you might like.

Feel free to get in touch with any questions or feedback. And if you find it valuable, please help spread the word.

Jason

---

📼Episodes

Here are this week’s episodes you may have missed!

• Episode 90: Rich Sorkin, Co-Founder & CEO of Jupiter Intelligence

  I have a great discussion with Rich Sorkin and learn how Jupiter Intelligence is providing data analytics to governments and corporations for the purposes of assessing various types of climate peril. It is an intriguing conversation, in which we discuss the applications of data in risk modeling, founding a climate startup, and the importance of resiliency as it relates to planning for climate change.

• Episode 91: Kingsmill Bond, Energy Strategist at Carbon Tracker

  Kingsmill Bond joins me on the pod and shares some fascinating details about how the financial markets (and investors at large) are and are not factoring in the risks of climate change. Kingsmill has some fascinating opinions about the role of big oil in the climate transition, that are quite different than what a number of other guests have articulated.

---

🤝Sponsor

Interested in sponsoring the MCJ podcast episode and/or newsletter? Let us know!

---

💼Jobs

Here are some jobs, shared by members of the MCJ community, that we think might interest you.

• BD Lead at Salient Predictions (contact: slevang@salientpredictions.com)

• COO/Co-Founder at powerHyde (job description)

• Backend / Frontend Engineers at DavidEnergy (career page)

• Sales / AEs / Analysts / et al. at COI Energy (career page)

• Dir. of Revenue Operations at Solstice (job description)

• Project Manager at Nori (job description; apply by April 1)

Interested in sharing a job with the community? Use the button below to let us know, or just post it in #climatejobs in the MCJ slack room.

---

📰Articles

• NYT: “Social Distancing? You Might Be Fighting Climate Change, Too”

  This recently published article delves into how the practice of social distancing is helping to keep people safe, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and consequently lowering their carbon footprint.

• TechCrunch: “YC grad SINAI helps companies understand their emissions in a bid to fight climate change”

  A great write-up about SINAI Technologies’ graduation from Y Combinator’s incubator program. SINAI Technologies enables companies to analyze and manage their carbon emissions and develop a carbon strategy.

• NYT: “Where the Virus and Climate Intersect”

  An interesting piece advocating for how financial assistance for the airline industry, hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, should be coupled with reforms that align it with climate goals.