Climate Workers Anonymous

A confession from someone who works on power grid connections for large emitters, and who has watched low-level regulators quietly close off the routes that new gas plants need to connect unless they include CCS.No announcement, no press release. Just minor changes to grid codes and guidances until the business case for a plant without carbon capture stopped existing.They call themselves a termite.Before the submission I get into James C. Scott and why we assume corporations rather than governments are the place climate action has to start. Also Estonia, and what it says about us that we cut an agency's funding and then point at how badly it works.Send your own anonymous confession here.Climate Workers Anonymous is curated by Ross Kenyon. Full transcript, additional writing, the archive, and more available on Substack. Can I count on you to subscribe?Episode art adapted from a photograph by Olga Ernst, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Get full access to Climate Workers Anonymous at climateworkersanonymous.com/subscribe

Today's submission is about why perhaps less scrutiny is shown to artisanal biochar than industrial, and how that actually may be harmful to these artisanal biochar project developers. Will dMRV providers notice? But first...Is this a diary?I intended for Climate Workers Anonymous to be a conduit for the submissions of others, but reading them always make me think. When they are simple calls for a better world, I love it. When you decry hypocrisy, I’m at the barricades with you. When you’re staring into the scale of our climate work and the resulting feelings of hopelessness, I’ll match you sentiment for sentiment.Do you not have all of these inside of you too? Do you not show them or hide them depending upon the social context?Climate Workers Anonymous is at least partially an attempt to widen the context of climate and carbon dioxide removal work beyond toxic positivity and taking corporate climate action at face value. But I’m wondering if there is room enough in this project to bring some of my own feelings in sometimes.Maybe it’s a one-off. But I’m going to share with you today where I am.Sometimes you show up to make a show and there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. Sometimes you’re going through a hard personal time and have to smile through your work calls. Sometimes you might be extremely concerned for the future of your country let alone species let alone the more-than-human world. And sometimes it can all just burst out without necessarily having the right headings and spacings and sequencing. Right now, it’s all laid out.If that’s how you’re feeling today, let it rip. I have these days too as is plain to see.Thanks so much to today's submitter and for being brave in your work in carbon dioxide removal.Sincerely,Ross Kenyon--------------------------Thank you for listening to and reading Climate Workers Anonymous. Subscribe to Substack below, and be sure to subscribe in whichever podcast app you use. An amazing rating and review on those podcast apps does a world of good. Would you please do that for me now? Here’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.If you’d like submit your anonymous hopes, fears, or experiences to Climate Workers Anonymous, you can use this Tally survey or email climateworkersanonymous[at]protonmail.com, though I believe the Tally survey is more secure. Do not communicate anything you wouldn’t want a hacker to have access to, including an email address that could be linked to you if you email the account on Protonmail.Did you connect with this edition of Climate Workers Anonymous? Share this out with your network and help it get seen.Here are some things the audio referenced that didn’t make it into the essay above:* Daniel Schmachtenberger’s work.* Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke Get full access to Climate Workers Anonymous at climateworkersanonymous.com/subscribe

When is your startup’s failure your fault?Saying your startup failed because of macroeconomic conditions is a bit like saying your marriage failed because being married is hard. Yes, but is that really all the analysis you’ve got handy? It can’t all be the business cycle and macroeconomics, right?Today’s submission to Climate Workers Anonymous is about what to do with macro conditions and the business cycle from within your particular climate tech or carbon dioxide removal company.One part of it is about offering grace to one another and ourselves. It’s hard to go wrong in over-applying grace. But another part of it is an encouragement to remain counter-cyclical. If everyone is panicking, you be the calm one looking for acquisition and growth opportunities. If the good feelings of the endless summer of expansionary times are being felt by all, you be the cautious one and note that this too shall pass. If you believe what everyone else believes, you will broadly end up in the same place. And if you lead a company, your job isn’t to end up with everyone else (or at least under capitalism as normally played.) So you should have a counter-cyclical default at least as one way of seeing among many.But for your own sake, it doesn’t need to be the only tool you have. If it is, it’s no longer the millstone as a the tool but a millstone as the sinker around your neck. Having only one cognitive tool and overapplying it is one of the ways one can end up in crackpot territory. Be advised!-------------------------Thank you for listening to and reading Climate Workers Anonymous. Subscribe to Substack here, and be sure to subscribe in whichever podcast app you use. An amazing rating and review on those podcast apps does a world of good. Would you please do that for me now? Here’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.If you’d like submit your anonymous hopes, fears, or experiences to Climate Workers Anonymous, you can use this Tally survey or email climateworkersanonymous[at]protonmail.com, though I believe the Tally survey is more secure. Do not communicate anything you wouldn’t want a hacker to have access to, including an email address that could be linked to you if you email the account on Protonmail.Will you please share this Climate Workers Anonymous post out with your network? Help this find more folks out there who will love it! Get full access to Climate Workers Anonymous at climateworkersanonymous.com/subscribe

Things are going poorly for you? That’s too bad, because I’m having a grand ol’ time.Are you subscribed to Climate Workers Anonymous? Do so now to listen in and read whenever a new edition is released and support this fledgling collective art project.Welcome to Climate Workers Anonymous, where those who work in climate are able to share the feelings and experiences they want to share but aren’t sure they want attached to their name.They might want that anonymity because they’ve got some biting satirical take their corporate employer would frown upon. Maybe it’s someone trying to scale their company’s impact but is dubious that all of the levels of governance in carbon dioxide removal do as much good as is claimed. Or maybe they want anonymity because their company is doing well when many of their peers are not. That can be its own form of loneliness.As I was recording this and trying to describe this feeling, I got stuck onto “the ghost at the feast” that people associate so strongly with Shakespeare’s Macbeth.But that’s not quite right. In the play, Banquo’s ghost shows up, Macbeth is the only character who can see him, and it causes Macbeth to act very erratically, ruining the feast for the guests and especially Lady Macbeth.For this submission, it’s more like the submitter is a vigorous person who somehow wandered into a “meal” for ghosts. The submitter’s contentment, health, and ability to sate their hunger can’t help but cause the ghosts envy and grief by merely existing in their presence.This type of inequality—even if earned entirely through meritocratic means (though it’s for me to know where such a thing could exist in the world such as it is)—can make us uncomfortable. As I read the submission, the submitter is proud of their strategy and ability to execute and good read of macro conditions and wants to promenade their success without necessarily wishing any else will or a lack of success.I do wonder in a case like this, if it would be less satisfying to the submitter if everyone received the same success. Would it diminish their value or their foresight? How much of our desire to work is driven by a need to distinguish ourselves as individuals, and to feel our status grow in the eyes of ourselves and others?Who can say what is in the submitter’s heart, when even our own can be so mysterious? But if we take them at face value, it’s also an encouragement to fight yourself back to health. Don’t give up. It’s not too late. Get back in the game and catch up to your peer so you can celebrate alongside.SubmissionsN.B. The submissions in Climate Workers Anonymous are anonymous and unverified.* We’re actually fine. Times are tough, no doubt, but we keep growing from a large base, and have some really exciting milestones ahead of us. In some ways, I wish I saw more fighting spirit from our industry. Some large incumbents aren’t getting the funding to take them to the scale they expected, but somehow they’ve decided to just do nothing instead. Complete silence, at least in public, which also makes the bad buyer & investor sentiment a self-fulfilling prophecy to some extent. Surely it’d be better to at least keep building & learning publicly at a smaller scale like we used to? Meanwhile, we feel vindicated in the strategic choices we made that allow us to keep scaling, but it feels like there’s nobody to celebrate with if the whole industry is hurting.I enjoy these short and sweet episodes. I’d welcome your thoughts. Please like and share this post out if you enjoyed it, and and subscribe if you aren’t already. Below is the info to submit your tales, feelings, thoughts to Climate Workers Anonymous for publication on the podcast and in written form as in this edition.Thanks so much for your support.Sincerely,Ross KenyonCurator of Climate Workers AnonymousThank you for listening to and reading Climate Workers Anonymous. Subscribe to Substack below, and be sure to subscribe in whichever podcast app you use. An amazing rating and review on those podcast apps does a world of good. Would you please do that for me now? Here’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.If you’d like submit your anonymous hopes, fears, or experiences to Climate Workers Anonymous, you can use this Tally survey or email climateworkersanonymous[at]protonmail.com, though I believe the Tally survey is more secure. Do not communicate anything you wouldn’t want a hacker to have access to, including an email address that could be linked to you if you email the account on Protonmail.Did you enjoy this post from Climate Workers Anonymous? Please share it out so it can find the people who will love it. Get full access to Climate Workers Anonymous at climateworkersanonymous.com/subscribe

It’s easy to dunk on LinkedIn. There are times when I will polish every word of a post that points to a deep yearning for our labor in climate to feel spiritually meaningful, and for that yearning not to be corrupted by commercial pressures of sucking up to companies whom our conscience commands us to jeer at, challenge, or at the very least not believe. It will get eighty impressions.Then I will see a post akin to: “I went to a conference and it was good. I learned that we need more demand in carbon markets.” And the response will somehow be rapturous praise.Today's episode has a submission about the sheer number of intermediaries presumably in carbon dioxide removal, but also about the ways that status operates in a field like CDR.Thank you for listening to and reading Climate Workers Anonymous. Subscribe to Substack here, and be sure to subscribe in whichever podcast app you use. An amazing rating and review on those podcast apps does a world of good. Would you please do that for me now? Here’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.If you’d like submit your anonymous hopes, fears, or experiences to Climate Workers Anonymous, you can use this Tally survey or email climateworkersanonymous[at]protonmail.com, though I believe the Tally survey is more secure. Do not communicate anything you wouldn’t want a hacker to have access to, including an email address that could be linked to you if you email the account on Protonmail. Get full access to Climate Workers Anonymous at climateworkersanonymous.com/subscribe

There’s a Tom Waits line I had thought was from his VH1 Story Tellers album (though I can’t find the exact moment now) where he discusses that a rooster will wait until one is between sung phrases to crow. In my memory, it was about his song “Chocolate Jesus”. The point being—sometimes art coalesces without any intentional will one can detect. Maybe it’s coincidence. Or it’s a vibe people are tuning into. Maybe it’s one of those phone calls in The Sims that would let you know something like, “the owls are not what they seem.” (Super useful, thanks.)This week’s read submissions are like that. They amplify, reflect, and oppose one another. I enjoy seeing accidental harmonies, though the dissonance and randomness of submissions other weeks is amusing in its own way. The reminder of commonality is linked to a reminder of how unique our own time here.To that effect, here’s perhaps my favorite lines ever penned on this gap between individual experience, language, and collective understanding:“Moreover, in this extremity of solitude none could count on any help from his neighbor; each had to bear the brunt of his troubles alone. If, by some chance, one of us tried to unburden himself or to say something about his feelings, the reply he got, whatever it might be, usually wounded him. And then it dawned on him that he and the man with him weren't talking about the same thing. For while he himself spoke from the depths of long days of brooding upon his personal distress, and the image he had tried to impart had been slowly shaped and proved in the fires of passion and regret, this meant nothing to the man to whom he was speaking, and who pictured a conventional emotion, a grief that is traded on the market- place, mass-produced. Whether friendly or hostile, the reply always missed fire, and the attempt to communicate had to be given up. This was true of those at least for whom silence was unbearable, and since the others could not find the truly expressive word, they resigned themselves to using the current coin of language, the commonplaces of plain narrative, of anecdote and of their daily paper. So, in these cases, too, even the sincerest grief had to make do with the set phrases of ordinary conversation. Only on these terms could the prisoners of the plague ensure the sympathy of their door-porter and the interest of their hearers.”— Albert Camus, The PlagueBut you must be the judge of the submissions for yourself.Thanks so much for listening and/or reading. I am so glad to have you here.If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your network and help it find more of those who will love it.Sincerely,Ross Kenyon Curator of Climate Workers Anonymous-------------------------------Thank you for listening to and reading Climate Workers Anonymous. Subscribe to Substack below, and be sure to subscribe in whichever podcast app you use. An amazing rating and review on those podcast apps does a world of good. Would you please do that for me now? Here’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.If you’d like submit your anonymous hopes, fears, or experiences to Climate Workers Anonymous, you can use this Tally survey or email climateworkersanonymous[at]protonmail.com, though I believe the Tally survey is more secure. Do not communicate anything you wouldn’t want a hacker to have access to, including an email address that could be linked to you if you email the account on Protonmail. Get full access to Climate Workers Anonymous at climateworkersanonymous.com/subscribe

Welcome to Climate Workers Anonymous, where those working in climate share their anonymous and unverified experiences, feelings, and analysis about their labor.Today’s show has submissions covering both the highs and the lows. But even in saying that, I wonder if I start to cross my own editorial standards that I discuss in the podcast version of this episode.Someone left a review on Apple Podcasts that made me think—should I be commenting upon the submissions? So far I haven’t been. I’ve been publishing them and letting them stand on their own. I worry that if I say too much I might misinterpret, or point people away from their intended meaning. Or, potentially worse, distract from their truth with my own commentary.One of the other creative projects I work on is Carbon Removal Memes. It’s biggest on LinkedIn but starting to stand it up on Substack. I started it and built a writer’s room while at my previous company, Nori. It continues on with a rotating cast of meme writers where we workshop our pitches.While I do occasionally have to reign in an editorial take on an issue I think is beyond what is supportable, I mostly try to help people find their funny. I’m not trying to grind my own ax more than theirs. Even if I don’t connect with something they made, if they find it funny and stick up for it, I’m willing to give it a shot. If it connects with them, it will likely connect with someone else.It’s one of the few rules of making art that I know of—if you don’t like what you made, it’s unclear who else will. Or at the very least, you will be unable to tell if it is good or not unless someone tells you. That is a difficult aesthetic position to be in.And while I don’t agree with the editorial line every meme takes, I don’t view it as my role to be the final arbiter of truth. My job is to help others express themselves and make work of which they are proud.That ethos has also prepared me for Climate Workers Anonymous. These are unverified takes people send in. I’m not checking for corroborating sources. This is impressionistic; not journalistic. My work here is to enable others to create and share what they have experienced as true. That leads me to think I should minimize the amount of direct commentary on post submissions.If you think I’ve made a wrong turn, feel free to comment or send a message. I’m still figuring this out and I want it to be the best version of itself that we can make it.If you are truly a completist, here’s a link to Gertrude Stein. I am not sure if this is in fact an apt comparison, but it stands as a thought.Thank you for listening to and reading Climate Workers Anonymous. Subscribe to Substack here, and be sure to subscribe in whichever podcast app you use. An amazing rating and review on those podcast apps does a world of good. Would you please do that for me now? Here’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.If you’d like submit your anonymous hopes, fears, or experiences to Climate Workers Anonymous, you can use this Tally survey or email climateworkersanonymous[at]protonmail.com, though I believe the Tally survey is more secure. Do not communicate anything you wouldn’t want a hacker to have access to, including an email address that could be linked to you if you email the account on Protonmail.Thanks so much for reading and listening. I am glad you’re here.Sincerely,Ross Kenyon, Curator of Climate Workers Anonymous Get full access to Climate Workers Anonymous at climateworkersanonymous.com/subscribe

Welcome to Climate Workers Anonymous, where those who work in climate get to share their anonymous and unverified feelings, experiences, and analysis. Today’s episode has two longer pieces that were submitted.Before I get into those, I wanted to share an additional reflection about the origins of the show’s name. A friend of mine said it and I cottoned onto it right away, and I didn’t quite make the connection that it might also have to do with my admiration for the Catholic Worker Movement and Dorothy Day, in addition to my respect for the various addiction treatment mutual aid organizations that end in “Anonymous”.What I love about both organizations is that they don’t use a hierarchical charitable orientation. The addiction groups are run by an ethos of equality, and that all are addicts, and it is addicts helping one another. For the Catholic Worker, their focus is on works of mercy that recognize the inherent dignity and equal worth of all people, and that any of us might just as easily be in a position that needs this kind of help.This recognition of moral luck renders judgment and hierarchy irrelevant, since it simultaneously encourages us to see ourselves as a fallen sinner as equally as those we “help”, and (if not secular, which many participants in Catholic Worker houses are) to recognize Christ in the “least of these.” The dual nature of humans as both entirely equal and plain, as well as being a locus for divinity to break through everyday reality, is a paradox I like to think a lot about.Ideally, that gives some additional context for why I am attracted to this kind of work.Sincerely,Ross KenyonCurator of Climate Workers Anonymous------------------------------------------------Thank you for listening to and reading Climate Workers Anonymous. Subscribe above, and be sure to subscribe in whichever podcast app you use. An amazing rating and review on those podcast apps does a world of good. Would you please do that for me now? Here’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.If you’d like submit your anonymous hopes, fears, or experiences to Climate Workers Anonymous, you can use this Tally survey or email climateworkersanonymous[at]protonmail.com, though I believe the Tally survey is more secure. Do not communicate anything you wouldn’t want a hacker to have access to, including an email address that could be linked to you if you email the account on Protonmail. Get full access to Climate Workers Anonymous at climateworkersanonymous.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode #4 of Climate Workers Anonymous, where those workers in climate can share their anonymous and unverified thoughts, feelings, and experiences about their work. What do you dare to think when you might not be judged for it? What’s your heretical thought, your foolish hope, or your hard-won experience? Share it here for publication on the written Substack and to be read in the podcast version.In this episode’s introduction, I explain a bit more about the limits of the show, and why if you believe there is any sort of questionable behavior by specific parties you should consider contacting an investigative journalist whom you respect. They are much better equipped to evaluate truth claims in this way and typically have anonymity protocols far more sophisticated than what I can offer. I keep this show anonymous and unverified to make sure there is room to discuss the truth of experience and feelings without having to do the hardboiled work of others. I hope that makes sense!Visit the Substack here to read the submissions for yourself.Thank you again to everyone who has submitted to the project!------------------------------------------------Thank you for listening to and reading Climate Workers Anonymous. Subscribe to Substack here, and be sure to subscribe in whichever podcast app you use. An amazing rating and review on those podcast apps does a world of good. Would you please do that for me now? Here’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.If you’d like submit your anonymous hopes, fears, or experiences to Climate Workers Anonymous, you can use this Tally survey or email climateworkersanonymous[at]protonmail.com, though I believe the Tally survey is more secure. Do not communicate anything you wouldn’t want a hacker to have access to, including an email address that could be linked to you if you email the account on Protonmail.Sincerely,Ross KenyonCurator of Climate Workers Anonymous Get full access to Climate Workers Anonymous at climateworkersanonymous.com/subscribe

Warning: these submissions are anonymous and unverified.We’ve barely even started Climate Workers Anonymous and I’m already receiving such challenging and intriguing pieces of feedback, and so many submissions. Thank you to everyone who has participated to date and taken time to share something real with this project.A friend of mine wrote me right before I recorded this episode and mentioned that he wanted fewer hot takes and more stories, and emotional content beyond anger. It set me to thinking about anger and how I understand its usefulness or lack thereof.I wrote a fair amount about this topic in the Substack posting of this podcast. If you are only seeing this in your podcast app, head over to the Substack for the full experience. You can also read all of the submissions over there rather than only listening to me read them.Also, stay tuned for an episode of my other podcast, Reversing Climate Change, which will soon feature a fuller exploration of the Bhagavad Gita.---------------------------------------------------------------Thank you for listening to and reading Climate Workers Anonymous. Subscribe on Substack here, and be sure to subscribe in whichever podcast app you use. An amazing rating and review on those podcast apps does a world of good. Would you please give Climate Workers Anonymous a full rating and great review for me now? Here’s the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.If you’d like submit your anonymous hopes, fears, or experiences to Climate Workers Anonymous, you can use this Tally survey or email climateworkersanonymous[at]protonmail.com, though I believe the Tally survey is more secure. Do not communicate anything you wouldn’t want a hacker to have access to, including an email address that could be linked to you if you email the account on Protonmail. Get full access to Climate Workers Anonymous at climateworkersanonymous.com/subscribe