I guess #COP26 is a good occasion to announce that my team and I at Campfire Labs just gave a $60,000 grant to @theclimatevote.

Here's why I'm excited about what they are building:
The single most effective #climate action anyone can take is advocating for policy change.

@theclimatevote makes that easy (and surprisingly fun).

Every week they host an hour of action. A bunch of us get together and learn from experts like the good folks at @ProjectDrawdown.
After learning about a policy or issue we get to work.

We send personalized emails to legislators. We make calls. And we set up meetings with our reps.

In my second hour of action I set up a meeting with a US Senate staffer to talk about climate!
There are a few things that make Changemakers different than traditional advocacy organizations:

1. They put volunteers to work.

Most organizations cultivate donors and use the money to hire paid lobbyists.

Changemakers turns their volunteers into the lobbyists.
2. They go beyond "Clicktivism."

None of these ALL CAPS emails asking you to "chip in $5" or send a canned email.

Changemakers shows you how to send emails that legislators actually read.

And they never ask volunteers for money.
In my experience there's only two real antidotes to climate anxiety: action and community.

@theclimatevote offers both.

If you're looking to feel a little less anxious and get to work, come join us for an hour of action - climatechangemakers.org

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More from @curious_founder

30 Nov
I analyzed ~65,000 nonprofit tax returns to see where charitable dollars go in America.

I learned that environmental nonprofits receive less than 2% of all donations.

Here's what else I learned 🧵

#GivingTuesday #energytwitter
In 2020 Americans gave $471 billion to nonprofits.

Most of those donations went to the following categories: religion, education, human services, and health.

Environmental organizations received just $8 billion (~2%) — the least amount of any category tracked by the IRS. Image
Organizations working to reduce GHG emissions received only $2 billion.

That means 0.4% of all charitable donations went to climate mitigation.

Which is a huge bummer to say the least.
Read 11 tweets
12 Nov
Most banks use your money to fund fossil fuel projects 👎

But some banks use your money to fund #climate solutions like solar ☀️

I spent dozens of hours over the last few weeks trying to find the best climate-friendly bank.

Here's what I learned 🧵
1. Most banks are still pouring trillions into fossil fuel projects.

Here's how much the top banks have lent since Paris:

@Chase: $316 billion
@Citi: $237 billion
@WellsFargo: $223 billion
@BankofAmerica: $198 billion

Source: @RAN's latest report - ran.org/wp-content/upl…
2. Where you choose to bank has a direct impact on what projects do or don't get funded.

If you bank with @Chase or @WellsFargo, your money funds more oil rigs and coal plants.

If you switch to a sustainable bank, your money funds rooftop solar, wind farms, EVs, etc.
Read 9 tweets
12 Nov
AHRI just released the latest data on heating and cooling installs.

353k homeowners installed natural gas furnaces in Sept.

Those installs guarantee ~4m tons of carbon emissions / year for the next 20 years.

That's 80m of carbon budget 🔥 in a single month.

#energytwitter
We need to get that number to zero ASAP. But we're trending in the wrong direction.

Here are the gas furnace install numbers for the last three Septembers:

2019: 286,870
2020: 351,087 (weird year)
2021: 353,047

Here they are for the last 2 decades (note: 2021 YTD is up 30%)
Now let's look at air conditioning units ❄️

All a/c runs on electricity. That's good. But most a/c units are really inefficient. That's bad.

So in the short term, installing inefficient units is its own form of fossil-fuel lock-in.
Read 9 tweets
11 Nov
Wow, I knew that China burned more coal than any country, but this graph is staggering 🤯
But the US takes the cake on fossil gas emissions
And oil
Read 5 tweets
29 Oct
Just went through the #BuildBackBetter bill text and here are some home electrification highlights:

🧵
#energytwitter
Section 30421 provides $9 billion for home energy retrofits.

This is the biggest investment in efficiency / electrification by an order of magnitude.

Obama's Better Buildings Neighborhood Program (BBNP) invested $508 million.
The second thing to note here is that the $9 billion is the same as what was allocated in the last version of the bill.

So it appears Manchin and Sinema didn't mangle this at all.
Read 13 tweets
28 Oct
Here's a thread on what I've learned looking at dozens of impact investing opportunities.

Tl;dr - you can make 5-10% returns and:

- Cut emissions
- Improve public health
- Invest in underserved communities

🧵
#energytwitter
1. Most people think you have to sacrifice returns to do good.

That's false.

I found tons of opportunities to invest in renewables, electrification, and regenerative agriculture.

All of them offered 5-10% returns.
2. The best opportunities tackle more than one social problem.

And there are a lot of them!

@BlocPower (led by the amazing @DBaird13) is electrifying buildings and cutting emissions.

They are also investing and creating high-paying jobs in underserved communities.
Read 11 tweets

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