News, Reconfigured: Feb 17
This is really becoming a thing...
Quick note before we start: As a heads up – this newsletter contains references to startups and different organizations. I'm not endorsing any companies or products mentioned here (and if I do, I promise to be transparent about it). This newsletter is just for info and fun. Make sure to do your own digging (and tell me if you find gold💰)!
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Hey there Climate Globetrotters!👋
Welcome back. There’s a lot to cover and not enough attention span.
Last week, before releasing our Deep-Dive, I tried to dupe everyone by fake-opening a fake tourism company - Polar Silk Road Tours 2050.
As expected in 2025, I used a host of AI tools (Perplexity, Ideogram and Bolt.new) to create (what I think is) a funny page inviting you to book at tour across the Polar Silk Road. While no such tour is currently available, I think the end result was fun to look at and fun to create. Take a look:
On Today’s Agenda:
🧭 Frontier Watch: Drill Baby Drill vs. Plug Baby Plug
🎪 Globetrotting: All Aboard the Polar Silk Road
🌊 Ripple Reports:
Climate change to erase $1.5T in home value
22 states sue NY over Climate Superfund
💻 Tech, Reconfigured:
Happened in Tech: Laurene Powell Jobs joins forces with Amazon to invest $700M in X-Energy
Startup Shoutout: Carbon Re
🧭 Frontier Watch
Major shifts that caught our attention in the past two weeks.
Drill Baby Drill vs. Plug Baby Plug
The AI Summit in Paris was an opportunity for world leaders and business executives to schmooze and talk shop, but also for newcomers to tell us where it’s at. Vice President JD Vance did not shy away from telling Europeans what he thinks of their approach to AI: 👎
Still, VP Vance did note the important role energy will play in the future of AI, something both him and the EU can (and probably do) agree on. While the current Administration’s approach is “Drill Baby Drill”, French President Macron retorted with his “Plug Baby Plug”, showing he’s as a marketing guru as President Trump is.
Macron gave his American counterparts a friendly jab, saying:
"I have a good friend in other side of ocean [sic], he says drill, baby, drill. Here there is no need to drill, it is plug, baby, plug… Here it is available and we will go fast and very fast.”
Macron and Vance’s remarks at the AI Summit, to me, show just how messy the Reconfiguration is, with nations have to place bets on how to deal with an uncertain future that ties technology, climate change and energy together. Climate change is already making dramatic changes to global energy markets, but it’s not the only game in town. Much has been written about the opportunity we have to leverage the soaring energy demand to decarbonize, but that as the new Trump Administration shows, it’s far from a foregone conclusion that this will be the case.
At any rate, Macron’s comments join a wave of new investments in, and appetite for, nuclear energy as a way to have reliable, affordable and decarbonized energy at scale. In a way, the resurgance of interest in Nuclear is fortunate for France. It is not clear if the US will play ball⚽ (or golf🏌️♀️) with France’s aspiration to lead the nuclear pack, with the Administration’s aspirations laying elsewhere.
The implictations of the divergence of views (Drill vs. Plug) will have significant impacts on the future of our planet and will create extensive ripple effects on policy, geopolitics and energy. In a way, this is how the Reconfiguration unfolds: messy “battles” of approach on what to do next: do we plug, or do we drill.
At the end of the day, climate change is woven into geopolitics, political worldviews and technology, and the Reconfiguration is just starting to unfold. Will we “Drill Baby Drill” or “Plug Baby Plug”? What will the MAGA movement choose as it permeats US policy? I guess we’ll see.
🎪 Globetrotting
As we continue our jounrey through the Arctic, we set our sights to the Polar Silk Road. We join forces with a newly appointed Arctic Ambassador and share his frustrations that nothing is working over there, especially not the heater!
Join us as we look at one of China’s main plays in the Arctic, the construction of the Polar Silk Road, in attempt to dramatically increase its influence over the region. Will China succeed? Where is NATO? Will our Ambassador finally be able to turn on the heater?
Find out here:
🌊 Ripple Reports
The Reconfiguration is not always about making giant waves, but sometimes about making smaller ripples. Let’s take a look at some of the more subtle signals of the Reconfiguration:
New study by First Street Foundation finds that climate change will likely erase a staggering $1.5T in home value across the US 🏚️, with rising insurance premiums expected to make living unaffordable across many cities in the US. The Reconfiguration of insurance markets is well under way, with insurers raising premiums as extreme weather events become more common. This study is another compelling piece of evidence for industry response to climate change (reported in CBS News).
22 states are suing New York over its $75B Climate Superfund 💰🧑⚖️, claiming it is unconstitutional. Enacted by Governor Hochul on December 26, 2024, this superfund is aimed at making major polluters pay for damage caused by climate change, and is a sign of how the courts become another arena for climate battles. The Reconfiguration of the legal arena is in full swing (reported by Reuters).
👩💻Tech, Reconfigured
Innovators, inventors, and explorers building tools for our changing world
Happened in Tech
The race to make nuclear energy great again is in full throttle, with Laurene Powell Jobs joining forces with Amazon in a $700M investment into X-Energy ⚡, a developer of Small Modular Reactors. This deal, which includes a promise to create 300MW in added capacity to power data centers in the Pacific Northwest and Virginia, is just another example of the attempt by venture capitalists and tech giants to secure sustainable, durable energy. This move is part of a larger, more encompassing, reconfiguration of the energy market in face of climate pressures (reported by TechCrunch).
Startup Shoutout
Note: I love startups and want to make a habit in giving a shoutout to folks that are doing cool things but still may be under the radar, so from now on I’ll include a startup shoutout. Feel free to contact me to suggest companies. I don’t charge money, have no stakes (or steaks) and honestly just like supporting innovators. I’ll make a note when I know the team personally.
Carbon Re
Ok, you have a kiln, or a plant (I know, it was your dream, keep it cool) and you want to make it more efficient, and maybe even reduce its carbon footprint (you were always the treehugger among your peers). But, you don’t have time🕒, money 💰 or energy⚡to start messing with changing the equipment. You can give up, but there’s also another way.
That’s where Carbon Re comes in to the rescue:
Carbon Re uses AI to simulate a plant/kiln/industrial facility and learns how it operates.
Carbon Re takes these observations and makes recommendations on how to improve performance in a way that reduces waste and CO2 emissions.
These recommendations plug into your operational systems (c’mon we both know you spent $$$ on that slick new system a while back) and help affect change in real time. You’re welcome.
Backed by prominent climate investors and corporate partners such as ABB, Carbon Re’s solution is exactly the time of innovations that help address the Reconfiguration, helping hard-to-abate sector decarbonize and prepare for a changing planet.
Check them out here.
Full disclore: I know the team and root for them 🙌👏
That's a Wrap, Climate Globetrotters! 🌍✈️
We've reached the end of our second expedition into the Reconfiguration. Hope you enjoyed the ride! Here's what's on the horizon:
🧊 Next week: Part 5 of our Arctic adventure will ask a fundamental question: can anyone do WTF they’d like in the Arctic? If so, what does that mean for the future?
📅 In two weeks: Your next "News, Reconfigured" dispatch lands in your inbox.
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That’s it! See you next time on the frontlines! 👋🌊