Baby Got Bac(teria)

Hi there! Welcome back to our weekly newsletter, Pique Behind the Curtain. If you’ve come in search of climate content, new film features, and all-around positive vibes, then you’ve come to the right place. If you’re enjoying this, don’t just keep it all for yourself. Please share it with a friend!

OH SNAP.

I know what you’re thinking. “I simply love Pique Action’s newsletter. I love following them and the NextNow series on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. But I want MORE. How do I get more?!”

We’re excited to announce that NextNow has gotten the green light to premiere on Snapchat Discover! The 332 million daily active users on Snap make it the most popular social app amongst teens in the US. Snap Discover has only approved a handful of environmental shows over the last few years and we’re thrilled to have these stories on climate solutions distributed widely to a new audience.

So, now you can follow us on Snapchat! Yet another avenue to a first look at the incredible climate technology startups working to save the planet. Oh snap.

MicroByre

MicroByre is building a farm - but not the kind that you may be thinking of.

They’re harnessing the innate chemistries of bacteria that have been developing for millions of years and they’re doing it…with robots. In other words, they’re domesticating bacteria…with robots You won’t find any cows or pigs running around, but you will find microorganisms that offer a clean alternative to create the chemicals we’d otherwise have to harness petroleum for.

By seeking out the most compliant strains of useful bacteria and training them up into chemical manufacturing powerhouses, they aim to solve two problems at once: 1. remove petroleum from the chemical manufacturing process, and 2. use the methane created by the stinking mess of agricultural, which typically leaves waste rotting in fields, and human waste fromt wastewater plants by turning that methane into bacteria feed.

Watch the full video on MicroByre here.

A Smogging Success!

The majority of the Pique team is headquartered in sunny LA while I, your humble newsletter writer, reside in the great state of New York. It’s perhaps why the term “June gloom” was fully lost on me the first time it was mentioned in a team meeting.

June Gloom is a cute way of describing a Californian weather pattern that results in cloudy, overcast skies with cool temperatures during the late spring and early summer. But that isn’t the same thing as smog - a feature of the state that, for decades, has been almost as famous as the Golden Gate Bridge.

Believe it or not, the smog in California has improved leaps and bounds from where it was in the 1950s. An article published by the Los Angeles Times reported that the pollution was so thick it was cause for smog alerts as common as weather reports, cautioning the public against eye irritation and noting how thick the smog would be on a given day. It obscured skyscrapers and bridges - even prompted a group of motorcyclists to sport gas masks as they drove on affected roads.

(Left: A smoggy haze lingers over the L.A. skyline in the 1980s. Right: The city's air is clear after a winter storm in March, 2015.)

Los Angeles County is in a position to suffer from smog more than other regions because it’s located in a basin. The area lacks wind flow to stir up any clouds of pollution that may settle. The concentration of automobiles has risen to some five and a half million cars since its smog-ridden period in the middle of the 20th century, but the air quality has improved.

So, what changed?

Policy.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Southern California air quality officials tackled a range of pollution sources: petroleum-based solvents which contain hydrocarbons, landfills that emitted toxic gases, and power plants emitting nitrogen oxides to name a few. In 1966, the state pioneered annual car emissions inspections. With the federal government’s implementation of the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955 and the first Clean Air Act of 1963, Washington and the EPA began tracking smog levels and enforcing environmental regulations - significantly reducing emissions. The growing list of laws put pressure on the major automobile manufacturers of the era to adopt the technology that would make their cars run cleaner.

Beginning in the 1970s with the passing of the new Clean Air Act air pollution levels began to drop across California, but specifically in Los Angeles. A legal win for the EPA led to legislation ordering all new cars to be built with catalytic converters, which speed up the chemical reaction between oxygen and pollutants in the air to convert them into less toxic byproducts. Within three decades, levels fell beneath the national standard of 9 parts per million.

Today, L.A.’s ozone levels are about 40% of what they were in the mid-70s, despite having almost twice the number of cars.

Pollution on the West Coast is still a problem, exacerbated by climate change-induced wildfires - but this is still a success story in many ways. The push for the Clean Air Act was a bipartisan agreement that created powerful and effective regulations. Ozone decreased dramatically, as did the visible, irritating, pungent, and eye-watering smog. That kind of activism and organization was central to the rise of the environmental movement in the United States that characterized the 60s and 70s.

The proof is in the pollution - or rather, the lack thereof. United, people are powerful. They (we) can get sh*t done. Call your representatives, stay an informed consumer, and let’s continue to rally.

Watch our TikTok on the LA smog sitch here!

Good Climate News!

This week in good climate news 🌍:

Saving Solar Trash

Dead Solar Panels Are About to Become a Lot More Valuable

Old news: renewable energy is a must to bring greenhouse gas emissions to acceptable rates for the climate. Wind and solar have been leading the charge in this field.

New news: a market for recycled solar panel components is expected to skyrocket and reach $2.7 billion in value by 2030 and $80 billion by 2050, signaling a positive push in the demand for sustainable energy sources.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) panel recycling is still new. Today, most retired solar panels in the United States go where the rest of the trash does… to the landfills. It’s the same reason why some cities don’t even recycle their plastic - the economics just don’t line up. The cost of recycling and rehabilitating a panel outweighs the cost of mining and building a new one. Luckily, there are plenty of bright scientists working on a solution. ​​☀️💡 (Yes, that was a sun pun. Sue me.)

At Arizona State University, researchers are experimenting with a new recycling process that uses chemicals to reclaim some of the high-value metals and minerals, like silver and silicon, which would make it more economically attractive. An analysis by Rystad Energy credits technological advancements like that one being worked on at ASU with the expected jump in value to $2.7 billion from just $170 million this year.

Recycling will play an important role in diversifying the complex solar supply chain. To build PV panels manufacturers are dependent on mining and processes that are only available in a handful of countries, resulting in a sometimes volatile supply chain. In the coming years, however, more of the materials we use to make new solar panels will be able to be harvested from old ones. Recovered commodities like copper, aluminum, silver, and polysilicon can provide value for otherwise discarded hardware.

The sun’s rays are currently responsible for a little more than 3% of global energy output - but that number could reach more than 40% as the world’s energy systems embark on a drastic shift to phase out fossil fuels. Solar is becoming more affordable - often being a cheaper source of electricity than coal or gas in most countries.

Solar energy is critical to solving climate change, but the technology must find a more sustainable foothold. Launched at scale, this form of recycling will help bottleneck the supply chain for solar panels while also making the hardware itself more sustainable and circular.

What We’re Watching, Reading, and Listening to

Searching for more positive climate content? Look no further!

• Should We Use GMO Trees to Slow Climate Change? - Cleo Abram

• Insulation Fights Climate Change… and War - Climate Adam

• Standing Up for a Sustainable World: Voices of Change - Claude Henry

• Circular Economy - Sustainababble Podcast

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