Taking a breather

Hi there,

Wherever you are, I hope you're healthy, safe, and taking good care. I wrote this newsletter before any U.S. election results rolled in—the version of Nick van Osdol writing this has no idea what has happened since. There's a hard-earned corollary inherent to that choice that offers lessons on how I choose to live my life (at times, at least). It's a lesson that took me the better part of 30 years to learn and that I won't expand on much further, as not always expanding further is another part of a similar lesson.

I will say that whatever the election result (we may also not know conclusively by Thursday or Friday), it will take me time to digest it. I have no interest in writing a knee-jerk reaction, of whatever tenor and timbre it may or might have been. Instead, this newsletter simply offers a recap of some of my favorite content that I've produced in the past months, plus shoutouts to other good people doing good work.

I normally send long emails and throw a bunch of stuff your way twice a week. So, given everyone deserves a little lull, especially this week, you can also totally stop here and take your time back. Or peruse some old stuff you might have missed, all of which remains relevant, no matter what is happening in the U.S. and abroad when you read this.

♡ If you find this work valuable, you can support it here. I put a lot of time into it. ♡

HIGHLIGHT REEL

Here’s top written content (based at least on what you all opened and responded to) from the past few quarters of the Keep Cool newsletter:

1. The scariest thing

Many of you resonated with my piece from last week, in which I elaborated on how the U.S. election is not the scariest thing on my mind right now (not to diminish it either, of course). The piece covers topics ranging from how much oil and gas the U.S. produces to my personal climate communication and linguistic philosophies. Below is what one reader shared in response. Check it out here.

2. Greener steel exists! Already!!

You read that right. If you’re not convinced, dive into one of my all-time best-performing company deep dives here. Also, I recently got to tour one of the (much) lower-emission mills that I discussed in this piece. Badass pic I took of steel being made at Nucor’s mill in Sedalia, Missouri featured below. I’ll write more about the actual site visit soon.

3. An ‘energy dense’ pairing of past pieces

A lot of you responded to this and posted it on social media. In it, I discussed how, at a global level, most renewable energy and other cleaner electron-generation and capacity additions of recent years have helped keep pace with growing electricity demand more than they have helped the world wean off fossil fuels. Coal consumption is still at all-time highs, though its consumption is highly concentrated in China, India, and a handful of other countries. Anywho, before I rehash the whole thing, I’ll link out to the piece, as well as this one that explores Chinese and Indian energy dynamics in particular.

4. A eulogy :(

This piece, in which I waxed poetic about the demise of Running Tide, a once high-flying carbon removal company, made the rounds in both the carbon removal circles and beyond. If you want to see what it looks like when I let the ‘literary’ one in me rip a little bit, well, this one’s for you. Nothing like a company going out of business to get the creative juices humming (my sympathy to the impacted employees notwithstanding). Read “Born to die” here.

5. Passion projects

Honestly, I don’t have data suggesting this piece performed well. I just like it. Back in April, I went to the enteric fermentation ‘Super Bowl’ with my good friend Lauren. We learned a lot: This piece was an attempt to distill some of it. Read here.

Less (written) words! More audio!!

Podcasts

I haven’t been podcasting as much (time constraints, mostly). Still, I’ve had great conversations on the pod this year. A few that stand out include:

• Chopping it up with Jigar Shah, the “goat” of U.S. government climate and energy funding. LongPath Technologies was also on, well represented by CEO, Ian Dickinson. Tune in here. Badass phrases like “flywheels of irreversible momentum” were casually dropped. Need I say more?

• What if we could make it rain more? I bet Rainmaker can and soon will. This one’s me and the Rainmaker CEO, Augutus Doricko, talking cloud seeding. Listen here.

• Double whammy: If you get Ramez Naam and Quincy Lee on the same podcast, the results are bound to be compelling. That’s what happened earlier this year. Check this one out if you like learning about the macro trends behind energy, electrification, and much, much more.

• Most recent: My latest podcast with Stephan Herrmann and Sebastian Heitmann (three German dudes!!) covers how Reverion advances biogas tech for a resilient, low-carbon future with grid resilience, emission reduction, and low-emission power generation benefits. Give it a listen here if that tickles your fancy.

Memes! Levity!!

Elsewhere, as ever, I enjoy being a touch neurotic on Twitter (though the app does seem to be descending into a stream of slop and drivel, even as a few of us climate and energy stalwarts hold out for the community and information flow). My posting does occasionally strike gold, such as the visualization below I whipped up in 3 minutes that got some love on the ol’ bird app. This is one of my rough mental models for climate change:

Other memes that seemed to hit included the following:

People and teams who are crushing it

First up? Electric Era. I LOVE this business, which deploys battery-backed EV charging stations across the country. They’ve hit some significant milestones lately, which are outlined here and are worth celebrating. Making EV charging more abundant, reliable, accessible, and affordable is a cause I think we can all get behind. Shoutout to all the Electric Era team members I know—you’re doing good work.

Full disclosure: an employer of mine, Climate Capital is an investor in Electric Era. The investment pre-dates my time with the firm.

Next up? Commons App. I love their Instagram content. I was off Instagram for five years (which was great for my emotional well-being). But I’m back now (feel free to follow me for silly and, at times, beautiful photos), which has also been lovely in its own way. But this isn’t about me: Commons crushes the holistic, sustainable content on Instagram (and elsewhere). There’s a lot more to their work than that, of course. But, for now, I highly recommend you follow them if you spend time on IG. Their podcast, second nature, is also great.

Finally? You. If you’re reading this, I have a deep, gentle, abiding trust you’re doing your best to take care of yourself, your people, all people, and all beings as best as you know how right now. It means a lot to me. Keep going!

Back to recovery and reflection mode I go, no matter what,

— Nick