From Cryptocurrency to Ukraine, fossil fuel dependence determines U.S. monetary and foreign policy
How cryptocurrency can be used to support climate action + Why fossil fuels are central to understanding the Ukraine conflict
How cryptocurrency can be used to support climate action + Why fossil fuels are central to Ukraine conflict
Branch Out is back to bring you news from the epicenter of the climate justice movement. This week, we are looking at the Dark Green Web, where a number of new cryptocurrencies have emerged to challenge the narrative that all cryptocurrencies are bad for the climate. Then, we are going to the breaking news from Ukraine to explain how fossil fuels are at the center of the conflict, with Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline threatening the dominance of U.S. fossil fuel interests.
Dark Green Web: Where Crypto Meets Climate
Bitcoin has given the world of crypto, sustainability-wise, a rather bad name. After all, the daily wattage of this particular blockchain surpasses that of Google and a few industrial nations, combined. The cryptographic “mining” of this mintage, while digital in process, is by that very token (pun intended), a function of electricity. In just the last month, Bitcoin’s energy demands have determined — and been determined by — political events in the backcountries of Kazakhstan (oil) as well as West Virginia (coal). Let us drop the quotes then: mining for Bitcoin is no metaphor.
Money itself, on the flip side, is.
This begs the question: if money talks, and the medium is the message, then how do we cut through the cacophony of currencies to discover what blockchains can say?
For one, challenges to the carbon footprint of Bitcoin can be as vocal within crypto spaces as without. Most predominant here are Proof-of-Stake auditing schemes that, against Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work, signify an astronomical reduction in energy costs. While such changes are cause for celebration, improvements in this area tend to place the focus on using less carbon. Accordingly, discussions of “greening crypto” (as codified by Broadcast news) have revolved around the important but limited problem of reducing carbon emissions, i.e. “harm reduction.”
In the past year, however, a handful of new projects have cropped up under the carbon-negative rubric of regenerative finance (ReFi) designed to have a positive impact on the planet by sequestering carbon, cleaning up pollution, and facilitating ecosystem restoration. These protocols take on the task—equal parts difficult and necessary—of exploring a collective destination beyond the horizon of petrodollar hegemony.
Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the cost of war on the climate
Russia began military action in Ukraine late Wednesday night. One of the final dominoes in the escalation of armed conflict in Eastern Europe fell when the United States successfully pressured Germany to cancel the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline, which would have supplied Western Europe with fracked gas from Russia.
After refusing to cancel the Dakota Access Pipeline, Enbridge Line 3 and others in the United States, President Biden has finally stopped a pipeline halfway around the world to gain an advantage for U.S. fossil fuel companies in retaliation for Russia recognizing two separatist republics which declared independence from Ukraine. Although there are many factors behind the conflict, one result will be more profits for the U.S. oil and gas industry.
The situation is dire not only due to what further escalation could bring to the region, but also for the planet overall. War itself produces the most damaging pollution in the world, and on top of that, Biden is expected to approve more oil and gas operations in the United States in an attempt to get fuel inflation under control and be prepared to supply Europeans. Should this conflict escalate to a “hot war” between Russia and the United States, the human and environmental loss would be incalculable.
In Case You Missed It: The opening words of the 4th annual Indigenous Hemp Conference
Read Branch Out’s transcription of the Indigenous Hemp Conference on how regenerative hemp agriculture can help empower Indigenous people, and its role in healing the earth from climate collapse.
“Hemp has this potential to address climate change, it has this potential to address a massive transformation of agriculture from crazy agriculture to local agriculture where we make stuff that we actually use in this country.” - Winona La Duke
Science Desk
PPM CO2: 420
North Pole: -29 Degrees F
Forests: A study from Northern Arizona University of boreal forests suggests that climate collapse is already causing boreal forests closer to the equator to die out while spurring new growth farther north near the Arctic. The migration of the coldest forests northward could reduce the overall biodiversity of our forests.
Friday Forecast
For your weekend read, we are bringing you the latest on the Yaqui struggle for sovereignty in the face of the climate crisis. As big business moves further into the deserts of Mexico, a political prisoner continues to fight for freedom for himself, his people and their homeland. Read the full story this weekend at branchoutnow.org
Feed the Soil
The mission of Branch Out is simple: Fight for climate justice with truth and trees.
We are working at the cutting edge of climate action and journalism, developing a regenerative funding model which makes carbon farming the foundation of our media efforts as we work towards designing a carbon-negative media ecosystem.