Today, 6 years ago, @ralfsteffens.bsky.social and I had an appointment at the notary for the founding of Carbon Drawdown Initiative.

It's 𝗢𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 where I invite you to a 15 second ocean meditation with one of my photos or videos. This week: Diving the Maldives. Let's protect the beauty and abundance of our oceans!

Part 4 of our “Lifetime Carbon Balance of ERW” series is here. The chapter that matters most for climate impact: proof.

I am a graph nerd and I love graphs like this. This multidimensional graph from our two-year dataset of the largest greenhouse experiment for enhanced weathering gives us multiple insights for EW projects.

SYNCRAFT is one of the most compelling examples of what climate-positive energy can look like when engineering meets regional circularity.

It's 𝗢𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 where I invite you to a 15 second ocean meditation with a photo or video. This week: a sleeping nurse shark, Maldives. Let's protect the beauty and abundance of our oceans!

Recently I wrote about the first “click” at age 12, the moment a demo computer in a department store flipped a switch in my brain. What happened next was even more important: building became its own engine. I didn’t need motivation, encouragement, or a plan.

New paper alert: Carbon vs. cation-based MRV for Enhanced Rock Weathering (and why soil carbon matters)

With the year coming to an end it’s time to look back what happened this year with indoorco2map.com and even more importantly what the goals for next year are: a big app overhaul, support for stationary sensors providing live data, more community events and more collaboration. Details below ↓

My most recent poll was answered by 85 people: 80% of you believe that the current funding slowdown in climate tech will continue for more than 2 years or even more than 3 years. Less than 10% are optimistic for the next 12 months, another 11% hope for 1-2 years.

This is a positive surprise to me! 95% of voters in my poll last week think that Enhanced Weathering (EW) is "economically viable".

Auch bei den COVID-Hospitalisierungen der @dgina.bsky.social Notaufnahme Ampel ist jetzt der Abwärtstrend nach Erreichen des Dezember Peaks angekommen, so wie in @rv-enigma.bsky.social's Kurven unten zu sehen.

Von dem Absinken, das @rv-enigma.bsky.social in den täglichen Infektionszahlen zeigt, ist in den wöchentlichen Covid-Hospitalisierungen der @dgina.bsky.social Notaufnahmeampel noch nichts zu sehen.

It's 𝗢𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 where I invite you to a 15 second ocean meditation with a photo or video. This week: Maldives, Indian Ocean. Let's protect the beauty and abundance of our oceans!

Enhanced rock weathering gets even more carbon-efficient when you use the material we already have. In Part 3 of our “Lifetime Carbon Balance of ERW” series, we look at one of the biggest levers for improving net-negative outcomes: waste rock, quarry fines, and mine tailings.

We all look for any good climate news we can get this year. Here is one: I’m proud to share that InPlanet – one of our portfolio companies at Carbon Drawdown Initiative – is partnering with Microsoft to remove an impressive 28,500 tonnes of CO₂ via Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) from 2026-2028.

A Map of Hope: 700+ Carbon Removal Companies Around the World. What does the global carbon removal landscape actually look like?

Covid-Modell-Situation (13.12.25): Eine BA.3.2-Welle setzt sich auf die XFG-Welle (Grafik). Durch den Rückgang der Kontakte wird sie vermutlich um Weihnachten brechen, bleibt aber bis Mitte Januar hoch. Das Variantenmodell für BA.3.2 ⇒ bsky.app/profile/mart... ist noch nicht stabil.

COVID-Hospitalisierungen der @dgina.bsky.social Notaufnahmeampel zeigen wie von @rv-enigma.bsky.social gesammelte Daten, dass wir über Weihnachten in einer COVID-Welle sein werden. Die Inzidenz-Abschätzung (!) in der zweiten Grafik zeigt, dass sich das auf dem Niveau von 2022/2023 bewegen könnte.

It's 𝗢𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 where I invite you to a 15 second ocean meditation with a photo. This week: Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland).

What does a Life-Cycle Assessment actually measure in enhanced rock weathering, and why does it matter? This is one of the most important questions in ERW, because a carbon credit is only as good as the accounting behind it.

We are entering the CDR 3.0 world. And that's a good thing. Let me explain. I recently heard Chris Sherwood, Secretary General of Negative Emissions Platform, explain the three phases of CDR that we have seen over the last maybe 10 years. It goes something like this:

It's 𝗢𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 where I invite you to a 15 second ocean meditation with a photo. This week: Jellyfish, Mediterranean Sea.

𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘊𝘖₂ 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴? This is the most common question we hear about enhanced rock weathering and we love answering it, because the data is remarkably clear.

Most of my childhood looked like a restless loop. I learned quickly, got bored even faster, and nothing ever gained real traction. I tried chess, electronics kits, stamps, model building, all of it. Every time the same feeling returned: nothing develops fast enough, nothing goes deep enough.

Moving into our biggest office taught me an important lesson: My company’s growth had pushed me past my personal limits. From 2012-2016, Paessler scaled from 40 to 200 people.

It’s Not Just the Rock—It’s the Soil (And it holds on tight) -- Our latest greenhouse study with data from our greenhouse experiments is now available on EGUSphere as a pre-print.

To explain how enhanced weathering works, we made a simplified carbon flow chart (see 1st comment). It illustrates a simplified annual carbon cycle for a 1 m² cornfield. It details the movement of carbon between different "pools" and the "fluxes" that transfer carbon.

Excuse my french, but I am really angry and disappointed: the climate conference #COP30 final common statement does not contain the word “fossil”. At all.

It's 𝗢𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 where I invite you to a 15 second ocean meditation with a photo. This week: Bignose Unicorn Fish love to swim in divers' bubbles.

Weathering showed up in our experimental field in Fürth, Germany. Just not where we expected it. When we started our field experiments 4½ years ago, we put up a sign to explain what we were doing with all that rock dust. Curious passers-by kept asking, “what the hell is happening here?”

@rutgerbregman.com recently identified a type of cultural idealism based on lack of impact. He said there is a group of young people who believe the highest good for their lives is to not do anything bad, to leave no trace of their existence—no pollution, no carbon footprint, no waste.

Most founders know it is hard to keep a company from going under. Fewer realize the mirror truth: once your product really works, it is also hard to control how big your company becomes.

Ähnlich wie in @rv-enigma.bsky.social's Kurven zeichnet sich bei der @dgina.bsky.social DGINA Notaufnahme Ampel vorerst auch kein weiteres exponentielles Absinken des COVID-Infektionsgeschehen ab. Da zerren wohl noch unterschiedlich gerichtete Kräfte am R-Wert.

Last week, we explained why we moved most of our enhanced weathering experiments into a greenhouse. One of the driving aspects is to speed up the weathering, compared to outdoor experiments, so we can learn faster how EW works. But how do we know HOW MUCH FASTER things happen in the greenhouse?

It's 𝗢𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 where I invite you to a 15 second ocean meditation with a photo. This week: Camargue, France.

Africa is building its future and storing carbon while doing it. Cement drives nearly 10% of global CO₂ emissions. Kenya is urbanizing quickly, with 250,000 new homes being built each year until 2030.

Barcelona! If you want to experience how living a good life in a city might look in the future, visit this city! I spent almost three weeks in Barcelona this October. Not the four-day tourist sprint, but living the rhythm of the city.

The concept for our greenhouse experiments is, turn it up to 11! Measuring carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from enhanced weathering (EW) in the real world sounds straightforward: apply rock dust to fields, measure the results, done. The reality? Much messier.

It's 𝗢𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 where I invite you to a 15 second ocean meditation with a photo. This week: Ebro Delta, Spain.

Das COVID Infektionsgeschehen geht wohl erstmal weiter runter in DE: Bei der @dgina.bsky.social Notaufnahme Ampel sieht die Kurve ähnlich aus wie bei @rv-enigma.bsky.social's Datenauswertung, nur war der Peak in den ZNAs ca. 1 Woche später (ca. 22.10.).

Risto Siilasmaa, former CEO of Nokia, once said, “No bad news is bad.” He’s the man who rescued Nokia from bankruptcy and guided it back to becoming one of the world’s most resilient tech companies.

When a company grows to 30 employees, everything suddenly changes. One day, you're a scrappy startup where everyone does everything. The next, you can't keep track of who's working on what.

COVID-Daten der @DGINA_eV Notaufnahmeampel zeigen ähnlich wie die Daten, die @rv_enigma unten aufbereitet hat, dass der Herbstpeak "durch" sein könnte. Es ergäbe sich ein ganz ähnlicher Verlauf wie im Vorjahr, aber auf niedrigerem Gesamtniveau. Ob sich der Trend bestätigt wissen wir in 1-2 Wochen.

The 4 stages for MRV of ERW look like this: 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟭: 𝗥𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 (𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗲): Think of this as the preparation stage. We measure the emissions related to the production, transport and spreading of rock, which is fairly straightforward.

It's 𝗢𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 where I invite you to a 15 second ocean meditation with a photo. This week: Water Spout, Liguria, Italy.

Carbon removal only works if you can prove it. That’s the problem Carbonfuture set out to solve.

Buying durable carbon removal should take two minutes and a credit card, not weeks of emails. When we tried to purchase ~200 tonnes of near-term (2025+) CDR ourselves, only two vendors had true “buy now” checkout.

Companies - like every other group of people doing something together - create their own cultures. Building cultures should be an intentional process. Don’t let it “just happen”.

There are basically three common options to measure enhanced weathering, where we redirect a small portion of the field’s carbon cycle into the leachate waters: