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This El Niño is off the charts for any ever recorded in human history. Stripe's climate scientist Zeke Hausfather came to AirMiners to tell us about what's nex

by tito 4d ago

This El Niño is off the charts for any ever recorded in human history. Stripe's climate scientist Zeke Hausfather came to AirMiners to tell us about what's next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Xu_H3Wo8o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Xu_H3Wo8o In 1877, 50 million people starved to death from El Niño. The charts are looking far worse in 2026 (thankfully our supply chains and infrastructure are much better today) We can't stop the storms but we can work to avert the impacts and save lives. We're building tools at: https://elninoready.earth https://elninoready.earth One thing we need help with is how to provide detailed recommendations per city/address to people based on historical El Niños. What are local emergency notification services, where can you get free sandbags, should you expect floods, droughts, tornadoes? What backup services are there if 911 goes down? (If you have ideas, here's our github: https://github.com/titojankowski/elninoready https://github.com/titojankowski/elninoready) Our first step is bringing together people at New York Climate Week so that's what's up on the site right now. AMA

ProAm 4d ago
> Stripe's climate scientist Zeke Hausfather Who?? The ecommerce website wants us to listen to the climate scientist they bought?
- tito 4d ago
  Strange timeline indeed but Stripe is a big backer for climate solutions and climate research, including a $2B carbon dioxide removal initiative called Frontier: https://stripe.com/climate https://stripe.com/climate
  - csto12 4d ago
    Huh, that’s actually really cool.
  - AirMax98 4d ago
    Amazed that I have never heard of this. Feel like the positive PR would be a large incentive for them doing this at all.
    - tito 4d ago
      On every stable planet, pollution is accounted for in every transaction. Stripe is just building where the puck is going!
      - defrost 4d ago
        How will carbon be removed by Frontier? Planting trees? Capturing carbon from industrial plants / byproduct from LNG extraction? Where will the extracted carbon be sequestered?
        youngtaff 4d ago
        Reading Frontier’s website it’s very unclear how much they’re going to remove and how they’re going to do it - though there’s a lot of mentions of biomass Trouble with techies is they tend plumb for techie solutions like carbon capture aka ClimeWorks rather than low tech options like trees or seagrass
        defrost 4d ago
        Trees and seagrass don't really address the sequestration side though, do they? The carbon they latch onto and temporarily hold onto is still within the land / sea surface +/- a few metres layer. The current largest scale carbon capture projects are catching a small amount of vented CO2 from LNG projects and pushing that back into the subsurface fields - they only capture 10 ton by releasing over a 100. We're in need of readily powered true air capture of CO2 then sequestered deep underground. Things like www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036031992602269X have promise.
        tito 4d ago
        Trees and seagrass can address the sequestration side. You can find examples here on Frontier's site of companies that are taking biomass (plant stuff like tree waste) and sequestering it in mines or other storage deep underground. When thinking about sucking carbon from the sky, I find it useful to separate how I think about grabbing on to carbon dioxide from how to store carbon dioxide, rather than thinking of it as one step. I find it's easy to get lost and either over or undervalue things otherwise. Plants and trees are excellent at grabbing on, for example, and with a good process they can lead to very cheap methods to store/remove carbon dioxide for a thousand years.
  - toofy 4d ago
    i hear you, however: > …but Stripe is a big backer for climate solutions… his post reads pretty clearly as funding “solutions” to adapt to coming climate change rather than “how do we mitigate climate change” this is why i’m skeptical of people who work for an economic org. it’s like some these companies are salivating at the idea of Disaster Capitalism. “it’s going to open up so many chances to make trillions!” i recognize how jaded i am, but this just feels slimey “there’s much more money to be made if we exacerbate the disaster rather than slow it!”
    - tito 4d ago
      Which post is that? Let's say I take it that whatever post you're referencing is slimy, built on disaster capitalism, and downright bad. And your being jaded is totally understandable. To that I remind you: "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing" What could you do to do drive the world in a different direction? (see my other posts for projects if you want help out with our El Niño Ready dashboard)
  - deleted 4d ago
    [deleted]
andsoitis 4d ago
> In 1877, 50 million people starved to death from El Niño. The charts are looking far worse in 2026 (thankfully our supply chains and infrastructure are much better today) Yes, much better supply chains and infrastructure are examples of how growth and innovation make us more resilient.
- tito 4d ago
  Indeed! Umbrellas, poofy jackets, backup batteries, we've created lots of innovations to make society more resilient when the weather gets weird. And, at the same time, polluting the climate makes the climate system far more susceptible to flipping to a chaotic system unknown to humanity. As Stewart Brand says, "We are as gods and might as well get good at it." Not sure why folks downvoted you.

by tito 4d ago

ProAm 4d ago

> Stripe's climate scientist Zeke Hausfather Who?? The ecommerce website wants us to listen to the climate scientist they bought?

tito 4d ago
Strange timeline indeed but Stripe is a big backer for climate solutions and climate research, including a $2B carbon dioxide removal initiative called Frontier: https://stripe.com/climate https://stripe.com/climate
- csto12 4d ago
  Huh, that’s actually really cool.
- AirMax98 4d ago
  Amazed that I have never heard of this. Feel like the positive PR would be a large incentive for them doing this at all.
  - tito 4d ago
    On every stable planet, pollution is accounted for in every transaction. Stripe is just building where the puck is going!
    - defrost 4d ago
      How will carbon be removed by Frontier? Planting trees? Capturing carbon from industrial plants / byproduct from LNG extraction? Where will the extracted carbon be sequestered?
      - youngtaff 4d ago
        Reading Frontier’s website it’s very unclear how much they’re going to remove and how they’re going to do it - though there’s a lot of mentions of biomass Trouble with techies is they tend plumb for techie solutions like carbon capture aka ClimeWorks rather than low tech options like trees or seagrass
        defrost 4d ago
        Trees and seagrass don't really address the sequestration side though, do they? The carbon they latch onto and temporarily hold onto is still within the land / sea surface +/- a few metres layer. The current largest scale carbon capture projects are catching a small amount of vented CO2 from LNG projects and pushing that back into the subsurface fields - they only capture 10 ton by releasing over a 100. We're in need of readily powered true air capture of CO2 then sequestered deep underground. Things like www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036031992602269X have promise.
        tito 4d ago
        Trees and seagrass can address the sequestration side. You can find examples here on Frontier's site of companies that are taking biomass (plant stuff like tree waste) and sequestering it in mines or other storage deep underground. When thinking about sucking carbon from the sky, I find it useful to separate how I think about grabbing on to carbon dioxide from how to store carbon dioxide, rather than thinking of it as one step. I find it's easy to get lost and either over or undervalue things otherwise. Plants and trees are excellent at grabbing on, for example, and with a good process they can lead to very cheap methods to store/remove carbon dioxide for a thousand years.
- toofy 4d ago
  i hear you, however: > …but Stripe is a big backer for climate solutions… his post reads pretty clearly as funding “solutions” to adapt to coming climate change rather than “how do we mitigate climate change” this is why i’m skeptical of people who work for an economic org. it’s like some these companies are salivating at the idea of Disaster Capitalism. “it’s going to open up so many chances to make trillions!” i recognize how jaded i am, but this just feels slimey “there’s much more money to be made if we exacerbate the disaster rather than slow it!”
  - tito 4d ago
    Which post is that? Let's say I take it that whatever post you're referencing is slimy, built on disaster capitalism, and downright bad. And your being jaded is totally understandable. To that I remind you: "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing" What could you do to do drive the world in a different direction? (see my other posts for projects if you want help out with our El Niño Ready dashboard)
- deleted 4d ago
  [deleted]

andsoitis 4d ago

> In 1877, 50 million people starved to death from El Niño. The charts are looking far worse in 2026 (thankfully our supply chains and infrastructure are much better today) Yes, much better supply chains and infrastructure are examples of how growth and innovation make us more resilient.

tito 4d ago
Indeed! Umbrellas, poofy jackets, backup batteries, we've created lots of innovations to make society more resilient when the weather gets weird. And, at the same time, polluting the climate makes the climate system far more susceptible to flipping to a chaotic system unknown to humanity. As Stewart Brand says, "We are as gods and might as well get good at it." Not sure why folks downvoted you.