Cardano Climate
“The Earth is what we all have in common.”. — Wendell Berry.
Cardano is based on a proof of stake mechanism. This means that it is not mined, unlike Bitcoin and therefore doesn’t require huge amounts of energy. In fact many of us were drawn to Cardano in large part because of its low energy consumption. There are a number of environmental initiatives and projects underway within the Cardano Community. Here are a few of their stories.
Brian and Lisa from Gaia stake pool are from Alberta Canada, and they are busy. Their pool independently supports several environmental charities in order to make a positive difference in restoring the environment of our world. It is important to them that the donations have the most impact, with guaranteed results that are provable. That is why they are focused primarily on tree planting and ocean cleanup.
For ocean cleanup, Brian and Lisa wanted to donate to a charity that is actively removing plastic from the world’s oceans and waterways. While lobbying for government policy change regarding plastic waste is important, it doesn’t solve the current problem that there is still so much plastic waste currently in the oceans and rivers of the world. The only way to fix this is to collect that plastic waste and recycle it. With that in mind, The Ocean Clean Up seemed to be the best choice for a charity.
By targeting the great pacific garbage patch, they are cleaning up the largest area of plastic waste in the world. Also, with the interceptor boats they are deploying, rivers and waterways can also be cleaned up before plastic pollution reaches the oceans. Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans is one of the biggest environmental issues of our time, impacting more than 600 marine species. Plastic pollution does not only impact sea life, it also carries toxic pollutants into the food chain that we as humans are a part of. The larger pieces of plastic pollution have broken down over time into microplastics, which are difficult to collect and can easily spread everywhere, possibly interfering with feeding, reproductive performance, and survival of marine biota. The Ocean Clean Up’s award winning technology allows them to begin cleaning up the mess while governments work to stop the flow of incoming plastics.
Gaia pool also donates to One Tree Planted, a nonprofit organization with a mission of making it simple for anyone to help the environment by planting trees. Starting in 2014, One Tree Planted has doubled the number of trees planted every year. Now, seven years later, they are working with partners around the globe to restore forests after fires and floods and encourage biodiversity.
In addition to their charitable donations, Gaia is incredibly active in the Cardano community. They are in the Mandala, as Lion clan, and part of the Ardana Stake Pool Alliance which allows interested parties the opportunity to participate in an upcoming project not by purchasing a token, as is common with ICOs, but by contributing their ADA to a Cardano stake pool. Ardana is supporting this model and choosing a diverse group of stake pools deliberately to support decentralization. Their approach is interesting and very thoughtful. Please take the time to investigate their project. Brian and Lisa also host a podcast called Rocky Mountain Cryptids about mysterious creatures like Wendigos, Sasquatch and vampires.
Gaia pool is also active in Cardano Climate Neutral which is an alliance of Cardano stake pools committed to using 100% renewable energy to operate their servers. They have passive and active members. Passive members have to meet the criteria of 100% running on renewables and donate to eco charity while active members must meet those criteria plus attend regular meetings and add 20% of stake pool rewards to charity. Of course, the alliance is not solely SPOs — individuals and project teams are welcome as well. Current projects include Veritree and Tetikasa Ala (Project Forest in Malagasy).
Veritree is a project that uses the utility and security of the Cardano blockchain to verify the planting and long-term success of 1,000,000 trees. This is real, verifiable tracking of money spent to show that charitable donations are effective. They will be planting a number of different species native to areas across different parts of Madagascar, Indonesia, Nepal, Kenya, Senegal and Haiti. Planting will commence in early 2022 in coordination with the most experienced partners on the Veritree platform. One of the most beautiful aspects of blockchain technology is the ability to track and verify charitable donations. The Cardano Climate Neutral Alliance has weekly meetings with the Veritree organization.
Because Veritree is at capacity for 2022, the Cardano Climate Neutral Alliance has taken on another project Tetikasa Ala (Project Forest in Malagasy). Basically, there is a lot of clear cutting of forest in Madagascar which causes problems including desertification. This is also exacerbated by climate change. The Malagasy people need an alternative to be presented that creates income and also is environmentally friendly. Therefore, Climate Neutral Cardano is working with this group to help establish a permaculture system to plant 100,000 fruit trees and vegetables like Bananas, papayas, orange trees, and tomatoes. They have 17 hectares of land to work with.
Another current project is Cardano Climate Footprint measurement which received funding in Catalyst F7. This funding will allow them to pay an outside company to calculate and verify all the carbon usage of Cardano and then look at the offsets from Veritree. This will create an official assessment of Cardano’s status as a carbon neutral blockchain.
The Climate Neutral Cardano group had several proposals that were not funded in F7. They plan to resubmit them for F8. They are:
A world map of Green Cardano: The goal is to create an overview /world-map based on a database showing which Cardano nodes are already running on renewable energy or offsetting their emissions (green dots) and which are not (red dots). The aim is to generate a change in awareness among SPOs and to see the map become a little bit “greener” every epoch. The data from the database can be shown on a website and made available for community services such as Adapools.org, Pooltool.io or SMASH Server of Wallets, so that delegators can decide to select pools that are powered by renewable energy only or offsetting their emissions.
Connecting Tabletop Games and Cardano This is actually developed by Brian from Gaia pool. He designed it and created the art. They have already developed and tested the first physical card game called Captivate: Cardano Edition. Final artwork for the game is currently in production. The game will connect players and collectors to Cardano through: the theme of the game, rare physical assets, and by providing more information about the Cardano blockchain (Veritree, SPOs, & Cardano itself). Here is a sample of Brian’s artwork both for the game and a book cover he designed:
46 South Stake pool was another guest on the program. The world’s southernmost Cardano stake pool runs on a Starlink connection in the city of Invercargill, New Zealand. They also have a 4G failover in case the Starlink connection goes down. They are located at 46 degrees South latitude, hence the name, 46 South. The pool is run on baremetal servers with UPS backup. This helps ensure the spatial decentralization of the Cardano network by having physical servers, not cloud based servers that are in diverse locations around the globe. Their servers use only 100 watts of power which comes from the 100% renewable energy of the South Island of New Zealand. You can find more about power stations in New Zealand here. Most power in New Zealand is either hydro or geothermal which meets the needs of the population of 5 million.
The 46 South stake pool received an IOHK (Input Output HK) delegation for epochs 265–294. They are grateful to be able to contribute to the Cardano community as a stake pool operator, feeling that it is important to contribute to an ecosystem that is larger than one person or entity. They hope that Cardano stays decentralized and under community governance. To this end, it is also important that the barrier of entry to a stake pool operator remains fairly low so that people from all over the world can participate.
What happens when you combine a beautiful NFT project with a lovely story line and real life eco-friendly buildings for people in desperate need? You get Earth Natives, of course. Here’s the revolutionary part: the proceeds from NFT sales are building houses in places where they are needed the most. This is blockchain technology, environmental building techniques and a giving spirit coming together to change lives. There is a lot to unpack here so let’s first take a look at the NFT side of the project.
In the future, humans have moved underground to avoid the harsh effects of climate change. Over time, they have evolved and changed to accommodate their new surroundings. There are three collections, or types of Earth Natives: Armadalus, Adants, and Meerkadas. The first collection of 1333, Armadalus, is completed and each miner is designed with unique characteristics and gems. The scientific formula for the hardness of the minerals is actually included in the metadata of each CNFT as is beautiful ceremonial Brazilian music. Each component here is beautifully crafted. The art is from a well-known Brazilian artist. The soundtrack is lyrical and haunting. The project lore is also beautifully written. Here is a sample, you can read it in its entirety on their website:
The entrance to the underground bunker had been carved into the rocks’ surface, huge pillars surrounded by even bigger statues of men’s heads with plate armour covering their noses and the top of their heads, stood out front. It gave off a foreboding sense, warning away those from the outside or from the inside. Laying on the ground in front of the gates, lay a female, huddled in a protective ball, appearing weak and defeated. “What do you think it is?”, Zane asked, not taking his gaze away from the woman who he was spying on from his guard post inside the gates. “Looks like a woman of some sort but I thought they were all extinct?”, replied Mo, second guard on duty tonight. The men continued to watch her, scanning the surrounding area for further threats, but there was nothing to see. The lush forest and mountain ranges that once stood here decades earlier had all burned and dried out, just like most of humanity.”
While the NFTs can stand on their own, in this case they are only the beginning. What they are, in fact, is a funding mechanism for the revolutionary part of this project: building houses. Earth Natives is affiliated with Ecoterm — an institute committed to developing sustainable building practices. This isn’t merely a dream or a concept. These folks have actually developed a brick made from earth and recycled mining waste. In addition to using recycled products, these bricks do not require heating to harden, which drastically reduces the energy needed to manufacture them. The bricks have also been designed with energy consumption in mind — their structure allows air to move through the thermoacoustic chamber in the brick, controlling temperature and noise by using the heat from the sun.
Here is the magical part: the funds from NFT purchases are building real houses for real people in Africa and Brazil. This is why this project is so important and worthy of your attention. It is cryptocurrency helping people in ways unimaginable just ten years ago. It is Cardano being used to make a better world. These folks are using NFT proceeds to solve real life problems- simultaneously teaching about the properties of earth’s minerals, AND looking at sustainable building construction (literally earth, recycled waste, sun and air as building materials) AND building houses for people in Africa and Brazil. This is a truly dedicated team, working hard for things they believe in. This brief write up doesn’t do them justice. Please check out their website and their video: How you can help people to help our planet with interlocking bricks.
Sometimes, as your humble scribe, I find my words inadequate to express the depth and breadth of the Cardano community — its diversity, intellect, and passion seem almost impossible to convey. Transcribing this space is definitely one of those occasions. How does one adequately convey the variety of Cardano climate in a blog post? I can’t of course. However, if there is one takeaway it is that there is opportunity here for anyone who is interested. If you want to take action, please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of the groups in this post. They will rejoice in the inquiry and be happy to get you involved.