Why & how we raised $1.4M to combat extreme climate change in 8 weeks and what you can do to help
Time is short. We all can do more. It’s time to #doyourpart
“With this post I want to throw down the gauntlet to folks in games and other industries that have benefited from the pandemic to do our part to help fix the climate. Yes — I’m talking about you. The example from those who contributed to this is just a small step. There is so much more to accomplish individually and together. #doyourpart today and share it to inspire others.”
The Why.
I’m an entrepreneur who builds game companies by day. By night I think about how to take action to combat catastrophic risk for humanity. Including climate change.
According to today’s best climate models, there’s currently perhaps a 5–10% chance of the earth warming by 5–6°C+ (9–11°F+) depending on how fast we get the carbon concentration in the atmosphere under control. Warming at that level would be catastrophic for humanity.
Climate science is uncertain. This meta study (Jehn et al 2021) is a good primer on both the level of uncertainty we’re facing, and how relatively little we have studied tail-end scenarios — summary graphic below.
This is BAD. Climate change gets much harder to manage the more the planet warms. 6°C warming would be much worse than 4x as bad as 1.5°C. Yet scientific and policy attention is overwhelmingly focused on relatively mild scenarios. As an entrepreneur that deals with risks and unknown unknowns every day, this is both terrifying and a great motivator for immediate action.
It is on us — you and me — to do all we can to find ways to cut emissions and capture carbon fast, and also to systematically find other options if emissions reduction and capture turns out not to be enough to keep the whole planet sufficiently habitable for future generations.
It can feel overwhelming to figure out where to start and how best to help. So in the spirit of sharing what we can do and learning from each other, below is a writeup of what I did to convert a $250k personal commitment and ~20hrs of my time into $1.36M donated by some incredible people — list at the end — to what I think are some of the highest impact ways to combat extreme climate change today.
The How.
The “Game Founders for Climate” campaign ran between May 17th and July 17th 2021 in the form of a $500k matching pledge set up by myself, Jussi Laakkonen (Noice), Kevin Chou (Kabam) and Mikko Kodisoja (Supercell) and managed by Founders Pledge, with an aspirational target to reach a $1M total donated to combat extreme climate change. Here’s the campaign page. In the end, we exceeded the target with a total of $1.36M raised thanks to generous donations by a number of high profile donors — list at the end. A nice press writeup on why this campaign by Game Daily when it launched is here.
Who got the funds raised?
80% of the proceeds went to Founders Pledge Climate Fund: Much like a private equity fund, they are structured to provide solution agnostic grants at the time and place where they can have the biggest situational impact on carbon emissions and carbon capture. Why? As a company builder, I know that talent, timing, and leverage have outsized importance in all new ventures. The Founders Pledge Climate Fund team are exceptionally talented thinkers and doers on how to deploy funds toward emissions reduction impact most effectively globally. In particular, they focus on solutions for worlds that bear the most climate risk — where growth is high and emissions-intensive and currently dominant approaches to solving the problem have, relatively speaking, failed.
20% went to Silverlining.ngo: Silverlining has a DARPA-like model promoting research into upper atmosphere modelling, solar radiation management, marine cloud brightening and other “emergency medicine” actions for use as a temporary measure to cool the climate in case despite our best efforts on emissions reduction we hit some unforeseen tipping point and need more time. Why? As an entrepreneur I’ve learned the hard way how important it is to have a plan B in case plan A fails. This research is neglected but critical should we end up at the upper end of possible warming scenarios in the coming decades. Think of it as an insurance policy for the planet.
How did this campaign come about?
After turning 40, I decided to figure out how to best “give back” to humanity. I spent a year studying impact with Longview Philanthropy, listening to 80,000 hours and others. I then settled on an iterative path of continued learning by doing, while focusing on one time-sensitive, impact focused, campaign at a time.
In 2020 my first effort focused on biosecurity due to Covid. I helped kick off a community diagnostic testing movement that turned into a commercial venture primary.health. This year I decided to go the philanthropic route with combating extreme climate change due to the unique post-covid timing opportunity of nudging public policy and basic research in a direction that is more sensitive to tail-end risk.
What Were the Campaign Target KPIs and Results?
- Target : $1M raised — Result : exceeded at $1.36M
- Target : 3+ people with meaningful following publicly advocating for the campaign and tail-end risk — Result : still counting my chickens. Please help by sharing this article!
- Target : 3 key learnings for how to be more impactful in my next campaign — Result : Still learning. I’m passionate about figuring out the best way to pursue personal impact, and all advice / suggestions for improving the approach taken here is much appreciated.
Who were the major contributors?
A HUGE thank you to these major campaign contributors and luminaries from the game industry and beyond taking part in this effort : Adam Valkin, Alexis Bonte, Are Mack Growen, Ed Fries, Eric Ross, Hemant Taneja, Hilmar Pétursson, Joel Wish, John Earner, John Riccitiello, John Stares, Jussi Laakkonen, Jyri Engeström, Kevin Chou, Kora Capital, Mikko Kodisoja, Nic Dahlquist and Patrick Wyatt. You are all rockstars.
What you can do to help #doyourpart.
This campaign ended. But I’m hoping it’s a start to a lot more. Here are the most impactful things you can and should do today:
- Support climate non-profits aimed at fundamental science and policy advocacy — Read this smart writeup from Founders Pledge and consider pledging to be part of the solution. Consider also donating to Silverlining.ngo. And others. Non-profits are the most neglected in climate. Go support them.
- Invest into for-profit clean tech ventures and funds. Commercial clean tech is how clean energy and carbon capture will ultimately scale — so long as the policy framework is in place we need capital and smart company builders to support this growth.
- Contribute your talent and advocacy to all of the above. 80,000 hours is a wonderful resource on how to contribute your career to existential risk. Or find a different way in. The climate needs all of us.
- Start today. Once begun is half done.
Let me know if I can help! Time is short. Take a first step today. It’s time to #doyourpart.
