Rainbow came into carbon dioxide removal from the outside, kept financing avoidances the whole time, and has watched the market arrive at the position it started from. The company I cofounded, Nori, was merciless about avoidance for its entire existence, so some of that is on me. Wendell Berry died on 31 August, at 92. He has more books referenced on this show than any other author. Early in Nori's life I wrote to him twice inviting him onto this very podcast by explaining that we were making tonnes of soil organic carbon fungible with one another, which may be the worst reading of an audience in my career. He said no both times, kindly. I still have the letters. Listen in to hear more about what it is like to meet someone from Verra and have the first sentence out of your mouth be "I used to think I was better than you", why the hardest parts of carbon market integrity turn out to be structural rather than a failure of anyone's willpower, what the Scouring of the Shire has to do with a methodology list, why I would keep rainforest over carbon removal if someone made me choose, and those ever-present wizards and prophets. This Episode's Sponsor EcoEngineers: a full-service advisory and consulting firm focused on carbon dioxide removal, decarbonization, and carbon markets. Listen to the RCC episode I made with David LaGreca from EcoEngineers about how to choose, hire, and fire carbon market contractors. 2026 EcoForums Training Series: Navigating Global Carbon and Fuel Regulations, Market Mechanisms, and Life-Cycle Analysis Fundamentals Rainbow is a client of mine and I say so in the episode. They are not sponsoring this episode. I was just inspired by the work itself. Resources Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change SubstackBecome a paid subscriber for bonus content and ad-free episodesRemovals, avoidances, and the rise of the portfolio mentality, the essay this episode is built on, at RainbowRainbow, the standard and registrySustained Neutralization of the Warming Response to Emissions through a Portfolio of GHG Mitigation Strategies, Ella Hughes, Zeke Hausfather, Randall Spock and Christopher Van Arsdale, CDRXIV, May 2026. This is the Google paper on stacking and bridgingThe Prodigal Son of Carbon Markets, with Martin Freimüller of Octavia Carbon, on his change of heart about the voluntary carbon marketJason Grillo writes Climagination, and was on the show for The Culture of Carbon RemovalRobert Höglund writes Marginal CarbonRereading The Wizard and the Prophet six years deeper into climate work, with Charles C. Mann, where the wizards and prophets framing comes fromThe impossible taxonomy of carbon dioxide removal, the previous episode about categories that misleadWendell Berry, 1934 to 2026, Kentucky LanternSix Wendell Berry books, and most of what this show has argued about for a decade, are on my Bookshop shelf. Book links go to Bookshop.org. They pay me a commission at no extra cost to you, and the rest goes to independent bookshops. Cover image: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters, 1565, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access.
