Grizzly bears have long been the iconic symbol of the Western U.S. and while their numbers are rebounding after they were hunted to near extinction and landed on the endangered species list in 1975, their continued existence and population growth lies at the intersection of climate change and deeply divisive politics in the U.S.

Last week The Economist published a story entitled, “How the Culture Wars Came for Grizzly Bears,” which walks through the long and storied history of the grizzly bear, its iconography, and why it’s become a flashpoint for the ongoing politicization that has engulfed everything from culture to climate change. The story underlines how the future of endangered animals intersects with climate change, mis- and disinformation and politics.

As The Economist points out, “The bears’ success has reignited one of the longest-running battles in the American West: Republican states’ ideological war against federal environmental regulations.” The outcome could determine just how endangered species are handled, especially in the face of continued climate change.

Grizzly Bears and Climate Change

Grizzly populations have rebounded since the 1970s when they were hunted down to an estimated population of 700 to 800 individuals.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that there are now around 2,000 bears in the 48 contiguous states.

Their territory once stretched from Mexico, through Canada and up to Alaska but, today their range is much more limited in North America with small populations existing in areas like Canada, Montana, Wyoming, Washington and Idaho.

Those areas have seen a rise in human population, thanks in some part to the Covid-19 pandemic which drove people from cities to rural areas, and which has in turn, lead to more human-bear interactions, as demonstrated by the uptick in bear videos on social media.  The rise in these interactions, and resulting social media frenzy, has exacerbated a lot of fears, and fear mongering amongst those who see climate change as a political issue and a states right issue, rather than  factual, scientific problem that needs collective, unified effort to solve.

The debate over grizzly bears vividly illustrates the political and factual divides surrounding environmental issues and climate change. The impact of climate change on grizzly bears is multifaceted and complex, affecting everything from their food sources and hibernation patterns, to their growing interactions with human environments.

For one, climate change impacts key food sources for grizzly bears. They are omnivorous, and eat mostly plants and berries, as well as fish, but one of their key foods is whitebark pine trees, according to the National Park Service. These trees are cold adapted, but their numbers have declined rapidly thanks to everything from beetle infestations and disease (white pine blister rust), fire and an increasingly warming climate, according to the USDA.

If you’re a regular reader of Climatebase Weekly, you know that we recently wrote about the updated USDA Plant Hardiness Map which shows how growing regions have changed across the US. Though the USDA does note that changes in zone are “not a reliable indication of climate change,” the temperature changes in the northern regions of the US could continue to impact the whitebark pine and grizzly bear's resilience.

Climate change has also impacted grizzly bears hibernation length. As the world warms and winters in North America become shorter, grizzly bears have had shorter hibernation lengths, just like bears that live closer to the equator–in some cases skipping hibernation altogether. The availability of food, influenced by climate change, plays a significant role in determining when grizzly bears enter and leave hibernation. Bears that live in Montana do not technically hibernate, they go into what’s called torpor from November to March. As the world warms, and autumns last longer, grizzlies may stay out of hibernation longer, impacting the health and safety of cubs and increasing human-bear conflicts​.

Politics and partisanship also plays a major role in the equation. In places like Montana or Idaho where politicians have proposed bills to delist grizzly bears from the endangered list, supporters have argued that the issue is a “Tenth Amendment issue,” referring to states rights, according to The Economist story.

Environmentalists worry that should the U.S. end up with another Republican in the White House (whether it’s Trump or not), conservatives will gut the Endangered Species Act, to carve out exemptions for energy infrastructure projects, which would negatively impact the recovering grizzly population.

An Experiment in Missoula That Offers Hope

While some argue for the continued protection of grizzly bears due to these emerging climate-related challenges, others advocate for delisting the bears, seeing their population rise, and the growing human-bear interaction as a sign of successful recovery and a need for state-led management. These divergent views reflect a larger debate on how to balance conservation efforts with economic and land-use interests, and how to interpret and respond to the challenges posed by climate change.

But, as The Economist points out, there’s one bright spot in the debate. Missoula, Montana, is working on a project to get homeowners to install bear-safe garbage cans. A lack of food resulting from climate change frequently forces bears into populated areas because they are hungry, and increases their chances of running into humans. The city is also working hard to educate the numerous and growing number of transplants, visitors and long time residents to become bear smart and understand what to do when they come across a bear.

The ongoing discussions about grizzly bear management, against the backdrop of climate change, serve as a microcosm of the broader political struggles in addressing environmental issues. They underscore the importance of considering ecological science in policy decisions and reflect the complexities of reconciling different interests and perspectives in environmental management.

The Endangered Species Act celebrates 50 years on December 28, and there are plenty of debates continuing around how best to manage and support disappearing wildlife during the climate crisis. The Fish and Wildlife Service will decide the fate of the grizzlies living in the North Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) in February next year.

SURVEY: What did you think of this edition? Let us know in our feedback survey here!

🌎 New Climate Jobs

Check out some of the latest featured jobs below. If you don't see anything that speaks to you, you can always go to Climatebase to explore thousands of other opportunities.

National Center for Appropriate Technology

“The National Center for Appropriate Technology or NCAT has been helping people build resilient communities through local and sustainable solutions that reduce poverty, strengthen self-reliance, and protect natural resources since 1976...”

• Director of Communications (Remote)

Work on Climate

“Work On Climate is on a mission to make climate work mainstream and bring 100M people into climate jobs. We are transforming from “just” the world’s largest climate community into an organization that will rewire the talent ecosystem to support the new climate-positive economy. Imagine climate companies at every job fair and conference, climate features in every job board, climate solutions in ...”

• Founders Program Manager (Remote (USA))
• Community Program Manager (Remote (United States))

Third Nature Investments

“Third Nature Investments is an integrated impact capital platform centered on rebuilding a healthy relationship between Earth’s natural systems and human activity. We are a growing collective of entrepreneurs, innovators, impact investors, philanthropists, and advocates seeking to redefine industrial and consumer markets and business models in service of human and planetary health. ...”

• Executive Assistant (Remote)
• Communications & Market Engagement Director (Remote)

Bedrock Energy

“We know that the earth beneath our feet holds extraordinary, untapped capacity to accelerate the clean energy transition. Bedrock Energy is on a mission to transform the heating and cooling of buildings, using carbon-free, hyper-efficient, and ultra-safe geothermal energy to radically reduce costs for people and the environment. Incorporated in 2022, Bedrock recently raised a $8.5M seed round from leading ...”

• Mechanical Solutions Engineer, Building Systems (Los Angeles, CA, USA)

Form Energy

“We are developing a new class of cost-effective, multi-day energy storage systems that will enable a reliable and fully-renewable electric grid year-round. ...”

They are hiring across the following departments:

• Global Supply Management (Berkeley, CA)
• Facilities Operations (Weirton, WV)
• Project Management, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Engineering, Strategic Supply (Pittsburgh, PA)
  
• Mechanical Engineering, Cell (Berkeley, CA)
• Production Managemetn (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Project Engineering
• Mechanical Design Engineering (Somerville, MA)
• People Operations (Berkeley, CA)
• Workforce Development (Weirton, WV)
• Maintenance Planning (Pittsburgh, PA)
  
• Tool Installation (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Process Development (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Logistics (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Systems Architecture, Modeling (Remote)
• Market Intelligence (Strategic Sourcing, Critical Minerals and Processing) (Remote)
• Supplier Quality Engineering (Remote)
• Manufacturing Quality Technician (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Manufacturing Engineering (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Engineering Lab Technician (Somerville, MA)
• Electrical Engineering (Berkeley, CA)
  
• Environmental, Health & Safety (Berkeley, CA)
• Mechanical Design Engineering, Cell Interfaces (Berkeley, CA)
• DevOps (Somerville, MA)
  
• Policy, Western Region (Berkeley, CA)
  
• Reliability Engineering (Berkeley, CA)
  
• Compliance Engineer (Berkeley, CA)
  

Regrow Ag

“Agriculture has the power to reverse climate change. At Regrow, we believe that transforming agriculture systems is the single most important thing we can do to combat climate change — and we believe that science and technology can help us get there. Our software enables us and our partners to transform farming, food systems, and the future of our planet. Regrow combines ...”

• Senior Spatial Statistician (Remote)
• Senior Geospatial Data Scientist (Remote)
• Data Science Manager (Remote)
• AGU 2023 - General Interest (Remote)
• Senior Scientist - Modeling (Remote)
• Outbound Product Marketing Manager - Sales Activation (Remote)
• Senior Customer Success Manager (Remote)
• Manager of Technical Customer Support (Remote)
• Agricultural Product Support Specialist (Remote)
• Frontend Engineer - Mapping (Remote)
• Senior Platform Engineer (Remote)
• Enterprise Account Executive (Remote)
• Senior Technical Program Manager (Remote)
• Director of Software Engineering (Remote)
• Global Account Director (Remote)

Charm Industrial

“Our mission is to reverse climate change and return the atmosphere to 280 ppm CO₂. To pursue this challenge, we convert waste biomass into carbon-rich bio-oil and inject it into permanent, underground storage wells as a form of carbon removal, or reform it to produce green hydrogen and syngas for industrial processes like steel, cement, and chemicals manufacturing. In 2020 and ...”

• Sustaining Electrical Engineer (Fort Lupton, CO)
• Chief of Staff (San Francisco , Fort Lupton, Co)
• Production Operations Director (Fort Lupton, CO)
• Electrical Engineer (Fort Lupton, CO)
• Senior Manufacturing Engineer (San Francisco , Fort Lupton, Co)
• Pyrolyzer Shift Supervisor (Fort Lupton, CO)
• Community Engagement Manager (San Francisco , Fort Lupton, Co)
• Safety Manager (San Francisco, CA)
• Senior Controls and Automation Engineer (San Francisco, CA)
• Senior Mechanical Engineer - Research (San Francisco, CA)
• Ironmaking Engineering Manager (San Francisco, CA)
• Agriculture and Forestry Policy Lead (San Francisco , Fort Lupton, Co)
• Entry Level Field Operations - Pyrolyzer Operator (Fort Lupton, CO)
• Field Operations - Pyrolyzer Operator (Fort Lupton, CO)

Kaluza

“Kaluza is the intelligent energy platform enabling the world’s largest energy companies to lead the way in the energy transition. From revolutionising energy retail operations to smart electric vehicle charging, our software is empowering energy suppliers to deliver market-leading experiences for their customers and drive decarbonisation. Launching in 2019, we’ve grown rapidly to over 400 employees across the UK, Portugal and ...”

• Charging Partnerships Manager (London, England, United Kingdom)
• Site Reliability Engineer - Build Engineering (London, England, United Kingdom)
• Site Reliability Engineer (London, England, United Kingdom)
• Software Engineer - Accounts & Metering (London, England, United Kingdom)
• Site Reliability Engineer (12 month fixed term contract) (London, England, United Kingdom)
• Software Engineer - 12 month FTC (Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom)
• Software Engineer - 12 month FTC (Bristol, England, United Kingdom)
• Software Engineer - Payments (London, England, United Kingdom)
• Software Engineer - Payments (Bristol, England, United Kingdom)
• Software Engineer - Flex (London, England, United Kingdom)
• Technical Lead - Flex (London, England, United Kingdom)
• Account Executive, California (California, US)

EnergyHub

“EnergyHub empowers utilities and their customers to create a clean, distributed energy future We’re working on accomplishing this vision by transforming complexity at the grid edge into reliable resources for utilities. ...”

• Senior Manager, Partner Marketing (Remote (Ny, Vt, Remote))
• Marketing Operations Coordinator (Remote (Brooklyn, NY))
• Product Marketing Manager, EV (Remote (Ny, Vt, Remote))
• Product Marketing Manager (Batteries, Thermostats, and C&I) (Remote (Ny, Vt, Remote))
• Field Marketing Manager (Remote (Ny, Vt, Remote))
• Content Marketing Specialist (Remote (Ny, Vt, Remote))
• Director, Market Development (Remote (Ny, Vt, Remote))
• Manager, Quality Assurance Engineering (Remote (Burlington, VT))
• Associate Client Success Manager (Remote (California))
• Utility Sales Executive (Remote (Remote US))
• Data Engineering Manager (Remote (Ny, Vt, Remote))
• Senior DevOps Engineer - DevSecOps (Remote (Ny, Vt, Remote (Us/Eastern Time)))

Aigen - Robotics

“We are on a mission to regenerate soil at a planetary scale—automated terraforming, with a solar powered robotics platform. Planetary recovery through the soil - More than 50% of our soils are degraded—by chemicals and soil management practices that undercut carbon sequestration potential. At Aigen, we are restoring our planet's health, through the land and our soils with an affordable, precision ...”

• Head of Autonomy and Nav (Kirkland, WA)
• Robot Operator (Fargo, ND)
• Field Operations Supervisor Co-op (Fargo, ND)
• Field Engineering Co-op (Fargo, ND)
• Data Collector / Field Scout (Fargo, ND)
• Sr Electrical Engineer (Kirkland, WA)
• Electrical Engineer (Kirkland, WA)
• Senior Embedded Software Engineer (Kirkland, WA)
• Field Engineer (Fargo, ND)
• Robotics Test Engineer (Embedded Systems) (Kirkland, WA)
• Senior Software Engineer - AI / CV (Kirkland, WA)

Waterplan

“At Waterplan we work in long term water security within the context of climate change adaptation. Waterplan is a fast growing startup in the Climate Tech Space that develops a SaaS platform for companies to manage water availability in their facilities. The platform combines companies' operational data with local water satellite imagery to provide a real-time financial assessment of water ...”

• Marketing Lead (Remote (Argentina))
• Senior Water Advisor - Japan - Remote (Remote (Japan))
• Customer Success Manager - Remote- Japan (Remote (Japan))
• Senior Water Advisor (Mining & Industry) - Remote (Remote (US))
• Partnerships Specialist Japan - Part Time - Remote (Remote (Japan))
• Revenue Operations Specialist Argentina - Remote (Remote (Argentina))
• Senior Enterprise Account Executive LATAM - Remote (Remote (Argentina))
• Waterplan's Talent Pool (Remote)
• Sales Development Representative US - Remote (Remote (US))
• Customer Success Manager Argentina - Remote (Remote (Argentina))
• Senior Enterprise Account Executive US - Remote (Remote (US))

Great Plains Institute

“A nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, the Great Plains Institute is transforming the energy system to benefit the economy and environment. We work on solutions that strengthen communities and provide greater economic opportunity through creation of higher paying jobs, expansion of the nation’s industrial base, and greater domestic energy independence while eliminating carbon emissions. GPI’s goals for transforming the energy system are to - increase ...”

• Carbon Management Program Associate (Remote (Minneapolis, MN, USA))
• NextGen Highways Project Manager (Remote (Minneapolis, MN, USA))
• Executive Vice President (Remote (Minneapolis, MN, USA))
• Program Manager, Utility and Regulatory Innovation (Remote (Minneapolis, MN, USA))
• Vice President of Energy Systems (Remote (Minneapolis, MN, USA))
• Writing and Research Specialist, Energy Systems (Remote (Minneapolis, MN, USA))
• GREET Program Specialist (Minneapolis, MN, USA)

Center for Climate and Energy Solutions

“C2ES is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to forge ambitious and practical solutions to climate change. Our mission is to secure and safe and stable climate by accelerating the transition to a thriving, just and resilient low-carbon economy. What sets C2ES apart is our combination of policy and analytical expertise, longstanding relationships with leading businesses, and reputation as a ...”

• Technology Innovation Associate Policy Fellow (Remote (Washington D.C., DC, USA))
• Manager, Advocacy (Washington D.C., DC, USA)
• Digital Communication Manager (Remote)
• Industrial Decarbonization Fellow (Remote (Washington D.C., DC, USA))
• Digital Communication Manager (Remote (Washington D.C., DC, USA))
• Carbon Management Senior Fellow (Remote (Washington D.C., DC, USA))
• Carbon Management Senior Fellow (Remote (Washington D.C., DC, USA))

Terraformation

“We’re an early-stage startup that cares passionately about solving the climate crisis. We believe that forests are the most effective, safe, and scalable carbon drawdown solution. Our mission is to accelerate restoration of 3 billion acres of degraded lands to their native ecosystems, activating the most massive carbon drawdown effort on the planet. We help partners secure diverse native seed supply, tackle ...”

• Grant Writer (part-time contractor) (Remote)
• Vice President, Marketing and Communications (Remote)
• Software Product Manager (Remote)
• Senior Lead Designer (Remote)

Nira Energy

“Nira's mission is to convert the US power grid to be 100% fossil-free. Nira is a software platform that helps renewable energy developers (solar/wind) find the most profitable land to build new projects. We focus on estimating the cost to interconnect with the electrical grid (aka the Interconnection Process). Depending on where developers connect, they may be on the hook to pay ...”

• Product Manager (Remote)
• Full Stack Engineer (Remote)

That's it for this week! Remember, you can always view thousands of more jobs on Climatebase.org.

Final reminders...

👋 Get discovered. Create a profile to have employers hire you.

🚀 Accelerate your climate career. Apply to join the Climatebase Fellowship.

🌱 Hiring? Post your jobs to reach over 250k monthly users users and over 100,000 newsletter readers.

❤️️ Share a link to this week's edition.

🐦 Let's connect! Follow us on Twitter @Climatebase, and our co-founders @evandhynes and @jhardin925