Temperatures drop, snow starts falling all over the country and you hear "Feliz navidad" for the thousandth time this week. We all know what time it is and this year, Christmas feels a little bit extra special for us here at Solidify. In true Christmas spirit, we all need to take care of each other. As a company, we've thought a lot about that and decided that the best way for us to take care of each other is to take care of our planet. To do so, we are compensating for our own carbon emissions by investing in Skymining's Skymines. This is our Christmas gift this year, from us to the planet we all live in.

We've previously written about our partnership with Skymining. For the past year, we've helped them build software systems surrounding the Skymining process. However, the partnership means a lot more than just a business opportunity, it's a way for us to help drive change and contribute to helping the environment.

A new story to tell

A large portion of the climate change debate revolves around how to decrease emissions and reduce overall climate impact. Though it is important to take the negative consequences seriously, we believe that a solution-oriented mindset is crucial. To drive change, Skymining believes that we need to closer examine how we view the CO2 itself.

When the world recognizes CO2 as a resource instead of a problem, global warming can be reversed in years, not decades.

• Skymining

Carbon dioxide is everywhere, not just in the atmosphere. Without it, life as we know it wouldn't exist. This is where the solution lies; considering CO2 as a valuable resource rather than an issue to be avoided. By putting the potential value of the atmospheric CO2 in focus, Skymining takes an entirely new perspective on climate change. They estimate that the size of the carbon mine; the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere available for mining to be massive enough to solve the entire world's energy, food and fibre problems.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4407" src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/15783/1576572108-reversing-climate-change.png" alt="SkyMining reversing climate change" width="458"/>

Reversing the carbon flow

So, there's a whole lot of a carbon available in the atmosphere. What does this mean from a business perspective, and how does it fit into the bigger picture? Skymining argues that there are three paradigms required to reverse climate change, and that their idea attacks the problem on all three fronts, effectively reversing the carbon flow.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4447" src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/15783/1576572137-reversing-carbon-flowresized.png" alt="Reversing Carbon Flow" width="420"/>

They do so by using what they call Skymines. These are vast fields of specialized crops designed to absorb as much CO2 as possible from the atmosphere. In this process, the crops restore nutrients to the soil underneath. In addition, the crops can later be used to produce carbon negative food, fuel and materials.

Taking responsibility

Climate change is perhaps the biggest issue we as inhabitants of this world face today. The science is clear and the choice is ours: do we continue the mindless way we've done so far, or do we act and at the same time take advantage of the opportunities at hand? Here at Solidify, we know what our answer is.