I jumped into the PA run with 10 cryochambers and that was fine. As soon as I could get farmers there was plenty of catnip production

I’m not sure that they do. When I know I’m going to reset into a challenge I tend to not build any Cryochambers.

Once you get Solar Revolution going reliably (especially with at least one Atheism challenge) then the bonus from a skilled kitten won’t be as significant.

As you get more resets and higher Solar Revolution and Paragon bonus it will get easier to get enough Factories to zero out pollution.

I’m very late-game and so am able to run max smelters and still build enough Carbon-capture factories to set pollution to zero.

Grats on getting to zero pollution and you can look forward to it being easier to accomplish next run.