Professor at Cornell University, Earth system scientist, co-EiC Land-Ocean-Atmosphere Research
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"In almost every area of the energy transition, one country dominates: China. Wind power, where the People’s Republic still has less than half the global market, is a rare exception. President Donald Trump is doing his best to change that." www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Urge Gov Hochul to stand up to Donald Trump and reject this costly and dangerous gas pipeline! The Williams NESE pipeline threatens our beaches, communities, and environment. We don't want or need more fracked gas! Call Hochul today: 877-559-7809 #NoTrumpPipelines
"Negative CO2 emissions" became a hot topic in oceanography. Yet there are many concerns about potential side-effects of trying to manipulate the C cycle. With partners from across Guangdong & Hong Kong we've developed a coastal site to investigate side-effects of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement 🌊 🐠
In related news
"Every 5GW of PV is capable of displacing 1 MTPA of LNG in the electricity sector. So the 400GW of PV installed so far this year could displace about 20% of global LNG consumption." Any questions?
“They can’t get it below 2% because they keep drilling,” DiCarlo said. Since emissions are highest when a well is being drilled, overall emissions will remain high as long as the industry is drilling new wells. “That’s just the nature of the beast.” @txsharon.bsky.social has said this for YEARS!
The world's biggest heavy truck market is electrifying! China's sales of electric trucks skyrocket to 22% from 8.6% in H1 2025, compared to H1 2024. LNG truck sales fall. Electrifying everything will not be easy, but electrifying road transport will be. #energysky thedriven.io/2025/08/05/s...
Facts.
Wow, news like this must make Susan 'Spine-of-Steel' Collins "concerned," "disappointed," "confounded," "dismayed," and, of course, "alarmed."
It’s corruption, plain and simple.
The ad campaign criticizing the use of masks by federal agents working in Washington, D.C. has expanded to 115 bus stops, per organizers
This level of corruption is not normal or acceptable. Even if we are exhausted by each report of it going further and further, we can never grow numb to it.
New feature in Propublica based on Jack's research. “It’s a gargantuan amount of emissions,” said Jack McDonald, “Because so much of this gas is methane and so much of it is either incompletely combusted or not combusted at all through the venting process, we see a huge climate impact.”
Can facts, logic, and calculations counter fake information in a sound bite?
But it worse than that. ~60% primary energy from fossil fuels is just wasted. Solar can reduce that substantially, so the ratio of useful energy from the sun to current use is closer to 7000x current use. A claim that it is only 20%, is 5 orders of magnitude wrong. Err.. Wright.
"Delegates at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) were asked to estimate what percentage of the global population would say they were willing to give 1% of their income to help fix climate change. The average estimate was 37%, but recent research found the true figure is 69%."
I think Illinois can and should sue Texas in the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction and seek a preliminary injunction against the use of any un-federalized Texas National Guard troops in Illinois.
This guy is playing it right. We need to back him up!
I feel like in the 1980’s/90’s this would be a major plot point in a Tom Clancy novel, and the operation would be carried out as an off-book, illegal black op, with various characters trying to cover it up lest they face congressional hearings. Now the President just announces it.
Today, EPA held a hearing on delaying key deadlines for its methane rule. These orgs testified in favor of the delay: American Petroleum Institute American Exploration & Production Council Chamber of Commerce GPA Midstream Interstate Natural Gas Association of America Western Energy Alliance
Why couldn’t the Coast Guard just board the boat leaving Venezuela, arrest the people and get more information on who they’re working for? Why did they have to kill the people?
Trump’s cabinet meetings are embarrassing. An insecure bully ordering his sycophantic cabinet secretaries to grovel to him.
Or if only governments required independent and verifiable monitoring.
“Estimates of emissions from the leak have varied, ranging up to the equivalent of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide.” If only human eyes could see methane plumes.
We need reform so that new, large demand sources such as AI an crypto are not competing with historic customers. They should be required to produce new (and renewable) energy sources.
Since this ridiculousness is making the rounds, here is *actually* how much of the planet we’d need to use in order to meet ALL our ENERGY needs using only renewables. It’s not that large really. A lot of it can be on rooftops and share land with agriculture.
China built the solar-powered equivalent of a coal plant every 8 hours in May. That’s just one of the standout solar stats @billmckibben.bsky.social highlighted in our recent webinar with @sundayofaction.bsky.social:
With its West-to-East Power Transmission Project, China now powers its eastern megacities, 80% of which comes from renewable sources. 🔌💡 www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-e...
This is the most important news of the day. Sending Texas guardsmen to Illinois is an intentional, unprecedented provocation. It should be immediately challenged in court. Follow @democracydocket.com for breaking news and updates on this developing story. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Pritzker: Any rational person who has spent even the most minimal amount of time studying human history has to ask themselves one important question: Once they get the citizens of this nation comfortable with the current atrocities committed under the color of law, what comes next
Trump underfunded the already seriously understaffed and highly problematic Immigration Judges (IJs). Immigration law is very complex and specialized. Doubt these temp judges know WTF they're doing. See our NSF funded research (ungated) on existing IJ problems. bclawreview.bc.edu/articles/10....
Jesus. Regiments from Illinois fought in Texas in 1865. Regiments from Texas do not belong anywhere in Illinois.
The author of this ruling is conservative activist Neomi Rao. When she was nominated by Trump to the bench in 2018, the Legal Defense Fund said she was "poised to weaponize the federal judiciary against well-established norms and precedent." Got that right. www.naacpldf.org/naacp-public...
Indeed, you cannot trust the Federal government under Trump. You cannot do business with them, as the risks & uncertainties are too high. No government has ever been perfect, but Trump has taken a high-performing & relatively transparent Federal government & destroyed it.
Georgetown Law's Super excoriates last weeks' DC Circuit ruling allowing the Trump administration to arbitrarily terminate $20B of grants for green banks. “If these commitments are utterly unenforceable, then no one's going to do business with the federal government.” heatmap.news/politics/gre...
In the coming days, we expect to see what's playing out in LA and DC happen in Chicago. These efforts are not about fighting crime or making communities safer. This is about Donald Trump testing his power and producing political drama to cover up his own corruption.
Pritzker should mobilize the Illinois National Guard to oppose them. Extreme? Maybe. But I don’t see why he should just let another state effectively invade his.
This is from the 2022 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change Solar and wind energy have the highest potential contribution to net emission reduction at the lowest cost - NOT nuclear energy. #ClimateActionNOW 1/ www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/w...
"Cutting data climate collection – as the Trump administration is now trying to do – is like breaking a thermometer to avoid knowing you’ve got a fever." #MaunaLoaObservatory 😧😮💨🤦🏼♀️😭
If Trump had any real interest in addressing crime, his regime would work with law enforcement & Chicago leadership. Instead, he talks about “going in,” like he’s prepping a military invasion. This is nuts. This is dangerous. And it’s pitting states against states, echoing America’s deadliest war.
It’s great to see the scientific community blowing the whistle on Trump’s attempt to convince us that the forest fires, floods, heat strokes, and general misery caused by climate is somehow good for us. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/c...
These problems are even bigger. As a constitutional matter, the deployment of unfederalized Guard personnel into a nonconsenting state can never happen. Never.
Wow! Sending the Texas National Guard to Chicago???? Not acceptable.
Illinois Gov. Pritzker ahead of Trump National Guard deployment: "To Chicagoans... Look out for your communities and your neighbours. Know your rights. Film things that you see happening... Authoritarians thrive on your silence. Be loud for America."
I am not seeing "Constitutional amendment reversing Citizens United" on any of these New Reconstruction wishlists folks are circulating, and. Absent starting over from scratch, I don't see us establishing any semblance of democracy here without that plus Supreme Court expansion.
The tolerance for lies is killing our country. Trump just called Chicago “the most dangerous city in the world, by far.” But its homicide rate isn’t even in the U.S. Top 20. Will major media call out the lie – and call it “a lie” – or will they talk about his “tenuous relationship with the truth”?
FOX BUSINESS: “My goodness. $5 BILLION. Eye-popping numbers… crypto-friendly legislation coming from the president who is in turn cashing in on crypto. A conflict of interest.” Even Fox sees how insanely corrupt Trump’s crypto grift is. (H/T @ab21.bsky.social )
Good article about guy who will hopefully beat Susan Collin’s. But also a classic insight here about centrism. www.thenation.com/article/poli...
This is a very smart campaign. Mamdani level smart.
Republican politicians' budget bill, the Big Ugly Law, gives tax breaks to private jet owners. Yes, it makes private jets fully tax-deductible. It’s clear who Republican politicians are working for… and it ain’t you.
💬 We are recruiting! ⚠️🌊 2️⃣❕Two fully funded salary positions for students who want to do their PhD work on coccolithophores and future ocean! One is more bioinformatics 🧬 oriented and the other is more linked to organic chemistry 🧪 ➡️if interested write❕ ✍🏼 ✉️ #AcademicTwitter
Let's hope they can move ahead quickly with installation of the rapid chargers, and that "eventually" will not be way off the future.
We are in a green energy revolution, and NY should be at the forefront, or risks falling behind! Join us TOMORROW 9/3 from 5-7pm at the downtown Buffalo Public Library (1 Lafayette Sq) for the NY Energy Plan hearing, and send a letter today on four comment periods by visiting linktr.ee/cleanairwny
Don’t trust the experts”? That’s not democracy, that’s recklessness. On a plane, I want a pilot. In a hospital, I want doctors and scientists who understand the evidence. Expertise isn’t religion or authoritarianism — it’s training, accountability, and data. Ignore it and we all pay the price.
People want change.
All of them.
Nice article about the DOE report and how the scientific community is responding www.newsweek.com/why-trumps-m...
This is one those things you see and you think "how much longer can @schumer.senate.gov let this guy go on?" but I actually think it's too late to stop him.
Leadership. Anyone involved in policing actions cannot be allowed to hide their faces, hide their identities.
🧵New York could have 25,000 union jobs building a future for the next generation. Or we could let Kathy Hochul and Donald Trump pour pipeline poison on our planet. So if you're in New York, send a comment at publicpowerny.org/take-action to ensure we're leading. On Labor Day, and every day. ⤵️
If Sam Altman and the AI industry's vision for the future requires data centers everywhere operated by fusion power plants, it's not a vision. It's a hallucinatory fantasy. interestingengineering.com/culture/sam-...
New York: Don’t give up on the #climate fight via @profbobhowarth.bsky.social buffalonews.com/opinion/arti... @nickcunningham.bsky.social @oilfieldwitness.bsky.social @oilchange.bsky.social @niklashoehne.bsky.social @ssteingraber1.bsky.social @rahmstorf.bsky.social @beyond-ideology.bsky.social
This should be the lead story in all major national news outlets. Public health people prefer to stay out of the limelight unless there is no other choice. I can’t overstate how bad things have to be for 9 former CDC directors to band together and pen an op-ed in the NYT warning the entire country.
As @txsharon.bsky.social likes to say, these massive methane leaks would never happen if it weren't invisible. "What we have here is a cover-up at every conceivable scale, by ConocoPhillips...."
🎯🎯🎯
Good morning with good news: Japan, world's 4th largest economy, cut its fossil fuel generated electricity from 73.1% in June 2018 to 54.8% in June 2025. That's 18.3 points drop or 2.6 points/year! It could be near zero FF by 2045. Gas fell from 38.1% to 27.4% Coal fell from 30% to 20% #energysky
Tobias Steinhoff and 40+ co-authors present the results from a two-week intercomparison of 27 pCO₂ instruments (16 models) doi.org/10.1002/lom3... #ocean #co2
Yes! As Karl Rove said two decades ago, the science enterprise has become an opponent of this Republican Party. Not because of what scientists did, but because R’s are a billionaire-led party, opposed to education, expertise, and even facts.
imagine if you could live your life the same way a fossil fuel executive runs their business.... NEW BIT FOR @australiainstitute.org.au -->>>>> australiainstitute.org.au/post/expensi...
It's like someone breaking into your house to steal your stuff, injuring himself in the process, and then suing you for his medical expenses.
horrible
Medicare for all, paid leave, universal childcare. Busting up big corporations and tackling Wall Street’s greed. Getting big money out of politics. Supporting unions and fighting for higher wages. If Dems want to win back working people, this is the agenda they must support.
She’s a singular sensation!
New York? Can we please do this? @governor.ny.gov
"I don't want to hurt you, stop fighting back, you're hurting yourself" is literally the language of an abuser. One of the most banally horrifying things about this administration is that there is no subtext, no dog whistles, no need for interpretive work. It's all just explicit racism and cruelty.
Good ICE: glaciers, Antarctica, cocktails. Bad ICE: Trump's gestapo; internal combustion engines.
If "AGI remains a distant dream, as more people in Silicon Valley now believe," the US approach of chasing scale could look ridiculous in comparison with China's approach of squeezing the most out of AI in its current form and building useful applications. [gift link] www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chin...
In recent public remarks about deploying the National Guard to Chicago, Donald Trump said: “I have the right to do ANYTHING I want to do. I’m the president of the United States.” Not even a King has that right. Certainly no president. Who knew a non-drinker could be so drunk with power?
The history of oppressing science, from Galileo to Trump
“In 2023, about 3.5 million Americans worked in jobs related to the renewable energy sector, and jobs in that sector grew at more than twice the rate of those in other sectors.” Coal workers on the other hand number only 40,000 employees nationwide and are declining.
Global battery skyrockets, costs plummet. #climate #battery
👀 "California is far behind Texas when it comes to requiring the public disclosure of gas composition data." insideclimatenews.org/news/2608202... @lizagross.bsky.social on the health impacts of methane + "chemical soup" super emitter events.
Buffalo, a working-class city by the Lake has always had grit, resilience, compassion, and now we can add climate intelligence to this revitalized community's list of attributes. @billmckibben.bsky.social
Thanks!
Please take a look at my Op Ed with Steve Englebright published today, urging NY to not give up the fight on climate. Englebright was the sponsor of the NY climate law (CLCPA) when it passed the Assembly 6 years ago. buffalonews.com/opinion/arti...
This firefighter arrived in the US at age 4, has been here for 19 years, was on track to legal status, and was on a crew trying to contain a major blaze (in Washington state, vs Oregon, fwiw.) h/t @joshuajfriedman.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Can't put it better than @billmckibben.bsky.social.
And you can follow them right here... @climate.us
These are public employees who decided to leave rather than accept jobs where they actually did nothing. Remember that the next time they tell you that government employees are lazy and inefficient.
Yes, but also push back against those who are not kind, those who push falsehoods rather than truth.
“Do you wish for kindness? Be kind. Do you ask for truth? Be true. What you give of yourself you find; Your world is a reflex of you.” James Allen, As a Man Thinketh www.linkedin.com/pulse/panda-...
The month of August 2025 may go down as the worst in the history of the US Health and Human Services Department. It’s against this chaos that Democrats are demanding that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. be removed from his post as the nation’s top public health official.
Congratulations! So very, very much deserved!!!
“ICE Risks Overplaying Its Hand” If what is happening to human rights is not across a moral line, then hell is coming. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Uganda giving the US lessons on rule-of-law.
The assault on expertise is driven by an agenda to place uniformed, ill-conceived, often politically-motivated antiscience from charlatans on an equal footing with scientific consensus. Please read #ScienceUnderSiege by @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social & me: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/science-un...
Thanks!
That is why these types of posts work so well on this topic. Pictures that a 5 year old or someone with the limited intellectual capacity of a US president can understand:
Disagree. We should be encouraging appropriate coauthorship for people that contribute to projects - for too long techs/programmers/etc got no acknowledgement at all. There are too many papers but this is not the way to tackle it.