Andreas Schmittner

Graph of Human Develppment Index, a UN metric that combines per-capita GDP, education, and health, vs. annual energy use per person. Each dot is a country. HDI increases with energy use to a point, then saturates. The US is twice as far to the right on energy use per person as the "kink point" where energy use stops influencing HDI. The UK and Switzerland are near the kink point, using about half the per-capita energy of the US, but have better health and education outcomes.

The United States uses about twice as much energy per person as Switzerland or the UK. The US also has worse public health and life expectancy. Few countries use more energy per person than the US. Most of them are, like the US, petrostates.

China Starts Sea Trials for Largest Electric-Powered Containership China’s first 10,000-ton electric containership is beginning sea trials. The shipyard is billing the ship as the largest of its kind and a further bre...

Large electric powered container ships are already a reality.

When posting about this 2 years ago the so-called “experts” said it is impossible.

Can people stop listening to oil and gas “experts” soon?

Companies reap $22bn from Trump’s immigration crackdown Palantir and Deloitte among beneficiaries of spending by government agencies

Palantir, Deloitte, and the private prison giant GEO Group took in more than $22 billion from ICE and CBP last year. Behind the spreadsheets and contracts, there's a quieter truth: someone is getting rich from cages, borders, and human pain. Profit has always been fluent in the language of cruelty.

Allensbach-Umfrage: Mehrheit der Deutschen sieht USA als Gefahr für den Weltfrieden Der Blick der Deutschen auf die USA hat sich seit 2024 grundlegend gewandelt. Laut einer Umfrage sehen knapp zwei Drittel der Befragten die USA als möglichen Aggressor.

Two-thirds of Germans see the USA as the greatest danger for world peace, up from 24% in 2024.
www.zeit.de/gesellschaft...

Can the clean-energy revolution save us from climate catastrophe? Seven charts show the remarkable growth in renewable power and the challenges to ending the fossil-fuel age.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Opinion | ‘Melania’: Watching a First Lady Vanish in Plain Sight

Amazon paid $28 Million to Melania for filming her for 20 days. So corrupt!
‘Melania’: Watching a First Lady Vanish in Plain Sight www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/o...

Deep Inside an Antarctic Glacier, a Mission Collapses at Its Final Step

Deep Inside an Antarctic Glacier, a Mission Collapses at Its Final Step www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/c...

Opinion | The Real Reason Silicon Valley Won’t Stand Up to Trump

The Real Reason Silicon Valley Won’t Stand Up to Trump www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/o...

So you represent 98 % of climate scientists and the three others represent 2%.

Let’s save the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the prime climate research lab in the US. ✊

Let’s try to save the country’s prime climate research lab. ✊

After the #AMS2026 emergency town hall regarding NCAR, it is ***imperative*** that folks contact their senators and representatives. IN PARTICULAR:

Maine: Susan Collins (Chair - Senate Approps.)
Oklahoma: Tom Cole (Chair - House Approps.)
Colorado: John Hickenlooper and Joe Neguse

#SaveNCAR

Reflections on Poverty and Wealth By Michael Parenti

I was sad to learn of Michael Parenti’s passing. He wrote an introduction for the 2008 issue of To Topos — a poetry journal I edited and produced. The special issue focused on the theme of Poverty and Poetry.

One shooter:

How Many People Have Been Shot in ICE Raids? The Trace is tracking gun incidents connected to Trump’s immigration crackdown. Know of one? Please be in touch.

A reminder that The Trace has been tracking shootings connected to Trump's immigration crackdowns — Renee Good and Alex Pretti, unfortunately, are not alone: www.thetrace.org/2025/12/immi...

Reminds me of Fox News coverage of the storming of the Capitol, when they claimed those people in red MAGA hats with Trump flags were Democrats and Antifa.

Introduction to Climate Science Introduction to climate science is for college students of both science and non-science majors and for everybody interested in the topic.

Check out the new version of my climate science textbook. Free, accessible and online. Let me know what you think. open.oregonstate.education/climatescien...

On the plus side I don’t get messages from Elon.

Opinion | How Trump Has Used the Presidency to Make at Least $1.4 Billion The president took an oath to serve the American people. Instead, he’s focused his second term on enriching himself and his family.

Corruption reigns: How Much Can One Man Make From Being President? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Last year, the oceans absorbed a record-breaking amount of heat — equivalent to 12 Hiroshima bombs exploding every second In 2025, the ocean absorbed an extra 23 zettajoules of heat energy in 2025, breaking the ocean heat content record for the ninth consecutive year.

Surprise, surprise: ocean heat content breaks new record. www.livescience.com/planet-earth...

On board the voyage to Antarctica to learn why a massive glacier is melting Scientists are worried about the melting of Antarctica's ice sheets and what it could mean for sea levels. There's a two-month-long journey underway to conduct research that will better explain what's...

Interesting news report on research expedition to Thwaits glacier. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

America’s Own Goal: Who Pays the Tariffs? - Kiel Institute

1/ New Kiel Institute study on 2025 tariffs. The headline finding won't shock anyone who studied 2018-19 tariffs: near-complete pass-through to US importers. Foreign exporters absorbed ~4% of burden; Americans paid ~96%.

www.kielinstitut.de/publications...

Last night's Aurora Borealis over Greenland.

PNW snowpack approaches record lows As we approach the halfway point of mountain snow season, snowpack remains in poor condition across much of the PNW. The state of the snowpack as measured by SNOTEL stations is often displayed as a…

Snowpack in Washington and Oregon is so bad that a normal February and March would result in a recovery to just the ~10th percentile of historical years. More in the CZ blog...

theconvergencezone.com/2026/01/19/p...

A 20-Year Record of the Subpolar AMOC: Key Findings from the SCOTIA Program This blog post and the “Deep Dive” podcast, created by NotebookLM, are based on “The Scotland-Canada overturning array (SCOTIA): twenty years of meridional overturning in the subpolar North Atlanti…

A new preprint article based on the 20-year record of SCOTIA observing array indicates that the subpolar AMOC is holding steady: 🌊🧪 ocean2climate.org/2026/01/19/a...

Climate scientists have a dire warning: 2025 was nearly the hottest year on record NASA and NOAA officials say 770 million people experienced record heat waves in 2025.

2025 was second or third hottest year on record.
www.oregonlive.com/weather/2026...

Martin Luther King Jr. on Capitalism On this Martin Luther King Jr.

MLK on capitalism open.substack.com/pub/alisav/p...

Spot on.

The cure for misinformation is not more information or smarter news consumers Political scientist Samuel Bagg explains why social identity is at the root of the misinformation crisis -- which calls for something deeper than factchecking.

ICYMI: I sat down with political scientist @samuel-bagg.bsky.social to discuss the crisis in our information environment and its roots in social identity.

Bossons Glacier
2022 | 2025

One of Europe's most impressive glaciated landscape is collapsing right before our eyes! 🧊🔥

Since 2022, the level of melting has reached unknown territories 📈

📷 Via Meteo Valle d'Aosta