Dirk Pilat

Bill Gates’s climate comments are a dangerous distraction People do not have to dismiss or exaggerate the climate threat to justify concerted action.

"The obstacles to limiting warming to below ever-more-dangerous levels remain political, rather than physical or technological."

But it won't be done with CO₂ removal (CDR) technologies because the obstacles to scaling CDR are political, social, financial, physical, and technological.

'Act of sabotage' — Explosion hits Polish railway track used for Ukraine aid shipments, Warsaw says "We will catch the perpetrators, whoever they are," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, noting that the route was "crucially important for delivering aid to Ukraine."

⚡️ Update: Poland says 'everything indicates' Russia behind railway sabotage incident.

"Russian services want to disrupt our society, to scare us," Polish security service spokesperson Jacek Dobrzynski said.

a cartoon dog is sitting at a table in front of a fire with the words it 's fine everything is fine ALT: a cartoon dog is sitting at a table in front of a fire with the words it 's fine everything is fine

Elon Musk is set to make more than every U.S. elementary teacher combined www.washingtonpost.com/technology/i...

Wetlands and wildlife in the Netherlands: slowing down and connecting with nature in Friesland The cosy cabins, bike rides and serenity of De Alde Feanen national park make it the perfect place to switch off and unwind in winter

Wetlands and wildlife in the Netherlands: slowing down and connecting with nature in Friesland

Wasserstoff-Autos: BMW erhält staatliche Förderung zur Entwicklung Hat der Einsatz von Wasserstoff eine Zukunft bei der Autoentwicklung? BMW glaubt nach wie vor daran. Jetzt erhält der Konzern eine staatliche Förderung für die Weiterentwicklung der Technologie.

German taxpayers are handing BMW €273m to once again attempt to push hydrogen-powered cars, when battery prices have once again dropped >50% in the past ~18 month and CATL is on its 5th-gen LFP battery.

CATL, BYD et al must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Sigh.

www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/w...

“If we wait to cross tipping points before we act, it will be too late. The only credible risk management strategy is to act in advance.”
global-tipping-points.org/the-dartingt...

1. Overshoot 1.5°C unavoidable, but returning below is possible
Every five years without substantial CO2 emission reductions locks in an additional temperature increase of about 0.1°C, and implies an additional need of around 200 billion tonnes CO2 of negative emissions to return to 1.5°C.

China uses a wide array of industrial policies, eg subsidies, regulations, to promote strategic economic sectors. This column estimates that the equivalent fiscal cost of industrial policy is about 4% of GDP per year, with support directed largely at the manufacturing sector
cepr.org/voxeu/column...

Israel breaching international law by limiting Gaza aid, says Unrwa official Natalie Boucly says supplies are ready but only about half of what is needed is getting into territory Israel is breaching international law by continuing to impose restrictions on aid flows into Gaza, where the population remains critically short of food and life-saving goods as winter sets in, a senior official at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said. In an interview during a recent visit to Brussels, Natalie Boucly, an Unrwa deputy commissioner general, said the whole world – including the EU and US – needed to increase the pressure on Israel’s government to ensure the unrestricted flow of aid into Gaza. Continue reading...

Israel breaching international law by limiting Gaza aid, says Unrwa official

"The 'reduction in enthusiasm' [for climate action] among rich nations didn’t happen by accident.

It’s the product of a deliberate and systematic assault on knowledge by some of the richest people on Earth.

Preventing climate breakdown means protecting ourselves from the storm of lies."

Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage | George Monbiot The fundamental problem is this: that most of the means of communication are owned or influenced by the very rich, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Climate breakdown is driven by a storm of lies. This lying is systemic, funded and coordinated, and operates across almost all media, old and new.
This week's column argues that we cannot fight the climate crisis without also fighting the epistemic crisis.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

In the global electrification race China is marching ahead.

The US and Europe risk falling behind clinging on to yesterday's technologies.

The 2025 state of the climate report: a planet on the brink We are hurtling toward climate chaos. The planet's vital signs are flashing red. The consequences of human-driven alterations of the climate are no longer

Freely available here: academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

Co-authors include @michaelemann.bsky.social, Johan Rockström, and @petergleick.bsky.social

Al could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points

‘Al could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2
percentage points’

Well that’s the best chart of the year in this @johnthornhill.bsky.social column and basically sums up where we are
on.ft.com/4qMMkJd

"On July 20, the Tehran Water Authority reported that the capital’s reservoirs had reached their lowest point in a century, and last week, the authority’s head warned that dam reserves could sustain the city for only two more weeks if the dry spell continued."

Paramount Has Blacklist for Stars Deemed “Overtly Antisemitic” — World of Reel It sure looks like the likes of Javier Bardem, Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, and Mark Ruffalo won’t be making movies for Paramount in the foreseeable future.

Under new head of Paramount David Ellison, the studio has drawn up a list of actors who opposed the Gaza genocide and will not allow them to appear in its films and TV shows.

Does this sound familiar?

Also, "Ellison is reportedly aiming to take over Warner Bros. next."

For a few years, climate science denial seemed to have been replaced by “delay-ism” (“it’s real but not urgent”). Now, just as renewables start defeating fossils by being more cost-efficient, delay-ism morphs into defeatism: “it’s real, it’s urgent, but can’t be paid for”.
All three are propaganda.

When Confronting Russian Propaganda, Truth is Not Optional - Policy Magazine In late October, Italian Senator Carlo Calenda went viral for bluntly calling economist Jeffrey Sachs a liar. During a debate between the two on the Italian

Maria Popova, McGill University: Russian manipulation of the facts endures because when #JeffreySachs and others tirelessly promote it, opponents politely disagree and the conversation is presented as a debate of equally valid viewpoints. www.policymagazine.ca/when-confron...

The new UNEP Emissions Gap Report points out that "no NDCs set targets to reduce oil and gas production or trim inefficient fossil fuel subsidies".

That countries are not addressing fossil fuels - at the heart of the climate crisis - is deeply worrying.

wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/ha...

For too long, industry has been labelled a “hard-to-abate” sector. It’s time to rethink that.

With rapid advances in electrification and energy efficiency, much of industry is not hard to abate — it’s ready to innovate.

Americans. Read this thread and wonder at how your erstwhile allies are abandoning you.

The press doesn’t get away unscathed: “The legacy media is apparently more interested in the climate musings of an erstwhile PC mogul than a sober assessment by the world’s leading climate scientists.”

You can’t reboot the planet if you crash it What Gates is putting forward aren’t legitimate arguments that can be made in good faith. They are shopworn fossil fuel industry talking points.

“Here’s the thing, Bill Gates: There’s no ‘patch’ for the climate crisis. And there is no way to reboot the planet if you crash it. The only safe and reliable way out when you find yourself in a climate hole is to stop digging—and burning—fossil fuels.” — @michaelemann.bsky.social

Schandalig dat er een partij is die dit soort onzin beweerd, en heel bewust de democratie probeert te ondermijnen, en dat dit officeel ontkracht moet worden. Dit is precies waarom feiten, onderzoek en waarheid zo belangrijk zijn. Zonder valt een maatschappij uit elkaar.

We in the UK will work out far too late that this is a bad thing.

Not to go all Robert Gordon but the potential benefits as a % of GDP are also much smaller. Going from no internet to internet is a much bigger bang for your buck than going from internet to AI

You can’t reboot the planet if you crash it What Gates is putting forward aren’t legitimate arguments that can be made in good faith. They are shopworn fossil fuel industry talking points.

"Here's the thing, Bill Gates: There is no 'patch' for the climate crisis. And there is no way to reboot the planet if you crash it. The only safe and reliable way out when you find yourself in a climate hole is to stop digging—and burning—fossil fuels."
— @michaelemann.bsky.social

From NHS innovations to addressing inequalities in the labour market: new report reveals real-world impact of humanities and social sciences research A new report sheds light on the tangible impact of UK SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy) research on the wellbeing of society, culture and the economy, through...

And this exercise obviously just looks at the economic returns But we've looked at a lot of the wider benefits of research in humanities/social sciences/arts which stretch far beyond economic returns to support law, education, culture, inclusion & health
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/new-rep...

The value of public R&D

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term
www.gov.uk/government/p...

2nd edition of our The AI Shift newsletter is out. The question today: could AI be making us LESS productive? @jburnmurdoch.ft.com www.ft.com/content/2480... At the individual level, it's clear we're not reliable witnesses on this Q. At an organisational level, it gets even more interesting...