Peter Thorne

Google maps telling me to get to Dublin Airport by leaving Dublin airport and walking back an hour and a half to it. #Spéirgorm

Google must have finally incorporated AI into Google Maps. How do I know?
It just told me I needed to leave now to be at Dublin Airport by 13:30 now to catch 9am Citylink that arrives in Dublin Airport at 11am. Then I should take the 11:45 Kells bus to Ballymun and walk back one hour to the airport

This is what Hess said: “It brings up mixed emotions to represent the US right now. I think it’s a little hard. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of. Just because I wear the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the US.”

Energy demand and decarbonization in 2025 and beyond - Nature Reviews Clean Technology Rapid expansion of renewables has thus far mostly covered fast-growing energy demand rather than displacing fossil fuels. New demand drivers such as data centres and cooling could reverse declining de...

Digital services, AI, air conditioner systems, e-cars are causing global #electricity demand to rise faster than electricity production from renewables, warn PIK’s Felix Creutzig and @ipcc.bsky.social vice chair Diana Ürge-Vorsatz in Nature Reviews Clean Technology:
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Oh, here comes another wave of insanity.

Ukraine is now supposed to surrender in a war it has not lost and willingly ensure its own destruction by Russia because Trump needs to avert a midterm disaster.

It's the dead of winter, and California just supplied a peak of 117% of its demand with solar alone and 136% of its demand from WindWaterSolar and over 100% of demand for 6 hours.

Gas output down 58% and batteries output up 303% in 2025 v '2023

Solar+batteries replacing gas

Texaco sponsor an art competition in Ireland for children and teenagers.

Good morning! Taxing the wealth of the richest 1% of Americans down to the median wealth of the next-richest 9% ($5.2 million per household) would free up $48 trillion. Redistributing that to the poorest 50% of Americans would give *68 million households* an average of *$700k per household*.

An unfinished landscape: predominantly clouds at this point, with a suggestion of land in the foreground. Light and shade gradually developing. Very muted palette of whites, blues, olive and ochre.

Latest #workinprogress #oilpainting

Re: Science Mag editorial celebrating mainly the inside/quiet advocacy done this year, I offer this in lighthearted response. 🧪

This is a Myanmar woman doing her usual, longstanding dance routine while black cars speed by to carry out a coup. 1/4

In case you were on the fence about buying something from Amazon…

I think each of us in academia knows people in our departments or fields who are horrible people and also know who’s protecting them. These revelations should not be a surprise to any of us.

Environmental breakdown isn’t a distant possibility – it’s a threat to world stability The message is clear: climate change should be prioritised as a security crisis, not just an environmental one

Nature and climate funding must now be articulated as infrastructure: as essential to food systems, public health, energy stability and geopolitical resilience. In security terms, biodiversity is not sentimental, it is strategic.

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Remember folks, it just keeps getting worse until we stop burning fossil fuels.

##ClimateEmergency

It is done, the @ipbes.net Business and Biodiversity Assessment is agreed! 👏

And the #IPBES12 closing plenary starting in about 11 hours from now. Time for translations.

First solar-battery hybrid sends power into evening peak, heralding radical changes for Australia's main grid The first solar-battery hybrid has begun sending power into Australia's main grid in the evening. Dozens of bigger projects are will follow, changing the game for old fossils.

Solar farms with big batteries that feed in to the grid in the evening peak are coming online. This is really, really bad news for fossil fuel generators reneweconomy.com.au/first-solar-...

Even ignoring John Stephens ignoring transport data in favour of what he thinks he sees (wtf, man, that’s idiotic), here’s the efficiency thing:

- if there IS congestion, you keep the bus lanes

- if there ISN’T congestion, the cars don’t need the slow formation space, so you keep the bus lanes.

What role for deliberative minipublics in sustainability transformations? An emerging topic for sustainability science - Sustainability Science Sustainability Science - Democracies struggle to translate sustainability science, and public concern into sufficiently transformative actions. Ongoing polarization, politicization and...

Deliberative mini-publics (DMPs) bring randomly selected citizens together to learn, deliberate, and advise on sustainability policy.

In this new article in Sustainability Science, we discuss how DMPs could improve relations between science, publics and politics.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Rainbow over the Irish Sea

The rainbow got better

Supreme Court ruling on wind farms requires all public bodies to consider climate impacts Judgment states public bodies must try to act in line with national climate targets

A look at the Coolglass ruling with input from @orlakelleher.bsky.social @lnbdublin.bsky.social @oisincoghlan.bsky.social
www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Rainbow behind flooded fields from the train to Birmingham

Stopping at Liam Dutton’s favourite train station on Anglesey

North wales looking a little soggy

Flood Prevention Is the way we are farming partly responsible for flooding, and what changes might decrease damage in the future? Geomorphologist Prof Mary Bourke. Sligo Farmers Eddie Davitt and Joe Leonard. Farming F...

“You don’t treat a flood where it ends up, you treat it where it starts. Upstream at the top of the catchment”

How to use the land more cleverly to adapt to changing weather and future floods.
#RTECountrywide #SpeirGorm

Listen: 👉 www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

What can be done about this?

Slurry spreaders out today in waterlogged fields beside the Boyne River - total madness and against regulations.

Water quality is deteriorating and there is little enforcement.

@whittledaway.bsky.social
@irishrainforest.bsky.social

Bollards save lives. End of story.
#WorldBollardAssociation

I'm just disappointed that the headline writer didn't use some riff on well I have walked 6000 kms and I will walk 500 more. A missed opportunity that will haunt them for the rest of their lives

Thirty obstacles to meeting climate targets identified by all-party committee Most are ascribed to shortfalls in Government planning, policies, action and communications

“In a trenchantly worded report, the Joint Committee bluntly criticises the Government for insufficient effort, delayed implementation, lack of clarity, & planning deficits across the breadth of the Coalition’s climate change policies.”

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Not a big beautiful model, the best model the world has ever seen?

Supreme Court ruling on wind farms requires all public bodies to consider climate impacts Judgment states public bodies must try to act in line with national climate targets

“My sense is that the Supreme Court has reigned in the High Court’s interpretation of Section 15 somewhat, but it’s clear that Section 15 still has a lot of bite,” - Dr Orla Kelleher @maynoothlaw.bsky.social

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Critical insights into eutectic molten hydroxide electrolysis for sustainable green hydrogen production In addressing global energy demands, the focus on hydrogen gas production from renewable sources intensifies. This research review investigates hydrogen production via steam splitting using eutectic m...

Read Section 5.2.

You will not be disappointed.

I swear it.

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

There are literally 100s of flood relief schemes in place, and only a handful have been judicially reviewed. Enniscorthy hasn't even got planning permission but judicial review is being blamed for delay.

People who aren't tuned into this I think aren't aware of the level of nonsense going on: