peer pressure has always been how hosepipe bans work and people have always grumbled about it. not everything is a culture war 🙄 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘People are scared their neighbours will call the police on them’: how the hosepipe ban got caught up in the culture wars
While many people in the UK recognise the need to preserve water, others are furious and planning to flout the ban in their area. The target of their anger? Failing water companies and frighteningly t...
theguardian.com
This is kind of an incredible website: Why your stuff stopped lasting, who profited, and what's still built right.
Worse on Purpose
The brands you trusted quietly gutted quality to protect margins. Investigative essays on corporate enshittification. Free newsletter.
worseonpurpose.com
the sooner we quit oil and gas, the safer we'll all be
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2w agoRAPIDAN: We “no longer assume a near-term return to freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, we expect ongoing military risks to constrain vessel transits .. well into next year ..” 👀
"Overall carbon emissions have increased" in the UK, because of Net Zero, Kemi Badenoch repeatedly tells the BBC, to no pushback. Just completely untrue
Here's Andy Burnham committing to a fossil fuel phase out and the @fossiltreaty.bsky.social last year. The science is extremely clear, we already have far more fossil fuels than can be burned if we are to stay within the Paris #climate targets & prevent catastrophic warming.
Oil Change International@oilchange.org · 3w agoDeadly heatwaves are hitting the UK. This is not the moment for more oil & gas. Burnham just backed a global plan to phase out fossil fuels. Now, reports suggest he'll back new North Sea drilling—a big reversal + mistake for the economy, climate, & UK. financialpost.com/pmn/business...
Weird thing is most testing will show you that one of the most vote losing positions Labour could adopt is explicit anti-Net Zero signalling. This is because climate still disproportionately matters to Lab/Green voters while Lab/Reform voters don’t care either way...
Arieh Kovler@ariehkovler.com · 3w agoIt's kind of weird how watering down Net Zero has become a political litmus test in Labour. Net Zero was in the last TORY manifesto!
Only 40% of Brits think the recent heatwave was 'very likely' down to climate change. Yet #climate scientists say it was "virtually impossible" without human-caused warming. The link went unmentioned in nearly 3/4 of news stories, so the media is letting us down. #EndClimateSilence
Plenty of fun new numbers in this. Eg - my long-running update of CCS promised vs actual capacity installations. It's......not great!!
Want to keep people cool AND generate energy? Solar panel shading systems! This is a new timber-framed office and laboratory in Basel, by Herzog de Meuron
NEW: Eight facts about air conditioning amid an overheated global debate KEY FACT: Many European cities, on the world's fastest-warming continent, never needed AC in the past For some strange reason – I can't imagine why – many commentators prefer to ignore this
NEW – Eight facts about air conditioning amid an overheated global debate | @arunacsekhar.bsky.social @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social @mollylempriere.carbonbrief.org @zekehausfather.com Read here: buff.ly/EynMeIk
I do like the idea of becoming a climate critic * Last Glacial Maximum: cold, liked the furry animals, too dusty. 3 stars * Holocene: 5 stars, great while it lasted * +2C: went in with low expectations and was still disappointed, one star
Katharine Hayhoe@katharinehayhoe.com · 4w agoIt is not headed by a “climate critic“. It is headed by someone who is unqualified in this area, who cannot offer valid critiques but instead shares debunked claims, and who regularly attacks climate scientists. Like me.
Reeves to approve Farage’s resignation, saying ‘if he wants to spend summer arguing with a bin, I won’t stop him’ – UK politics live
Reeves to approve Farage’s resignation, saying ‘if he wants to spend summer arguing with a bin, I won’t stop him’ – UK politics live
Chancellor set to ignore Ed Davey’s request to block Reform leader’s resignation until standards inquiry concludes
theguardian.com
actual payback period: 12 years. And the CCC is making the case for policies to improve the household economics of the upgrade, because the end state - low bills - is self-evidently desirable!
Simon Evans@drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · last mo.FACTCHECK: A guide to manufacturing headlines, by the Times 1) highlight upfront costs of an “eco” home (EV, heat pump, solar) 2) pretend that petrol cars and gas boilers are free (yes really) 3) count upfront “eco” costs twice, for good measure 4) that’s it!
"On Sunday a four-month-old Palestinian baby, Ahmad Maarouf Zaid, died after Israeli forces blocked his family from crossing a checkpoint to reach a waiting ambulance."
Detained Gaza doctor almost unrecognisable after injuries in Israeli jail, lawyer says
Hussam Abu Safiya faces ‘tangible danger to his life’ following 18 months in prison without charge or trial
theguardian.com
love a headline that tells the entire story* *reasons it does make sense: above the clouds in winter, reflected light from snow, panels efficient in cold weather... not to mention already having a grid connection for the dam
Pascal Jacquemain@jacquep.bsky.social · last mo.Switzerland bolted 5,000 solar panels onto a dam wall 8,000 feet up in the freezing Alps where everyone said solar made no sense, and the plant now makes three times more winter power than any farm down in the valleys share.google/nw0ojKKXnID1...
incredible how much of the UK press is taking Trump's line on our politics. It's in Trump's interest to keep us hooked on oil and gas, much of which we import from the US. It's in our national interest to cut that dependence ASAP
It does feel insane that none of "the progressive case for aircon" mentions solar. If this heatwave had happened in 2010, the European grid would have buckled in the daytime! As it is, there were some issues in the evening when the sun went down. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Not just for rich people: the progressive case for air conditioning | Phineas Harper
Air conditioning can bring significant benefits but also real harms. The answer is for it to take its place alongside a comprehensive state plan for climate adaptation, says writer and curator Phineas...
theguardian.com
I have to say, it's making me feel a little insane hearing commentators say Ed Miliband shouldn't be chancellor because of his "ideological zeal" for Net Zero, in a week where temperatures are so extreme that my kids are being sent home early every day and it's regularly 30 degrees inside my house
Air con has made London Climate Action Week possible. It literally would not have been safe to hold half the events without it. Let's have that AND better building standards for passive cooling
Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis@kendrawrites.com · last mo.Side note when I keep skeeting that there's a cultural barrier against air conditioning in much of Western Europe it is shit like this I am talking about.
If any part of the UK hits 40C or near it this week, it will be a deeply concerning, record-breaking moment. 40.3C is UK's highest ever recorded temp - from 2022, in *July*, traditionally the hottest month. We could be about to see that record neared in *June*. Current record June temp = 35.6C.
Renewables-plus-storage is so cheap that in large parts of the world it is cheaper to build a whole new clean power plant than just pay for the fuel and maintenance for a fully-depreciated gas generator. Renewables aren’t just threatening new-build gas — they are undermining existing plants.
This might be one of the funniest chart about energy scenarios I’ve seen. You can hardly see “actual” for gas
This confirms something a lot of people in Westminster noticed: while Farage was happy to bluster through the Schoolboy Nazi stuff, he has gone to ground over the £5million "gift". The story has Reform worried.
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew post out: "How to beat Reform" Using exclusive polling I look at what attack lines work best on Reform, which of their voters are most likely to defect, and the potential for tactical voting. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/h...
NEW – Analysis: Solar overtakes gas power in Asia for first time ever | Ho Woo Nam @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social Read here: buff.ly/vycGh25
Read about the @calenergy.bsky.social program @buildingdecarb.org's @panamaredhat.bsky.social calls "the biggest building decarbonization program in the universe." www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/california-i... via @quittingcarbon.bsky.social 🔌💡
California is investing a half-billion dollars to decarbonize homes for low-income households
California is installing zero-emission electric appliances and energy-saving upgrades at no cost to low-income households across the state under the Equitable Building Decarbonization Program.
quittingcarbonmedia.com
We've reached the point where you don't even need to "stop" it. You can go back to allowing solar and wind development that the market will favor because it's now substantially cheaper than any other form of energy. Reframe the problem as Republicans hampering renewables as a source of cheap energy.
Rebecca Solnit@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 2mo agoNYT is always "progressives should abandon their principles! Sell out! Sell out! SELL OUT!" This is something you will constantly find at the NYT, a piece dressed up as a news article that is editorializing frantically for a political position, not neutrally presenting the facts.
