I very much appreciate @eaterofsun.bsky.social engagement with my essay. His points are well taken. I would make one key distinction, which is that there are plenty of reasons to take climate change seriously and support mitigating it without having a particularly catastrophic view of climate risk.

Oliver Morton, Eater of Sun@eaterofsun.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The people have spoken (well, 40 or so of them) so here goes 🧵 tl;dr if your assessment of the risks posed by climate change is that they are overblown and exaggerated for political effect, you will find the risks inherent in geoengineering very offputting.

Required reading on #China #climate—facts to displace fictions, propaganda, “greenwashing”—from @wang-seaver.bsky.social @tednordhaus.bsky.social @vijramachandran. thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...

Greenwashing With Chinese Characteristics

thebreakthrough.org

The second is a deep dive into the numbers - and lives - behind China's renewable energy surge by @wang-seaver.bsky.social and @tednordhaus.bsky.social. --> www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/greenwashi...

Greenwashing With Chinese Characteristics

China's "Green Electrostate" Is Neither

breakthroughjournal.org

Bill Gates l'avait prédit, l'issue de la #COP30 le confirme : la lutte pour le climat est entrée dans une nouvelle ère, décrypte @tednordhaus.bsky.social, fondateur du @thebti.bsky.social. Celle des réalités physiques, géopolitiques... Et du pragmatisme. À lire ! www.lepoint.fr/environnemen...

« Arrêtons de prétendre que les COP vont sauver le monde »

INTERVIEW. Selon le fondateur du Breakthrough Institute Ted Nordhaus, si la diplomatie multilatérale a échoué, le climat sera sauvé par l’innovation technologique, la croissance économique et les dyna...

lepoint.fr

Why I Stopped Being a Climate Catastrophist. by @tednordhaus.bsky.social www.realclearscience.com/2025/08/13/w...

Why I Stopped Being a Climate Catastrophist

Recently, in an exchange on X, my former colleague Tyler Norris observed that over the years, my views about climate risk have evolved substantially. Norris posted a screenshot of a page from the book

realclearscience.com

Bracing advice from @tednordhaus.bsky.social on climate philanthropy. www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/dont-set-y...

Don’t Set Your Money On Fire

My Advice to New Climate Philanthropists

breakthroughjournal.org

"Secretary Kennedy reiterated misguided and unscientific ideas that would upend the livelihoods of American farmers, increase food prices for American consumers, and compromise the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture globally" as @tednordhaus.bsky.social told the Hagstrom Report.

This sucks. The Breakthrough Institute’s ag program is terrific, someone needs to fund it. @tednordhaus.bsky.social @danbr.bsky.social

Alexander C. Kaufman@alexckaufman.bsky.social · 2y ago

More fallout from the USAID shutdown: Bill Gates is slashing his grants to climate organizations to focus on public health. Great scoop from @kbrigham.bsky.social heatmap.news/climate-tech...

“If confirmed, Kennedy would undermine decades of progress in agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability, and food security.” www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/belt...

RFK Jr. wants to ‘go wild’ on agriculture. That’s a big problem - Washington Examiner

With the Senate now considering the nomination, we all need to take a hard look at Kennedy’s fringe points of view, including on agriculture.

washingtonexaminer.com

Missed this piece from Vijaya Ramachandran and @tednordhaus.bsky.social when it came out. I have some disagreements with it but it's interesting and worth reading for those of us working on development and international climate policy foreignpolicy.com/2025/01/06/t...

Trump Is Quitting the Paris Agreement. Poor Countries Should, Too.

Decades of hypocritical climate policies have failed the global south.

foreignpolicy.com

“Energy Austerity for thee but not for me.” COP is a bad deal for developing countries says @tednordhaus.bsky.social and they should quit. It’s supposed to be a deal: developing countries leapfrog fossil fuels with aid. But the deal isn’t working. foreignpolicy.com/2025/01/06/t...

Trump Is Quitting the Paris Agreement. Poor Countries Should, Too.

Decades of hypocritical climate policies have failed the global south.

foreignpolicy.com

"There are, in short, no global energy transitions, only local and national transitions. Skeptics who argue that the world has never undergone an energy transition make the same mistake as proponents who claim that the world is in the midst of one." www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/has-there-...

Has There Really Never Been An Energy Transition?

By Ted Nordhaus

breakthroughjournal.org

Courageous essay from @mikegrunwald.bsky.social in NYT. Kudos to Mike for writing it and NYT for publishing it. nytimes.com/2024/12/13/o...

Congrats to Matthew Marzano on confirmation to NRC by vote of 50-45. Manchin yes. Sinema no. Multiple R Senators out. I sincerely hope he is better commissioner than I have feared and will work to advance the far reaching modernization that we need. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

E&E News: Senate confirms Nuclear Regulatory Commission nominee

Matthew Marzano’s approval secures a Democratic majority on the panel.

subscriber.politicopro.com

Nice David Wallace Wells write up of BTI's @patricktbrown31.bsky.social report on the massive cost of CA wildfires and massive benefits of fuel reduction. www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12...

Opinion | Reckoning With the Scale of California Wildfires

nytimes.com

I KNEW we weren’t getting out of this without a manifesto.

"The groups" are anti-abundance. Alex Trembath on the backlash from progressives and environmentalists against the abundance movement. www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/progressiv...

Progressives Against Abundance?

No Representation Without Differentiation

breakthroughjournal.org

I'm featured in @gbrumfiel.bsky.social @npr.org All Things Considered this morning talking about nuclear and AI. Long story short, net-zero commitments X 24 hour clean energy matching don't leave many options for firm generation. www.npr.org/2024/12/09/n...

Artificial Intelligence wants to go nuclear. Will it work?

The nuclear industry and big tech companies think they can solve each other's problems, but critics are skeptical the marriage can last.

npr.org

In recent years, there's been a push to do 24/7 matching of demand with clean energy supply. @tednordhaus.bsky.social says that change has forced companies to think about non-GHG sources of energy differently. Solar and wind just aren't running enough to match demand day and night.

Having witnessed aftermath of Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon fire at my family's ranch, I can attest these forests hadn't burned for 120+ years. Fire was intense. Damage extensive. @hannahnordhaus.bsky.social wrote about it in @nationalgeographic.bsky.social. www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/...

Their house has stood for 130 years. A new wildfire era may change that.

Three wildfires skirted the author’s Boulder home. Then two more converged on her ancestral house in New Mexico. In the drying West, people must now keep their "head on a swivel."

nationalgeographic.com

Andy Revkin 🌎 ✍🏼 🪕 ☮️ revkin.substack.com@revkin.bsky.social · 2y ago

1/n This #wildfire study holds urgent insights for communities across the Southwest (attn @coveringclimatenow.org @sejorg.bsky.social). Authors find: In Arizona and New Mexico, “contemporary fire frequency, including recent, record fire years, is still <20% of historical levels.” And yet...

Wait… what???

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2y ago

“.. ‘It’s going to be very easy,’ Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, told Fox News on Tuesday, after she sat in on some of her son’s meetings.” 🙄 @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/u...

This is the key tell in the endless debate around the trade offs between mitigating short term forcings like methane and carbon. If the trade off requires use of 20 year warming values to justify, it is not a serious climate mitigation action.

Ted Nordhaus@tednordhaus.bsky.social · 2y ago

If you are addressing short term forcers in a way that doesn’t undermine long term warming, there is no need to use 20 year warming values to justify.

20 year warming value is either appropriate in eyes of climate movement if justifying natural gas phaseouts and bans or inappropriate if justifying mitigation. thebulletin.org/2023/12/mass...

'Mass delusion and wishful thinking': Why everything you think you know about methane is probably wrong

What’s really damaging is fooling yourself into thinking that eliminating methane has as big an impact as eliminating carbon dioxide.

thebulletin.org

There is no statutory prohibition against @NRCgov "promotion" of nuclear energy. Even were there, accounting for benefits of nuclear to society in mission and regulatory proceedings isn't promotion. Important new whitepaper from @TheBTI @Dr_A_Stein . thebreakthrough.imgix.net/NRC-Mission-...

"Nominating junior Senate staffer who has worked as policymaker for three scant years and has no senior management experience in the industry, is an insult to women in the sector." Brooke Morrison has had enough of the gaslighting from Marzano supporters. www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/gender-equ...

Gender Equity at the NRC Should Not Be Optional

A guest essay from Brooke Morrison

breakthroughjournal.org

Two good papers in response to my question suggest that calling it a climate crisis or emergency does not increase concern or urgency and leads readers to view news sources as less credible. Thanks @revkin.bsky.social @brossard.bsky.social

Ted Nordhaus@tednordhaus.bsky.social · 2y ago

Wondering if anyone on here is aware of any research that has tested whether use of the term “climate crisis” by scientists, journalists, and other experts leads people to perceive claims that they make as more or less credible?

According to the ClearSky app, almost 50% of active accounts on Bluesky are blocked by at least one other account and 40% of active accounts block at least one account. Seems remarkable. A function allowing users to block any account that blocked them could be the end of the entire platform...

Left critics of abundance brand it as neoliberal. Right critics brand it as communist. As I wrote a couple of months ago, what is disruptive about abundance movement is it cuts across both party coalitions, comprising upwing factions in both parties. www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/will-the-c...

Wondering if anyone on here is aware of any research that has tested whether use of the term “climate crisis” by scientists, journalists, and other experts leads people to perceive claims that they make as more or less credible?

When folks like @climatebrad.hillheat.com create climate moderation lists blocking veteran climate scholars like @thehonestbroker.bsky.social they are shrinking the climate tent just when it needs to be broadened. (an excerpt from this #sustainwhat chat: revkin.substack.com/p/exploring-...) 1/

Roger Pielke Jr.@thehonestbroker.bsky.social · 2y ago

Shrinking the Tent THB Insider #11 rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/shrinking-...