Don’t be the Christopher Moltisanti of the party improv class!
Evan Sutton@evansutton.bsky.social · 2h agoI encourage all of us to have the grace and focus shown in this going up within minutes of the race being called.
Jonathan Koomey
@jgkoomey.bsky.social
Climate solutions, information technology, critical thinking skills. Born at 318 ppm. https://www.koomey.com
Evan Sutton@evansutton.bsky.social · 2h ago
Today on Volts: What should local officials do when a data center comes calling? With Saleem Chapman, I walk through @climatecabinet.org's comprehensive blueprint: what to require of them before they're built and when they are running, so that they benefit communities, not just investors.
What should state policymakers do about data centers?
A conversation with Saleem Chapman of Climate Cabinet.
volts.wtf
Published estimates of AI energy use per prompt (~0.3 watt-hours) appear reassuring small. But they are increasingly disconnected from how we actually use AI. Modern agentic tools use around 600 times more energy per prompt, as I discuss in my latest over at The Climate Brink www.theclimatebrink....
2. Be the most prepped person in the meeting. Read the bill many times; read all the analysis; read all the position letters; know the policy substance; have examples. I would say that in 80% of meetings I'm in, most people present haven't done some/any of this, and they will yield if you have.
Some things I've learned about legislative advocacy, and I think my record speaks for itself. 1. Start by asking for everything you want. Stop preemptively negotiating against yourself. The process of passing the bill will whittle it down. Why started with a whittled down product?
3. You don't have to pretend like incorrect or baseless claims are anything more, and should call them out; you don't have to engage in "meet in the middle" midwittery. Speak with clarity about what will and won't work; even in 2026, being the person saying the true thing in a sea of BS is power.
Burning fossil fuels makes wildfires more frequent and more intense. Of course those who have made record profits causing the problem should pick up the bill.
For those who don’t know him, @zekehausfather.com is a well known climate modeler who is very numerate. This post is a very useful compilation of recent estimates of AI electricity use, so it’s worth a read. www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-real-e...
The real energy use of agentic AI
Agents use about 600x more energy than simple AI prompts
theclimatebrink.com
A gracious concession: “I want to congratulate Abdul El-Sayed on winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. He is a doctor, a community health official, a Rhodes Scholar, and a dedicated Michigander. I am proud to offer my support as he takes on Mike Rogers in the general election…
Abdul El-Sayed has won and Haley Stevens called him to concede. El-Sayed's speech last night focused on unity. Stevens has released a congratulatory statement saying she's proud to offer her support to him. Their ability to unite the coalition will be the key to a general win.
Let’s level set. MICHIGAN is a must-win if we want to flip the Senate. A word caution: This race was tighter than many predicted. El-Sayed needs Stevens supporters in the general, so it’s not smart strategy to keep them angry. Welcome them. Focus on issues. Time is short, so healing must be quick
"No humans allowed" is NOT part of rewilding. No human activities damaging to nature allowed sums it up. Two very different things.
LUE Outdoors@lueoutdoors.bsky.social · 4h agoLook at Colorado as an e.g. of a place that is failing 🫤 Rewilding: Citizens NEED to be on board, and rules & laws NEED to be enforced. (OP)Alongside that, the land needs to remain a "rewilded" conservation area- no humans allowed (accept for conservation work, e.g. invasive species and disease).
New @bloomberglaw.com article by Olivia Carville - TikTok experimented on users, putting 10% (about 15M people) in a "filter bubble" exposing them to repetitive content that the algorithm thought they wanted, but was toxic. If you want to know why these cases are going to be massive...
pretty brutal for Zitron's argument, that tech firms are creating a bubble by spending money they don't have: "the “big four” tech companies at the heart of the AI(LLM) data center boom have been financing investment expenditures out of their own income."
Nathan Tankus@nathantankus.bsky.social · 6d agoNEW @crisesnotes.bsky.social PIECE: In this piece I critique a recent piece from @edzitron.com comparing the AI(LLM) boom to the "Subprime" Mortgage Crisis (and implicitly the GFC of 2007-2009). The ? is:"How big of a macrofinancial threat is the AI(LLM) Boom?" www.crisesnotes.com/sigh-no-ed-z...
Australia’s federal government will press on with a nationwide push to ensure new data centers use renewable energy, pledging to pass laws despite opposition to the move from some regional administrations
Australia Doubles Down on Data Centers Using Renewable Power
Australia’s federal government will press on with a nationwide push to ensure new data centers use renewable energy, pledging to pass laws despite opposition to the move from some regional administrations.
bloom.bg
I am actually infuriated by this assumption, as writers and artists of all kinds, that if our work runs up against the audience’s ignorance (vocabulary, intertexuality, &c.) this is somehow a failing, our fault and something it is our responsibility to avoid.
Kate Watson@loreandordure.com · 6h agoObviously. And the world is in any case full of references to unfamiliar things, if people are perplexed surely they can look it up?
We can could cook up various metaphors to describe what AI is doing to society. Try this on: what holds human societies & governments together are our shared beliefs on reality, as determined by the scientific method, our shared "facts", & our belief that such knowledge is even *possible*...
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 4d agoThese businesses aren't just wasting billions - they're replacing skilled workers with defective chatbots. As I've written before, AI is the asbestos we're shoveling into the walls of our technological society. 79/
A first year above 2C in the mid-2030s now looks plausible. 0.5C was first passed in 1980, 1.0C in 2010 and 1.5C in 2024. The 15-year trend runs at 0.42C per decade. The 2026 and 2027 points for the current El Nino are estimates. We're not remotely ready!
The U.S. economy is increasingly becoming a highly leveraged bet on the promise of AI. What if China wins? Read Graham Allison’s analysis for free: foreignpolicy.com/2026/08/04/u...
America’s Cosmic Bet on AI
The winner takes it all. What happens if the United States loses?
foreignpolicy.com
"The average turnaround time for these less-rigorous permits for gas-burning plants linked to data centers was 18 days. In comparison, companies applying for full air permits, the category that commonly applies to more traditional power plants in the state, can expect to wait 285 days."
Trump’s Push for More A.I. Data Centers Will Mean Major Air Pollution (Gift Article)
nytimes.com
Nice work here on pathways to zero emissions for Nordic countries. Solar is in a supporting role, unlike in lower latitudes where it will dominate. TLDR: Net zero by 2040 with lower system costs.
Christian Breyer@christianonre.bsky.social · 5h ago1/ New research @LUT.fi maps pathways to a fully defossilised Nordic-Baltic energy-industry system. doi.org/10.1016/j.ap... Wind leads, while solar PV becomes a major complementary source supporting electrification, flexibility and power-to-X.
14/ Main message: Deep Nordic-Baltic defossilisation is techno-economically feasible. Wind provides the backbone; solar PV has a complementary role, distributed & power-to-X add value; hydropower, bioenergy, storage, flexible electrolysers and grid expansion maintain reliability.
1/ New research @LUT.fi maps pathways to a fully defossilised Nordic-Baltic energy-industry system. doi.org/10.1016/j.ap... Wind leads, while solar PV becomes a major complementary source supporting electrification, flexibility and power-to-X.
A few people have asked me to write a simple explainer about chronic inflammatory conditions like autoimmunity or allergy so here is an immunology 101 about what we understand about why they occur. Will dig into more research studies in a future post. Hope u enjoy
Immunology 101: Chronic inflammatory diseases are increasing but why?
An overview of some of the ideas as to why some of us get chronic inflammatory diseases
open.substack.com
So now the next step is to find out what Capital One's months-long anti-money laundering review by professionals with decades of law enforcement experience discovered about Trump's 300+ accounts...
MeidasTouch@meidastouch.com · 21h agoPhang: "Capital One said, 'We don't want the business anymore of the 45th president of the United States, his businesses, his failed sons, and his revocable trust.' So you can imagine -- I am just hypothesizing... but it suggests whatever Capital One uncovered was pretty bad. Makes you wonder..."
Republican officials were faced with a massive backlash from outraged voters who packed the meeting room — and two overflow rooms — to demand that their voting locations remain open. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
GOP backs down from suppression scheme in Texas after voter outrage
The plan changed at the last moment, when Republican officials were faced with a massive backlash from outraged voters
democracydocket.com