I join you from the Blaenavon wildfire in Southeast Wales, brought to you by BP, Shell and Equinor. Though it does not look dramatic, the fire has been out of control for days - for a very particular reason. 🧵

This idiot has probably never been to the BOREAL FOREST a day in his life. It is 5.5 times the size of Texas. You cannot "groom" it. It's burning because of climate change. The utter bullshit from these climate deniers. Canadians are sick of this bullying and they are not going to take it.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w ago

Rep. Jeff Van Drew: "Canada isn't working because they are so far left. This should be a warning shot to them. You better come to America, say, 'We're sorry, we're gonna mend our ways and do what we used to do and groom and maintain the forest.'"

🇨🇭 Researchers have copied massive quantities of publicly-available climate and environmental data from NASA onto a Swiss supercomputer to train artificial intelligence models -- and for safekeeping amid US funding cuts. ➡️ u.afp.com/Srpr

This Tuesday the @archbishopofcanterbury.org and the members of the @churchofengland.org’s internal parliament, The General Synod, have a massive choice to make that will affect all of us. Will they restore 30% of their land to nature by 2030? #SynodVoteForNature @chrisgpackham.bsky.social

Virologist/molecular biologist Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal altered the trajectory of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. First to clone HIV-1 & complete its genetic mapping, directly leading to life-saving antiviral drug cocktails. Most-cited female scientist of the 1980s. She died #OTD in 2020. #WomenInSTEM

A 96 hectare area of ancient woodland has been purchased by RSPB Cymru to help reconnect two precious landscapes to help wildlife in mid Wales to thrive

Precious mid Wales landscapes reconnected for nature

Nation Cymru staff A 96 hectare area of ancient woodland has been purchased by RSPB Cymru to help reconnect two precious landscapes to help wildlife in mid Wales to thrive. On Wales Nature Week, RSPB ...

nation.cymru

Here's what I wrote last September about the need for NATO to integrate climate impacts & hybrid threats in its planning.

The Climate Front in Hybrid Warfare

Are Europe and NATO Preparing for the Right Threat?

open.substack.com

Erin Sikorsky@erinsikorsky.bsky.social · 4w ago

A whole dang story about NATO contemplating resilience at the Port of Rotterdam (a key hub for military logistics in case of a conflict in Europe) without a single mention of sea level rise: www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe...

So when people criticize Beijing for propping up the car industry, what they're really complaining about is the fact that Beijing implemented strategic financial and industrial policies, and the West failed to do so. 4/4

Heatwave tip of the day: STOP EXTRACTING fossil fuels and stop enabling the big polluters making heatwaves hotter, longer and more dangerous.

RENEWABLES: They're still wildly popular with the British public, not that you'd realise from news coverage * Only 4% are opposed Even for wind/solar farms in your local area, opposition is very low * 74/68% would either be happy to have a local solar/wind farm, or don't care

Finally, a way to get recalcitrant boomers to care about climate change

Paris reached 40°C twice in Jun 2026 (1 year). Four times of 40C between 2019-2026 (8 years). Once between 1873 and 2018 (136 years). 42.6 °C on 25/07/2019 40.6 °C on 24/06/2026 40.5 °C on 19/07/2022 40.4 °C on 28/07/1947 40.1 °C on 25/06/2026" meteofrance.com/actualites-e...

La canicule régresse avant une nouvelle hausse des températures en fin de semaine | Météo-France

Ce week-end, des orages très violents ont touché une grande partie du pays. La baisse des températures se poursuit en ce début de semaine, sur une grande partie du pays. Toutefois, la vague de chaleur...

meteofrance.com

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

La chape d'air brûlant en Europe se déplace vers l'est, où l'OMS a dénombré 1.300 morts imputables à la canicule depuis le 21 juin. En France, Santé publique France comptabilise depuis mercredi "environ 1.000 décès supplémentaires" par rapport aux mois précédents, un bilan qui pourrait s'alourdir.

We only barely mentioned this at the end of yesterday's episode about cooling, but by far the most efficient & low-impact way to do it -- if you have the right circumstances -- is "district cooling," ie, using a central source for multiple buildings, a la:

‘Kind of miracle solution’: How Paris is harnessing the Seine to replace air-con

City plans to triple system of underground pipes that distribute chilled river water, reducing need for individual cooling units

theguardian.com

The 'new normal' framing is extremely misleading. It will get worse and worse until we stop fossil fuel emissions

Rowan Hooper@rowhoop.bsky.social · last mo.

It's not "the new normal": this heatwave shows that we're never going to have "normal" again - by @mjflepage.bsky.social www.newscientist.com/article/2531...

"As Jonathan Portes, former chief economist at the Department for Work and Pensions, said: “I’ve had two journalists today asking if Miliband as chancellor would be a ‘Liz Truss moment’ and find it difficult not to just respond, ‘Are you on crack?'”"

Tim Bale@timbale.bsky.social · last mo.

Hard not to regard this as a classic example of a pre-emptive campaign by certain sectors, along with their media sympathisers, to discourage a new prime minister from appointing someone who might damage their interests in the long and short term. And it will almost certainly work.

I have read several pieces in the last few days about AC becoming a new 'culture war' issue in Europe. None of them mention that you could fit a reversible air-to-air heat pump for heating and cooling. Am I missing something?

What is the future of summers in England? Our choices matter. A high-emissions future will commit our children and grandchildren to live in a world where the summers of 1976 & 2025 are cold. A global net-zero emissions future means that we can stabilise the climate & those summers will be normal.

Every heatwave that passes without a ban on sale of single-use AC in favor of dual-use heat pumps is a missed climate opportunity and an unfair, unnecessary cost paid by people who're trying to keep themselves cool and safe

37 degrees in London for three days is it? YIKES. Time to review the Shade the UK list of ideas again to see if there’s anything further I can do on the flat. (Main thing is getting at least a temporary canopy up over the sunny patio, I suspect) So many ideas: www.shadetheuk.com/overheating-...

Overheating Adaptation Guide for Homes — Shade the UK

shadetheuk.com

Aww, this is bloody lovely 🥰 vm.tiktok.com/ZNR3bKY7p/

It was fantastic to attend the Oslo Freedom Forum earlier this month, to support @thinink.bsky.social promoting @kitetalesmm.bsky.social Her urgent message: Myanmar's destruction of independent media and return to dictatorship is not an exception - it's a warning www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUoL...

Thin Lei Win | From Dictatorship to Democracy and Back Again

YouTube video by Oslo Freedom Forum

youtube.com

Window‑mounted heat pumps! 🙌 "Much like a window air conditioner, these self-contained devices can be installed without professional help and plugged into a wall outlet." For both heating and cooling, this is also an excellent option for apartment dwellers. https://bit.ly/3SGhKEu

How window-mounted heat pumps can give tenants efficient heating and cooling

Permanently installing a heat pump system in a building is expensive. But new window units can deliver many of the benefits with far less cost and go with renters when they move.

theconversation.com

This has nothing to do with stopping crime. It is to do with a global far-right movement, coordinated on X, organised by some of the most powerful men in the world from Silicon Valley to the White House inews.co.uk/opinion/fara...

Will this make the Iranian people friendlier to the US? No. Not a chance.

Leana Hosea@leanahosea.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The tanks supplied water to around 20,000 residents in the city of Kuhestak + 10 surrounding villages in the Bemani district of Iran. Temperatures in the region are currently between 45 and 50°C. The situation for people there is unthinkable. www.ft.com/content/155d...

Some reports, but certainly not all!

Robert Rohde@rarohde.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A powerful El Niño Event is expected to develop during 2026. How powerful? Well the seasonal forecasting models are currently all over the place. So, somewhere between a Top 10 event in modern history and super-bonkers extreme crazy land. 🤔 🧪🌊

British Geological Survey map of parts of the UK with potential for fracking exploration. Presently, fracking is paused in the UK. Reform has pledged to open up the country to fracking if elected: nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/51...

A lot going on in this article about finance going after catastrophe modelers but I'll say if the finance industry wants climate scientists so bad they'll pay a $1 million salary maybe they should be a little more concerned that Trump is literally destroying our ability to train these people

Hedge Funds Are Expanding Desks Designed to Profit From Natural-Catastrophe Risk

When Mitesh Parikh, a headhunter at UK recruiter Selby Jennings, started looking for an ILS modeler for a large US hedge fund this year, the pool of qualified candidates was disconcertingly small.

bloomberg.com