I am being driven to distraction by the German government's anti-bot tests
Simon Pickstone
@simonpickstone.bsky.social
Environmental journalist at ENDS Europe (@endseurope.com)
There's a brilliant poem by Francis Ponge about how every spring trees express themselves through their new leaves, only to be disappointed that all they can ever say is "tree". I think the same is true of Christopher Nolan films, which can only ever say "Christopher Nolan film".
EMILY WILSON@emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 2w agoI wrote about the Nolan Odyssey for the LRB. I'll summarize some of my main points below, in case you don't feel like reading all that. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
I've just received a follow-up from a PR company "resurfacing" their press release *three hours* after their initial email!
devastated to see that the Toy Industries of Europe have removed the zany headshots from their 'about us' page.
Clips like this make me think we're still living through the 'long 1990s' when it comes to the media's understanding of our energy system. Devices on standby these days consume a *trivially low* amount of electricity!
Saul Staniforth@saulstaniforth.bsky.social · last mo."Energy bills now are about 79% higher than they were in the winter of 2020.. turn those devices off of standby, unplug things at the wall, these really little simple steps do start to add up"
Regulatory Scrutiny Board ‘not qualified’ to judge omnibuses, Commission decides www.endseurope.com/article/1963...
Regulatory Scrutiny Board ‘not qualified’ to judge omnibuses, Commission decides
The European Commission has exempted recent ‘omnibus’ proposals from the standard requirement for independent assessments, stating that its internal scrutiny body is no longer empowered to issue opini...
endseurope.com
These wretched triangles are all that remains of grass verges that have been eaten up by dropped kerbs until that is all the remains.
To put some numbers on this, last year just 3% of Britain's electricity supply was "wasted" wind power. At the same time, wind farms took about a THIRD off electricity prices.
Dale Vince@dalevince.com · 2mo agoThis is becoming normalised - the misrepresentation of Britain’s green energy progress, the exaggeration of our grid issues. This guy needs to do his homework, the cost of turning windmills off for a tiny percentage of the time is overwhelmed by the economic benefit - the rest of the time.
You do not have to reach for cultural explanations for the lack of AC in Europe. It didn't used to be hot and now it is hot!
Some real crimes against acronyms committed in the latest list of projects receiving funding under the EU's research fund for coal and steel
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Amazing footage. Speaks to the important role that shipwrecks have within marine ecosystems. www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...
'Pretty special': Diver on filming rare footage of Great White shark in the Mediterranean
A volunteer diver has described shaking as he filmed his encounter with an endangered Great White shark between Tunisia and Sicily.
bbc.co.uk
Avant / Après la végétalisation de l'ancienne impasse parking Avenue Debidour dans le 19ème arrondissement de Paris. Les travaux ont été terminés il y a 4 mois environ.
One frequently sees headlines that X is warming faster than the global average. That's true of nearly everywhere that humans live, but only because humans nearly all live on land. The process of global warming will generally warm land faster than the oceans.
I've read my fair share of European Court of Justice rulings on the EIA and Habitats Directives, but I think yesterday's Drumakilla ruling may be the gnarliest I've come across. Can't even begin to understand what the question is!
![It is in those circumstances that the High Court (Ireland) decided to stay the proceedings and to refer the following questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling:
‘(1) Does Article 11 of [the EIA Directive] read in the light of the principle of wide access to justice under Article 9(2) of the Aarhus Convention have the effect that, in a case where a project within the meaning of Article 1(2)(a) of [that directive] the subject of an application for development consent (the “primary consent”) cannot be carried out without the developer having first obtained another permission (the “secondary consent”), and where the authority competent for granting the primary consent for such a project retains the ability to assess the project's environmental impact more strictly than was done in the secondary consent, such a secondary consent (if granted prior to the primary consent) is to be treated as forming part of the development consent procedure for purposes other than in relation to the scope of matters to be considered or assessed under [the EIA Directive], either generally or where the secondary consent is a decision adopted under Article 16(1) of [the Habitats Directive] and which authorises a developer to derogate from the applicable species protection measures in order to carry out the project?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ze5ip5mbbyo2okqn3wifl3sk/bafkreiayesfd7e5wpyqeu6dx5btdunfykjb7gzb2lkaivni6wstrys54vi)
Avant / Après la métamorphose de la Place du Colonel Fabien dans le 10ème et 19ème arrondissements de Paris. Pour la circulation, l'ancien rond point est devenu un fer à cheval, et l'ouest du rond-point a été piétonnisé et végétalisé. Les travaux furent terminés juste avant les élections.
New from us: how Pakistan's solar boom is dampening the impact of the Hormuz crisis on the country. Solar power allowed LNG&diesel imports to fall after the previous gas crisis in 2021-22, with the solar boom set to avoid $7bn in fossil fuel import costs this year.
The GB power grid is playing an absolute blinder right now
Spring has sprung. We're about to see what all the Q3'24 onwards additional PV capacity added in European major markets means for the energy system. Always a fun event, the energy system equivalent of flying ant day.
This is the first fossil fuel crisis of the age of electricity, the first time that the clean solutions to replace fossil fuels are readily available and fully economically competitive. This additional tailwind will only help speed up their growth.
Many areas of the world experienced this in gas just a couple of years ago. Europe was writing (state funded) blank cheques like it was going out of fashion, and places like Pakistan couldn't get an LNG shipment as the ability to pay evaporated. Wonder want happened there? Read below...
Rory Johnston@roryjohnston.bsky.social · 5mo agoOne thing I've been stressing is that, if Hormuz traffic remained stopped, the monumental oil supply shock will manifest as sharp price spikes in wealthy nations that sap disposable incomes In poorer countries, the shock will manifest as outright physical shortages.
We're living in the timeline when hundreds of millions of years of dead matter was compressed by vast amount of rocks which were pushed by tectonic plates to create this concentration of oil and gas in less than 5% of the global land mass which humans now may burn away in less than 500 years.
Wolfgang Blau@wblau.bsky.social · 5mo agoNo future energy system should ever again have bottlenecks - geographic or technological - as narrow as the Strait of Hormuz.
A fairly niche issue, but for anyone who's fed up of the European Commission's very broken links to consultation pages, the solution lies in deleting the repeated section of the URL: info/law/better-regulation/
Incredible scenes: the European Commission has abandoned its proposed ban on the recreational use of lead bullets to "prevent any potential impact, however small" on military production.
Avant / Après la piétonnisation de l'ancien parking Rue de Vaugirard en face du commissariat du 15ème arrondissement de Paris. Une bonne part servait aux policiers et à la fourrière. Maintenant la place sert aux piétons.
I continue to be amazed by how often old creosote-treated railway sleepers turn up where they shouldn't. Creosote is a pretty nasty carcinogen and the reuse of treated wood for landscaping or interiors is *technically* banned in Europe
NEW ANALYSIS: China's CO2 has now been 'flat or falling' for 21 months * Down in 2025 * Still below Mar 2024 * Clean energy wave a key factor If this is China's peak (TBC) it's the climate story of the century so far… www.carbonbrief.org/...
feels like the sudden abandonment of the amazon soy moratorium - one of the most consequential conservation agreements ever - has largely gone unnoticed good to see UK and EU supermarkets pressure the big commodity traders to stick to their commitments www.theguardian.com/environment/...
UK supermarkets push for Amazon soy safeguards after traders abandon ban
European retailers urge traders to adhere to commitments after Brazilian lawmakers wreck forest protection pact
theguardian.com
⚠️Registrations of the most commonly-sold pick-up trucks have nearly doubled in just over a decade! 📈Our new analysis has found a major increase in the number of large, US-style pick-up trucks on UK roads over the past decade - with serious implications for pedestrian safety, particularly children.
Number of US-style ‘battering ram’ pickup trucks on UK roads has nearly doubled in a decade
Exclusive: Campaigners say ‘menacing vehicles’ are putting children at risk owing to their large front blind zones
theguardian.com
Before / After Rue Henri Dubouillon, Paris 20, March 2023 just after the works, and October 2024. It usually takes two leafings for these changes to look a bit nicer, so all the last recent changes will be not at their best by the next election in March 2026 !
