Pioneer BBC enviro analyst. Chair/speaker/storyteller on clean tech, water, transport, cities, rural. Hon fellow @caths cambridge. Agent [email protected]
London
Joined September 2011
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Someone needs to grab hold of Andy Burnham give him a seat and tell him some crucial facts about energy costs, jobs and security. It could be done in less than five minutes then he would be free to go.
What are @andyburnham priorities? Important @fionaharvey piece shows Government’s Warm Homes programme, which he is planning to cut, would provide far more jobs and cut bills very much more than North Sea drilling he seems about to approve.
theguardian.com/environment/…
Great Initiative, Ben. It is outrageous of the public are being denied essential information for the workings of our society.
The media’s failure to Report extreme weather adequately is outrageous. Soon we will swivel from complacency to panic. Shame on @andyburnham and the ruling class.
🚨The Public have got to wake up. This is Istanbul, Turkey, tonight and it’s just the beginning. Last year Professor Hayley Fowler, a leading climatologist and hydrologist, warned the UK could face this kind of extreme rainfall; enough to wash away cars and homes without much warning. It was ignored by the media.
Journalists and anyone with influence needs to lobby the Govt and the Prime Minister to broadcast the National briefing about the facts of climate change and what is coming towards us publicly on TV in the way we had Covid broadcasts. @nebriefing
The public need to face the reality that we’ve all fucked up. Our media and democracy doesn’t work.
I’m very aware that people think those of us who talk about climate change are crazy but the reality is developing right in front of our eyes. The scientists warnings are coming true.
People want to look away. I know lots of people in my own life do. But this is just the beginning it is going to get much much worse. The planet is already hotter than it’s been in over 100,000 years, carbon dioxide levels are higher than they’ve been in millions of years, scientists are telling us our kids will not survive the coming decades on the course we are on. This is really happening and we got to wake the hell up urgently. We are already in huge trouble and it can only get worse. youtu.be/2Jq23mSDh9U?is=u830…
There has been a Wilful Optimism amongst Scientists and policy makers. Only a small number of people have dared to call it as it is. And now we have Trump charging the world over the precipice. I’ve been on the right side of this Debate but that doesn’t help my grandchildren.
New paper by the World’s most prominent climate scientists shows rapid acceleration of human-caused warming, with a warming rate now that tracks to near 2.4°C by 2050, far faster than was expected, if it continues.
From paper: “We are witnessing the rapid destabilization of the Earth’s climate system. This is no longer a warning for the future; it is a diagnosis of the present. Earth’s life-support systems are being pushed beyond stable limits, with changes unfolding faster than our ability to respond. Human activities are driving profound shifts in the atmosphere, oceans, and biosphere.”
Paper Link in replies… H/T @LeonSimons8 …
I Just read an excellent primer on what’s happening in Saudi Arabia , why they are fighting the Houthis, and how the nation - especially its women - is coping with breakneck change. “Behind The kingdom’s Veil” by Spiegel’s Susanne Koelbl. Great stuff.
They made a fundamental mistake in allowing nations’ Climate aspirations to be tied to a moderate degree of warming, instead of giving proper attention to extreme risk. Many publicly espouse a false Optimism that technology can bale us out.
Quoted in the Guardian today on the technical hopium that, in my experience, has become widespread among many, usually senior, climate experts.
theguardian.com/environment/…
Yet we ‘can’t afford’ to curb emissions 😒
Climate change cost the world at least a huge $2.8 trillion in the first two decades of this century -amounting to $16 million an hour - the UN reports. Costs for developing countries alone, it adds, could reach $580 billion a year by 2030.
,
theconversation.com/our-rese…
Researchers prove the blooming obvious – that #walking or #Cycling gives
quantifiable health benefits. This would have delighted the late Mayer Hillman who was saying it 30 years ago. Drivers stole our streets. At last, the table is turning.
Sad to note the death of Mayer Hillman. Passionate Analyst and campaigner on Transport, Safety, speed, and Climate. Highly influential, way ahead of his time. Some Streets are now being engineered in the way he wanted, with Safety first. Sadly, the battle over Climate was lost
Roger Harrabin retweeted
BREXIT : I would like to ask a cross section of the public some simple questions.
1. Do you feel you was mislead to by Johnson and Gove about the benefits of Brexit .
2. Should we have left the EU.
3. Have you seen any benefit being out the EU.
4. Have you or your business suffered in anway .
5. Would you like to rejoin the EU
Please give honest answers and no jokers please
Lord Sugar
This is an extraordinary development. Only a few years ago, the car makers were saying it would not be impossible in the near future to make electric trucks. We must never underestimate the extent to which vested interest is putting the brakes on the Climate revolution
As HMG introduces GB Grid, let’s not forget that the fundamental blame for failures of the current grid and the water companies lies with former Chancellor Nigel Lawson. He ignited a privatisation boom but watched as investors took short term profits and ignored infrastructure.
Will politicians listen? On Radio 4 Any questions there is overwhelming support (again) for policies to cut Climate Change despite the lie from one panelist that North sea drilling will bring down energy costs. Are politicians deaf?
Risk is the framing I have promoted in my many years in climate journalism. But the Ipcc typically set the science- based parameters of what was discussed. Maybe they feared being accused of being political. So many people play their part in this tragedy.
I’d add: The other key distinguishing thing about the JIC report (beyond the simple, crucial fact of its authoritative authorship) is its methodology. It is not a scientific report. It is >a risk analysis<. This means that rather than being fixated on what can be proved, it is most interested in what should be worried about and what we are exposed to, and of course as part of that what the worst case scenario is. This makes it much more useful to governments and populations than a scientific report.
We have always suffered from political spin, but on the north Sea right wingers keep giving us lies, and lies, and lies. Regardless of the Policy they are corrupting our democracy . I guess this is the plan.
This is pure misinformation. More drilling in the North Sea will not lower international market prices for natural gas. Why can’t @Conservatives tell the truth about this issue?
These two guys have been a major force in energy thinking for over a decade. Their podcast on the primary energy fallacy is seriously nerdy, but well worthwhile.
The biggest scandal in the energy transition? Huge amounts of energy lost as rejected heat.
Great talk with @MLiebreich on Cleaning Up about why we may be measuring the transition all wrong. Plus hydrogen, heat pumps and systems thinking.
youtu.be/7xDH8ZqJvqo?si=1RI9…
Roger Harrabin retweeted
The biggest scandal in the energy transition? Huge amounts of energy lost as rejected heat.
Great talk with @MLiebreich on Cleaning Up about why we may be measuring the transition all wrong. Plus hydrogen, heat pumps and systems thinking.
youtu.be/7xDH8ZqJvqo?si=1RI9…
Launch of govt environmental #farming scheme a total car crash says #R4Farming today. This scheme is on the right lines but has not enough cash. And the admin is appalling.
Funny, that. Ratcliffe himself has blamed the high prices of gas. ..
This shows the lack of substance to @TiceRichard’s rhetoric. The plants are shutting due to high market prices for natural gas resulting from conflict in the Middle East. A @reformparty_uk government would not be able to control international market prices.
A classic case of transference of Risk from rich drivers to poorer pedestrians and. You buy one of these monstrosities to transfer Risk away from yourself and towards others. Governments are supposed to deal with this sort of scandal - new laws are needed.
