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The scariest curve you'll see all day, via @financialtimes@flipboard.com no less
#climate #energy #oil #economics
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Gernot Wagner
@gwagner@fediscience.org
mastodon 4.6.9Climate economist, Columbia
https://gwagner.com
It’s pronounced juggernaut without the jug.
6257 Followers
445 Following
45 Posts
Joined November 09, 2022
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The @financialtimes@flipboard.com rings in New York Climate Week with this front-page story: "US drivers face motor oil rationing as prices quadruple and supplies run dry"
Yes, the only answer is to get off fossil fuels, all of them.
Hormuz just made that even clearer: https://gwagner.com/nature-fossilflation
#climate #nyc
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London has been London since it was Londinium some 2,000 years ago. It was built on clay soil then, and still is today.
5 successive heatwaves later, and that clay drying out so fast, it's leaving cracks all over:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-23/londoners-find-horrendous-cracks-in-homes-after-heat-waves @BloombergGreen@flipboard.com#climate #uk #london #energy
Move over, AI. @sciencemagazine@sciencemastodon.com Breakthrough of the Year: the explosive, unstoppable growth of renewables.
Well-deserved distinction.
Just in case the "batteries and cold don't mix" trope is still alive:
A couple Austrians drive their 40 tonne electric truck to the northernmost point in Europe at -40°C, and back.
Not some kind of experimental truck. Off-the-shelf e-truck.
Huge since true.
"It costs just $33/MWh to transform daytime solar into dispatchable solar"
And no, that doesn't yet account for that storied Dunkelflaute. Then again, the typical gas LCOE doesn't account for Putin's whims or other geopolitical vagaries.
Perennial reminder: IKEA sells induction plates for $50.
Cap the gas line, put the induction plate on top of the gas stove, and avoid spewing carcinogens into your home.
Yes, you can also spend $5k on that beautiful high-end stove, while vying for that Michelin star.
https://www.ft.com/content/14f6db0f-43a8-4bd3-baa5-4481e346a4d2
"Experts prefer heat pumps, but homeowners have doubts"
I wonder who sows those doubts, contrary to any evidence.
Short-term winner: US and Russian oligarchs.
Long-term winner: China and renewables.
Loser: US households, economy.
You know how free public transit is basically just an anti-market pipedream?
Here's Luxembourg for Finance, leading with free public transport to attract the FT reader.
Enshittification, recycling bin edition.
Yep, it all goes into one trash bag. The worst part, of course, is the general cynicism this breeds.
Nobody ever said the death throes of the fossil age would be pretty or peaceful
"It's clear that EVs are the more efficient, better, and increasingly cheaper technology. And technologies, by their very nature, can only get even better and cheaper over time."
The Iran War has once again led to a bout of what ECB board member Isabel Schnabel memorably dubbed 'fossilflation'.
It's en vouge to talk about the solution as some massively complex undertaking. It really isn't. Get off fossil fuels faster.
My latest just out @nature@sciencemastodon.comhttps://rdcu.be/fdxig
#climate #iran #us #trump #oil #energy #inflation #economics
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Tabloids could do a lot of good, if they choose to:
Loire Valley without Loire
#climate #energy #france #dailymail
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The perfect obit headline for this particular climate denier, who knew better but preferred to live a lie
https://heatmap.news/daily/lee-raymond
#oil #climate
“We are at the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel economy. The U.S. is betting on the wrong horse.”
The perfect kicker quote for this important front-page NYY story:
I'm no longer quite sure how to do this without just saying "Duh!"
Yes, getting people to pay the "green premium" is sometimes tough.
Guess what, the "security premium" is a lot higher.
The answer for both climate and security — and for economic competitiveness, too — is to get off fossil fuels.
True then, true now: https://gwagner.com/german-recovery
Remember how EVs could never compete because batteries didn't allow them to go far enough, because they couldn't be charged fast enough, because they were too expensive...?
Funny how innovation works.
One of the more ironic vestiges of the fossil fuel life:
Snow covered in such an impenetrable layer of fossil fumes and other city gunk, it'll survive the next apocalypse.
You might be a climate wonk, if the first thing you notice on today's front page is the AHUs: "wait, heat pumps in Tehran?!"
Day in the life...
Coffee; coffee with a view; sunset view riding the Q; hot chocolate on the walk home.
Too much craziness out there at the moment not to appreciate the little things in life.
💚NYC
Not every dinner needs to be a conversation. Some are... math homework, and a book, and a paper or two. 😎
Yes. Yes, it will.
The Loneliness of Sonja and Soccer
Turns out the 15-year-old created a python program that solves the NYTimes Spelling Bee every day in a matter of minutes.
"Could do it in seconds, but I slowed it down so they don't think I'm a bot." 😎
Love how @grist@journa.host writer @kateyoder@journa.host uses this essay on "How the Trump administration’s climate math doesn’t add up" as an excuse to slay the age-old climate-vs-the-economy trope.
Climate vs fossil-fueled profits? Of course.
Climate vs economy? Nope.
https://grist.org/economics/trump-administration-climate-economy-government-budget/
I'm old enough to remember when gas prices spiked 2x over a weekend, and then 10x by the end of the summer. That was 4 years ago, the last time a 'leader' blew a fuse.
Yes, then as now, the answer to fossilflation is to get off fossil fuels.
For a quick sense of how far off course things have gotten:
Mitt Romney, tax-and-spend liberal
WSJ: "US Power-Plant Pollution Rose Sharply in 2025"
Leading cause: coal use up 15% after 20 years of downward trends, 'stay open' orders and all.
Let me go out on a limb and suggest another one, which will take months of study to confirm/reject: lack of/lax enforcement of (still) existing rules.
How to cut CO₂ when it's part of the chemical formula that makes the product in question: CaCO₃ + Heat = CaO + CO₂.
My next entry into what's now turned into a Milken Review mini-series is out
If there's one thing The Economist is known for it's the terrific writing. Pithy, to the point. No word wasted.
Even better are the headlines: How do you beat "Breeding Eunicorns"? And yes, the title/subtitle combo says it all.
How do AI summaries help here?
Not everything's always climate change. Not everything's always climate change. Not everything's always climate change.
But then...
Climate change → Higher ocean temperatures → More moist air → More intense (winter) storms
The best story you'll read all day
Ignore climate risk at your peril, AI data center edition:
"some of the high-tech company’s biggest problems began with a very low-tech nuisance: unexpectedly turbulent rainstorms in North Texas"
Replying to
Who out there thought that a consequence of Trump's Board of Peace would Europe increasing fossil imports from Moscow?
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-high-energy-prices-us-attack-iran/