Climate notes for August 25th 2023
Each week I jot a note or two down sparked by a weeks' worth of climate madness. And every week there's something more shocking than last week. This week? It's California getting hurricane warnings. At what point do the powers that be not wake the fuck up?
The story in Tenerife (pictured below) is close to my heart as we've many fond memories of the island. Not least our wedding. It sounds like the fire fighters have it relatively under control; but the worrying news is that they suspect is was started deliberately.
I also mentioned a few weeks ago that I'll start working on a new project related to climate. My goal is to build some sort of alliance to join tech companies thinking about climate, educators and researchers alongside inspiring folks in the field. Seed and grow is the strategy (as in, start small and see if it can go anywhere). I have other global tech alliances in mind as templates worth copying but I can't find anything quite like this out there. Again, if you'd love to help, please ping me.
There's some grim stories to read this week, namely with both humans and animal species dying as a result of wildfires and climate catastrophe. Which sits well with political leaders subsidising oil companies. Because neoliberalism has put the stability of the economy ahead of the stability of our habitat. Which, I genuinely believe, could lead to a revolution in tech and new economic opportunity as we shift to a better way of life. But the political will to enact such change is slow, too slow.
Tabs
- Fascinating man living off-grid for 50 years
- It's time for America to embrace smaller cars. The embarrassment of seeing jammed cities when so many single occupancy vehicles could take 2-3 parking spaces in most European shopping centres is mad.
- Climate change & extreme heat
- Tenerife wildfires
- Solar array planning refused in midlands. Our planning laws are trash.
- What harm could one coal mine do? Plenty – 1.7 million Hiroshima bombs of heat for starters
- We're witnessing the first stages of civilisation collapse
- We need to drop taxes on rail and increase it on airlines
- What the data says about American views on climate change
- Battery electric bike without charging... or batteries?
- Political support for Dublin Bus Connects is lukewarm. Scandalous lack of support. Vote for people who care.
- EV or otherwise, there are simply too many cars. Strong agree.
- How Paris is reclaiming it's streets from cars
- The ocean is hotter than ever, here's why
- G20 put $1tn into fossil subsidies. The corruption is mind-numbing.
- Thousands of penguin chicks die as ice collapses
- I use a wheelchair and I want more bike lanes
- Storylines for unprecedented heatwaves based on ensemble boosting
- 18 bodies found in Greek forest after wildfires. We're killing animals and humans here, but subsidising oil?
- Architectural twist: seeded toilet paper that will grow plants later
- Stationary storage in energy