The rise of extreme wealth in the United States in one simple chart

(Source: gabriel-zucman.eu/files/PSZ2021J…, updated to 2023)

The wealth of the 400 richest Americans was equivalent to 2% of US GDP in 1982 (first year of the Forbes ranking) and now reaches 17% of GDP

The growth in manufacturing investment in the US is getting to be quite notable. It's up by by 65% since 2019 and is at nearly $300 billion within the last two years. The states with the most investment are Arizona, Ohio, New York, Texas, and Georgia.

On this day, 43 years ago, readers of the New York Times (The New York Times) got an informed opinion piece about the troubles that carbon dioxide build-up would bring, called Climate and CO2

allouryesterdays.info/2024/04/16/apr…

86 years

In April 1938, Guy Callendar published his seminal paper showing that Earth’s land areas had warmed over the previous 50 years.

He also suggested that man-made CO₂ emissions had caused around half of the observed warming.

86 years ago.

rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.100…

Commercial insurance giant Zurich Insurance Group AG 'will no longer underwrite new oil and gas projects, and is cracking down on clients planning to expand in metallurgical coal mining.' bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Microsoft says Georgia Power's plans 'undervalue renewable energy’s contributions to capacity & resource adequacy needs and result in overly carbon-intensive capacity additions.'

Yes, load growth is real. No, it doesnt mean we should build more gas plants
latitudemedia.com/news/microsoft…

Please read if you want to understand the stakes right now in Ukraine. The attack on the country's civilian infrastructure right now, this week, is the worst since the war began

Study: a 50% reduction in crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists and a 27% increase in drivers yielding to pedestrians with the right of way, as a result of....paint.

Yes, a splash of paint = safer streets for pedestrians.

This is the power of visual disruption in slowing…

In Paris, just 4.3% -- 4.3%!! -- of the trips within the colored areas now occur in private cars.

Source: institutparisregion.fr/mobilite-et-tr…

Amazingly clear write-up with helpful visuals. But wow it’s complicated. While we don’t know when or to what extent an AMOC break-down might happen, there are enough worrying signs already to do what Stefan proposes: stop burning fossil fuels and deforestation ASAP!

Plug-in hybrids are a massive 3.5x dirtier than claimed, meaning they barely cut CO2 vs pure petrol/diesel

Meanwhile, petrol cars are nearly 25% dirtier & less fuel efficient than claimed

– Real-world data published by European Commission

climate.ec.europa.eu/news-your-voic…

Canada's GHG emissions continue to rise, driven by fossil fuel production, while Germany & the UK have cut their emissions in half. Via Canada's National Observer Barry Saxifrage #CDNPoli #ABLeg #ABPoli

'For the first time since the mid-20th century, over 95 percent of this year’s planned new electric-generating capacity in the United States is zero-carbon.'

Thanks, Democrats!

whitehouse.gov/cea/written-ma…

Would you drive this EV?

Realized I kinda left y'all hanging here. This car is real -- or at least, they say they're starting production next year -- and you can reserve one. caricecars.com

Remarkable 1969 memo from Daniel Patrick Moynihan warning the Nixon Admin about excessive CO2 in the atmosphere 'through the burning of fossil fuels': 'This could raise the level of the sea by 10 feet. Goodbye New York. Goodbye Washington, for that matter' pbs.org/wnet/americanm…

There was a lot of talk at CERAWeek about the energy transition struggling, with one prominent oil CEO even calling it a fantasy and saying it was failing.

That’s just not what the data shows. This transition is flourishing.

99% of all US coal plants (209 out of 210) are more expensive to run (let alone build) than replacing them with new solar, wind or energy storage

Coal is going to zero % of global electricity just as soon as enough renewables are built

energyinnovation.org/publication/co… #climate

The social pathology that spawned today’s political hellscape, created and maintained by bipartisan consensus, in one comparative image.