First time on the Empire Builder! Final destination is Minneapolis! Probably! Quick trip report and pics forthcoming 🚂🧵

Back in the High Atlas mountains. Getting here is hard work, but I do think it's my favourite place to be in Morocco. Tomorrow I'll go over Tizi N'Tichka, one of the more well-known mountain passes in the country. Summit is at 2205m. Good news- I'm already at 1915m!

People think we are part of a flight shaming movement, when in truth we pretty much never criticize individuals for their flying.

But I am tempted to respectfully criticize people for the oblivious boastful untimely things they write (in The Economist here).

Severe turbulence has increased 55% since 1979 as a direct result of the Climate Emergency

Sadly this is cause & effect in action - if people keep flying (especially in ever-increasing amounts) situations like this will happen more and more
bbc.com/news/science-e…
#ClimateCrisis

We watch with dismay this week's news about the water crisis unfolding in Mexico City, a remarkable city of 23 million people with much to teach the world about art, food, history, transportation, urban design, and climate mitigation. It is unfair. youtu.be/vGzQ-F-o0Gc?si…

At The New York Times, Susan Shain makes the key points about #CarbonOffsets . Most fail standards such as additionality. To help sequestration actions, contribute directly and think of your emissions as still yours (not offset). And support better policy.

nytimes.com/2024/05/06/cli…

Western Canada has a lot of explaining to do. Canada’s recently released greenhouse gas inventory shows that every western province has increased its climate pollution since 1990.

As usual, fascinating breakdown of the data by Barry Saxifrage 4 Canada's National Observer nationalobserver.com/2024/05/17/ana…

New analysis from @nef shows that demand for business flights has fallen almost a third as companies move away from corporate air travel.

The analysis of latest data casts further doubt over the air industry’s claim that more flying boosts the economy.
cityam.com/demand-for-uk-…

Letzte Generation
protesting against #flying , the most polluting form of transportation
flyingless
Stay Grounded Network
Just Stop Oil
StopFlying.org
The Aviation Environment Federation
Flight Free UK

theguardian.com/world/article/…

The scientists have good judgement about individual climate action. Democratic action first. Flying less makes it into the second tier. And of course these two are synergistic. Aviation is an economic policy matter, not merely a personal choice.

Climate mitigation success is within our society's capacity, but success would require putting the U.S. economy on a climate action footing. Without that, truly large-scale wind power, carbon capture, carbon sequestration, and green transportation are economically infeasible.

The writing quality in popular climate books is excellent. I judge authors for their specific facts and their broad positioning. Some describe green energy as cheap, abundant, and easy; some as costly, scarce, and challenging. I'm not panicky but still am in the second camp.

On the topic of our initiative, Hannah Ritchie's nice upbeat book, Not the End of the World (pp. 98-100), hopes for implausible solar-powered flight and dismisses a mere straw dummy of cutting flying completely. I'd have valued her more engaged insight. hachettebookgroup.com/titles/hannah-…

As Ultiworld briefly mentions, 8 members of the Middlebury Pranksters ultimate team are taking Amtrak right now to the D-III national championship. My daughter Keziah Wilde instigated this climate-friendly #flyingless collegiate sports experiment.

ultiworld.com/2024/05/17/is-…

One strategy for climate transition: (1) electrify everything possible, (2) green the electric grid, (3) reduce consumption in high-carbon difficult-to-electrify sectors.

Rather than debating degrowth specifically in GDP, I wish leading climate writers discussed this strategy.

Turns out taking action to reduce emissions incrementally is kinda pointless if the amount of polluting activity massively increases...
Josh Gabbatiss Carbon Brief
'Benefits of UK ‘sustainable aviation fuel’ will be wiped out by rising demand'
carbonbrief.org/analysis-benef…

Some readers are saddened by such studies. Not me.

In a world that treats emissions as costly ($1000/ton in this article), all these are economically feasible: (a) green energy, (b) carbon sequestration, (c) terrific carbon-displacing transportation, (d) more leisure, and more.

Climate damages are '6X LARGER than previously thought', says new NBER working paper

– every 1C wipes out 12% of global GDP
– every tonne of CO2 causes >$1,000 of damages

Gernot Wagner tells me: 'Assuming nobody finds a flaw in this paper, it is going to truly change things'

Low-carbon tourism.

The The New York Times 36-hour travel series is the archetype of implicit climate denial, for readers who would piously self-identify as climate aware and yet utterly dogmatic in its ferocious determination to burn our children's future like so much Jet A kerosene. nytimes.com/column/36-hours