The rise in climate pollution from the US is 2025 canceled out the reductions from China, India, Japan, and the EU combined.

there is a crosstab for age - in both cases, concern about climate and species extinction skews young. (for climate: 52% a great deal concerned among 18-34 yo's vs. 42% for 55+, for species: 48% vs. 32%.)

They do not provide education by age or further breakdowns.

Concern about species extinction is inversely correlated with education level and greater among non-whites than whites. Concern about global warming does not vary meaningfully by education level.

Concern about issues such as endangered species/global warming is *inversely* correlated with income. 50% of ppl in HHs making <$50K are concerned "a great deal" about species extinction compared with 30% making >$100K. Figures are 51% vs. 34% for global warming.

More: What environmental issues worry people the most? Water, water, water and ... data centers.

It's really easy to overdraw conclusions from polling results, but the idea that environmental concerns have dropped off the public radar screen and that the only way to talk to people about sustainability is by singing from the affordability songbook just isn't supported by the data.

Interestingly: 57% of Americans believe that the environment should be protected "even at the risk of limiting the amount of energy supplies." Majorities (to varying degrees) across all income, education, racial, age and gender groups.

This does show up to some extent in the Gallup data. % that prioritizes economic growth over environment is 29% among households making <$50K/year, 31% among those making $50-100K and 42% among those making >$100K. (Crosstabs avail here: news.gallup.com/poll/708413/...)

solar roof on a distribution centre

Aldi Suisse has inaugurated 🇨🇭 Switzerland's largest rooftop solar installation, with a capacity of 10 MWp / 8 GWh, at its distribution centre in Domdidier.

www.aldi-suisse.ch/de/unternehm...

Seems to track with other research on generosity.

The framing’s not ideal, but given how frequently the counter-argument is made (that the public prioritizes growth at any cost, including to the environment), it’s a useful reality check.

This does not really surprise me.

Americans prioritize protecting the environment over economic growth, according to Gallup.

Also "The current 63% of U.S. adults who say the government is doing too little [to protect environment] is the highest level recorded since Gallup’s initial reading in 1992." news.gallup.com/poll/708413/...

Remember how we used to talk about decarbonizing the grid by 2035? Those were good times. We should get back to that.

New @rhg.com report on possible implications of data center electricity demand. In the short to mid-term at least, it's making decarbonization harder. rhg.com/research/dat...

The US Government Will Ask Data Centers How Much Power They Use In a letter obtained by WIRED, the Energy Information Administration tells two senators that it plans to develop a mandatory assessment of data centers' energy use.

Remembering a couple of years ago when EIA attempted to survey crypto miners about their energy use, got sued, and wound up not only cancelling the survey but also destroying the information they'd collected. www.wired.com/story/the-us...

Beyond the politics of nostalgia: What the fall of the steel industry can tell us about the future of America The future arrived in Pittsburgh in the 1980s. We just didn't recognize it. On deindustrialization, reindustrialization, the rise of Trump and the promise of a sustainable new economy.

I wrote this piece in early 2024 about the unlearned lessons from that chaotic time and the hope that we might handle the next wrenching techno-economic transition a little better. So far, it's not going so great. frontiergroup.org/articles/bey...

DMS ``evangelism'' has taken both nasty and humorous forms. Last Christmas a DMS group burst into a children's party at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Shadyside, an affluent neighborhood on the northeast side of Pittsburg, and hurled balloons filled with skunk oil about the room. The indirect target: David M. Roderick, chairman of US steel, who attends services there. Research into Pittsburgh's power structure has spurred DMS to broaden its sights. Its members have planted frozen fish in safe depos it boxes at Mellon Bank, arguing that the state's largest bank dictates public and private interest; they have skunked a judge's home and slashed the car tires of the synod leader, Bishop Kenneth May, who now opposes them. ``If you are nice and rational about it, everyone ignores you,'' said Charles Honeywell, a professional organizer schooled in confrontational protest who was hired by the DMS. ``So we're outlandish.''

It's mostly lost to history now, but some absolutely wild stuff happened during the deindustrialization of the Rust Belt that evokes some of today's techlash. FWIW, these tactics got a lot of publicity but didn't change the course of history one iota. www.csmonitor.com/1985/0930/dp...

Natural gas is cheaper here now than it was immediately pre-war.

Yikes. Where is this at? (I’m from western PA. Have seen rivers that color before)

What's wild about all the folks freaking out over the expensive luxury car story is that U.S. carmakers started openly telling everyone ~ 10 years ago that they would stop making affordable cars and only make giant, luxury trucks and SUVs.

And then, they did exactly what they said they would do.

Coal plant retirements in the U.S. are slowing to a crawl, which is terrible news for our health and efforts to reduce climate pollution.

We're releasing new analysis next week taking a deeper look at the trends and possible implications for air quality.

www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...

Did somebody say "cost shift"?

static1.squarespace.com/static/61dc5...

Driving Into Debt

We've written about this *a lot*, most comprehensively here: frontiergroup.org/resources/dr...

Opinion | The Affordable Car Is Dead. What Happened? This is how cars got so ridiculously, forbiddingly expensive.

You can't tell the story of the demise of the affordable car w/o taking about the dealer system (and lax regulation thereof) and the automakers' post-GFC strategy to boost sales by luring consumers into deeper debt. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Our church has taken the emissions accounting part of our sustainability work very seriously, and in mostly a good way, but it’s very easy to lose track of what we’re doing this for.

It’s not really that dark, but it hits on some themes I wrote about here about the limits of seeing climate action as mainly a problem of technological change, optimization and emissions accounting. frontiergroup.org/articles/mac...

Been asked to do a “state of the planet” reflection for our church’s Earth service tomorrow and have so far woven in references to the crucifixion and the myth of Sisyphus. Swing by for a lighthearted romp!

UC Santa Barbara experts are accusing PG&E of overcharging Californians to keep Diablo Canyon open.

“This isn’t about shutting down this nuclear plant...this is about financial oversight," @leahstokes.bsky.social says. www.latimes.com/environment/... via @blancabegert.bsky.social

Not to put lipstick on a pig - b/c this is all terrible news - but overall car sales in Q1 were down 5% y-o-y and hybrid market share is up from 12.2 - 13.9%. Automakers seem to be directing consumers anxious about gas prices toward hybrids.
www.nada.org/nada/nada-he...

Figure 1. Bicycle share of trips in New York City, London, Paris, and Berlin, 1990–2023. Note: the actual years vary slightly by city, as follows: New York: 1990,2000, 2010, 2019, 2022; London: 1993, 2000, 2010, 2019, 2022; Paris: 1990, 2000, 2010, 2017, 2023; Berlin: 1992, 1998, 2010, 2018, 2023. The percentages shown in thegraphic refer to the bicycle share of all trips, all trip purposes, based on travel surveys for each city. Sources: City of Paris, 2000–2023; City of Berlin, 2003–2025;Kalender,2012; NYCDOT, 2018–2023; Pucher, Parkin, et al.,2021; TfL, 2000–2023.

This paper compares trends in cycling levels, cyclist demographics and cycling injury risk in NewYork, London, Paris and Berlin, before and after the COVID pandemic. We explore these trends inthe context of changes to policy and infrastructure before, during, and after COVID. We based ouranalysis on data from published reports, open-data portals, government websites, travel surveys,and information provided by transport planners in each city. Cycling levels in NYC, London, Paris,and Berlin increased over the three decades prior to COVID (1990–2019). As a percentage of dailytrips, bike mode share rose from 0.6% to 2.2% in New York, from 1.2% to 3.7% in London, from0.4% to 5% in Paris, and from 7% to 18% in Berlin. Cycling rates have continued to increase sinceCOVID. By 2023, bike mode shares had risen further to 3% in NYC, 4.5% in London, 11% in Paris,and 19% in Berlin. Cycling became safer in all four cities over the period 2005 to 2023, withdeclining per-trip fatality and injury rates. More and better cycling infrastructure has been acornerstone of pro-cycling efforts, especially cycleways separated from motor vehicle traffic (pro-tected bike lanes). Bike parking and bikesharing systems have expanded and improved. Car restric-tions and traffic calming have complemented pro-bike measures, for example, using infrastructureand enforcement to reduce traffic volumes and speeds in residential neighborhoods. Long-termpolitical support as well as cycling advocacy organizations have been critical to the introductionand continuation of pro-bike policies and the necessary financial investments.

Truly wild research on the change in bike mode share in NYC, London, Paris and Berlin.

Between 2000 and 2023, Paris went from 1 out of every 100 trips being on a bike to *one out of 9!*

Many people, including credible researchers, would have told you that that *could not* happen.