As always: a thread on highlights from @ember-energy.org Nerd Easter global power sector data review!
With lots of good news, some noticeable kinda bad news, and a few things I think are missing from the picture. TY to Ember, this is such a valuable piece of work
announcing ILÚVATAR, my multi-billion dollar company which will specialize in the dismantling of all other idiotically tolkien-named entities, that they shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite
Globe showing the Atlantic Ocean with arrows depicting the AMOC circulation: warm surface currents (pink/red) flowing northward from the tropics toward the Arctic, and cold deep return currents (blue/purple) flowing southward. The background shows sea surface temperature trends, with a prominent blue cold patch, the "cold blob", south of Greenland, contrasting with warming (orange/red) across the rest of the ocean.
1/ There's a system of ocean currents in the Atlantic that shapes Europe's #climate, drives monsoons, and keeps sea levels stable along the US coast.
In the last 5 years, the scientific evidence that it could collapse has shifted dramatically.
Most people have no idea. 🧵
"The world’s top 100 oil and gas companies banked more than $30m every hour in unearned profit in the first month of the US-Israeli war in Iran"
That cash comes from all of us locked into reliance on dirty fossil fuels despite none of us asking for it
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
A lecture hall with a welcome slice and several men standing, ready to talk.
I was just at a panel discussion on doing science with agentic AI and I found it incredibly depressing. It’s clear the tools are evolving extremely quickly, but it’s not clear to what end, and I don’t see it making the process better or the world more verdant
Hello, Bluesky! We, the staff of Scientific American, are pleased to announce we have formed a union with @wgaeast.bsky.social. Just as mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell, we are the powerhouse of the publication, and we’re excited to have a new way to contribute to its success.
IMO the president threatening to end an entire civilization should remain in the news until he is no longer president, and then for a while after that.
Staff and students see money spent like this and not spent on teaching and research - and it creates certain fissures in university communities for damn obvious reasons.
We didn't deserve this day.
Every Member of Congress should condemn Trump’s genocidal threat to end Iranian civilization.
Trump isn't a king — Republicans must do their constitutional duty and join Democrats to end the unwell president’s illegal war.
There's a nice #Artemis II mission tracker here: artemis.cdnspace.ca
LOTS of data about its current position, crew activities, and whether or not the toilet is currently "Go"
Heads up GitHub users. You have less than a month left to opt out of "Allow GitHub to use my data for AI model training".
"On April 24 we'll start using GitHub Copilot interaction data for AI model training unless you opt out." github.com/settings/cop...
Turns out we actually needed renewables to firm fossil fuels for when the ship doesn't sail and the pipeline doesn't flow.
A full disc image of Earth, as seen from the Orion Crew Module. The planet is a pale blue, swirling with white clouds and glowing slightly lighter blue in place from reflected light. At lower left, a large brown landmass is Africa, with Spain and Portugal with twinkling lights where the planet curves. At top right, auroras glow in a thin green glow, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space (pic: NASA/R.Wiseman)
More context on this #Artemis II image:
* This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right
* The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon:
☀️🌍🚀🌕
Yikes 😔
there are so many things to be angry about but at the moment I really fucking hate the fact that I’m expected to be able to recognize AI generated slop text
Yayy congrats!!
NEW: Some climate activists want the mayor to take a stronger stance in Albany's climate fight.
He previously said the state’s climate law “is not a suggestion. It is a mandate.”
nysfocus.com/2026/03/26/c...
Wikipedia now has higher standards than all universities
This Nazi retiree's career was destroyed by the brave people of Minnesota, who deserve our admiration and our thanks
And a 1-2 climate change and El Niño punch that is searing large parts of the US with weather that is highly uncharacteristic of this time of the year
Same, I didn’t even grow up in a Christian or an abrahamic cultural context but the GD helped me crystallize the niggling sense of discomfort I was feeling about religion at 15. so disappointing to see people like Dawkins reveal themselves to be assholes.
Tatyana Thompson said when she became pregnant with her son, her pain from sickle cell intensified. She was repeatedly in the hospital with a sharp pain, which she compared to being cut by a knife.
After experimental treatment requiring bone marrow from her brother, she is pain-free.
#BlackSky 🌱🙏🏾
The budget of USAID was $22 billion per year.
It was *saving the lives* of 4.1 million men, women, and children per year, all over the world.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
You know how we're getting helpful suggestions now on how to save energy- work from home, fly less, select which of your children to continue feeding, that sort of thing. Was just wondering if anyone had suggested to our tech overlords they power down the AI junk generators for a couple of weeks?
Sadly doesn’t look like we’re are done with the far right resurgence, not yet at any rate. A not-insignificant chunk of its voters are abandoning the Centre-right party by flocking to the Farage-esque One Nation. Polls show them making significant gains in this weeks SA state elections
Europe spent years debating whether the energy transition was affordable.
Spain quietly answered the question: gas now sets its electricity price in only 7% of hours.
Strategic autonomy doesn’t arrive via summit communiqués. It’s built in advance — in wind farms, solar parks, and grid investment
Work from home and limit flights, urges IEA, as fuel crisis deepens Ryan Cropp, Carrie LaFrenz and Ayesha de Kretser Updated Mar 20, 2026 – 6.27pm, first published at 2.00pm Save Share Gift this article Add us as a preferred source on Google Listen to this article 5 min The International Energy Agency has recommended limiting air travel and the number of cars on the road and encouraging more work from home as the Iran conflict leaves companies scrambling to recast pricing and supply chains to withstand the worst oil disruption in history.
“In the absence of a swift resolution, the impacts on energy markets and economies are set to become more and more severe,” said IEA chief executive Fatih Birol as the agency outlined its recommendations for cutting demand for gas and oil amid fears supply would inevitably slump. “The war in the Middle East is creating a major energy crisis, including the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.” The IEA, in a list of recommendations to member nations, of which Australia is one, said introducing a number plate rotation scheme for road access, encouraging carpooling, electric cooking and working from home could lead to a noticeable decline in demand for oil. Three remote workdays could cut oil consumption from cars by between 2 and 6 per cent, with average reductions of around 20 per cent for individual drivers, it said.
A huge congratulations to everyone who decried planned, equitable and gradual emissions cuts as too radical. Now you get to experience unplanned, unjust and whiplash-inducing emissions cuts instead.
Maybe lets not make the same mistake again?
www.afr.com/companies/re...
That’s what I tell my students. My brain will be fine. I studied, got my PhD, got tenure. They are the ones whose brains will be at a disadvantage because they chose not to develop them.