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#ClimateChange

513 posts302 participants52 posts today

“Elon Musk has Trump in his back pocket. Along with their club of billionaire oligarchs, they are trying to spread their fascist dictatorship by fanning the fire of far-right hate. The exploitative capitalist system they fiercely protect is leading us to climate collapse,” the group said in a statement Monday

ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/clim

The Tesla dealership on Carling Avenue in Ottawa is pictured. Pink pain can be seen on the front of the building. An Ottawa police cruiser is parked nearby.
CTVNews · Climate group spray paints Ottawa Tesla dealership to protest Elon MuskThe climate activist group Last Generation Canada has sprayed pink paint on an Ottawa Tesla dealership several days after targeting the U.S. embassy with the same stunt.

Excerpts from an essay about "Cars and Coal" from Athena, the Climate Historian (@Climatehistories)...
____________________________________

As we strive towards a greener future, electric vehicles are often hailed as a climate saviour. They promise zero-emission driving — however, the story is not as straightforward as it seems.

When we think about EVs, we also need to think about coal consumption. While EVs are seen as a 'green technology,' they are also a matter of energy sovereignty, particularly in China. Half of the world’s EVs are currently produced in China, where two-thirds of electricity is produced from coal.

And the story of cars and coal does not end with the vehicles themselves. Cars require infrastructure: roads, bridges, and highways. This infrastructure consumes gigantic quantities of steel and cement, which indirectly fuels the demand for coal. Cement production, in particular, relies heavily on coal as fuel. Every new highway, every expanded road, every parking structure — each represents another link in the coal-to-car chain.

Perhaps instead of simply asking how to make more efficient cars, we should be asking deeper questions about mobility itself. Why do we need 80 million new cars each year? What alternatives might meet our mobility needs while treading more lightly on the planet and our health and quality of life? How might we design transportation systems that don't rely so heavily on private vehicle ownership?
____________________________________

FULL ESSAY -- theclimatehistorian.substack.c

Replied in thread

@liverpoolrichard Hi Richard, thanks for the insights. Just after Easter I'm visiting the Isle of Man for a few days, staying in Laxey!

I'm currently writing a novel which features the Isle of Man, and have already made inroads with getting some authentic Manx language into it.

"You can also get port and sherry from Mannan"

Who can I contact at their Tourist Board to see how many of their boxes I can help them tick?

copper-wolf.com/banderisate/re

It couldn't be more clear, in the midst of a surging climate and environmental catastrophe, that we need to urgently make huge systemic changes.

But those who own the system are not interested.

So instead we'll just get more and more of the same — more drilling for oil, more fracking for gas, more digging for coal, more burning of fossil fuels, along with more pollution and even more greenhouse gases. Plus we’ll also get more gigantic government subsidies to companies actively destroying the climate, AND more outrageously high profits for fossil fuel executives.

Business As Usual must go on, baby!
____________________________________

Let’s all celebrate another week of BUSINESS AS USUAL, sponsored this time by BP, Walmart, and Volkswagen.

🎶 "Keep driving, keep flying, keep shopping, keep buying!
We've got this, everything's fine." 🎶 😃

Boiling Point: Not a great year for #climatechange at #Oscars
For second year, nonprofit firm Good Energy applied Climate Reality Check to #Oscar-nominated films. Intended as a #climate version of Bechdel test, which measures representation of women, Climate Reality Check tests whether movie & characters acknowledge #globalwarming
Climate silence “does feel a little striking after the harrowing year we’ve all had,” Good Energy Anna Jane Joyner said
latimes.com/environment/newsle
archive.ph/OjMKy

An Oscars statue at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Times · Boiling Point: Not a great year for climate change at the OscarsHardly any Academy Award-nominated films mentioned global warming.
Replied in thread

@jaystephens @ketanjoshi.co And then we have Australia's next great city, Parramatta.

It's a city that, roughly once a year, has a harbour...

This from Parramatta City Council itself: "From the earliest days, the changeable nature of the Parramatta River, and other waterways, has brought with it the risk of flooding.

"Today, our CBD is one of the most flash-flood affected areas in the country. Our challenge is to live with the river in all its various conditions."

cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/en

And this from a top State Emergency Service official in 2019:

"A senior SES official has warned that Parramatta's CBD could be overwhelmed by a flash flood in as little as nine minutes, giving residents little time to evacuate.

"George Jeoffreys, senior manager for risk reduction and avoidance at the NSW State Emergency Service, cited the difficulty of predicting flash floods."

smh.com.au/national/nsw/nine-m

You had parts of Parramatta's CBD flood in 2020:

abc.net.au/news/2020-02-10/par

And 2021: smh.com.au/national/parramatta

And 2022: 9news.com.au/wild-weather/weat

And 2024: abc.net.au/news/2024-04-05/nsw

And earlier this year: abc.net.au/news/2025-03-26/nsw

And of course there's pressure to put new high-rise developments right on the river edge: smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney

www.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.auFlooding | City of ParramattaWe can't stop flooding but together we can keep our community safe. Learn more about Council's flood management work.