Bristol heat network update!

I have a post about US power demand in the works but just for now, I am blown away by the audacity of dismissing concern about this as "hand-wringing" when the US just saw its first half-year return to *GROWTH* of coal power, alongside persistently rising emissions bsky.app/profile/keta...

For anyone interested, this is what I do all day, trying to make more stuff like this happen. I've been working in this for 4 years. www.bristol247.com/business/new...

We've seen how a Trump administration has taken over scientific bodies, so independent research is suppressed if its findings aren't what he wants, and outputs just become govt propaganda. Could the same thing happen here, if a future PM wanted to do the same? Important analysis ⬇️

@southglosgreens.bsky.social @bristolgreenparty.bsky.social can anyone tell me which branch to get involved in if I want to help get a green elected in Bristol North East, where I live. Is there a candidate? How does all that work?

Great article by @labourbristol.bsky.social councillor Kirsty Tait making the case for community buy-in for a just transition to net-zero! Tackling climate change for all people and with the people is the only way it can be successful. www.bristol247.com/opinion/your...

Oh let’s be fair to Zuckerberg removing fact checkers from Facebook - it’s true that facts are politically biased. Reality has always had a left wing bias I’m afraid 🤷‍♀️ #r4today

US banks bow for Republican campaigns that have characterized net zero groups as climate cartels. Photo from @timothysnyder.bsky.social , On Tyranny.

Bravo Cardiff. Absolutely the right thing to do. Local parking reforms have a big role to play in reducing the number of large cars on our roads with all the benefits this brings - for safety, climate, air quality, space in our crowded public realm and, as mentioned here, road maintenance

Palliative Care Doctor, Dr Rachel Clarke, "There are thousands of people suffering unnecessary pain" "We may be in a peculiar position where we have a state funded dying service but we don't have a state funded palliative care service"

One of these on Park Street, Bristol now!

NEW REPORT: Energy efficiency policies are more important than ever — also for electrification. This powerful, and often overlooked, tool can be instrumental in achieving affordable and inclusive electrification. bit.ly/492OYlH

I think I just worked out that Johnson is a crap prototype of a semi-human LLM: he's been shoved full of just enough big words and patterns to be able to hallucinate nonsensical tripe.

The story around China issuing USD-denominated sovereign bonds in Saudi Arabia is generating an enormous amount of buzz in China, and could potentially be immensely important. I strongly suspect it's a message to the upcoming Trump administration. A small 🧵

What a surprise! Turns out the "Department of Government Efficiency" has nothing to do with government efficiency but is simply a pro-business deregulation, mass layoff and cost-cutting exercise... It's all explained by Musk and Ramaswamy in the WSJ: wsj.com/opinion/musk... A small 🧵

Here’s a short story about who wins and loses from the status quo of our inheritance tax rules - and about, what you might politely call ‘sub-optimal’ journalism🧵

We really need to stop suggesting, either implicitly or explicitly, that we can decarbonise society without people making any changes. It's not only dishonest, but is sure to bake in further distrust in Gov when it turns out not to be true.

72% of children in poverty live in a working household.

1. I’m thinking aloud here, as I really don’t have the answers. This is a thread about the political challenge of the very large numbers of young men now supporting the far right. I’m writing it without blame or derision. I’m just trying to find a way through. 🧵

Proper informative interview with @garethdennis.bsky.social on railways and why they are great. And yes, I’ve just bought the book! youtu.be/M3afnfNQTu0?...

One of the best podcasts going

could we maybe do a protest of people who are currently renting and can't afford to buy property and who also won't inherit enough to ever buy a place

closing a tax loophole is hardly herding the kulaks into kolkhozes... the media needs to get a grip

Never has a crime so obscene been so confessed to, so endlessly, so shamelessly, so proudly

Was very proud to nominate my friend (and my MP) @carladenyer.bsky.social to become a Bristol City Council alderwoman this evening. Before Westminster called Carla was a Green councillor for 9 years and I was honoured to talk about the work she did on the council. Congratulations Alderwoman Denyer 💚

We are an institutionally racist country. www.theguardian.com/news/2024/no...

The gov't of Denmark has reached a landmark agreement among parties that will dramatically reduce the use of nitrogen in fertilizer, take a bunch of land out of agricultural production, & plant 250K hectares of new forest. Transformational. cphpost.dk/2024-11-18/n...

If you bring central London to a halt in order to campaign against catastrophic climate change then you're a "barmy" eco "fanatic" who deserves to be locked up. If you do the same to hang on to your multimillion pound inheritance tax exemption then you're a brave freedom fighter defying the odds

Raw sewage from new homes being flushed into river. Back to the 19th century. Did Thames Water and developers not know? That's what you get with privatisation of essential services, deregulation of planning. Govt promising more housing deregulation. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

UK deprivation levels have risen to the highest in the 21st century, according to a landmark report. More than one in three children are now in poverty and a quarter of adults. It is a scandal - but so is the pretence that any of this is normal. www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

yeah, I was vaguely aware railfreight was increasing, but similarly, really interesting how such a simple tool could have such a big impact. Also makes the economic case for HS2 (to increase capacity on the WCML) make more sense.

Why city planning needs diverse perspectives. Touring possible commuter cycling routes. What I saw - Smooth pavement. Separate from traffic. Shade. Not too busy. Perfect. What my female partner saw - Blind corners. No lighting. No escape routes. Too few users. Wouldn’t use this route.

Shocking news. 36% of UK children are living in poverty according to the latest Social Metrics Commission research (I am one of the Commissioners) www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Tax dodging ‘farmers’ like Clarkson & Dyson have exploited the farm inheritance tax rules. The reality is the aristocracy, corporations and Tycoons own 70% of our land, not family farms

#EXCLUSIVE: At least 24 previously impossible heatwaves have struck communities across the planet, a new assessment has shown, providing stark evidence of how human-caused #globalheating is supercharging extreme #weather beyond anything ever experienced by humanity

That’s what þei say.

i admit i live in an echo chamber of leftist politics, the only exception being when i hear things said by the president, the next president, the supreme court, members of congress, people on the news, my family, or people i encounter in my daily life.

“Rural Britain has never escaped the cultural trappings of feudalism…” Great piece by Will Hutton on the landed interests opposed to paying more tax on their land - from the Earl of Derby to James Dyson www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

At least 34 killed in Israeli strike on Beit Lahia, northern Gaza

Censorship on Bluesky. The picture reads: Israel should not be allowed to play football or participate in any cultural forum in the world. It is now beyond any doubt that Israel is committing genocide and war crimes. It should be treated as a pariah state. Empty stadiums until Palestine is free.

BlueSky has already started censoring criticism of Israel. Israel is literally committing genocide. To label criticism of that ‘intolerance’ is obviously absurd — and a mechanism of suppressing opposition to, and therefore emboldening, that genocide. Do better @bsky.app.

Always felt that two weeks’ paternity leave seemed very low but now, facing my husband going back to work, it’s hard not to feel that two weeks’ paternity leave is an utter joke and a very unfunny one at that

This is clever. Great work @theo.io 👏 bsky-follow-finder.theo.io

This is wonderful!

That £300m is the figure we call for here👇