Around 2025, the UK was spending approximately $90 billion annually on defense, compared to around $67 billion for France. And for decades, the UK has spent a proportionally larger share of its GDP on defense. Yet, France seems to achieve better results.

Food Security is a huge issue. This was covered albeit briefly on Andrew Marr yesterday, where they felt it should be in sharp focus right now. Defence Funding & Food Security need addressed now. I don’t understand why the public aren’t more interested in these necessities. Not sexy, I guess.

10 countries have now crossed 50% EV market share. Not cities. Not regions. 10 countries. Across 4 continents. What's remarkable is that just three years ago, Toyota Chairman argued EVs would be limited to around 30% of global new vehicle sales for the next 100 years. It's 2026 #Bettrificatation

I recently shared a post about ALDI's renewable energy program and someone asked about Coles and Woolworths. I double checked. By the end of 2025, all three of Australia's largest supermarket chains were ALL sourcing 100% renewable electricity across their operations! #Bettrification #SWB

Solar just produced more electricity than coal in the US for the first month ever and it won't be the last... Over the last two decades, the role of coal and solar in the US mix has changed drastically May 2006: 🪨 48%, ☀️ 0% May 2016: 🪨 26%, ☀️ 2% May 2026: 🪨 12%, ☀️ 13%

there were already many reasons to do this but Elon Musk actively encouraging racist violence in Belfast should be the final straw for every UK government institution to stop doing business - including being on X - with him in any way, and for him to be barred from entry to the country.

Solar, wind and geothermal energy is not “alternative energy”, it is the original energy.

‘baseline solar scenario found if 40% of future solar development is placed on cropland, a rate the research paper says is consistent with historical patterns, prices for maize, soybeans and wheat would increase by less than 5.6%’ Solar as a crop price support? Paper says biofuels cost rise 3X.

With an extended closure of the Strait you are seeing a shift away from climate and towards energy security. After Russia disrupted gas markets in 2022, governments focused on replacing Russian supply. After the Strait of Hormuz disruption, they're asking how they use less **imported fuel**.

Dr. Michael Levin, from Tufts University, explains how deer antlers have trophic memory. Original post

"The economy depends about as much on economists as the weather does on weather forecasters." -Jean-Paul Kauffmann

A data centre is usually treated as a grid problem: a large, growing electricity load. In Finland it's becoming a heat asset. Fortum has switched on two industrial heat pump plants that will recover waste heat from neighbouring data centres from next year. www.pv-magazine.com/2026/05/07/l...

In early 2015, I was working on a contract in South Africa when there were violent anti-immigration protests, with people being burned out of their homes. At the end of that year, I was in the US when Trump began his rise with his promise to build a wall. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

"Trees are poems that Earth writes upon the sky." Khalil Gibran Ralph Emerson art

‘To convert this very regular four-hour battery into a groundbreaking eight-hour battery, Rev ​“literally doubled the number of battery boxes on the site,” Hill said. ​“Technology-wise, the differences are pretty trivial.”’

Originator of the Laffable curve fails to mention that under Reagan deficit spending exploded, goosing the economy, and conveniently ignores the counterexample that tax rates rose under Clinton…and growth accelerated. US GDP is uncorrelated with tax rates. Maybe he is campaigning for a Nobel.

Germany built the twentieth century's greatest car industry — and is now betting everything on reinventing it for the twenty-first. #Volkswagen is investing € 180 bn in electrification through 2028 — the largest single corporate investment in EV technology in history www.reuters.com/business/aut...

We talk ourselves down sometimes, but the progress that the UK has made, as the country that fired the industrial revolution, does us proud.

It's a great day for renewables on the UK electricity grid: 81.8% renewables, only 7.9% fossil fuels & a negative spot price. I'm not sure why there are still fossil fuels in the mix when the spot price is negative, but I guess it's because of distribution across the country. Anyone know for sure?

Most shoppers never notice it, but the roof of my local ALDI is covered in #solar panels. Multiply that across 600+ stores and Australia's 3rd largest supermarket chain starts looking a lot like a distributed power company. The energy transition is happening in plain sight. ⚡🏪☀️ #Bettrification

for reference and comparison: conservatively, the United States spent two-thirds of that figure in the *first week* of the war on Iran. it's genuinely difficult to overstate how many world-historical own goals US politics has accumulated over the past few decades

Three ways to improve high streets by *raising* business rates: 1. Higher rates on long-empty shops, to force realistic rents 2. End exemption for charity shops. 3. Make landlords pay when candy/vape shops vanish with unpaid rates. They'll ensure rates are paid up-front.

This is by far the worst World Cup ever, people were more hyped to go to Qatar and play in stadiums built by slaves than to go to Donald Trump's fascist USA. FIFA has to stop giving the World Cup to War Criminals. Or more likely, we need a new FIFA.

JUST DROPPED: Pakistan's solar boom is one of the energy transition's wildest stories, and nobody planned it. World's #2 panel importer in 2025, mostly on rooftops. No subsidy, no scheme. But it also has a dark side. More in my latest newsletter 👇 janrosenow.substack.com/p/pakistan-t...

The amazing mechanics of how bee stingers work [🎞️ Jon Perry / StatedClearly] Original post

Porcospino Flex from the University of Genoa is a lightweight, spiked robot that navigates tight spaces for inspections and search and rescue. Original post

I told my wife I absolutely love Worcestershire sauce. She asked what's so special about it.. It's hard to say, I answered.

NASA Perseverance rover captures what a Martian night really looks like from the ground

“The real surprise from the OECD’s subsidy numbers is that it cost China less than $18bn in sectoral support over 15 years to build an industry that can now provide more clean power than the world can readily absorb.” www.ft.com/content/b6ca...

In April 2024, Spain ran its entire national grid on 100% renewable electricity for a full day — and solar was the single largest contributor. No gas. No coal. No nuclear on standby. The lights stayed on in Madrid and Barcelona with nothing but wind, hydro, and sun. Stop #oilandgas !! #ActOnClimate

"France passed a single law and instantly unlocked 11 gigawatts of #solarenergy — without using new land. In 2023, France's government mandated solar canopies over all car parks larger than 80 spaces. The scale was enormous: There are 400,000 parking areas across France #ActOnClimate #Renewables

This is from nearly 2 years ago; costs are even lower: Need-to-Know: Solar is now cheaper than wooden fencing The price of solar panels has plunged 60% in the past TWO years leahy.substack.com/p/1000-nucle...

#ElectricVehicles are taking a large share of the French vehicle market, boosted by higher petrol prices and government grants. EV registrations rose by 55% in the first five months of 2026 accounting for 27.8% of all new registrations, up from 17.8% in 2025 www.connexionfrance.com/news/electri...

Richer doesn't mean more electrified: Norway runs at nearly 50%. But the US and Germany sit at 22%, below China. If wealth set the pace, the dots would line up. They don't. More in my next Substack newsletter - sign up here: janrosenow.substack.com

Each circle has a different story

This map is a great reminder that huge swathes of sub-saharan Africa have a very livable climate compared to many other parts of the world, which is unsurprising, l guess, given human history.

This thread is actually a very good (and poignant) summary of what was lost for those who benefitted from Britain's membership of the EU, but also a hint, by it's nature, that many simply did not, and could not, participate in this way and lost out. In the end, the losers outnumbered the winners.

UK tax has gone up significantly over the last 25 years But the tax paid by the average UK worker has not This apparent miracle was achieved by taxing “other people”: higher earners, capital, property, banks, etc The strategy has run out of road A 🧵 on what happens next.

Neoliberalism has landed the UK with a housing crisis. Real wage cuts, reduction in workers share of gross value added, profiteering and forced sale of social housing has left millions struggling for a home. Can't deal with social problems without abandoning neoliberalism.

Large-scale immigration to Britain exists for economic reasons and not for any other; it is the primary mechanism by which governments, Tory and Labour, have disguised their massive economic failures and their unwillingness to rethink the Thatcherite economic consensus.

This article in the Guardian ascribes Brexit to the machinations of a competing elite. Rather like the idea that Britain became protestant because Henry VIII wanted a divorce, this great-man version of history denies the people agency. Cameron was pressured into a referendum by public votes.

«Speed, freedom» Original post

So, how's Lindisfarne these days, worth a visit? Asking for a friend.

Came across this photo of Aleppo, Syria. This isn't a substitute for what a proper, working electric grid delivers. But it is certainly a huge improvement compared to being without power, or having to rely on fuel-guzzling generators. #solarPV #energy #electricity #offgrid

And third, a comparison with Germany (the winner, with 60 taxes), and France (with an ear-bleeding 348).

The UK has twice as many taxes as it had in 1993. Not twice as much tax. Twice as many taxes. Yes, we pay a bit more tax, but tax has got a whole lot more complicated. Time to reverse that.

Georgists of the world, unite!

Most people know Kenya for wildlife. Far fewer know it already operates one of the cleanest electricity systems on Earth. Around 91% of electricity now comes from renewable sources, while fossil generation has fallen from roughly 48% in 2010 to around 10% in 2025. #Bettrification

A company-level OECD analysis of government subsidies across 15 key industrial sectors found that nearly 60 per cent of Chinese firms’ global market share gains since 2005 could be attributed to subsidies Paging @davidheniguk.bsky.social for comments