It's not hard to find gloomy climate news right now. But sometimes it's helpful to look past the Trumpian political melodrama. And this news, if true, matters way more for the future of our climate than anything Trump has done or will do. www.economist.com/china/2025/0...

Haway the Lads! Every few years, Sunderland marches on London and absolutely takes it over. And I love it 🔴⚪️

Lol at the EU Competitiveness Council saying it wants "lower energy costs" AND "e-fuels for cars". Lads, you're really gonna have to pick between the two...

He also gave us televised snooker but once again people sadly just focus on a single small part of his career.

Nice work Royal Mail! This is cool. The surest way to reduce aviation emissions is to reduce flights. www.businessgreen.com/news/4412336...

Team Facts is fighting back against Team Vibes 💪 Vibes: People don't like net zero Facts: 89% of people want more climate action www.theguardian.com/environment/... Vibes: Net zero is bad for business Facts: 97% of businesses support climate action www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/blog/97-of-b...

Making green planes & fuels will increase the overall cost of flying. It will have a lot of benefits too, but how to fairly share out these costs across society is a key question for governments. A frequent flyer levy is definitely a good option to explore... www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

The objections to airport expansion are obviously not about one tree & the PM is obviously too busy today to put out silly tweets like this. His spin doctors are letting him down. We've had enough childish demagoguery from the White House without Downing Street following suit.

One silver lining of this Heathrow kerfuffle is that it shines a spotlight on "sustainable" aviation fuel ("SAF"). The Chancellor says "SAF" is a “game-changer” in the debate. The government's own data says otherwise: on.ft.com/4gKfXEW Great primer on "SAF" from AEF: www.aef.org.uk/2023/11/16/s...

A useful reminder that just because lots of people have voted for a climate denier, it does not mean they themselves are climate deniers. It just means other things in their lives are more important for their vote. Salience matters just as much as sentiment. theconversation.com/trump-voters...

Some of the holes in the Heathrow expansion argument highlighted in the Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

The reason the aviation industry talks so much about SAF has nothing to do with actual decarbonisation. It's about creating sufficient hype and *perception* of climate action, to justify expansion. That smart politicians still fall for this is sad, if not surprising. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

🧵 on rumours the UK govt is poised to greenlight expansion of Gatwick, Heathrow & Luton...

Power lines. Altadena in the wake of the #EatonFire

A touch of frost at Sunderland's Northern Spire as the sun gradually starts adding warmer hues to the cold blue palette. Construction of the new River Wear crossing began in May 2015 with the official opening in August 2018. #england #sunderland #winter #sunrise #landscape #photography

A lot of not-arsed-ness about our first round cup exit(s). Our second string should be strong enough to beat Stoke (and Preston’s) second string. We all carp about RLB not using the bench enough, but cup games are where bench players get minutes and grow confidence. Needs sorting next year 🔴⚪️

'Rich must pay for others to go green, says EU environmental pioneer' on.ft.com/421GHwU This chimes with @moreincommonuk.bsky.social research published last year www.moreincommon.org.uk/our-work/res... Rich people fly a lot. The trick is to get them to contribute without squeezing family holidays.

French airlines screaming blue murder about a modest tax hike (mainly on wealthy frequent flyers). I do wonder, if a govt is 100% committed to a new aviation tax, why not go all in? The airlines *always* go bananas. So if you're going to spend political capital, why not get a decent cash return?

Respect 👏

Love the idea of carbon negative food 🥜 www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic... I'd heard hard shelled shellfish, like mussels and oysters, can also be carbon negative. Anyone got the details on that?

Good news klaxon 🎉 In 2024 the UK has... ✅ Phased out coal power 📉 More than halved fossil fuelled power vs 2014 📈 More than doubled renewable power vs 2014 💨 Produced almost as much wind power as gas power - with wind set to overtake gas this year www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uks...

Like most of us here, trying out This Place after drifting away from The Other Place. On The Other Place I had separate profiles for work stuff and personal stuff. Experimenting here with re-combining my personae into one complete whole. Expect climate ramblings interspersed with Mackem rantings.