I was taught that changes in nitrogen spreading rates shows up quickly in water quality - but this doesn't seem to always be true. A new paper calculates a subsoil persistence time of 30 years (!) for excess nitrates in the Mississippi basin. Yike. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Technical strategies for reducing nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture (pastured + cropped) don't get a lot of airtime in the climate solution space. Here's a roundup I did last year of the options: www.linkedin.com/pulse/abatin...

My gas boiler is the single most temperamental, breakdown-prone piece of kit in my house. I can’t wait to get rid of it just so I don’t have to deal with it - irrespective of its climate impact.

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵) www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

I’m halfway through this and highly recommend so far!

Climate solutions are in weird split, where it's looking more and more likely that electricity generation and road transport will almost fully de-carbonize, but industry and agriculture are looking less likely.

Denmark's biogas strategy takes sustainability seriously by using organic waste streams rather than dedicated crops to supplement cattle slurry. For example, dedicated crops grown for biogas are limited to 5% of input. Ireland's biogas strategy relies on fresh grass input and is NOT sustainable.

A year ago I wrote about 5 startups trying to develop electrochemical/plasma alternatives to SMR/Haber-Bosch for Nitrogen Fertilizer. At the time I noted that a 1500x improvement was likely needed from current performance to be cost competitive. (1/2) www.linkedin.com/pulse/climat...

Climate "solutions" on my worst-dressed list: - Carbon capture and sequestration (including DAC) - Green hydrogen (for heat/fuel) - Regenerative agriculture (as a carbon store) - Fusion power (not scaled & competitive until 2080) - 90%+ of biofuels (ILU emisions)

Carbon capture schemes are being pushed by fossil fuel interests. Why? First, so they can benefit from tax credits and government funding. But mostly to slow down the energy transition and prolong our dependence on fossil fuels. Here are the receipts: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Using AI to help with essay writing results in *actual* brain damage: publichealthpolicyjournal.com/mit-study-fi...

Just read a paper estimating an LCOE of €437 per MWh for a first generation magnetic fusion plants. No, I didn't forget the decimal point. That's staggeringly awful.

I agree that mainstream climate solutions reporting is really quite poor. It takes significant expertise to do critical reporting in this area and few journalists have this. Apart from solar PV and EV's, most climate solutions are under-performing vs. aspirations - some drastically (e.g DAC, CCS)

Just finished "We are eating the earth" by @mikegrunwald.bsky.social. Ambitious and breezy storytelling about agriculture emissions and climate. If you ever wanted to understand land use emissions - this is for you. Overall a great read - highly recommend.

NEW: The first evidence of a solar take-off in Africa☀️✈️ x33 rise in Algeria solar panel imports in the 12 mths to June 2025, compared to previous 12 mths. x8 in Zambia x7 in Botswana x6 in Sudan x3 in each of Liberia, DRC, Benin, Angola, Ethiopia 🧵

90% reduction in ambient methane emissions from a dairy feedlot using photochemical degradation tech - Promising www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

Here's the reports that anti-wind folks don't want you to read. It would be a shame if lots of people read them and reposted them.

Climate report commissioned by the US Department of Energy contains more than 100 false or misleading statements. Great work by @carbonbrief.org interactive.carbonbrief.org/doe-factchec...

NEW from us: Last year, China started construction on an estimated 95 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity, enough to power the entire UK twice over. We explain why China's still building new coal power plants, and when and how it might stop and begin phasing out.

🚨New research out today🚨 We critically examine the use of 'temperature neutrality' or 'no additional warming' as a approach to setting national climate targets, particularly in relation to agricultural methane reduction. We found that using this approach... iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Coordinated Social Media Campaigns From Users in Oil-rich Arabic States Spread Climate Denial Report by @occrp.org #climatecrisis www.occrp.org/en/news/repo...

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has just approved a €500 million loan for Eni's new biorefinery in Livorno. For the self-declared ‘EU climate bank’ this is a very questionable use of public money. 🧵⤵️

Why does Trump hate wind power so much? Because offshore wind is the only viable renewable option for the entire US NorthEast and the whole region currently heavily relies on fossil methane for building heat.

On-the-button piece by @hannahdaly.ie - this crazy HVO bandwagon must be stopped! "HVO is a climate ‘quick fix’ that could be worse than fossil fuels" www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

The goal of the fossil fuel lobby in the US is to make electricity as expensive as possible in order to defend the oil market for cars/trucks and the gas market for industrial and building heat. Expensive electricity is a goal, not an inadvertent side effect.

July's "Irish Grid Monthly" arrives to all our subscribers' inboxes tomorrow afternoon. Sign up to for free today to receive it too! 📩

Spoiler alert - my next column is about HVO. If you squint closely, you’ll see from this data that nearly half of Ireland’s transport biofuels came from used cooking oil (UCO) and palm oil mill effluent (POME), from east Asia, which are widely believed to actually be virgin palm oil.

Enhanced geothermal systems are not chip fabrication plants: they don't need high purity freshwater; they can operate with low quality brackish water & there is lots of that in the American mountain states.

When people say that green hydrogen will never be cheap because there will be no learning curve for its Balance of Plant - it's worth remembering that Solar BoP has reduced by more than half since 2010. Scale, specialization + integration can deliver real cost reduction for "mature" technologes.

As domestic auto and appliance scrap becomes available in China, new steel capacity is switching over to electric arc furnaces in order to match this supply. However, EV bodyframes may switch over to carbon fibre in the next five years, putting long term steel scrap supply in question.

20 year old me "The Butlerian Jihad is obviously dumb. No one would voluntarily destroy such useful technology." 55 year old me "Hmm ..."

Which climate topics are people interested in learning about on LinkedIN? Here is the read/impression rate for my 17 deepdives into climate topics & solutions.

Part 2 of my two-parter on climate droughts, crop drought resistance and why genetic engineering for drought resistance has been a big fat (nearly) zero so far. www.linkedin.com/pulse/crop-e...

🔴 NEW: How Ireland’s ‘Mediocre’ Milk Powder Made it Big in West Africa 📝 @brigitte-whl.bsky.social @phoebecooke.bsky.social @shaunacorr.bsky.social with Beloved John @premiumtimesng.bsky.social 👇 www.desmog.com/2025/07/14/i...

CO2 levels up to ~540ppm lead to increased plant assimilation of CO2 - but that's where it flatlines. That's roughly the CO2 level predicted for 2100 under RCP4.5. (From Gerhart, L.M. and Ward, J.K., 2010. Plant responses to low [CO2] of the past. New Phytologist, 188(3), pp.674-695.)

Part 1 of a 2 part primer on climate drought and crop engineering for drought tolerance www.linkedin.com/pulse/crop-e...

Data from CERES show that from 2001 to 2023, Earth absorbed more energy than any CMIP6 model predicted. Models with ECS < 2.5°C fail to match observed LW & SW trends (LW↓, SW↑). This means future warming may be closer to higher-sensitivity projections. doi.org/10.1126/scie...

I'm skeptical that European capital equipment makers, who excel at making customized, high value-add products at 30% operating margins, will EVER learn how to make commodity electrolyzers at 25% of current cost.

The models disagree about lots of stuff, but they do agree the Mediterranean and its littoral is heading into a world of hurt - and the signal is already very clear.

EU's green aviation fuels mandate will 'drive inflation, achieve nothing and play into the hands of populists'. Couldn't have said it better myself! www.hydrogeninsight.com/transport/eu...

The official report on the blackout in Spain and Portugal was just released. I'll give a quick summary of findings and provide some additional info. TL;DR conventional power plants didn't control the voltage as planned over-voltage caused renewables to turn off as required

Tree Ring reconstruction of European drought history shows that the 2010's were anomalously dry compared to a 400 year background rate. But this seems to be driven by fewer very wet years rather than more really dry years.

So, was Florentine culture all about projecting soft power? A conversation with Ada Palmer paulkrugman.substack.com/p/inventing-...

For all but the most braindead questions - LLM's get things wrong a huge amount of time.

When warnings of Insectageddon were issued a few years ago, there was widespread denial. Less so now. It's devastating. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

My next climate solutions article is a deep dive into the techno-economics of thermal energy storage for industrial heat decarbonization, along with the obstacles it has to navigate. Starups like Rondo, Antora and Redoxblox are doing great technical work here. www.linkedin.com/pulse/therma...

Updated version of my climate solutions impact/maturity market map after finishing some more deep-dives into specific technologies.

One of the problems with the thesis that curtailed renewables + thermal storage = industrial decarbonization is a geographic mismatch. Here is Antora Energy's projection of the geography of low/negative priced electricity (green = good) vs. where the US float glass plants are located.

@hannahdaly.ie Do you have a good read-out or reference on what's happening with the NI grid? The stats look quite poor.

Reading a report on industrial heat decarbonization from 2018, and oh boy, the cost estimates for various energy options are *wildly* different from what we have today.