San Diego, #California, #US
A surfer walks by as #starfish cling to a pillar of the Ellen Browning Scripps memorial pier during the king tides which are the year’s most extreme high and low tides.
Photograph: Kevin Carter/Getty Images
…only a business culture that was utterly deluded and paid no attention to global warming being a *cumulative* issue, and hadn’t even tried to make a single ‘renewable’ installation at scale without fossil fuel inputs would look at emissions *increasing* year on year and say
“look folks, we’re decoupling”
…fact is, pursuing notions of profit attached to monetary tokens which externalise the ecology they sit within *is the self-terminating error*.
But power is entirely disinterested in addressing that
“a lot of this [emissions] reduction is dependent on substitution of fossil fuel generation with industrial scale ‘renewable’ power. That substitution gets harder to implement as the easier applications are substituted first, and the harder ones (heavy transport, heavy industry) are likely to slow down future decarbonisation. Moreover, those renewable energy capture systems themselves have a major material footprint, with other dire ecological consequences”
https://mstdn.social/@degrowthuk/115733952836944733
…only a business culture that was utterly deluded and paid no attention to global warming being a *cumulative* issue, and hadn’t even tried to make a single ‘renewable’ installation at scale without fossil fuel inputs would look at emissions *increasing* year on year and say
“look folks, we’re decoupling”
air pollution in the LA basin for days and days, which is not due to special emissions but due to (normal for this time of year) cold foggy air mass trapping the pollution. (usually we're just writing pollution checks we don't plan to have to pay...) so sick of the greasy air and inability to draw a breath
Family on west coast are +10 degrees above average
Family on east coast are +15 degrees below average
@wavesculptor @pvonhellermannn Yes, I think I was marking #ClimateCommunity for myself to come back to and think*, but I’m also a fan of Pauline’s #ClimateDiary. I was involved at the beginning of #compostodon’s life and as a compost nerd I really love to see it.
The *thinking is about what it means to find community in climate concerns, whether and how it helps.
San Diego, #California, #US
A surfer walks by as #starfish cling to a pillar of the Ellen Browning Scripps memorial pier during the king tides which are the year’s most extreme high and low tides.
Photograph: Kevin Carter/Getty Images
84F in late autumn 🥵
18 degrees above average
11 days until winter solstice
5/5
…I said “It’s not about whether paper exams have a higher carbon footprint or not” above for reasons of wanting to fit what followed into a single post.
When it comes to decarbonisation it *is* of course about which mode of examination has lower impact.
But at *this juncture*, it’s kind of not because what we have is a culture that is making essentially no effort at all, that doesn’t take it seriously, that doesn’t want to *examine* any of it.
And we need to fkn *start*
…I have submitted a complaint to the BBC.
It ends with:
“Unfortunately for us, the thermodynamics of pumping billions of tonnes of climate warming gases into the air is not negotiable. Perhaps Today might be more sober on the issues, and become capable of passing an exam in how to sustain the best of what we have in the rest of the 21st Century.”
![Your complaint
What is the programme title?
Today
When was it broadcast?
11/12/2025
How did you watch or listen to the programme?
Actual (live)
Roughly how far into the programme did the issue happen?
07:25am
Select the best category to describe your complaint:
Bias
What is the subject of your complaint?
Being dismissive of decarbonisation concerns
Please enter your complaint:
Emma Barnett interviewed Laura McInerney about the shift to digital exams. Laura’s first contribution began:
“What we find is that teachers do feel there is an inevitable shift towards digital exams, both because of digital skills needs … but also because of environmental concerns. It’s not *minor* to drive around millions of exam papers across the country each year and then drive them to warehouses and so on. So that’s *part* of it…”
Emaa could not wait to butt in with an incredulous tone:
“That can’t be… Is that really a concern? Environmental issues, driving papers around, that’s not really going to change our, sort of, climate issue is it?”
Here’s the problem:
- Decarbonisation is an everything issue. And in the UK a major component of our emissions is from transport, and that has barely diminished since we started telling ourselves we cared about them over 35 years ago.
[description continues in next image]](https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/700/245/286/512/430/original/e6a9a2fa290333d9.png)
4/5
…And here’s my point. It’s not about whether paper exams have a higher carbon footprint or not.
It’s that Emma couldn’t wait to butt in with scorn in her voice. It’s that UK transport emissions have barely diminished since we started telling ourselves that we care about them over 35 years ago. It’s that when teachers tell a survey app that they do care about these issues, their concerns are to be dismissed.
Because as we all know, thermodynamics is famously negotiable :/
5/5
…I said “It’s not about whether paper exams have a higher carbon footprint or not” above for reasons of wanting to fit what followed into a single post.
When it comes to decarbonisation it *is* of course about which mode of examination has lower impact.
But at *this juncture*, it’s kind of not because what we have is a culture that is making essentially no effort at all, that doesn’t take it seriously, that doesn’t want to *examine* any of it.
And we need to fkn *start*
3/5
Laura: “…It’s not *minor* to drive around millions of exam papers across the country each year and then drive them to warehouses and so on. So that’s *part* of it…”
Emma Barnett butts in, with an incredulous tone:
“That can’t be… Is that really a concern? Environmental issues, driving papers around, that’s not really going to change our, sort of, climate issue is it?”
At which point Laura does her best to counter Emma’s derogatory interjection and emphasise that it’s just one aspect…
4/5
…And here’s my point. It’s not about whether paper exams have a higher carbon footprint or not.
It’s that Emma couldn’t wait to butt in with scorn in her voice. It’s that UK transport emissions have barely diminished since we started telling ourselves that we care about them over 35 years ago. It’s that when teachers tell a survey app that they do care about these issues, their concerns are to be dismissed.
Because as we all know, thermodynamics is famously negotiable :/
84F in late autumn 🥵
18 degrees above average
11 days until winter solstice
This afternoon I learned of
The 89 Percent Project.
Not spent much time with it yet. Just sharing it into #climateDiary
…as per fucking usual, there will have been somewhere in excess of 100,000 flights today, and billions of miles driven, and thousands of tonnes of concrete poured, and today… terrifying fires in NSW.
These things are connected
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-07/heatwaves-fire-live-blog-december-6/106110894
…”Why 2024 was a record-breaking year in global aviation history”
Because we’re fucking clueless idiots, that’s why
https://www.aircraftinteriorsinternational.com/industry-opinion/why-2024-was-a-record-breaking-year-in-global-aviation-history.html
It’s the 7th December at 50.8°N in Portsmouth, UK.
I have just gone walking and then running in shorts and a T-shirt and been *plenty warm enough*.
Having dumped an absolute torrent of rain for the umpteenth day running, the 40kmh SW wind coming off the sea is *warm*. In December
…as per fucking usual, there will have been somewhere in excess of 100,000 flights today, and billions of miles driven, and thousands of tonnes of concrete poured, and today… terrifying fires in NSW.
These things are connected
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-07/heatwaves-fire-live-blog-december-6/106110894
It’s the 7th December at 50.8°N in Portsmouth, UK.
I have just gone walking and then running in shorts and a T-shirt and been *plenty warm enough*.
Having dumped an absolute torrent of rain for the umpteenth day running, the 40kmh SW wind coming off the sea is *warm*. In December
A metaphor for future commerce, due to conditions overwhelmingly created by recent historic and present commerce
Not all oil fields are created equal. It’s my ‘layperson’ understanding that some are not even really oil in the beginning of the 20th century sense.
1. Some only produce ‘light’ products of the kind one gets from the top half of a conventional oil distillation column. Some produce gas and liquids that have to be ‘reformed’ into heavier products (expensive).
https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/111126609525069718
2. And some come from fields with productivity that declines really sharply…
…The US is at the nexus of all of this. It’s probably the world’s most oil-addicted economy. And one which has burned most of its own ‘good’ stuff and is increasingly left with the stuff that falls into camps 1 and 2 above.
It has a population that largely has no idea and when things get rough is predisposed to do whatever it takes to get it from somewhere else.
Oh look where the world’s largest proven reserves are: Venezuela
it's so gross out there (air pollution due to temperature inversion) (and, well, air pollution)
https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2025/12/01/air-quality-alert-for-los-angeles-county-until-early-wednesday/
One day, when building £150+ million of seafront defences against climate change, we’ll figure that…
we’re gonna have to do this *without* diesel-powered heavy machinery and countless tonnes of carbon emissions, and we’re not going to get many practice runs at figuring out how.
So let’s do that.
But sadly not in 2025, because we are not remotely serious about the challenge
