Costa Samaras

@costasamaras.bsky.social

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Climate, energy, emerging tech, & policy professor. Director of the Carnegie Mellon University Institute for Energy Innovation. Former Biden White House OSTP Chief Advisor for the Clean Energy Transition. Personal account. He/Him. costasamaras.com

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A lot of folks who supposedly analyze politics for a living are just like…not good at it?

A blitz is bad by the way. A triple lindy tho, also bad

A much less terrible idea: a Spritz primary, where a bunch of friends hang out on a porch having Aperols and talking

I’m back from Athens where I spoke about getting a zero emissions transport system at the Sustainability Symposium of the Hellenic Institute for Advanced Studies. Household solar hot water heating is very common in Greece. I saw the world’s 1st computer but couldn’t use it to post anything. Cool tho

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Costa Samaras

Check out the Do Something about Climate Change starter pack from @costasamaras.bsky.social ! bsky.app/starter-pack...

Do Something About Climate Change Starter Parkbsky.app Join the conversation

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Hello to all who added me from @costasamaras.bsky.social's climate starter pack! As the founding director of End Climate Silence, I advise policymakers, journalists, corporations, & NGOs on climate communication. I also write a weekly newsletter, and my big climate book is out in the US next week!

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Costa Samaras

Here’s a message: the next four years sets the landscape for the rest of the century for America. Democracy, a livable climate, & justice for all is a path we can choose. Because of the hard work and accomplishments of the 1st term, a better future for all is within sight. Let’s go get it, together.

Which is obviously not future-oriented! But it's a kind of alternate reality future. I do think whatever happens with this period and whether it's Biden or someone else, a vision of what's over the horizon is pretty important and has been a bit absent in this campaign.

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Costa Samaras

Hey folks who added me from @costasamaras.bsky.social’s climate starter pack. I work on solutions to feed 10 billion people by 2050 in ways that are beneficial for people, nature, and climate. This includes changing how we grow food & also changing food consumption patterns. I like data and nuance.

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I will bang this drum forever: in THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE FREE: THE GERMANS, 1933-45 Milton Mayer interviewed 10 ordinary Germans after WW2 to learn how fascism took hold. There was never a moment when everyone woke up:

if you’re waiting for everyone around you to wake up, you’ll wait forever. this is how the people grinding our bones to make their bread WANT you to be. paralyzed, alienated & purposeless

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lol

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Stephen Miller now following Trump's lead and saying he has nothing to do with Project 2025. 1. His organization is on the Project 2025 advisory board. 2. He recorded a video as part of Project 2025 training tools 3. You can see Mandate for Leadership, the Project 2025 publication in the background

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Hi people who added me from @costasamaras.bsky.social’s climate starter pack! I work on decarbonizing power grids, transmission development, & equitable access to clean energy. Up until last week I worked for the state of New Mexico. In August I'll be with Western Resource Advocates, an eNGO.

“Overall storage installations — meaning utility-scale, home, and commercial projects — grew 84 percent in Q1 2024” Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act helped kickstart an energy storage revolution in the US www.canarymedia.com/articles/ene...

Chart: The US battery market is on track for its best year yetwww.canarymedia.com Overall storage installations — meaning utility-scale, home, and commercial projects — grew 84 percent in Q1. Grid battery installations grew even faster.

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Today's #DailyPaper is a banger (no surprise, Irene Monasterolo is on it). Financial firms (*cough not insurance*) like to estimate climate physical risks based on chronic (temp, precip) risks to company headquarters. In this Mexico study: HQ only: 70% underestimate Chronic: 82% underestimate

Asset-level assessment of climate physical risk matters for adaptation finance - Nature Communicationswww.nature.com The authors develop a methodology to quantify climate physical risks, both chronic and acute, on productive assets. Investor losses are underestimated up to 70% when neglecting asset level information...

When you hate EVs and trains and bikes you’ve got Chevron Preference

Tomorrow in NYT Opinion, probably: It used to be frowned upon to stand on the left side of an escalator, until now Should cities still have sewer systems? Why you should hate Mr. Rogers too It’s time to put a highway through Central Park You can’t get a $1 slice anymore because of woke

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Trump said “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it.” But Project 2025 is run by Trump's closest aides, raising concerns about cognitive fitness for a candidate who seems unable to recall those around him. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/troubling-...

Troubling Signs of Cognitive Decline as Trump Struggles to Recognize Closest Aidesdonmoynihan.substack.com "I know nothing about Project 2025" statement triggers new concerns about his fitness to serve

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Reply to

Don Zeko

one of the most dishonest things people in my profession do is pretend as if “the story” and “the narrative” isn’t something they have direct control over

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Costa Samaras

Reply to

Prof. Kevin J. Kircher

The solution to increased car-crash deaths from EV adoption is not "don't switch to EVs," it's smaller, lighter EVs; safer streets, especially for people on foot and active transit; and fewer cars in general -- denser neighborhoods, better infrastructure for active transit and public transit.

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Electric vehicles can save lives by polluting the climate less than fossil-fueled vehicles in most places. Yet EVs are much heavier and accelerate faster, so are more dangerous in crashes. @costasamaras.bsky.social argues that increased car-crash deaths could be on par with lives saved via climate.

Make electric vehicles lighter to maximize climate and safety benefitswww.nature.com Tax heavy cars and shrink batteries to consolidate the gains from electrifying transport. Tax heavy cars and shrink batteries to consolidate the gains from electrifying transport.

I’m not a reporter but I did have a blogroll once, so here’s some follow-ups for the former president that seem important: which parts of Project 2025 do you disagree with? Would you appoint anyone to your admin that is supporting it? How do you feel about the “bloodless if the left allows” comment?

Read this great thread below. We can build a climate community on Bluesky. Here’s a starter pack for folks to follow some people who work on climate. go.bsky.app/Aa1sErQ

Yesterday, I shared this same Canada Day thread on Bluesky, Threads, and X. Here's what I found. 🧵

Do Something About Climate Change Starter Parkbsky.app Join the conversation

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Just like none of the bold investigators backfilling Joe Biden's feeble debate performance with punchy anonymous quotes have ever figured out why Trump was rushed to Walter Reed, claimed he wanted a spur-of-the-moment weekend checkup, and a year later declared that he had NOT had a series of strokes

"Executive Time" fell out of the coverage of Donald Trump in the most incredible way. Nobody writing about his quest to become president again ever mentions the fact that he hated the job when he had it and he couldn't and wouldn't really do it!

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Costa Samaras

🚨My book is online!🚨 "Confronting Climate Coloniality: Decolonizing Pathways for Climate Justice" This was a journey & labor of love to clarify what climate coloniality is & how to decolonize climate justice. Thanks to many for their support! Details below.🧵

Confronting Climate Coloniality: Decolonizing Pathways for Climate Justicewww.routledge.com This timely and urgent collection brings together cutting-edge interdisciplinary scholarship and ideas from around the world to present critical examinations of climate coloniality. Confronting Clim...

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Costa Samaras

we’re in danger

NEWS --> Mark Robinson, the MAGA extremist GOP nominee for governor in North Carolina, appeared to endorse political violence against unnamed foes in a recent speech. "Some folks need killing!" he shouted. "It's a matter of necessity!" Video and story here: newrepublic.com/article/1834...

MAGA Gov Candidate’s Ugly, Hateful Rant: “Some Folks Need Killing!”newrepublic.com Mark Robinson, the GOP nominee for governor in North Carolina, has a long history of incendiary comments. But he may have topped himself this time.

Put this on the front page for a month. It’s that serious and that dangerous.

A second American Revolution, this one aimed at unwinding democracy in favor of a monarchy. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Analysis | The target of the right’s ‘revolution’ is pluralistic democracy itselfwww.washingtonpost.com The president of the Heritage Foundation said, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

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Just to be really explicit about what’s happening here, the cover conflates age, physical disability, and cognitive disability, and goes on to conflate disability with unfitness for office. It’s utter bullshit.

IMO this is a straight-up ageist and ableist image, no?

Seems good, is good

Happy birthday, USA. Learn more abt new investments happening in your community & across the country at invest.gov In the last 3.5 years, companies decided to invest over $875 billion in U.S. semiconductor & electronic manufacturing, clean energy, biotech, & other sectors. But wait there's more...

Two years ago we were on the White House South Lawn for the 4th of July Celebration. I love being on the lawn. I love the fountain. The Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate action in history, would pass a few weeks later. On July 4th next year, let’s pass another Inflation Reduction Act.