Seth D. Michaels: it's always important to demand better, but part of the reason that the story of climate policy isn't sticking is partly because bad news feels more plausible and partly because the people most invested in this policy understand its limits. www.notus.org/biden-2024/v... hard to sell "mixed-positive"

it's like turning an aircraft carrier and it's hard to extrapolate from the small shifts in trajectory to the big future results, but the progress is real

I see a lot of "well why aren't emissions dropping faster" and other such complaints, I think it's genuinely very difficult to accept that there's any good news on the climate front for a lot of people after so many years of bad news

it's always important to demand better, but part of the reason that the story of climate policy isn't sticking is partly because bad news feels more plausible and partly because the people most invested in this policy understand its limits. www.notus.org/biden-2024/v... hard to sell "mixed-positive"

Biden’s Record Is Full of Climate Wins — So Why Don’t Voters Know It?www.notus.org Environmental groups are making a concerted effort to educate voters about President Joe Biden’s climate policies ahead of the election.

It’s also filled with too many climate losses at this late hour Seth (and you too @chrislhayes.bsky.social ), and many people have been paying attention…

Which losses are you talking about?

All the fossil fuel giveaways in the IRA etc

We have a paper forthcoming on this…stay tuned for when it’s out of embargo!

Day 1-Day 100 Gaza Israel War total carbon emission = Entire German carbon emission 2022 Biden achievement on climate change directly go to trash as he complicit in genocidal war. prada.substack.com/p/israel-us-...

Israel - US Sophisticated Weaponprada.substack.com even without any outside influence a hospital not working brings so much death, but to see this done willfully. no words for these atrocities

maybe it's because the astounding renewables aren't helping enough?

Fossil fuel use, emissions hit records in 2023, report sayswww.reuters.com Global fossil fuel consumption and energy emissions hit all-time highs in 2023, even as fossil fuels' share of the global energy mix decreased slightly on the year, the industry's Statistical Review of World Energy report said on Thursday.

This is why *trajectory* is important. Emissions today are based on decisions made a long time ago, and if we want lower emissions in the longer term, that means making different decisions now. The positive policy changes in energy aren’t throwing a big switch, they’re setting a future pathway

While lower emissions are good, we also see projections of the AMOC breaking down as early as next year and wildfires becoming larger, more frequent, and the wildfire season lasting longer. It's hard to celebrate small changes now in the face of drastic problems in the near future.

Just to be clear, I totally agree that understanding the trajectory shift is good and should be celebrated. That's just hard to do with much enthusiasm. The ship we're on shifted course a bit to avoid the rocks (good) but we don't know yet if we're still going to hit them because of inertia.

all of this is true, and I concur with both of your points that it’s hard to mobilize people for “steps in the right direction against big odds.” But we’d better figure out how to do it, because that’s the only way to prevent the despair and apathy that will make necessary action impossible.

Personally I think motivating people through outrage is our best bet. Focus on the intransigence of the political class and the obstruction of the fossil fuel industry. If politicians think that it will cost them an election then we may see more significant change.

Tony Seba correctly projected that self interest would be the motivation for the transition to green energy and EV's. His trend analysis has proven to be accurate when it comes to solar and batteries. This self interest applies to individuals, governments, utilities and corporations.

I understand and appreciate the logic but I just fear it didn't come soon enough. I'm certainly no analyst, maybe I'm too pessimistic here, but it's understandable Biden's wins aren't getting the hoopla when our feeds are full of heat waves, wildfires, floods, melting ice caps and other disruptions.

just think it’s important to note that it’s never too late to do *something*. we can’t unfuck the past but the dire situation now means we should do everything we can to unfuck the future, accounting for the damage that’s been done but preventing more. that matters, and “it’s too late” undermines it

I will take that to heart.

Sadly any of these future emissions reductions are completely obliterated by the current increase in emissions driven by Biden's support of the Ukraine and Gaza wars and the large number of new drilling permits that Biden has approved.

Not the End of the World by data scientist Hannah Ritchie is a good read if you want numbers based evidence that things are starting to turn around

The curse of technocratic progress

Maybe it has to do with 113-degree weather starting in early June for Az.🙅

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