Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 7h

'Cory Doctorow returns to This Is Hell! to discuss his new book from Verso, "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It." "Rotten History" from Renaldo Migaldi and "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follow the interview.'
soundcloud.com/this-is-hell...

Enshittification / Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow returns to This Is Hell! to discuss his new book from Verso,

soundcloud.com

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 7h

Never trust pledges

Yale Environment 360 @yalee360.bsky.social · 1d

Despite an international pledge to halt the destruction of forests by 2030, the world continues to lose around 20 million acres a year, an area roughly the size of Ireland.

A new report warns that forests globally "remain in crisis."

The World Is Failing to Slow the Loss of Its Forests

e360.yale.edu

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Politico @politico.com · 21h

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Kalevi Sorsa -säätiö @sorsafoundation.fi · 11h

Julkaisimme tänään uuden raportin Suomen luonnonsuojelun tilasta sekä politiikkasuosituksista tulevalle hallitukselle!

Lue filosofian tohtori @jmkorhonen.fi laatima raportti kokonaisuudessaan verkkosivuiltamme ➡️ sorsafoundation.fi/raportti-luo...

Raportti: Luontokato kiihtyy – suojelu kaipaa sitovaa lainsäädäntöä ja moninkertaisen rahoituksen · Kalevi Sorsa -säätiö

Kalevi Sorsa -säätiön tänään julkaisemassa raportissa tarkastellaan Suomen luonnonsuojelun tilaa. Sen mukaan nykytoimet ovat riittämättömiä kansainvälisten ympäristövelvoitteiden saavuttamiseksi. Rapo...

sorsafoundation.fi

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 2d

this is a nice rendering by @nickevershed.bsky.social but, er, it definitely shows coal power output remaining persistently high even as renewable energy grows, which feels like a problem

www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

a hand-drawn chart showing renewable energy griwing but coal output remaining stagnat for the past three entire years because demand itself has been growing oddly fast

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Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

RadReduction (Larry Edwards) @radreduction.bsky.social · 5d

Just published, in Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences:

"Flight from reality: sustainable aviation, Jet Zero, and the technofix"

Open access:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Screen shot:

Flight from reality: sustainable aviation, Jet Zero, and the
technofix

Gareth Dale, Josh Moos and Alistair Bernal Holmes

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that rising aviation emissions, which are disproportionally driven by the wealthy, pose a serious threat to climate goals. Using the UK’s Jet Zero strategy as a case study, it explores how policymakers and industry promote speculative technologies—efficiency gains, electric and hydrogen aircraft, sustainable aviation fuels, carbon capture, and offsetting—to justify continued aviation growth. We critically assess these claims: electric aircraft are limited to short routes; hydrogen faces major storage and infrastructure barriers, and green hydrogen remains scarce. SAFs, often derived from land-intensive crops, risk deforestation, biodiversity loss, and higher net emissions. Second generation SAFs, such as used cooking oil, are scarce, and power-to-liquid is speculative and prohibitively expensive. Carbon capture is unproven at scale, and offsetting enables airlines to claim reductions without cutting actual emissions. These “solutions” align with a political agenda that prioritises economic growth and airport expansion. We argue that this techno-optimism delays real action. Rather than gambling on future breakthroughs that may never materialise, policymakers should pursue immediate demand-reduction strategies and support a just transition—ending frequent-flyer incentives, shifting short-haul flights to rail, removing aviation fuel subsidies, and retraining workers for low-carbon sectors.

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Constantin Arnscheidt @carnscheidt.bsky.social · 2d

The 2025 Global Tipping Points Report is out today: global-tipping-points.org. Bringing together 160 experts from 23 countries, it provides the latest update on where we stand relative to Earth’s critical climate and ecological thresholds, and on opportunities for transformative mitigation.

Global Tipping Points | understanding risks & their potential impact

Harmful tipping points in the natural world threaten humanity by disrupting life support systems and societal stability.

global-tipping-points.org

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Yale Environment 360 @yalee360.bsky.social · 2d

Scientists say that warming has breached a critical threshold for coral reefs, threatening catastrophic losses in the years ahead.

World Reaches Climate 'Tipping Point,' Imperiling Coral Reefs

e360.yale.edu

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Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 2d

When you see the cold numbers -- 8% cuts in emissions needed per year, every year, from now -- it's clear that even 2° is a fantasy

(Emissions only fell 5% during covid, when much of the world economy shut down)

Kevin Anderson @kevinclimate.bsky.social · 2d

Short comment on 'carbon trading' climateuncensored.com/what-role-fo...

Paris 1.5°C needs >20% cuts in global emissions every year - starting now!
For Paris 2°C, it’s ~8%.
Which country/company/institution can exceed these rates?
Only those that do have any real “emission space” for carbon trading.

What role for carbon trading? - Climate Uncensored

I was recently contacted by a senior civil servant who asked me to provide a short comment on the concept of emissions trading schemes in general, and on the

climateuncensored.com

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Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Nick Cunningham @nickcunningham.bsky.social · 1d

"Exxon and Saudi Basic Industries erected a $7 billion plastics facility. That plant alone on average consumes about 13 million gallons of water a day...That is about 13% of all of Corpus Christi’s water demand in wintertime"
www.wsj.com/us-news/clim...

This Texas Town Is an Energy Powerhouse. It’s Running Out of Water.

A severe drought has Corpus Christi scrambling to meet growing demand from companies like Exxon and Tesla that have invested billions of dollars in the region.

www.wsj.com

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RadReduction (Larry Edwards) @radreduction.bsky.social · 1d

"At the heart of the carbon trading mechanism is the falsehood that green growth, coupled with the politics of business-as-usual, can align with the Paris temperature and equity commitments. This represents a large-scale deception, facilitated by a community of experts … and an acquiescent media."

Kevin Anderson @kevinclimate.bsky.social · 2d

Short comment on 'carbon trading' climateuncensored.com/what-role-fo...

Paris 1.5°C needs >20% cuts in global emissions every year - starting now!
For Paris 2°C, it’s ~8%.
Which country/company/institution can exceed these rates?
Only those that do have any real “emission space” for carbon trading.

What role for carbon trading? - Climate Uncensored

I was recently contacted by a senior civil servant who asked me to provide a short comment on the concept of emissions trading schemes in general, and on the

climateuncensored.com

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Jussi T. Eronen @jussiteronen.bsky.social · 1d

This balanced newspiece/interview about how to prepare _at societal level_ to the future warming, without taking away the hope that we might be able to curb the temperature increase (does not seem likely, but never lose hope and work towards solutions always).

worldcrunch.com/focus/green-...

Global Warming At 3 °C By 2050? What's Behind The New German Climate Warning

German scientists warn global warming is accelerating faster than expected, raising the risk of a 3 °C rise by 2050 and forcing Europe to confront unthinkable adaptation plans. German scientists warn ...

worldcrunch.com

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David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells.bsky.social · 3d

“Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed as the region warms, with new seeps being discovered at an ‘astonishing rate,’ scientists have found.” www.cnn.com/2025/10/10/c...

Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica | CNN

Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate,” raising fears that future global warming predictions may have been und...

www.cnn.com

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 4d

The sun is woke.

An Immense Solar Project Just Got Canceled Under Trump

www.nytimes.com

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Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 6d

NOAA data show Mauna Loa was about to be deluged, but perhaps the US government shutdown has saved it just in time?
robbieandrew.github.io/ppm/

Graph showing: Weekly atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa, in the style of Hokusai.

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Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives @darrencullen.bsky.social · 5d

The desperate vague fluff from AI boosters about how world-changingly useful LLMs could be *one day*, even though they aren't right now, reminds me of Zuckerberg's fever-daydream ads for his VR hat

Meta ad, firefighters in hallway in flames viewed through AR goggles. "With the metaverse, firefighters will one day be equipped to rescue people faster"

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Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 4d

Never trust pledges – unless they pledge BAU

Reuters @reuters.com · 5d

Australia's Queensland reverses policy, pledges to keep using coal power reut.rs/42BhtoJ

Australia's Queensland reverses policy, pledges to keep using coal power

Australia's Queensland state government said on Friday it would run coal power plants at least into the 2040s, reversing a previous plan to pivot rapidly to renewables and in turn making national emissions reduction targets harder to achieve.

reut.rs

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Ebony Bennett @ebonybennett.bsky.social · 5d

This could have been Australia, but thanks to John Howard, Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison, the Minerals Council and the BCA, we wasted nearly 20 years subsidising gas and coal instead. What a waste.

Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 5d

China ≠ just coal plants and solar exports. The deeper shift: electrifying everything it can. Strategic, because China relies on imported fossil fuels. Coal is still king in the power mix—for now. But the balance is changing year by year.

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Saoirse McHugh @saoirsemc.bsky.social · 5d

So bloody useless

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Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 4d

#cardependency

Drivers merge into expressway lanes after passing through the 36-lane Wuzhuang toll station at Chuzhou, in China’s Anhui province, as they make their way back home near the end of an eight-day National Day holiday, on October 7, 2025.

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 7d

Whether it's sincere or bad-faith, it is pretty simply true that AI-mania is providing an easy rhetorical cover for the US government actively worsening the use of fossil fuels

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 7d

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

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Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 6d

Your offsets at "work"

David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells.bsky.social · 6d

“‘We must stop expecting carbon offsetting to work at scale,’ said Stephen Lezak, a researcher at the University of Oxford’s Smith School. ‘We have assessed 25 years of evidence and almost everything up until this point has failed.’” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says

Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions

www.theguardian.com

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Gregor Semieniuk @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social · 6d

🚨NEW PAPER🚨
We all know the 2022 energy price shock fueled the cost of living crisis. It also caused a profit bonanza for the very rich. We show the US reaped the largest profits ($377bn) of any country. 50% went to the richest 1%, only 1% to the bottom 50%. A🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

River or sankey diagram showing the allocation of profits from global oil and gas companies to quantiles of the US wealth size distribution via financial system intermediaries, such as asset managers, and categories of ultimate beneficiaries, such as business owners, pension funds and shareholders in listed companies. The scale is hundreds of billions of US dollars, and ultimately 50.4% of profits reaching the US personal wealth distribution go to the richest 1% of households.

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Mark Hurst @markhurst.bsky.social · 6d

I'll see your creepy robot-hugging pillow and raise you a surveillance tribble.

"Moflin: always by your side." A young woman takes a selfie while holding a furry surveillance device. "Your Smart AI companion: A calming presence. A quiet reassurance."

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