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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1h

Even in a “pro-natalist” conservative culture, ensuring polluters can profit is more important than knowing whether pollution is contributing to lower fertility rates.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2h

“One of my previously published studies found that for every additional 10 micrograms of particulates per cubic meter of air there was a corresponding 10 percent increase in infertility risk.”

She Found a Link Between Air Pollution and Infertility

www.nytimes.com

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2h

Every well-designed solar project is a sexy billboard for approving more clean energy projects.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 3h

Whatever happened to “be the change you want to see in the world?”

Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 3h

Community benefits should be absolutely about profit sharing, but they should also be about authentic engagement on decisions that impact the built environment and landscapes. Sharing solar with new public spaces and productive land uses accelerates local economic development.

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 4h

V good @business-humanrights.org summary of the current state of benefit sharing in the renewable energy sector

It is really wild how underdeveloped this model is, but there is also a massive amount of opportunity.

www.business-humanrights.org/en/blog/bene...

Benefit sharing in wind and solar projects must become the norm. The Just Transition Work Programme is a unique opportunity - Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

Check out this page via the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre

www.business-humanrights.org

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Reposted by Robert Ferry

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 4h

V good @business-humanrights.org summary of the current state of benefit sharing in the renewable energy sector

It is really wild how underdeveloped this model is, but there is also a massive amount of opportunity.

www.business-humanrights.org/en/blog/bene...

Benefit sharing in wind and solar projects must become the norm. The Just Transition Work Programme is a unique opportunity - Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

Check out this page via the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre

www.business-humanrights.org

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 4h

The laws that govern economies are what lead to durable systemic behavior change in humans. We need a new economic system. It can still be capitalism as long as wealth accumulation is tied to environmental regeneration.

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 8h

We can’t solve climate change without behavioral change. Maybe disruptions like this will force us to consider buying less stuff or shopping at Goodwill, which is one of the changes we need to make).

(This is not an endorsement of anything that the Trump regime is doing)

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 12h

About a month ago, the Trump administration got rid of the de minimis exemption, whereby packages valued under $800 could slide in without import duties. Now there's a backlog as the government can't process all of this paperwork, leading to UPS just destroying packages

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 14h

It is not surprising that the Peace Prize would come to have so confused a legacy. Alfred Nobel did invent dynamite after all. And his family were 19th century pioneers in the colonial extraction of oil. I suppose peace can mean different things depending on your class perspective.

Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

The Nobel peace prize is kind of worthless at this point. Time to pack it in. Maybe convert it into the Nobel Climate Prize for someone who has demonstrably brought down global emissions through their life’s work.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 15h

Where possible truths can be tested through reinforcement learning and real world experimentation, like folding actual proteins, this is super helpful, but for the world’s wicked complex and generational problems that can’t be tested it will never be as helpful.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 15h

Absolutely. I agree. There is a large distinction to be made between purpose-built machine learning algorithms and the models that most people engage with. People go to ChatGPT seeking the truth but there is only a distribution of possible truths there.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 19h

The frogs are the greatest invention of peaceful protest technology since the sit-in.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 21h

“The question of who wins or who loses in Triangle Posting Politics is divorced from material conditions, justice, or the common good.”

sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 23h

I have a theory www.theverge.com/policy/79849...

American politics has devolved into shitposting and aura farming

The Frog is owning the president.

www.theverge.com

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 21h

Don’t forget Looking for Mr Goodbar, which was culturally transformative in the way that Taxi Driver was.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 21h

I’m just talking pure politics. Trump ran on a populist health plan. Insincerely sure. But they wouldn’t need to change *anything* else if they passed some kind of populist health care. The Beautiful Medbed Act? Anyway, they would cut off all Democratic talking points and steal much of their base.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 22h

I was going to add something like, “the fact that they will never do this tells you volumes about their real agenda.”

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 23h

The genius political move right now would be for Republicans to actually deliver on Trump’s campaign promise to give every American quality healthcare. Outflank the Democrats to their populist left by turning concepts of a plan into Medicare for All.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

Don’t worry. I’m sure the Bondi DOJ is on it.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

A democracy could do even better if politics wasn’t distorted by money and power.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

The creators of A.I. models can tailer them through training and tuning to favor certain outcomes over others. We can’t really ever rely on the models to tell us something profoundly novel or help build a better world for us because model responses will always conflict. Which answer do we go with?

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

The problem with probabilistic or stochastic models is that we are subjected to quantum-type coin tosses of outcomes across a distribution curve.

Most tosses are benign. Some might be miraculously aligned with best outcomes for humanity. Others might kill us all. Flip the coin enough times and…?

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

In the U.S. we went with austerity instead.

“The development of China’s ultrahigh-voltage lines was given a push in 2009, during the global financial crisis. The central government approved enormous investments in their construction to create jobs and head off an economic slowdown.”

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

When the sky is dimming in Manhattan, solar panels are still making power in Nevada. When it’s a calm day in Boston the winds are often roaring in Iowa.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

Say it with me now: There is no energy transition without energy transmission.

Imagine if the U.S. could trade MWhs between Phoenix and Chicago or between North Dakota and Miami.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

“In China, the longest ultrahigh-voltage power line stretches
the equivalent of the distance from Idaho to New York City. That’s a single power line. China has 41 others. Each is capable of carrying more electricity than any utility transmission line in the United States.”

How China Powers Its Electric Cars and High-Speed Trains

www.nytimes.com

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

We are entering some very dangerous territory now and I don’t think anyone has a viable solution.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

Don’t feel stupid if you fell for fake video. It can be really hard to tell these days. But we do have to try and be careful with what we share because there’s so much AI video out there.

It’s just the world we live in now.

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