Dear
@nytimes
, this isn't a "nuclear winter." The term you're looking for is "climate change." Which you failed to mention *once* in this article.
We don't need bad metaphors. We need factual reporting. Sincerely, Californians.
So grateful for all the men who spent their weekend explaining to me that solar panels are made using minerals from countries around the world. It's not like I wrote my doctoral thesis at MIT on renewable energy or anything!
#stilllearning
#grateful
Hold your children close tonight. Leave some water out for the birds. And make a plan to rip out your gas furnace.
The climate crisis is getting worse, and thanks to Manchin, Congress is one vote short of saving us. We’re going to have to save ourselves.
It took 19 hours. Or maybe 2 years. Or maybe 3 decades, depending on how you count it. But the US Senate has now passed a major climate bill.
It was a compromise. We need to stand with frontline communities against the fossil fuel industry.
But in this moment, I'm celebrating.
I know there's a much bigger vote happening today... But, my department just voted unanimously to give me tenure!
(And yes: it was a political science department... Funny choice to hold this vote on election day... LOL)
We just passed climate legislation through Congress. Something that felt impossible for so long. Every single Democrat just voted YES on climate. What a big day! More to do. But right now, I'm feeling joy.
California's record breaking heatwave is caused by climate change. The solution is clean energy. Claiming that fossil fuels will save us is like saying an alcoholic should keep drinking the morning after a hangover. At some point, you've got to quit to actually solve the problem.
7 billion Alaska snow crabs have disappeared in just 3 years. The population has shrunk by almost 90% -- in just 3 years. There will be no harvest this year.
What caused this massive collapse? Climate change.
We now have a game-changing clean energy and climate package ready to go in the Senate. What's in the "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022?" $369 billion in transformative investments.
Here's one BIG, IMPORTANT climate policy thread...🧵
Tomorrow it's predicted to hit 108 °F (42 °C) in Seattle. The hottest day ever recorded. It's only June.
Less than half the homes have air conditioning.
People are likely to die.
This is the climate crisis. This is why we need the American Jobs Plan. When will Congress act?
This is the deal on clean energy and climate we have been waiting for!
- $369 billion in investments
- Lowers energy bills for Americans
- Cuts carbon pollution by 40%, getting us on track to Biden's goal
For the first time in American history, the Senate has come to agreement on a major climate bill. The votes will happen this weekend.
This happened because the climate movement never stopped pushing. And this is only the beginning. Clean energy is our future!
HUGE NEWS! Another big climate win out of California today. The state just said no more new fossil gas furnaces and hot water heaters can be installed after 2030. This is the FIRST state to do it. Who's next?
Heat pumps for all!!!
Feel like a broken record, but the facts are clear: the infrastructure bill the House passed last night is NOT a climate bill.
We need Congress to pass the Build Back Better Act, NOW. That's the climate bill we need.
Fellow faculty: Just wanted to share what I've done to help students out with the coronavirus in case it inspires you.
- I'm using Zoom to broadcast my lectures
- I'm no longer taking attendance
- I've cancelled sections
- I'm doing course evals early
- I've sent them info on it
Yesterday I was an expert witness at the
@JECDems
hearing in Congress on building electrification.
Here are my opening remarks on why Congress finds itself at a pivotal moment in history. We must act on the climate crisis now!
Climate change heat wave hits the West, knocking gas plants offline from the heat, cutting power to millions? They blame "renewables."
Climate change deep freeze hits Texas, freezing gas plants out, cutting power to millions. They blame "renewables."
Spot a pattern?
Barrett: "I'm certainly not a scientist. I have read things about climate change. I would not say I have firm views on it."
We don’t need a climate denier on the Supreme Court.
The heat waves, the power outages, the fires. The lost homes, the lost lives, the lost trees.
What's happening in California has a name: climate change. It doesn’t have to be this way. A better world is possible.
My latest in
@TheAtlantic
.
Remember that time that climate deniers, funded by the fossil fuel industry, told us climate change wasn't real. And then the media did pretty much no reporting on it for like 30 years? Yeah.
I don't know who needs to hear this, but
@JoeBiden
has the boldest climate plan of any Presidential candidate in American history.
- 100% clean electricity by 2035
- 20% of the federal budget for climate investments
- 40% of investments for frontline communities
If you're looking at the photos from the West Coast and thinking, "wow how terrible for *them*."
Remember: You don't live on a parallel planet. The heat waves? The hurricanes? The drought and flooding? That's climate change. It's happening to you too.
CA has experienced 10,849 lightning strikes in the last 72 hours and WORLD RECORD heat temperatures.
We’re currently battling 367 known fires.
Grateful for our firefighters, first responders, and everyone on the frontlines protecting Californians during this time.
We just had 180 minutes of debate on national policy.
There were zero questions asked about the climate crisis.
Zero.
Do you not understand that our house is on fire,
@nytimes
+
@CNN
? Do you not understand the stakes?
This is complete irresponsibility. Shame on you.
Want to slash almost half a °C of warming? Cut HFC superpollutants.
That's what the Senate just did in ratifying the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. And it was a BIPARTISAN vote! A BIG climate deal worth celebrating. 🎉🌎🌍🌏
Deeply honored to share this news: I was awarded the Plous, the most prestigious honor for a junior faculty at
@ucsantabarbara
.
It gives me hope that public scholarship is no longer punished—it's rewarded. Proud to work at the University of California.
How is the gas vs induction debate the main character on Twitter right now? Did not see that coming.
Hopefully folks will learn a few basic facts:
- gas stoves are bad for your health
- induction is a better technology
It's like cellphones vs landlines. You're leveling up.
In California, fires are raging and a heat wave is causing shortages to the grid.
This is climate change. It's happening now.
The solution is not fossil fuel subsidies. It's rapid deployment of clean energy. When will our policymakers wake up?
There is no "both sides" of climate science. 97% of climate scientists agree that humans are driving global warming.
This is a shameful step backwards and a disaster for public communication on the unfolding climate crisis.
Our new UN Ambassador, Kelly Knight Craft on climate change: “I believe there are scientists on both sides that are accurate....I think that both sides have their own results from their studies, and I appreciate and respect both sides of the science.”
I've been hearing for a few months now (to say nothing of a few decades) that a fusion breakthrough was imminent.
It seems US scientists have finally done it. The importance of this news cannot be overstated.
Peaceful climate protests at the Capitol led by
@sunrisemvmt
and Jane Fonda: Mass arrests, people thrown in jail.
Armed insurrection and attempted coup, where several people die at the Capitol: Trump "Go home. We love you." Selfies with police. Almost no arrests.
Love it when a weird, British 90s celebrity who is notably not an energy expert spreads misinformation about EVs on
@guardian
. Just the best!
Your daily reminder that the fossil fuel economy involves 535x more mining than a clean economy, EVs included.
Manchin says he won't support the climate bill. I'm holding my children and sobbing.
I don't know how Manchin will look his own grandchildren in the eyes tonight. He is condemning them to a broken planet. Shameful doesn't begin to describe it.
The Clean Electricity Performance Program is the most important part of the climate bill when it comes to cutting pollution. We need the CEPP to take on the climate crisis. It's just that simple.
No climate, no deal.
I've been working on climate change for more than 15 years now. And this feeling? It's called hope.
Remember to celebrate the victories along the way. Because we have a long road and more tough fights ahead.
A decade ago, around half of new electricity capacity came from clean sources, globally. Last year, it was 85% clean!
Slowly yet surely, we will stop building all new fossil fuel projects. The issue now is speed! Celebrate progress, and keep pushing for more.
If you've heard crypto is bad for the climate, you don't even know the half of it.
Crypto has has created more climate pollution than ALL electric cars have saved -- EVER. It's literally keeping coal plants open in America.
Tune in to
@degreespod
.
President Biden should block a permit for a pipeline in West Virginia that Senator Manchin really wants to be approved. If Manchin won't do the right thing for the planet, and for his own grandchildren, then that pipeline should be blocked.
To tackle the climate crisis, we need to clean up our energy system over the next 15 years. The narwhal curve shows us the challenge—and the opportunity.
Thrilled to share this video based on my new book, Short Circuiting Policy.
Remember when there was flooding in Germany? Or wait was it China? And I feel like I saw some in Japan? Or maybe India? And I think some people died in flooding in Ghana? And wait didn't London, New York, and Detroit just flood?
The climate crisis is happening now. We must act.
The narrative that Canada will be a "climate winner" has always seemed extremely stupid to me. As I watch the boreal forest burn, I can't help but feel angry about the decades wasted on climate denial, doubt and delay.
Thanks, fossil fuel companies.
Do not let this debate discourage you.
Stay in the climate fight. Wake up tomorrow morning and commit to doing more. Call voters. Give money. Talk to your family.
Everything is on the line.
We can't have a climate denier like David Malpass leading the World Bank. We need the bank to stop lending to fossil fuel projects and start accelerating renewables globally. Malpass is just not up for the task.
Just wait until you hear about all the money in this climate bill that's going to help utilities retire coal plants. There's money for co-ops, munis, and investor-owned utilities. Get excited for cleaner air!
If only there was a way to figure out if personal changes could slash emissions fast. Like, what if we all stayed home for a couple months or something... Would that help?
Turns out the answer is, largely, no. Climate change is an institutional problem.
Proud of the
@latimes
for telling it like it is.
Climate change is happening now. It is, indeed, a disaster. It should be on the cover of all our newspapers. Every. single. day.
"It is now cheaper to save the world than to ruin it. It is cheaper in America to shutdown 75% of our coal plants and replace them with renewables. Customers save money on day one after the coal plants are shutdown." -
@hal_harvey
Hard to believe that just 23 days ago, we were facing yet another failure from the US Senate on climate.
We're now poised to see the Senate pass $369 billion in transformative clean energy and climate investments. It's not perfect. But it sure feels better than 3 weeks ago!
Supreme Court says 50 year old Clean Water Act can't be used to ensure water is clean...
The court is completely illegitimate at this point. As Justice Kagan says, the court has appointed itself: "the national decision maker on environmental policy."
STOP. HYPING. TREES.
"Everyone loves a simple solution, but it is just too tempting to say "let’s plant trees” while we continue to burn fossil fuels. We must not play foolish games with the Earth’s climate: We will all end up paying for it in the end."
I've heard it's "celebrate a woman Dr. day" so here I am in my natural resting state (very excited!!!) getting my doctorate. Getting a PhD is very hard. We should honor it!
I often ask myself: What do we accept today as normal, that will will look back on in the future with horror and regret?
My current answer: plastic. It's everywhere. In our air, in our national forests, in our oceans, in our bodies. This isn't normal.
Congress has closed up for campaign season, and oil prices are falling. This short policymaking window for federal climate action has closed and it may not come again for a decade. We just squeaked it out at the end. Thrilled to see a climate bill signed into law. A good ending.
For my book, I interviewed Texan Republicans, Democrats, oil guys + clean energy pioneers. Texas was once leading in wind energy, with GOP support. Now we get lies, from the Gov on down on renewables. What happened?
Lessons from Short Circuiting Policy 🧵
Since the 1960s, electric utilities understood that burning fossil fuels causes climate change. Rather than face the facts, utilities promoted climate denial over several decades.
My new research with
@EmilyLyWilliams
. THREAD!🧵
The *only* people who have written to me telling me how my article is wrong, has errors, or that I "should die" are men. Likely all of them are white.
Mansplaining and sexism are real. They are exhausting. That is all.
For so many climate researchers, 2020 was a deadline. It felt like it was far in the future, and that we would make progress.
Now that it is here, and we have not even started bending the emissions curve, I am incredibly sad.
In today’s
@nytopinion
Sunday Review, an article blames climate scientists for inaction on climate. While I’m sure the writer and editors had good intentions, this is wildly unfair and problematic. Time for another edition of Stokes does amateur media criticism in a THREAD!🧵
Michael Moore's new climate film is full of misinformation about clean energy and climate activists.
Given the film’s loose relationship to facts, I’m not even sure it should be classified as a documentary.
My latest in
@Vox
.
I remember where I was standing when the Waxman-Markey bill passed the House, but not when it passed the Senate. Because it never did.
We are about to see the Senate pass the first climate legislation in American history! May the next one come sooner, and with less pain.
For almost 50 years, we've talked about quitting fossil fuels. Yet, we're stuck with the same old dirty energy system.
When we look back a decade from now, we may find that 2022 was an inflection point for global climate progress. My latest in
@nytimes
.
Today
@POTUS
took bold steps to support American clean energy manufacturing. He invoked the Defense Production Act, and declared national emergencies based on climate to solve a solar problem.
Want to understand today’s BIG climate policy announcement? A THREAD!🧵...
Dear academics studying deforestation, afforestation, etc. I support your work! It's great.
I don't support politicians pushing tree planting as a climate solution. Particularly in lieu of fossil fuel cuts. This is currently happening. Around the world.
That's all I'm saying.
I dedicate this to every climate activist, Congressional staffer, and WH official who has put off parental leave to work around the clock on climate policy, waiting for Manchin to wake up and recognize what he's doing to his own grandchildren. His legacy is climate destruction.
What's the number one thing individuals can do to fight climate change,
@Trevornoah
asks
@GretaThunberg
. Her brilliant answer: get involved politically! I couldn't agree more.
I'll be striking on Sept 20th. Will you?
The best time to cut carbon emissions was decades ago, but the second-best time is today. With a new administration, we can start tomorrow.
Biden has a climate mandate. My latest in
@BostonGlobe
.
It would be the largest climate investment in America history—4 times bigger than the recovery act. It would bring clean energy jobs to America and lower energy bills for American families.
It would get us 80% of the way to President Biden's climate goal. This is a game changer.
"I'd stop giving federal subsidies to the oil industry."
@JoeBiden
gets it. If we want to have a stable climate, we have to get off of fossil fuels. It's that simple.
Happy New Year! In 2023, I fulfilled my resolution to electrify my home and cut the cord with the gas company! Anyone else setting a resolution to go all electric at home this year? Reply to share!
"What is our mandate? I believe it's this. Americans have called upon us... to marshal the forces of science in the great battles of our time... The battle to save our planet, and get our climate under control." -
@JoeBiden
OUR PRESIDENT HAS A CLIMATE MANDATE
Sat next to a YouTuber on a plane. He said he has 5 million subscribers on his channels. So guess what I did? I told him he should make a video on climate change! Don't know if I convinced him. But hey, I tried. A good reminder to talk about climate change!
I haven't shared this before, but I worked on the climate bill for months from a NICU with very small, very sick newborns. It was hard.
Grateful we passed a climate law. Grateful to everyone who made it happen. Grateful for
@billmckibben
sharing my story.
Huge kudos to the 30 Democrats who just took bold climate action by voting the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP) through the House Energy & Commerce committee!
We cannot afford to cut a dollar of our climate spending in the Build Back Better Act. The costs of inaction on climate will dwarf this $100 billion. The time for bold climate investments is NOW.
Barrett believes that COVID-19 is infectious.
Barrett believes that smoking causes cancer.
But climate change? That’s too “controversial” for her to have an opinion.
My dear, it is a scientific fact. Just the same as the others.
"Every time we have challenges with the grid... people try to weaponize this for their pet project, which is fossil fuels. Our infrastructure cannot handle extreme weather events, which these fossil fuels are ironically causing.”
The last few years of carbon pollution have been so high that we now have to cut our fossil fuel use faster. Scientists have re-run the numbers. We now have to stop all carbon pollution by 2035, not 2050.
Let that fact sink in. Then go buy a heat pump.
There were problems with Twitter, for sure. But also I used this site, alongside a bunch of friends, to organize and help pass a big climate law. And that was kind of beautiful.
So many activists have changed the world by writing these short little poems we call tweets.
Honored to be listed alongside a bunch of way fancier people, including my friend
@DBaird13
, on the TIME Next 100 list. Did a heat pump write this list?
So many great climate leaders here:
@Leahtommi
@Luisamneubauer
@BogoloKenewendo
. That gives me hope!
In Germany, carbon-free nuclear power will close by 2022, while extremely dirty coal plants will stay open until 2038. And many call this country a climate leader.
This is why shutting down safe nuclear plants early is so problematic.
Germany will close its last 3 nuclear plants this weekend. The country still runs on coal.
Shutting down safe, operating nuclear plants, rather than dirty coal plants, is terrible policy -- for human health and for our climate. This is a bad decision.