Wow, just wow. The planet is breaking. Antarctic sea ice extent is the headline for me this morning. There was actually a net *decrease* in ice extent day over day, and it's mid-winter there, peak freeze season. Extent is now 6.4 standard deviations below the 1991-2020 mean.

A perfect diagrammatic representation of The #NewClimateWar ( https://t.co/Zwb8u8scob) courtesy of Zsolt Lengyel (@Climatius_): https://t.co/NWcfgS1c1D

Truly historic

Tim Urban's excellent piece on AI in 2015 left me one conclusion: in a few years, ethics will be the only subject worth teaching. Period. Ezra Klein's column this week makes me think the time has come. https://t.co/nl5paWCWe9 https://t.co/Z1P5WFXLTk

It's 52 degrees and raining here in MA, and the kids have a 'snow day'. School districts need new language for the new-climate era ... 'weather day' could work, or maybe a 'we're all confused day'.

It now feels so nostalgic to own a snow shovel in Boston.

e.g. https://t.co/vZ4FTKfWJ9

Call it trade protectionism if you will, but "made in USA" also feels like climate policy when you consider the lower carbon intensity of things made here vs. most other countries.

This might be controversial but I think it’s okay to uninvite big oil to global climate negotiations after they’ve repeatedly shown that they have no intention whatsoever of winding down production, funding renewables, and staving off human extinction.

Nothing says fall in New England like the fresh cloud of VOCs from a phalanx of leaf blowers.

This is a BFD. This is a turning point in history. And this is the most optimistic I have ever felt about our ability to tackle the climate crisis. President Biden’s pen is ready – let’s get this bill to his desk.

i love a good pun, especially when wrapped in satire ... "I’d recommend some lower core work and/or the adherence to any core values whatsoever."

Been reading more and more takes that climate bill failed because of shifting public opinion: e.g. the NYT "reported" this week (without empirical evidence!) that the public has soured on climate as the economy weakened. Nonsense. A short 🧵 1/ https://t.co/LP1HiH9Zy8

It pisses me off that Manchin killed the climate bill, but I'm just as pissed that we've all been conditioned to act as if the Senate only has 50 members. All it takes is one of the other 50. Hey how about the guy that wrote this ... he can vote, right? https://t.co/NFDdjIMJlF

"Today will no doubt go down as the saddest day in the history of Uvalde. Our hearts are torn and broken." The Uvalde judge who said that just now rightly marks this saddest day for his community. (1/15)

Conclusion: Heat pump tech is cool, but success is about where and how they're installed. Doing it right in an old home is immensely complex and expensive. In our case it will be a multi-year project to get things right. Most folks won't even try w/o major incentives.

9. Home EE. It's clear we have some air sealing and insulation to do. Maybe windows as well. The lower supply temp of a HP makes drafts painfully obvious. But fixing them will be $$$.

8. Carbon. The biggest letdown. Ignoring our 100% RE opt-in, using avg ISO-NE grid emissions our total CO2 was only 18% lower. Spreading system costs over 12 years, we paid $1,467/tonne for these reductions.

7. Cost. All-in energy costs were 33% higher Sept-Apr.

6. Energy consumption. Natural gas use dropped 50%. Electricity use increased 100%. Those are compared to last few years, and adjusted for non-heat energy use.