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Raphael Ofner

@raphael-ofner.bsky.social
1K followers 896 following 141 posts

Studying "Environment and Bio-Resources Management" at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna ● Former Journalist ● Focused on Climate Change and Media || Foto: Jürgen Fuchs

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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Recent research estimates that the aid cuts of the Trump administration will cost millions of lives.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Huge recommendation: Historian @timothysnyder.bsky.social in a remarkable interview in Austrian public television about the first 100 days of the second Trump administration (*English audio version*).
open.spotify.com
Zu Gast: Timothy Snyder, (American historian) / englische Langfassung
ZIB2-Podcast · Episode
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
What a great success story - Must-read, must-share!
washingtonpost.com
Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.
Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Major news from France!
nytimes.com
Le Pen Barred From French Presidential Run After Embezzlement Ruling (Gift Article)
The court decision barred the far-right leader Marine Le Pen from seeking office for five years, jeopardizing her plans for the 2027 election. She can appeal.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
As so often ... clear and easy to understand information on manmade climate change provided by Austrian meteorologist @marcuswadsak.bsky.social. Definitely recommend following!
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
New data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association shows Tesla sales plummeting by almost 50%.
reuters.com
Tesla's February market share in Europe drops despite EV pickup
Tesla's market share in Europe continued to shrink year-on-year in February, data showed on Tuesday, as sales of the all-electric car maker dropped for a second consecutive month despite rising overall EV registrations on the continent.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Land of the free ...
theguardian.com
French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found
France’s research minister said the scientist was traveling to Houston for a conference when his phone was searched
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
A North Dakota jury on Wednesday awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to the Texas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer, which had sued Greenpeace over its role in protests nearly a decade ago against its Dakota Access Pipeline.
nytimes.com
Jury Finds Greenpeace Liable for Hundreds of Millions in Damages (Gift Article)
A lawsuit by pipeline giant Energy Transfer claimed Greenpeace had played a major, costly role in protests nearly a decade ago. Greenpeace has said a loss could put it out of business.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
9 out of 10 cars sold in Norway are electric. Copenhagen in Denmark has become one of THE biking cities worldwide. Skandinavia as a whole leads in heat pump installations (thanks for sharing @janrosenow.bsky.social). The northern countries of Europe show: There is no excuse for climate inaction.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
The United States recorded $315 billion in clean energy investments last year. About 80 percent of the investments tied to the "Inflation Reduction Act", the key climate bill of the Biden administration, have gone to Republican congressional districts. Climate and economy CAN go hand in hand.
nytimes.com
The Republicans Pushing Trump to Save Biden’s Clean Energy Tax Credits (Gift Article)
Despite President Trump’s rollback of climate policy, some Republicans and business leaders say clean energy can help his “energy dominance” agenda.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
The richest man on earth taking food and medicine from the poorest of the poor: "When you meet those dying children and look into their eyes and hold their hands and feel faint heartbeats flutter, you can’t bear the gleeful laughter. You see children just like your own and hang your head in shame."
nytimes.com
Opinion | Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True. (Gift Article)
A journey through the front lines of global poverty shows that when the world’s richest men slash aid for the world’s poorest children, the result is sickness, starvation and death.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Remarkable climate news from Germany! Conservatives (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD) agreed in principle with the Green Party on plans for a massive increase in state borrowing for infrastructure and military. The Greens secured a €100 billion fund for climate and economic transformation.
dw.com
Germany: Parties agree on historic debt deal – DW – 03/14/2025
The CDU/CSU bloc and the SPD have reached an agreement with the Greens on a massive increase in government borrowing.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright gave a remarkable speech these days. Not that his unreflected pro-fossil-fuels standpoint was in any way surprising (Wright is a fracking magnate). But telling ... as even he admitted: “We have indeed raised global atmospheric CO2 concentration by 50 percent..."
nytimes.com
U.S. Energy Secretary Pledges to Reverse Focus on Climate Change (Gift Article)
To applause from oil and gas executives, Chris Wright said natural gas was preferable to renewable energy and climate change was a “side effect of building the modern world.”
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
I have always been an advocate for publicly funded broadcasters like the BBC in the UK or the ORF in Austria. This excellent interview of ORF anchorman @arminwolf.at with virologist @cdrosten.bsky.social reminds me why.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
“The climate crisis that is coming our way is not just about polar bears, and it’s not just about green jobs. It actually is coming through your mail slot, in the form of insurance cancellations, insurance nonrenewals and dramatic increases in insurance costs.” Great reporting from the @nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen (Gift Article)
Without insurance, it’s impossible to get a mortgage; without a mortgage, most Americans can’t buy a home.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
AUSTRIA DISPATCH 🇦🇹 On Monday, a new coalition government will be inaugurated in Austria - consisting of Conservatives, Social Democrats and Liberals. What might be interesting for international readers? - The government was formed after talks with the far-right Freedom Party had failed.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Friendly reminder because it is more important than ever: A 2021 survey of 90.000 (!) peer-reviewed articles found more than 99 percent agreement on human-caused climate change.
theguardian.com
‘Case closed’: 99.9% of scientists agree climate emergency caused by humans
Trawl of 90,000 studies finds consensus, leading to call for Facebook and Twitter to curb disinformation
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Sometimes, I wonder what people will think in 50 or 100 years when they take a look into a news archive or a history book ...
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Being a citizen of Austria, the birthplace of Adolf Hitler, and having personally talked to survivors of the Nazi regime, I must emplore you: Stand up against this madness or it might be too late!
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
A little reminder for everyone who says, "It takes more time to prove or disprove manmade climate change". The greenhouse effect has been experimentally observed ... ... BEFORE the US Civil War began ... BEFORE Darwin’s Origin of Species was published ... BEFORE Charles Dickens died
aps.org
Physics History August 1856
Well over a century later, female historians rediscovered Foote’s work — and were themselves overshadowed.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
BREAKING NEWS: The negotiations of the Conservatives and the right-wing Freedom Party to form a coalition government in Austria have FAILED. Plans to role back climate legislation and to end independent funding of the public broadcaster ORF are halted for now. © C.Stadler/Bwag
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
The "Heartland Institute", a lobbying organization infamous for denying the overwhelming scientific consensus on manmade climate change, is getting a foothold in Europe - aided by Austrian politicians.
theguardian.com
Revealed: US climate denial group working with European far-right parties
Representatives of Heartland Institute linking up with MEPs to campaign against environmental policies
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
@nytimes.com climate alert: E.P.A. Tells More Than 1,000 They Could Be Fired ‘Immediately’ www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/c...
nytimes.com
Over 1,000 EPA Workers on Climate Change and More Could Be Fired ‘Immediately’ (Gift Article)
A spokeswoman for Lee Zeldin, the new head of the agency, said the goal was to create an “effective and efficient” federal work force.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
In the negotiations to form a coalition government in Austria, the right-wing Freedom party pushes to end public funding for the public broadcaster ORF (the Austrian equivalent to the BBC) and make it depend on the goodwill of the government. This petition aims to stop these dangerous plans:
unser-orf.at
Unser ORF - unsere Demokratie
Jetzt Petition unterzeichnen und Verhandler:innen kontaktieren!
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
In just one year (2024), China has newly installed more solar power capacity than the entire existing solar power capacity of the United States.
reuters.com
China's solar, wind power installed capacity soars in 2024
China's installed capacity of solar power and wind power climbed by 45.2% and 18%, respectively, in 2024, the National Energy Administration said on Tuesday, as the country seeks to ramp up renewable energy use and upgrade its power system.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
The Austrian right-wing Freedom Party (who is currently negotiating a coalition government with the Conservatives) is pushing to defund the public broadcaster ORF, the Austrian equivalent to the BBC. Journalists are asking politicians and civil society to stop the "destruction of the ORF":
ots.at
Die Zerstörung des ORF beginnt
Aus parteipolitischer Taktik will die FPÖ den öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunk ruinieren. Mit dem Ziel: Partei-Propaganda statt unabhängiger Berichterstattung.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
“Homeowners’ insurance is where many Americans are now feeling the financial effect of climate change directly, in their pocketbook. Nature doesn’t really care whether people are living in a blue state or a red state or another state, or whether you do or don’t believe in climate change.”
nytimes.com
More Americans, Risking Ruin, Drop Their Home Insurance (Gift Article)
As climate threats worsen, they are skipping payments and losing protection.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
@derstandard.at is a major source of climate information in Austria. Now a top member of the right-wing Freedom Party (which is currently negotiating a coalition government with the Conservatives) threatened to end press subsidies for the newspaper - because of unwelcome (but factbased) reporting.
vienna.at
Association of Editors-in-Chief Warns of Threat to Press Freedom
In light of recent incidents, the Association of Editors-in-Chief sees press freedom in Austria at risk.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
A must-read and a great source for data and quotes from the @nytimes.com:
nytimes.com
‘We’re in a New Era’: How Climate Change Is Supercharging Disasters (Gift Article)
Extreme weather events — deadly heat waves, floods, fires and hurricanes — are the consequences of a warming planet, scientists say.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Recently, Elon Musk said only the far-right political party AFD could "save Germany". Today, their frontrunner Alice Weidel pledged to tear down all windmills in Germany if her party should succeed in the Parliamentary Elections on February 23. She called them "windmills of shame". No joke ...
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
(1/2) Dear fellow supporters of a fact-based society! A wave of (climate) misinformation has swept over social media in connection with the horrific wildfires in Los Angeles. My question to all of you: Do you suggest ignoring these false claims (to not further create traffic on these pages or ...
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
These days, my thoughts are with all the people in California who are in grave danger because of massive wildfires! But much more than "Thoughts & Prayers" they (and we all) need "Mitigation & Adaption" to address climate change and its most disastrous effects.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
“We put a little sticker on wherever we spend the money. It says ‘Brought to you by the Climate Commitment Act.’” Thought-provoking article on the difficulties of climate communication - and how approval for pricing greenhouse gas emissions was secured in the state of Washington:
time.com
It Might Be Time To Find a New Way to Talk About Climate
Why did the Biden Administration's major climate wins fail to translate into a positive campaign talking point? It might be the messaging.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
"One day, we will tell our grandchildren that there were vehicles in which we injected a mixture of gasoline and air, ignited it, and made it bang. They will listen to us in disbelief." Great piece on the electrification of city busses and how it is aided by EU policies:
derstandard.at
Wie eine Firma in Wiener Neudorf vom Trend zum E-Bus profitiert
Von Österreich aus wirkt TSA an der globalen Elektrifizierung der Stadtbusse mit. In Europas Metropolen werde der Dieselbus zum Auslaufmodell, sagen Experten
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
"It may be possible to deny global warming, but it is impossible to deny the positive (side) effects of measures against climate change" That is the message of this great article from the Austrian newspaper @derstandard.at (by @dernaro.bsky.social and colleagues). *in German, but worth translating
derstandard.at
Erderwärmung lässt sich leugnen, aber nicht die Vorteile von Klimaschutz
Egal ob man die menschengemachte Erderwärmung anerkennt oder nicht – Klimaschutz macht auch sonst auf vielen Ebenen Sinn. Wirtschaft, Geldbörse und Gesundheit profitieren
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
"Build it and they will come" is not just a quote from a legendary Kevin-Costner-movie but also the stunningly successful approach of the city of Copenhagen towards biking infrastructure. What an inspiring story!!
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
The idea of natural gas as a "remotely green bridge technology" on the way to a carbon-free economy is more and more crushed by mounting research.
theguardian.com
Exported gas produces far worse emissions than coal, major study finds
Research challenges idea that sending liquefied natural gas around the world is cleaner alternative to burning coal
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
A: "Measures against climate change are so expensive" Texas house insurance prices after natural disasters increase in quantity/intensity because of climate change: "Hold my beer" (Shoutout to the @houstonchronicle.com for the great reporting!)
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Nick Hedley @nickhedley.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Small patches of urban wildflowers boost bee populations and biodiversity, study shows theprogressplaybook.com/2024/11/26/s...
theprogressplaybook.com
Small patches of urban wildflowers boost bee populations and biodiversity, study shows
A cultivated small urban meadow has "a similar value for pollinators as larger areas of natural meadow," the researchers found.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Fighting polarization and misinformation is insanely tough, but one approach: We can never get tired of demanding from others and OURSELVES to differentiate between opinion and fact. Tariffs against half of the world - bad idea maybe, but a legitimate opinion China made up climate change - a lie
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Sometimes, journalism can be just excellent at bringing you an overview of a topic - what a visually appealing and informative piece from @zhonggg.bsky.social and @rjnskl.bsky.social for the @nytimes.com:
nytimes.com
How Close Are the Planet’s Climate Tipping Points? (Gift Article)
Earth’s warming could trigger sweeping changes in the natural world that would be hard, if not impossible, to reverse.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
As many studies have shown, fighting against and adopting to man-made global warming will not be successful without change. But change is often an amazing opportunity to create something better anyway ...
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Justin Mikulka @justinmikulka.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
A good reminder of what is possible. China had a goal of 1,200GW of renewable electricity generation capacity by 2030. They will pass that this year and are expected to hit 3,000 GW by 2030.
IEA chart showing with forecasts for renewable electricity capacity by country with China dominating the global market with over 1000 GW at the end of 2023.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Great post from meteorologist @marcuswadsak.bsky.social. Climate change deniers have repeatedly claimed that there is no rise in temperatures, just more (heated up) concrete near weather stations. Data from the "Sonnlick"-weather station (located high up in the Austrian Alps) disproves the claim.
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Raphael Satter @raphae.li · 27/11/2024
This is a story a lot of reporters have been chasing: Starting in 2015, a massive cyberespionage campaign targeted some of America's most prominent environmentalists. Now, we can reveal that the FBI has been probing whether a longtime Exxon lobbyist was involved. www.reuters.com/business/ene...
reuters.com
Exclusive: Exxon lobbyist investigated over hack-and-leak of environmentalist emails, sources say
The FBI has been investigating a longtime Exxon Mobil consultant over the contractor's alleged role in a hack-and-leak operation that targeted hundreds of the oil company’s biggest critics, according to three people familiar with the matter.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
If somebody calls science-based worries about the effects of climate change "fearmongering" again, maybe those before-and-after-pics might come in handy ... Thanks @fisherdanar.bsky.social for sharing another great piece from @theguardian.com!
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Dr. Jeff Masters @drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
“Compared with areas with no wetlands, wetland areas can reduce surface runoff by 15 to 30% and enhance soil retention by 30 to 50%, thereby decreasing flood peak levels by 10 to 25% and lowering the risk of mountain floods and debris flows.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Small wetlands: Critical to flood management
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Pr Carlos Moreno - IAE Paris1 Sorbonne University @carlosmorenofr.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
The NY Times has published a fascinating article "How China become the world's largest car exporter"? The growth curve is impressive. The question of our lifestyles remains at the heart of it What kind of city do we want to live in? Car-centric? Human-centred? 🚘 | 🚴🏼‍♀️🧍🧍🏻‍♀️ www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
How China Became the World’s Largest Car Exporter
Tariffs from the United States and other countries are unlikely to stop China’s auto export dominance.
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Raphael Ofner @raphael-ofner.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Man-made climate change is much more than just a matter of natural sciences. It's also a question of social justice. Thank you @andrewlfanning.bsky.social for this important post:
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Joseph D. Ortiz @earthsciinfo.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
News for the record books: US installed 32GW of solar PV in 2024. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨🔋 electrek.co/2024/11/29/2...
electrek.co
2024 to be a record year for US solar with 32 GW of installations
The US is on track for another record-breaking year for solar, with over 32 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale installations expected in 2024.
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