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Roger Aines

@rogeraines.bsky.social
1.2K followers 476 following 340 posts

Carbon removal, photography, science communication. Check out the book Championing Science by Amy Aines and me. Most of my birds live in Livermore, California.

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Reposted by Roger Aines
Julian Wettengel @wettengel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Energy system plans increasingly use #biomethane for gaps #renewables don't (yet) fill; from heating & transport to industry Germany's @jochenflasbarth.bsky.social says "Of course, biomethane has its place, but it won’t be enough to act as a cure-all; the medicine cabinet is empty." Photo:HB/Gust
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Søren Have @sorenhave.dk · 29/09/2026
Exactly. Here's a summary of how we got there. bsky.app/profile/sore...
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It is stunningly valuable to observe what has happened, and what the results of actions turn out to be. Even more the results of inaction. Good job Josh, Emily, and Mijin.
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Holy cow, absolutely amazing. No one in climate space deserves this more. Nor can I think of anyone who will put it to better use. Holly is deeply thoughtful, accepting, brilliant, a great writer and a compelling speaker. She is a true climate hero: brave, unflinching, and unassuming.
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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Electricity is 23% of global final energy but delivers 37% of useful energy and powers 46% of the global economy. We don't need to replace every fossil joule. We need to replace the services. A much smaller task. Great to see the @iea.org’s new Electrification report finally measure this.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 25/09/2026
One grim conclusion I take from every Climate Week I've attended is that the core old-school "climate communicators" have not updated their priors or their approach in decades, despite everything that's happened, and still, on a deep fundamental level, do not understand conservatives.
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Once again the red shouldered hawk hopes that by standing on my bird feeder, lunch will fly into his mouth. It is a common misconception. 🪶
A large hawk stands on the curved metal support of a bird feeder.
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Paul Ford @ftrain.com · 16/09/2026
hey I heard you like sankey diagrams that show huge populations making terrible decisions
A very complicated Sankey diagram showing the usage of electricity in the United States. Or the left are sources of energy and on the right are consumers, so, for example, nuclear is on the left and residential is on the right. Petroleum dominates.
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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Facts worth repeating: It would be cheaper to pay the ~40,000 or so people employed by the coal industry $1M a year to do nothing than to pay for the health damages (not including climate change) caused by burning coal in the U.S. publichealth.hsc.wvu.edu/news/story?h...
publichealth.hsc.wvu.edu
Counting up the costs of coal
Regular readers know that WVU’s Dr. Michael Hendryx has done work on that issue (subscription required), reporting that:
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Looking for encouraging reading? Great Mazzucato book just out. The Common Good Economy lays out why shared goals are vital, and how we can use our existing systems to achieve them. "A moral compass allows us to set the direction we want our economy to sail in." @mazzucatom.bsky.social
Cover of the book "The Common Good Economy" by Mariana Mazzucato. The two Os in Good are intertwined, evoking the idea of working tighter.
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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
@noupside.bsky.social makes a great point here about the ineffectiveness of stodgy message discipline and the tendency to think of social media not as a casual free-flowing conversation but as one-way mass broadcasting. You end up talking at people rather than to people.
theunpopulist.net
Liberals Need to Loosen Up to Play the Social Media Game Against Authoritarians: A Conversation with Renée DiResta
Their need to stay on message makes them less effective communicators
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Mike MacFerrin @icesheetmike.myatproto.social · 03/09/2026
Just a reminder that if voting didn’t matter, they wouldn’t go to such lengths to prevent you from doing it.
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Justin Gerdes @justingerdes.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
"In a development first reported by Bloomberg, the new [Chinese government] plan ... last week confirmed a new target for EVs and hybrids to reach a 70% market share for passenger cars by 2030." www.businessgreen.com/news/4535653... via @james-bg.bsky.social 🔌💡
businessgreen.com
China sets target for electrified vehicles to hit 70 per cent market share 2030
New goal for passenger car sales set to deal further blow to projected oil demand
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Ida B Wells' Winchester Rifle @dytsras.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I just saw this commercial on SNF, and I aint gon lie, it had my full attention. Wasnt expecting that
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Justin Gerdes @justingerdes.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Weekend reading: I spoke with California Forward CEO Kate Gordon (@katenrg.bsky.social) about overcoming "anywhere but California" to build clean energy infrastructure in the Golden State: www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/solving-the-... via @quittingcarbon.bsky.social 🔌💡
quittingcarbonmedia.com
Solving the Golden State's "anywhere but California" problem for clean energy manufacturing
In a conversation with Quitting Carbon, California Forward CEO Kate Gordon talks about building a durable green industrial policy in the Golden State.
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Justin Gerdes @justingerdes.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
BloombergNEF: Co-located solar and storage investment hit a record in the first half of 2026. "Investors flee revenue uncertainty as assets co-located with storage boom." about.bnef.com/insights/cle... 🔌💡
Graphic showing global renewable energy investment by sector (e.g. utility-scale solar, onshore wind, etc.) from 1H 2019 through 1H 2026. Source: BloombergNEF.
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I'm trying to understand how wealth and the money to fix climate change mesh with all the other things we want in the future. Where did our attitudes come from? Part I of wealth as a requisite for the future we want is up on Substack now. rogeraines.substack.com/p/wealthits-...
rogeraines.substack.com
Wealth—It’s About More Than Money
Where did our fixation with wealth come from?
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
It’s WHAT we eat (beef especially) that matters for climate. Not so much WHERE it is grown.
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
If you privatise the profits from fossil fuels, you can’t keep socialising the costs of the damage. Those who’ve profited should pay their fair share of the impacts. That’s why Spain’s push for an EU oil and gas tax to help fund climate adaptation is worth supporting. www.ft.com/content/86da...
ft.com
Spain pushes for EU oil and gas tax to pay for climate change response
Rising extreme weather costs fuel campaign ahead of new resilience strategy
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This red shouldered hawk 🪶 is a regular visitor to our bird feeder this fall. May be he hopes a finch will fly into his mouth? I should record continuously in case it does!
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Our new red shouldered hawk is a regular afternoon visitor to the bird feeder. This could be just a nice perch, or it could be him assuming that lunch in the form of a finch is going to fly into his mouth. Maybe I should record continuously in case it does.
A red shouldered hawk sitting on the metal support of a large bird feeder, in front of several manzanita bushes.
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Amy W. Ando @awando.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
What a cool video
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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
www.esgtoday.com/maersk-pilot... I'm a sucker for "What if we just put sails (or rotors that act like sails) back on the ships?" Obviously not a complete decarb solution...
esgtoday.com
Maersk Pilots Wind Sail to Cut Container Ship Fuel and Emissions - ESG Today
Shipping giant A.P. Moller – Maersk (Maersk) announced that it has signed an agreement with Anemoi Marine Technologies for the first-ever wind-powered Rotor Sail installation on a container vessel, su...
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Joe Deely @jdeely.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
This is a really big deal! Fervo now has 1,064 MW under contract - most of which comes online by 2028. Google has an option for another 600 MW by 2030. If the 1.1GW operates at an 85% CF this = 8 TWh of annual generation. Total US geothermal generation was 16 TWh in 2025. #energysky
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 01/09/2026
The emissions scenarios underlying the next generation of climate model runs that will be featured in the upcoming IPCC 7th Assessment Report are officially out! I have a big new explainer over at Carbon Brief taking an in-depth look at what they mean and whats changed: www.carbonbrief.org/...
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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
In low-Earth orbit, more than 34,000 satellites and pieces of debris zip around at 17,500 miles per hour or more, circling the globe every 90 to 120 minutes. Chance of catastrophic collisions are sky rocketing. www.wsj.com/science/spac...
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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Paid political influencers are highly effective propagandists. Which is why Pete Hegseth is paying them to manipulate other Americans in state-funded, prev undisclosed influence ops. Gift link: wapo.st/4x0p3pf
wapo.st
Pentagon secretly installs military influencers in civilian roles
Conservative veterans with large social media followings have been hired by the Defense Department and are amplifying Pete Hegseth’s culture-war fights.
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Dr Paul Dorfman @drpauldorfman.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Domestic cats kill at least 400 to 2,000 times more birds than wind turbines — between 100 and 200 million in Germany, to be exact. Wind farms pose a threat to only 0.05% of the total population of avians. www.bgr.com/2243676/wind...
bgr.com
Wind Turbines Cause Fewer Bird Deaths Each Year Than This Common Culprit - BGR
Critics cite bird deaths as a major problem with wind power, but they often omit a comparison that changes the scale of the issue.
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
🪶 This is the fluffiest Red Shouldered hawk I have seen. Late in the day but still warm, he was checking out our yard and pond. We get a Cooper's hawk in this tree often, but this is the first Red Shouldered we've seen here.
A red shouldered hawk sits on a tree branch, looking right at the photographer. His feathers are extremely puffed up, with white bands running across his chest of dark tan (reddish) feathers.A red shouldered hawk sits on a tree branch, looking intently down and to the right as if checking out prey. His feathers are extremely puffed up, with white bands running across his chest of dark tan (reddish) feathers.
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
My home valley, Livermore CA, this morning. I can't complain. Went birding in the high hills early this morning but only saw coyotes. Posting this as "bird backdrop minus birds". 🪶
A long view of a valley with some low clouds in the distance. This is the Livermore Valley in California. In the foreground right is a California Buckeye tree, which has no leaves in summer. The peak to the far left in the distance is Mt. Diablo.A valley with some morning haze. In the foreground are oak trees, middle ground is a golf course, and in the far distance more cloudy hills. The far distance is the Altamont Pass. The valley is the Arroyo Del Valle just south of Livermore, CA. Photo taken from the hills above Veteran's Park.
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
This is a great way to synthesize complicated emissions data. My message from this is that clean electrification is still the most important part of a future we want - it affects everything but food and land use. But no one can affect everything. Focus your efforts, and share your successes.
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Ed Maibach @maibached.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
That is what I say too: Every 1/10th degree of warming prevented is a profound gift to our children & grandchildren, & their children & grandchildren. And we, humans, have already averted many 1/10th degrees of warming from the likely outcome. @docsforclimate.bsky.social @gchalliance.bsky.social
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 23/08/2026
I've heard thousands of climate denial arguments over the last few decades. But do you know they all fall into one of 5 categories? 1. It's not real 2. It's not us 3. It's not bad 4. We can't fix it 5. You can't trust the info/experts Source: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A classification tree showing the breakdown of climate denial arguments.
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Chris Bataille @chrisbataille.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This is huge disappointment for Canadian climate policy. If there’s one sector that will need CCS in the medium to long-term it’s limestone calcination (eg for cement). And it’s not an issue of technology but of cost and policy certainty. carbonherald.com/weak-carbon-...
carbonherald.com
Weak Carbon Pricing Halts Heidelberg $1.36B Edmonton Carbon Capture Facility
Heidelberg Materials has put its $1.36 billion carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) project in northwest Edmonton on hold.
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
substack.com/@leahstokes/... I am absolutely thrilled that Leah has written this! What a great analogy. Be the wave.
substack.com
Leah Stokes (@leahstokes)
Fossil fuel companies spent over $100 million a year selling us all on the "carbon footprint" idea. No wonder this shoddy framework is everywhere. Let's replace it, with a new model for collective ac...
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Ken Caldeira @kencaldeira.com · 19/08/2026
We have a new web page up with links to our corpus of work. ciunit.org/publications...
Improving human welfare
Conceptual Investigations Unit
The Conceptual Investigations Unit is a research consortium, coordinated by Ken Caldeira, developing information and conceptual frameworks that can broadly contribute to improving human welfare while protecting natural ecosystems.

We perform quantitative calculations to reach qualitative conclusions.

https://ciunit.org/index.html
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Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 13/08/2026
Attention documentary filmmakers! We want to see your view of our climate future. Submit your short film to our Bloomberg Green Docs competition. >> Grand prize: $25,000 >> Deadline: October 2, 2026 >> Official rules: bloom.bg/4ntdLqe
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Helen Whistberry @whistberry.northsky.social · 13/08/2026
I am once again asking folks who post images of wall to wall tiny text to include alt text. I am not squinting my old eyes to try and make out whatever you're sharing. Most image programs allow you to copy and paste from the image. Be the thoughtful and kind you want to see in the world 💜
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Dan Gearino @dangearino.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Rendered by the inimitable @cooljerk.bsky.social, here are all the new power plants that went online in the first half of the year, by state. Wow, Texas! That's a shit ton of batteries. Here's the accompanying story: insideclimatenews.org/news/1308202...
A chart showing Texas leading the country in new power plant capacity in the first half of 2026, followed by New Mexico, Arizona and others.
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Too often communities are only seen as a hurdle to change, but whether they are a town, a club, a church, or an outlook on life they are both vital to the future we want and a necessary path to that future. They own a critical aspect of the future: time. rogeraines.substack.com/p/the-value-...
rogeraines.substack.com
The Value of Community
Communities are both vital to the future we want and a necessary path to that future, whether they are a town, a club, a church, or an outlook on life.
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Outside my office window just now, a fawn looking for her mother. I love our neighborhood deer. This is at least partly due to the fact that my native plants are relatively immune to serious damage from them. The neighbors roses are not so lucky. #nature
A fawn looks down the street for her mother.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
We wrote a review paper about bubbles in the ocean, and then the lead author wrote a summary about the paper. Give it a read if you want to know how bubbles affect the exchange of gases between the atmosphere and the ocean. 🌊🧪
eos.org
How Bubbles Reshape Air-Sea Gas Exchange - Eos
Bubbles produced by breaking waves provide an important but often overlooked pathway for exchanging carbon dioxide, oxygen, and other gases between the ocean and atmosphere.
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Tom Kimmerer, PhD @tomkimmerer.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
In a seminar when I was a grad student, the lecturer said "When digging for potatoes, it is not so important to dig like hell as it is to dig where the potatoes are." That has been the guiding principle of my work in science ever since. It is written on the first page of each of my notebooks.
People digging for potatoes in a field.
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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
“AI will not take your job. Someone using AI will take your job.”⁣ ⁣ That’s the mindset workers should have as AI changes the workplace: don’t try to outrun the technology. Learn how to use it.⁣ ⁣ newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/…
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
How did the enemies of climate action turn the safety argument around? How could renewables and progress be less safe? It is an old playbook of authoritarians. Our deep-seated (real!) fears are easy to activate with lies. open.substack.com/pub/rogerain...
open.substack.com
Our Future Needs to Be Safe
I have suggested that there are four major requisites for a future we want: safety, community, wealth, and joy. Safety is the oldest and perhaps most pernicious of those four, easy to manipulate and i...
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
A beautiful walk this morning along the creek in Sycamore Grove park. This is about 1 mile from my house, and gives me a lot of peace. I was too late for birds though. #nature #birds
A quiet pool of water with trees reflected in the water.
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
This egret comes to my little pond in mid summer when the local stream runs dry (reservoir fed). It eats my planted native fish. I've never had anything so beautiful in my yard. I'll get more fish. #birds #nature
A Great White Egret waiting in a shallow pond for a fish to appear. The bird is reflected in the water. Torrent sedge behind has long grassy strands. Livermore, California summer of 2025
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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 03/08/2026
I really don't think most Americans want this
apnews.com
Eastern Washington fires have burned 600 structures and forced the evacuation of 60,000 people
Authorities say wildfires in eastern Washington state forced the evacuation of 60,000 people in the Spokane area, including patients at its U.S.
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Roger Aines @rogeraines.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
My thoughts on how we can start to reconcile all the things we need for a good future. The quagmire of problems slows us down, but we can keep our sights on the future we want. The four requisites for that are not terribly complex. open.substack.com/pub/rogerain...
open.substack.com
The Future We Want
The Desires for Safety, Community, Wealth, and Joy Drive Human Endeavor
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Flex Alert @flexalert.org · 31/07/2026
Did you know pre-cooling your home saves energy and money? ⚡ ☀️ Morning = lower thermostat to 70°F 🌇 After 4 p.m. = raise thermostat to 78°F Learn more: bit.ly/44yAXuJ
flexalert.org
What is pre-cooling your home?
Keep your energy bill down and conserve energy this summer by “pre-cooling” your home before the afternoon heat hits its peak.
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