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Sam Butler

@sambutler.us
83 followers 54 following 17 posts

Working on unexpected solutions and actionable media for affordability, housing, data centers at surviveways.org & sambutler.us

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Reposted by Sam Butler
Earth Island Journal @earthislandjournal.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
What if the quickest, cheapest path to decarbonization isn’t electrification but reducing the need for electricity in the first place, asks climate and technology journalist @sambutler.us. That starts with ours buildings and neighborhoods. Originally published in @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social.
earthisland.org
To Decarbonize Quickly, Think Beyond Electrification
Alternative technologies and interventions can cut emissions faster, cheaper, and without mineral bottlenecks.
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 24/06/2026
Just wanted to follow-up on this Kevin -- sent you an email, would appreciate your perspective on this paper.
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 16/06/2026
Sent you an email about this @kevinclimate.bsky.social — would love to hear your thoughts.
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 12/06/2026
Kevin, have you seen this paper? One moderate scenario in it shows a 325 GtCO2 pathway (only for energy use — not land use or other sectors) between 2026-2050. I'd love to hear your perspective on this and connect with you on it. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Sodium-ion battery cost projections and their impact on the global energy system transition until 2050
Sodium-ion batteries (SIB) have recently emerged as an alternative to current lithium-ion batteries (LIB), using low-cost and abundant raw materials. …
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 07/03/2025
Hi @gonatureforward.bsky.social, I do media in the D.C. area and was thinking about coming to the Civic Center today to help cover TNB. Would that be possible? You can see my work at sambutler.us
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 03/02/2025
I was skeptical, but I just closed IG and opened Bluesky in search of some Farming While Beige -- the strategy works! Your content was basically the core of the app for me, which is wild to think about -- IG was just a clunky old data-sucking ad wrapper around your content!
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 20/11/2024
Ahhh my bad, good to know! I would love to hear your opinion on the platforms you considered (or was it ghost right away?)
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 18/11/2024
www.beehiiv.com/media-collec... I've been curious to learn more about this from @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social. @molly.wiki also went on there from Substack. I would like to get to know Beehiv better and get more long-term trust from their ownership, and I also trust Molly and Ryan choosing it.
beehiiv.com
Media Collective — The newsletter platform built for growth
Helping leading journalists forge an independent, sustainable path forward.
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 09/11/2024
bsky.app/profile/samb...
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 09/11/2024
Here's the thread! bsky.app/profile/samb...
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 09/11/2024
There is no cheaper, faster, or more viable plan. (Happy to be proven wrong — bring what you've got.) Incorporate it in your vision and start organizing to make it happen. Happy to answer questions, support, and help — we're doing this on the ground in mid-Atlantic. (6/6)
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 09/11/2024
And homes built with natural materials — like straw bale, timber, hemp — are the best form of carbon sequestration. Plus healthy, well insulated homes without toxic construction materials. via @thelastfarm.bsky.social (5/6)
Screenshot of page:

A home built by hand from natural materials sequesters carbon, rather than emitting it because it is made largely of carbon. A straw bale and wood frame house sequesters around 15 tons of CO2 for the life of the building; the reason being that straw and wood contain a great deal of carbon, and it doesn't break down while the house is standing. If, after a few hundred years, the house needs to be replaced, the carbon is simply re-sequestered. 

IMAGE
Natural home interior w/ wooden beams and lots of windows and natural light, w/ caption "you could be living here, along with a bunch of CO2 in the walls"

And then more text:

Now let's match these individual statistics to the problem at scale. The Paris Agreement would require that 550 million tons of carbon be sequestered per year by 2030. At 15 tons of CO2 per straw bale house, that's only 36.6 million houses, on a planet with 8 billion inhabitants, or a new house for .5% of the total  global pop each year.
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 09/11/2024
In alignment with the Indigenous Peoples Principles and Protocols for Just Transition www.indigenoussummit.org/summit-outcome @earthworks.bsky.social (4/6)
We affirm that these activities carried out in Indigenous territories without free, prior and
informed consent violate our inherent and recognized rights and do not constitute a
transition, but rather a form of modern genocide against our worldviews, ways of life, and
territorial governance systems.
We also have noted solutions and good practices, based on our own knowledge, sciences,
technologies, lived experiences and time-tested practices for restoration of sustainable
food production and soil, ecosystem protection, and true and equitable just transition,
distinct from models based on imposition, extraction, and colonialism.
As Indigenous Peoples, we affirm that the concept of a just transition as it is currently
presented is not true, as it implies initiatives and proposals driven by transnational
corporations and States to implement and consolidate the free-market economic model,
neoliberalism, and deepens the inequalities of the capitalist system.
This leads to genocide and ecocide, as States and corporations fail to ensure respect for
Mother Earth and the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
For Indigenous Peoples, a just transition means exercising our own forms of territorial
governance according to our traditions and ways of life.
We point out that we continue to be affected by the current and increasing levels of fossil
fuel extraction, which, along with so-called "green" or "clean" energy projects, create a
double impact on Indigenous Peoples.
We recognize the urgent need to affirm Indigenous Peoples’ own visions, definitions, and
to develop principles and protocols, as well as plans and means for action, in order to
confront these threats, as well as to contribute in a positive way to discussions, programs,
and actions on all levels for environmental sustainability, protection of ecosystems and
biodiversity, and the prevention and aversion of climate change.
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 09/11/2024
90% of the costs of solar are storage, inverters, and batteries / grid-ties. Grid-tied is still prone to failure and grid outages — leaving people vulnerable. Just put energy on the roof, where it's cheap. Leave lithium in dirt and the deserts intact. *That* is a *just transition*
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 09/11/2024
Throw solar PV and solar thermal fluid on a roof, design the building to store heat thermally (and stay cool through insulation.) There is a townhouse on Capitol Hill on offgrid solar, suburban houses are doing it, we're planning a condo project like it in Baltimore. (2/6) pss.pm/solar
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 24/07/2024
Likewise a great Douglas Adams anecdote about that in Hitchhikers!
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Reposted by Sam Butler
N. K. Jemisin @nkjemisin.bsky.social · 23/07/2024
I wrote an intro for the 10-yr anniversary of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach books, which Esquire has helpfully reprinted here: www.esquire.com/entertainmen...
esquire.com
We Need Speculative Fiction Now More Than Ever
Amid a terrifying political moment, escapism can be dangerous. But as we celebrate ten years of the Southern Reach trilogy, N.K. Jemisin reminds us that stories can help deconstruct colonial power.
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 24/07/2024
Reading your opening, I thought this short story might resonate with you. (I'm working on more spec fiction in this realm, e.g. from now in American suburbs — if that interests you, I'd love to connect and explore some ideas with you!) pss.pm/1c
pss.pm
It was 1.5°C in 2024, and everything was burning
It was 1.5°C in 2024, and everything was burningWe wondered how we would survive, as right-wing militias paraded in streets, food crises and wildfires moved closer to us, and governments and media ign...
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Sam Butler @sambutler.us · 07/04/2024
sent you an email related to this, would love to connect with you on it!
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