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Simon Lewis

@simonlewis.bsky.social
2.6K followers 773 following 188 posts

They say I’m outspoken. Professor of Global Change Science at UCL and University of Leeds. Author, The Human Planet. Trying to understand the world and change it too.

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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
We can’t fix the UKs problems without fixing housing costs, and we can’t fix housing costs without rent controls. Useful thread:
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R Works @rworks.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The CRAN Top 40 is a monthly attempt to sort through the new packages submitted to CRAN and find 40 quality packages that demonstrate the #RStats language and appeal to a wide audience of potential users. We hope you find something interesting and maybe even useful. rworks.dev/posts/august...
rworks.dev
August 2026 Top 40 New CRAN Packages – R Works
The CRAN Top 40 is an attempt to sort through the massive amount of new packages submitted to CRAN every month and find forty, quality packages that demonstrate the broad use of the R language, and ap...
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James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
New analysis reckons the next clean power contract auction could knock £11bn off energy bills through to 2050, as the reduction in wholesale power costs will surpass the cost of any price guarantees for generators. www.businessgreen.com/news/4535986...
businessgreen.com
Clean power contract auction could slash energy bills by £11bn, analysts claim
LCP Delta calculates upcoming Contract for Difference auction promises to reduce wholesale power costs and deliver net savings for households and businesses through to 2050
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Steve Akehurst @steveakehurst.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
NEW: How did the summer heatwaves and wildfires change attitudes to climate and Net Zero, if at all? A short thread on analysis of tracker polling now summer is winding down. 🧵 (for @persuasionuk.bsky.social with @yougov.co.uk)
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
For years I've been told that aviation emissions are negligible, so don't worry your little head about them. But I've kept pointing out that there are - and will be - no good technical solutions, and they'll keep growing. Now we know just how big the problem is. www.carbonbrief.org/ccc-heathrow...
carbonbrief.org
CCC: Heathrow expansion could push flights to ‘80% of UK emissions by 2050’ - Carbon Brief
Aviation is on track to be responsible for 80% of the UK’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC).
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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It would fill me with joy if a group of concerned citizens stopped every car coming out of Piddington, asked for their papers and denied then access to the UK until they get a Piddington passport and appropriate visa.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
NSF has reduced the research budget for all atmospheric, ocean, and earth sciences by ~80%. 80%! A lot of us will not be conducting new research or training new students for the foreseeable future.
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Sian Berry MP @sianberry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
No amount of fudge can make airport expansion compatible with our climate commitments. It is disgraceful to see this government twist its own promises into knots simply to try to make bigger profits for the bosses of one private company in spite of the ever-growing costs of climate breakdown.
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New Economics Foundation @neweconomics.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Pick one: - Expand Heathrow for the benefit of wealthy airport shareholders and ultra-frequent flyers - Stick to our climate targets to protect ourselves and our communities from harm The Climate Change Committee is clear we can't have both. www.ft.com/content/a8cd...
ft.com
Heathrow expansion incompatible with climate goals, UK government advisers warn
New runway would emit as much CO₂ as the city of Birmingham, says independent Climate Change Committee
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michael catchen @mdcatchen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
it still has pretty figures, i promise!
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Sukaina @sukaina.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Thrilled to tell you that my paper “Protests as World Making Projects” with bestie Lidal Dror is now forthcoming and available open access on early online view at Nous 🧵 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Protests as World‐Making Projects
On one common way of distinguishing forms of protest, civil disobedience is a communicative act that aims to achieve its goals through moral persuasion, whereas direct action has as its goal to direc...
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Cecilia Keating @ceciliakeating.carbonbrief.org · 14/09/2026
NEW for @carbonbrief.org As El Niño intensifies, the forest fires ripping through Indonesia are on track to reach levels not seen since 2015. The country's 2015 fire season has been linked to 100,000 premature deaths and produced emissions on a par with the EU's fossil-fuel emissions that year.
Line chart showing cumulative daily fire emissions in Indonesia. The 2026 trajectory, highlighted in red, rises sharply to around 75MtC and is closely tracking the early path of 2015, shown in dark blue. In 2015, emissions later surged to about 330MtC, far above the 2000–26 average of roughly 85MtC. Other years are shown in light grey. Source: Global Fire Emissions Database.
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Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes
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Legacy Forest Data @legacyforestinfo.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
📢 Call for Papers: 🌳Discover Forests @springernature.com Special Issue "Legacy Forest Data – Curation, Digitization, and Use for Long-Term Forest Research" Guest Editors: @hjboehmer.bsky.social & Sheila Ward | 🔗 link.springer.com/collections/... #AcademicSky #EcoEvo #ForestScience #OpenScience
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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Saying no to approving Jackdaw and Rosebank should be simple for Labour. There is no logical reason to say yes, and the right will move on fast to their next attack lines. A ‘no’ means the heat for Labour will be short-term; a yes and the heat will haunt them long-term as climate impacts escalate.
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Justin Mikulka @justinmikulka.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"In India, momentum in electric 3W (three wheeler) sales continued to build, with sales rising by 15% from 2024 to almost 800 000 vehicles. Electric 3Ws now capture almost 70% of all sales in the country, primarily displacing compressed natural gas models." Gas losing another market.
iea.org
Trends in other EV modes – Global EV Outlook 2026 – Analysis - IEA
Global EV Outlook 2026 - Analysis and key findings. A report by the International Energy Agency.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
🧵CO₂ removal (CDR) is back in the news, but just because the UNEP report says we need CDR, it doesn't mean we'll have CDR. Many challenges will take decades of research and negotiation to solve. Here are some examples: Technological: We currently don't have any durable CDR method that scales.
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Adam Vaughan @adamvaughan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The UK is loaning £400m to the TFFF, Brazil's pioneering fund to fight deforestation of rainforests. Make of this what you will, but this got go-ahead under Burnham less than two months after he became PM. Under Starmer, it was deemed bad optics to loan £400m for trees ahead of the autumn budget.
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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Very welcome (after appalling behavior by Keir Starmer +team at COP30), the UK gov has agreed to contributed to the new Tropical Forest Forever Facility to tackle deforestation. Tho’ what a mealy-mouthed statement. The TFFF is a great thing, why not just say it? www.gov.uk/government/n...
gov.uk
Investment boost for climate action and forest protection
The UK has announced its intention to invest £400 million into the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF).
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Climate Risk Economics @climateeconomics.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
FT Lex: How climate volatility shakes up companies’ earnings too Major companies face over $1tn in annual lost revenue opportunities as a result of all types of extreme weather - MSCI "Small fluctuations in earnings could be just the beginning"... www.ft.com/content/e531...
ft.com
How climate volatility shakes up companies’ earnings too
Supply chains are vulnerable to heatwaves and cyclones
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
1. A few years ago, people like me were widely attacked in the media for “declinism”. How could we fail to see that we were heading into a capitalist utopia, in which everything would keep getting better? This is a thread about what we could see that our critics could not. 🧵
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Institute for Public Policy Research @ippr.org · 26/08/2026
Almost 80% of Britain’s rising fiscal costs will come from ageing by 2075, dwarfing the pressures from defence spending, net zero and lower migration. We should rebalance taxes away from work and towards wealth, says @benansell.bsky.social. Read more here: www.ippr.org/articles/tax...
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Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Climate damage would obliterate any economic benefits of new North Sea fields, analysis shows - Economic harm of CO2 pollution from Rosebank and Jackdaw forecast to far outweigh any boost to UK #climatecrisis Story by me www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Climate damage would obliterate any economic benefits of new North Sea fields, analysis shows
Exclusive: Economic harm of CO2 pollution from Rosebank and Jackdaw forecast to far outweigh any boost to UK
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Andreas Sieber @andreassieber.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Extreme #heat killed at least 25,000 people in Western Europe alone this summer, according to a Bloomberg analysis. That's just this year. Over the past four years, extreme heat has killed more than 200,000 Europeans. #climatechange kills.
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Patrick Galey @patrickgaley.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Hello Blue Skiers, I have a request, would be v grateful if you could share: I need to speak with doctors and hospital workers who were impacted by extreme heat conditions this summer in England. Thank you!
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#CarbonReckoning (Andrew Boswell) @drandrewboswell.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
🧵 👇 on this great clip "UK is only 1% of emission so let's not bother with climate action". No, think of CO2 as litter or poo, and it does not make sense. #CarbonReckoning fare share legal case says we must take fair share in clearing up 👉 www.crowdjustice.com/case/carbon-... 🧵👇👇
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Natalie Harp is one of the most powerful people alive. I'm not joking or exaggerating. Controlling what information the US president gets and publicly communicating on behalf of the president give someone significant influence over policy of the world's most powerful country, all the way up to war.
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Josh Gabbatiss @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Buried at the heart of the Conservative party's pitch to scrap net-zero is this: A proposal to remove the grants that allow people to save money when buying an electric car or a heat pump. While providing more support for the expansion of data centres.
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George Eaton @georgeeaton.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Ulez has delivered remarkable public health gains in a short period. Sadiq deserves more credit than he’s had for defying Labour pressure to U-turn after Uxbridge. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Ulez led to better lung size and function among London children, study finds
Researchers find capacity stunted by pollution restored after introduction of ultra-low emission zone
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
"Legitimate concerns", is it
Paragraphs from the article, details of the Nazi background of this violent Nazi
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James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
'The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism'. It really amazes me how Arendt and Sartre so accurately discribed what we're now seeing on the right - it really is the same impulses repeated and the same tactics.
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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
People keep saying we’re “adding” clean energy, not transitioning. They’re counting primary energy. 2/3 of it is wasted as heat. It’s a measure of combustion not of what we actually need. Global averages hide a transition already well underway. New Substack janrosenow.substack.com/p/why-the-en...
janrosenow.substack.com
Why the energy transition looks like an energy addition
The energy addition framing has a point. But it draws the wrong conclusions.
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Jeff Goodell @jeffgoodell.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
"During the late June wave, a hospital in the Belgian city of Liège experienced a rush of patients so intense that in the emergency room healthier people were temporarily lined up in hallways so that those past the point of saving could have privacy while they died." www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/w...
nytimes.com
Heat Deaths in a ‘Cold’ Country Are a Warning to the Rest of Europe (Gift Article)
A June heat wave in Belgium and neighboring countries exposed a lethal lack of readiness. That’s a risk as another wave hits Europe.
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Dr. Aaron Thierry @thierryaaron.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Interesting interview with @simonlewis.bsky.social on @novaramedia.com about what Ed Milliband can do to promote #Climate action as Foreign Secretary
youtu.be
Miliband BREAKS RANKS With Burnham As UK Burns
YouTube video by Novara Media
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Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Arday found dead and a very large number of British commentators are deleting posts and videos.
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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Every heatwave story should use this photo.
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Andrew Barnes @barnesecodiv.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Our paper has just been published in the latest issue of @nature.com! We analysed 318 food webs spanning marine, freshwater & soil ecosystems worldwide & found that ecosystem functioning increases consistently with biodiversity across multiple trophic levels. 🌐🧪🕷️🦠🍄🌿 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Food web complexity underlies biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning - Nature
Analyses of the relationship between taxon richness and multi-trophic ecosystem functioning across marine, lake, stream and soil ecosystems show that food web complexity underlies biodiversity effects...
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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Good. But his big test will be not giving a license for the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields. And ideally being honest about the reasons.
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Simon Lewis @simonlewis.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Andy Burnham temporarily banning disposable barbecues as his first response to the climate emergency is full ‘don’t look up’ vibes.
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Leo Hickman @leohickman.carbonbrief.org · 14/08/2026
This is fine... "Britain on fire" "Heatwave devastation" "Inferno" "Houses burn and train derails on hottest day" "Rampant wildfires engulf streets of family homes" "Record 2.5m trips to A&E" "Temps hit 38.1C as fifth heatwave peaks" "Britain in meltdown"
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Ellie Mae O'Hagan @elliemaeohagan.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Sending so much support to bus drivers taking industrial action against having to work in these insane temperatures www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...
standard.co.uk
London bus strike: All 42 affected routes as major walkouts to cause travel chaos
First in string of bus strikes to hit London on Friday, August 14, and Saturday, August 15
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Leo Hickman @leohickman.carbonbrief.org · 12/08/2026
"This is gaslighting of the highest order. The truth is, it requires dedicated ideological belief to argue against the scientific evidence that net-zero is needed to stop ever more expensive and destructive warming." @pilitaclark.bsky.social in today's FT giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
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Alex Papadopoulos @egeasri.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Italian researchers found that semi-transparent solar panels over olive groves increased olive yields by 12%, reduced water evaporation by 19%, generated clean electricity, and even improved olive oil quality. 🌿⚡🫒 #Agrivoltaics #RenewableEnergy #Sustainability #ClimateSolutions
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Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 07/08/2026
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) averaged about 429 ppm in July 2026 10 years ago July averaged about 405 ppm Data available at gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/
Red line graph time series of monthly carbon dioxide abundance from January 1959 through July 2026. There is a seasonal cycle and long-term increasing trend. Current levels of CO2 are at 429 ppm. This is the Keeling Curve graph. A line for CO2 10 years ago is also annotated.
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Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 24/07/2026
Renewables are now the world's largest source of electricity – and the main source of new supplies
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 24/07/2026
2026 is on track to be the warmest (~35% chance) or second warmest (~63%) year on record, while 2027 is very likely (92% chance) to be the warmest on record on the back of a growing super El Niño event. For more, check out my new Carbon Brief State of the Climate Q2 update: www.carbonbrief.org/...
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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
"'Mind-blowing' El Niño stuns scientists. Why are they so concerned?" | Comprehensive, balanced piece by @dinahvp.bsky.social on the current El Niño event and what we're likely to see, via @usatoday.com: www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...
usatoday.com
'Mind-blowing' El Niño stuns scientists. Why are they so concerned?
A Pacific El Niño is setting daily warm water records. Scientists say the world is in uncharted waters and they aren't sure what will happen next.
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 19/07/2023
Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Despite all the noise today I'd really like you to read this, as I think it's crucial. The government's in the process of p*ssing up to £264 billion into the ground, at the behest of the fossil fuel industry. Yes, £264 *billion*. It's utterly mad, and has to stop. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The great carbon capture con: behold the wasted billions Burnham could claw back | George Monbiot
There are far better ways to tackle climate breakdown, but successive governments have chosen to listen to the fossil fuel companies instead, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 07/07/2026
BREAKING: in June 2026, *every single one* of the 1,062 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 7,727 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.
rpc.state.gov
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