@heleninsomerset.bsky.social
2.1K followers 510 following 1K posts
Retired - worked in the charitable sector - arts, education, environment. Degrees in geography & fine art. Now I tend my allotment, serve my cat, learn more about the environment, rewilding, fine art etc. & worry about climate/biodiversity collapse.
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Reposted
ketanjoshi.co
It's a little understated that Bari Weiss is really a flat-out 'just-asking-questions' style climate change denier.

Eg, here she is saying the science is up for public debate rather than settled, publishing the work of a big-name denier influencer (Koonin), and boosting a fake controversy

Bari Weiss
@bariweiss
"Is Donald Trump a “dictator”? Did the events of January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C., constitute an “insurgency”?

Is Joe Biden “sharp as a tack”?

Is the science of climate change “settled”?

Are Javier Milei of Argentina, Marine Le Pen of France, and the AfD party in Germany “far right”?

Is the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis a “conspiracy theory”? Was the persistence of the virus a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”? Does Anthony Fauci “represent science”?

Does Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, “promote hatred”? Do “fact-checkers” check facts?

Let’s ask a question about these questions: Why on Earth were we placed in a position of having to answer them?

In an open society, perspectives on reality confront one another in forceful competition. Each may contain some particle of truth—or at least some useful information.

So even the flat-earthers are allowed their say. Even the Bigfoot-seekers appear on the Discovery Channel. Somewhere among the nonsense, there may be something worth hearing.

Because we don’t precisely know where or when, the conversation is never over.

A vast diversity of perspectives should be promoted within an open society. It’s the intellectual equivalent of hybrid vigor.

If we all think alike, a single fatal error, being shared by all, could destroy the world.

These precepts are not original. They have long been part of the American DNA. The default, for us, has always been debate.

When certain subjects, like slavery, were made taboo and removed from the possibility of discussion, towering figures arose and terrible conflicts were fought to restore the balance.

However, the past four years have seen a sustained effort to overturn the principles of the open society. The just-departed administration, of which Biden was the decrepit figurehead, tried to impose, by threat or mandate, a version of reality that brooked no discussion.

Supported by its allies in the media, the academy, and the bureaucracy, the administrati… 
Bari Weiss
@bariweiss
Climate change did not cause the LA fires says Steve Koonin in an essential conversation with our 
@EmilyYoffe
:

https://thefp.com/p/climate-change-did-not-cause-the-la-fires-steve-koonin

Bari Weiss
@bariweiss
·
Sep 6, 2023
Gratified at the outpouring of responses to this important and courageous piece by 
@PatrickTBrown31
. 

https://thefp.com/p/i-overhyped-climate-change-to-get-published
From thefp.com
Bari Weiss
@bariweiss
·
Sep 5, 2023
"Savvy researchers tailor their studies to maximize the likelihood that their work is accepted. I know this because I am one of them.

Here’s how it works."

@PatrickTBrown31
 with a must-read piece:

https://thefp.com/p/i-overhyped-climate-change-to-get-published
Reposted
renzelen.bsky.social
T’was always thus. So Johnson feels entirely secure in his entitlement.
Reposted
politico.eu
🐝 More than a fifth of European wild bee species, including bumblebees and cellophane bees, risk becoming extinct — as nearly 100 new species join the growing list of those under threat.
1 in 5 European wild bee species now face extinction, report finds
It comes amid a push in the EU to roll back environmental protections.
www.politico.eu
Reposted
peterjukes.bsky.social
So it now appears the woman Farage and Gill were so close to has a direct link not only to Putin’s “Man in Ukraine” Medvedchuk, but his predecessor as President, Medvedev

These are top Russian agents.
Reposted
sarahfinch.bsky.social
UK MPs “overwhelmingly overestimate the time period humanity has left to bend the temperature curve”, according to new research published this week.

Is your MP one of these? They need to attend the National Emergency Briefing on 27 November

Go to: www.nebriefing.org to send them an invitation
Reposted
cornishskipper.bsky.social
And Banks. “Katya Banks had entered Britain on a passport sequentially numbered to the passport of Katia Zatuliveter, a woman MI5 had claimed was a Russian spy and who had had an affair with the Portsmouth MP, Mike Hancock.”
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022...
Arron Banks may have been ‘used and exploited’ by Russia, court hears
Journalist Carole Cadwalladr gives evidence as she defends her reporting on multimillionaire Brexit backer
www.theguardian.com
Reposted
climateanalytics.org
“The IEA has, consistently over the last couple of decades, way underestimated how fast renewables are growing,” our senior climate and energy adviser Dr Robert Brecha told @grist.org, “I don’t see any reason to believe that renewables won’t double by 2030.”
As Trump champions fossil fuels, the world is betting on renewable energy
Despite a U.S. retreat, solar and wind are overtaking fossil fuels globally, according to two reports published this week.
grist.org
Reposted
dougparr.bsky.social
Greenpeace UK says high fees for offshore wind developers to lease the seabed is an abuse of monopoly power by Crown Estate

High fees push up the price of offshore wind & will act as a tax on energy bills, to fund the monarchy & lower taxes

It's time it stopped

www.ft.com/content/c29c...
Greenpeace threatens to sue Crown Estate for pushing up UK energy prices
Cost of offshore wind increased by monopoly ownership of seabed, alleges campaign group
www.ft.com
Reposted
13sarahmurphy.bsky.social
Corrupt chancers urged to come up with an economic plan that isn’t utter bullshit. So, no tax cuts and austerity on steroids for a country already stuck in Farage’s Brexit dead end.
But hey, some super wealthy industry big (k)nobs will come on board to help con the little guy.

(Times)
Times 

Farage to abandon manifesto's big plans for tax cuts

Extracts: 
Farage will break with his manifesto pledges of £90 billion in tax cuts as he attempts to bolster his party's economic credibility.
The leader of Reform UK will promise not to reduce taxes before reducing spending, deep cuts to the civil service and a ban on borrowing to fund government expenditure in his first big speech on the economy next month.

"Reform will never borrow to spend, as Labour and the Tories have done for so long; instead, we will ensure savings are made before implementing tax cuts.
I will have more to say on all this in the coming weeks."

Speaking on the campaign trail before the Caerphilly by-election to the Welsh parliament on October 23, he did not respond to demands to name his shadow chancellor but suggested he would soon be able to draw on backing from the business community.
Several high-profile figures from industry have privately indicated they would be willing to serve in a Reform cabinet, party officials said
Farage said: "We will be launching between now and the budget, a new campaign — an economic campaign ... it's going to be very impactful. It'll another high-profile individual coming into politics from outside of politics, who's been supremely successful in their world." Promising a "total change of attitude" on the economy, he said: "We are not a party dominated by corporate thinking. The Tories and La-bour are both dominated by corporate thinking."
The IFS has questioned whether
Reform's economic plans are credible warning last year that the party had overestimated how much it could save through spending cuts: "Even with the extremely optimistic
assumptions
about how much economic growth would increase, the sums in this manifesto do not add up."
Right-leaning think tanks have also urged the party to set out more credible policy. The Institute for Economic Affairs last month called for Reform to
"put some serious economic policies on the table".
heleninsomerset.bsky.social
‘of more than 100 data centres planned in the UK, the operation of just 10 would result in annual carbon emissions… roughly the same as the annual carbon saving expected this year from the public’s switch to electric vehicles‘
Ten UK data centres could cancel EV emissions gain
Research has underlined the lack of transparent and reliable figures for expected emissions driven by data centre growth
observer.co.uk
Reposted
thebossross.bsky.social
"This is Britain. We are each other. Lets stick together."
- lambethgreenparty on Insta

This heals me.
Reposted
andrew.sharpe.scot
Just like the BBC in Scotland, Laura Kuenssberg is stepping up the deliberate errors to knock The SNP. Twice she claimed the UK Gov was supplying £10bn to build warships on the Clyde. This is false. The £10bn will come from Norway after it signed a deal with BAE systems.

(video MSM Monitor)
Reposted
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Also lying:
- your own eyes
- every bit of video evidence
- the fabric of reality itself
newrepublic.com
“I … met with the governor, met with the mayor, met with the chief of police, and the superintendent of the highway patrol. They’re all lying, and disingenuous, and dishonest people,” Noem said, because they wouldn’t back up her baseless claims that the streets were overrun with terrorists.
ICE Barbie Says an Entire State’s Worth of Officials Are “Lying”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is convinced, against all evidence, that Portland is a war zone.
trib.al
Reposted
rbreich.bsky.social
CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow embodied what a journalist should be: someone who holds power to account instead of capitulating to it.

Over 70 years later, his segment denouncing Joe McCarthy’s congressional witch hunts rings truer than ever.
Reposted
lincolnproject.us
Speaker Johnson: "People’s faith in the government is at an all time low"

Republicans control all 3 branches of the government.
Reposted
cajunblue.bsky.social
🚨🚨🚨WA Governor Bob Ferguson responds to a letter he received from AG Pam Bondi in which she threatened to place him in jail. 🧯He is on fire! 1/2