Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

Timmons Roberts @timmonsroberts.bsky.social · Sep 7

So proud of this collaboration led by @cssn.org

110 top experts from around the world

13 chapters on who is blocking or slowing action on climate change

A quantum leap in our understanding of why society has failed to solve this

Will be free online Oct 14 1/x

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Cover of new book Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment from Oxford University Press. Shows cows, smokestacks, jets, oil refineries, cell phones and a man in a suit talking to an audience

5 90 180

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Aug 22

This is a really good @desmog.com post on this topic btw, featuring a bunch of friendly norwegian fossil fuel people

www.desmog.com/2025/08/13/c...

Can AI Slash Pollution? Fossil Fuel Industry Is Investing in Boosting Oil Production, Profits Instead

DeSmog reveals that Big Oil says they’re using AI to produce more fossil fuels, while utilities are exploring how “AI agents” could take over key power grid functions.

www.desmog.com

1 9 12

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · Aug 22

Thanks for highlighting the source. Nature should be ashamed to publish this hype-ridden excuse for analysis. The first test of any evaluation of AI is if it defines what it includes in that term. This fails…

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · Jul 10

If you’re worried that the world is sliding into solar geoengineering… you might want to read my new article, critiquing the loose use of “risk-risk” claims about climate intervention (#geoengineering). Brief summary and full article link here www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-f...

From Frying Pan to Fire: wrestling with the risks of solar geoengineering

Ideas of solar geoengineering are getting a lot of attention these days. Moves to ban the technology based on conspiracy theories about existing deployment have proliferated across the USA.

www.linkedin.com

1 1

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · Jul 11

Strong analysis, but still hoping that impacts will stimulate action. Unfortunately everything so far suggests that growing impacts exacerbate denial to the point that systems are too broken to take action… we need a narrative of social and ecological repair www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Democrats and climate groups ‘too polite’ in fight against ‘malevolent’ fossil fuel giants, says key senator

Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island gives 300th climate speech on the US Senate floor

www.theguardian.com

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · Jul 10

If you’re worried that the world is sliding into solar geoengineering… you might want to read my new article, critiquing the loose use of “risk-risk” claims about climate intervention (#geoengineering). Brief summary and full article link here www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-f...

From Frying Pan to Fire: wrestling with the risks of solar geoengineering

Ideas of solar geoengineering are getting a lot of attention these days. Moves to ban the technology based on conspiracy theories about existing deployment have proliferated across the USA.

www.linkedin.com

1 1

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

Rebecca Willis @bankfieldbecky.bsky.social · Jul 7

happy to profile our research in The Guardian today

The Guardian @theguardian.com · Jul 7

Politicians are retreating from net zero because they think the public doesn’t care. But they’re wrong | Rebecca Willis

Our research shows people are strongly in favour of measures to tackle the climate crisis. They just need to be listened to, says professor of energy and climate governance Rebecca Willis

www.theguardian.com

2 27 50

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

Julian Agyeman @julianagyeman.bsky.social · Jul 7

Abstracted notions of equality, diversity and inclusion are almost entirely absent in plans developed by deprived communities which are more likely to focus on tangible issues of local importance such as access to affordable housing, health and service provision. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Towards everyday conceptions of justice in community-led planning

This paper draws upon a novel analytical framework to review a sample of community-led plans produced across the four nations of the United Kingdom. It explores how communities interpret issues of ...

www.tandfonline.com

4 4

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · Jun 10

Oh look, tech company emissions are already up 150%, and the AI data center build out has just gotten started.

15:37
Energy
Monitor
•ll 5G 4
News
Tech giants' carbon emissions up 150% with Al growth
Companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta have experienced a surge in their global indirect emissions.
June 9, 2025
Share

13 180 310

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · May 29

AI doesn’t help you work less or get paid more, but does destroy the environment and climate.

Study looking at AI chatbots in 7,000 workplaces finds 'no significant impact on earnings or recorded hours in any occupation'

Despite AI’s promise to revolutionize white-collar work, most workers are using it sparingly—or hiding it from their boss.

fortune.com

14 130 320

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · May 26

Revealed preference WITHIN a system predicated on growing consumption, that is, amongst those lacking agency to change the system…

1

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · May 26

I don’t know whether this says more about ordinary Brits or about YouGov. Interesting results but poorly selected and framed questions…

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · May 19

What geoengineering might Britons support to counter climate change?

Planting forests: 92%
Painting roads and roofs light colours: 62%
Adding carbon-capturing nutrients to the ocean: 43%
Making clouds whiter: 31%
Dimming the sun: 18%
Adding gases into stratosphere: 16%

yougov.co.uk/health/artic...

1

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · May 20

A thoughtful analysis of the dangerous ideology behind the #geoengineering advocates of Silver Lining. cleantechnica.com/2025/05/18/s...

SilverLining’s Geoengineering Techno-Optimism Is Distracting From Real Climate Solutions - CleanTechnica

SilverLining's geoengineering advocacy reflects ecomodernist techno-optimism, diverting attention from urgent, proven climate solutions like wind and solar.

cleantechnica.com

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · Mar 21

I thought that was the mainstream, conventional interpretation not an “interesting take” …

1 1

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · Mar 21

Having said that, funding CDR development through offsets is a fool’s errand, resulting directly in mitigation deterrence, and sustaining counterproductive market ideologies in climate policy.

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · Mar 21

Not quite. Removal offsets could exist only for genuinely impossible to abate emissions. At the same time, taking net-zero seriously, with all possible-to-abate emissions eliminated, there could be no avoidance offsets (as no one would have further cuts they could make to generate credits).

1

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · Mar 17

With Kevin Surprise, @jenniecstephens.bsky.social, @inamoller.bsky.social, JP Sapinsky and @doreenstabinsky.bsky.social I warned about such profit oriented geoengineering recently ...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Profit-seeking solar geoengineering exemplifies broader risks of market-based climate governance

Despite uncertainties about its feasibility and desirability, start-up companies seeking to profit from solar geoengineering have begun to emerge. One…

www.sciencedirect.com

1

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · Mar 17

Worth the read: A well researched piece from Undark on Stardust Solutions and their secretive approach to promoting #solargeoengineering undark.org/2025/03/17/s...

How One Company Wants to Make Geoengineering Profitable

Stardust, an Israeli-U.S. startup, intends to patent its unique technology for temporarily cooling the planet.

undark.org

1

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

404 Media @404media.co · Mar 15

TSA Says Its Credit Cards for Bomb-Sniffing Dogs Are Cut Off

The statement follows an alleged internal email which said requests for dog food and vet visits had been put on hold.

TSA Says Its Credit Cards for Bomb-Sniffing Dogs Are Cut Off

The statement follows an alleged internal email which said requests for dog food and vet visits had been put on hold.

www.404media.co

51 280 700

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · Mar 12

“There is extreme danger in launching such field trials into an environment with neither national nor international governance in place.” But well governed research into geoengineering risks would be wise. The key question is why so many SRM advocates resist effective governance for research?

Leon Simons @leonsimons.bsky.social · Mar 12

You can't make this up:

The same person that has been actively keeping the public ignorant about the aerosol termination shock that we are currently experiencing, uses fear for a hypothetical future termination shock to discourage research in climate tipping point prevention..

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

Shareable @share-able.bsky.social · Mar 11

Our latest @CitiesAtTufts episode is here!

Listen to "From City to Sink: Urban Carbon Removal as Promise and Practice with Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social at the link below or where you get your podcasts.

shareable.net/cities_tufts...
Illustration @jessemilner76

2 1

Duncan McLaren @duncanmclaren.bsky.social · Mar 11

Cities@Tufts and Shareable have put my recent talk on City CDR online - with a cute infographic version too ... www.shareable.net/cities_tufts...

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

Cre8Fire @cre8fire.bsky.social · Mar 2

One to post where MAGA can see it:

5 10

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · Mar 2

It was always a mistake to try to sell CDR by promising it could decarbonize oil. People who want oil don't really care whether it's decarbonized or not.

Only a real climate politics — the one that actually phases out fossil fuels — will deliver carbon removal, expensive and challenging as it is.

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · Mar 2

The Trump administration's termination of probationary federal employees has devastated the Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) team. These terminations add to the uncertainty surrounding the $3.5 billion Direct Air Capture (DAC) hubs program.

Trump Hollowed Out the Government’s Carbon Removal Team

Widespread federal layoffs bring even more uncertainty to the DAC hubs program.

heatmap.news

3 18 52

Reposted by Duncan McLaren

Guy Gavriel Kay @guygavrielkay.bsky.social · Feb 27

When I wrote in a novel, some years ago, ‘We live in the light that comes to us’ that carried within it, for me, the idea that sometimes there is very little, sometimes there is mostly darkness.

It is still our time, we do what we can.

7 30 200