Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Greg Quetin @grquetin.bsky.social · 12h

Seconded.

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 14h

my unpopular urbanist take is 'complete streets' in urban areas are a complete failure - on safe streets, policy/governance, and climate

you cannot accommodate all modes and get positive outcomes related to climate, mobility, safe streets, and public health.

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 16h

My unpopular urbanist opinion is that big, hyperfast two-wheelers are a menace and should be banned from bike lanes/paths (with enforcement).

These things endanger everyone riding a bike or legal e-bike. Worse, they deter some from even trying.

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Leah Stokes @leahstokes.bsky.social · 2d

Governor Newsom has a bill on his desk to hold utilities accountable, and get them to stop passing along their dark money campaigns to everyday Californians.

Is he going to side with utilities, or side with the public and help lower electricity rates?
energyandpolicy.org/california-l...

California passes bill curbing utilities use of ratepayer money for political spending

State lawmakers last week made California the seventh state to pass a bill limiting investor-owned utilities from using customer money to pay for political and lobbying costs.

energyandpolicy.org

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Greg Quetin @grquetin.bsky.social · 2d

Best examples of affordable sidewalk maintenance/material/strategies out there? Any mid size cities got a good approach? Bonus points for not cutting down all the street trees.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 8d

the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!

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Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 9d

Here's one of Barcelona's famous superillas, or superblocks, on Rocafort-Consell de Cent. All of this used to be asphalt and space for moving and storing cars. Now it's green, quiet, calm, and safe.

paved sidewalk with grey squares next to green space on left and cafe tables and trees on right.

Light brown sand/park with trees overhead.

Grey pavement and green space and picnic tables.

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Greg Quetin @grquetin.bsky.social · 9d

I feel this way every time I ask for analysis...is this the best use of time or are we down to just going out and grinding down lifted sidewalk panels?

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All Aboard Washington @aawa.us · 9d

Imagine your life without driving. We are joining organizations across Washington State to celebrate the #WeekWithoutDriving! Will you be participating by #AmtrakCascades or #SounderRail ? Check out our guide to rail and transit connections at www.aawa.us/week-without... Post your stories!

Connect between rail and transit during the Week Without Driving Monday, September 29 – Sunday, October 5, 2025

www.aawa.us

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Jeremy Cole @jeremycole.bsky.social · 15d

There is no reason that Washington State can’t have this type of simple and well maintained multi-use path crisscrossing the entire state basically everywhere.

Small paved path lined by grass, farms, and trees

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 15d

"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply."

me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually

www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review

Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.

www.bostonreview.net

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Greg Quetin @grquetin.bsky.social · 21d

Happy to be a part of this one, great work led by Eren Bilir. Careful, staring at future carbon cycle change for too long can be hazardous. eos.org/editor-highl...

Rising CO2 and Climate Change Reorganize Global Terrestrial Carbon Cycling - Eos

Rising CO2 and climate change are redistributing terrestrial carbon fluxes and reservoirs across latitudes and reducing carbon residence times globally.

eos.org

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Truthout @truthout.org · 22d

Even without climate change, prisons around the country have billions of dollars worth of deferred maintenance just to stop the walls from crumbling and keep the lights and the heat on. Now, climate change is turning already miserable conditions inside of prisons into life-threatening ones.

As Prisons Deal With Heat Waves, Climate Crisis Makes Abolition Even More Urgent

While the planet continues to warm, conditions in prisons, and specifically in solitary confinement, continue to worsen.

buff.ly

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Peter Sinclair @peterwsinclair.bsky.social · 22d

The Unbearable Inefficiency of Fossil Fuels
thinc.blog/2025/09/16/t...

The Unbearable Inefficiency of Fossil Fuels

The highly respected energy focused think tank Ember is out today with a slide deck and update on where we are in the energy transition.Despite the efforts of the petrostates and global oligarchy t…

thinc.blog

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 23d

They have targeted essentially every offshore wind project, including those very nearly completed or otherwise under construction, *except* one under the auspices of a Republican governor.

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 23d

I find this remarkably grim.

My latest, with some info from inside BLM/DOI, on the assault on wind power. Please sign up, the newsletter is free!

The Attempted Murder of Offshore Wind Power

Hello, welcome to my relaunched newsletter, read more about the deal here and please subscribe! On Friday, the Trump administration filed a motion in the US District Court in Baltimore requesting tha...

www.gravityisgone.com

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Ryan Packer @typewriteralley.bsky.social · 26d

Seattle's long in-person public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan has officially kicked off.

First comments were from @ceceliablack.bsky.social: "As you're going through this Comp Plan, I would really hope you ask yourself what you would do if you were disabled tomorrow and you couldn't drive."

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Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 27d

Some good news today: Researchers using remotely operated submarines keep discovering new fish species, hundreds so far. This one is the bumpy snailfish

Peter N. Dudley @conservation.bio · 28d

New 🐟 just dropped.

🧪🌎

www.mbari.org/news/mbaris-...

MBARI's advanced underwater technology reveals a new species of deep-sea snailfish • MBARI

The bumpy snailfish is one of three new species of deep-sea snailfish described by MBARI collaborators at SUNY Geneseo.

www.mbari.org

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 27d

This is so crucial. When people think about these land comparisons, they don't think about the entire sprawling infrastructure behind FF.

Yellow Dot Studios @weareyellowdot.bsky.social · 28d

"0.3 per cent of the world’s land area – yes, just the land – would be needed to meet the current energy demand from solar alone, which is LESS THAN THE CURRENT LAND FOOTPRINT OF FOSSIL FUEL INFRASTRUCTURE."

Why solar power is the only viable power source in the long run

Not only is solar more than capable of supplying all the world’s energy, in the long term it is the only power source that won’t fry the planet

www.newscientist.com

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Cassie Smith (she/her) @cassiesmith.bsky.social · 28d

Commit to giving it a try - you're sure to learn new things about yourself and our city.

Thanks to @nondriver.bsky.social and @americawalks.bsky.social for building this movement. Excited to be a part of it. #WeekWithoutDriving

Bike Ottawa @bikeottawa.bsky.social · 28d

What if, for one week, you experienced your daily life without relying on a car? How might it change your perspective on the way our community moves?

Join the challenge Sept 29-Oct 5. Experience life without driving. Share your stories.👇 #WeekWithoutDriving #OttCity

bikeottawa.ca/2025/09/04/j...

Poster of Week Without Driving. On the left, an orange column with images of bikes and shoes. On the right, Week Without Driving with logos of partners: Bike Ottawa, For our Kids Ottawa Gatineau, Strong Towns Ottawa, Ottawa Transit Riders and Ecology Ottawa.

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Greg Quetin @grquetin.bsky.social · Sep 8

This gave me chills and made my eyes a little teary. Mission Statement.

coachbalto.bsky.social @coachbalto.bsky.social · Sep 8

The simple act of showing up can change the mundane commute to school into something magical. #BikeBus

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Qagggy! @qagggy.bsky.social · Sep 5

There are lots of things annoying about this, but one of the worst is that these traffic studies are always done VERY early in the process. These get baked into the most fundamental assumptions, and by the time you learn your home is going to be demolished, it’s been too late for years.

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Kate Marvel @drkatemarvel.bsky.social · Sep 3

Fun fact: this would be true if we lived on Pluto

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · Sep 3

this is the guy the energy abundance bros lauded

lmao

sec. wright tweet:

Even if you wrapped the entire planet in a solar panel, you would only be producing 20% of global energy.
One of the biggest mistakes politicians can make is equating the ELECTRICITY with ENERGY!

Community Notes:
Earth gets ~1.5M TWh/day of solar energy-over 3,000x global energy use (~165K TWh/year).
Covering just 1% of land with panels could-theoretically-power the planet. Electricity is energy, and electrification replaces fossil use in transport, heat, and industry.

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Craig Calcaterra @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · Sep 3

My dad was a 40-year fed who worked in a scientific agency. I cannot stress to you, based on what he has told me, how hard it is to get even ten people to agree on anything, including the color of the sky or what time it is. To get 1,000+ to take a bold stance is CRAZY. bsky.app/profile/fact...

FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · Sep 3

Host: There are new calls this morning for RFK Jr.'s resignation, and those calls coming from inside HHS itself. More than 1,000 current and former HHS workers are making this demand in a letter released this morning. They say his leadership has "put the health of all Americans at risk"

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KUOW Public Radio @kuow.org · Sep 3

The democratic governors of Oregon, Washington and California are forming a new public health partnership aimed at preserving access to vaccines.

Oregon, Washington, California form health care alliance to protect vaccine access

The democratic governors of Oregon, Washington and California are forming a new public health partnership aimed at preserving access to vaccines.

www.kuow.org

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Greg Quetin @grquetin.bsky.social · Sep 2

I appreciate everyone who did this.

Zeke Hausfather @hausfath.bsky.social · Sep 2

Proud to be part of an effort by 85 scientists from around the world to respond to a misleading DOE climate science report last month.

The fact that our rebuttal is more than 3x the length of the DOE report is a good example of Brandolini's Law in action...

DOEresponseSite

On July 29, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a report from its Climate Working Group (CWG). This report features prominently in the EPA's reconsideration of its 2009 Endangerment Finding. In response, over 85 scientists have come together to write a comprehensive review, which is

sites.google.com

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Zeke Hausfather @hausfath.bsky.social · Sep 2

Proud to be part of an effort by 85 scientists from around the world to respond to a misleading DOE climate science report last month.

The fact that our rebuttal is more than 3x the length of the DOE report is a good example of Brandolini's Law in action...

DOEresponseSite

On July 29, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a report from its Climate Working Group (CWG). This report features prominently in the EPA's reconsideration of its 2009 Endangerment Finding. In response, over 85 scientists have come together to write a comprehensive review, which is

sites.google.com

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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · Sep 2

“The Department of Energy’s Climate Working Group consisted of four scientists and one economist who all question the scientific consensus that climate change is a large threat to the world and frame global warming as beneficial.”

NPR @npr.org · Sep 2

More than 85 scientists say that a recent U.S. Department of Energy report is full of errors and misrepresents climate science.

Dozens of scientists find errors in a new Energy Department climate report

More than 85 scientists say that a recent U.S. Department of Energy report is full of errors and misrepresents climate science.

n.pr

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