Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 23h

Whether it's sincere or bad-faith, it is pretty simply true that AI-mania is providing an easy rhetorical cover for the US government actively worsening the use of fossil fuels

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

3 21 69

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 20h

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

200 2.8K 8.7K

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 1h

Your offsets at "work"

David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells.bsky.social · 18h

“‘We must stop expecting carbon offsetting to work at scale,’ said Stephen Lezak, a researcher at the University of Oxford’s Smith School. ‘We have assessed 25 years of evidence and almost everything up until this point has failed.’” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says

Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions

www.theguardian.com

1

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Gregor Semieniuk @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social · 17h

🚨NEW PAPER🚨
We all know the 2022 energy price shock fueled the cost of living crisis. It also caused a profit bonanza for the very rich. We show the US reaped the largest profits ($377bn) of any country. 50% went to the richest 1%, only 1% to the bottom 50%. A🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

River or sankey diagram showing the allocation of profits from global oil and gas companies to quantiles of the US wealth size distribution via financial system intermediaries, such as asset managers, and categories of ultimate beneficiaries, such as business owners, pension funds and shareholders in listed companies. The scale is hundreds of billions of US dollars, and ultimately 50.4% of profits reaching the US personal wealth distribution go to the richest 1% of households.

6 130 230

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Mark Hurst @markhurst.bsky.social · 13h

I'll see your creepy robot-hugging pillow and raise you a surveillance tribble.

"Moflin: always by your side." A young woman takes a selfie while holding a furry surveillance device. "Your Smart AI companion: A calming presence. A quiet reassurance."

3 10

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Peter Brannen @peterbrannen.bsky.social · 8h

Just remembered this jaw-dropping graph by @oceansclimatecu.bsky.social showing the rate of change in CO2 during the previous two deglaciations of the Pleistocene (which, as a fun aside, featured ~400 feet of sea level rise) as compared with today

2 60 130

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 10h

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

65 1.1K 2.6K

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 1h

'In any case, the changes in CO2/GDP in the last 10 years are very disappointing (hence no peak).'

Glen Peters @glenpeters.bsky.social · 3h

Why didn't Chinese fossil CO2 emissions peak in 2013?

It looked like Chinese emissions might peak in 2013, after declines in 2014 & 2015, but since then, improvements in the CO2 efficiency of the economy slowed significantly.

CO2 will peak if efficiency improvements return.

See ALT text.

1/

The figure is a simplified Kaya Identity. The bars are the contributions to growth from GDP, Energy/GDP, CO2/Energy, and when you add the bars together you get the black dot, CO2 growth. For a given GDP, if the improvements in Energy/GDP and CO2/Energy are greater than the GDP growth, then emissions go down.

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 1h

Standard Operating Procedure: Privatise profits, socialise losses

Yale Environment 360 @yalee360.bsky.social · 3h

The E.U. is mandating the treatment of micropollutants in wastewater, with the cost to be borne by polluters.

But the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, which are responsible for most of those contaminants, are pushing back.

An E.U. Plan to Slash Micropollutants in Wastewater Is Under Attack

Earlier this year, a European Union directive mandated advanced treatment of micropollutants in wastewater, with the cost to be borne by polluters. But the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, whi...

e360.yale.edu

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 1d

🌊 Marine heatwaves and the carbon cycle

A new study shows that marine heatwaves can disrupt food webs and carbon transport in the NE Pacific.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#SciComm #ClimateCrisis 🧪

Marine heatwaves modulate food webs and carbon transport processes - Nature Communications

A decade of BGC-Argo and plankton records shows North Pacific heatwaves reshape food webs and trap small particles in midwater, slowing deep-ocean carbon export. Impacts vary by event, underscoring the need for sustained ocean monitoring.

www.nature.com

19 36

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 1d

'New Zealand’s oceans are warming 34% faster than the global average, with NZ$180bn (US$104bn) worth of housing at risk of flooding, a new report about the nation’s marine environment has revealed.'
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

New Zealand oceans warming 34% faster than global average, putting homes and industry at risk, report finds

NZ$180bn worth of housing and $26bn of infrastructure at risk of flooding and storm damage, new government report finds

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

New Scientist @newscientist.com · 3d

Antarctica may have passed a climate tipping point of no return, scientists are warning, with mounting evidence that a sudden slump in sea ice formation since 2016 is linked to human-induced ocean warming.

Antarctica may have crossed a tipping point that leads to rising seas

Scientists are beginning to understand the sudden loss of sea ice in Antarctica – and there is growing evidence that it represents a permanent shift with potentially catastrophic consequences

www.newscientist.com

1 22 27

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 4d

Cory Doctorow: 'The path to a better Amazon doesn’t lie through consumer activism, or appeals to the its conscience. Corporations…that use humans as their inconvenient gut flora, do not have consciences to appeal to.'
'You can’t shop your way out of a monopoly.'
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and ...

www.theguardian.com

1

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 4d

Related: 'Human centred design considered harmful'
www.jussipasanen.com/human-centre...

Human centred design considered harmful – Jussi Pasanen

Human centred design is anthropocentric design. By focusing on humans only, we frame out the rest of the living planet, and ignore its ongoing destruction.

www.jussipasanen.com

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 4d

'Design today has clearly been struggling through a long existential crisis. The realisation that the field has been so fully co-opted by capital as a mechanism for making more useless stuff has hit hard.'

Edwin Heathcote @edwinheathcote.bsky.social · 4d

on.ft.com/46M9mXI Why designers abandoned their dreams of changing the world. Free to Read.

Why designers abandoned their dreams of changing the world

Design was once seen as a tool to improve lives — but as modernism has become marketing, that sense of social purpose has drifted away

on.ft.com

1 4

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 5d

'This choice [to keep people in poverty] is driven by two imperatives. The first is a deep, ancient and irrational belief that poverty is a vice that must be punished. The second is the bosses’ need to keep us in a state of fear, so that people continue…stressful and demeaning work for lousy pay.'

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 5d

Keeping people in poverty is an expensive luxury.
My column on the false economies of austerity, which costs us all a fortune. Despite the government's claims, austerity continues under Labour. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It hurt when I crashed my bike into a pothole – and it taught me the true price of austerity | George Monbiot

Fixing that hole could have cost under £100; the cost of not doing so is limitless. My prang highlights the neoliberal folly of false economies, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

1

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 5d

'We are not doing anything like enough here in the U.S. to turn inevitable climate migrations towards sensible, equitable outcomes. To be blunt, there really isn’t any plan at all to do so ...'

'This future — of plummeting values and expensive safety — may not be far off now.'

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 5d

'When risk rises and rebuilding becomes uncertain, values drop. In places where brittleness accumulates through multiple systems, hitting everything from local government budgets to the availability of health care, values could crater.'

Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 5d

New letter!

A decade ago, I thought an inevitable economic reckoning with rising climate risks was still several decades away.

Now I see more and more evidence that it’s already begun.

Much more is coming.

alexsteffen.substack.com/p/cheap-dang...

Cheap danger and expensive safety.

Our futures are all tied to markets where risk is changing the calculus of value.

alexsteffen.substack.com

1 1

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 5d

'An inflatable replica of the Statue of Liberty is submerged in a pool in front of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, in Berlin, Germany, as part of the exhibition “Possibility of Unvernunft” (Die Moeglichkeit der Unvernunft), on September 29, 2025.' John Macdougall / AFP / Getty

Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 6d

'Whether it is pumping oil, mining resources, or shipping commodities across oceans, the global economy runs on extraction.'
soundcloud.com/this-is-hell... via This Is Hell! radio

The Global Economy Runs on Extraction / Lalah Khalili

Political Scientist Laleh Khalili joins us to discuss her new book,

soundcloud.com

1

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells.bsky.social · 9d

Tax breaks, tax credits, and subsidies are on the list.

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 9d

The Department of Energy has added these terms to its growing “list of words to avoid” because words are dangerous:

climate change
green
decarbonization
emissions
energy transition
sustainability
sustainable
clean energy
dirty energy
carbon footprint
CO₂ footprint
tax breaks
tax credits
subsidies

Energy Dept. adds ‘climate change’ and ‘emissions’ to banned words list

It is the latest in a series of Trump administration efforts to dispute, silence or downplay climate change.

www.politico.com

1 13 34

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Janne M. Korhonen @jmkorhonen.fi · 9d

Once again, right wing promised growth and employment. Once again, what they delivered was growth of unemployment.

(And tax cuts for the rich. And hundreds of millions to crony capitalists. Of course.)

Ulla Kaukola @ullakaukola.bsky.social · 9d

Piti tulla 100 000 uutta työllistä, tuli ennätystyöttömyys ja ennätyksellinen pitkäaikaistyöttömyys.
Nämä luvut ovat järkyttäviä.
www.hs.fi/talous/art-2...

Työttömyys | Työt katoavat suomalaisilta hälyttävää vauhtia – ”Suunta on hurja”

Pitkäaikaistyöttömyys kasvaa nyt erityisesti korkeakoulutettujen joukossa. Tilanne voi helpottaa vasta ensi vuoden lopulla, arvioi ekonomisti.

www.hs.fi

2 20 72

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells.bsky.social · 8d

“A broad shift to electric vehicles -- which are quieter than traditional vehicles -- could yield noise reduction benefits of $77.3 billion, concentrated among low-income families in dense urban areas.” www.nber.org/papers/w34298

The Traffic Noise Externality: Costs, Incidence and Policy Implications

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

www.nber.org

8 47 180

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 9d

The war on coal swings back to a war on human health?

‘Mine, Baby, Mine’: Trump Officials Offer $625 Million to Rescue Coal

www.nytimes.com

2 7 20

Reposted by Jussi Pasanen

Alan Taylor @kokogiak.bsky.social · 8d

Winners of the Bird Photographer of the Year 2025. The winning entries in this year’s bird-photography contest were just revealed. Competition organizers were kind enough to share some of the winners, selected from a field of more than 25,000 entries. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

A black-and-white photo of one apparently large bird flying overhead, with dozens of smaller birds flying around above. (© Jannik Jansons / Bird Photographer of the Year)

A bird stands on rocky ground, peeking out from the feathers of its chest that have been ruffled out, covering part of its head. (© Chen Ein-Dor / Bird Photographer of the Year)

A motion-blurred image of a swan landing among many other swans. (© Andreas Hemb / Bird Photographer of the Year)

An eagle stands on top of a deer carcass in a forest. (© Francesco Guffanti / Bird Photographer of the Year)

4 17