Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 1d

By coincidence, I watched the Gene Kelly Ginger Rogers film that song came from last night, as an escape from the hellscape of looking at actual news, and sure, "eee-ther or eye-ther" I get, but even in the era of its release, were lots of people really saying "poe-Tah-toes" and "er-sters"?

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 1d

"Electricity is weighed in ounces" is roughly the level of intellectual rigour we know to expect from Ontario's dismantler-of-public-goods-in-chief.

Another great way to avoid talking about important issues he's mishandling, though. At that he excels.

sustainablesong.medium.com/doug-fords-o...

Doug Ford’s ongoing extremism problem

A conservative premier “condemns” the extremists he’s benefitted from for years

sustainablesong.medium.com

1 2

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 3d

Reaching 100% renewables would include challenges. Of course, *all* options have some.

The most successful pathways are the transition models with less nuclear in the mix.

If you think this IPCC data doesn't recommend we prioritize renewables, what exactly is the pro-nuclear argument here?

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 3d

Pg 38:|
"All mitigation strategies face implementation challenges. Many, such as reliance on technologies with high upfront investments (e.g. nuclear)
are significantly reduced in modelled pathways that assume using resources efficiently or shift global development towards sustainability"

1 1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 4d

Even if nuclear was inexpensive, which it isn't, it also takes at least a decade longer to come online, which is yet another reason the IPCC is extremely clear that renewables are firmly their recommendation.

You're grasping at straws for any excuse to ignore the IPCC on the climate.

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 5d

Not to worry, people who already can't afford their rent will be forced to fund a bailout for the tech bros so that the guys who inflated the bubble in the first place won't be in any way inconvenienced by the fallout.

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

Or are you instead suggesting that BloombergNEF has been producing levelized cost analysis of energy technologies that has been used by various policy makers since 2009 without ever once understanding that grid transmission lines have costs?

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

Of course, what you're doing here seems primarily an attempt to avoid the basic premise that the world's top climate experts might actually be worth listening to on this topic.

Are you contending that the IPCC is too dumb to know about transmission lines when they make their policy recommendations?

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

It is fascinating that you apparently think grid transmission lines are a cost associated with renewables that somehow isn't just as relevant to nuclear, though. Did nuclear plants suddenly stop needing the same transmission lines to transmit their power to end users and I somehow missed it?

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

Me: Quotes IPCC. Quotes leveling costs as calculated by professional organization that is relied upon to provide that specific kind of analysis for a living.

You: "You're doing it wrong."

You're not actually disagreeing with me, but with the relevant experts.

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

Rapid escalation of the worst police state tactics & violent assaults on its own citizens in America continues to breathtakingly accelerate.

NRA types who insisted they were only here to oppose tyrannical government are so gleeful to be assaulting citizens without guardrails in the service of one.

Hogula 🧛🏻‍♂️🐷🎃 @jessemackinnon.com · 6d

So armed Federal officers will come to your house in the dead of night, and you must identify yourself—again, while you are doing nothing but sleeping in your own home—and you will be deported without due process.

“Free country” shit. Cool cool

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 7d

America enters a new, dark chapter: "Kavanaugh Raids" on entire buildings and neighborhoods, a chapter surely to be remembered as infamously as we now view the "Palmer Raids" of the first Red Scare. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/welcome-to...

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

The US has a very long history of inventing new designations for civilians they'd like to murder or torture.

Like denying Guantanamo prisoners Geneva Convention protections by creating the brand new term "unlawful combatants" which simply means "people we've decided now have no rights."

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

Put another way, just the cost of France's new waste depository could instead be used to install >46,500 megawatts of new utility scale solar power capacity that wouldn't require any fancy waste management.

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/a...

'Nuclear power is one of the most expensive energies, and it makes France dependent on Russia'

OP-ED. Cost, environment, nuclear risk: Corinne Lepage, France's former environment minister, says there are several 'false truths' about nuclear power in France that should be cleared up.

www.lemonde.fr

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

So maybe it's just me, but when the IPCC keeps telling us repeatedly that renewables are by far our best option, I tend to assume that the world's top climate experts likely know what they're talking about.

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

It should also be noted that a lot of folk in France are concerned that their nuclear industry makes them overly dependent on Russia and its aligned states, which are a major source of their fissionable materials.

Another unnecessary concern when relying on free locally sourced wind & sunlight.

3

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

According to their nuclear waste agency Andra, France's new nuclear waste depository is expected to cost up to 37.5 billion euros (c.$42 billion USD).

Renewables are not only faster & cheaper, but incur no such side costs whatsoever.

What's the upside of paying 5-13x as much for power, exactly?

2

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 6d

Haven't seen that link before so will consider it.

We're still left with a choice between expensive & slow nuclear with other associated problem, or renewables that, according to BloombergNEF lifecycle analysis, produces from 5-13 times as much power per dollar invested & comes online 20x faster.

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 7d

Well on one hand, peer reviewed research comparing 27 years of data on 125 countries published in an accredited scientific journal is quite compelling, evidence wise. On the other hand, you compare apples to oranges to say "nuh-uh." Gee, tough call.

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 7d

This is not nation building. You don't strengthen a nation by worsening the greatest existential danger that our species has ever faced. You don't build a better future by torching the ecosystem.

And much higher energy prices don't help citizens either while far cheaper options are ignored. 15/

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 7d

Bill C-5, the “One Canadian Economy Act,” allows projects hand picked by cabinet to ignore a broad range of environmental laws. 14/

r.pebmac.ca/https://then...

Canada’s Bill C-5: here’s what you need to know | The Narwhal

Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, aims to build a lot of things in Canada — and fast. Here’s a guide to what it all means

r.pebmac.ca

1 1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 7d

Canada's current level of dependence on fossil fuels, even without Carney expanding it, endangers 20% of national GDP and 8% of employment by 2030. Complete peer reviewed scientific study in Nature: 13/

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Macroeconomic impact of stranded fossil fuel assets

Nature Climate Change - New fossil fuel investments may become stranded if demand for fossil fuel declines due to technological change. This could amount to a discounted global wealth loss of...

www.nature.com

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 7d

Expanding the oil sands hasn’t produced the prosperity that was long promised. 12/

www.desmog.com/2025/07/23/o...

Oil Sands Expansion Hasn’t Brought the Prosperity Alberta's Leaders Promised

Premier Danielle Smith has thrown around some vastly inflated figures. Global energy forecasters aren’t buying it.

www.desmog.com

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 7d

What expanding Canada’s oil and gas industry further does is create very expensive stranded assets. 11/

www.iisd.org/system/files...

www.iisd.org

1

Michael Nabert @sustainablesong.bsky.social · 7d

Research repeatedly confirms that expanding Canada’s fossil fuel industry is not an effective strategy for improving Canada’s economy. 10/

www.desmog.com/2025/08/18/t...

The Peak Numbers Canada’s Oil-Friendly Newspapers Keep Ignoring

Will fast-tracked oil sands infrastructure become stranded assets in four years? You won’t read about it in Canada’s mainstream outlets.

www.desmog.com

1 1