Mastodawn

Interesting to think that Donald Trump may have, completely inadvertently and at a horrific cost, finally woken up the world to how urgent it is we get off our dangerous addiction to fossil fuels.
Electrify everything.
Ban the production of gasoline-powered vehicles.
Tax oil companies dry.
Subsidize all renewables and EVs.

Joel VanderWerf Mar 9

@petergleick I feel like we're in an Asimov story where Trump is remembered thousands of years hence for this one contribution to human progress.

François @Jura Mar 9

@joelvanderwerf @petergleick

Trump’s contribution to human progress: a very nice oxy-moron

✶Rayotron✶Mar 9

@FrancoisPrague @joelvanderwerf @petergleick

Trump is oxymoronic? I thought he was C02 moronic.

Hänzi Pōtter Mar 9

@rayotron @FrancoisPrague @joelvanderwerf @petergleick I think #trump contribution to human progress is to serve as an example of "how NOT to be"

@joelvanderwerf
Kind of like the inventor of the Holocaust death gas also saving more lives than possibly anyone in history because he also invented artificial fertilizer?
@petergleick

@dpflug no because haber actually did science vs just throw a fit, but i take your drift

@joelvanderwerf @petergleick

@bweller
Also fair
@joelvanderwerf @petergleick

Andrew Zonenberg Mar 9

@petergleick I don't understand why more governments around the world don't see "our entire economy revolves around an expensive quantity in limited supply, primarily found in one of the most war-torn and politically unstable regions in the planet" as a serious national security risk.

Like, forget all of the environmental concerns, if your country were utterly dependent on corn or steel or any other commodity only found in a region that was constantly at war causing random price spikes, you'd think you'd be making removal of that dependency a nationwide priority.

@azonenberg @petergleick

Sounds like a supply chain risk 😜

@azonenberg @petergleick I guess it’s partly because many of the people in those governments have vast amounts of personal wealth coming from the companies that produce those commodities.

Archmage of Procrastination Mar 9

@WiteWulf @azonenberg @petergleick

Yep

@azonenberg dependancy on politically high risk countries again does not pay out, it literally only pays out for the polititians signing the contracts. Green - renewable energy - is available in independance of politics as long as the sun shines and the wind blows.
And there lies the answer why our politicians cling so hard on fossil resources: it fills their personal pockets.
#politics #energycrisis #TrumpEpsteinFilesDistractionAttemptWar
@petergleick
edit: 1 typo removed

GhostOnTheHalfShell Mar 9

@Ilka4You @azonenberg @petergleick

If you have a global supply chain to produce solar and wind.

The presumption is swapping out the energy source for the planet killing global economy, to make the CO2 go away and that will save us when the problem is a planet killing global economy.

It will never ever live within planetary boundaries because it’s structured on being outside of them. The cheapest and healthiest and most prosperous pathway is to re-localize economies.

Misuse Case Mar 9

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @Ilka4You @azonenberg @petergleick People be like “sunshine is free and it’s everywhere,” but the rare earths for making solar panels and batteries are not.

Connor Cadellin Mar 9

@MisuseCase @GhostOnTheHalfShell @Ilka4You @azonenberg @petergleick on the battery front there's been progress recently on sodium ion, which doesn't require rare earth metals. The first sodium ion EV is launching this year.

Misuse Case Mar 9

@cadellin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @Ilka4You @azonenberg @petergleick Well if we could stop using lithium and cobalt mined with child slave labor that would be nice.

@MisuseCase agreed, it would be. Science is tirelessly working on this. Politics cut fundings as they please to continue the cash flow to their pockets.

@cadellin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @azonenberg @petergleick

@MisuseCase
For grid storage, lithium ion batteries, which contain cobalt and nickel, aren't suitable. Lithium iron phosphate has only lithium as a rare mineral, so it's cheaper, and it's also more durable, safer, and more cold tolerant, so it's already becoming the default for all large scale batteries. And even the lithium is eliminated in sodium batteries, which improve again upon cost, durability, safety, and cold temperature performance; they lose out on energy density, but noone cares about that for grid storage.
@cadellin @GhostOnTheHalfShell @Ilka4You @azonenberg @petergleick

@MisuseCase I recognize this is over simplyfied - in a post that is limited to 500 signs you kinda have to rely on ppls common sense and ability to use it.
Weigh up the pro & contra - you might be suprised how beneficial sustainability is. I am stating renewable energy can be unrelated to political dependancies, I DID NOT say it is for free.

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @azonenberg @petergleick

Misuse Case Mar 9

@Ilka4You @GhostOnTheHalfShell @azonenberg @petergleick I am not saying that because I don’t know how renewables work or because I don’t know how they compare to burning dead dinosaurs. I’m saying that because I *do* know.

"Mediocre Bunny" Evelyn Mar 9

@azonenberg @petergleick
But (and I am not enough of a political scholar to really know this), isn’t it the dependency of powerful nations on a crucial commodity in less powerful nations that leads to a lot of that political instability?
A global switch to renewable energy (which, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for) could be expected to heighten tensions in areas rich in say, lithium, while some oil-rich areas might finally cool off.

Andrew Zonenberg Mar 9

@Gorfram @petergleick to some extent but the 3 major abrahamic faiths have been at each other's throats over the region for millennia (I won't even get into Sunni vs Shiite infighting etc). The tribes of Afghanistan haven't got along for ages either although I don't think the conflict is quiiite as old.

Adding oil disputes to the mix is just another match on a dumpster fire that's been burning for generations. The region would have been a massive supply chain risk no matter what.

Roger Moore Mar 9

@Gorfram @azonenberg @petergleick
There's a key difference: batteries can be recycled. Fossil fuels are taken out of the ground, burned, and released into the air. Batteries gradually degrade over time, but the valuable materials in them can be recovered and used to make new batteries.

Roger Moore Mar 9

@Gorfram @azonenberg @petergleick
I strongly recommend a recent video from @TechConnectify that talks about this at length. He makes a very clear distinction between reusable energy infrastructure, like solar panels and rechargeable batteries, and consumables like fossil fuels.

https://youtu.be/KtQ9nt2ZeGM?si=T71MHlqDSm1I07Q5

You are being misled about renewable energy technology.

YouTube

Sandor Spruit 🇪🇺🇳🇱🇺🇦🇨🇦Mar 9

@azonenberg @petergleick I think that, over the last decades at least, you could have made a decent case against the use of fossil fuels without even mentioning climate change.

@azonenberg @patrickhadfield @petergleick Of course there is an obvious link between resources, war and political instability 🤔

🔶Mark Nicoll 3.5%🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳Mar 9

@azonenberg @petergleick
it's constantly at war because if the US, Russia, and/or Europe isn't starting wars there, it's selling weapons to warlords, dictators, and other repressive regimes there.
It's almost as if the massive oil companies and non middle eastern oil producing countries benefit from the instability of supply from there, and the sudden price hikes that result from these conflicts.

James Tweedie Mar 9

@azonenberg @petergleick Worth reading these in relation to food production/supply. Very long read!
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:codfx2epdduamfycuyi5fjpb/post/3mgn7w7anxc23

George Monbiot (@georgemonbiot.bsky.social)

In 2023, I sought to explain to a parliamentary committee what a structural collapse of the global food system would look like, and why this this is plausible - even likely. I think the likelihood has just ratcheted up a notch. I beg you to read and understand. Thanks https://www.monbiot.com/2023/03/09/the-hunger-gap/

Bluesky Social

@petergleick ...also: massively subsidize trains and other public transports, too.

BeeCycling Mar 9

@dryak @petergleick And repeal the zoning laws that prevent businesses setting up in suburbs, forcing Americans living there to have to travel miles for things Europeans can stroll around the corner to get.

@beecycling @petergleick Yup, that's another thing that we enjoy in our corner of the world.
That and bikeable city center (even if we're not the Netherlands, we still have it very good in some Swiss cities)

revenge of the boltzmann brain Mar 9

@petergleick it didn't happen 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine so why should it be different this time.

As an example: Germany just now abandoned legislation demanding carbon neutral heating in new buildings and actively tries to undermine the EU wide ban of new ICE vehicles starting 2035.

David Culley Mar 10

@robert Yes, but their decisions are deeply unpopular even with companies, and even the companies are starting to revolt against it.

Jeff Atwood Mar 9

@petergleick 💯

I bet there are queues forming at EV car yards.

Trump doing more to promote EVs than any marketing program before him.

Oil company execs caught between joy at high oil prices and dispair at EV take up, regardless of their disinformation campaigns.

Eggs now in different baskets.Mar 9

@petergleick 1/2 Perhaps in the middle of all of this we can not lose sight of the fact that, modern electric cars are, from a data privacy perspective an absolute disaster and incredibly invasive.

I do not want to give up my anonymous petrol-engined car that cannot leak any data and cannot be hacked remotely until I can buy an electric car that has these features.

Get rid of the iPads in the middle of dashboards. And the surveillance cameras festooned all over the cars.

Eggs now in different baskets.Mar 9

@petergleick 2/2 With open FOSS computer systems that are free of the control of surveillance capitalist billionaires.

Such that I can install LinuxMint Nissan Leaf Edition and rid myself of all financial dependencies on corporations who really do not need to fleece me or anyone else any more.

And rid myself of the inevitable enshittifiction that follows closed source walled garden digital ecosystems.

https://youtu.be/T4Upf_B9RLQ

A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator

YouTube

@the_wub @petergleick This is not a feature of electric cars, but of all modern cars.

Eggs now in different baskets.Mar 9

@IcyBee @petergleick Yes correct, but I live in a country where 16 petrol cars were sold last month. After a total of 487 petrol vehicles sold in the whole of 2025.

So when I have money for one of todays new cars, in about 15 years time when depreciation has given me a helping hand it is unlikely that there will be any secondhand petrol cars for sale.

https://www.abcnyheter.no/livsstil/norge-2026-bare-16-nye-bensinbiler-er-registrert/1441927

Norge 2026: Bare 16 nye bensinbiler er registrert

Trenden fra 2025 slår enda tydeligere ut i år.

ABC Nyheter

@the_wub @petergleick Keep an eye on Slate Auto. They're promising no data connection on their EV trucks. They're doing it to cut costs, but it happens to be a privacy bonus.

Eggs now in different baskets.Mar 9

@kbob @petergleick

I am aware of Slate but no thanks. I might as well buy a Tesla if I really want to support a billionaire.

In such a scenario I would prefer to wait until batteries are small enough to provide a weight to range ratio closer to that of a fossil fueled car and convert one of my old cars to an EV. Or buy an L7e class car with the minimum of electronics in it.

https://www.newsweek.com/slate-auto-confirms-funding-bezos-involvement-2069605

Slate Confirms $700 Million in Funding, Bezos Investment

Slate Auto, the startup electric vehicle manufacturer, confirmed to Newsweek that the company closed on $700 million in Series A and B funding in late 2024.

Newsweek

BeeCycling Mar 9

@the_wub @petergleick The best alternative to a petrol driven car is no car. (Though it's going to take a lot of work to get America to the point where not having a car is viable for most people, given the way they've ruined their cities.)

Eggs now in different baskets.Mar 9

@beecycling @petergleick Living without a car would be very different in this bit of rural Norway.

We are nowhere as remote from services as many people in the US are.

So I think that cars are going to be an essential part of our lives for some time to come.

Do we want surveillance economy vehicles that make billionaires richer or do we want something else that we have much more control over that meet our transport needs in similar ways?

Petr Skála Mar 9

@petergleick Nejbezpečnějšími a nejlevnějšími zdroji energie jsou Slunce, vítr a voda.
👍 👍 👍

Sue Nethercott Mar 9

@petergleick and he's getting rid of a large stockpile of weapons. But not nuclear weapons, thank goodness. Not that way.

That would indeed be at least some light at the end of this tunnel…

daniel lublin Mar 9

@petergleick ...and stop producing electricity from fossil fuels and other non-renewables

Peet Tet.....Mar 9

Clinton Anderson SwordForHire Mar 9

#FuckOilAndGas
#JustStopOil
#StopBurningStuff
#LeaveItInTheGround

GhostOnTheHalfShell Mar 9

Petrol is a byproduct of refining diesel fuel, which is still backbone of most industrial energy use.

Swapping out the energy source of the planet killing global economy doesn’t stop it from killing the planet.

The cheapest energy is the stuff we never dig up or burn. Or need to use.

The next time you need to do some shopping, push your car to the shopping mall, so you can get a visceral appreciation of the basic physics and the stupidity of it all

Lsamuelson57 Mar 9

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @petergleick

We just picked up several days worth of food from a grocery store during our pleasant walk to the river.

Nobody with a room temperature IQ is proposing elimination of our destructive dependency on oil oligarchs immediately.

We propose doing the research, development and work to get off our asses and move away from that addiction. Costs of decentralized energy production are falling and every such installation reduces the power of oil oligarchs.

GhostOnTheHalfShell Mar 9

@Lsamuelson57 @petergleick

A car free community doesn’t need 90% of all the resources needed to build car infrastructure. It doesn’t need the land necessary for car infrastructure the parking spaces the freeway is the parking lot all that can be put to different use and all that paving over that’s resulted in the destruction of the living skin of the planet can be undone.

GhostOnTheHalfShell Mar 9

@Lsamuelson57 @petergleick

It’s quieter, safer more healthy, and less expensive for the government as well as the people living in the community, it makes local business more prosperous. All of this has been researched. All of this is known, especially by the civil engineering profession.

The industrial food supply chain burns 10 to 15 fossil fuel calories to bring one food calorie to table.

Being able to live well off of your region is by definition living within planetary boundaries.

Lsamuelson57 Mar 9

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @petergleick

Yes to both responses.

We can build infrastructure that could significantly reduce the ongoing damage while improving quality of life generally.

Captain Jack Sparrow Mar 9

why, what has he said?

swggrkllr3rd Mar 9

@petergleick Personally I think the middle east petro contries are linked to epstein case. They get dirt on these politicians from the west so they keep voting fossil fuel.