A few hours. My employer feels it’s important that I sit in front of my computer in their building, rather than in my home.

Yeah, it can get messy, depending on which data source you’re looking at, or if one article pulls from multiple different data sources. But I agree, any increase in coal use is a bad thing, and certainly no one should be building new coal plants, and we should be retiring existing coal plants ahead of schedule.

Seeing the recent news that renewables has overtaken coal for global energy supply makes me happy, but there’s still so much work that needs to be done.

I’m not arguing that coal use isn’t growing. Rather, I’m saying that the assumptions researchers made when making the RCPs, about the availability of coal and the rate at which its use would increase, do not line up with what actually happened. As well, the price of renewables has dropped faster than was previously expected. So I’m just saying we shouldn’t base our understanding of where we are and where we’re headed on outdated and flawed models.

This article is a few years old, but it gets into the weeds about RCP 8.5, if you’re interested: https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-the-high-emissions-rcp8-5-global-warming-scenario/

We are not still on track for RCP 8.5. That pathway was based on continuing growth in coal use that was seen in the early 2000s that didn’t continue. And the dramatic drop in price for renewables and batteries is already having an impact, and the energy transition will continue. (Whether the US likes it or not.)

I’m not trying to pretend everything is fine, it’s absolutely not, but we need to be realistic about what our trajectory is. Right now, I think we’re on track for 3C by 2100, closer to RCP 4.5 or RCP 6, which is still awful. But it shows that we have made progress relative to 20 years ago, and there is still plenty more work to be done. Every fraction of a degree matters, and I’m not throwing in the towel yet.

Cheers 🍻 and I appreciate it, but it’s all good! It’s a reasonable assumption to make, given the context

Yeah, that’s fair

It is broad, yeah. And I can’t speak for everyone, but speaking from my own experience, I certainly resent that my parents made that decision for me. Especially given that there’s no medical reason for it, I don’t see any reason why someone should violate someone else’s bodily autonomy like that.

Edit: also, not a boy :)

If you want your child to resent you for mutilating them with unnecessary surgery without their consent, go for it. If you want to be a good parent, don’t.

Not that I had a reason to go there before, but now I’ll definitely never go to Iowa. Goes on the list with Florida and Texas.

Sink it is, then.