Share this page!

Zeke Hausfather Profile picture
Twitter logo
5 Aug, 4 tweets, 2 min read
This really is a key and under-appreciated challenge of climate mitigation in the US. We have become functionally unable to build big projects on time and on budget, and our litigation-driven approach to regulatory enforcement regularly holds up projects for decades.
I don't think people quite realize the scale of stuff that needs to be built to fully decarbonizing our economy by 2050. We will double or triple electricity generation, replace almost all our energy production, and build massive amounts of new transmission.
It will be hard to accomplish this without substantial regulatory reform. While we should not run roughshod over communities – particularly historically disadvantaged ones – we also need mechanisms to keep reflexive NIMBYism from delaying decarbonization.
This recent @ezraklein discussion with @JerusalemDemsas goes into the history of how we ended up in this mess, and some ways we might reform our systems to let us build things again: nytimes.com/2021/07/23/opi…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Zeke Hausfather

Zeke Hausfather Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @hausfath

Zeke Hausfather Profile picture
30 Jul
I really wish people would take time to understand the actual issue in question before tweeting hot takes. The @ScienceMagazine article is discussing high climate sensitivity of some models; it rather by definition has nothing to do with plausibility of future emissions scenarios
We covered the implausible sensitivity values in some CMIP6 models - and their disagreement with observations - last year. The solution, as the Science piece discusses, is to give more weight to models that better match observations. thebreakthrough.org/issues/energy/…
As we discussed in a review last year, there is actually strong evidence to narrow the range of climate sensitivity, both on the high end but especially on the low end: sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/a…
Read 8 tweets
Zeke Hausfather Profile picture
28 Jul
Anyone know what part of the world these records are referring to?

June 2021 was between the 3rd and 5th hottest June globally, but the warmest June in the US.

However, July 2019 was the hottest July globally but not even a top-10 July for the US...
The world is warming due to human activity. If we don't reduce emissions the impacts will be severe. But its important that we get that stats right. carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-c…
It also true that the last five Julys were the five warmest Julys on record (even if the precise ordering is a tad off), and this July is on track to make it into the top six.
Read 4 tweets
Zeke Hausfather Profile picture
26 Jul
Summer 2021 has seen record heat waves (and the hottest June on record over land regions), as well as extreme flooding. In our Q2 2021 State of the Climate update, we look back at the first six months of the year and what the next six months may hold: carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-c… Image
Despite record summer heat in some areas, globally the year has been a bit cooler than the last few so far; 2021 is the seventh warmest year on record to-date. That still means its warmer than all but seven years since record began in the mid-1800s! Image
Here is 2021 to-date in context of the long-term warming across the five major global temperature records (NASA, NOAA, Hadley/UEA, Berkeley Earth, and Copernicus/ECMWF): Image
Read 8 tweets
Zeke Hausfather Profile picture
22 Jul
The world is on track for warming of around 3C above preindustrial levels by 2100 under policies in place today. This piece in the @TheEconomist does a good job of exploring the severe impacts that level of warming could have for human and natural systems: economist.com/briefing/2021/…
This reflects ongoing work to fill in an important gap: much of the climate impacts literature has historically focused on worst-case emissions outcomes of around 4C warming, or outcomes of well-below 2C where we meet Paris Agreement goals.
Of course, the climate system is uncertain. We could well end up at 4C or more warming (or get lucky and have closer to 2C). These tail risks – perhaps more than the impacts at 3C itself – provide a strong incentive for more rapid mitigation.
Read 4 tweets
Zeke Hausfather Profile picture
21 Jul
A good opinion piece in today's NYTimes marred by an unfortunate oversight. A world with 6x more coal use than today and 3x more emissions in 2100 is decidedly not "business as usual", it is an increasing implausible worst-case outcome. nytimes.com/2021/07/21/opi…
In this case its worth noting that the study the figure comes from does not refer to RCP8.5 as "business as usual", but rather "the highest warming scenario". The world is, thankfully, currently on track for something more similar to their modest emissions reductions scenario:
For more details, see my piece with @Peters_Glen in @Nature last year: nature.com/articles/d4158…
Read 6 tweets
Zeke Hausfather Profile picture
15 Jul
Fascinating piece by @ezraklein in the @nytimes. Among the wide-ranging discussion is a mention of a silver lining: the world is on track for around 3C warming compared to the 4 to 5C that seemed likely a decade ago. Unfortunately, some caveats are needed: nytimes.com/2021/07/15/opi…
When we try to project future warming, we are really dealing with three separate sets of uncertainties. The first, which we can control, is our emissions. There we have had some good news; global coal use peaked back in 2013, and is now in structural decline according to the @IEA
This means that truly nightmarish scenarios – where global emissions double or triple by 2100 – seem a lot less likely today when clean energy sources are cheaper than fossil fuels at the margin in many places as @Peters_Glen and I discussed in @nature: nature.com/articles/d4158…
Read 10 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @hausfath has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @hausfath!

Read all threads by @hausfath

:(