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Michael Thomas Profile picture
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11 Nov, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Wow, I knew that China burned more coal than any country, but this graph is staggering 🤯
But the US takes the cake on fossil gas emissions
And oil
But not cement
The @OurWorldInData emissions dataset is a true gift to the world.

You can explore more of the data here - ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-f…

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More from @curious_founder

Michael Thomas Profile picture
12 Nov
Most banks use your money to fund fossil fuel projects 👎

But some banks use your money to fund #climate solutions like solar ☀️

I spent dozens of hours over the last few weeks trying to find the best climate-friendly bank.

Here's what I learned 🧵
1. Most banks are still pouring trillions into fossil fuel projects.

Here's how much the top banks have lent since Paris:

@Chase: $316 billion
@Citi: $237 billion
@WellsFargo: $223 billion
@BankofAmerica: $198 billion

Source: @RAN's latest report - ran.org/wp-content/upl…
2. Where you choose to bank has a direct impact on what projects do or don't get funded.

If you bank with @Chase or @WellsFargo, your money funds more oil rigs and coal plants.

If you switch to a sustainable bank, your money funds rooftop solar, wind farms, EVs, etc.
Read 9 tweets
Michael Thomas Profile picture
12 Nov
AHRI just released the latest data on heating and cooling installs.

353k homeowners installed natural gas furnaces in Sept.

Those installs guarantee ~4m tons of carbon emissions / year for the next 20 years.

That's 80m of carbon budget 🔥 in a single month.

#energytwitter
We need to get that number to zero ASAP. But we're trending in the wrong direction.

Here are the gas furnace install numbers for the last three Septembers:

2019: 286,870
2020: 351,087 (weird year)
2021: 353,047

Here they are for the last 2 decades (note: 2021 YTD is up 30%) Image
Now let's look at air conditioning units ❄️

All a/c runs on electricity. That's good. But most a/c units are really inefficient. That's bad.

So in the short term, installing inefficient units is its own form of fossil-fuel lock-in.
Read 9 tweets
Michael Thomas Profile picture
29 Oct
Just went through the #BuildBackBetter bill text and here are some home electrification highlights:

🧵
#energytwitter
Section 30421 provides $9 billion for home energy retrofits.

This is the biggest investment in efficiency / electrification by an order of magnitude.

Obama's Better Buildings Neighborhood Program (BBNP) invested $508 million.
The second thing to note here is that the $9 billion is the same as what was allocated in the last version of the bill.

So it appears Manchin and Sinema didn't mangle this at all.
Read 13 tweets
Michael Thomas Profile picture
28 Oct
Here's a thread on what I've learned looking at dozens of impact investing opportunities.

Tl;dr - you can make 5-10% returns and:

- Cut emissions
- Improve public health
- Invest in underserved communities

🧵
#energytwitter
1. Most people think you have to sacrifice returns to do good.

That's false.

I found tons of opportunities to invest in renewables, electrification, and regenerative agriculture.

All of them offered 5-10% returns.
2. The best opportunities tackle more than one social problem.

And there are a lot of them!

@BlocPower (led by the amazing @DBaird13) is electrifying buildings and cutting emissions.

They are also investing and creating high-paying jobs in underserved communities.
Read 11 tweets
Michael Thomas Profile picture
20 Oct
Is it more effective to reduce your personal carbon footprint or focus on collective action?

There might not be a question that divides the #climate community more.

Let's talk about why that's the wrong question and ultimately a distraction.

🧵
In the last few years there have been some great stories about Big Oil's "carbon footprint sham"

Like this story by @SkepticalRanger - mashable.com/feature/carbon…

And this one by @katemyoder - grist.org/energy/footpri…
The takeaway: fossil fuel companies like BP invented and promoted the concept of a carbon footprint.

Why?

To distract the public and shift the blame away from them and towards the individual.
Read 15 tweets
Michael Thomas Profile picture
19 Oct
In the last year heat pumps have been getting more popular.

But most people still have no idea what heck they are or why they are such an important climate solution.

So here's a thread on why heat pumps are so important for meeting our climate goals

🧵
First, it's important to understand the scale of the problem heat pumps solve.

Today the energy we use in our homes is responsible for 20% of emissions in America.

That's a billion tons per year!

Source: pnas.org/content/117/32….
If our homes were a country, they'd rank 4th in annual emissions just behind India and ahead of Russia.

4th!

Source: ucsusa.org/resources/each…
Read 18 tweets

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