Climate activists are blind to something big and it's thwarting our efforts. We attack problems with technofixes, mandates, and moralism -- but all too often we fail to look closely enough to see and address the real barriers to change: 🧵 For example - on Feb 27 @billmckibben proposed a "Heat pumps for peace and freedom" plan to ramp up low carbon hvac production and liberate Europe Russia's control of their heating fuels billmckibben.substack.com/p/heat-pumps-f…

I've been unusually quiet, here - just wanted to let you all know what's going on. This is my last week at Grist, next week I start full time as a trainee electrician. Over the last few years I've found myself feeling increasingly jealous of the people I interview - foresters, power plant workers, farmers - in short people who interact with physical atoms rather than bits.

🧵 The wildfires in California are extraordinary, and the more I report on them the more amazing they seem - a few examples from my latest piece: grist.org/wildfires/outp… Jeff Marsolais, Eldorado National Forest supervisor: "All of the fuels experts I have been around — people with 40-, 50-year careers — have never seen conditions like this. We were ordering up air tankers for initial fire attacks in January." January!

I get frustrated with environmental NIMBY's who block clean energy projects. But I also agree with their arguments: solar plants can trample tribal rights, kill tortoises, and alter aesthetics of the landscape. Those thing hit me in the gut. wsj.com/articles/solar… The frustration sets in when no one frankly acknowledges that EVERY new clean power station is going to "destroy this land forever,” wherever that land may be. And EVERY big infrastructure project like this requires balancing the wishes and rights of different groups.

So much good stuff happening at @grist - the website. Remodeled down to the studs. grist.org And wait, there's more A great Grist 50 is out: grist.org/grist-50/2021/

Tomorrow night Berkeley, CA, will vote on ending single family zoning. It's something local activist Dorothy Walker has been working on for half a century. My story: grist.org/cities/zoned-o… Cities across the US are allowing more diverse housing by doing away with single family zones - see also Oakland, San Jose, which are exploring the idea

My buddies @mehannibal and @the_wrangler on opposite sides of the John Muir debate latimes.com/local/californ… My two cents: Instead of canceling the guy, I wish we would take this opportunity to understand the man in full -- not just as a prophet or a wilderness mystic, but as an affluent farmer who went to war with nature on his ranch, but deemed it sacred when hiking in the mountains.