Austin Whitman

Wow, just wow. The planet is breaking. Antarctic sea ice extent is the headline for me this morning. There was actually a net *decrease* in ice extent day over day, and it's mid-winter there, peak freeze season. Extent is now 6.4 standard deviations below the 1991-2020 mean.

A perfect diagrammatic representation of The #NewClimateWar (hachettebookgroup.com/titles/michael…) courtesy of Zsolt Lengyel (@Climatius_): linkedin.com/feed/update/ur…

@11thHourTeam here's Malama, by my 10 y.o. daughter. No holes. All speed.

Truly historic

Tim Urban's excellent piece on AI in 2015 left me one conclusion: in a few years, ethics will be the only subject worth teaching. Period. Ezra Klein's column this week makes me think the time has come. waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artifi… nytimes.com/2023/03/12/opi…

It's 52 degrees and raining here in MA, and the kids have a 'snow day'. School districts need new language for the new-climate era ... 'weather day' could work, or maybe a 'we're all confused day'.

It now feels so nostalgic to own a snow shovel in Boston.

e.g. bluegreenalliance.org/wp-content/upl…

Call it trade protectionism if you will, but "made in USA" also feels like climate policy when you consider the lower carbon intensity of things made here vs. most other countries.

This might be controversial but I think it’s okay to uninvite big oil to global climate negotiations after they’ve repeatedly shown that they have no intention whatsoever of winding down production, funding renewables, and staving off human extinction.

Nothing says fall in New England like the fresh cloud of VOCs from a phalanx of leaf blowers.

This is a BFD. This is a turning point in history. And this is the most optimistic I have ever felt about our ability to tackle the climate crisis. President Biden’s pen is ready – let’s get this bill to his desk.

@jjacobs22 another interesting recent article/resource on this topic: nytimes.com/interactive/20… ... i'd like to see how we pursue exponential growth in some sectors (clean energy, all low carbon, etc.) while reducing growth obsession elsewhere

I don’t personally believe degrowth is a viable path to consider. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, who would be the best person to speak with to convince me otherwise?

i love a good pun, especially when wrapped in satire ... "I’d recommend some lower core work and/or the adherence to any core values whatsoever." outsideonline.com/health/running…

Been reading more and more takes that climate bill failed because of shifting public opinion: e.g. the NYT "reported" this week (without empirical evidence!) that the public has soured on climate as the economy weakened. Nonsense. A short 🧵 1/ nytimes.com/2022/07/17/us/…

It pisses me off that Manchin killed the climate bill, but I'm just as pissed that we've all been conditioned to act as if the Senate only has 50 members. All it takes is one of the other 50. Hey how about the guy that wrote this ... he can vote, right?theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

@neheet It's a Carrier Infinity with Greenspeed

@afwhitman very helpful. In the middle of our install. I'm curious, what brand what type of system did you install?

On Earth Day eve and the tail end of heating season here in Boston, some notes on first winter after a #heatpump install. Bottom line: I wanted to be thrilled but it's been cold, expensive, and disappointing, and whole-old-home electrification has a ways to go before scaling.

@drvolts Think of it like a personal stranded asset, and scrap it. Otherwise it's a zero sum carbon game. Buyback seems like a good idea for a utility #energyefficiency program.

I don't actually know the answer to this question. If you want to replace a working gas stove w/ induction, what do you do with the gas stove? Anyone?

"Today will no doubt go down as the saddest day in the history of Uvalde. Our hearts are torn and broken." The Uvalde judge who said that just now rightly marks this saddest day for his community. (1/15)

Conclusion: Heat pump tech is cool, but success is about where and how they're installed. Doing it right in an old home is immensely complex and expensive. In our case it will be a multi-year project to get things right. Most folks won't even try w/o major incentives.

9. Home EE. It's clear we have some air sealing and insulation to do. Maybe windows as well. The lower supply temp of a HP makes drafts painfully obvious. But fixing them will be $$$.