Interested in geospatial AI, data visualization & climate. @Climatebase Cohort #5 Fellow Alum. Former frontend developer at @BerkeleyGIF on @cal_adapt.
After months of hard work, we are happy to announce launch of our updated website! https://t.co/gGVyEaxztf
Whats new? updated Help, new Get Started section for working with climate data, better tools ux & links to other state climate resources
Learn more https://t.co/tzLBgSRHK4
Everything about Artemis II is anti-grift and that’s why it feels so exceptional. It’s all about long term planning, engineering, excellence, dedication, big dreams, teamwork, sacrifice for something bigger than ones-self, and follow-through.
These things are no longer default mode of operation.
This Yglesias piece in the NYT is really bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: https://t.co/kbWZ0barjC
Yesterday, a number of newspapers published an article on the @NCRA_Outreach Pune's discovery of the Alaknanda galaxy. But most of them didn't do a good job of highlighting why this is a big deal. So I wrote a thread explaining the science in simple terms that anyone can understand.
🚨NEWS: Exxon is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to grant corporations a new First Amendment right to avoid disclosing how much toxic pollution they are spewing and how much they are incinerating the atmosphere that supports all life on the planet.
There are a lot of things I agree with in Bill Gates' new climate memo, but I think it sets up a false dichotomy between reducing emissions and helping the world's poorest. I've put together a piece with my thoughts over at TCB: https://t.co/Ne39HLxFOt
I wanted to offer some thoughts on the Gates climate memo that has been circulating this week. While I can't directly speak for others, I can say that my own response is one of dismay & deep frustration (and that this view is shared by many climate/Earth scientists). [1/n]
It's hard to overstate just how off the charts warm the Pacific is right now. The swath of the basin from California to Japan (a HUGE area) from 25N to 60N is ~3F (1.6C) above normal. To put it into math terms that is 6 Sigma/ standard deviations above the mean. I won't bother calculating the chances of this happening against the late 20th century climate - let alone the pre-climate change climate - because the numbers would show it simply could never happen without global warming.
So let's talk about why this is happening. Since the last El Nino a couple of years ago the ocean has been rearranging its warm/cool water, as it typically does as a normal part of it's natural oscillation. (This summer a record ridge/ heat dome was parked over the N Pacific).
But each next time this configuration lines up (warm north Pacific/ cool tropical Pacific) it piles on a higher and higher baseline temperature over time due to greenhouse warming, air pollution reduction, and the feedbacks (clouds & direct insolation) of both. So we end up with the bottom chart which shows the standardized anomaly (departure from normal) is sloping upward at a very unnatural rate an alarming rate.
The carnage everywhere in Himalaya seems shocking. But locals knew about instability. Geology confirmed it. Yet, reckless construction is being permitted. No accountability from overseeing agency. Listen to Geologist Prof. Bisht on Devbhoomi Dialogues.
https://t.co/E21om8vHTu
Three years ago, Texans paid over $500 million when a heatwave spiked electricity prices.
This year, under almost the same conditions, they paid 1/10th the price... thanks to solar and storage.
Read more: https://t.co/eXNokuFyyr
Solar is a *lot* cheaper than diesel.
Solar saves a ton of money, even if you already own a diesel generator, and it makes electricity affordable for people who never had access before.
This is Starlink for energy.
Something remarkable just happened in Pakistan.
In only 8 months, citizens built the equivalent of half the country’s national electric grid, without waiting for government or utilities.
How?
☀️ Cheap solar panels
☀️ TikTok tutorials showing how to install them
☀️ Farmers leading the way, swapping diesel pumps for solar
The results:
✅ Diesel sales dropped 35% in one year
✅ Families slashed costs and gained energy independence
✅ National demand on the grid actually declined because of so much distributed generation
This isn’t just about Pakistan. It’s a glimpse of how fast the world can shift when technology gets cheap enough and people take energy into their own hands.
These are the kinds of numbers that change the world.
🎧 Full Energy Capital Podcast episode with Bill McKibben here: https://t.co/nFOzLoXkLW
#EnergyTransition #Solar #Pakistan #EnergyCapitalPodcast
In today’s @latimes: My column on the Western power grid proposal that’s dividing environmentalists. Sierra Club and NRDC on one side, Center for Biological Diversity and Indivisible on the other. Read all about it: https://t.co/6ZV6Rqydkp
Sigh. NOAA's https://t.co/IdkyAGg0od website is expected to stop adding new content after nearly the entire staff was fired at the end of May.
Whether the website will be archived, shut down entirely, or repurposed with Trump-aligned content is unclear.
https://t.co/ueT5nKdlyS
Indian Ocean is moving to a near-permanent marine heatwave state.
Marine heatwaves, periods of extremely high temperatures in the ocean, are expected to increase from 20 days per year to 220–250 days per year.
Read more: https://t.co/JuDsnmFsI9
In 2020, we returned to our family’s heritage tea estate in Darjeeling with the intention of selling it.
Our family had been custodians of Darjeeling’s estates for three generations. However, facing bankruptcy and collapse, due to climate change and the pandemic, our family was simply unable to hold on to it. But, @SparshAgarwall and I were inspired by the forests, the people, and the promise of Darjeeling. Our journey led us back to our roots.
We spent the next few years trying to reimagine the space of the tea estate. We started with moving to Selim Hill Tea Estate in Darjeeling, & eventually carbon markets emerged as the most promising path for creating supplementary incomes for these large, heritage tea estates, and its local communities. After months of deep research; across labs, farms, and policies — we formally launched @AltCarbonIndia in Q4 2023.
Alt Carbon is a deep-tech, science and data company for undertaking climate action. We bring together farmers, scientists, and engineers to remove CO₂.
With Speed. At Scale.
We are glad to announce our latest $12 million seed round - led by @lachygroom, with participation from existing funds like Shastra VC and angel investors including @jasonzhao, Amrendra Singh, @thetanmay , @arjunssoin, @NakuulMehta, @arjun_ramani3, @AdvaithV, @ultasawaal and more…
Shoutout to Alankrita, Sruthi and the @actgrants team for enabling us with catalytic philanthropic capital.
Here’s what’s next:
1. We will build the agricultural infrastructure for Climate Action — to bring down costs & enable Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) across South Asia. Our mission: Remove 5 million tons of CO₂ by 2030.
2. Scientifically prove the scalability of ERW through the Darjeeling Revival Project. Scale our learning. Design more projects. Chart a path to gigaton removal by 2040.
3. Improve our science, conduct advanced R&D, collect high quality data, create Machine Learning models that accelerate our operations across the board.
4. Build credibility and demand for ERW from the Global South, for the world.
5. Sipping on the world’s greatest tea while doing this. (DM me about Chandni xD)
We started Alt Carbon because of a romantic love affair with Darjeeling.
To those who saw what we saw — thank you for fueling this journey and believing in us early: @awaisahmedna, @EvanMula, @acv , @vsiv, @SinglaAnirudh@somani_utsav, Ravish Ratnam, Sangarsh Nigam, Mukesh Chamedia, Ashish Nayak, Jivesh Madan, Rahul Sunder, @Mandybuoy, @vidyamadhavan2, Abhimanyu, Ajeet, Tsuji-san, Sawamura-san, Yamazumi-san, Kawaguchi-san, Murao-san, Hirose-san and so many more...
We’re hiring across all teams. Come build the future of climate action with us.
The difference between an ice age & an interglacial is roughly 100 ppm CO2.
We are currently about 150 ppm over the amount of atmospheric CO2 that heralded the birth of civilization.
Just imagine how our planet is going to change, and w no end in sight until net-zero emissions.
*Historic*: China’s CO2 emissions fell for 1st time ever over more than a year despite rapid power demand growth, because of the spectacular consistency of the growth in China’s clean power generation
Incredibly meaningful on so many levels
https://t.co/kOjWqMfV7c