Michael Goode

Climate and DRR Communications at WFP. Views and Tweets are my own.

[Michael Goode @michaelkgoode]

2/3 children. CHILDREN. How do people involved or currently in @DOGE sleep at night? https://t.co/aYrYTl5OSE

[Michael Goode @michaelkgoode]

Only here to post a reminder, don’t let @elonmusk slither into the darkness, he needs to own up for his crimes: “As of Nov 5th, it estimated that #USAIDs dismantling has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, 2/3 of them #children.” Should be more outrage than #EpsteinFiles

[Jamie Henn @jamieclimate]

BIG NEWS: The Supreme Court just *denied* Big Oil’s request to move climate liability cases to the federal level.

That means state courts, like in Hawaii and California, will continue to decide on cases that could force Big Oil to pay for climate damages.

That’s huge.

[Nick Young @nickofnz]

Carbon offsetting explained.

#ClimateCrisis

[Chris Anderson @TEDchris]

With a certain amount of trepidation, I'm posting this open letter to @elonmusk, someone I have admired, but who, right now, is causing me concern. I know I'm not alone in thinking these thoughts. Please like or repost if you're willing... And Elon, if you're listening, please know this is offered in a constructive spirit.

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Dear Elon,

A thought hit me this morning.

On top of all your achievements in technology and entrepreneurship, you have become this century's single most influential writer.  You have more than 200 million followers on a powerful platform that you yourself control. And the words that you write flow well beyond just those followers into almost every user of X and far beyond courtesy of extensive media coverage.   This makes Rupert Murdoch at his prime seem inconsequential.

It must feel exhilarating. You made a huge gamble buying Twitter and it seems to have paid off spectacularly to the point that you can use it to massively impact the world, including changing governments.  You believe that X can largely replace most mainstream media. It is the new platform for citizen journalism, and you are citizen number 1.  You don’t need the hassle of editors and fact-checkers. Every single thing you post garners millions of likes and reposts. In a heartbeat you can change the global conversation.  No one in history has had this much power.

So there’s a lot at stake here, and, as it happens, journalism is something I care deeply about. I began my career as a journalist because I believed that good journalism was essential for the healthy functioning of democracy. Today I am worried — quite deeply worried, actually — that in your triumphant seizing of the global conversation, some of the core tenets of journalism are being forgotten. Without them, I think your efforts to make X the respected home of citizen journalism will fail.

There are numerous journalistic principles that matter — Grok can summarize them quite nicely. But there’s one in particular that’s been troubling me. It’s the fairness doctrine. The one that says that before you publish savagely critical claims about an individual, or an institution, you reach out to them for their side of the story. After all, just possibly, you may have missed a key fact or two that would change how people assess what has happened. Just possibly your sources were motivated to cause damage to that individual. Just possibly there’s an alternative explanation of what happened.

So, for example, when you tell hundreds of millions of people that someone should be hanged or jailed for outrageous crimes against humanity, just possibly you should first sound out what those who know those people really well would say about them. Some of your recent posts could literally get someone killed. Do you really want to risk that? How is it possible that you can do this at the very same time that you’re calling on people to make X more positive, more beautiful?  You say you want to maximize un-regretted user-seconds on X.  By far the simplest way you could do this, Elon, is simply to thoughtfully edit what you yourself post.

I get that from your eyes the issues you are championing are unbelievably important and worthy of extreme efforts. But the way you are presenting them is not citizen journalism. It's playground bullying. It’s crass and it’s cruel, and it’s therefore not nearly as effective as it could be.  You’re hearing the cheers of your most loyal followers, but missing the fact you’re making yourself a laughing stock among many who you really want on your side. Long-term that’s going to damage X, your other businesses, and indeed your long-term dreams for humanity.  No one wants to follow a playground bully to Mars.

I miss the old Elon. You can be funny, interesting, insightful and inspiring. You've fought incredibly hard for what you've built. And you may feel you're entitled to do whatever the hell you want with it. But I also know that you understand the danger of holding too tightly to the ring of power, how it can distort someone's judgement and turn them ugly.

I’m hoping you can loosen that ring just a little. For the love of humanity that you profess, I really urge you to embrace the fairness doctrine and showcase a better face of X.

Thanks for listening.

Chris

[Prof. Eliot Jacobson @EliotJacobson]

Breaking News!
Code Yikes!

There's nothing quite like that special feeling you get when you realize we're starting the new year off with a record daily high global surface temperature, fully 1.71°C over the 1850-1900 pre-industrial baseline.

[100 Climate Messages @climatemessages]

#ClimateCrisis #ClimateActionNow

[100 Climate Messages @climatemessages]

FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE WILL COST TRILLIONS. NOT FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE WILL COST US THE EARTH. #ClimateEmergency #ActOnClimate

[Michael Goode @michaelkgoode]

@AJamesMcCarthy Super cool, added to iPad 🙏🏼 (if you got horizontal version would be great too)

[Michael Goode @michaelkgoode]

“An emergency mobilization to make returning to a safe climate the first priority in economics and politics” wouldn’t that be great? Too bad those are entirely captured by the ones we need to be mobilizing against…

[Dr. Aaron Thierry @ThierryAaron]

🚨There is so much #Climate news that it is often hard to zoom-out & see the bigger picture.

But every now & then you read a report that brings it all together & stops you in your tracks!

'Collision Course' by @djspratt is one such report. Here are its 10 key take aways: 🧵1/n

[Al Gore @algore]

My statement on the outcome of #COP29:

While the agreement reached at COP29 avoids immediate failure, it is far from a success. On the key issues like climate finance and the transition away from fossil fuels, this is — yet again — the bare minimum.

We cannot continue to rely on last-minute half measures. Leaders today shirk their responsibility by focusing on long-term, aspirational goals that extend far beyond their own terms in office. To meet the challenge of our time, we need real action at the scale of months and years, not decades and quarter-centuries.

This experience in Baku illuminates deeper flaws in the COP process, including the outsized influence of fossil fuel interests that has hobbled this process since its inception. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been particularly obstructive. Putting the future of humanity at severe risk in order to make more money is truly disgraceful behavior. Reforming this process so that the polluters are not in effective control must be a priority.

On climate finance, our primary task in the coming years must be to not only fulfill and build upon the financial commitments agreed to at COP29, but to unleash even larger flows of affordable and fair private capital for developing countries.

Ultimately, coming out of COP29, we must transform disappointment into determination. We can solve the climate crisis. Whether we do so in time to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement will depend on what comes next.

[Hugo Tagholm @HugoSAS]

Plastic pollution is changing the processes of the entire Earth system, exacerbating climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and the use of freshwater and land, according to scientific analysis.

@sandralaville @OceanaUK @oceana @brkfreeplastic

[Prof Michael E. Mann @MichaelEMann]

I estimate more than a dozen climate-related national TV interviews canceled last minute during final few months of the election owing to "breaking news" (typically related to Trump).

So yeah, we TRIED to make climate an issue in the election. The media didn't give us any help.

[Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing]

Millions of people in the coming years are going to get sickened and disabled, based on what happens tomorrow. Choose wisely. #Vote2024 #VoteBlueChooseJoy #VoteBlue

[Mike Hudema @MikeHudema]

The #Amazon is being transformed from lush #forest into charcoal. The #rainforest is burning faster than ever before, with a record number of #fires. #Heatwaves and #droughts have turned the region into gunpowder, just waiting for natural or unnatural ignition.

#ActOnClimate

[Michael Goode @michaelkgoode]

It’s time to enact a #carbontax that puts the majority of yachts and private jets out of existence. With a high enough starting point, it won’t impact the majority of citizens and will address this egregious inequality and injustice

[Emma R @ER_Roberts_]

"Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires on average emit more carbon through their investments, private jets and yachts in just over an hour and a half than the average person does in their entire lifetime."

https://t.co/UcFqM95Tfl

[Prof Michael E. Mann @MichaelEMann]

@ChrisCJackson Indeed:

[Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf 🌏 🦣 @rahmstorf]

The open letter ‘is signed by a who’s who of the world’s most pre-eminent researchers, and they say they believe the risk has been “greatly underestimated”.’

[Michael Goode @michaelkgoode]

@Loubles0Loubles @ProfBillMcGuire In the article it says that the amount of carbon released by wildfires and droughts means that on a net-basis, there was no carbon absorbed by natural sinks in 2023, if that turns out to be a trend and not a one off due to rising temperatures, we’re cooked

[Michael Goode @michaelkgoode]

@wolfofx How do huge river basins in Libya (red, purple, blue and green) just flow into nothing?