Dr. Aaron Thierry

Graduate student at @CUSocSci - researching the role of science and scientists in the climate movement. PhD in Ecology. Activism. Climate communications.

[Dr. Aaron Thierry @ThierryAaron]

My first comment piece in @guardian is on a topic very close to my heart; the threat that the #ClimateCrisis poses to my local community in South Wales.

Here's a thread with a few extra thoughts from me 🧵

[Dr. Aaron Thierry @ThierryAaron]

Elon's twitter is no fun. I'm done with all the misinformation, trolling and hatred. There are better places to connect and interact online.

Time for me to leave for pastures Blue. I use the same handle. See you there !

[Dr. Aaron Thierry @ThierryAaron]

Elon's twitter is no fun. I'm done with all the misinformation, trolling and hatred. There are better places to connect and interact online.

Time for me to leave for pastures Blue. I use the same handle. See you there !

[George Monbiot @GeorgeMonbiot]

This is my farewell post. I am not deleting this account, as I don’t want to lose the archive, and I don’t want my name taken by imposters. But, for as long as Musk owns the platform, I’ll no longer use it. I’m now posting at https://t.co/0iVBaQEKGy.

Since Elon Musk bought this site, he has transformed it from one on which millions could converse as equals into his personal megaphone. Now the world’s richest man uses it to wage his class war, transferring blame for the ills of capitalism onto vulnerable minorities, boosting the grimmest and most antisocial accounts while suppressing the humane voices with whom he disagrees.

He has used X not only to subvert the election for the US presidency, but to create a role for himself in US politics which, though he has never stood for election and would not be eligible, grants him immense power over the citizens of that nation. This site has been used as a tool to help replace democracy with oligarchy.

Musk claimed, on purchasing the platform, to be a “free speech absolutist”. He is in fact a prolific censor, suspending dissenting accounts and using lawsuits to shut down free speech, while employing an algorithm to increase the reach of his own posts 1,000-fold. He cannot abide a level playing field.

He has permitted or encouraged the growth of a ghost army of bots and trolls to degrade the experience of all who disagree with him. Their task is not just to abuse opponents but, perhaps more importantly, to drown intelligent conversation with a tsunami of stupidity. They respond to data with denial, expertise with execration, insight with insult, humour with hatred and thinking with thuggery. They suck the meaning out of everything. The stupidity trends in one direction: in the service of economic power. It is a weapon used to suppress the possibility of a better world.

Many years ago, when I lived in Brazil, I learnt that the military dictatorship had actively sought to suppress educational levels in schools, as it saw a well-informed population as a political threat. A confused, distracted and ignorant population is easy to manipulate. Now this counter-educational model is being rolled out worldwide, and Elon Musk is its primary sponsor.

I stayed here long after I first considered leaving, as I believed it was wrong to cede the ground to an oligarch and his minions. But I came to see that those of us who do not subscribe to Musk’s grim project are being used as groundbait: stimulating the feeding frenzy of 15-minute, 24-hour hate that now powers this platform. We can no longer build anything of value here. Brute force – the unmediated power of money – has beaten humanity, intelligence, humour and democracy.

On Bluesky I can be the person I want to be, a better person than I am on X, where it is almost impossible not to get dragged into the mud. I feel I can be understood because I am not confronting a deliberate effort to misunderstand me. So I can speak more quietly.

There is no guarantee that Bluesky will not also one day be monetised by its owners or captured by self-serving billionaires. But for now it remains a place in which interesting and enjoyable conversations can be had, kindness can be shown to strangers and a better world can be imagined. I hope to see you there.

[James Murray @James_BG]

A day when you step back and wonder how the world ended up in a situation where its most powerful economy responds to ever worsening climate impacts by rejecting science, quitting international efforts to decarbonise, and drilling for more fossil fuels. https://t.co/62d2ChCxlA

[Oscar Berglund @berglund_oscar]

🧵 Our report on criminalisation & repression of Climate & Environmental protest really struck a chord around the world @crossdale @RoxyCavalcanti @UoBrisSPS @bristol_crim @SPAISBristol

[Aaron Bastani @AaronBastani]

You either believe in free speech, and freedom of assembly, or you don’t.

This is massive state overreach under the Starmer government. Again.

Solidarity @jeremycorbyn & @johnmcdonnellMP

[Carbon Brief @CarbonBrief]

Recommended listen: Neuroscientist, science communicator and UCL Climate Action Unit director Kris de Meyer spoke to Your Brain on Climate (@BrainClimate) about how to tell “stories of action”.

https://t.co/SHi4RJ7fyT

[Health for XR @DoctorsXr]

📣 Want to help Dr Patrick Hart, working GP who was jailed for 12 months for sounding the alarm on the health threats of the climate emergency?

Check out these quick actions to support him

👇👇👇👇👇

🌍

[Will Norman @willnorman]

20mph speed limits in London has cut fatal & serious collisions by 25%. 🚲👨‍🦽‍➡️🚶❤️

And now car insurance companies are saying that it’s helping reduce the cost premiums because of fewer claims. 💷💷💷

[Prof. Ryan Katz-Rosene @ryankatzrosene]

Having just researched and written a book about the history of the growth-environment debate, I can confirm that Alex has completely mischaracterized both mainstream climate change mitigation efforts AND the Degrowth movement here👇

It's a classic rhetorical strategy aiming to legitimize his extreme fringe position on fossil fuels by mischaracterizing what the vast majority of folks involved in climate change mitigation today actually seek (gotta admit he's very good at this though).

Mainstream global climate mitigation efforts - since at the very least the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 - have *always* been about trying to stop further dangerous global warming while enabling continued economic growth and development. Just look at the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which explicitly seek to "Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth" (Goal 8).

Are there Degrowthers who also are part of the "climate change movement" today? Yes, of course, but a) Most social inequality-focused Degrowthers are extremely critical of neo-Malthusian arguments about population (that is, they locate 'the problem' primarily in social inequality, not 'population growth'); and b) they are not anti-technology, nor do they even oppose growth in the "majority world", as anyone who has bothered to read even one 'Degrowth' text would know.

Are there anti-population growth, anti-technology folks who are part of the 'Climate Change movement'? Most likely, yes... but from what I can tell, many of these folks are extremely nihilistic about the present socio-ecological context; they see collapse as inevitable now and so many are not really very active in the 'climate movement', as it were (though of course there are exceptions here). Moreover, the originating kernel of these neo-Malthusian arguments, going back Ehrlich and Hardin, arose from neo-classical economic ideas about the scarcity of resources in the context of changing supply and demand dynamics - that is, it arose from *fears of economic decline* brought about by changing demographics (they wanted to reduce population to ensure per capita economic stability).

Alex completely disregards how mainstream climate change mitigation efforts today seek to transition the world energy system away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible, not merely to stop global warming, but also to reduce the dangerous toll that fossil fuel combustion places on human health from air pollution. Even countries like China and India - which are indeed increasing their fossil fuel consumption - are heavily investing in low carbon energy and pursuing strategies to decarbonize their economies. This isn't to say they don't face challenges or contradictions in their approaches, but to paint the entire global effort as some kind of anti-growth 'smokescreen' is wildly inaccurate and reductive. Alex's pro-fossil fuel perspective is reminiscent of the Chinese Communist Party circa the early 1990s, when the world was confronted with much less warming compared to today, and when there were fewer practical or cost-effective technological alternatives to fossil fuels; this is the complete opposite of our present situation, when renewables and battery storage and nuclear and hydro and geothermal and heck even synth-fuels and next-gen biofuels are far more advanced and affordable.

Finally, let's talk about the American climate movement: Does a 'Green New Deal' - sought by many American climate activists today - sound like it's anti-growth, anti-population, anti-technology to you? The (original) New Deal was explicitly a plan to stimulate economic growth, create jobs, and invest in public infrastructure... and the 'Green New Deal' is no different in its fundamental goals: It aims to transition the economy away from fossil fuels while creating millions of well-paying jobs, reducing inequality, and ensuring that the benefits of a clean energy economy are shared broadly.

Ergo, my advice is to interpret what Alex is saying here with extreme skepticism. It's oversimplified, strategically-framed, hogwash. It sounds a whole lot like Big Oil company PR talking points, designed to continue enriching Corporate elites' pocketbooks.

[Daniel Swain @Weather_West]

To those claiming "This is normal for SoCal! It's always like this! There are always offshore winds in January! Vegetation dryness is irrelevant!", please reconsider your misinformation. This is intel intended directly for wildland fire personnel. #CAfire #CAwx #LAfires

[David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells]

“The biggest lesson that we need to learn is that we are just plain not prepared for the climate that we have created. Our world is not built for the climate that we live in, and the biggest change is going to require acknowledging that fact.” https://t.co/Js78Ikv0Cu

[dr. gianluca grimalda @GGrimalda]

"In what was the first known case of an employee being fired for refusing to take a plane to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a climate researcher has been now awarded a payout." 🙏@JulietteRowsell for telling my story on @timeshighered. 👉https://t.co/pu7b7hDGnF

[Dave Vetter @davidrvetter]

Federal reserve withdraws from global climate coalition. File under "obeying in advance"
https://t.co/shD5idXMQe

[Dr. Aaron Thierry @ThierryAaron]

11/ @PlanetCritical_ Podcast - "Planetary Solvency which warns that widely used but deeply flawed assessments of the economic impact of climate change render policymakers blind to the immense risk created by current trajectories."

https://t.co/Tzncedtb96

[Dr. Aaron Thierry @ThierryAaron]

7/ “Widely used but deeply flawed assessments of the economic impact of climate change show a negligible impact on GDP, rendering policymakers blind to the immense risk current policy trajectories place us in.” - Sandy Trust, Lead author and IFoA Council Member

[Tristan McCowan @MccowanTristan]

Join us for a collaborative roundtable discussion on ‘Key Insights on Education for Planetary Futures.’

Mon 20th Jan, 5-6pm (UTC)

https://t.co/R985zz4j3Q

[Sophie McNeill @Sophiemcneill]

Important thread by climate scientist Bill Hare about incredibly high sea temps right now off the WA coast & concerns this large scale fish kill could be the result of a Marine Heatwave ⬇️ #ClimateEmergency

[Dr Steve Westlake @steviedubyu]

I was interviewed by @voxdotcom about celebs and the LA wildfires

If celebs and leaders visibly reduce their carbon footprints in response, it sends a powerful signal about the driver of climate disasters (fossil fuels) and the need for urgent change
https://t.co/PzhOqIAlG5

[Carbon Brief @CarbonBrief]

NEW – Met Office: Atmospheric CO2 rise now exceeding IPCC 1.5C pathways | @richardabetts @metoffice

Read here ➡️ https://t.co/352kht9C1z