This is a good example of a climate technology that solves a problem in the current economy. That results in significant investment and only moderate pushback. The pushback on fire safety after the Moss Landing 2025 fire quickly brought new safety standards—that haven't slowed installations.

Outside my office window just now, a fawn looking for her mother. I love our neighborhood deer. This is at least partly due to the fact that my native plants are relatively immune to serious damage from them. The neighbors roses are not so lucky. #nature

A beautiful walk this morning along the creek in Sycamore Grove park. This is about 1 mile from my house, and gives me a lot of peace. I was too late for birds though. #nature #birds

This egret comes to my little pond in mid summer when the local stream runs dry (reservoir fed). It eats my planted native fish. I've never had anything so beautiful in my yard. I'll get more fish. #birds #nature

Sterling North wrote a book that I truly loved as a child - Rascal. I have never lost my fondness for these little devils, although I have become quite cautious of their offensive capabilities.

Our little garden pond attracts raccoons that like the native snails. This time of year the babies (kittens) in the neighborhood are big enough to get over the fence and have their first fishing lesson. Usually it is splashing and wrestling! Last night a mom and four new ones. I do love them.

Moon over Livermore. We call our house Moon House because the moon is so prominent in our view. I just learned that the Japanese have a tradition of moon-viewing called tsukimi, and that where were pavilions and decks built for that purpose. I endorse that tradition 😀

OMG this is hilarious. Thank you for brightening my day and cautioning me to keep my door closed at night. We have raccoons almost every night eating the native snails in our pond – I bet they don't get the sugar rush yours did!

Wow. #energysky @akshatrathi.bsky.social

It is hard to transmit progress to general audiences. I love this plot from Ember showing that global electricity generation growth in 2025 was entirely met by clean energy. Fossil had no growth. Globally. Entirely. I will be using this a lot. ember-energy.org/app/uploads/... #energysky

Yesterday it was not all that surprising that renewables were meeting California's needs and charging the batteries and being exported. But at 10 pm the gas plants were still not providing much, with 6 GW batteries and 3 GW of SunZia NM wind (in the imports). Data from CAISO.com #EnergySky

We’ve worked for three years to get milkweed to grow. Last year a volunteer popped up in the garden box. This year it attracted a monarch that laid eggs!! I am so stoked. #butterfly 🦋 #insect #nature

A grosbeak decided it wanted the feeder all to itself. #birds

Bluebird bathing will continue as well. #birds

Mohawk butterfly for the win! 🦋

The butterflies in Las Trampas park are amazing today. The relatively rare pinevine swallowtail is everywhere (blue tail). 🦋

The Anna's chase the migrant hummingbirds off the citrus trees - this Rufous (I think) is trying out the New Zealand tea tree.🪶

When the Orange trees bloom, the hummingbirds feast. I think this is a female Anna's hummingbird. They stay here all year. 🪶

I caught these two red tails making little red tails. The girl flew away but the boy stayed to strut a little...🪶

Always one of my favorite days of the year - first poppies!

I believe this is the mating ritual of the Northern Flicker. They are 'skypointing' as I have seen larger birds do. There was a group of 6 or 8 in this tree – this pair seems to have hit it off. 🪶

Always excited to see a wood duck. They are so shy I would never see them except for the long lens.

I was birding in my local park when a river otter poked up through the duckweed. I didn't see the fish until I got home and zoomed in! The long view is the pool where I saw the otter, in the distance.

Occasionally flock of robins or cedar wax wings (or both) descend on my toyon bushes and spend a few days eating all the berries. It is one of my favorite events of the year! Today it is all cedar wax wings – about 20 of them. #birds

200 charts in @nathanielbullard.com 's annual energy assessment, but this is the one that surprised me. We spent 25% of our money on firewood in the 1800s? That's stunning. www.nathanielbullard.com/presentations

Clean energy supporters hope for high oil prices due to reduced supply, but the opposite is happening. Despite global tensions that should increase price, it is falling. I read this as the market pricing in future demand reduction due to electric vehicles esp. in Asia. OECD peaked already in 2006.

I’ve been thinking about learnings from 25 years of climate work. Highly relevant right now: we need electricity to be cheap to harvest the climate benefits of renewables. Cheap power, and lots of it, solves a lot of problems.

Today's fascinating book is Thomas Hager's The Alchemy of Air. Perhaps the biggest industrial innovation ever turns nitrogen into fertilizer that feeds half the world and explosives that make global war possible. A cautionary tale of dual use, and a worked example of changing the world.

Today we move from climate to plague. Jonathan Kennedy (a different Kennedy by far) describes the history of world-changing plagues in Pathogenesis. It is a gripping tale. The impacts have been large. After the black plagues, the church owned 30% of Europe! I couldn't put it down.

Today's book deals with how to keep vested interests from controlling our lives. Foolproof by Sander van Der Linden describes how corporates and manipulators use language to get their way – and how we can identify it and resist. A great read. I wish I could give one to every college freshman.