Chris Turner

@theturner

Author of HOW TO BE A CLIMATE OPTIMIST. Writer & talker about the energy transition. Baseball (in season). Nova Scotia resident.

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Chris Turner@theturner· 10d

I truly don't care what beer-flavoured water Americans prefer, but that graph shows Bud Light sales in free fall from about 2015 onward, and yet the FT story tries to pin it all on MAGA being big mad about a trans spokesperson

Chris Turner@theturner· 12d

I know we're so far beyond this in a horse-in-the-hospital sense, but I still can't help but wonder how the Beltway media would react to literally any other senior government official whose bumbling attempt to change the colour of the water in a decorative feature led to 6 weeks of this stuff

A GOP Cabinet secretary on CNN above a chyron reading "WHAT IS NEXT FOR THE REFLECTING POOL?," pretending it's totally normal and serious big-time government shit to be on CNN trying to explain that the President of the United States couldn't successfully manage a single pool reno

Chris Turner@theturner· 17d

I’m generally not surprised by viral posts that are like “OMG Dazed and Confused was 30 years ago” or whatever but what the hell is this

Young whippersnapper carries on, showing us a 7” single of “The Wagon” by Dinosaur Jr, who the whippersnapper is clearly unaware were not usually a Sub Pop band, making the story of this single’s release on Sub Pop far more interesting than his whippersnappy review of the song confirming that J Mascis was indeed a fuzz-pop guitar god of the highest order

Chris Turner@theturner· Jul 6

Drunk Don Draper standing in front of a white board with the Alberta-Ontario pipeline proposal map on it, because sure buddy

Chris Turner@theturner· Jun 20

At the Reflecting Pool, and guys, this doesn't look right.

Still from the scene from Star Wars in which Luke, Han and Leia attempt to escape the Death Star's trash compactor

Chris Turner@theturner· Jun 19

Cafaro looks kind of like if Dr Tongue tried to eat Johnny LaRue but failed to fully digest him

Chris Turner@theturner· Jun 14

I know I'm nowhere near the first to point this out but it's still wild how the miraculous technological marvel of our time manifests itself most visibly for me in telling me preposterous made-up bullshit stories about my favourite baseball team in my Facebook feed

Screencap of a Facebook post of an entirely made-up story about Teoscar Hernandez, a beloved former Blue Jays outfielder, rejoining the team to retire as a Blue Jay, despite being on the IL for the LA Dodgers and very much not about to retire

Chris Turner@theturner· Jun 11

Here comes another illuminating report from @ember-energy.org, this one on "Electric Asia." That gap between "the electric fast track" and "the fossil detour" in the graph on the left is turning out to be a crucial choice between energy security and chaotic dependency

Two triangular-shaped line graphs on "the two deployment races" in electrotech, one showing "the electric fast track" taken by Asian countries compared to the "the fossil detour" of the industrial west, the other showing the rapid growth of solar and wind in Asia

Chris Turner@theturner· May 19

Found a handful of photos of the Pit from Thaw Di Gras in March 2013. The blurry tricycle race pic probably captures the vibe best

Several players in parkas and jerseys play a road hockey game on the street outside Dawson City's beloved bar the Pit with a crowd looking on festively at the Thaw Di Gras festival in 2013

A blurry photo of a grown-ass adult riding a large tricycle along the makeshift "track" between tables at the Pit, a storied bar in Dawson City, as patrons howl in support, as part of the tricycle race at Thaw Di Gras in 2013

A photo of the crooked, cracked tin roof of the Pit, the beloved local bar at the Westminster Hotel in Dawson City, Yukon

A photo of an original work of art on the wall at the Pit, the bar at the Westminster Hotel in Dawson City, Yukon. The painting depicts an RCMP officer in red tunic leaning against a building and using his oversized Mountie hat to shield the face and mouth of a lady from view as she expresses her support for the work the officer is doing to keep the peace

Chris Turner@theturner· May 1

For most provinces, these shields fundamentally come down to one key question of identity: Is your English lion fierce, or is it goofy (and possibly drunk)?

Saskatchewan's lion: fierce, despite having recently eaten a blue freezie and got it everywhere

New Brunswick's Lion: trying for fierce, but fundamentally a bit of a goof who's got a couple Mooseheads in him

Newfoundland & Labrador's lion [slurring]: I'm juss so happy to see all the nice people b'y

Chris Turner@theturner· Apr 27

Big climate optimist news for your Monday: A new report from @ember-energy.org shows that, as the folks @cleanenergycanada.org put it, "the world has crossed two thresholds that, even a decade ago, felt nearly impossible" -- more renewables than coal and more new renewables than new demand

Screencap of three bullet points summarizing an Ember Energy study, reading "Clean power met all demand growth in 2025, keeping fossil generation flat / Solar alone met three-quarters of the increase in electricity demand, while solar plus wind met almost all of it / Renewables overtook coal for the first time in modern era

Chris Turner@theturner· Apr 24

A still from the movie Death of Stalin with Stalin lying dead surrounded by his toadies

Chris Turner@theturner· Apr 19

Angry goose meme asking “wheee will they go to learn to self-regulate”

Chris Turner@theturner· Apr 14

I'd hope this paragraph would give pause to Canadian business and political leaders whose immediate response to the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz has been to howl for more pipelines

Screencap from Ember Energy report reads: "Peak fossil demand. The era of peaking fossil fuels began before the 2020s twin shocks. OECD fossil fuel demand peaked in 2007. Global fossil energy use in industry plateaued in 2014. In buildings, 2018. In road transport, 2019. Fossil fuel demand in the world outside China has been flat since 2019, and China’s own fossil consumption is now plateauing. Growth in fossil-fuelled power generation has stalled: in the first three quarters of 2025, solar and wind grew fast enough to exceed new demand. With solar, wind, electric vehicles and batteries growing exponentially, decline is near. The twin shocks pull the peaks forward, shorten the plateaus, and steepen the declines."

Chris Turner@theturner· Apr 9

Because this is a Halifax paper, I'm going to go ahead and assume that this is a sly but completely intentional reference to one of the best lines in Sloan's flawless pop gem "Coax Me," which is just 🤌

Screencap of this line from a story about a bear that has been living off trash in exurban Halifax for 15 years: "He’s also been using the community to rest, with sightings of him sleeping in yards and under decks and being pretty apathetic about things that might scare him off."

Chris Turner@theturner· Apr 2

L’d MAO at this whole thread. This one maybe isn’t quite the funniest but it might be the one I think of the most often

Chris Turner@theturner· Mar 29

Trump back in 2019 holding up a poster board with an image of the projected track of Hurricane Dorian that some poor sap in the White House had to alter with a Sharpie to conform to some offhand lie Trump had made about what was happening

Chris Turner@theturner· Mar 16

In my How To Be A Climate Optimist talks, I usually start with three numbers: last year's growth in installed solar capacity, EV share of new car sales, and portion of fossil fuel use that can be replaced today by clean power generation and electrification

Screencap of slide from a presentation on the energy transition showing new solar installations (600+ GW), EV sales worldwide (1/4 of all new cars) and share of fossil fuel use from electricity, transport and building heat (70 percent)

Chris Turner@theturner· Mar 15

I don’t think the kids today will ever understand how much Idiocracy seemed like an absurdly over-the-top satire when it was first released a mere 20 years ago

Two entirely separate Bluesky posts of Trump allies variously wrestling a person in a Twinkie costume (RFK) and lying about the economic savvy of the war in Iran while dressed like a carnival promoter from the faraway land of Tacky Bullshitia (Kevin O’Leary)

Chris Turner@theturner· Mar 13

I'm not reading the whole transcript of Paul Wells' interview with Poilievre because Poilievre's thinking isn't interesting enough to bother. But I won't let this extraordinary detail about Lord Windbag of Crossborder's work-in-progress pass without note

Chris Turner@theturner· Mar 12

The bike share in Montreal is even better!

Bixi rental bikes in their stall at Parc Jean-Drapeau in downtown Montreal

Chris Turner@theturner· Mar 12

It's already being studied

Screencap of a middle eastern map with guys in maga caps carrying buckets of oil across the Arabian desert to avoid the Strait of Hormuz

Chris Turner@theturner· Mar 6

Post an iconic horror movie image

Michael Myers half hidden by lines of laundry blowing in the breeze in the first Halloween movie

Chris Turner@theturner· Mar 4

Impressed and inspired by the turnout in Antigonish today — at least 300 people rallied in front of PC MLA Michelle Thompson’s office to demand the reckless funding cuts to arts and cultural programs be reversed

A crowd of protesters outside the MLA’s office in Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Chris Turner@theturner· Mar 2

Tremendous journamalism happening now at the Washington Post. Follow-up reporting will scroll a YouTube comments section for thoughts on the best choice to succeed the Ayatollah

Screencap of Washington Post email with headline "We texted 1,000 Americans about U.S. strikes in Iran. Here's what they said."

Chris Turner@theturner· Feb 19

If the outcome had been different, that image would become Maradona's-hand-of-god level infamous in Canadian hockey fan circles until long after I left this mortal coil

Diego Maradona's legendary uncalled handball goal from the 1986 World Cup quarter-final

Chris Turner@theturner· Feb 19

I've seen quite a bit of hockey in my 52 years as a Canadian guy on this earth. I have legit never seen SIX GUYS ILLEGALLY ON THE ICE IN A CELEBRATION HUDDLE AFTER A GOAL until today

Image from today's Canada-Czechia Olympic hockey quarterfinal, clearly showing six Czech position players hugging each other after their go-ahead goal in the third period

Chris Turner@theturner· Feb 17

Also he's not mad, don't put in the newspaper that he got mad

Screencap of the latest Cathal Kelly column for the Globe & Mail, which might break an Olympic record in coping: "Despite recent wins, Milan is failing Canada’s Olympic vibe test"

Chris Turner@theturner· Feb 17

Will I forever hold a grudge against the guy who declared the Toronto Blue Jays' 2015 season over in May of that year? Well, yes. Particularly since he's been consistently wrong about the Jays ever since

Screencap of a May 2015 column by Globe and Mail sports columnist Cathal Kelly in which he argues that the team's season is all but over because their utility infielder that year, Munenori Kawasaki, was kind of a lovable goofball. The Jays won their division that year and came within 2 wins of the World Series

Chris Turner@theturner· Feb 17

Life comes at you fast (especially when you're a kneejerk contrarian columnist who constantly confuses rushing to judgment with truth-telling)