⏳ Read this, don't sleep for a week

This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper

Author

Max Aitken
July 06, 2025

Climate & energy are changing everything.

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What mattered this week

Right now, we’re closer to 2050 than 2000

Does it matter? Uh huh. 2050 is the target for net zero.
And we’re on track? No. Emissions are at all time highs.
Best commentary: Inside your own head

Contemplating 2050

Make China Great Again - Trump madness is far, far worse than you think it is

Headline? Ends EV credits. Cancels solar credits. Stops geothermal credits. Eliminates efficiency targets for cars. Bans Chinese components.
Make it worse. Fires the scientists monitoring the climate. Shutters labs.
And worse again. Extra 7bn tonnes of climate gases. New subsidies for fossils.
And for bill payers? More expensive, dirtier energy.
The future is handed to the Chinese? Yes.
Best commentary: New York Times: “The Chinese simply can’t believe their luck”, and ”How China will power the future”; Canary Media on the climate disaster that is the BBB

China (yellow) vs USA (grey)
Left: New energy exports
Right: Fossil exports

Ok, so, um, we just noticed the circulation in the Southern Ocean has changed direction. And it’s a massive, massive thing that no-one is talking about and maybe it’s the end of the world seriously

Can’t be true. Don’t get all MAGA. Listen to science people doing work. New satellites are showing them bad stuff.
What’s happening? Deep water, full of carbon, is now rising to the surface - due to changing salinity.
The risk? Massive carbon emissions: Might double CO2. That’s us cooked.
Anything else? Deep water is warmer… Antarctic sea ice loss will increase, weather patterns reshuffle and ecosystems… collapse.
Read more: Institut de Ciencies del Mar, Chile

One thing to worry about

This ain’t your grandmother’s climate.

  • One hundred countries pulverised their June temperature records (@extremetemps)

  • Britain hit 35°C: sixth year since 2015. Happened 10x in entire 20th Century (@metjam_)

  • Floods everywhere: China (@volcaholic), Texas (CNN)

  • South America is freezing cold - way below averages (biobiochile)

  • Med is like a bath - Mallorca sea hit 31°C

Your summer swim will be warm. Not a good thing.

One thing to be optimistic about

UK: EVs up 36% to a quarter of car sales. China over half now (CleanTechnica).

At launch, Xiaomi’s new SU7 sold 200,000 units in 3 minutes (Elektrek).

Oil demand is going to take a hit.

Tesla vs Xiaomi, in China

If you’ve got more time…

This has been a depressing edition. Because the news is bad. Famed ecologist David Suzuki called it earlier in the week.

“Now, it is too late.

I’ve never said this before to the media, but it’s too late.

There are nine planetary boundaries and we’ve only dealt with one of them — the ozone layer — and we think we’ve saved ourselves from that threat. But we passed the seventh boundary this year, and we’re in the extreme danger zone.

If we pass one boundary, we should be shitting our pants.

We’ve passed seven!”

To return to the beginning. What will your world look like in 2050?

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