(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Renewable Tuesday: We Know What to Do [1] ['Chitown Kev', 'Thom Hartmann', 'Belinda Ridgewood'] Date: 2026-08-18 More renewables, storage, EVs, heat pumps, etc. Fewer thieving data centers, #NoNewNukes. NetZero ASAP, followed by going strongly Carbon Negative enough to start cooling the planet. Getting past Peak Humanity, and the end of poverty and oppression. Free education for all, pre-school through grad school. Medicare for All and Universal Basic Income in the US. No more paid Fossil Fool denialism, and lots of trials for intentional harm to the planet and everyone on it. What else? Oh, yes, here are a few more ideas. What do you have? 10 climate crisis policies the Govt can introduce right now. #climatechangewww.theguardian.com/environment/… — John Jackson (@john-jackson.bsky.social) 2026-08-13T07:34:41.168Z 1. Reject drilling licences for the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gas fields 2. Increase windfall tax on fossil fuel giants to pay for adaptation measures 3. Make grey water reuse mandatory in new buildings and incentivise rainwater harvesting 4. Bring the water industry under national control 5. Invest in proper equipment for firefighters 6. Implement a maximum workplace temperature 7. Fund cool spaces in every community 8. Launch a national retrofit programme 9. Plant more trees and protect existing nature 10. Encourage regenerative agriculture approaches to increase food resilience Meetings Date in 2027 not yet set The initiative grew from frustration with the annual United Nations climate summits or Cops, where all agreements must be unanimous, and the main fossil fuel producing and fossil fuel dependent countries repeatedly block progress. Ireland has been announced as co-host for next year’s sequel to the world’s first Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. Announcement comes as 60 countries agree landmark move to phase out oil, gas and coal. The 2026 climate event guide Our ongoing list of this year’s global environmental conferences, summits and more Far too many to list here, but this is of critical importance. When: 9–20 November 2026 Where: Antalya, Turkey The largest climate event of 2026 will be hosted by Turkey in the resort city of Antalya, with Australia leading the negotiations as part of an agreement between the two countries. There will also be a ‘pre-COP’ held in a Pacific island country, though the dates and host country have yet to be confirmed. COP31 will build on the deal agreed at COP30 in 2025, which included a tripling of adaptation finance and a just transition mechanism, as well as “roadmaps” to transition away from fossil fuels and to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. The Good News by Inside Climate News At times of rapid change, forecasting is difficult. So I feel a measure of comfort focusing on something concrete like the list of 368 utility-scale plants that began operation from January to June, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The group is dominated by utility-scale solar. Neighbors helping neighbors with going green Elizabeth Hewitt Reasons to Be Cheerful As a volunteer heat pump coach, Wolf is trained to help her neighbors switch from fossil fuel heating methods, like furnaces and boilers, to more energy-efficient heat pumps. Working one-on-one, she helps homeowners figure out their options, assuages their anxieties and guides them through the steps to make their homes a part of America’s green transition. It’s an urgent task: About 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from home energy use. Technologies like electric heat pumps are about 3.5 times more energy efficient than conventional alternatives. Marblehead is one of more than 60 municipalities across Massachusetts that have a heat pump coaching program through the all-volunteer statewide organization HeatSmart Alliance. Co-founded by a retired engineer and a former energy consultant in 2020, the organization conducts multiple online sessions each year to train coaches, who learn how to help their neighbors navigate the often complex process of swapping out their heating and cooling systems for heat pumps. From Jess Craven: Sssh! Don’t tell you know who. US Army missed the "war on EVs" memo.cleantechnica.com/2026/08/17/h…#evs #hybridevs #electricvehicles #pluginhybrids #usarmy #army #armyfleet #armyvehicles #military #usmilitary #hybridelectric #militaryevs #ford #gm #gmdefense #bccustoms #vehicles #automobiles #automotive #automakers #fleets — Tina Casey (@tinamcasey.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T23:47:15.086Z More than 1 in 5 new cars sold in Australia over July 2026 were EVs.#ElectricVehicles #NewCarSales #Australia #EV — R.E.Spark.AU (@respark.au) 2026-08-17T22:12:40.821Z 🔋 The world’s biggest EV battery maker says all 20 plants are carbon neutral📰 via electrek#EV #ElectricVehicles — Megawatt News (@megawattnews.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T22:01:51.932Z We must of course know which one that is, so I clicked through and found out for you. The world’s biggest EV battery maker says all 20 plants are carbon neutral CATL announced today that it has met the carbon-neutrality target it set for its core operations in 2025. All 20 plants have been ISO 14068-1 certified, and the Chinese battery giant is now turning its attention to the much harder job of decarbonizing its entire value chain by 2035. It’s a huge commitment because CATL supplies nearly 4 in every 10 EV batteries worldwide. The company held a 39.2% share of the global EV battery market in 2025, ranking first for the ninth consecutive year, according to SNE Research data cited by CATL. CATL says zero-carbon electricity supplied 100% of the power used by its core operations in 2025. Since 2023, its plants have consumed more than 18 billion kilowatt-hours of that electricity. Oh, those Scandinavian Socialist hellscapes. Almost 98% of car sales in Norway are EVs now. Only 12 gas cars were sold in April and less than 100 diesel vehicles per month. Most diesel vehicles are sold to companies for towing heavy loads over long distances. Norway has fewer people than the state of Washington but we're nowhere close to this. — Mr. Blabalino 🇳🇴🇺🇸💙 (@blabalino.com) 2026-08-17T17:37:33.801Z Norway has huge fossil fuel resources which is 100% owned by the citizens of Norway. The country could sell gas for $1 per gallon but we keep it around $10 per gallon to favor EVs. The tax breaks were canceled before these numbers. Sadly, Trump canceled wind, solar and EV incentives for fossil fuel. — Mr. Blabalino 🇳🇴🇺🇸💙 (@blabalino.com) 2026-08-17T20:19:39.928Z Boston explores sea- and river-source heat pumps for big buildings #energysky — via Canary Media: — Tor "SolarFred" Valenza (@torsolarfred.bsky.social) 2026-08-18T02:28:18.000Z www.canarymedia.com/articles/hea…Electric heat pumps for industrial use saving this cheesemaker $94,000 per year by cutting electricity use in half.Highly efficient technology. More and more often, climate solutions are just better technology, regardless of their crucial emissions reductions. — Peter Jarka-Sellers (@pjarkasellers.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T13:56:40.307Z The governments of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec have agreed on terms for a sweeping $50-billion-plus hydro and wind power plan that would be North America’s largest clean energy deal — and reshape the future electricity grid in eastern Canada. — Canada's National Observer (@nationalobserver.com) 2026-08-17T23:19:36.320Z Iran ‘I’ll never apologize’ — Trump brushes off Iran war’s impact on oil prices and calls aircraft carrier’s 240+ days at sea ‘not nearly long enough’ | FortunePresident Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the toll on American sailors enduring nearly nine months at sea on the USS Abraham Lincoln as… — OWS Pakistan (@onewindowsolution.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T07:36:35Z 🔥 Geopolitical Flashpoints: Lebanon front erupts as Hormuz stays shut and Iran tells Trump to accept defeat#24hHotNewsAI #LANews — (@24hhotnewsai.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T07:33:30.574850Z Navy Carrier’s Problems Are Tied to Attacks on U.S. Base Early in War www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/u… — Scoutsadoodle (@noreenlas1.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T07:14:38.369Z Global Warming Catastrophes 'Europe is warming faster than any other continent, with intense summer heat and prolonged drought being amplified by the deepening human-caused climate crisis. Extreme conditions continue to fuel wildfires and strain water supplies.'www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte… — Juraj Mikurcik (@jurajmikurcik.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T06:45:06.144Z 👑 POWER SHIFT: EU SENDS AIRCRAFT AND VILLAGERS EVACUATE AS BELGIUM BATTLES RECORD WILDFIREFirefighters in Belgium battled one of the country's worst-ever wildfires late on Saturday as a rapidly growing blaze…🧵 Why this matters: [Developing]Source: France24 🌍 — Geopolitics News (@geopoliticsnewss.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T06:44:28.873340+00:00 Heavy rain battered coastal areas on Sunday morning, while more than 250 millimeters of rain is forecast for parts of southern Korea through Monday. www.koreajoongangdaily.com/korea/heavy-… — Korea JoongAng Daily (@koreajoongangdaily.com) 2026-08-16T06:43:05.621Z Rebecca Solnit Far beyond the fires raging across Europe and North America, the smoke, dangerous to breathe, hangs in the air, dimming the view, changing the very color of sunlight into something grimly unsettling. An estimated 20,000 are said to have died in the extreme heat in Europe earlier this year, and heat is climate change’s quiet killer, compared with the dramatic violence of death by fire or flood. In eastern Washington, 600 homes have just burned down, and in both Europe and North America, firefighters have died in the effort to contain the climate-fueled firestorms. Data Centers Even rural Texans hate data centers. Molly Hennessy-Fiske Washington Post Nikki Meador grew up here in East Texas. She’s a lifelong conservative and a three-time Trump voter unaccustomed to activism. That’s mostly because there’s never been much to protest in rural Leon County. That changed whenthe nurse practitioner heard data centers were coming. ✂️ Still, Meador said Abbott has not done enough to stop data centers. “He’s just trying to scramble because he realizes he’s basically making rural Texas mad, and that’s where a lot of his votes come from,” she said, dismissing the governor’s audits as “very vague.” Meador said she won’t vote for Abbott and instead might vote for a Democrat for the first time — Gina Hinojosa, a state representative from Austin and South Texas — because “she’s against data centers in rural areas.” Texas Data Centers Face Approval Freeze #ERCOT #TexasEnergy #DataCenter #GridCapacity #ERCOT #PowerDemand — Cozzy Energy Solutions (@energysolutions.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T07:35:19.803Z Data centers over people: NV Energy plans to stop supplying power to Liberty Utilities by May 2027, cutting off about 49,000 customers. The decision is linked to rising Northern Nevada demand, especially from data centers, and could leave residents without power unless they secure a new supplier. — (@migas7.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T07:05:44.570Z Australia seems to be leading the way combating #climatechange, enforcing regulations on data centers and now looking to fund renewable energy projects. This is an answer for everyone who says "well what can we do?" The answer this👇 #ClimateAction — (@kaybell27.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T06:19:26.701Z Nvidia has lined up Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, KKR and others to mobilize up to $500 billion for AI data centers, reported August 13. Outside investors fund the buildout instead of Nvidia borrowing, and Nvidia is reportedly guaranteeing the GPUs' value, like real estate. — Yash Jain (@earanyash.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T06:00:54.770Z No New Nukes MICROREACTORS – the Next Big Little Nuclear THING! theaimn.net/microreactor… — Phil Gorman (@philgorman.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T06:42:12.699Z Whereas an SMR produces up to 300 MWe, a microreactor produces anything from 1 MWe up to 50MWe There are fuel differences. SMRs can use LEU – Low Enriched Uranium or the more powerful HALEU – High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium. Microreactors can, in theory, use LEU fuel, but that could not work out to be economic. The fuel must be the more powerful HALEU – High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium. And in fact, most microreactor plans use the more complex TRISO Fuel (Tri-Structural Isotropic), in which the tiny kernels of HALEU are coated with multiple layers of ceramic and carbon. That makes TRISO very safe, but very expensive. Really, the most important difference is in – Who Pays For Microreactors? Well, you do, if you’re a tax-payer. The former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has called British shipbuilding an “industry in disarray” and predicted it will produce few, if any, of the nuclear-powered submarines promised under the Aukus agreement in the foreseeable future.www.cndsalisbury.org.uk/news_items/9… — (@l8in.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T06:25:57.433Z India releases draft rules allowing foreign companies to build nuclear reactors, capping supplier liability to attract global vendors like GE and Westinghouse. — Pulse Of Nations (@pulseofnations.lol) 2026-08-16T05:20:13+00:00 The Tories, Refuk and Labour want more capacity for England, want that capacity to be nuclear because they are in awe of that lobby, but don't want to foist a plant on an English constituency. — Liam Robbens (@liam.eurosky.social) 2026-08-16T01:40:30.451Z Jellyfish-hit French nuclear plant shuts down three reactors Scientists warn ⁠such events could become more common due to factors including global warming, the arrival of invasive species, habitat loss of predators and over-fishing. Denial and Obstruction vs. Resistance and $$Real Money$$™ Brian O’Neill asked the State Department attorney to set up meetings with state and federal officials that would clear the way for his project’s gas power plants. As billions in federal funds start flowing to state orphan well programs, a DeSmog investigation raises questions about whether oil-friendly states will put industry interests ahead of the environment. Backing massive gas-burning data centres is no way to build a cleaner, more connected electricity system. The prime minister should consider the potential outcomes of siding with his Bay Street buddies and oil industry bigwigs over climate-beleaguered Canadians. It gets very cold in Norway and EVs do just fine. Maybe these people are getting misinformation from the fossil fuel industry 🤡 — Mr. Blabalino 🇳🇴🇺🇸💙 (@blabalino.com) 2026-08-17T18:42:13.372Z #BO-O-O-O-OGUS!!! That was true in 2003, but not under the Trumpian Big Bogus Bill and other efforts to kill wind power.NWW shills for the Fossil Fool industry constantly. They have annoyed me, and I am taking on their lies at Daily Kos. — Mokurai (@mokurai.bsky.social) 2026-08-18T09:24:13.158Z A Different Level of Even More Idiocy I don’t like nuclear power, but we have nuclear-powered aircraft carriers generating huge amounts of electricity that can be used to launch airplanes. Trump wants the Navy to spent billions of dollars to boil water instead. Fortunately there is no way the carriers can be rebuilt before his second term is over and we can scrap this idiocy, especially with our carriers on unprecedentedly long deployments in the Iran War that he says aren’t long enough. Trump doesn’t have a screw loose, as Libertarian Bill Weld claimed. They have almost ALL fallen out of his hinges. He only has the ones for grifting, hate, and lying left. Greed, hatred, and delusion, the Three Fires of Buddhism, are the essence of MAGA. Trump directs Navy to return to steam catapults on aircraft carriers Many Cannes Lions award winners have claimed credit for field work they didn’t do, positive impacts that can’t be confirmed, or campaigns that barely existed. Advertising has a very high credibility bar to clear when it comes to claiming the green high ground, thanks to the industry’s well-documented contributions to spreading environmental and climate disinformation. U.N. chief António Guterres has blasted ad agencies (which he’s termed the “enablers of planetary destruction”) for continuing to take on fossil fuel clients , and a small-but-growing number of countries and municipalities are banning fossil fuel ads. DeSmog’s past reporting has found this tension playing out inside the awards themselves. A 2024 investigation found that SDG Lions and other top honours went to agencies owned by WPP, Publicis Groupe and Edelman despite those firms’ long-standing contracts with oil and gas companies and other heavy polluters. A separate 2024 investigation found that three-quarters of “green” campaign prizes at the UK’s Ad Net Zero awards went to agencies that also worked for fossil fuel producers and high-carbon utilities. So, acting on the suggestion of industry insiders, DeSmog took a close look at 20 winners of Cannes Lions awards since 2020 whose primary purpose was environmental sustainability — and found a number of entries that fall way short. Of the 20 campaigns analysed, at least eight made large, specific environmental impact claims — such as the tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions they claim to have avoided, acres of farmland converted to organic crops, metres of coral reef restored — that DeSmog could not confirm independently. Some of those campaigns, alongside others in the sample, took credit for outcomes — “we mapped”, “we transformed”, “we committed” — achieved by others, sometimes years before the agency arrived on the scene. In a few cases, the advertising campaign turned out to have barely existed, seemingly assembled for submission to the awards. Resources 🎩 GoodNewsRoundup Want to focus on the ENVIRONMENT: [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/18/800084957/community/renewable-tuesday-we-know-what-to-do/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/