Notices by David Ho (davidho@mastodon.world)

If we don't rapidly phase out fossil fuels, we can say goodbye to coral reefs, the Greenland and Antarctic icesheets, and permafrost. The results will not be pretty.

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/19/nx-s1-5593087/climate-tipping-points-cop30-brazil-coral-glaciers-carbon

Immigration raids in Hawaiʻi are especially ironic since the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was illegally overthrown and the Hawaiian Islands annexed by the United States against the will of the people.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2025/11/11/immigration-arrests-surge-hawaii-federal-agents-target-courthouses/

Boeing is paying Charm Industrial to remove 100000 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere, which is a time machine that takes us back by 1 minute and 15 seconds. 🥲

https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/14/boeing-has-a-carbon-emissions-problem-startup-charm-industrial-is-cleaning-up/

Come be my colleague at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. We're hiring an assistant professor in Ocean Biogeochemical Modeling.

https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/hawaiiedu/jobs/5142055/assistant-professor-ocean-biogeochemical-modeling-0082726?keywords=ocean&pagetype=jobOpportunitiesJobs

With current pledges, the world's on track for 2.6°C of warming in 2100 compared to preindustrial levels.

10 years ago, before the Paris agreement, it was 3.6°C.

20+ years ago, we thought it would be 4-5°C.

1.5°C was a good target, but did anyone seriously think it was possible?

So 2.6°C is better, but the problem is that climate impacts are way worse than we predicted.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/13/world-still-on-track-for-catastrophic-26c-temperature-rise-report-finds

NOAA cut funding to the Alaska Earthquake Center, directed by my friend Mike West. As a result, seismic monitoring by nine stations in Alaska tracking tsunami-causing earthquakes will go offline by the end of the month. This endangers people in Alaska, Hawaiʻi, and other parts of the Pacific.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/11/11/tsunami-warning-center-trump-funding-cuts/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzYyODM3MjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzY0MjE5NTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NjI4MzcyMDAsImp0aSI6Ijk4NzdjN2ExLTRhMmUtNDdjYi04M2Q2LTUwNGI4Zjk1ZTZiNSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9jbGltYXRlLWVudmlyb25tZW50LzIwMjUvMTEvMTEvdHN1bmFtaS13YXJuaW5nLWNlbnRlci10cnVtcC1mdW5kaW5nLWN1dHMvIn0.AdH-y4BLvreuNv6kGWNjdo7-Jj2X4CSudIObguYdRIY

This piece is as good as people say it is. Read it to appreciate that writing isn't just about content, but style. AI can't do this.

https://lithub.com/maybe-dont-talk-to-the-new-york-times-about-zohran-mamdani/

Although we're not where we should be, we're on a significantly better trajectory than we were 10 years ago.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/11/07/climate/paris-agreement-climate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zU8._FoE.8eesjpnE0K4M&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

The US is the world's largest oil and gas producer. Yet, "China is now making more money from exporting green technology than America makes from exporting fossil fuels."

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/11/06/chinas-clean-energy-revolution-will-reshape-markets-and-politics

Streets are for people.

30+ years ago, my mind was blown when my computer science professor suggested that one day, applications on our computers would be updated by contacting a remote server.

I don’t think he ever imagined that companies would also be able to disable applications we’ve already paid for and installed.

PSA: Harp covers look like giant oven mitts. 🪉

"Countries that slide from democracy toward autocracy tend to follow similar patterns. To measure what is happening in the United States, the Times editorial board has compiled a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion, with help from scholars who have studied this phenomenon. The sobering reality is that the United States has regressed, to different degrees, on all 12.”

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/31/opinion/trump-autocracy-democracy-report.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xk8.NaRS.au4G8gsEj-gH&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

1 in 8 Americans won't be able to afford groceries next week because of the Republican government shutdown and because the Trump regime refuses to use the contingency fund that would have continued the benefits. 1 in 8 people!

https://time.com/7328216/snap-benefits-food-stamps-halting-november-government-shutdown-impact/

Some of the climate benefits of forestry and revegetation projects are erased by the fact that they reduce the reflectivity of Earth's surface.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64317-x

"An artificial intelligence system (AI) apparently mistook a high school student’s bag of Doritos for a firearm and called local police to tell them the pupil was armed." 🤨

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/24/baltimore-student-ai-gun-detection-system-doritos

We were all relieved that this didn’t happen on 9/11.

I’m reading Human Nature from the marvelous Dr. Marvel. We share the same sense of humor but she’s much funnier. I’d recommend the book to anyone.

Plug-in hybrids pollute almost as much as petrol cars 🫠

https://www.transportenvironment.org/share/plug-in-hybrids-pollute-almost-as-much-as-petrol-cars-eu-data/image/143008#143252

Teens who won a lawsuit requiring Hawaiʻi to eliminate carbon emissions from the state’s transportation system in the next 20 years rightly call out sustainable aviation fuel as bullshit.

https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/10/teens-who-sued-hawaii-say-states-climate-plan-for-aviation-doesnt-fly/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky