Dave Powell
@powellds.bsky.social
Head of Programmes & Development, Local Storytelling Exchange.
Chair of Somerset Wildlands. Host of Your Brain on Climate podcast.
Chair of Somerset Wildlands. Host of Your Brain on Climate podcast.
Reposted by Dave Powell
Why was the Berlin marathon so hot this year? One clear answer: fossil fuels
Sunday's average temperature was 11°F higher than average. This was twice as likely by climate change, according to @climatecentral.org's Climate Shift Index
Sunday's average temperature was 11°F higher than average. This was twice as likely by climate change, according to @climatecentral.org's Climate Shift Index
September 22, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Why was the Berlin marathon so hot this year? One clear answer: fossil fuels
Sunday's average temperature was 11°F higher than average. This was twice as likely by climate change, according to @climatecentral.org's Climate Shift Index
Sunday's average temperature was 11°F higher than average. This was twice as likely by climate change, according to @climatecentral.org's Climate Shift Index
Thanks Harriet!
Excellent, inspiring episode of Your Brain on Climate - thank you from this recovered anywhere person in regional Australia @powellds.bsky.social and @karldudman.bsky.social - I’ll be applying this thinking to my work in a range of ways 🙏🏻🙏🏻
podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/y...
podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/y...
Somewhere, with Karl Dudman
Podcast Episode · Your Brain On Climate · 13/06/2025 · 58m
podcasts.apple.com
July 5, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Thanks Harriet!
Reposted by Dave Powell
New polling reveals a clear warning to ministers: backtrack on the Warm Homes Plan, and you risk losing the trust of your voters.
[1/4]
[1/4]
May 28, 2025 at 5:30 AM
New polling reveals a clear warning to ministers: backtrack on the Warm Homes Plan, and you risk losing the trust of your voters.
[1/4]
[1/4]
You’d cause real damage to the punditry industry if you made them write columns about how they don’t really know
Most political punditry misses this fundamental insight from political science.
The key to winning at both politics and elections is realizing that future opinions — "latent opinion" — is different from what we can measure about public opinion using polls _today_. Future opinion is downstream of both what leaders do *and* don't do today. The future is not exogenous
May 28, 2025 at 7:13 AM
You’d cause real damage to the punditry industry if you made them write columns about how they don’t really know
Reposted by Dave Powell
The top image:
The Guardian, July 2016
The article:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The bottom image:
The Guardian, May 2025
The article:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian, July 2016
The article:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The bottom image:
The Guardian, May 2025
The article:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
May 23, 2025 at 11:20 AM
The top image:
The Guardian, July 2016
The article:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The bottom image:
The Guardian, May 2025
The article:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian, July 2016
The article:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The bottom image:
The Guardian, May 2025
The article:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
to (probably mis)quote Rebecca Solnit, just because we can't save everything, doesn't mean we shouldn't try to save something
Here's a figure from IPCC AR6 Summary for Policymakers showing the linear relationship between fucking around and finding out.
Every tonne of CO₂ we add to the atmosphere makes things worse for us and all other living things.
Every tonne of CO₂ we add to the atmosphere makes things worse for us and all other living things.
May 16, 2025 at 11:45 AM
to (probably mis)quote Rebecca Solnit, just because we can't save everything, doesn't mean we shouldn't try to save something
WHAT ABOUT CHIN-
Could this be the biggest climate story of the year?
For the first time on record, China's emissions are falling due to clean energy growth, not slow power demand
Full analysis + outlook by Lauri Myllyvirta:
www.carbonbrief.org/...
1/7
For the first time on record, China's emissions are falling due to clean energy growth, not slow power demand
Full analysis + outlook by Lauri Myllyvirta:
www.carbonbrief.org/...
1/7
May 15, 2025 at 12:28 PM
WHAT ABOUT CHIN-
Reposted by Dave Powell
New episode of Your Brain on Climate now birthed. This one with @mikebernerslee.bsky.social all about the wonderful, but ruinous, modern art of bullshit.
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
May 11, 2025 at 8:55 PM
New episode of Your Brain on Climate now birthed. This one with @mikebernerslee.bsky.social all about the wonderful, but ruinous, modern art of bullshit.
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
A pleasure to talk to Mike. In which we say the word ‘bullshit’ a great deal and it doesn’t get any less pleasing.
‘Bullshit’ means any narrative that is designed to persuade without regard to which bits of it, if any, are true. In politics, another term for it is populism. It is poisonous. The consequences for all those who suck it up are devastating. If we allow it to remain so normal, we will suffer for it.
New episode of Your Brain on Climate now birthed. This one with @mikebernerslee.bsky.social all about the wonderful, but ruinous, modern art of bullshit.
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
May 14, 2025 at 8:31 PM
A pleasure to talk to Mike. In which we say the word ‘bullshit’ a great deal and it doesn’t get any less pleasing.
Reposted by Dave Powell
‘Bullshit’ means any narrative that is designed to persuade without regard to which bits of it, if any, are true. In politics, another term for it is populism. It is poisonous. The consequences for all those who suck it up are devastating. If we allow it to remain so normal, we will suffer for it.
New episode of Your Brain on Climate now birthed. This one with @mikebernerslee.bsky.social all about the wonderful, but ruinous, modern art of bullshit.
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
May 13, 2025 at 5:48 PM
‘Bullshit’ means any narrative that is designed to persuade without regard to which bits of it, if any, are true. In politics, another term for it is populism. It is poisonous. The consequences for all those who suck it up are devastating. If we allow it to remain so normal, we will suffer for it.
Reposted by Dave Powell
A comprehensive comms success.
May 12, 2025 at 9:19 PM
A comprehensive comms success.
I really liked OCEAN and I hope you will too. Here's why I think it works.
open.substack.com/pub/yourbrai...
open.substack.com/pub/yourbrai...
What I think ‘Ocean’ gets right (and people often get wrong)
Three biases that get in the way of seeing good comms for what they are
open.substack.com
May 12, 2025 at 9:13 PM
I really liked OCEAN and I hope you will too. Here's why I think it works.
open.substack.com/pub/yourbrai...
open.substack.com/pub/yourbrai...
Reposted by Dave Powell
Starmer: this is "incalculable damage"
I've just come from the hospital where my mam is at the moment having had a fall. The staff are Indian, Pakistani, African, Filipino, Irish, Spanish etc. in fact the hospital had an enormous drive to get people from the Philippines to move here to work.
May 12, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Starmer: this is "incalculable damage"
Reposted by Dave Powell
Why is the Daddy Party allowed to rant & rave & do impulsive, stupid shit & never, ever be held to account, while the Mommy Party is endlessly scolded & lectured & second-guessed by everyone, even when it is earnestly trying to do the right thing?
Gosh. What a puzzler.
Gosh. What a puzzler.
May 11, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Why is the Daddy Party allowed to rant & rave & do impulsive, stupid shit & never, ever be held to account, while the Mommy Party is endlessly scolded & lectured & second-guessed by everyone, even when it is earnestly trying to do the right thing?
Gosh. What a puzzler.
Gosh. What a puzzler.
New episode of Your Brain on Climate now birthed. This one with @mikebernerslee.bsky.social all about the wonderful, but ruinous, modern art of bullshit.
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
May 11, 2025 at 8:55 PM
New episode of Your Brain on Climate now birthed. This one with @mikebernerslee.bsky.social all about the wonderful, but ruinous, modern art of bullshit.
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
www.buzzsprout.com/1817605/epis...
Wait I thought *we* were the ones against globalisation and the dead hand of government
April 22, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Wait I thought *we* were the ones against globalisation and the dead hand of government
Reposted by Dave Powell
“Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years. Reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility. Those who will have to suffer the consequences will not forget this failure of conscience and responsibility.” — Pope Francis
April 21, 2025 at 8:48 AM
“Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years. Reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility. Those who will have to suffer the consequences will not forget this failure of conscience and responsibility.” — Pope Francis
What’s a free app people use for photoshop type stuff, like snipping a bit from one image and crudely putting it into another?
April 18, 2025 at 6:57 AM
What’s a free app people use for photoshop type stuff, like snipping a bit from one image and crudely putting it into another?
I was sure I saw a BADGER in Crystal Palace the other day and was persuaded it was not. Now my local friend reports she saw a badger. So we have BADGERS in Crystal Palace now and frankly what else do you need to know about round here.
April 8, 2025 at 6:58 AM
I was sure I saw a BADGER in Crystal Palace the other day and was persuaded it was not. Now my local friend reports she saw a badger. So we have BADGERS in Crystal Palace now and frankly what else do you need to know about round here.
Yes it feels like when a country “does well” out of Covid
Intrigued by this narrative that Britain has done well here.
-10% is still v significant.
-We're a big exporter of cars to the US which will be subject to 25%. Terrible for UK auto industry.
-Even if we get a deal we can't avoid the major economic shock to global trade overall.
-10% is still v significant.
-We're a big exporter of cars to the US which will be subject to 25%. Terrible for UK auto industry.
-Even if we get a deal we can't avoid the major economic shock to global trade overall.
April 3, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Yes it feels like when a country “does well” out of Covid
Wake me up when you’ve all stopped being zany
April 1, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Wake me up when you’ve all stopped being zany
For anyone who doesn’t dread summer, you’ll be delighted to learn 9.02 this morning was the point we crossed the equinox.
Don’t @ me if the above is wrong, I’m not Michael Fish
Don’t @ me if the above is wrong, I’m not Michael Fish
a weatherman says " dont worry " on the screen
ALT: a weatherman says " dont worry " on the screen
media.tenor.com
March 20, 2025 at 9:51 AM
For anyone who doesn’t dread summer, you’ll be delighted to learn 9.02 this morning was the point we crossed the equinox.
Don’t @ me if the above is wrong, I’m not Michael Fish
Don’t @ me if the above is wrong, I’m not Michael Fish
The biggest numbers we have ever seen
March 18, 2025 at 1:11 PM
The biggest numbers we have ever seen
Reposted by Dave Powell
“All lies and jest; still a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.”
Why your brain dislikes being confounded. I chat to my wonderful chum Prof Adam Harris all about Confirmation Bias.
www.yourbrainonclimate.com/1817605/epis...
Why your brain dislikes being confounded. I chat to my wonderful chum Prof Adam Harris all about Confirmation Bias.
www.yourbrainonclimate.com/1817605/epis...
Confirmation Bias, with Adam Harris - Your Brain On Climate
Or: why we all hear what we want to hear, and disregard the rest. Confirmation bias is hardwired into human brains, and without it we'd never get through our day. But it doesn't half get us - and the ...
www.yourbrainonclimate.com
March 11, 2025 at 7:05 PM
“All lies and jest; still a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.”
Why your brain dislikes being confounded. I chat to my wonderful chum Prof Adam Harris all about Confirmation Bias.
www.yourbrainonclimate.com/1817605/epis...
Why your brain dislikes being confounded. I chat to my wonderful chum Prof Adam Harris all about Confirmation Bias.
www.yourbrainonclimate.com/1817605/epis...