Dr Steve Westlake
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steveclimate.bsky.social
Dr Steve Westlake
@steveclimate.bsky.social
Lecturer at the University of Bath researching the effects of leading by example with low-carbon behaviour. Particular interest in politicians, celebrities & CEOs.
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀! Want to join @chrisgpackham.bsky.social in supporting the National Emergency Briefing on Climate & Nature?

🖋️ 𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 urging MPs to attend: lnkd.in/ecGDM3Ry
We're delighted that tireless advocate for the natural world, @chrisgpackham.bsky.social CBE, will be opening the National Emergency Briefing in Westminster Central Hall on 27th November.

Chris speaking with @bbclaurak.bsky.social earlier👇

Please make sure your MP is attending: nebriefing.org
#NEB
November 10, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
World leaders punch back at US climate denial ahead of Brazil's COP30 negotiations

Country leaders at a climate summit in Brazil on Thursday bemoaned the fractured global consensus on climate action, taking swipes at the climate-denying U.S. government.
buff.ly/aM4Pscu
buff.ly
November 9, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
1. This is a thread on freedom, and how easy it is to lose.

Over the past 2,000 years in Europe, there have been few periods and places of freedom. For much of the time we lived under highly oppressive tyrannies of various kinds, whether small or grand, local or imperial, secular or religious.🧵
November 7, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
I've finally got around to curating a selection of films about the #climate crisis 🎥

There's lot of mediocre climate films out there, but for me these stand out head & shoulders above the rest 🎞️

They make excellent resources for classrooms, lecture halls, or community cinema's 🎬

Thread:🧵Plz RT
November 1, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Great thread on Universities and the climate crisis. Lays out the problem, and the way forward.
I was recently invited to present my thoughts on the role of universities in the #climate crisis

Several audience members asked that I share my slides, so I've decided to post them here too as an open resource

I'd love any feedback, & for you to share examples of projects & best practice.

Long 🧵😊
October 26, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
🔥 The never-ending narrative…
This week, I’ve once again heard prominent climate researchers dismiss individual action as either irrelevant or a distraction instigated by the fossil fuel industry.

Here’s a 🧵 on why this argument frustrates me to no end and why I think it misses the bigger picture.
October 15, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
It's the 'Scientists Responsibility Summit' today.

Here's a live thread with some take aways from each talk... 🧵
Tomorrow: Scientists Responsibility Summit!

What is the appropriate stance of scientists in the polycrisis? Let's develop practical paths for a transformative role of academia.

🏛️Attend in-person at HU Berlin: blogs.fu-berlin.de/scientistsre...
💻 Streaming (Webex): tinyurl.com/nh5kpt4e
October 11, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
5/ I found it interesting that both speakers repeatedly stressed the need to question deep assumptions about how we think about the future, & how our imaginations are constrained by the past & by the present.

I explore more about the importance of imaginaries for supporting social change in this 🧵
5/ Here I'm going to draw on the concept of Socio-Technical Imaginaries.

An academic term for how we imagine the future through 'collectively held visions & aspirations about desirable futures, particularly how scientific & technological advancements will shape social life and order'
October 11, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
Has anyone else been dealing with some serious headline whiplash recently?

Even for those of us who follow #climate and #energy matters closely, it can be hard to know what the hell is going on!

So here's a thread to help climate communicators get a grip on how to deal with this 🧵
October 6, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
We found “pragmatism” is used by MPs:
- to promote incremental rather than transformative change
- to defend fossil fuel companies
- to sound sensible and scientific
- to protect a fragile political consensus
- and to dismiss “extreme” calls for a more rapid climate transition

3/
September 24, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
Revealed: ‘Corporate capture’ of UN aviation body by industry
Revealed: ‘Corporate capture’ of UN aviation body by industry
Exclusive: Industry delegates outnumbered climate experts by 14 to one at recent ICAO meeting, thinktank says
buff.ly
September 19, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
Interesting-looking new study finding that "the global aviation sector’s impact on global warming continues to increase even under the most ambitious mitigation scenarios" cell.com/one-earth/fu...
September 16, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
😊 Delighted to announce I'll be a Lead Author for ch.8 of @ipcc.bsky.social's Seventh Assessment Report, alongside 663 experts from 111 countries, as part of Working Group III.

Analysis by @carbonbrief.org shows increasing diversity of IPCC authorship: tinyurl.com/462pvby9

#IPCC #ClimateReport
IPCC concludes selection of authors for its Seventh Assessment Report — IPCC
www.ipcc.ch
September 17, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
More Americans are very worried about climate change than are about crime.

@yaleclimatecomm.bsky.social

climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications...
Top public worries in the U.S.
About three in ten Americans say they are “very worried” about global warming.
climatecommunication.yale.edu
September 18, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
"Leaders across the political spectrum are protecting the fossil-fuel status quo at the very moment scientists warn we need rapid, transformative change." theconversation.com/politicians-...
Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study
Politicians talk about being pragmatic on climate change to avoid hard decisions.
theconversation.com
September 10, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
Such a good @bankfieldbecky.bsky.social + @steveclimate.bsky.social paper here: examining how "climate pragmatism" has become a major part of the new lexicon of climate delay

Also see: "climate realism"

theconversation.com/politicians-...
September 10, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
"Climate pragmatism" in the UK; "climate realism" in the US: justifying the continuance of the fossil-fuel economy, either way.
We found “pragmatism” is used by MPs:
- to promote incremental rather than transformative change
- to defend fossil fuel companies
- to sound sensible and scientific
- to protect a fragile political consensus
- and to dismiss “extreme” calls for a more rapid climate transition

3/
September 9, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
“The future isn’t something that happens to us, it’s something we build together. By choosing to act wisely today, we can navigate uncertainty and emerge stronger tomorrow.” - @laurielaybourn.bsky.social, @climate-risk.bsky.social

youtu.be/IkjsAQeomtQ
Positive Tipping Points: Overcoming Climate Instability
YouTube video by Thinking the Unthinkable
youtu.be
September 9, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
Men will build giant floating walls to prevent warm water from reaching ice shelves, and scatter microbeads onto sea ice to increase its reflectivity before just stopping the burning of fossil fuels

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...
Polar 'geoengineering' won't fix climate warming, study finds
Proposed "geoengineering" projects designed to reduce the impacts of global warming in polar regions would be ineffective, extremely costly and environmentally dangerous, researchers have warned.
www.abc.net.au
September 9, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
Interesting take on the new politics of climate pragmatism that matches the emerging paradigm of climate realism around the world

cc @jeffcolgan.bsky.social
Happy to share our new research on UK climate politics 🚨

We found Members of Parliament (MPs) use the language of climate "pragmatism" to avoid rapid change. It risks becoming a new discourse of delay.

More detail below and in 🧵

1/
theconversation.com/politicians-...
Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study
Politicians talk about being pragmatic on climate change to avoid hard decisions.
theconversation.com
September 8, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
In an article for The Conversation UK (@uk.theconversation.com), CAST affiliate Dr Steve Westlake (@steveclimate.bsky.social) discusses new research which "shows that political “pragmatism” is fast becoming a dangerous form of climate delay".

Read the article 👇
Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study
Politicians talk about being pragmatic on climate change to avoid hard decisions.
theconversation.com
September 8, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
"By framing urgent action as 'extreme' and steady-as-she-goes policies as 'pragmatic', leaders across the political spectrum are protecting the fossil-fuel status quo at the very moment scientists warn we need rapid, transformative change."
Happy to share our new research on UK climate politics 🚨

We found Members of Parliament (MPs) use the language of climate "pragmatism" to avoid rapid change. It risks becoming a new discourse of delay.

More detail below and in 🧵

1/
theconversation.com/politicians-...
Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study
Politicians talk about being pragmatic on climate change to avoid hard decisions.
theconversation.com
September 8, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Dr Steve Westlake
"The projection of unequal outcomes across scenarios... is a matter of serious concern, especially when scenario results are directly used as inputs for #climate policy...

we need to move towards model &scenario building techniques where questions of equity &climate justice come to the foreground"
Equity assessment of global mitigation pathways in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
This paper analyses 556 model scenarios assessed by IPCC’s Working Group-III for the 6th Assessment Report, which have an underlying 10-region classification and correspond to restricting warming l...
www.tandfonline.com
September 8, 2025 at 4:47 AM
Happy to share our new research on UK climate politics 🚨

We found Members of Parliament (MPs) use the language of climate "pragmatism" to avoid rapid change. It risks becoming a new discourse of delay.

More detail below and in 🧵

1/
theconversation.com/politicians-...
Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study
Politicians talk about being pragmatic on climate change to avoid hard decisions.
theconversation.com
September 5, 2025 at 3:33 PM