Ten Things - May 8, 2026

May 08, 2026

𝗧𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸.

Canada and the United States have begun a great de-coupling. Both economies are growing (although at different rates) while keeping emissions flat or in decline. Does this mean we’ve solved climate change? No. But it also means that business-as-usual doesn’t mean growth in emissions.

If you really care about climate, yes you can try and save the world, warn about sea levels, existential risks, and all that important stuff. Or you can try and simply accelerate this decoupling. Find a technology, business model, or policy incentive and help it succeed.

If you want to really feel hopeful, look at how quickly India is decoupling. Projections had coal energy consumption growing for a very long time. And yet in 2025 and Q1 2026, solar - not coal - is doing all the growing. Know hope.

Speaking of misplaced panic: I recently was scolded in a teaching evaluation: apparently you can’t teach sustainability and also use GenAI. Nonsense, I say. A typical ChatGPT query is about as energy intensive as running a lightbulb for 2 minutes. Now, don’t get me wrong, if you are GenAIMaxxing massive swarms of agents to do everything, there’s a material energy footprint here. But putting global data center electricity demand in perspective is wildly helpful. Check out the full piece from Hannah Ritchie, linked in the comments below.

Until next week friends.