28 Comments

Interview Saul Griffith when you are there please :)

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Are you going to any World Cup games?!

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Where are the transcripts of your talks with Ramez Naam and Tim Latimer?

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Jul 24, 2023·edited Jul 24, 2023

Ani is so handsome! I'm a sucker for cats, especially black cats. Have a great trip! Hoping you are successful in your endeavor to inspire the Aussies. I am reminded today as I choke on smoke from Canada how much we are all in this together. There is no planet B.

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good luck and have fun

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Very European of you to take August off! Enjoy Australia!

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Jul 30, 2023·edited Jul 30, 2023

I am a former Seattle British resident and shall be in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane over the next couple of weeks; please feel free to send details of any public talks you'll be at and I'll try to swing by.

p.s. England tracking well in the footy...

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founding

Hope the surgery and travel prep go well for you! Pete Dominick is off to Australia right now, too. Would love it if you could interview Saul Griffith about a Manhattan Project for electrification, etc. And, your recent pod on geothermal was fantastic-- I was hiking over super hard rocks near Santa Fe when you were talking with Tim about how in the world do they fracture those way underground-- it made me chuckle re: timing. And, I had to rewind when he mentioned initial DOE research at Fenton Hill--- I had an internship with LANL and did grunt work for scientists there in the early 1980's! So yeah, like you, super excited about enhanced geothermal prospects. Go Fervo!

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Only good things can come from David Roberts talking directly with policymakers about clean tech and climate!

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founding

Good decision both for you and for hopefully making an impact. As an Aussie in Berlin I hope you give em hell and make the economics and the opportunity abundantly clear. I've largely given up on Australian politics and while Labour being in charge is a very welcome change, they have been referred to the Shit Lite party for a reason (they still saying yes to more gas and coal mines despite all the pro climate rhetoric). If you aren't already aware of Juice Media and their honest government ads, it might be an entertaining primer on some of the recent developments https://youtu.be/fHB0vDhdM3c

Apart from that I hope you manage to catch a bit of the landscape instead of being trapped in just the cities. Lamington National Park / Binna Burra (1 hour west of the Gold Coast/Brisbane) is one of my favourite places on earth. Nothing like a bit of wandering through rainforest to make you feel relaxed and a welcome form of insignificant. Or just any beach if time is short.

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Good luck, David! I hope you are able to get down to my home state of Tasmania, which is (in my totally unbiased opinion) our most beautiful, and which has been running on 100 pc renewable energy for some time.

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Welcome soon to my land. We threw out a Trumpian-denier-level government and now have one that talks the talk but does little in concrete terms. Be brutal!

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founding

Sounds fabulous.convince the Australians to fight climate change and have fun!

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Jul 25, 2023·edited Jul 25, 2023

Hi David - as an Australian (Melbourne) I am thrilled to hear that! Hope you are doing some public talks - do let us know - Australia is in a unique position being geographically blessed but lacking an IRA. We need to get pretty smart about local manufacturing using renewables off the grid, I think....cannot wait to hear what you think the answer for Australia is!

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PS the long haul is tough but doable. Just need to give yourself time to rest at the other end. Obviously also the jet lag is an issue but just being in a tin can for 24 hours is v. tiring. But on the jet lag front you will be happy to know that there is an app for that - https://www.timeshifter.com/about

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founding

Enjoy!

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Looking forward to the thoughts shared in September. Sounds great. For you, and us.

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