Packy Griffin

Thanks for providing some optimism despite the concerning headline.

Image shows an email confirmation of cancellation of a subscription to the Washington Post.

I wish it hadn’t come to this, but the money I’ve spent annually on a @washingtonpost.com subscription are better off directed toward independent journalists. I look forward to a day when a new owner restores the Post’s integrity.

A Secret Panel to Question Climate Science Was Unlawful, Judge Rules

The tide is turning.

“The Energy Department did not deny that it had failed to hold open meetings or assemble a balance of viewpoints, as the law requires, when it created the panel, known as the Climate Working Group. ‘These violations are now established as a matter of law,’ wrote Judge Young.”

Really great edition! I lean more toward skepticism and mistrust when it comes to AI but the climate applications are encouraging. Shared with my team that sits right at the climate-AI intersection.

This is what municipal government should look like at every level. So refreshing compared to the vanity posts that have become so commonplace, typically promoting or celebrating the worst or most oppressive policies.

Yea this rocks. Just the very fundamentals of government. This type of messaging and civil service should he unanimously praised and broadly replicated.

Hard to conceive of a more obvious good vs. evil vignette than this.

Stare at this chart by @ember-energy.org for a moment and imagine a chronological animation with call outs for major energy, economic, and social milestones over the course of Indian, Chinese, and American history since 1900. Great example of storytelling in data.

I love this chart as it's a great example of storytelling in data. A chronological animation that contained call outs for major energy, economic, and social milestones would take it to a whole other level. Nicely done as always @ember-energy.org

Smashed the Save button on this thread. Thanks for the recs!

pulling this reflection on white silence/fear over here, too:

But the best quote may have come from the current Energy Secretary, Chris Wright: "When it comes to climate change we just chuck rationality at the door.”

Honestly, no notes...

Another zinger from Prof. Michael Oppenheimer: "“In my wildest dreams I could not have imagined that the Trump administration would do the level of destruction they have tried to do to the development of renewable energy in this country. Why didn’t I think it imaginable? Because it’s not rational.”

Under Trump, U.S. Adds Fuel to a Heating Planet

“Emissions will be higher. Trump’s greenhouse gas emissions will cause Trump’s heat waves, Trump’s droughts, Trump’s floods, and Trump’s wildfires.”

This is awesome turnabout of the corny "branding" we hear almost every week. 👏 @jsmankin.bsky.social 👏

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...

The heat energy we added to the ocean LAST YEAR is the equivalent of:
- Detonating ten hydrogen bombs every minute
- operating over a hundred large power plants continuously for all of written human history
- Five times all the electricity human beings have ever used

a man in a black shirt and tie is writing on a piece of paper . ALT: a man in a black shirt and tie is writing on a piece of paper .

… of distressing outcomes from 2025. Thanks for quantifying our outputs this way. The scale is staggering.

Scientific data does not recognize borders.

“For the third year in a row, Earth’s average temperature ran close to 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the climate that sustained human civilizations as the 20th century began, before fossil-fuel pollution started damaging the atmosphere.”

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

The global warming trend continued in 2025. Each of the past 11 years (2015–2025) has been among the 11 warmest on record. Explore more data from #CopernicusClimate in the Global Climate Highlights 2025. #GCH2025

🔗 climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...

@ecmwf.int

Challenging at times to read but so important. Lab Dog by @melaniedgkaplan.bsky.social

Come for the discussion about possible utopia. Stay for the philosophical inquiry about life's purpose and the choice between abundance (en vogue) and adequacy with @akshatrathi.bsky.social and Kim Stanley Robinson.

Return of the Silver Shirts In ICE's invasion of Minneapolis, an echo of a dark past.

History and it's horrifying echoes come home to roost.

www.liberalcurrents.com/return-of-th...

I’m churning through a few good reads at the moment but what else should I read in 2026?

Playground - Richard Powers

Top prize for mind blowing conclusion. This one will stick with me forever and expertly captured the natural vs. artificial world zeitgeist that is playing out with increasing consequence. Book of the Year for me though quite divisive in my book club.

Money, Lies, and God - Katherine Stewart @katherinestewart.bsky.social

Ugh. Such deep investigation that explained the roots of all that seems to be nightmarish today. This book made me shudder multiple times and question how we allowed America to succumb to its current fate.

Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel @emilymandel.bsky.social

ESJM has long been on my TBR list and though I started with Station Eleven, Sea of tranquility was the stand out for me. Connected mysteries across multiple unique timelines and the tidy reveal at the end was stunning.

Migrations - Charlotte McConaghy

Discovering CM’s books this year was a highlight and Migrations was an adventure of environmental and existential scale with just enough character intrigue and mystery to balance the very real climate messaging.

How High We Go In The Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu @sequoian.bsky.social

Part of my “microdosing the apocalypse through literature” journey from the beginning of the year. HHWGITD was imaginative, ridiculous, relatable, fantastical, horrifying, beautiful. So many things all at once.

What’s the expiration date on 2025 reading recaps? Doesnt matter I’m posting it anyway as a momentary distraction from … *gestures at everything*

My standouts included…

Apple Music has long been my primary streaming app of choice. But this year is about more direct support to artists through a return to physical media (hello vinyl) and a shift to Qobuz.