Billy Fleming

New neighbor in South Philly

now that I have a pub date for my book, I guess it’s time to revive this account a bit.

4/4 - End Papers: A mini-book fest on capitalism and the climate crisis by Red Emma's Get tickets and support Red Emma's by becoming a member

Coming 4/4: End Papers—our mini-book fest on the climate crisis & capitalism, w/@triofrancos.bsky.social @alybatt.bsky.social @joobilly.bsky.social @taoleighgoffe.bsky.social @jmhattem.bsky.social @maximillianalvarez.bsky.social @robbieshilliam.bsky.social + more TBA

withfriends.co/event/275648...

we worked with reimagine! stellar folks there

Ending the Coalfield-to-Prison Pipeline - Dissent Magazine Boosters have promoted prison construction on abandoned mine lands as a tool of economic development throughout Appalachia. New federal funding provides the opportunity for more sustainable and social...

See @joobilly.bsky.social on the coal mine-to-prison pipeline

that whole chapter goes extremely hard

Some new page proofs

it's a real drag. nothing else like that version of tw*tter

Arkansas Rescinds Choice of Law School Dean Over Transgender Stance

I've never been so ashamed of my alma mater (University of Arkansas). www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/u...

Cover art for building postcarbon futures, a new book on climate justice and design due out in spring 2026

cover art is juuuuust about final

A few shots from my stellar grad students final review, “Building Postcarbon Futures”, focused on a pair of First Nation owned renewable energy systems in the sub-arctic region of Canada.

Forum Lecture: Building Postcarbon Futures: Land, Justice and the Energy Transition - Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism 2025-2026 Forum Lecture Series Speaker: Billy Fleming, landscape designer, city planner, and climate activist, Temple University, USA Free and open to the public Presented by the Azrieli School of Arc...

Friends in Ottawa: I'm heading to Carleton in March for the Canadian launch of my next book, "Building Postcarbon Futures."

I'll have another 20 or so of these to share in 2026 a bit later this year. In the interim, I hope to see some of y'all in Ottawa!
architecture.carleton.ca/event/forum-...

Always love going to reception, meeting some big name practitioner or scholar and their partner, and hearing they met while one was an intern/student. Usually while one was married. Happens like 5x a year.

Some new spreads as the book heads into final proofing

Landscapes of Recarbonization: Carbon Neutrality, Settler Colonialism, and Cumulative Environmental Effects in the Peace River Region, Canada Contemporary discourses of net-zero decarbonization (also referred to as carbon neutrality) routinely overlook the landscape transformations required to offset carbon emissions. Conventional analys...

other industries seeking to greenwash their operations or attain a new social license for growing or maintaining their carbon emissions. The late, great Karen Bakker wrote about it in the context of Canada's energy transition through the frame of "recarbonization" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The other is that it's far too early to know how much the world's (and especially the United States') supply-side only push on renewables is going to work. Anecdotally, I can point to a dozen or so projects providing massive new capacity that are being used by data centers, the FF industry, and...

These models are rarely accurate, and they are never precise. We've been under-estimating emissions growth in IAMs via the IPCC for as long as we've been making them. Every worst-case scenario that's published is replaced within months with a new, much worse case.

I don't know how much stock to put in these projections, which are giving a lot of weight to a nominal decrease in the rate of carbon emissions growth (the actual emissions in 2024 were still higher than in 2023).

I say this for a couple of reasons:

Not that he didn’t already know, but now Trump knows for sure he can roll the Dems every time and there’s no need to negotiate for anything

My favorite comment on the FT story

I thought it was mostly because the rebrand was pushed through without board approval (or even notice)?

A Federal Offshore Wind Authority: A Public Moon Shot for Offshore Wind We propose that a future administration establish a federal Offshore Wind Authority to supercharge buildout and deliver affordable electricity.

The current federal administration is destabilizing the offshore wind industry with stop-work orders and slashed subsidies. We need a credible plan to meet climate targets and build capacity—enter a federal Offshore Wind Authority. climateandcommunity.org/research/off...

I want to push back on this message a bit for those thinking about pursuing a PhD.

It is true that the academic job market sucks & that non-university research jobs—like mine—are unfortunately becoming rarer.

But it is also true that a PhD program provides an unparalleled opportunity for many.

I’d like to amplify others’ pleas to *please* acknowledge and build upon the work of librarians and other organizers — @heykellyjensen.bsky.social, @tasslyn.bsky.social, @everylibrary.bsky.social, et al — who’ve been tracking *all of this* and developing expertise for YEARS.

US Cancels Major Solar Project in Nevada Biden Had Championed The US is canceling a huge solar project in Nevada, the latest effort by President Donald Trump to limit renewable energy development.

NEW: It would have been one of the world's largest photovoltaic power plants. Now it's canceled [gift link]

AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.

Bloomberg has done a deep dive on the impacts of data centers on affordability of electricity. Analyzing data from 25,000 nodes used by seven regional transmission authorities, it finds data centers are causing large and rapid rate increases. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Some test spreads from the new book (Building Postcarbon Futures)

Clinton era triangulation might be the most enduring idea in American politics (and one with little to no evidence of success).

Kongjian Yu, a landscape architect known for "sponge cities," has died in a plane crash in Brazil

We have reached the page proofing phase of my next book (but not the image captions phase)