Another excellent article. Thank you! As a climate and democracy activist/organizer with Third Act Maryland, I have conversations all the time about whether it's more important to focus on climate or on democracy. I tell people fighting for the climate and fighting for democracy are really the same thing, and I point out that nothing pisses off Trump more than windmills and solar panels (with the possible exception of black and brown people standing up for their rights).
So we're working to pass state-level climate legislation, pressuring grid operator PJM, campaigning for redistricting, organizing Tesla Takedown rallies (still!), getting trained up to be ICE observers, organizing GOTV events, and on and on.
All are great points, but last connection is the strongest I think for helping myself and others understand the unique value of climate journalism in the current moment, precisely because it seems so unimportant and invisible.
Deaths due to lack of methane regulations or other EPA regulations or climate change itself still matter too. And if that doesn't get covered then I do think people forget about them. It is worth remembering that even things like asthma hospitalizations are not just a statistic but real people whose lives could be made better and there are people in power preventing that, just like they are preventing any accountability to ICE or making immigrant lives better.
All to say don't feel embarrassed, because it is all connected, and the work you do is awesome.
Corporate polluters don't care about the environment. They live in the present, not the future. For them, and any who are wannabe rich people, living in the present is the only thing that matters. Make lot's of money and spend it today. It might not be there tomorrow.
Then we have the gold plated wannabe king in the white house who only live vicariously around his donors and sycophants. Once he's gone, we may be able to turn things around again. The difference now, is we'll have to play catchup to undo all of the damage the gilded king is doing. I don't see any good outcome for many years to come. China is so far ahead of the U.S. when it comes to green energy now, at great cost to their environment and the people. For them, not being dependent on imported oil is more important than any environmental concerns. Which will eventually catch up to them. The planet is pretty unforgiving. It just takes a while before revenge for wrongdoings kicks in.
Global warming is just one of those revenge tactics. Slow to get going but packs a serious punch once it gets up to speed.
In the end, the destruction of the planet is not possible to avoid regardless of how rich one becomes promoting it. You might delay the personal affects, but eventually your offspring are going to also pay the price. This is one of the more insipid aspects of the continuing extraction and acceleration of carbon release. Maybe they are all single with no offspring or family they care about!
Years ago I started a blog focused on supporting climate-aligned workers and people entering the field. Reading your piece, it struck me that another way to influence the arc of this assault is to move many more people into climate and green careers—especially by actively recruiting from extraction and adjacent industries. I know there are many people who hate that their source of income is part of destroying our future.
Many of the most consequential climate decisions won’t be made only by activists or policymakers, but by the people doing the work every day inside energy, finance, infrastructure, land use, and technology roles.
I’ve recently finished a 300 page book that I’m giving away free to help people explore and transition into climate-related careers. If it’s okay, I’d like to share the link here (no email collection or follow required—this is simply my contribution to the climate movement):piano-tangerine-38a7.squarespace.com.
There is nothing more existential than this fight , and this is coming from a doctor who thinks if we had universal healthcare we could solve a lot of our problems! Keep your eye on the prize Emily. I'm in my idgaf phase now. Time is so short. Make it count !
This is such a valuable article. Thank you for articulating these connections in a way that makes them easier to share with others. I so appreciate your deep research and synthesis that allows all of us to take it and run with it. Helping the choir to sing ...
This is awesome Emily. I feel like it would be remiss not to cross pollinate with a link to Amy Westervelt’s latest on Drilled. I think we’re all grappling with these feelings right now.
It's pretty galling hearing about the historical precedent of charges of "domestic terrorism" and cries of "insurgency" and "jihadism" levied against indigenous defenders of tribal lands and the planet in general. They're not the invaders, the colonizers. It's a deliberate distortion of the record.
Excellent! Thanks. The history of this time is already being written by you and others.
While there’s not enough coverage of the methodologies of malfeasance on the part of climate progress obstructionists, Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment, edited by J. Timmons Roberts Carlos R. S. Milani Jennifer Jacquet and Christian Downie (https://cssn.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/web-version-Roberts-et-al-Climate-Obstruction-A-Global-Assessment.pdf) is eye-opening. Even older books, like Jane Mayer’s Dark Money, turns the rocks over to expose the worms.
I just posted “The Architecture of Obstruction: A Forensic Analysis of the Anti-Renewable Energy Countermovement,” (https://davidguenette.com/the-architecture-of-obstruction/) an AI-generated report based on the following query to Gemini in the “Deep Research” mode: Identify and summarize studies, investigations, and reports of well-funded state and local organizations and groups opposing solar and wind power projects that may have funding and other forms of assistance from national organizations, think tanks, and professional groups. Be as specific as possible in regard to names of organizations and principal participants and include these names, along with the budgets involved and the connections to state and local level solar and wind bans in table form as well as within the text report.
I also posted here on my The Steep Climes Substack a shorter version for the TL;DR crowd called “The “Astroturf” Empire: Who is Really Blocking America’s Clean Energy?” (https://substack.com/@davidrguenette454046/p-187457401)
Much remains hidden, but hopefully, truth will out. Please keep up your great work!
Benito Mussolini said "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." You are right to call attention to the ways authoritarian corporate/government partnership is operating in the present to gut climate protections, further US authoritarianism and undermine constitutional democracy from within. And I agree it's all glued together by vast sums of money from corporates flowing into Trump and Trump family pockets and the coffers of donor-dependent legislators.
However, I'm surprised to find you are a believer in the promise of a significant "transition away from fossil fuels". I hope you will dig further and reconsider in light of all the evidence contradicting the claim, the meme, that "renewables" can replace FFs, the energy density of FFs that the global growth economy is based on & depends on. Electrifying Everything is not an actual option. It's a claim conjured out of thin air without supporting evidence, intended to replace energy ecosystem realities with a hopeful vision of a "clean energy future" that in the real world of structural FF energy dependence is clearly not achievable. Electricity is less than 30% of primary/ total energy and most power is generated in coal & gas plants.
About all this, there is a critical question that "electrotech" advocates either haven't thought to address or are loath to attempt answering: What would be the cascading, interconnected economic, societal, geopolitical & food system consequences if we actually started using less total energy than we do? Because that is the only way to bring down emissions. The question has not been addressed by the many who recommend we should just "stop oil" regardless of renewables buildout. I wish we could use less oil or none at all, but it's not in the cards, and it's much too late, with no roadmap, to imagine it's plausible.
Super inconvenient very uncomfortable unpopular truth: Transportation is the number one source of GHGs in the U.S. If we pump gas, we are paying polluters to stay in business. Make Polluters Pay bills are popular. I work and advocate for them. But when we pump, we pay polluters to stay in business. We are funding the coffers that support Trump, MAGA and Project 2025's new ambitions. Every trip to the pump contributes to this war chest. And this argument is never about those who cannot take public transit or obtain an electric car. It's about those who can. Some 16m new vehicles are sold annually, yet only about 10% of them are electric, even with average range about 250 miles now. Many can get off gas and the majority of Americans get used cars, by the way, which are always cheaper. If nothing else, connect the inconvenient dots: Every trip to the pump pays polluters to stay in business. Every trip to the pump funds fossil fuel lobbyists.
But it's not just the climate fight. All these "woke" fights, whether climate, human/gender rights, worker rights, immigration defense, income inequality, antiwar, antifa .... It's all the same battle of the 99.9% vs the corporate oligarchs and their neoliberalist destruction.
So, yes, please keep up the climate fight. What you do is important reporting on a key battleground. But keep reminding us that it is just one front of a larger war.
Thank you, Emily. As always, you bring the facts, see the patterns, and connect the dots. I’m so grateful for your excellent work and happy to be a paid subscriber. Also love the pet photos. 💕
Another excellent article. Thank you! As a climate and democracy activist/organizer with Third Act Maryland, I have conversations all the time about whether it's more important to focus on climate or on democracy. I tell people fighting for the climate and fighting for democracy are really the same thing, and I point out that nothing pisses off Trump more than windmills and solar panels (with the possible exception of black and brown people standing up for their rights).
So we're working to pass state-level climate legislation, pressuring grid operator PJM, campaigning for redistricting, organizing Tesla Takedown rallies (still!), getting trained up to be ICE observers, organizing GOTV events, and on and on.
All are great points, but last connection is the strongest I think for helping myself and others understand the unique value of climate journalism in the current moment, precisely because it seems so unimportant and invisible.
Deaths due to lack of methane regulations or other EPA regulations or climate change itself still matter too. And if that doesn't get covered then I do think people forget about them. It is worth remembering that even things like asthma hospitalizations are not just a statistic but real people whose lives could be made better and there are people in power preventing that, just like they are preventing any accountability to ICE or making immigrant lives better.
All to say don't feel embarrassed, because it is all connected, and the work you do is awesome.
Awesome article!! I hope a lot more people read it!!
Boom - dropping that dynamite (wait, is that not climate-friendly to say anymore?) 💪
Hmmm this seems a question for another article 😂
I'd be happy to contribute to that
Absolutely!! Well said.
Corporate polluters don't care about the environment. They live in the present, not the future. For them, and any who are wannabe rich people, living in the present is the only thing that matters. Make lot's of money and spend it today. It might not be there tomorrow.
Then we have the gold plated wannabe king in the white house who only live vicariously around his donors and sycophants. Once he's gone, we may be able to turn things around again. The difference now, is we'll have to play catchup to undo all of the damage the gilded king is doing. I don't see any good outcome for many years to come. China is so far ahead of the U.S. when it comes to green energy now, at great cost to their environment and the people. For them, not being dependent on imported oil is more important than any environmental concerns. Which will eventually catch up to them. The planet is pretty unforgiving. It just takes a while before revenge for wrongdoings kicks in.
Global warming is just one of those revenge tactics. Slow to get going but packs a serious punch once it gets up to speed.
In the end, the destruction of the planet is not possible to avoid regardless of how rich one becomes promoting it. You might delay the personal affects, but eventually your offspring are going to also pay the price. This is one of the more insipid aspects of the continuing extraction and acceleration of carbon release. Maybe they are all single with no offspring or family they care about!
I appreciate this analysis, Emily.
Years ago I started a blog focused on supporting climate-aligned workers and people entering the field. Reading your piece, it struck me that another way to influence the arc of this assault is to move many more people into climate and green careers—especially by actively recruiting from extraction and adjacent industries. I know there are many people who hate that their source of income is part of destroying our future.
Many of the most consequential climate decisions won’t be made only by activists or policymakers, but by the people doing the work every day inside energy, finance, infrastructure, land use, and technology roles.
I’ve recently finished a 300 page book that I’m giving away free to help people explore and transition into climate-related careers. If it’s okay, I’d like to share the link here (no email collection or follow required—this is simply my contribution to the climate movement):piano-tangerine-38a7.squarespace.com.
There is nothing more existential than this fight , and this is coming from a doctor who thinks if we had universal healthcare we could solve a lot of our problems! Keep your eye on the prize Emily. I'm in my idgaf phase now. Time is so short. Make it count !
This is such a valuable article. Thank you for articulating these connections in a way that makes them easier to share with others. I so appreciate your deep research and synthesis that allows all of us to take it and run with it. Helping the choir to sing ...
This is awesome Emily. I feel like it would be remiss not to cross pollinate with a link to Amy Westervelt’s latest on Drilled. I think we’re all grappling with these feelings right now.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/drilled/id1439735906?i=1000747911525
Oh nice, I hadn’t seen this. Thank you for linking
Amy Westervelt is brilliant.
It's pretty galling hearing about the historical precedent of charges of "domestic terrorism" and cries of "insurgency" and "jihadism" levied against indigenous defenders of tribal lands and the planet in general. They're not the invaders, the colonizers. It's a deliberate distortion of the record.
Excellent! Thanks. The history of this time is already being written by you and others.
While there’s not enough coverage of the methodologies of malfeasance on the part of climate progress obstructionists, Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment, edited by J. Timmons Roberts Carlos R. S. Milani Jennifer Jacquet and Christian Downie (https://cssn.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/web-version-Roberts-et-al-Climate-Obstruction-A-Global-Assessment.pdf) is eye-opening. Even older books, like Jane Mayer’s Dark Money, turns the rocks over to expose the worms.
I just posted “The Architecture of Obstruction: A Forensic Analysis of the Anti-Renewable Energy Countermovement,” (https://davidguenette.com/the-architecture-of-obstruction/) an AI-generated report based on the following query to Gemini in the “Deep Research” mode: Identify and summarize studies, investigations, and reports of well-funded state and local organizations and groups opposing solar and wind power projects that may have funding and other forms of assistance from national organizations, think tanks, and professional groups. Be as specific as possible in regard to names of organizations and principal participants and include these names, along with the budgets involved and the connections to state and local level solar and wind bans in table form as well as within the text report.
I also posted here on my The Steep Climes Substack a shorter version for the TL;DR crowd called “The “Astroturf” Empire: Who is Really Blocking America’s Clean Energy?” (https://substack.com/@davidrguenette454046/p-187457401)
Much remains hidden, but hopefully, truth will out. Please keep up your great work!
Benito Mussolini said "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." You are right to call attention to the ways authoritarian corporate/government partnership is operating in the present to gut climate protections, further US authoritarianism and undermine constitutional democracy from within. And I agree it's all glued together by vast sums of money from corporates flowing into Trump and Trump family pockets and the coffers of donor-dependent legislators.
However, I'm surprised to find you are a believer in the promise of a significant "transition away from fossil fuels". I hope you will dig further and reconsider in light of all the evidence contradicting the claim, the meme, that "renewables" can replace FFs, the energy density of FFs that the global growth economy is based on & depends on. Electrifying Everything is not an actual option. It's a claim conjured out of thin air without supporting evidence, intended to replace energy ecosystem realities with a hopeful vision of a "clean energy future" that in the real world of structural FF energy dependence is clearly not achievable. Electricity is less than 30% of primary/ total energy and most power is generated in coal & gas plants.
About all this, there is a critical question that "electrotech" advocates either haven't thought to address or are loath to attempt answering: What would be the cascading, interconnected economic, societal, geopolitical & food system consequences if we actually started using less total energy than we do? Because that is the only way to bring down emissions. The question has not been addressed by the many who recommend we should just "stop oil" regardless of renewables buildout. I wish we could use less oil or none at all, but it's not in the cards, and it's much too late, with no roadmap, to imagine it's plausible.
Super inconvenient very uncomfortable unpopular truth: Transportation is the number one source of GHGs in the U.S. If we pump gas, we are paying polluters to stay in business. Make Polluters Pay bills are popular. I work and advocate for them. But when we pump, we pay polluters to stay in business. We are funding the coffers that support Trump, MAGA and Project 2025's new ambitions. Every trip to the pump contributes to this war chest. And this argument is never about those who cannot take public transit or obtain an electric car. It's about those who can. Some 16m new vehicles are sold annually, yet only about 10% of them are electric, even with average range about 250 miles now. Many can get off gas and the majority of Americans get used cars, by the way, which are always cheaper. If nothing else, connect the inconvenient dots: Every trip to the pump pays polluters to stay in business. Every trip to the pump funds fossil fuel lobbyists.
I agree 100%
But it's not just the climate fight. All these "woke" fights, whether climate, human/gender rights, worker rights, immigration defense, income inequality, antiwar, antifa .... It's all the same battle of the 99.9% vs the corporate oligarchs and their neoliberalist destruction.
So, yes, please keep up the climate fight. What you do is important reporting on a key battleground. But keep reminding us that it is just one front of a larger war.
Thank you, Emily. As always, you bring the facts, see the patterns, and connect the dots. I’m so grateful for your excellent work and happy to be a paid subscriber. Also love the pet photos. 💕