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City Atlas

@cityatlas.bsky.social

8K followers 680 following 14K posts

Climate info & tools for immersive learning. Everywhere: @CityAtlas #PlayEnergetic Posts: R Reiss https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/nyregion/earth-day-energetic-game.html https://newyork.thecityatlas.org/energetic/energetic-in-new-york/

www.nytimes.com

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 25d

Glad to see dozens of students at Vassar decarbonizing NYC this morning in @jeffsseidman.bsky.social's class.
We can do this for any city, and now we have 1000 sets to distribute for New York. Ideas welcome!
#PlayEnergetic

A roomful of college students playing a cooperative board game, Energetic, in which an activist, a politician, an entrepreneur, and an engineer team up to build a zero carbon energy supply for NYC by 2040.

In this updated version, you begin in 2026, and you can't build offshore wind till 2029, and then only if you win the 2028 election.

You do, however, start the game with 1 GW already complete, thanks to the Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission line. So you only have to build 15 more GW to power NYC's heat pumps in 2040.

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 11h

Between them there's Maslow:
www.resilience.org/stories/2021...

The Blackfoot Wisdom that Inspired Maslow’s Hierarchy

Whereas American narratives focus on the individual, the Blackfoot way of life offers an alternative of a community that leaves no one behind

www.resilience.org

City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 11h

Fast forward to the mysterious Daniel (anthropology grad turned housing lawyer, with one of the more astute YouTube channels):
youtu.be/7ebhXFuPkR4

How Inequality of Wealth and Power are like Obesity and Diabetes

YouTube video by WHAT IS POLITICS?

youtu.be

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 11h

Ben Franklin had few illusions
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/let...

The proneness of human Nature to a life of ease, of freedom from care and labour appears strongly in the little success that has hitherto attended every attempt to civilize our American Indians, in their present way of living, almost all their Wants are supplied by the spontaneous Productions of Nature, with the addition of very little labour, if hunting and fishing may indeed be called labour when Game is so plenty, they visit us frequently, and see the advantages that Arts, Sciences, and compact Society procure us, they are not deficient in natural understanding and yet they have never shewn any Inclination to change their manner of life for ours, or to learn any of our Arts; When an Indian Child has been brought up among us, taught our language and habituated to our Customs, yet if he goes to see his relations and make one Indian Ramble with them, there is no perswading him ever to return, and that this is not natural to them merely as Indians, but as men, is plain from this, that when white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and lived a while among them, tho’ ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a Short time they become disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the first good Opportunity of escaping again into the Woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them. One instance I remember to have heard, where the person was brought home to possess a good Estate; but finding some care necessary to keep it together, he relinquished it to a younger Brother, reserving to himself nothing but a gun and a match-Coat, with which he took his way again to the Wilderness.

Though they have few but natural wants and those easily supplied. But with us are infinite Artificial wants, no less craving than those of Nature, and much more difficult to satisfy;

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Reposted by City Atlas

Maria Gallucci @mariagallucci.bsky.social · 16h

DOE's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations was meant to
be a launchpad for ambitious projects that could help the U.S. lead on everything from decarbonizing factories to boosting rural energy resiliency. Now it's a shell of itself. My latest for @canarymedia.com www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...

How Trump gutted the team meant to build America’s energy future

The Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations had over $25 billion to help companies scale novel low-carbon technologies. Trump is working to erase it.

www.canarymedia.com

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Reposted by City Atlas

shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 18h

masked federal agents used multiple canisters of tear gas + other chemical munitions on a crowd of residents in chicago's southeast side around 12:40 p.m.

neighbors had gathered on a residential intersection following a morning during which dozens of border patrol agents terrorized the community.

tear gas billows from canisters in a residential intersection, at 105th street and south avenue north, on chicago's southeast side.

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 18h

After one of the rare coherent comments by a mainstream public figure about January 6, Schwarzenegger should have been the head of the DNC, or something.
www.npr.org/sections/ins...

Recalling Nazis From His Childhood, Arnold Schwarzenegger Decries The Capitol Assault

In an emotional video posted to Twitter, the former governor and Austrian immigrant says the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol "trampled the very principles on which our country was founded."

www.npr.org

Reposted by City Atlas

Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 18h

“Many of the chat members already work inside government or party politics, and one serves as a state senator.”

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 19h

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 18h

youtu.be/uBv9syFBpeA

THE CONGRESS | Official Trailer | Drafthouse Films

YouTube video by Drafthouse Films

youtu.be

Reposted by City Atlas

City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 18h

BTW, this is a great and prescient film (from 2013):
youtu.be/uBv9syFBpeA

THE CONGRESS | Official Trailer | Drafthouse Films

YouTube video by Drafthouse Films

youtu.be

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 18h

BTW, this is a great and prescient film (from 2013):
youtu.be/uBv9syFBpeA

THE CONGRESS | Official Trailer | Drafthouse Films

YouTube video by Drafthouse Films

youtu.be

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 18h

Back-to-back summary of late-stage capitalism, possibly a stage that's already post-capitalism

Two tweets back to back:
Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Happen Soon

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

Celeste Labedz
‪@celestelabedz.bsky.social‬

Follow
A lot of comments on Mars rovers or Moon landings, but it's important to remember that the planet NASA studies most is Earth. This is less about cutting flashy things like moonwalks and more about keeping communities in the dark on climate, weather, agriculture, pollution, natural hazards, and more.

‪Reuters‬
‪@reuters.com‬
· 21h
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers reut.rs/4302N2L

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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 22h

It's rare that an interviewer connects with one's work the way Adam Lowenstein does here with my new book. Huge thanks to Adam and to @amywestervelt.bsky.social

Yes, we talk about despair. That's where it starts, but not where it ends.
@drilledmedia.bsky.social
drilled.media/news/wen-QA

What Should You Do with Climate Despair?

Activist and journalist Wen Stephenson has some ideas about ‘Learning to Live in the Dark’.

drilled.media

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 20h

...
www.oreilly.com/radar/two-ec...

Two economies. Two sets of rules.

Elon Musk isn’t superman. He does have supermoney.

www.oreilly.com

City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 20h

A good short description here (of what also can be a great Ponzi mechanism):
money.stackexchange.com/questions/18...

How does a public company issue new shares without diluting the value held by existing shareholders?

When a public company issues new shares, the total number of shares traded in a secondary market goes up. Assuming there is no change in the fundamentals of the company and the profitability, I would

money.stackexchange.com

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Canary Media Inc. @canarymedia.com · 22h

Boston is racing to decarbonize its public housing. Its latest tool? Gradient’s window-straddling heat pumps that plug into standard outlets.

Boston is piloting window heat pumps in affordable housing

Housing authorities in Boston and two nearby cities are installing plug-in heat pumps from startup Gradient to try to swiftly and affordably cut emissions.

www.canarymedia.com

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Chris Baraniuk @chrisbaraniuk.com · 1d

“The BLM did not cancel the project,” the email reads. “During routine discussions prior to the lapse in appropriations, the proponents and BLM agreed to change their approach for the Esmeralda 7 Solar Project in Nevada.”

cleantechnica.com/2025/10/12/w...

Wait, The Esmaralda 7 Solar Power Projects Are Not Dead, Yet

Rumors of the death of the Esmeralda 7 solar power and energy storage projects in Nevada have been greatly exaggerated, for the time being...

cleantechnica.com

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Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 22h

May U. Chicago econ study: "We examine the labor market effects of AI chatbots using two large-scale adoption surveys (late 2023 and 2024) covering 11 exposed occupations (25,000 workers, 7,000 workplaces)... AI chatbots have had no significant impact on earnings or recorded hours in any occupation"

Large Language Models, Small Labor Market Effects

We examine the labor market effects of AI chatbots using two large-scale adoption surveys (late 2023 and 2024) covering 11 exposed occupations (25,000 workers,

papers.ssrn.com

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Reposted by City Atlas

Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 23h

2. Most of Bezos' charitable giving ($2.3 billion) has gone to the Bezos Earth Fund. But the organization has developed a reputation less as a sincere effort to combat climate change and more as a vehicle for the corporate infiltration of the key climate organizations.

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Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 1d

This from the great @sulliview.bsky.social on the media's anemic (or non-) coverage of the massive No Kings movement is such a great point

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Jane Fonda Climate PAC (JanePAC) @janeclimatepac.bsky.social · 23h

Right now, Jeffrey Yass — Pennsylvania’s wealthiest resident, and part-time Trump purse-holder 👜 — is spending BIG to take control of the State Supreme Court.

𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗿? Read more on our #Substack.

Pennsylvania’s Richest Man is Trying to Buy the State Supreme Court

But Pennsylvania voters can stop him

open.substack.com

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 23h

However, I don't know what the answer is. Since we're just tracking climate w/our account Bluesky is ok (while agreeing with your criticisms of it).

Wikipedia-like social media as a public good would be great. It's too powerful a tool to be owned, to be investor-dependent, or to be nihilist-prone.

City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 23h

What to bear in mind: big tech has become a deeply rigged game by people who aren't dumb (crazy might be a better word). So it's hard to see Twitter as a real public sphere; it's more than tilted & keeping legitimate, pro-social accounts active helps validate the rest.
yalereview.org/article/dasg...

Rana Dasgupta: Trump Is Only a Symptom of a Deeper Problem

This analysis of the changing American nation-state argues that Trump's presidency is a distraction from bigger problems.

yalereview.org

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Amber Speaks Up @amberspeaks.bsky.social · 1d

67,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza as of October 7, 2025, and “around 30% of the dead were children.” (Rueters)

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Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · 1d

oh. right.

www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 1d

This is a great, detailed piece of work. There is really no secret here: OpenAI fully intend to use fossil gas to power their data centres.

All the crap about fusion, dyson spheres etc is misdirection. This is what they're *actually* doing:

www.desmog.com/2025/10/13/o...

John McCarrick, the company’s new head of Global Energy Policy, was a senior energy policy advisor in the first Trump administration’s Bureau of Energy Resources in the Department of State while under former Secretaries of State Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo.

As deputy assistant secretary for Energy Transformation and the special envoy for International Energy Affairs, McCarrick promoted exports of American liquefied natural gas to Europe in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and advocated for Asian countries to invest in natural gas.

The choice to hire McCarrick matches the intentions of OpenAI’s Trump-donating CEO Sam Altman, who said in a U.S. Senate hearing in May that “in the short term, I think [the future of powering AI] probably looks like more natural gas.”

It also aligns with the company’s early moves toward powering new data centers, huge warehouses full of linked-up computers that require enormous quantities of water and electricity, to run with gas. OpenAI’s U.S. Stargate Project site in Texas, which is slated to become one of the largest data center sites in the world, is already installing off-grid gas turbines to power its operations.

“Big Tech’s collusion with the Trump administration’s fossil fuel agenda for artificial intelligence is evident in their massive investment in methane gas power infrastructure — as well as pro-gas political operatives like McCarrick,” Tyson Slocum, director of consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said.

The “solution” of powering AI with gas is part of Trump’s AI energy policy platform. In a July speech to announce a $96 billion AI and energy funding package, Trump lauded fossil fuel and coal-powered data center development while flanked by oil and gas executives.

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