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Alaina Kinol

@alainakinol.bsky.social

240 followers 390 following 42 posts

Climate policy PhD candidate at Northeastern U Energy nerd, into pollinators

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Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · Aug 21

So embarrassing for NY, used to be an environmental leader next to CA/MA

but now Hochul is working with the White House on bringing back fracked gas against NY climate policy.

Shame @governor.ny.gov

www.ehn.org/new-yorks-bl...

New York’s blocked gas pipelines may move forward under Trump-Hochul energy deal

Hundreds of New Yorkers rallied last week as two previously rejected gas pipeline projects resurfaced amid a potential backroom deal between Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Trump administration.Deep Vakil r...

www.ehn.org

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Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 1d

Agree with Colin this is a general “how to frame scientific understanding in media” issue, that isn’t necessarily disingenuous on anyone’s part.

I also think there are much bigger issues with media framing in climate headlines than notifying people that data are estimates

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 1d

I see where you’re coming from, but aren’t death counts often estimates? It seems there are a lot of events that cause deaths where there’s never eg a precise countable number of bodies that absolutely definitely died of the discrete event as opposed to eg a 2ndary cause.

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 2d

It’s a counterfactual no? those deaths ARE happening in heatwaves fires floods etc.

Is there a meaningful difference in outcome between attributing deaths to climate (via model) & counting vs counting deaths then attributing to climate (via model) ?

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Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 2d

Oh & now it’s operating over stated capacity despite safety concerns re: build quality, and trying to get FERC to approve an extension into another state

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 2d

EQT built the controversial mountain valley pipeline for which they claimed they had buyers: equitrans aka a subsidiary they spun off then re-bought

& US energy regulators were like yeah sounds needed ✅
Then Congress mandated in a budget bill that it be completed despite court stays

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 2d

Please enjoy this executive at one of America's biggest gas companies openly admitting that expanding supply leads to increased demand for fossil fuels

He is not wrong: frantic expansion of fossil fuel supply worsens climate change. Tax it, cut subsidies, wind it down

www.ft.com/content/5ba8...

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https://www.ft.com/content/5ba8caec-61d3-4aa9-a877-9b200ef4b5b0

Will Jordan, chief legal and policy officer at EQT, a leading US gas producer, also thought that any glut would be temporary, and said US demand was also rising on the boom in power-hungry artificial intelligence data centres.

Recommended

Oil & Gas industry
BP’s new chair signals more asset sales and demands faster restructuring

“Supply leads demand — you put the supply on the market and demand gets created.,” he said. “Over the long term we’re very bullish.”

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Reposted by Alaina Kinol

Common Dreams @commondreams.org · 3d

More than 100 top Trump administration officials in charge of energy and environmental policy have ties to the fossil fuel industry. One of them described her job as as offering “concierge, white-glove service” to oil, gas, and coal companies.

Trump Admin Has Hired 100+ 'Fossil Fuel Insiders' to Fill Top Energy, Environmental Agency Roles

One of them described her job as offering “concierge, white glove service” to oil, gas, and coal companies seeking permits from regulators.

www.commondreams.org

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Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 2d

Jarring that @harvardkennedy.bsky.social is platforming Total's CEO given the @natsustain.nature.com paper out today showing clearly that oil & gas lies about commitments to green transition (not to mention decades of other research suggesting the same) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Oil and gas industry’s marginal share of global renewable energy

Nature Sustainability - The decarbonization of oil and gas companies may not be as speedy or robust as advertised. This analysis finds that renewable energies make up just a minor fraction of the...

www.nature.com

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 3d

see also: looking lovingly at photos of baby while baby is sleeping on/next to you

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 3d

I think that’s a good take, so long as perception doesn’t supercede the actual work being done to mitigate harm

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 3d

The best is going to the office 2 days a week to charge there for free & only paying for road trips. Plus not dealing with the ick of gas stations.

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 3d

People are being sold this vision of an ineffective state by interests that shortsightedly believe they would benefit from reduced oversight. It’s objectively untrue. Rather than capitulating to that discourse I think your argument to unsubmerge is far more compelling.

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 3d

But I’m not sold that an ineffective state will gain people’s trust either. I don’t see how we have a stable admin state that doesn’t eg protect people against industrial toxicants - the purpose of the state isn’t just employment.

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 4d

I would love to see a project of visions for what a future for US gov could be, like collectively building a lighthouse for humane & democratic government

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 4d

But not sure that a post-expertise (abandoning technocracy?) approach makes sense for providing necessarily science-dependent evidence-based policy eg healthcare or environmental regulation as much as it would for immigration enforcement
(+re an agency in NC: see EPA in research triangle park)

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 4d

I've been desperate to hear discussions of what building a US gov looks like after this admin and @beaubaumann.bsky.social 's piece was thought-provoking in a parallel direction. Genuinely though, can we do post-trump with current political parties? lpeproject.org/blog/rebuild...

Rebuilding State Authority In A Post-Trump America

In the ruins of the administrative state after Trump, many on the left see an opportunity to design a New Deal-type reconstruction agenda. But building state capacity requires a government that is…

lpeproject.org

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Reposted by Alaina Kinol

Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 4d

Yet another day of needless cruelty towards queer kids, who are perfect just the way they are. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

Supreme Court Live Updates: Justices Seem Set to Rule Against Colorado’s Ban on Conversion Therapy

www.nytimes.com

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Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 4d

Great go do it

Reposted by Alaina Kinol

Andy Brockman @andybrockman.bsky.social · Sep 19

Everybody makes money out of academic authors except the authors...News.

Wiley is the latest academic publisher to reach a multi-million deal to allow access to its content to AI developers, with no opt out, let alone payment, for the authors who created that content.

Wiley set to earn $44m from AI rights deals, confirms “no opt-out" for authors

The US publisher is the latest to capitalise on deals to give tech firms access to its authors’ content to train their Large Language Models (LLMs).

www.thebookseller.com

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Reposted by Alaina Kinol

Indivisible ❌👑 @indivisible.org · 6d

Trump’s regime is deploying unaccountable masked men into the hearts of our communities to spread fear.

We must stand together against fascist ICE raids. Join an event near you for the biggest day of peaceful protest in American history: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i... #NoKings

ICE Agents Rappel from Helicopter in Overnight Chicago Raid, Dragging Kids from Beds to U-Hauls

Overnight on Tuesday, Sept. 30, federal agents from different agencies raided an apartment building on the South Side of Chicago, pulling men, women and children — some of them allegedly naked — from ...

people.com

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Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 6d

Notably mothers are known to not have to make important decisions

ProPublica @propublica.org · 6d

The judge ultimately ruled that the teen was mature enough to raise two children, but not mature enough to decide if she was ready to be a mother.

(Published 2022 in partnership with The New York Times Magazine)

She Wanted an Abortion. A Judge Said She Wasn’t Mature Enough to Make That Decision.

As abortion access dwindles, America’s “parental-involvement” laws place further restrictions on teenagers — who may need to ask judges for permission to end their pregnancies.

www.propublica.org

Alaina Kinol @alainakinol.bsky.social · 12d

you just can't understand modern US policy processes without obstruction: willful denial & delay of science/narratives/policies that reduce harm to instead increase short-term profits for the ultra wealthy

so disingenuous to place blame for bad politics but not talk about who's materially gaining

Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 13d

Ezra Klein doesn't think about the right wing, like, at all.

He seems honestly to believe it was *our* fault that the Dem tent shrank.

He is blind to GOP disinformation, divisiveness, oppression.

How do you do political analysis without accounting for those forces in American politics?

1/n

You know what I mean? My expectations for the rhetoric of writers, intellectuals, journalists, et cetera, is very, very different than what the expectations should be for people who expect to hold
office.
This I agree with. I think that there are different jobs in all this. But when I say we began writing people off, I think that something that happened, and something I saw - in this debate, but also underneath it — is that the work of politics, of bridging over a lot of profound, fundamental, moral disagreements, became somewhat
demeaned, diminished. It began to seem like, in many cases, a betrayal to people. The tent shrank. The people I feel more comfortable with wielding power
shrank. What Clinton was saying there came from somewhere. It came from the culture that had emerged. It got worse over time. And
then I think it really contributed to us losing.

Reposted by Alaina Kinol

Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 19d

“Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic and made way for parks, people-streets and bike-lanes.”

Better for the climate, better for health, better for livability & quality of life.

Common sense.

Such a no-brainer, it’s remarkable that more cities HAVEN’T done the same.

Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.

Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Alaina Kinol

Antonia Juhasz @antoniajuhasz.bsky.social · 17d

So, this is awesome. A new interactive map and database lets you track the largest polluters where you live, including the biggest sources of fossil fuel-climate-destroying emissions. @climatetrace.org
www.cnn.com/2025/09/24/c...

How to track the super polluters next door | CNN

A new tool allows people in the world’s largest metros to track their air pollution exposure and who’s doing the polluting.

www.cnn.com

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Reposted by Alaina Kinol

Dr Rasu Shrestha @rasushrestha.bsky.social · 19d

If you think Tylenol is bad for children’s health, wait until you see what guns do.

Firearms were responsible for 20 percent of all child and teen deaths in the U.S. for both 2020 and 2021, compared to an average of less than 2 percent in similarly large and wealthy nations, according to a new KFF analysis. This puts the U.S. far ahead of peer nations in child and teen firearm deaths.

Data show that U.S. firearm deaths for children and teens again surpassed motor vehicle deaths – the second leading cause of death – and that the increase has been primarily driven by gun assault deaths.

On a per capita basis, the firearm mortality rate among children and teens in the U.S. is over 9.5 times the rate of Canada, the country with the second-highest child and teen firearm death rate. If firearm deaths in the U.S. had mirrored Canada’s rates between 2010 and 2021, approximately 30,000 U.S. children and teenagers would still be alive.

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Reposted by Alaina Kinol

Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 24d

A program in Flint, MI, gave $1,500 to any/all pregnant people and $500/month for the first year of their infant’s life.

Among the benefits, those babies experienced lower rates of prematurity and low birth weight, which resulted in fewer NICU admissions, saving the city of Flint $6.2 million/year.

The US town that pays every pregnant woman $1,500: ‘We’re not OK with our babies being born into poverty’

Infants in Rx Kids in Flint, Michigan, saw lower rates of prematurity and other issues, saving millions in NICU visits

www.theguardian.com

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