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City Atlas

@cityatlas.bsky.social

8K followers 670 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 · 22d

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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Reposted by City Atlas

Jennie Dusheck @solenodon.bsky.social · 49m

Thiel: "When I met Netanyahu early in 2024 ... [he said]: ‘I can’t just Dresdenize Gaza – you can’t just firebomb them.’ So it’s like, come on, ‘I’m less of a war criminal than Winston Churchill. Why am I in so much trouble?’ "
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist

The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by City Atlas

Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 2h

This article explains that what happened to the Esmeralda seven projects: “the proponents and BLM agreed to change their approach for the Esmeralda 7 Solar Project in Nevada,” instead of programmatic review, developers can review individually. 🔌💡
www.reviewjournal.com/business/ene...

Feds cancel review of Vegas-sized solar farm in Nevada desert

Esmeralda 7 in Nevada would have been among the nation’s largest solar projects. The Bureau of Land Management has listed the Nevada project as canceled since Thursday.

www.reviewjournal.com

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Reposted by City Atlas

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 3h

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

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Reposted by City Atlas

Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 2h

Excitedly announcing a giant new cost turns "money you actually have" into "excitement about money you expect to have"

Do that enough times and all you've got left are costs and expectations

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Reposted by City Atlas

Sasha Costanza-Chock @schock.cc · 8d

LittleSis have dropped a new report and data visualization about the billionaires and corporations profiting from the deportation industrial complex:

littlesis.org/news/the-bil...

The Billionaire Oligarchs and Corporations Profiting from ICE’s Deportation Machine - Little Sis

A primer on the billionaire barons and corporate profiteers enabling ICE's deportation apparatus

littlesis.org

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Reposted by City Atlas

David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells.bsky.social · 15h

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 16h

It also explains the proliferation of 'pie-in-the-sky' miracle exits, like Mars, 'AI solving everything once we build a nation-sized data center,' or the Metaverse.

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 16h

I think that's the source of their panic, why some of them jumped in with Trump and the rest followed suit. It's not a way to maintain a functioning society; they're people who think they can hedge by building personal bunkers. This is not even Henry Ford thinking. They really aren't into the US.

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 16h

Dasgupta's piece seems spot-on today: bsky.app/profile/matt...

Matt Peterson @mattpeterson.bsky.social · 18h

China put Trump in a corner. Every way out hurts. www.barrons.com/articles/chi...

China's latest threat to clamp down on exports of rare earths appears to have blindsided President Donald Trump. The Chinese plan "came out of nowhere," Trump said Friday in a social media post.
"Nobody has ever seen anything like this."
Beijing's escalation of the trade fight has put the Trump administration on the backfoot at a moment of weakness. China's actions show that the U.S. is vulnerable to economic pressure, and China has forced the administration to choose between further escalation or a humiliating climbdown.

City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 16h

In the world's eyes (which is what props up our indebted economic system) the US is only valuable b/c of Silicon Valley. But why would SV leaders want to manage a country with people in it? How can they shed the people? That seems to be the juncture we're at.
yalereview.org/article/dasg...

More important, it’s because Silicon Valley is now the main engine of American innovation. In the postwar era, the U.S. government was by far the world’s largest sponsor of scientific research. Nowadays, 78 percent of scientific research conducted in the United States is funded by corporations; just four companies—Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Apple—jointly exceed the U.S. government’s spending on R&D. If it is true that the dominant position of the dollar is dependent on the United States’ continued technological leadership, the future of U.S. supremacy is substantially in the hands of tech firms.

It is not certain they are up to such daunting responsibilities. The stunning pace of China’s state-led technological advance has already caused many pundits to question the supposed superiority of Western theories and institutions. An influential 2023 report argued that “China has built the foundations to position itself as the world’s leading science and technology superpower.…

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 17h

Not that Lachlan Murdoch won't give it a good shot. This whole scenario is win-win for him.

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 17h

The tech-bros' guru might be re-thinking things though, as even Lachlan Murdoch can't permanently hide reality from the 40% of Americans that still back Trump
sfstandard.com/2025/10/07/c...

Citing fear of Democratic ‘vengeance,’ Curtis Yarvin says he may flee the U.S.

The far-right blogger doesn’t think the Trump administration has done enough to dismantle democratic institutions.

sfstandard.com

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 17h

Shortcut to understanding:
yalereview.org/article/dasg...
Though our tech-bro overlords may have overshot the mark

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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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 17h

Breaking up the US may be a feature to some, not a bug.
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

Reposted by City Atlas

Jonathan Gilligan @jgilligan.org · 17h

Student governments of Vanderbilt, MIT, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, UVA, and Arizona issued a joint statement condemning the Compact and stating that "Academic Freedom is not negotiable." www.instagram.com/p/DPm507ljBJ...

On October 1st, 2025, the White House sent the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education to our seven universities, outlining expectations universities must meet to continue receiving federal benefits.

Although the compact's full implications remain unclear, the document outlines
unprecedented expectations universities must meet to receive federal benefits. This could systemically alter the mission of higher education and erode the independence that has long defined our universities. We must not allow these attempts to control what can be taught, studied, or spoken on our campuses.

Our universities represent the full spectrum of American higher education, from liberal arts colleges to leading research institutions. As students, this directly impacts us, and thus, our voices must be heard. We know firsthand that institutional autonomy is instrumental to the perpetuation of innovation and progress. As the Compact itself acknowledges, “American higher education is the envy of the world and represents a key strategic benefit for our Nation," yet the document undermines the very principles that make this statement true. Our administrations have been presented with a false choice between their commitments to knowledge and education and our access to the resources that sustain them. To preserve our status as world leaders in education, we must remain true to the foundation of academic freedom that has propelled us forward.

As student representatives, we stand in united opposition to the outlined conditions. We call on our community of students, faculty, alumni, and leadership to reaffirm our commitment to reject political interference and federal overreach. Academic freedom is not negotiable.

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 17h

Quarterly earnings, for those of us in the python-like grip of fear of not measuring up; it's the only substance in the universe that can be measured and counts (except expectation of *greater* quarterly earnings, viz. AI)
www.ramboll.com/en-gb/insigh...

Diagram contrasting ethical language that accomplishes nothing, and operational logic that is measured by quarterly earnings

City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 19h

bsky.app/profile/city...

City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · May 2

MAGA is a version of history where the US loses all four major wars - The Cold War (given Putin's involvement), WW2 (Sieg Heil, etc.), the Civil War (obviously), and to make George III happy, the Revolutionary War, given the new thinking about monarchy from Trump, Thiel, Yarvin, etc

Reposted by City Atlas

Tony Dutzik @frontiertony.bsky.social · 1d

All the lip gloss being put on the AI boom as somehow good for climate or the energy transition is masking that, at the present moment, it's a disaster.

Not only more gas generation, but the worst, dirtiest, least efficient kind. Turning the clock back 25 years.
heatmap.news/energy/natur...

Data Centers Have Solved Their Speed-to-Power Problem — With Natural Gas

“Old economy” companies like Caterpillar and Williams are cashing in by selling smaller, less-efficient turbines to impatient developers.

heatmap.news

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Reposted by City Atlas

Jesse D. Jenkins @jessedjenkins.com · 23h

America’s biggest offshore wind farm will be online in six months.
"Dominion Energy’s 2.6 GW project off Virginia’s coast is progressing fast. The utility has a new, more definitive target to plug into the grid: March 2026." Via @canarymedia.com
www.canarymedia.com/articles/off... 🔌💡

America’s biggest offshore wind farm will be online in six months

Dominion Energy’s 2.6 GW project off Virginia’s coast is progressing fast. The utility has a new, more definitive target to plug into the grid: March 2026.

www.canarymedia.com

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 22h

Cheese is also tough (born NY'r, can't imagine vetoing pizza). But reducing is the way to start. Also focus on the heaviest discretionary choices, where jet fuel leads by a long shot, mostly b/c we're not aware of our share of it on a flight.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

A quiz showing that a one-way economy flight NY to London is equivalent to the emissions from the beef in 278 hamburgers.

City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 1d

Also, what sacrifice? The Northeast had three full weeks of smoke this summer. Making more of that smoke would be the sacrifice.
Here's complete guide to how much we need to change and how to do it:
hotorcool.org/publications...

A Climate for Sufficiency: 1.5-Degree Lifestyles Report

The report “A Climate for Sufficiency ” examines how lifestyles, shaped by infrastructure, policy, and culture, must transform to align with planetary limits.

hotorcool.org

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 1d

I suggest including Lachlan Murdoch's name each time you mention Fox News, as in, 'Lachlan Murdoch's Fox News.' Ad hominem is the Murdoch method for good reason.

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City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 1d

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

How America’s elite colleges breed high-status careers—and misery

“They funneled the shit out of me.”

www.motherjones.com

City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 1d

hotorcool.org/publications...

Box 7.1. Social relations and defensive consumption
Researchers have observed that one of the key triggers of our multiple current crises has been the deg-
radation and devaluation of social relations (Sarracino 2025; Sarracino and O’Connor 2023). From this
perspective, one of the drivers of environmental degradation is an increase in the perceived need for
consumption that stems from weakening social ties and greater mistrust. For example, it has been ar-
gued that nearly a quarter of our individual consumption can be understood as defensive expenditure,
protecting us against inequality, crime and air pollution (Sarracino and Slater 2025).
Sarracino (2025) proposes a virtuous circle, whereby improved social relationships would lead to in-
creased wellbeing and reduced defensive expenditure. This would lead to a decrease in what has been
called “defensive growth”, with concomitant reductions in CO2 emissions and pollution, reduced inequality
and better social relations. Better social ties also makes shared provisioning and “public luxury” a more
viable approach. It also strengthens resilience in society.

City Atlas @cityatlas.bsky.social · 1d

Here's the paper:
journals.plos.org/climate/arti...

Income-based U.S. household carbon footprints (1990–2019) offer new insights on emissions inequality and climate finance

Current policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase adaptation and mitigation funding are insufficient to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. It is clear that further action is ...

journals.plos.org