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emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

4.1K followers 3K following 660 posts

they/she, climate, philanthropy, systems, tech. making high-impact climate giving easier @givinggreen.earth. opinions mine, strong, weakly held, not my employer's. follow 4 more cat pix

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emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

things people text me during zoom meetings

message bubble:
Omg Emily looooves budgets
Also you’re dressed exactly like Steve Jobs

me:
HAHAHAHAHAH

August 14, 2025 at 11:41 PM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

Yeah and like... it seems to be driven entirely by internet discourse? is there a climate/EJ org that is making these kinds of statements? I just googled Climate Justice Alliance's take and even with "limit use" it still keeps a primary focus on institutions/regulation climatejusticealliance.org/ai/

1. Know about the data centers by you: https://www.datacentermap.com/
2. Limit your AI usage where you can, and use it responsibly. Turn off Apple Intelligence and other unnecessary forms of AI. Use web browsers that do not use AI (DuckDuckGo)
3. Support and engage in call-to-actions by organizations organizing against data centers that threaten to harm already overburdened communities, like Memphis Community Against Pollution’s petition to deny air permits to a facility that pollutes the community and perpetuates environmental racism.

Demand AI development regulation by federal and state governments and tap into resources from organizations and coalitions demanding accountability and responsibility for AI and its impacts. Check out Green Screen Coalition’s joint statement on AI, signed by over 130 organizations.

July 11, 2025 at 1:55 AM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

DEI? in MY small modular reactor pilot program? it's more likely than you think

March 26, 2025 at 8:55 PM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

just thinking abt this passage from How to Blow Up a Pipeline, for no reason

March 11, 2025 at 9:55 PM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

someone wrote me an email, about something that was supposed to be done last week, ignoring everything i had attached in two previous emails, and then signed it "Warmly," and i s2g

March 10, 2025 at 3:25 AM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

seriously sometimes i still do this

diagram of your hands held in front of you such that your left hand forms an L shape and your right hand mirrors it... captioned "think L for Left"

March 8, 2025 at 3:04 AM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

i think about this at least once a month

the text of the overly long announcement that is made on cta trains at harold washington library (state/van buren), but written out like a rupi kaur poem

February 22, 2025 at 3:48 AM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

ok i didn't realize that this narrative was so mainstream among companies i otherwise think of as pretty serious on climate - bummer to have what should be good news on its own merits (replacing unbundled RECs w/ decarb investments) framed by a handwavey excuse about AI trellis.net/article/micr...

Microsoft, like big competitors Amazon and Google, continue to back the narrative that AI is essential for accelerating practices that will have a positive impact on the planet — even as it makes the job of reaching net zero harder. For example, AI-trained models are providing better weather forecasts, identifying water leaks or accelerating the discovery and development of more sustainable materials.

“The force creating this distance from our goals in the short term is the same one that will help us build a bigger, faster, and more powerful rocket to reach them in the long term: artificial intelligence,” Nakagawa said in her blog. “This is not hyperbole.”

February 18, 2025 at 4:58 PM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

15% seems so reasonable, I'm looking at UChicago for fun which is 20% to 64% 🙃

For-profit sponsors funding basic research (including animal studies), instruction, or other sponsored activities should apply the equivalent of the full, negotiated federal rate against a total direct cost base:
64% of total direct costs.
For-profit sponsors funding clinical testing (human studies) of drugs or devices (See Clinical Trials):
30% of total direct costs (Effective September 1, 2020)
Not-for-profit sponsors without published rates:
20% of total direct costs
Not-for-profit sponsors with published rates:
Sponsor’s published rate

February 8, 2025 at 3:28 AM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

Donald Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan whined to the press, “Sanctuary cities are making it very difficult to arrest the criminals. For instance Chicago, very well educated, they’ve been educated how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE.” Homan continued, “They call it ‘Know Your Rights.’ I call it how to escape arrest.”

As a Chicagoan, I took great pride in those complaints and characterizations. While it is heartbreaking that some Chicago area residents were snatched from their homes and separated from their families, this administration failed in its efforts to break our city. They sought to make an example of us and to establish that our city’s politics would offer no protection from their stormtroopers. However, the organized efforts of community members who educated each other about their rights, patrolled at-risk areas, and followed up on ICE sightings around the city made the opposite clear: resistance is not futile. We cannot prevent all of this administration’s harms, but we can greatly diminish their impacts if we are willing to organize vigorously and get in their way.

January 31, 2025 at 9:22 PM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

~5 years ago facebook went all-in on Groups and people were like "omg they're just passing moderation labor onto users" blah blah, but i wonder if we'd be in a better place today if they'd stuck with that instead of pivoting into metaverse AI chatbots
www.404media.co/hundreds-of-...

The concerted mass action to ban Twitter links is notable because it highlights the difference between moderation on a platform like Reddit and the moderation on platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram. Reddit’s distributed, volunteer moderation system in which users become the moderators of specific subreddits means they are also in charge of the rules and norms of that subreddit. This means that moderators are, to some extent, beholden to the wishes of subscribers of a subreddit. They are also able to create rules that fit the needs and wants of a specific community. Reddit’s system has many problems: moderators are constantly fighting with Reddit administrators, who are paid Reddit employees; moderators are not paid for their labor; moderators often say they feel burnt out. But the system also fosters a more humane version of the internet where users have more control and the needs of a specific community can be more easily met.

January 23, 2025 at 8:26 PM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

help i hate this

a picture of three identical trashcans, which each have a sticker above them. each sticker is the recycling triangle symbol but one sticker is green, one is blue, and one is black

January 19, 2025 at 9:26 PM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

checking in.... ok i guess not

screenshot of a tumblr post from user
aromantic-goldfishdeactivated202
"I find it so funny, in light of TikTok’s imminent American demise, that even now they aren’t considering moving to tumblr. The last two social media refugee crises (Twitter -> X and whatever happened with Reddit) prompted a wave of wide-eyed new baffled tumblr users to flood this app and yet last I heard all of the tiktokers are flooding en-masse a Chinese social media app. That is entirely in Mandarin. Instead of moving to tumblr."

January 19, 2025 at 5:09 AM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

it only exists in a 16 sq mi area around Fish Canyon. i think evac orders never quite hit Azusa (have family there so i've been monitoring it a bit) so it's probably doing okay for now.

Liveforever indeed.

screenshot of a map of part of the San Gabriel Valley, with "Eaton fire" in red on the left-hand side, marked at the southern base of the mountain range, and "Fish Canyon" in green on the right-hand side

January 17, 2025 at 2:36 AM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

mostly i do this for my IRL friends and i write a bit of a long thing for my friends to contextualize it. i don't really feel like sharing the whole thing with the internet but here is the big question i've been mulling over this year wrt personal giving.

There is a certain cognitive dissonance in redistribution: giving mutual aid to the unhoused while planning to buy a house of your own; saving for retirement instead of “[saving a child’s life](https://ourworldindata.org/cost-effectiveness)”. It requires confronting the fact that you *can,* with a few clicks, do something meaningful in the world, and asking why you aren’t doing more.

Some criticism (of both EA-ish and left-ish philanthropy, and sometimes [perplexingly of both at once?](https://x.com/pmarca/status/1867508435618869519)) paints this impulse as a sort of self-flagellation, a penance for the sinner, or something. I don’t think that’s right. Giving is not some kind of punishment for the sin of wealth (and if you feel this way, you are being pushed too hard by someone, quite possibly yourself).

I truly think giving should feel good. Challenging, but good. Both in a moral sense—you are taking an action to help other people, and you deserve to celebrate that!—and in a pragmatic sense—if something doesn’t feel good, it’ll be really hard to keep doing it. Giving is something I *choose* to do, every year, because doing things that are in line with my values feels good to me.

So lately, my answer to “how much is enough?” is “what feels good, but challenging?”

For some, a $20 gift will be their first time parting with hard-earned money, and that might feel scary and new. Others regularly give $100 here and there, but $1000 will give them some pause. No matter where we start, as we grow into a practice of regular giving, we can lean into giving more. We will never give enough for the world to be fair, or enough to justify our own wealth. But we can certainly give enough to do some good.

January 2, 2025 at 1:53 AM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

it's that time of year when i begin to contemplate starting a substack

the "after all... why not?" meme which is a screenshot from lord of the rings of a small old man aka bilbo baggins holding the ring. this is appropriate because even humble men are tempted by the allure of substack but should be wary because it quickly corrupts

December 30, 2024 at 4:44 AM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

for a more fair comparison, here's Chicago to LA emissions for 2 people for:
- our actual route (i.e. we're humans who stop for tourist traps)
- direct flight
- Amtrak Southwest Chief**

these numbers are a lot closer together than I would have expected as someone who has done all of these things!

Just Chicago to LA:
Actual miles driven 2012
Avg mpg (mpg reported by the car ranged from 18 to 28, this is a guess) 21.0
grams CO2 emitted per gal 8887.0
Driving emissions, kg CO2e 851.5
Typical flight emissions Chi->LA, per person, kg CO2e 214
Flight for 2, kg CO2e 428
"Amtrak emissions per seat mile, kg CO2e
*using seat mile rather than passenger mile (0.16) bc in this scenario we would be on the train for the whole route. not sure if that's the right call" 0.07
Southwest distance, miles 2265
Southwest emissions for 2, kg CO2e 317.1

December 29, 2024 at 3:29 AM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

my partner and i drove across the country and apparently it was >2.4x as bad for the climate as flying 😀

(this is very specific to our situation and not generalizable to flying vs driving in general, but i was still surprised)

Miles driven 2397
Avg mpg (mpg reported by the car ranged from 18 to 28, this is a guess) 21
Gallons of gas used (cross-checked w/ # of times we filled up) 114
grams CO2 emitted per gal 8887
"Total CO2 (kg)
*likely underestimate, doesn't include non-CO2 GWP or full lifecycle of fuel" 1014

"Typical flight emissions Chi->SF, per person, kg CO2e
*includes non-CO2 emissions and well-to-wake for fuel consumed, but not other associated emissions per Google" 211
Emissions share for two flight tickets, kg CO2e 422
Driving was x times worse: 2.40

December 29, 2024 at 1:50 AM

emily thai

@ethai.bsky.social

ok "excludes users you follow" is a nice touch and I think should roughly solve my problem of wanting to still see news about certain topics!! I know we're all mad at bsky right now but I continue to appreciate the granularity of the moderation tools