Rocky Kistner
@therockyfiles.bsky.social
1.7K followers 210 following 1.4K posts
Independent journalist, Society of Environmental Journalists board. Formerly with ABC News, PBS Frontline, Marketplace public radio, NRDC OnEarth, HuffPost contributing writer. Mizzou J School alum. TheRockyFiles.org, https://themoneytrail.substack.com/
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therockyfiles.bsky.social
The cost of Trump's USAID budget cuts: children screaming for food. "U.S. funding cuts could result in more than 14 million deaths, including more than 4.5 million children under age 5, by 2030." @KristenGelineau @AP
apnews.com/article/myan...
Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.
apnews.com
therockyfiles.bsky.social
As the planet burns Trump's team kills clean energy boosting oil and gas: "of 37 nominees to the Department of Energy (DOE), EPA and DOI who required Senate confirmation, 25 had ties to polluting industries, including oil and gas and mining." insideclimatenews.org/news/0610202... @insideclimatenews
New Report Examines Fossil Fuel Ties of Dozens of Trump Administration Hires - Inside Climate News
Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project found 42 former fossil fuel industry employees among nominees and appointees to agencies charged with enforcing energy and environmental policy.
insideclimatenews.org
therockyfiles.bsky.social
Dangerous liaison between anti-science propaganda and the media: the spread of dangerous #climate misinformation.
therockyfiles.bsky.social
Earth on fire: “wildfires are blazing four times more often now than they did in the 1980s because of human-caused climate change and people moving closer to wildlands” @borenbears @AP apnews.com/article/wild...
Study shows the world is far more ablaze now with damaging fires than in the 1980s
A new study shows that the world's most damaging wildfires are happening four times more often now compared to the 1980s.
apnews.com
therockyfiles.bsky.social
The relentless push for ‘clean beautiful coal:’ “the moves are unlikely to change the long-term trajectory for #coal, which is being displaced by cheaper and cleaner sources of energy including natural gas, #solar and #wind power.” @dgelles messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/rend...
therockyfiles.bsky.social
New from Money Trail. What Trump and the oil and gas industry don’t want you to know: clean energy is cheaper than fossil fuels.
“The cheapest and quickest way to get new energy online is now solar and wind, not new coal- or gas-fired power plants.”
open.substack.com/pub/themoney...
On the Money: We Can Address Affordability and the Climate Crisis at the Same Time
Renewables are now the cheapest source of electricity worldwide
open.substack.com
therockyfiles.bsky.social
Trump USAID cuts hurts millions and costs taxpayers: “the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development will cost taxpayers $6.4 billion over two years.”
https://
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/opinion/trump-usaid-cuts.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare @NickKristof
Opinion | Trump’s Most Lethal Policy
www.nytimes.com
therockyfiles.bsky.social
SEJ board elections are coming up soon. Deadline to file is this Friday. Come join the board of the world’s biggest environmental journalism org, fighting for free speech and critical environmental reporting. Join us! @sejorg www.sej.org/sej-board-el...
therockyfiles.bsky.social
New from me in Money Trail: Wind is a cash crop for red state farmers and ranchers. The Trump administration’s assault on renewable energy could undercut Republican prospects in the upcoming election. themoneytrail.substack.com/p/red-state-...
Red State Farmers Embrace Wind While Trump Tries to Kill It
The Trump administration’s attack on renewables could backfire in the next election
themoneytrail.substack.com
therockyfiles.bsky.social
First La Seine, then the Chicago River. Next up the Potomac!
therockyfiles.bsky.social
Check out Randy Rieland’s wrap-up of last week’s highlights and lowlights on Money Trail: themoneytrail.substack.com/p/trail-note...
therockyfiles.bsky.social
Beyond dispute: “the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, found that the evidence linking rising emissions to negative human health outcomes is “beyond scientific dispute.” @hclaire_brown @nytimes messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/rend...
therockyfiles.bsky.social
Money Trail: The GOP (Gas and Oil Party) boosts fossil fuel subsidies that will exacerbate the climate crisis. "The federal government currently subsidizes coal, oil and gas production by at least $30.8 billion annually...that is soon going to grow." themoneytrail.substack.com/p/fossil-fue...
Fossil Fuel Subsidies Spike Under Trump and the GOP-Controlled Congress
New report documents a 55 percent jump since the Paris climate accord was adopted
themoneytrail.substack.com
Reposted by Rocky Kistner
gijn.org
"Green" bonds fueling Brazil’s agribusiness often mask socio-environmental damage from land grabbing to threats against Indigenous territories.

Here, the @pulitzercenter.org uncovers where finance and exploitation intersect:
gijn.org
Connecting Brazil’s Financial Market to Environmental Violations: The Hidden Impacts of Agribusiness on Indigenous Lands
twp.ai
Reposted by Rocky Kistner
infpwriter.bsky.social
"Sadly, the U.S. itself must now be considered an authoritarian petrostate. The Trump Administration has worked with congressional Republicans who are currently in power to defund climate and vaccine science, while staffing various agencies with climate and vaccine deniers." - Michael E. Mann
therockyfiles.bsky.social
The true costs of climate change are unknown, but the ones we can document are bad enough. And they are getting worse as we spew more heat-trapping CO2 and methane pollution into the air.
colincarlson.bsky.social
🚨 NEW: Climate change is already causing 30,000 deaths per year - a global annual economic loss of $100-350B USD - but the true damage is probably 10x higher. Out TODAY in Nature Climate Change: the first systematic look at the science of "health impact attribution" 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
"Health losses attributed to anthropogenic climate change," a brief communication in the journal Nature Climate Change. There's a map showing regions of the world, and pie charts of relevant studies as they apply to different health impacts like "heat-related deaths" and "maternal and child health"