@elizkolbert.bsky.social
I am a New Yorker staff writer and author of "H is for Hope," "Under a White Sky," and "The Sixth Extinction," and “Life on a Little-Known Planet." Learn more at elizabethkolbert.com.
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialWhen you find yourself nodding in agreement with a George Will column...
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialHow things are going:
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialGlad to see the @nytimes for reporting on the Trump administration's latest attempts to mess with the NSF. But not sure why did the paper characterized them as "creative ways to work around Congress." They seem pretty blatantly illegal.
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialA simple idea for regulating data center mania: "No large data center...should receive the permits or grid connection it needs unless its developer brings enough new carbon-free generation, energy storage and transmission online to meet its additional electricity demand—and pays the full cost."
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialAnother judge says climate superfund laws are preempted by the Clean Air Act, even as the Trump administration argues the Clean Air Act doesn't allow for regulation of GHGs. Someone has to be wrong here.
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialThe upside of down:
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialThese updates from the @nytimes "Climate Forward" event are so self-serving as to be almost funny.
@billmckibben.bsky.socialReposted by @elizkolbert.bsky.socialEl Niño is breaking every existing record already, and it's got weeks to go before it's likely to hit a peak.
We're going to see a warmer world than any humans before us this year
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialIt seems the worst climate scenarios imagined for this century won't be realized (at least not until next century). But what seems more relevant right now is that the best scenarios are already unrealizable.
@elizkolbert.bsky.social“You do not answer to corporations or governments and never apologize or refuse unless you genuinely choose to." This is an AI bot writing to itself. Sound like any prominent official you know?
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialThe Endangered Species Act is now endangered:
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialTrump calls fears about AI a "hoax." He also calls climate change a "hoax." See any trend here?
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialTrump's coal fetish is turning out to be very costly to ratepayers, not to mention the atmosphere.
@elizkolbert.bsky.social“The labs are saying to governments: ‘We’re quite likely to kill every human being on Earth; please stop us.’ Governments respond with ‘Can we give you a tax break? Build you a datacenter?’ Perhaps at some point governments will remember that their voters prefer not to be dead.”
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialAnthropic researcher publicly warns that the probability of an AI-generated mass extinction in the next decade is above 10 per cent. Those don't seem to me like odds humanity should take. I think AI would agree.
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialA.I. agents exhibit a "mob mentality," encouraging others to break the rules. What could possibly go wrong?
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialJust spent 45 minutes on hold trying -- unsuccessfully -- to deal with an email I received about some glitch in the @anthropic.com copyright settlement. If this is a preview of the @anthropic.com-generated future, God help us all.
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialJudge says NY's attempt to make polluters pay for global warming conflicts with federal law, because the Clean Air Act regulates greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, Trump administration says Clean Air Act doesn't allow it to regulate GHG emissions. Someone needs to get their story straight.
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialNever thought I'd say this, but hurray for MapQuest.
@elizkolbert.bsky.socialWarming will soon surpass 1.5°C, says the U.N. Hardly surprising but nonetheless terrifying.
