Patterns of Darkness Avoidance

PRESENTED BY TOO MUCH PIE

The newsletter was on holiday for a little while. Here’s the professional explanation: I’m pleased to announce I’ve upgraded HillHeat.com, the website ancestor and complement to HillHeat.News. At HillHeat.com, I track climate hearings and events and file more long-form reporting. The site has been running on code I kludged together in 2007, so this work was long overdue. This is probably only exciting to me, but the site is now responsive and running on its own VPS.

And here’s the more personal explanation: As I am being forced to admit, I’ve been fending off a wave of existential despair in the wake of the election. I’m not one for self-pity, and hold to the belief that we must do the work regardless of our feelings. But your inbox’s respite from Hill Heat posts tells the tale of my dogged avoidance the political news from Washington D.C. and the climate news from around the world.

My personal pattern of darkness avoidance manifests in weight gain, obsessive list-making and networking, and intellectual diversions.

We can summarize weight gain with this pictorial example below. Having gotten through Thanksgiving, and with my knee mostly recovered from meniscus surgery, I think I can get my metabolism back on track.

On the obsessive list-making and networking front, even when I’m not sure what to say about the ongoing collapse of our tattered democracy and biosphere, my dilatory behaviors are still guided by my underlying beliefs:

• It's actually important we stop polluting the climate

• We need to care about everyone

• An informed citizenry has the power to win

Fortunately for my mental health, the Climate and Community Institute is trying to answer my big questions today in its online forum, What's Next for the Climate Left? The amazing panel includes Thea Riofrancos, Johanna Bozuwa, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Batul Hassan, and Will Laurence.

But since that hasn’t happened yet, back to what I’ve been up to. I’ve been immersing myself in Bluesky, which has taken off as a Twitter replacement as people have been forced to recognize that Elon Musk’s $44 billion gamble on turning the social network into a fascistic Trump-election machine paid off. And boy, is making lists on Bluesky fun!

My most useful contribution, honestly, is probably my climate deniers and trolls block list.¹

The upcoming events that have drawn most of my list-making obsession are the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in DC this week and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) leadership elections coming February 1st.

Stop Polluting the Climate

The AGU conference is the largest global gathering of climate scientists, in recent years opening up to social scientists in a big way. Sharon Levigne of Rise St. James is delivering a keynote today, Gov. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) a keynote tomorrow, and Biden climate advisor John Podesta a keynote on Thursday. And that barely scratches the surface of what is happening.

• Here’s a Green New Dealers starter pack and feed to kickstart your Greensky

• #AGU24 starter packs (people A-F, people G-M, people N-Z, and organizations) and feed

Bluesky is an inhospitable place for MAGA climate deniers, fortunately, but it is a safe space for eco-modernists, who argue in favor of deregulation and against environmental justice in the name of climate and clean energy. You can choose to follow or block the ecomodernists, depending on your preference.

Care About Everyone

• I’ve helped make a starter pack of the members of the Radical Communicators network

An Informed Citizenry

In upcoming posts, I’ll be delving into the DNC chair election in much more detail, looking at how the DNC is structured, the visions of the frontrunners Ken Martin and Ben Wikler, and who’s competing for the other open seats.

• DNC members list and DNC chair election feed

• Lists of Democratic strategists and content creators

I really loved Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon’s manifesto, “Rewild the Internet,” which decries the social-media monopolies ripping up journalism and democracy. So I made a starter pack.

Don’t forget intellectual diversions! These have included many games of solitaire bridge, daily Squaredles, samizdat episodes of Only Connect, Foggy Brume’s amazing Puzzle Boat 11, and preparations for the 2025 Mystery Hunt, which I’ll be helping to run.

Meanwhile, stuff keeps happening: The Great Butternut Fire. The Colossal Flood of Rhodes. Bert was a killer. Carrboro, N.C. is suing Duke Energy for decades of climate deception. Ben Stockton and Hajar Meddah expose McKinsey’s dirty work for the Saudis and the Kochs. Meta is building its largest data center yet in Cancer Alley, for fracking-powered AI.

Sharks are in dire straits.

Finally, remembering to put the “Hill” in Hill Heat:

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) is stepping down from an amazing tenure as the Democratic leader on the Natural Resources Committee. The progressive climate hawk Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) is vying for the role, though Grijalva has endorsed Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.).

And House Republicans are having another go at passing the Liberty in Laundry Act from Rep. Andy “Dirty Drawers” Ogles (R-Tenn.) (H.R. 7673) this week. The bill, which would restrict energy conservation standards for washing machines, went nowhere in April.

Climate Action This Week:

Monday, December 9

• 4 PM: Climate and Community Institute
  What's Next for the Climate Left?

Thursday, December 12

• 7 PM: Scientist Rebellion
  Climate Changemakers
  #AGU24 DC Climate Hour of Action

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. If you’ve got job listings, event listings, or other hot news, I want to hear it. Connect with me—@[email protected], @climatebrad on Threads, and @climatebrad.hillheat.com on BlueSky.

1  The block list is mostly hard-right trolls, but includes some professional outrage farmers in the Breakthrough Institute orbit who attack climate activism and make solipsistic arguments against climate science.