Brett Simpson
@brettvsimpson.bsky.social
Climate and human rights journalist, Norwegian Arctic based. Words and voice: The Atlantic, NYT, Foreign Policy, Nat Geo, The Nation, The World, Reveal
Fascinating new briefing from @ketanjoshi.co for Norwegian NGO KlimaKultur attributes between 34,000 and 58,000 additional deaths to Equinor's fossil fuels in 2025 alone. drilled.media/news/equinor...
New Data Pins a Quarter of a Million Climate-Related Deaths Since 2018 on Equinor
New attribution science finds that fossil fuels sold by Equinor in 2025 alone will bring about between 34,000 and 58,000 additional human deaths compared to a world in which they were never burned.
drilled.media
This week in Norwegian oil, “courage” seems to also mean defying the EU to drill the Arctic, celebrating cryospheric cataclysm even as the Nepal-Tibet glacial collapse death toll climbs. Still, these crude awakening americanos go down a little smoother with @amywestervelt.bsky.social by my side
Amy Westervelt@amywestervelt.bsky.social · 6d agoAttended an oil conference in Norway with fellow climate reporter @brettvsimpson.bsky.social this week and the local paper interviewed us there. Honestly, still pretty pleased with us😂
![Screenshot of an interview that reads: "Courage is this year's ONS slogan. [Q from reporter]: What kind of courage do the participants need?
"I really sympathize with these men who must have the courage to continue to have the largest profit in the world," says Westervelt.
"It must be difficult to fight against all the opposition," says Simpson.
Clarification: Here both ladies are laughing, and they speak in a satirical tone.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lf44yuqfyi3ilxxfqudsqqc2/bafkreibhtotd4u7zeyluwtmtqpefqmou57g4jqkaf3pf2wnvrlqvuoyff4)
Attended an oil conference in Norway with fellow climate reporter @brettvsimpson.bsky.social this week and the local paper interviewed us there. Honestly, still pretty pleased with us😂
Clean Energy Wire brings together a global network of climate and energy reporters ⬇️ Read the interview with our network members Meral Jamal and @brettvsimpson.bsky.social, both reporting from the Arctic
@miloudirkx.bsky.social · 3w ago"Humans have never lived on a planet without polar ice. We need it much more than we need to extract whatever lies under it." I spoke with reporters Meral Jamal and @brettvsimpson.bsky.social about living in and covering the Arctic Read the interview here: www.cleanenergywire.org/blog/arctic-...
"A bay of blood: That was my first thought when I saw the deep scarlet hue in Tórshavn Bay." Brett Simpson @brettvsimpson.bsky.social explores the controversial practice of grindadráp or "pilot whale killing" on the Faroe Islands: www.icwa.org/whaling-faro...
A whale of a controversy - ICWA
ICWA Fellow Brett Simpson reports about pilot whale killing on the Faroe Islands during the Ocean Connectivity Conference.
icwa.org
Is Palantir CEO Alex Karp's purchase of property in northern Norway a security threat? Or just an uncomfortable reminder to local politicians of the deep-burrowing global influence of a handful of American billionaires? @brettvsimpson.bsky.social reports: www.icwa.org/palantir-nor...
Over two years living in Tromso, Norway, @brettvsimpson.bsky.social has seen parka-clad masses from around the world descend on the Arctic city to catch the northern lights and other winter experiences, competing with locals for space and straining city infrastructure: www.icwa.org/norway-arcti...
The ‘Barcelona of the north’ - ICWA
The volume of Norway's Arctic tourism is reaching a breaking point, ICWA fellow Brett Simpson reports from the northern city Tromso.
icwa.org
"We had spent the long winter traversing darkly gorgeous, frozen and far-flung worlds. Now, as we hurtled back toward our mother-star, its strong gravitational arms were pulling us home." @brettvsimpson.bsky.social reports on Soldagen, or “the sun-day," from Norway: www.icwa.org/out-of-darkn...
Out of the darkness - ICWA
ICWA fellow Brett Simpson describes the "sun-day" on January 21 in Tromso, Norway, when daylight returns after nearly two months of darkness.
icwa.org
A NATO exercise in Norway last month served for both practice & propaganda at a very difficult time for the military alliance, @brettvsimpson.bsky.social reported from the scene: www.icwa.org/nato-arctic-...
"Humans have never lived on a planet without polar ice. We need it much more than we need to extract whatever lies under it." I spoke with reporters Meral Jamal and @brettvsimpson.bsky.social about living in and covering the Arctic Read the interview here: www.cleanenergywire.org/blog/arctic-...
“The Arctic Paradox”: Two reporters on climate, conflict and community | Clean Energy Wire
cleanenergywire.org
What’s Palantir CEO Alex Karp doing in Arctic Norway? ICWA fellow @brettvsimpson.bsky.social reports from Tromsø about the controversial billionaire’s new property and disputes over Norwegian investments in his AI giant. compass.icwa.org/p/palantir-n...
Palantir next door?
In northern Norway, a tech billionaire’s new property raises questions that hit too close to home.
compass.icwa.org
Unseasonably melting ice during NATO’s recent 'Cold Response’ exercise in Arctic Norway exposed soil & vegetation to damage. And the huge emissions involved in the war rehearsal contributed to the region's long-term destruction, @brettvsimpson.bsky.social reports: www.icwa.org/nato-arctic-...
‘Cold response’ seeks warm coverage - ICWA
A NATO Arctic exercise in Norway at a fraught time for the alliance was both practice and propaganda—with significant environmental costs.
icwa.org
Slashing Arctic climate science will limit how clearly the U.S. can understand the region, Peter Bird Martin fellow @brettvsimpson.bsky.social writes for @theatlantic.com: www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...
The Blind Spot at the Top of the World
Slashing Arctic climate science will limit how clearly the U.S. can understand the region.
theatlantic.com
Some polar-law scholars argue that curbing climate catastrophe may require a radical reimagining of sea ice, Brett Simpson reports:
The World Has Laws About Land and Sea, But Not About Ice
As the Arctic melts and people spend more time there, defining our relationship to sea ice becomes more necessary.
bit.ly
After a year+ living in the Norwegian Arctic (69°N) writing on an @icwa.org fellowship, I’ve finally joined friends on Substack. For a view from the world’s fast-warming region, follow here: open.substack.com/pub/brettvsi...
Welcome to Stories from the Edge
A newsletter about Arctic people, politics, place.
open.substack.com
Real time data coming out of the world’s climate measurement systems should be stopping us in our tracks. The latest estimate shows that, this week, the Earth is 1.9°C warmer than before we began burning fossil fuels. #climatecrisis #ClimateEmergency #auspol www.lyrebirddreaming.com/post/we-re-t...
We’re Touching 1.9°C - And It’s Only 2025
Real time data coming out of the world’s climate measurement systems should be stopping us in our tracks. The latest estimate by climate scientist Dr Karsten Haustein shows that, this week, the Earth ...
lyrebirddreaming.com
NOAA produces some of the world’s most powerful climate models and is sustained by thousands of employees. Recent and future staffing cuts put NOAA’s computational power at risk, @brettvsimpson.bsky.social reports from Norway: www.icwa.org/arctic-ice-u...
Destroying the evidence - ICWA
With the defunding of NOAA, the world's critical climate data is disappearing, Brett Simpson reports for ICWA.
icwa.org
While Indigenous "permanent participants" are considered equal stakeholders to nation-states at the @arcticcouncil.bsky.social, political jockeying often overshadows their interests. This may change w Greenland's chairship, ICWA fellow @brettvsimpson.bsky.social reports: www.icwa.org/greenland-ch...
Greenland chairs the Arctic Council - ICWA
At a precarious moment for the Arctic Council, Greenland takes the helm for the first time, ICWA fellow Brett Simpson reports.
icwa.org
@brettvsimpson.bsky.social sent these stunning photos from aboard the Dana, a Danish research vessel that sailed for 3 weeks on the ice-edge east of Greenland. "Seeing so much Arctic ocean & wildlife from the confines of a ship is both world expanding and contracting," she reports.
Arctic temperatures are rising 4x faster than on the rest of the planet. The last few years, Tromsø winters have been going off-book. December brought record-setting precipitation. Unpredictable melts triggered more avalanches, @brettvsimpson.bsky.social reports: www.icwa.org/norway-arcti...
On thinning ice - ICWA
A long Arctic winter abates in Tromsø, Norway, but the weather remains a force to be reckoned with, ICWA fellow Brett Simpson writes.
icwa.org
@robbieandrew.bsky.social has a page on National Extraction-based Emissions, and also provides the per capita data, but no plot (that I could find)... so I decided to have a look. Solid 3rd place for Norway in 2022 (latest), steadily moving up the "ranks". robbieandrew.github.io/GCB2023/extr...
The Trump administration doesn’t want to talk about climate change. But it is a military reality in the Arctic, @brettvsimpson.bsky.social reports:
The Truth About Trump’s Greenland Campaign
When the president talks about security in the Arctic, he’s talking about climate change.
theatlantic.com
Even if no one in the administration will say it out loud, the Greenland thing is a climate thing. By @brettvsimpson.bsky.social; gift link: www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...
When Trump Talks About Greenland, He’s Talking About Climate Change
The U.S. had started to treat global warming in the Arctic as a military concern. Will the Trump administration?
theatlantic.com
Last August, I moved to the Arctic as an @icwa.org fellow. From here, it’s obvious that Trump wants Greenland for “security” threats caused by Arctic warming. But I was surprised to learn how seriously the DoD and NATO have been taking CC as a threat of its own. Now, that may be changing. My latest:
The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · last yr.Trump acts as if climate change does not matter. But the security concerns he raises about Greenland are global-warming issues, Brett Simpson writes.
Dear California farmers and Congressional representatives: Trump has just literally thrown millions of gallons of #water away that farmers were counting on this summer, purely to brag that he could. That #cawater cannot be captured or used now by anyone. www.latimes.com/environment/...
Acting on Trump's order, federal officials opened up two California dams
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just opened up two California dams. A spokesperson says the flows are 'controlled' and being coordinated with local officials.
latimes.com
"Climate change is the real threat to Arctic defense and security," @brettvsimpson.bsky.social says at the @arcticfrontiers.bsky.social panel "Arctic Security Seminar: Adapting to Geopolitical Uncertainty" this week in Tromsø, Norway. arcticfrontiers.com
