The promise of New York City is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty: this place would welcome anyone seeking refuge or a better life.
Sheila Foster
@sheilarose.bsky.social
Columbia professor. Scholar of environmental and climate justice, cities, and who gets to build the future. Co-founder LabGov. Detroit born, Miami bred. https://people.climate.columbia.edu/users/profile/sheila-foster
Macron: “We are facing a fire that is completely unprecedented. We are experiencing the most severe situation we have ever recorded—the worst since the Second World War. “More than 160,000 hectares have already burned, and the fire season is far from over. 1/
If you are the DOJ, it is unprecedented to lose 17 straight voting cases in 17 different courts without winning a single one. It's even more remarkable when 8 of them were decided by judges appointed by Trump. How long will the networks ignore this? How long will Trump?
Was Lindsey Graham "The Last Closet Case?" If only! In this LA Times article, I use my Business Lawyer piece Queers, Closets & Corporate Gov. to parallel his career & LGBTQ progress. The ambitious remain in the closet but real progress requires out leadership. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Contributor: Anyone who wanted Lindsey Graham's career had to appear straight. And the closet persists.
He said unambiguously: 'I'm not gay.' But at the top rungs of power, almost everyone is straight or pretends to be.
latimes.com
Everybody! Please let’s always remember to keep digging shit out of the ground to burn, even though it has never been necessary. And more data centres, please! The top is a fiction map used in a video about global warming and its affects on France. The bottom is a recent French weather forecast.
This is a boss move by Mamdani! "In announcing the role, Mamdani’s office noted that New Yorkers pay some of the highest energy rates in the nation...The appointment marks Mamdani’s latest step to bring down costs for New Yorkers." He's killin it' @mayor.nyc.gov gothamist.com/news/mamdani...
Mamdani appoints NYC's first 'public utility advocate' to help lower energy costs
In announcing the role, Mamdani’s office noted that New Yorkers pay some of the highest energy rates in the nation.
gothamist.com
This is so powerful. Inspired by the March of a Thousand Robes in Poland, retired and sitting judges in the United States walked down the streets of Columbus, Ohio to stand up for the Rule of Law. #JusticeinMotion
Quick reminder that in typical years, extreme heat kills more Americans than all other so-called natural disasters…combined.
The heatwave that many of us have been living through is not a natural occurence. Scientists are clear that this is caused by humans. It is sad that we need to keep saying that this is NOT normal. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/03/c...
Without Climate Change, U.S. Heat Wave Called ‘Virtually Impossible’
nytimes.com
On Birthright Citizenship: “The Reconstruction Amendments were an anticaste, antisubordination reset for the Nation, not a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery.” -Justice Ketanji Brown 💅💕
I do not think there is sufficient appreciation for how catastrophic yesterday’s decision in Slaughter is for this country. As Justice Sotomayor said in her dissent and she intoned from the bench yesterday, “today the majority reshapes our Govt.”
As usual, it's those with the money who can afford to escape the worst, while the poor and vulnerable struggle These will be the ones who will be able to afford air-con too, and who probably fly far and wide on holiday every year Climate injustice in action www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Parents booking air-conditioned hotels to keep babies safe in UK heatwave
Hotels report increase in last-minute bookings, including from families attempting to escape hot homes
theguardian.com
Climate.us is officially live! After NOAA ended Climate.gov’s day-to-day operations in 2025, former team members built Climate.us to carry that work forward. Their explanations and graphics have always stood out to me as clear, accessible, and transparent. I’m really looking forward to this reboot.
Climate.us Home
independent, nonprofit, and immune to politics
climate.us
What we are celebrating in NYC is more than a 🏆for our team. It is a sense that the collective matters — in our generating joy and in matters of governance. What is unfolding in New York holds lessons beyond this week's euphoric celebrations. 🍾 groundtruthdispatches.substack.com/p/more-than-...
More than a New York Moment
The Power We Already Have
groundtruthdispatches.substack.com
Fascinating that data centers have "become a rogue element in the races that will decide which party controls the House: The majority of competitive districts — 40 out of 69 — have data centers either planned or under construction" www.politico.com/news/2026/06...
What most battleground House districts have in common: data centers
As politicians from city councils to Washington fight over data centers, campaigns are navigating the backlash.
politico.com
Despite attacks on climate science and the rise of disinformation, meaningful climate action continues to move forward. On June 16 at 2PM ET, I'm joining @globalecoguy.bsky.social, with @projectdrawdown.bsky.social, to talk about where climate action goes from here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Where does climate action go from here? A conversation with Katharine Hayhoe, Ph.D.. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining ...
Join Jonathan Foley, Ph.D, Executive Director of Project Drawdown, for a conversation with renowned climate scientist and communicator, Katharine Hayhoe, Ph.D. From attacks on climate science by the...
us02web.zoom.us
Community solar, land trusts, and co-governed broadband scale when policy signals and subsidies lower friction. Local and state programs (and, where available, federal incentives) open the door. Remove the supports, and scaling slows. There is a workable formula. open.substack.com/pub/aclimate...
Heat Is the Deadliest Climate Threat - Here’s How Cities Can Fight Back
Professor Sheila Foster (Columbia Climate School) shares how “co-governance” - communities, cities, universities, and the private sector working together - can scale practical solutions to extreme hea
open.substack.com
I’m a climate scientist. Let me fix this headline. “Nearly a century ago, scientists showed that burning fossil fuels warms the planet. Today, we know human emissions account for over 100% of the warming. Yet dark money and disinformation still work to keep Americans addicted to fossil fuels.”
Forbes@forbes.com · 2mo agoScientists have reached a consensus that human behavior is a big driver of climate change—but Americans aren't buying it.
Data centers’ diesel backup generators are emitting pollutants that can cause health problems for residents. That’s on top of contributing to higher electricity prices and sucking up communities’ water. Is it any wonder communities across the country are organizing to stop them?
Memorial Day was born in a Black cemetery in Charleston, 1865. That origin was erased. The pattern of sacrifice & forgetting never was. New dispatch on what it means to build institutions that give communities real power over their futures. groundtruthdispatches.substack.com/p/martyrs-of...
Martyrs of the Race Course
In May 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina, thousands of freed Black residents gathered to honor more than 260 Union soldiers who had died in a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp at the Washington Race ...
groundtruthdispatches.substack.com
👏 Congratulations to Columbia Climate School professor of climate @sheilarose.bsky.social and climate scientist Marco Tedesco, co-authors of #TopViewedArticle in @wiley.com Annals of New York Academy of Sciences, ranked within top 10% of most-viewed papers published in 2024! ➡️ https://bit.ly/3RfzdmE
Residents in Fayette County, Georgia noticed their water pressure was unusually low. Turns out that a data center 20 miles away had been drawing 30 million gallons of water in secret through connections the county didn't know existed. Is it any wonder why so many are opposed to data centers?
How far we've fallen below any standard of decency that allows people to live like this."She said that she was not aware of the full extent of the crisis until 2017, when a United Nations report compared the conditions in the country to those in the developing world. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/u...
They Were Promised New Septic Tanks. Trump Called It ‘Illegal DEI.’
nytimes.com
This Politico piece is 🔥 "The images of white Republican legislators wearing MAGA flags to vote, Black lawmakers being jostled by white police officers...speak louder than words. And that was just last week. The ads write themselves." www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Trump’s Redistricting Push Could Cost Republicans More Than It Gains
Republicans chasing extra House seats risk energizing Democrats and alienating key new voters.
politico.com
New dispatch is up on Substack. This is a time of reckoning. It is the only way I can make sense of the moment we are living through. To counter this we have to show up in our communities and take back the power that has slipped away from us for too long. open.substack.com/pub/groundtr...
What Was Promised
I think a lot about my mother these days.
open.substack.com
Is it time for a working class (affordability) climate agenda? Clearly, yes. Mamadi's win is a template. "A recent survey ...found that 70% of voters, including 65% of Republicans, believe climate action can lower the cost of living." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
As household bills soar, is it time for a ‘working-class climate agenda’?
Group that worked with AOC and Bernie Sanders seeks to counter claim that climate policy is politically toxic
theguardian.com
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito leaned on an erroneous claim that Black voter turnout now tops white voter turnout, in his Callais v. Louisiana ruling that gutted the Voting Rights Act, reports The Guardian. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
SCOTUS used faulty racial voter turnout data to shred Voting Rights Act in recent ruling
The ruling that upended the Voting Rights Act was based in part on a false data analysis about Black and white voter turnout.
democracydocket.com
Silver lining on Court's VRA retreat. May restore Democratic strength in the South. "The G.O.P. may find it more difficult to win in more diverse districts of the kind that existed before the reshuffling of maps prompted by the Voting Rights Act." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/u...
How Minority Districts Fueled the G.O.P.’s Southern Ascendancy in Congress
nytimes.com