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Alex Steffen

@alexsteffen.bsky.social
13K followers 337 following 31K posts

Planetary foresight and personal climate strategies. Courses: alexsteffen.thinkific.com Podcast/newsletter: alexsteffen.substack.com Start here → alexsteffen.substack.com/p/foresigh…

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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I've written about the dangerous involuntary devolution of climate responsibility from national to regional and local governments. @georgemonbiot.bsky.social eviscerates the UK government’s "Prepare" campaign: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Stockpile food – and wash your hands: is that really how to prepare for environmental catastrophe? | George Monbiot
The UK state is dumping its responsibilities on our doorsteps, while green-lighting policies that lead us closer to crisis, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Climate brittleness is not an individual failure. But many families have to rely on their own resources, relationships and ingenuity to find relative safety and household ruggedization. There are better and worse ways of doing that. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/why-do-i-n...
alexsteffen.substack.com
Why do I need my own climate strategy?
Part five in my series on the fundamentals of personal climate ruggedization.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In order to move away from climate danger, we have to have somewhere to move to. The climate relocation bottleneck, and you. Part of my series on the fundamentals of charting a course through life on a hotter, more chaotic planet. No paywall. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/will-there...
alexsteffen.substack.com
Will there be somewhere to go?
Part seven in my series on the fundamental questions of personal climate strategies.
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 15h
The loss of insurability is not solvable in the long term by ongoing public subsidy of private risk. Yet lost insurability opens up brittleness traps. This: “Based on how our disaster recovery systems are right now, people cannot recover if they don't have insurance.” mailchi.mp/587007fe154b...
mailchi.mp
How emergency managers explain emergency management
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
More on involuntary devolution of climate response in this podcast: alexsteffen.substack.com/p/why-do-i-n...
alexsteffen.substack.com
Why do I need my own climate strategy?
Part five in my series on the fundamentals of personal climate ruggedization.
031
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This devolution will batter local government capacities, often making communities not more empowered but more embrittled. We as individuals, then, are forced to plan our own lives with the knowledge that our communities may prove unable to check their own decline, driving waves of displacement.
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I've written about the dangerous involuntary devolution of climate responsibility from national to regional and local governments. @georgemonbiot.bsky.social eviscerates the UK government’s "Prepare" campaign: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Stockpile food – and wash your hands: is that really how to prepare for environmental catastrophe? | George Monbiot
The UK state is dumping its responsibilities on our doorsteps, while green-lighting policies that lead us closer to crisis, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
0207
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Makes you wonder what the 100,000+ active duty personnel living in San Diego with their families, and the 50,000 civilian defense/intelligence/VA employees — not to mention the quarter million veterans who call the city home — are thinking right now. GFY, Donald.
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Not just the most vile thing Trump's ever said —the most vile thing *any* president has ever said during time of war. "let them take out Los Angeles; let them take out San Diego. That’s— this is a very small price to pay." NYT both-siding is also morally bankrupt. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/u...
nytimes.com
What, Exactly, Did Trump Say About Iran Taking Out Los Angeles and San Diego?
President Trump’s comments caused an uproar from members of both parties. A White House official said he was taken out of context.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“Making discussion of climate risk, ecological destabilisation & inevitable economic change politically toxic limits the quality of governance we get, on some of the most consequential challenges of our time.” - @alexsteffen.bsky.social alexsteffen.substack.com/p/will-your-...
alexsteffen.substack.com
Will your next home be a climate lemon?
Efforts to suppress disclosure of grave climate risks in brittle areas cheat buyers and sabotage communities.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Jussi Pasanen @jopas.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
'Even today, we largely act as if society as a whole has been unchanged by this crisis — as if chaos spreading through the climate and biosphere were not a new context but one manageable issue among many.' alexsteffen.substack.com/p/dancing-wi... by @alexsteffen.bsky.social
alexsteffen.substack.com
Dancing with inevitability.
Sitting with the discomfort of what will now happen, to clarify what we still have the power to change.
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In order to move away from climate danger, we have to have somewhere to move to. The climate relocation bottleneck, and you. Part of my series on the fundamentals of charting a course through life on a hotter, more chaotic planet. No paywall. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/will-there...
alexsteffen.substack.com
Will there be somewhere to go?
Part seven in my series on the fundamental questions of personal climate strategies.
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I love this! . (We had to discontinue our print-your-own fire tornado kit on advice from legal...)
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 21/06/2024
It's worth remembering that there is a wide gap between the current supply of homes in relatively safe places and the number of people who will likely want to live in those places, as the costs of the crisis start hitting...
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 18/06/2024
Having now had 100s of conversations with people about their plans to manage climate chaos in their lives, I'm struck by how almost all of us begin thinking about where to live in terms of havens — places where we won't have to worry about the crisis at all. Those don't exist.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Erick M. Corimanya-Yucra @erickcorimanya.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
"Predatory delay" travels well beyond fossil fuels. In water reuse, where binding national rules are absent, the space fills with pilots and voluntary guidelines that never scale past demonstration. Self-regulation isn't a softer form of regulation, it's a substitute for it.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Aaron @halfhidden.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The melancholy reflections in this article, about the economic erosion and emotional loss "for a place that doesn't exist anymore" due to climate change, is exactly what @alexsteffen.bsky.social has been talking about for some time: www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
theglobeandmail.com
After a summer of fire, ‘Smokanagan’ mourns for a paradise lost
B.C.’s Okanagan Valley has long been Western Canada’s symbol of the sweet life. Now, locals are rethinking their way of life – or choosing to leave
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Taryn O’Neill @tarynoneill.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
What is the discontinuity risk? @alexsteffen.bsky.social's audio post digs in and offers the clearest capture of the 'fog of uncertainty' that now impacts our approach to planning for the future. #climatecrisis #resilience substack.com/@alexsteffen...
substack.com
Alex Steffen (@alexsteffen)
You’re not imagining it. The climate crisis is already making important decisions harder — where to live, how to protect your home, how to plan your career or retirement, how to raise your kids. It’s...
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
JFC
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Climate brittleness is not an individual failure. But many families have to rely on their own resources, relationships and ingenuity to find relative safety and household ruggedization. There are better and worse ways of doing that. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/why-do-i-n...
alexsteffen.substack.com
Why do I need my own climate strategy?
Part five in my series on the fundamentals of personal climate ruggedization.
0103
Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Are you ready to redesign your future to work in a world of climate chaos and societal upheaval? I lead a Personal Climate Strategy Workshop to help people make better decisions in the face of escalating uncertainties. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/a-framewor... PS: Please share.
alexsteffen.substack.com
A framework for redesigning your future
This Workshop takes you from crisis awareness to strategic action.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Ken Caldeira @kencaldeira.com · 13/07/2026
Climate change is of course a major driving force behind these deaths, but contributing is a lack of an adequate system to care for the most vulnerable, who tend to be socially isolated. This autopsy of heat deaths in Chicago is instructive. press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago...
press.uchicago.edu
Dying Alone in the Heat Wave, an interview with Eric Klinenberg
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 14/09/2026
Here is the latest combined forecast across all 14 models, compared to past strong El Nino events. It shows just how extreme and unprecedented this event is forecast to be:
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Yep.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Yale Climate Connections @climateconnections.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The stakes are extraordinarily high for coastal residents, property, governments, and our economy. yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/09/10-w...
yaleclimateconnections.org
10 ways climate-change-altered hurricanes may come to bite us » Yale Climate Connections
What happens if sea level rise, hurricane wind strength, or other factors turn out worse than expected?
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Are you ready to redesign your future to work in a world of climate chaos and societal upheaval? I lead a Personal Climate Strategy Workshop to help people make better decisions in the face of escalating uncertainties. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/a-framewor... PS: Please share.
alexsteffen.substack.com
A framework for redesigning your future
This Workshop takes you from crisis awareness to strategic action.
062
Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Part three of my new podcast series sharing the fundamentals of personal climate strategies. This one's on brittleness and hidden risks. No paywall. Please share. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/will-my-co...
alexsteffen.substack.com
Will my community be able to bounce back?
Part three of my podcast series on the basics of planning a personal climate strategy.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Part two of my new podcast series on the fundamentals of personal climate strategies. No paywall. Feel free to share. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/what-shoul...
alexsteffen.substack.com
What should I be worried about?
Part two of my series on the fundamentals of personal climate strategies.
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Part three of my new podcast series sharing the fundamentals of personal climate strategies. This one's on brittleness and hidden risks. No paywall. Please share. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/will-my-co...
alexsteffen.substack.com
Will my community be able to bounce back?
Part three of my podcast series on the basics of planning a personal climate strategy.
075
Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
NEW podcast series explaining the fundamentals of personal climate strategies, by answering some of the questions I get asked most often. If my workshop is the graduate seminar, this is office hours. It's not paywalled; feel free to share it. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/do-i-even-...
alexsteffen.substack.com
The keys to a personal climate strategy
Part one of my free series on the fundamentals of personal ruggedization.
0228
Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The Brittleness Bubble, municipal bond edition. "the market is pricing in prospective risk—the possibility that future wildfires will affect a municipality’s assessed value, revenue streams, infrastructure integrity, and long-term debt-repayment capacity."
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Part two of my new podcast series on the fundamentals of personal climate strategies. No paywall. Feel free to share. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/what-shoul...
alexsteffen.substack.com
What should I be worried about?
Part two of my series on the fundamentals of personal climate strategies.
095
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
NEW podcast series explaining the fundamentals of personal climate strategies, by answering some of the questions I get asked most often. If my workshop is the graduate seminar, this is office hours. It's not paywalled; feel free to share it. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/do-i-even-...
alexsteffen.substack.com
The keys to a personal climate strategy
Part one of my free series on the fundamentals of personal ruggedization.
0228
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The Brittleness Bubble, municipal bond edition. "the market is pricing in prospective risk—the possibility that future wildfires will affect a municipality’s assessed value, revenue streams, infrastructure integrity, and long-term debt-repayment capacity."
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Some thoughts on scaling personal climate strategies… alexsteffen.substack.com/p/what-ive-l...
alexsteffen.substack.com
What I’ve Learned From Thousands of Climate Conversations
Personal climate strategies begin with seeing the future in a new light.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
We have lost one of the 20th century's most important voices for ecological sanity. Wendell Berry, RIP.
Wendell Berry
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 21/12/2022
The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 06/11/2021
"I began to be followed by a voice saying: 'It can't last. It can't last. Harden yourself. Harden yourself. Be ready. Be ready.'" —Wendell Berry, Song in a Year of Catastrophe A whole lot of people are hearing that voice right now.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 29/06/2021
"I’m fond of the Wendell Berry quote, 'All good work remembers its past.'" "Today, though, all good work grasps its *discontinuity* with the past. The work of building a better future is profoundly different now than it was even a few decades ago."
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 12/11/2015
"All good work remembers its past" Wendell Berry. Not having working knowledge of past futurecraft makes us prone to making stale mistakes.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 14/07/2013
“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.” —Wendell Berry
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
One thing Berry understood is that ecological wisdom and the fight for freedom have always been intertwined. "Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias."
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
We have lost one of the 20th century's most important voices for ecological sanity. Wendell Berry, RIP.
Wendell Berry
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Regardless what you think of Gates, his saying this in the NYT does add to the feel of a growing Zeitgeist shift on AI. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/t...
nytimes.com
Bill Gates Is Warning That A.I. Is More Dangerous Than Big Tech Will Admit
In an hourlong interview, he said his industry was downplaying the risks, which he believes include mass unemployment and bioterrorism.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
“The destruction & loss caused by further warming will always outweigh any short-term benefits we could gain by slowing progress, however those gains are distributed.” Welcome to the future we fought for five decades to avoid - @alexsteffen.bsky.social alexsteffen.substack.com/p/welcome-to...
alexsteffen.substack.com
Welcome to the future we fought for five decades to avoid.
Massive climate discontinuity means we no longer live in a world that can solve its most pressing problems in an orderly way.
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Probably fine.
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
darn.
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
100%. "we'd all benefit from greater circumspection regarding range of what's possible in the Earth System" Huge need for circumspection, imagination and better decision-making under profound uncertainty.
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Reposted by Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 09/09/2020
Our skies are full of the ghosts of forests, right now.
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Where We Aren't: "The one thing these narratives all have in common is that they will not come true; even the inventions they imagined are physically realized, they will not mean what they meant in these stories. The Future will not come to be." www.alexsteffen.com/where_we_arent
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