Sign in

Elizabeth Kolbert

@elizkolbert.bsky.social
30K followers 349 following 598 posts

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.

PostsRepliesMedia
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Another 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.
nytimes.com
A Second Judge Strikes Down New York’s Climate ‘Superfund’ Law
A federal judge ruled that the new law, which would force fossil fuel companies to pay $75 billion to help cover the costs of climate change, was unconstitutional.
1276
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The upside of down:
wapo.st
Trump dismantled U.S. climate policy. But his war is cutting emissions.
While the president remains a climate-change denier, the war with Iran has triggered an unforeseen benefit in the fight against global warming.
1194
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
These updates from the @nytimes "Climate Forward" event are so self-serving as to be almost funny.
910112
Reposted by Elizabeth Kolbert
Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
El 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 billmckibben.substack.com/p/hold-my-wa...
billmckibben.substack.com
Hold my (warm) beer
It’s Existential Crises Week!
10347178
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It 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.
nytimes.com
Opinion | Climate Catastrophe Is Still on the Table (Gift Article)
Harrowing temperature increases remain unnervingly possible.
1236
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
“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?
nytimes.com
OpenAI Discloses Six New Incidents of ‘Concerning' A.I. Behavior (Gift Article)
The artificial intelligence company also released a framework for reporting when its systems go wrong.
2216
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The Endangered Species Act is now endangered:
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Moves to Gut a Core Endangered Species Protection (Gift Article)
An internal memo reinterprets the law so that only the intentional killing of animals, not collateral harm, is illegal.
49562
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Trump calls fears about AI a "hoax." He also calls climate change a "hoax." See any trend here?
nytimes.com
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Gets Onstage Call From Trump, Who Dismissed A.I. Safety Concerns (Gift Article)
Mr. Trump called Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, while Mr. Huang was onstage in Los Angeles and criticized calls to slow down and regulate A.I.
2317
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Trump's coal fetish is turning out to be very costly to ratepayers, not to mention the atmosphere.
wapo.st
Court deals blow to Trump’s plan to revive coal
Emergency orders forcing plants to remain open have cost ratepayers nearly $1 billion, according to utility filings.
14511
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
“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.”
giftarticle.ft.com
Why the AI race has its creators fearing human extinction
Advances in autonomous agents and bitter rivalry between Anthropic and OpenAI have pushed once-fringe fears into the mainstream
34822
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Anthropic 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.
giftarticle.ft.com
Anthropic researcher quits over AI labs ‘gambling with our lives’
Latest departure highlights mounting unease inside Silicon Valley companies racing to build ever more powerful systems
3112
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
A.I. agents exhibit a "mob mentality," encouraging others to break the rules. What could possibly go wrong?
nytimes.com
Why the Hugging Face Hack Should Make You Worry More About A.I. (Gift Article)
The attack by an aggressive “collective” of OpenAI agents shows the danger of artificial intelligence systems that organize themselves.
4165
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Just 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.
1160
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Judge 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.
nytimes.com
New York Climate ‘Superfund’ Law Falls in Court
The court said the measure, which required energy companies to pay $75 billion to the state, conflicted with federal law.
04211
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Never thought I'd say this, but hurray for MapQuest.
wapo.st
Thanks to Lake Ontario, MapQuest is popular all over again
As of Tuesday, the 30-year-old navigation tool was Apple’s No. 1 free app after the company rebuffed an executive order renaming the Great Lake.
2404
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Warming will soon surpass 1.5°C, says the U.N. Hardly surprising but nonetheless terrifying.
wapo.st
The world is certain to overshoot a critical climate threshold, U.N. warns
In a first-of-its-kind report, leading scientists describe a narrowing path for coming back from catastrophic warming.
36133
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
A new low...
nytimes.com
Google Maps Changes Lake Ontario to Lake America Following Trump’s Executive Order (Gift Article)
Users in the United States will see the new label, following President Trump’s executive order last week.
1415
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Just as world leaders decide to ignore climate change, everything climate scientists predicted is coming true.
giftarticle.ft.com
The devastating forces behind the deadly Himalayan flood
Torrent that tore through settlements near Nepal’s border with China comes as scientists warn climate change is increasing risks
110644
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Trump administration's cancellation of off-shore wind contracts results in a) higher GHG emissions b) huge windfall for Trump donor. Rinse and repeat.
washingtonpost.com
How wind projects got replaced by a $900 million payday to a Trump donor’s firm
The Trump administration’s latest deal to abandon an offshore wind project and redirect investment into fossil fuels stands to deliver a windfall to one of President Donald Trump’s major donors.
19143
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Instead of doing something about climate change, Americans are just going to bet on it:
wsj.com
Exclusive | Kalshi and the Weather Co. Join Forces on Climate Trades
The trading platform is now getting input from experts that operate a leading weather app to verify popular climate-prediction markets.
1114742
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A year ago, the Swiss town of Blatter was destroyed by an ice-rock avalanche. Now hundreds are missing Nepal owing to the same kind of disaster. This only going to become more common as the climate warms.
nature.com
The 2025 Blatten disaster in the Swiss Alps followed exceptional warming and highlights the vulnerability of people and heritage in glaciated landscapes - Communications Earth & Environment
On 28 May 2025, twenty million cubic metres of rock and ice buried the medieval village of Blatten and nearby settlements in the Swiss Lötschen valley. In the wake of the warmest decade since at least...
518272
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
"The United States has doubled down on its opposition to plastic production limits in global treaty talks, pushing to create a broad loophole to disregard the treaty on national security grounds." National security grounds??
wapo.st
Leaked memo shows how U.S. aims to weaken global limits on plastic pollution
A memo reviewed by The Washington Post, circulated by U.S. diplomats, comes as negotiations over a plastics treaty reach a critical point.
36235
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Surprise, surprise: build a lot of energy-sucking data centers, and carbon emissions will go up.
giftarticle.ft.com
Big Tech’s data centre boom poised to drive up carbon emissions
FT analysis finds 60 largest planned facilities could emit equivalent of 27 coal plants or 24mn cars per year
919496
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
"Yet even now, when weather records are being broken, when climate change is demonstrably here, not in the future, we seem frozen."
giftarticle.ft.com
Heatwaves expose the great human gift for ignoring catastrophe
We need to stop waiting for someone else to break the spell
58028
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
A simple point that surprisingly few people understand: "The longer we wait to reach net zero, the higher the eventual peak temperature will be, and the worse the associated damage. Warming is now nearly 1.4C above pre-industrial levels. Imagine summers when it gets closer to 2C."
giftarticle.ft.com
How to stop global warming
The answer is obvious to all except the real climate change zealots: the anti-net zero movement
20456219
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I'm old enough to remember when this country still had an independent judiciary...
nytimes.com
Top Science Body Deletes Climate Chapter From Judges’ Manual
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine had been under pressure from Republican leaders, including President Trump.
66627
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
This should be truly shocking, but unfortunately isn't.
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him (Gift Article)
Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.
46226
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This is just so sad (as well as outrageous):
nytimes.com
Dunes Sagebrush Lizard Stripped of Endangered Status by Judge (Gift Article)
The dunes sagebrush lizard, found only in the oil-rich Permian Basin, was classified as endangered two years ago.
45718
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Up is down; black is white; and habitat destruction doesn't hurt endangered species.
washingtonpost.com
Trump rule says habitat destruction does not harm endangered species
A new rule rescinds the definition of what it means to “harm” a plant or animal under the Endangered Species Act and could lead to more habitat destruction.
1012943
Reposted by Elizabeth Kolbert
The Keeling Curve @keelingcurve.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
430.07 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in air 02-Jul-2026 keelingcurve.ucsd.edu
keelingcurve.ucsd.edu
The Keeling Curve
The Keeling Curve is a daily record of global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration maintained by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
05923
Reposted by Elizabeth Kolbert
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 03/07/2026
The Trump administration is trying to permanently kill off one of the most unambiguously successful public policy instruments of the last half-century.
heatmap.news
Trump Is Trying to Strangle Money-Saving Standards for Appliances
And not for the first time.
615056
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Nice tribute to algae from @alanburdick.bsky.social:
nytimes.com
E Pluribus Algae: Why Green Pond Scum Is as American as Red, White and Blue
1163
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Heat records are getting broken. Electricity prices are soaring. The administration's response? Let's gut energy efficiency rules for appliances.
washingtonpost.com
Trump administration moves to gut energy efficiency rules for home appliances
The Energy Department wants to permanently restrict longstanding efficiency mandates, calling them a “scam.”
25300158
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
What's causing record temperatures? Hmmm, I have an idea...
nytimes.com
Live Updates: Brutal Heat Wave Broils Eastern U.S.
1374
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
The no-analog future we are creating is arriving:
giftarticle.ft.com
Record sea temperatures in June push world into ‘uncharted’ waters
Global warming and El Niño cycle combine to drive average to near 21C
23515
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Really hard to know whether to laugh or cry over this one:
4262
Reposted by Elizabeth Kolbert
Mongabay @mongabay.com · 23/06/2026
A new executive proclamation opens parts of three Pacific marine national monuments, including Rose Atoll and Papahānaumokuākea, to commercial fishing. The Trump administration cites economic opportunity, while conservationists and Native Hawaiian groups warn of severe threats to endemic wildlife.
mongabay.cc
US moves to allow commercial fishing in Pacific marine protected areas
On June 11, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive proclamation to open additional commercial fishing grounds in remote areas of the Pacific. The proclamation says restoring access to these…
45035
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
This was a fun piece to write:
newyorker.com
What’s the Point of Sex, Anyway?
The world’s life-forms reproduce sexually in a bewildering variety of ways, even though scientists still aren’t sure why they bother.
1203
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
I realize we are way beyond wake-up calls. But if we weren't, this would be one:
nytimes.com
Europe Is Sweltering in an Extreme Heat Wave. Here’s the Latest.
0448
Reposted by Elizabeth Kolbert
Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf @rahmstorf.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Much of Europe is sweating in an exceptional heat wave. Heat in Europe has increased 4 times more than in other mid-latitude areas, which has been linked to the Atlantic #coldblob in several studies. #AMOC Slide from a talk I'm about the present at London Climate Action Week #LCAW2026. 1/
7402172
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
The latest from the spiraling debacle that is the Reflecting Pool:
washingtonpost.com
A dead duck was seen in the Reflecting Pool. Then two more were found nearby.
The two ducks that were recovered from Constitution Gardens will undergo necropsies to determine their cause of death.
4115
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Do you see a pattern here?
0409
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
This headline on the NYT homepage running next to a headline that reads: "Interior Dept. Moves to Relax Rules for Drilling on Public Lands.
nytimes.com
Justice Department Makes It Easier to Bypass Pollution Controls on Pickups
13616
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
The Art of the Deal:
1274
Reposted by Elizabeth Kolbert
Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 19/06/2026
“Carbon dioxide has once again reached a record annual peak. Unsurprisingly, it’s another reminder that greenhouse gas levels are still rising and the climate system is responding.” In case you missed our latest climate science briefing, check out the recording here: youtu.be/xJ2SiFMGMP0?...
youtu.be
Climate Central’s Monthly Briefing Highlights: May 2026
YouTube video by Climate Central
515955
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Depend on the Trump administration to defend polluters:
nytimes.com
D.O.J. Seeks to Halt Air Pollution Lawsuit Against xAI Data Center
0169
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
A metaphor for our time?
washingtonpost.com
Reflecting Pool algae blooms have roared back, reaching highest levels in years
An analysis of satellite imagery of the Lincoln Memorial shows algae levels spiked days after a $14 million renovation was completed.
3295
Reposted by Elizabeth Kolbert
Yale Environment 360 @yalee360.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
“I think that attracting, hiring, and retaining great scientists to the EPA after this administration is going to be incredibly difficult.” In an interview with Elizabeth Kolbert, a former EPA researcher details the agency's assault on science.
e360.yale.edu
An EPA Researcher Details the Agency's Assault on Science
In late January, the Trump administration began shutting down projects within the EPA’s independent science division that touched on climate change and environmental justice. Air quality researcher Thomas Luben, who had worked at the agency for 18 years, was fired for objecting.
410070
Reposted by Elizabeth Kolbert
Food & Water Watch @foodandwater.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
The ripple effects of these firings will be brutal. From @elizkolbert.bsky.social:
0127
Elizabeth Kolbert @elizkolbert.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Just what the world needs: less information about what's happening to the oceans.
nytimes.com
Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System
39132