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Kimberley Thomas

@kimanh.bsky.social
4.5K followers 1.7K following 54 posts

Assoc. Professor and human-environment geographer @Temple University. Political ecology | environmental justice | water | climate change | infrastructure | borders | Asia | kimberley.thomasresearch.org

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Reposted by Kimberley Thomas
🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
NYT: “.. The move could prevent residents from raising concerns about — or even learning about — data centers before permits are approved and construction starts.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/c...
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High Country News @highcountrynews.org · 24/08/2026
🚨 We’re looking for a relationship-driven fundraiser to join HCN as our Charitable Gifts Advisor. You'll build major donor relationships, cultivate 5- and 6-figure gifts, develop personalized giving strategies & help sustain independent journalism across the West. How to apply ➡️ buff.ly/HJT7axf
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NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Our editor-in-chief, @jessicamdewitt.bsky.social, is back with her picks for environmental history worth reading and listening to from July! niche-canada.org/2026/08/13/e... #envhist
niche-canada.org
#EnvHist Worth Reading: July 2026
Find automotive colonialism, normal accident theory, and black clouds of smoke in the latest list of environmental history worth reading from Jessica DeWitt.
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Mike Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, MBA @michael-hoerger.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
🚨BREAKING 🦠 On Friday, the US CDC arbitrarily shifted higher COVlD levels into lower categories depicted with cooler colors. Much of what was Very High is now "High." What was High is now "Moderate" or "Low." Low is "Very Low." 1/
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 23/07/2026
1. The new Trump / Kratsios plan for US science appears explicitly designed to destroy US universities. Diverting money to tech donors is probably just a bonus. Gift link.
nytimes.com
Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities (Gift Article)
Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Rather than dressing up shipbreaking as an essential pillar of Bangladesh's development, we need to acknowledge how it perpetuates colonial patterns of enrichment for urban elites at the expense of workers and communities.
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Hundreds of cargo ships are decommissioned every year & most end up in Bangladesh. Scrapping old cargo ships generates billions of $ for Bangladesh's economy. But shipbreaking is also rife with labor abuses & pollutes nearby communities. @edgeeffectsmag.bsky.social edgeeffects.net/the-colonial...
edgeeffects.net
The Colonial Costs of Shipbreaking - Edge Effects
The shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh extends colonial logics that harm local farmlands, people, and ecologies.
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isaac @sevier.io · 14/07/2026
"Adaptation is largely a public good." @katemac.bsky.social and @70sbachchan.bsky.social singing my fav song phenomenalworld.org/analysis/glo...
phenomenalworld.org
Scorched Earth - Phenomenal World
Programming Note: In addition to this monthly newsletter, Kate and Tim are regularly publishing dispatches and putting out podcasts, which you can find at thepolycrisis.org. This summer’s heat waves h...
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Reporting on OMB's sweeping politicization of federal grants tends to focus on science / health research. But as I note in this piece for @crisesnotes.bsky.social, the rule is a huge threat to *intergovernmental* grants and state/local fiscal stability. www.crisesnotes.com/russell-voug...
crisesnotes.com
Russell Vought is Using the Plumbing of Fiscal Federalism to Create a New Patronage System
EDITORS NOTE: I (Nathan) have struggled whether to rush to comment on this proposed OMB rule. Being a recent Fiscal Year 2026 OMB memo, and knowing that the OMB will continue to create new forms of bu...
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Ida B Wells' Winchester Rifle @dytsras.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Every other week, I see a viral post about "tipping" and visceral responses as to why it's not required and "it's not my job to pay you" regardless of the bill. And again I keep saying.. we're having the wrong conversation. You're punishing poor people to make an under educated point
A picture of a restaurant bill for $621.73 with a $9.00 tip, along with defenses as to why this is more than generous because they already paid the bill.
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Marx dreamed of a world where you wouldn't be pigeonholed by your job. As he put it, a man could hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and critique ideas at dinner without ever being a hunter, fisherman, or critic.
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 18/02/2026
china bad because of state surveillance america good because of corporate surveillance that also gets wielded by the state
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Democracy is when voters choose their leaders. Autocracy is when leaders choose their voters.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/01/2026
Trump: "People that own their homes -- we're gonna keep them wealthy. We're gonna keep those prices up. We're not gonna destroy the value of their homes so that somebody who didn't work very hard can buy a home."
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
“Sacrifice zone” has become a powerful label for naming unequal burdens of toxic contamination, too often located in and near marginalized communities. The problem is that naming polluted places as “zones” implies toxic containment when PFAS, dioxins, etc easily move thru air, water, and soil.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Respatializing Toxic Harm: The Case Against Sacrifice Zones
Describing heavily polluted areas as “sacrifice zones” has become commonplace in recent decades, as diverse groups resist their unwitting exposure to destructive and toxic industrial, municipal, and ...
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Jolyon Thomas @jolyonbt.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
I learned so much from reading this paper! It complicates a commonplace claim about unique zones of vulnerability to hazards while still offering an alternative vision of justice and care. Recommended for people thinking about environmental harms, environmental justice, and disability.
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
This makes their work invaluable for navigating the tension between uneven but ubiquitous toxicity that defines contemporary patterns of pollution. We may not yet have better language to describe this tension, but at least we have strategies to address it. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Respatializing Toxic Harm: The Case Against Sacrifice Zones
Describing heavily polluted areas as “sacrifice zones” has become commonplace in recent decades, as diverse groups resist their unwitting exposure to destructive and toxic industrial, municipal, and ...
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Why? Because critical disability justice scholars and activists have long grappled precisely with the reality of diverse yet uniquely lived embodiments and the universal vulnerability to disablement that we all face.
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
We shouldn’t subscribe to either “sacrifice zones” language or the logics that produce toxic pollution. Instead, Caitlin Joseph, @grumpynaturalist.bsky.social & I draw on critical disabilities studies to shift attention from polluted spaces to individual yet interconnected bodies.
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Another problem is that there’s no clear end to what places might be “sacrificed” by toxic industrial, municipal, or military activities. In a system that demands constant growth, more & more places are turned into input sources or waste sinks, ultimately making every place vulnerable to sacrifice.
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
“Sacrifice zone” has become a powerful label for naming unequal burdens of toxic contamination, too often located in and near marginalized communities. The problem is that naming polluted places as “zones” implies toxic containment when PFAS, dioxins, etc easily move thru air, water, and soil.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Respatializing Toxic Harm: The Case Against Sacrifice Zones
Describing heavily polluted areas as “sacrifice zones” has become commonplace in recent decades, as diverse groups resist their unwitting exposure to destructive and toxic industrial, municipal, and ...
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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
davekarpf.substack.com/p/every-gene... This by @davekarpf.bsky.social is very, _very_ good. Much traditional media is badly geared to understand movement politics, and often, it helps to actually know stuff!
davekarpf.substack.com
Every generation gets to recreate the environmental movement to suit its own purposes
Some big-picture reactions to a recent NYT piece
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Association for Asian Studies @asianstudies.org · 16/10/2025
In the Fall 2017 issue of EAA, @kimanh.bsky.social published "The 'Mundane Violence' of International Water Conflicts," introducing readers to environmental and social issues that have only grown more acute in the years since this article first appeared.
buff.ly
The “Mundane Violence” of International Water Conflicts - Association for Asian Studies
Statistics about water resources abound. Some, like the combined length of rivers in the United States (3.5 million miles), make for interesting but forgettable trivia. Others, like the number of…
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News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
NEW: There’s a disaster unfolding in Alaska right now. And no major network is covering it. The remnants of Typhoon Halong battered western Alaska overnight. Homes, with people in them, have literally been swept into the Bering Strait. At least 20 are missing. No comment from any federal agency.
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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
What do you do when your media org is captured? You start your own. Introducing....The Nerve!!! @thenerve-news.bsky.social We're all-female, journalist-owned & launching next week. Please help us build a truly independent, progressive new media!👊👊👊
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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 24/09/2025
Black journalist starter pack on bluesky! More Black folks who know what they're talking about! go.bsky.app/FVsDa69
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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
He’s really going full fascism now, openly threatening American citizens while attacking both the press and basic democratic freedoms. Once again, Trump tried to glorify his deployment of the National Guard in
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isaac @sevier.io · 18/09/2025
Let's get a hell yeah in the chat for this great write up of how we get more free as we adapt to climate change from @mills-novoa.bsky.social, @kimanh.bsky.social & @mmikulewicz.bsky.social
Similar to reparations, commoning targets the root causes of climate vulnerability by tackling the historical roots of social and envi-ronmental inequities. Commoning redresses the colonial erasures of Indigenous practices of collective stewardship that eschew notions of private ownership and profit. It represents a radical reorientation of mainstream climate adaptation that currently envisions resilience as financial security and people’s capacity to self-provision through market-based exchange11. Commoning offers a powerful antidote to adaptation projects that prioritize private landowners to the detriment of landless groups and households that rely on communal resources.
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Charles Я. Davis @charliearchy.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Martin Luther King Jr. Day was voted on 15 years after the assassination and 22 senators voted "no."
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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
I would not — and I cannot stress this enough — trust anything coming from Pam Bondi, Kash Patel or anonymous "internal law enforcement sources." Fascists lie. We have evidence, both contemporary and historical. Unless there is indisputable proof behind a claim made in this case, question it.
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Donovan Schaefer @feelingtheory.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Two tenure-track positions at Haverford College in the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program, with links to the Kim Ethics Institute. An amazing place working with incredible colleagues! (Deadline Oct. 24) www.haverford.edu/provost/news...
haverford.edu
Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights
Haverford college seeks two Tenure-Track Assistant Professors of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights.
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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
The people whipping up panics about "academic freedom" rarely speak up when academic freedom is actually imperiled. This is absolutely chilling.
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Michael Mikulewicz @mmikulewicz.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
In this short commentary in Nature Climate Change, @mills-novoa.bsky.social, @kimanh.bsky.social and I discuss the inherent issues with the project form in the context of adaptation. Projects, by their very nature, are not capable of delivering transformative adaptation. But there are alternatives!
nature.com
Moving beyond projects to achieve transformative adaptation - Nature Climate Change
Projects are not delivering the transformative change needed for climate change adaptation. This failure is due in part to the delivery of adaptation as projects, but there are viable alternatives tha...
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Meg Mills-Novoa @mills-novoa.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Projects are not delivering the transformative change needed for climate change adaptation. This failure is due to the delivery of adaptation as projects. In this article, we explore real alternatives that can address the structural causes of vulnerability. DM for pdf! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Moving beyond projects to achieve transformative adaptation - Nature Climate Change
Projects are not delivering the transformative change needed for climate change adaptation. This failure is due in part to the delivery of adaptation as projects, but there are viable alternatives tha...
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Prof Lisa Schipper 🌍🍉💪 @lisaschipper.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
New comment in Nature climate change published this week on the dangers of adaptation projects by Meg Mills-Novoa, Kim Anh Thomas and Michael Mikulewicz (three scholars whose work you should follow!) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Moving beyond projects to achieve transformative adaptation - Nature Climate Change
Projects are not delivering the transformative change needed for climate change adaptation. This failure is due in part to the delivery of adaptation as projects, but there are viable alternatives tha...
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Craig Johnson @cajohnson-craig.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
lemme tell you i study fascism for a living and this one got me staring at the screen gobsmacked for a good five minutes
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
It’s not just about villainization. It’s also about devaluation. The pandemic threw into stark relief how little they cared if older people and those with disabilities died.
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Social Security Works @socialsecurityworks.org · 21/03/2025
We're organizing rallies around the country to save Social Security! HandsOffSocialSecurity.org
handsoffsocialsecurity.org
Hands off Social Security!
Social Security is facing the greatest threat of its nearly century-long existence. We have to fight back! Social Security Works is working to have as many rallies at Social Security offices as po...
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
we're defunding those silly volcano scientists and replacing them with an innovative program whereby kids in your area can pay down interest on their student lunch debts by collecting old batteries and other e-waste in wheelbarrows and then dumping them directly into live calderas
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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 27/02/2025
UNDERSTAND THE ASSIGNMENT: tomorrow, February 28th, is the Economic Blackout. I ain’t buying shit. Plan ahead, but if you must buy essentials, use cash and support local businesses only. No corporate chains!
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
The new executive orders slashing funding & programs for social justice and env’tl protection paint a bleak picture for the future of climate justice (CJ). But liberal political theory–the basis of the mainstream CJ movement–was always going to fall short even without these cuts tinyurl.com/2ju5k82x
tinyurl.com
Moving beyond a climate politics of justice with no peace
Published in Climate and Development (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Thanks for reading! Check out the issue here: www.tandfonline.com/toc/tcld20/1...
doi.org
Moving beyond a climate politics of justice with no peace
Published in Climate and Development (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
#3 Transformative climate futures require decoupling justice theory from its liberal roots. “Climate justice otherwise” entails decentering the private market & liberal legal structures and elevating decolonial, relational & non-capitalist systems rooted in local & Indigenous worldviews & practices.
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
#2 Context matters Climate impacts are shaped by local dynamics of social differentiation & uneven dev’t. Liberal climate justice theory can’t fit such context bc it relies on idealized notions of individuals, states & markets. Transformative CJ must recognize and value other knowledges & practices.
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
#1 Climate justice may become an empty signifier By ignoring the liberal roots of justice theory, calls for transformative change will keep falling short bc of the contradictions between the radically diff't lifeworlds that are imagined & the way existing mainstream liberal systems are meant to work
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
The premise of liberal conceptions of justice is that to know justice is to know peace. Yet, for those seeking redress for climate harms, there is little evidence to substantiate this position. My co-editor Kevon Rhiney and I offer 3 key takeaways from the special issue. tinyurl.com/2ju5k82x
tinyurl.com
Moving beyond a climate politics of justice with no peace
Published in Climate and Development (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Instead, Correia proposes an ‘otherwise’ approach to climate justice in which L&D is reframed “as a transformative, relational process based on Indigenous priorities and worldviews…rather than resorting to liberal notions of commensurability.” tinyurl.com/58t373m9
tinyurl.com
Land matters: how Indigenous land restitution can inform loss and damage policy and chart a path toward an otherwise climate justice
Loss and damage (L&D) has emerged as a focus for climate justice within the international policy arena and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meetings. L&D proposals often centre...
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
…but they also fail to “stem future problems because climate breakdown is not averted.” Thus, the exploitative processes that made reparations necessary in the first place remain unchallenged. tinyurl.com/58t373m9
tinyurl.com
Land matters: how Indigenous land restitution can inform loss and damage policy and chart a path toward an otherwise climate justice
Loss and damage (L&D) has emerged as a focus for climate justice within the international policy arena and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meetings. L&D proposals often centre...
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Kimberley Thomas @kimanh.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Lastly, @joelecorreia.bsky.social links up financial restitution with epistemic justice. He evaluates loss and damage (L&D) through study of 12 Indigenous land restitution cases in Latin America. Not only do restitution and reparations fail to establish commensurability between harms and payments…
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