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Wen Stephenson

@learning2live.bsky.social
841 followers 584 following 206 posts

Journalist, essayist, activist. Climate justice correspondent @TheNation.com. Latest book: Learning to Live in the Dark www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2523-l… More: wenstephenson.com

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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Important analysis here by scholars with the Sajag-Nepal collaborative www.sajag-nepal.org "Relocation away from hazards like landslides and floods may reduce exposure, but it doesn’t address ... economic precarity and inequality." @theconversation.com theconversation.com/nepal-could-...
theconversation.com
Nepal could show the world how to recover sustainably from a major disaster
Development in known hazard zones is creating untenable risks for communities around the world. Here’s how Nepal and the global community can build back differently.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Read this in @thenation.com if you want a slightly more realistic perspective (reported and written before the latest flood disaster). www.thenation.com/article/envi...
thenation.com
A Reckoning Comes for Nepal
A year after its Gen Z uprising, Nepal faces a struggle not only for democracy and human rights but for climate survival.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
"Whether Nepal can persuade industrialized powers to make climate reparations is far from certain — and there is no consensus on which nations should pay." Understatement of the year.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Yikes. "...climate activists on the forefront of a Gen Z revolution that eventually ushered in a youth-dominated government in March." Nepal's GenZ "revolution" (yes they're still calling it that) had literally nothing to do with climate. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/w...
nytimes.com
Nepal’s Gen Z Is Taking on the World’s Polluters Over Climate Disasters
The young government of Nepal, a nation with a tiny carbon footprint, is seeking reparations from the world’s major economies as it bears the brunt of collapsing Himalayan glaciers.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The above is a point I want to drive home for my colleagues in climate journalism. There are no "solutions" that are not social and political. @coveringclimatenow.org @thenation.com
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
To really understand what Nepal (like so many countries in the Global South) faces, we can't afford to look at the climate emergency in isolation from the social and political facts on the ground. As I write in @thenation.com: www.thenation.com/article/envi...
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I write in @thenation.com about the climate emergency Nepal faces on multiple fronts, not only in the form of Himalayan floods but severe water scarcity in the hills and plains where the vast majority of Nepalis live. www.thenation.com/article/envi...
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The world's attention has moved on. But the Himalayan flood disaster in Nepal is far from over. "Jandra has six children, the youngest just five years old. But no relief has reached the village so far. The food at home has now run out." kathmandupost.com/health/2026/... @coveringclimatenow.org
kathmandupost.com
24 days after flood, hunger grips three Rusuwa wards
Food is running out in villages cut off after the Bhotekoshi flood swept away bridges.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
N.b. this piece was reported back in April-June, and went to press weeks before the latest disaster. So Awale was not responding in the present context. But she has made essentially the same point here: nepalitimes.com/a-disastrous...
nepalitimes.com
A disastrous state of affairs in Nepal
Nepal’s flood crisis comes on the first anniversary of the GenZ movement, leaving a new government to deal with it
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
In my new feature in @thenation.com, Nepali Times editor (and climate reporter) Sonia Awale puts a fine point on the loss-and-damage issue from Nepal's p.o.v. "We simply don’t have time to wait for that money. And, honestly, it is not money enough." See below for full context.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Please note: the Loss and Damage Fund has received less than half the $800 million initially pledge. Nepal will receive $20 million, and possibly more later. The latest flood damage is estimated at $5 billion or more. That's one disaster, in one country. kathmandupost.com/national/202...
kathmandupost.com
Nepal secures $20 million from Loss and Damage Fund, awaits decision on Bhotekoshi plea
The funding was approved based on Nepal’s request made earlier this year. A separate emergency appeal filed after the August 26 disaster awaits approval.
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Reposted by Wen Stephenson
The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 08/09/2026
A year after its Gen Z uprising, Nepal faces a struggle not only for democracy and human rights but for climate survival. Wen Stephenson reports from Nepal. bit.ly/3UEK9w0
bit.ly
A Reckoning Comes for Nepal
A year after its Gen Z uprising, Nepal faces a struggle not only for democracy and human rights but for climate survival.
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Reposted by Wen Stephenson
Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"What I saw, in other words, was the fraught intersection of climate change, social justice, and human rights." "A year after its Gen Z uprising, Nepal faces a struggle not only for democracy and human rights but for climate survival" Wen Stephenson reports from Nepal. ht @advaitarun.bsky.social
thenation.com
A Reckoning Comes for Nepal
A year after its Gen Z uprising, Nepal faces a struggle not only for democracy and human rights but for climate survival.
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Reposted by Wen Stephenson
The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 08/09/2026
Climate justice will have to be fought for—and equality and human rights will have to be won—not only among countries but within them. Wen Stephenson reports from Nepal on what "climate justice" means in a place like Nepal. bit.ly/3UEK9w0
bit.ly
A Reckoning Comes for Nepal
A year after its Gen Z uprising, Nepal faces a struggle not only for democracy and human rights but for climate survival.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
My new feature in the Oct issue of @thenation.com caps a run of reporting on Nepal that started in Jan 2024. But I'm no expert on Nepal. The experts are the Nepali people. They have been my patient teachers. Isay more here: wenstephenson.substack.com/p/a-reckoning www.thenation.com/article/envi...
thenation.com
A Reckoning Comes for Nepal
A year after its Gen Z uprising, Nepal faces a struggle not only for democracy and human rights but for climate survival.
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Reposted by Wen Stephenson
The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 08/09/2026
A year after its Gen Z uprising, Nepal faces a struggle not only for democracy and human rights but for climate survival. Wen Stephenson reports from Nepal. www.thenation.com/article/envi...
thenation.com
A Reckoning Comes for Nepal
A year after its Gen Z uprising, Nepal faces a struggle not only for democracy and human rights but for climate survival.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Everyone with the slightest interest in #Nepal should read this latest editorial by Nepali Times editor Sonia Awale, who's also an accomplished climate reporter. (I interviewed her for my Oct. feature in @thenation.com, which will be out tomorrow.) nepalitimes.com/a-disastrous...
nepalitimes.com
A disastrous state of affairs in Nepal
Nepal’s flood crisis comes on the first anniversary of the GenZ movement, leaving a new government to deal with it
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Important piece here by @michaelemann.bsky.social, maybe the best I've seen, on the connection between Nepal's glacial collapse and our summer of climate catastrophe.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
And @coveringclimatenow.org has a live press briefing on the Nepal disaster starting at 9AM ET. bsky.app/profile/cove...
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Manjeet Dhakal @manjeetdhakal.bsky.social was closely involved in designing the UN Loss and Damage fund. "There is an opportunity to demonstrate what the fund was designed to deliver." But he adds: "It may only be a symbolic gesture, because the fund still has very limited resources."
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
In my latest for @thenation.com, Nepali climate expert @manjeetdhakal.bsky.social, head of the UN's Least Developed Countries support team, tells me there are now internal discussions underway about providing emergency Loss and Damage assistance to Nepal. www.thenation.com/article/envi...
thenation.com
How Will Nepal Pay for the Latest Climate Disaster?
An interview with Nepali UN climate expert Manjeet Dhakal on what the massive Himalayan flood will cost Nepal.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Byers' & Wilfried Haeberli's 2024 piece on melting Himalayan permafrost: "There is growing concern about the impact of global warming on the stability of icy peaks in mountain ranges around the world, which several recent events in the Himalaya well illustrate." nepalitimes.com/the-not-so-p...
nepalitimes.com
The not-so-permanent frost
Rapid thawing of the Himalayan ice-cap is compounded by little-studied melting of permafrost that destabilises peaks
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Byers: "A number of my colleagues are being very cautious... saying that they can't say definitively it's related to climate change... [But] it is related to changes in permafrost, and that is directly related to warming trends that we've experienced."
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
"Imagine liquid concrete flowing down the river, carrying boulders the size of houses... These are terrifying events... The footage from this flood is the most horrific I have ever seen." Alton Byers @instaar.bsky.social in Nepali Times nepalitimes.com/this-is-by-f...
nepalitimes.com
"This is by far the most horrific flood I have ever seen"
Himalayan glacier expert Alton C Byers on what happened in Nepal and what should happen now
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
"[The river] does not pause at borders. It flows from the Tibetan Plateau through Nepal’s narrow gorges, into the Tarai and the Indian plains, spreading finally across the Bangladesh delta. It carries silt and sorrow and the strange democracy of water." Zakir Kibria nepalitimes.com/we-are-all-d...
nepalitimes.com
We are all downstream now
The water cycle is the planet's great equaliser. We have forgetten this. The flood is a brutal reminder.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Drought may be the more dangerous and destabilizing threat, with its impact on the poorest in society and the agricultural base of the economy. But it's slow moving and less visible, so gets far less coverage. Meanwhile, Nepalis are desperate for a government capable of responding to the crisis.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Nepal faces climate catastrophe on multiple fronts, only one of which is the melting Himalaya. My forthcoming feature in @thenation.com looks closely at the critical water-scarcity crisis across the country, especially the mid hills and plains, where the majority of Nepal's 30 million people live.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Hard as it is to believe, this disaster may not be over yet, as Kathmandu Post is reporting. New glacial lakes have formed in the area and could bring more devastation. kathmandupost.com/national/202...
kathmandupost.com
New barrier lake in Nepal raises fresh flood threat, China warns
China warns the lake near the Nepal-Tibet border could breach as 3 million cubic metres of water is expected to flow into it over the next three days, adding to risks after Wednesday’s deadly flood.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Kunda Dixit of Nepali Times has a good explainer-backgrounder on the devastating Himalayan glacial collapse and flood on the Nepal-Tibet border. nepalitimes.com/central-nepa...
nepalitimes.com
Central Nepal flood, the day after
Satellite images show the glacial collapse on the North Face of Langtang was in Nepal itself
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
By the way, I spent the first seven years of my journalism career at The Atlantic (and was a finalist for multiple NMAs). It's painful to see what the magazine has become.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
This may be the worst thing I've ever seen @theatlantic.com do. Let's rub salt in the wounds of Arday's loved ones, who have just suffered excruciating loss. Wood essentially calls Arday - and anyone suffering "self-contempt and despair" - "pathetic" "losers." A Trumpian level of cruelty. Why?
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
These were revolutions. An election sweep by a neoliberal party with an authoritarian-leaning PM is ... not.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
In 2006-08, a mere 20 years ago - after a decade of bloody civil conflict and an autocratic royal coup - they overthrew and abolished the monarchy, instituted a democratic republic, and launched an ongoing constitutional struggle for social justice and human rights.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Nepalis know what revolution means. In 1990, they overthrew the authoritarian Panchyat system and forced the monarchy to accept multiparty democracy.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
When I've asked Nepalis, whether GenZ activists or seasoned political analysts, whether Sept 8-9 and the March 5th elections were a revolution, they just smile.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Having spent the past seven weeks in this country reporting for @thenation.com on Nepal's "GenZ Revolution" and what comes next, I can assure you there has been no "revolution." Nor was that even what Nepal's GenZ movement was aiming for. @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/w...
nytimes.com
‘We Will Turn Trauma Into Something Beautiful’
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Here's my latest for @thenation.com about the stunning election results in Nepal six months after the GenZ uprising that took down the government. I sat down with two brilliant young Nepali women at the center of the GenZ movement to talk about what comes next. www.thenation.com/article/worl...
thenation.com
A Sweeping Victory for Gen Z in Nepal—But Not Yet a “Revolution”
Nepal’s “Gen Z revolution” achieved historic and unexpected electoral success—but transformational change remains elusive.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
"Nepal’s traditional political parties faced a dramatic collapse as a wave led by rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah...powered the [RSP] towards a historic two-thirds majority..., a result not seen...in nearly seven decades." #NepalElection2026 kathmandupost.com/money/2026/0...
kathmandupost.com
Old parties crumble as RSP heads for two-thirds majority
Voters’ frustration with decades of instability and corruption fuels sweeping mandates, raising hopes for political stability and economic reforms.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Always read Kunda Dixit's wickedly ironic weekly newsletter for Nepali Times. "We will miss covering all that horse-trading... where MPs were bought and sold... Journalism will be boring because there will be no wrong-doing to investigate and expose." nepalitimes.substack.com/p/what-just-...
nepalitimes.substack.com
What Just Happened in Nepal?
Nepali Times ईspecial 6 - 12 March 2026 #1301
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
And on the Maoist "People's War" (1996-2006), Aditya Adhikari's "The Bullet and the Ballot Box."
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
If you want to delve into Nepal's contemporary political history - past 35 years since democratic revolution of 1990 & Maoist war - you can't do better than @manjushreethapa.bsky.social books "Forget Kathmandu" and "The Lives We Have Lost," along with Prashant Jha's "Battles of the New Republic."
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
"In a damning indictment of the established political parties, the 3-year-old Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) is giving them a run for their money.... candidates of the Congress, UML and NCP were being trounced, with the RSP on course to win a thumping majority." kathmandupost.com/politics/202...
kathmandupost.com
Rastriya Swatantra Party surges towards landslide victory
Observers say voters punished old parties for their failure to deliver, abuse of power, and widespread corruption.
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Reposted by Wen Stephenson
Manjushree Thapa @manjushreethapa.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
It’s an era of trickster politics. It’s not useful to be naive. But Nepal’s trajectory in our lifetime has been steadily—and every now and then, extremely unsteadily—towards more and more democracy. I sincerely hope the country continues along this path after March 5. 🙏🏼
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Maybe the best thing about #NepalElection2026 thus far is how peaceful it's been. Very few incidents reported across the country.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Nepali Times' Sonia Awale has the score: Five possible scenarios for election outcome, and what they could mean for new government and Nepal’s future. #NepalElection2026 nepalitimes.com/editorial/th...
nepalitimes.com
The magic 138
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
I visited the makeshift memorial shrine for the slain GenZ protesters outside the burned-out Parliament. A survivor, 27-year-old grad student, showed me where a bullet grazed his neck that day. Army and National Police (shown) on the streets seem to have made an impression.
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Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
I'm glad to be back in Kathmandu, covering #NepalElection2026, called by interim govt after the GenZ uprising of Sept 8-9. Polls have closed here on this Election Day, turnout reported to be large, voting overwhelmingly peaceful. Here's Singha Durbar yesterday, armored vehicle inside the gate.
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Reposted by Wen Stephenson
Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
One thing that may dramatically shake up our political life on this planet is the advent of a strong new El Niño. (Also our, you know, life life) billmckibben.substack.com/p/an-el-nino...
billmckibben.substack.com
An El Niño is brewing
And with it the next, pivotal, chapter of the climate fight.
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Reposted by Wen Stephenson
Antonia Juhasz @antoniajuhasz.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
An El Niño is brewing. And with it the next, pivotal, chapter of the climate fight. @billmckibben.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/billmcki...
open.substack.com
An El Niño is brewing
And with it the next, pivotal, chapter of the climate fight.
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