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Matt Hoffmann

@matthoffmann.bsky.social
9K followers 1.5K following 27 posts

Professor of political science at the University of of Toronto, been studying global climate change politics for 30 years--focused on decarbonization, just transition, and storytelling.

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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
What would climate heroism look like, at a species level? I'm not sure, but it's a long way from what humanity is doing now. New essay/rant on substack. matthewhoffmann.substack.com/p/what-would...
matthewhoffmann.substack.com
What would climate heroism look like?
It is found in the trying, individually and collectively.
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Stacy VanDeveer @stacydvandeveer.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Want to know what #ClimateChange looks like in #Boston & Massachusetts & #NewEngland ?
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The smoke in Toronto from the wildfire disasters in Ontario combined with the march of announcements about expanding oil and gas infrastructure and rollbacks of climate policy in Canada set me off yesterday. Here's my rant: matthewhoffmann.substack.com/p/im-always-...
matthewhoffmann.substack.com
I’m always Angry, but Today…
Having researched and thought about the politics of climate change for 30+ years, I’m always angry. Some days, like today, it just boils over.
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Chris Bataille @chrisbataille.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
On the one hand, Nova Scotia could pick up a lot of wind turbine equipment very cheap. On the other hand, this is a disaster for wind investment and investment certainty in general in the US. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/c...
nytimes.com
Trump Halts Five Wind Farms Off the East Coast
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Jen Iris Allan @jenirisallan.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Some of these wins are too early to call. There are good trends in deforestation (e.g.) but the policies highlighted won't further that cause. But the renewables section. China's emissions decreasing. This is where real, tangible hope lies. www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
bbc.co.uk
Seven quiet wins for climate and nature in 2025
Here are the year's breakthroughs for the climate and nature you might have missed.
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
We are very excited to announce the launch of Volume 2 of the Environmental Governance Lab's climate fiction zine We Did It!? Check it out! wedidit2050.ca
wedidit2050.ca
WeDidIt!?
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Mat Paterson @matpaterson.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Steven Bernstein and @matthoffmann.bsky.social round us off with an attempt to think through stability and decarbonisation in general terms before we conclude. 12/
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Mat Paterson @matpaterson.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Paul Tobin, @stacydvandeveer.bsky.social and I are delighted to announce our new, open access, edited book ‘Stability and politicization in climate governance’. bit.ly/45Gb6RM. It is packed full of fantastic chapters about different aspects of climate politics. Here’s a short thread. 1/
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 08/07/2025
“Who’s running America’s foreign and defense policies? It’s not the president, at least not on most issues," Tom Nichols writes in the Atlantic Daily. "Decisions are being made at lower levels without much guidance from above.”
bit.ly
Who’s Running American Defense Policy?
Trump’s national-security institutions are still in disorder.
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Amanda Rykoff @amandarykoff.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
Senator @schatz.bsky.social post this over at the bad place and it’s important. This Big Bad Brutal Bill is worse than you can imagine. “This bill is a real piece of shit and it would be excellent if that's all anyone talked about for the next few days.”
1) Biggest wealth transfer in American history. 2)
Kills solar industry, raising prices 3) almost a trillion dollar cut to Medicaid 4) nursing homes shutting down 5) energy shortages 6) 4.5 trillion in NEW DEBT. — I promise you this bill is worse than you think.

This bill is a real piece of shit and it would be excellent if that's all anyone talked about for the next few days. Super interested in your think piece about the NYC mayor's race but let's get to that after we try to stop the biggest wealth transfer in American history.
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Dr. Elizabeth Sawin @bethsawin.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
Even cooler the reinforcing loop can turn the exact opposite way. The more the people take action, the more the people take action - read it through and see for yourself :)
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15/06/2025
the story today is of a profoundly low energy military parade being met with millions of americans in nationwide protests denouncing the dictatorial pretensions of the president
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Authoritarians want you to feel isolated and alone, to feel like their vision of the world is the only one. That’s why taking part in public protests matters. You connect with other people like you and you show those numbers off to the world. It’s a great feeling. Try it!
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
If you take one thing away from today, let it be that we outnumber them.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
I know there's a lot going on, but the Secretary of Homeland Security declaring that federal troops are in California and Los Angeles to "liberate" the state and city from its duly-elected leaders really is a fourteen-alarm fire.
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Toronto showing up for #NoTyrants protest
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 08/06/2025
Cannot stress enough that this is a pitiful action by a weak, scared, pathetic group of insecure, wannabe authoritarians, and they should be mocked until the end of time for wanting to bring in the military over some people protesting them at a Home Depot.
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David Rothkopf @djrothkopf.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
ICE is a much greater threat to this country than illegal immigrants. The current administration ia by far the greatest threat this country faces. The problem is not st our borders. It is in the White House.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Earlier today ICE agents hit someone with a car and tear gassed a neighborhood, sparking several fires and disrupting businesses. Immigrants, by contrast, did not.
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
@uoft.bsky.social pay attention
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Between fascism and climate change, the latter is definitely a greater threat to humanity. Fascists are liars, and they will always lose (but it might take a while). The problem with the fascist regime in the US is that it's actively undermining climate action, thereby exacerbating climate damage.
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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
I loathe Musk as much as anyone else but for a sitting president to openly threaten a private citizen over what political donations he or she chooses to make is a reminder of how authoritarian this country is becoming by the day - by the hour even!
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Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Happy Tuesday! How about an anti-Matt-Yglesias climate economics thread? I'll start by saying "material prosperity" is not opposed to "reasoning backwards" from temperature targets — doing what we must NOW to halt global heating at a safe level will INCREASE Americans' material prosperity. 1/n
Matthew Yglesias &
@mattyglesias You can kind of talk in circles all day about "populism" or "abundance" or "kitchen table issues" or whatever else, but the practical dividing line is between material prosperity (call it whatever you want) vs reasoning
backwards from climate targets.
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Nikki Little 🍁☮️ 🚑. @nikkiblittle911.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
"I think this is the first time a politician in Canada has crossed that line to officially say they want to interfere to control research topics,” Madeleine Pastinelli, president of the university professors’ union in the province of Quebec. #vote #never51
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
90 percent. They sent innocent people to a gulag so Trump could look like a tough guy. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
About 90% of Migrants Deported to El Salvador Had No US Criminal Record
Trump administration officials have described the men deported to El Salvador prisons last month as “the worst of the worst,” suggesting they were gang members involved in murder, rape and kidnapping.
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Trump’s Lust for Power Cannot Be Satiated
The tariff saga is just the latest example of the president’s urge to dominate.
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Lauren Dobson-Hughes @ldobsonhughes.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Literally a conversation today about whether there are ICE facilities at Ottawa airport, who has jurisdiction on the post-clearance airside area, and whether the Canadian govt would get you back if you disappeared inside the US part of a Canadian airport. So it's going great here
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Love this essay/manifesto by @anandwrites.bsky.social "Because having, and nurturing, in your life a sphere for joy and connection and community and love and food and music and human difference and living and letting live is everything they are not and is everything they are trying to take away."
the.ink
The opposite of fascism
Living well and fighting back in a time of terrors
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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
The way this works is that you either defend Khalil's First Amendment rights, no matter what you think about his specific views, or else you acquiesce to a totalitarian dystopia where the government can disappear people for expressing opinions opposed by the regime. There's really no middle ground.
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
Courageous and powerful piece by @cathmckenna.bsky.social “I thought we had an alliance [with oil sands companies]. It turned out to be a sham.”
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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Mad Enough to Blog It™
splinter.com
You Do Not Have to Take the Oil Industry's Word for Anything
Splinter is your home for news and opinions that challenge power in our political and economic system that's becoming more unhinged each and every day.
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
and the potential for storytelling and climate fiction to help unlock transitions and transformation: wedidit2050.ca
wedidit2050.ca
We Did It!?
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Happy to see so many interesting folks on blue sky. Quick intro to my work/interests for new followers. Currently into the politics of decarbonization www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Climate politics, metaphors and the fractal carbon trap - Nature Climate Change
In this Perspective, the authors argue that defining the climate change problem as one of decarbonization rather than emissions reduction suggests a new guiding metaphor — the global fractal — which m...
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Great story from Danielle Venton on uninsured properties in California. www.npr.org/2024/11/08/n...
npr.org
Homeowners try to move forward when wildfire losses weren't covered by insurance
More homeowners across the country are going without insurance. In a dispersed California community, some homeowners are trying to figure out how to move forward when their losses weren't covered.
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
I’d be wary here. Thinking that Big oil will welcome climate regulation is a perennial dashed hope. They also tend to welcome climate regulation that doesn’t demand too much (or anything) of them. But I suppose almost any pushback on Trump from unexpected places is good right now
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Dana R. Fisher (aka the Apocalyptic Optimist) @fisherdanar.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Happy to talk about how the role that civil society and non-governmental organizations have played in the climate regime has changed substantially over the past 20 years for this article in @gristnews.bsky.social grist.org/protest/intr...
grist.org
Introducing 'anti-COP': A climate summit for activists who are fed up
The event was driven by a feeling that COP has grown exclusionary and the climate solutions it fosters are harming their communities.
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Leah Stokes @leahstokes.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
🚨 New Episode Coming Thursday! 🚨 Get ready for a powerful bonus episode of A Matter of Degrees dropping tomorrow, Nov 14th! Join myself & Adrian Deveny as we map out a plan for moving forward with the climate movement in the wake of the election.
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
Coined a phrase to express the feeling of enjoying weird warmth like we’ve had in Toronto this fall while simultaneously experiencing existential climate dread: sunxiety. www.torontotoday.ca/local/enviro...
torontotoday.ca
Toronto experienced hottest Halloween since 1971, tying heat record
Toronto hit a balmy high of 22.8 C on Thursday as warm fall weather continues
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 04/06/2024
Re-upping this for the morning crowd. Prompted by recent Guardian article (and multiple others) on frustrated climate (mostly natural) scientists. My essay on how some climate *social* scientists are doing theconversation.com/heres-how-cl...
theconversation.com
Here’s how climate social scientists are finding their way in the era of climate crisis
Focusing on despair is unhelpful and may even prevent climate action. Insights from climate social scientists can help navigate the doom and gloom.
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 03/06/2024
Prompted by the recent Guardian article about climate scientists' fear for the future (the latest of this kind) I put together this essay based on my interviews with climate *social* scientists about how they're doing. It's a different and perhaps useful take. theconversation.com/heres-how-cl...
theconversation.com
Here’s how climate social scientists are finding their way in the era of climate crisis
Focusing on despair is unhelpful and may even prevent climate action. Insights from climate social scientists can help navigate the doom and gloom.
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 10/02/2024
Record temps in Toronto yesterday. Sunny and 10 degrees today. We’re going to need an English word for a nice day that simultaneously triggers existential angst. I’m sure there’s one in German.
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 12/12/2023
Who says our species' priorities aren't in order?
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Iain Soutar @isoutar.bsky.social · 11/12/2023
NEW blog from Patrick Devine-Wright and I on engaging the public around the shift to more local energy systems, and the role of social science in helping us do that. Many thanks to the Academy of Social Sciences for hosting.
acss.org.uk
Deficient engagement risks eroding public consent for low carbon local energy systems – Academy of...
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Matt Hoffmann @matthoffmann.bsky.social · 11/12/2023
Because of course it did. As with some COPs before, it is time to ask whether the benefits of having an agreement at the conclusion outweighs the costs that come from a consensus document that gets so watered down. Is it really better to have an outcome document without phase out of fossil fuels?
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Canadian Climate Institute @climateinstitute.bsky.social · 07/12/2023
INSIGHT: Is 🇨🇦’s oil and gas sector walking the talk when it comes to reducing emissions? And does it line up with what’s needed to get to net zero? We added up the sector’s corporate commitments and took a closer look 🧵👇 440megatonnes.ca/insight/what...
440megatonnes.ca
What are oil and gas companies in Canada doing to reduce emissions? - 440 Megatonnes: Tracking Canad...
While the oil and gas sector has made commitments and investments to cut emissions, much more work is needed.
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Climate Tracker @climate.skyfleet.blue · 10/12/2023
‘Magical’ tech innovations a distraction from real solutions, climate experts warn
theguardian.com
‘Magical’ tech innovations a distraction from real solutions, climate experts warn
Overemphasis on innovation and carbon removal risks distracting from main goal of stopping use of fossil fuels, say scientists
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