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Michael Wara

@michaelwara.bsky.social
15K followers 756 following 2.6K posts

Works at Stanford on equitable climate and energy law/policy with a big helping of wildfire and insurance.

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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Today @gavinnewsom.bsky.social signed a whole series of wildfire prevention bills that cement his legacy on wildfire prevention. This California resident is very grateful. www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/29/g...
gov.ca.gov
Governor Newsom signs legislation to accelerate wildfire prevention projects, strengthen fire response, and harden communities against future disasters | Governor of California
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Just noticed that there's an upcoming RX fire on Bolinas Lagoon. This coming Wednesday. So grateful to Fire Forward and All Hands Ecology for the work! share.watchduty.org/i/74181?ts=1...
share.watchduty.org
Watch Duty - Wildfire Maps & Alerts
Real-time information about wildfire and firefighting efforts nearby
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Looks like things are better than this according to PG&E But still not great.
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Reposted by Michael Wara
David Bonowitz @dbonowitz.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Sincere question: Does anyone understand this map? The 2 big red areas are parks -- essentially open space with very few residents (especially the lower one) -- divided into very few assessor's parcels. Do they calculate "customers affected" by square footage of the lot? I'm confused.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
One of the best places to sit and have a snack while out on a hike in my neck of the woods. The porch at West Point Inn is pretty special.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
We were in Santa Barbara last weekend and took the scenic route home. That allowed me to see the Plasket and Timber Fires and to be totally blown away by the work that has gone in there. I cannot imagine how hard it is to cut line, by hand, on slopes like these. Woah.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
People have strong opinions about this issue. For those who don’t know me, I’m a NorCal person who loves SoCal too, including LA and even In-and-out on occasion. My kids don’t understand. Like when I was their age, they are diehard NorCal. I hope in time they will embrace the whole amazing place.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Just went in to get my fries and Diet Coke at In-N-Out Burger while my car charges across the street. The most (southern) California thing about that place is that there is always a 30 car line in the drive thru and zero line at the counter. People are so weird. We need to study this.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Hard pass on this El Niño as vision of late 2030s climate to be. I like nothing about it. Nothing at all.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Thank you Marin Fire and @calfirelnu.bsky.social for the fast and effective work yesterday evening! We appreciate all of your hard work!
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
My team wrote a blog post about some key pieces of the legislative response to the LA wildfires that are currently on @gavinnewsom.bsky.social’s desk. cepp.substack.com/p/the-legisl...
cepp.substack.com
The legislative response to the LA Wildfires—Wildfire Resilience Bills pending with the Governor
This year the California legislature accomplished a significant amount of work aimed at reducing the impacts and losses from wildfire in California.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is a super exciting signal for @xavierbecerra.bsky.social to take for California. We can bend the curve downwards on wildfire losses by investing in communities. www.xavierbecerra2026.com/priorities/p...
xavierbecerra2026.com
Protecting our Families & Communities from the Next Wildfire Disaster - Xavier Becerra
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
We lost a great one. Dillard’s books made a big difference in my life as a young person living in a world of concrete canyons. She made it bearable and her writing brought me and the love of my life together. I am so grateful for her work. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/b...
nytimes.com
Annie Dillard, Meditative Author of ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,’ Dies at 81
Her Thoreau-like account of journeys in the woods, published when she was 28, was the first of many ruminations on life and nature, good and evil.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
That time when you are doing an evening neighborhood event on wildfire and community preparedness and the godfather of home hardening science comes up to say hi at the end of the event. So cool to meet Steve Quarles in the flesh! @ibhs.org @ucanrfirenetwork.bsky.social
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This show is a must listen. I had to listen twice to understand. The issues are so radioactive that everybody is afraid to speak directly. But the bottom line has to be that we need to take care of the people that fight fire and steward the land. thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/p/the-system...
thehotshotwakeup.substack.com
“The System Is Broken.” Frustrations Inside The Forest Service Boil Over As Fire Supervisors Express Fundamental Concerns.
All while fire entrapments hit a 20 year record this season.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Please don’t pay attention to my war of choice that I am losing and that is putting the US into an unimaginable strategic crisis with our enemies. Look over here at my half baked illegal riffs instead.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
An incredible article about the wildfire situation that was recommended on X by two fire chiefs I deeply respect and we all should listen to, Bobby Garcia and Kim Zagaris. California is lucky to have them both. Can we listen to what they and others are saying? grist.org/extreme-weat...
grist.org
America is losing its war against wildfire
Wildland firefighting is increasingly facing an intractable reality: We’re stuck in a vicious cycle. A doom loop.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Correction. State Park not Golden Gate Nat Recreation Area. But there is tons of state land that should also be a higher priority. China Camp SP and Mt Tam SP come to mind in Marin. There many others in the broader Bay Area as well. Point is, burn where it reduces risk.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Great to see prescribed fire on federal land in the SF Bay Area. Now please do it where it will actually protect neighboring communities.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
This is roughly the change in global average from the peak of the last ice age to pre-industrial temps. Or about a half to a third of the change for high latitudes like Canada (had a mile or so of ice on it at that time). Let that sink in.
canada.et
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
“After decades leading Heath Ceramics, Petravic is all too familiar with the contradiction between Sausalito’s “rhetoric and regulations.”” “This mismatch between vibes and reality is a California specialty.” -Emily Hoeven www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/arti...
sfchronicle.com
This iconic Bay Area company can’t even fix its roof because of red tape
OPINION: The November election will feature tests over whether Californians will choose vibrancy or decay. Here’s one in Marin County worth watching, columnist Emily Hoeven writes.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Had a lot of fun on @kqedforum.bsky.social today with Joy Chen, Guy Mazarotti and Mina Kim talking about wildfire policy. Thanks to great questions from callers, we were able to cover a ton of ground. Take a listen here if you are interested: www.kqed.org/forum/201010...
kqed.org
Who Should Pay When Utilities Companies Start a Fire? | KQED
We’ll dig into the details, and hear your thoughts on who should pay to rebuild after wildfires.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Listen in and call in with your thoughts and questions at 10am!
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Pulling a book off the shelf tonight that helped me through dark times. Berry was an inspiration to so many people. Including me. May he rest in peace after a life well lived.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
If you are interested in who should pay for wildfire losses in California, listen in at 10am tomorrow. I’ll be on @kqedforum.bsky.social to discuss legislative developments with Joy Chen. Should be a great conversation.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Meantime, expect a lot of... excitement... on (2) next week. On Friday, when news partially leaked of the failure to do liability reform (but there were still market expectations of certain aspects of the GO "Term Sheet" remaining in the bill, this happened to $pcg and $eix.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
@governor.ca.gov and the legislature did some good things here. But they failed to address the two most important issues facing California on wildfire: (1) How to fund the effort to bend the curve on losses (2) How to allocate the losses so that both utilities and insurance companies are healthy.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
What came out late last night from the intensive negotiations on wildfire over the past few months is... SB492. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNa...
leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Fire at my house! Or rather in the Marin Headlands next to my house. #TennesseeFire Wolf Ridge between Tennessee and Rodeo Valleys. Firehawks are putting on quite the air show out my office window. Thank you Marin Fire and CalFire! share.watchduty.org/camera/YWxlc...
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
License plate in front of me at the stoplight just now.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Let me get this straight, the AGs settled for 1q of net income in exchange for effing up my kid and every other kid in America?And some changes to default settings that every parent is now gonna have to fight with their kid about not turning off? Maybe I’m cranky and unrealistic, but seriously? 
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
But wait, there’s more! Never let a good burn window go to waste! Thank you MMWD and Marin Fire.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I love a successful broadcast burn in August! Go MMWD, @marincountyparks.bsky.social, Marin Fire! Thank you! 79 acres of resilient landscape stewardship.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I love a successful broadcast burn in August! Go MMWD, @marincountyparks.bsky.social, Marin Fire! Thank you! 79 acres of resilient landscape stewardship.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Super excited to share that I have been promoted to Senior Fellow at @woods.stanford.edu @stanforddoerr.bsky.social. The Climate and Energy Policy Program has grown enormously over the last 10 years and I am so excited to see the contributions the team will make in coming years.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I’ll be on @kqedforum.bsky.social in a few minutes to talk about the future of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Tune in and ask hard questions!
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Reposted by Michael Wara
Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 21/08/2026
After wildfire embers reached Le Porge, a village in France's Gironde, most homes didn't burn. When homes did ignite, noncombustible walls were often left standing. How much, if at all, do such building practices: 1️⃣Reduce property losses (rebuilding costs, etc.) 2️⃣Reduce fire spread to nearby homes?
A statue stands in front of the remains of a house after wildfires raged in the village of Le Porge, on the Bay of Biscay, France, Monday, July 27, 2026.

Baz Ratner/AP
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Yana Valachovic played such an important role in this process. The result is a compromise. Some of us (myself included) wanted a stronger role. Many wanted no rule at all. Yana found a way to get to yes. We are so fortunate to have had her serving CA through this long and winding road.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This is so bad. And you can bet it is happening at Stanford and other US institutions of higher learning as well. What’s the cost of that lost learning? papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Generative AI Learning Penalty: Evidence from Chinese Secondary Education
Using 30 months of panel data on 26,811 Chinese students in grades 7-12, we study how generative AI affects homework productivity and learning. The data combine
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Reposted by Michael Wara
Pam Kan-Rice @ucanrpam.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
“I think we all agree that something needs to be done,” Yana Valachovic @ucanrfirenetwork.bsky.social, said at California Board of Forestry meeting. “The fire issue is an existential crisis for California.” @hayleysmith.bsky.social @nohaggerty.bsky.social report www.latimes.com/environment/...
latimes.com
State approves 'Zone Zero' fire-safe landscaping rules, reshaping yards for millions of Californians
The California Board of Forestry approved 'Zone Zero' regulations outlining what residents in fire-prone areas can plant, build and store near their homes.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
On the occasion of the @calfire Board of Forestry’s consideration of whether to adopt a compromise(d) zone zero regulation, I present images of recently landscaped homes that were prepped for sale in my neighborhood. All homes are in the high or very high hazard severity zone.
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Reposted by Michael Wara
Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Adam Tooze's book Carbon is finally going to be out in February 2027. Pre-order here! Climate Crisis and the Eclipse of the West
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
That time when you just dropped your kid off at college and you go for a run in the neighborhood and every single person you run by is pushing a stroller with a really cute baby in it. And you just want to cry because you miss your kid SO MUCH and at how FAST life goes by.
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
New from 404 Media: we solved which AI company is buying massive shipments of rare books, scanning and destroying them to train AI. We put an Apple AirTag in a rare book, followed it. It ended up at an Amazon facility. Its logo is a dinosaur ripping through a book www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...
404media.co
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
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Reposted by Michael Wara
Met4Cast @met4cast.net · 15/08/2026
Sub-surface ocean temperatures in the Pacific have now reached 9.96°C above average, significantly warmer than the previous record event in 1997. This El Niño continues to set new records. Nobody alive today has witnessed an event of this magnitude.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I prefer Valliant’s next sentence to the one below: “But we are not passive bystanders, and these genuine “trials by fire” are Nature’s stern invitation to mature as a society, to confront with intelligence and courage the daunting energies we’ve unleashed with our own.” Well said. We have agency.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Part of getting to wildfire resilience is helping the public to understand more about wildfire's role and impact on fire evolved landscapes. Bree Evans from our team wrote a short post about a low-cost way to do that on our Substack: cepp.substack.com/p/opinion-ou...
cepp.substack.com
Opinion: Our National Parks and Forests Deserve Burn Scar Signage
When willl the forest recover?
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
The report on the Eaton Fire cause and origin from @calfire.bsky.social leaves out a critical part of the story in my mind. What caused the fault on the Eagle Rock-Gould 220kv line that led to the power surge that caused the ignition five miles away on the Mesa-Sylmar line that was out of service?
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
What a relief from the tension and anxiety of today it is to watch a brand new episode of Ted Lasso that’s also a love letter to Kansas City and to America.
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Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Hopefully people got out. Hopefully today goes well both for FF safety and for the safety of residents.
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