Much of modern capitalism only appears to thrive because of unaccounted-for external costs. It's most apparent and ugly when the harms are the suffering and deaths of the vulnerable. The US health services industry's harms are wild.
(We hope to have more on this soon at @calxinstitute.bsky.social )
Our thesis at @calxinstitute.bsky.social is that the root of the polycrisis - including the climate catrastrophe - is that companies, industries, and institutions are allowed and encouraged to pass on to society vast, unaccounted-for costs.
As illustrated here.
We are owed not short-sighted, unfettered capitalistic growth; we are owed an active understanding that our relationship with the natural world is broken. We are owed a comprehensive plan on how the United States—the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet—will address that rupture.
Anthropogenic Global Warming & Fire 🧵
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
From 1987...
“Beer says the devastating Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983 had driven interest inside CSIRO for research. A national bushfire research unit was established, and he moved to Melbourne to work.”
🆕 Peer-review research finds GHG emissions traced to 122 largest fossil fuel & cement companies 🛢️ (the 'Carbon Majors') contributed to roughly half of surface warming & 1/3 of sea level rise to date, & will result in 10-22 inches add'l SLR 🌊 by 2300
Full study iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
ALL fossil fuels - coal, oil, and methane – create vast environmental and human health costs during their extraction, transport, refining, distribution, and combustion.
But coal is by far the worst. Just how bad is it? We dug into the numbers to find out.
#climate #climatechange #greensky
Forty-seven scientific societies have signed a letter organized by the @ucsusa.bsky.social urging Congress to protect federally funded research and federal scientists:
www.ucsusa.org/about/news/s...
I advise NOAA on Tribal and Indigenous issues on the ocean as a member of the Marine and Coastal Area Management Federal Advisory Committee
Well, I used to anyway
Trump just dissolved it
Extreme Climate & Weather Events - March 2025 🧵
bsky.app/profile/clim...
This #WorldWildlifeDay, we reaffirm that the climate and biodiversity crises are deeply linked—one cannot be solved without the other.
Our fight to save Mother Earth is rooted in love for the natural world.
Everything suffers under a system that puts profit over the planet.
#WorldWildlifeDay
With all the political chaos happening, you might have missed the start of our deep dive into the staggering environmental and human cost of the coal industry.
Spoiler: It’s 5 times higher than its global revenue. Find out more. 👇
"Experts warn victory for Energy Transfer, whose CEO is a Trump donor, could have a ‘chilling’ effect on free speech"
That is precisely the point. This case is HUGE! It is the fossil fuel industry's attempt to DESTROY free speech and silence ALL its critics.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Amazon employs 800k warehouse workers across the US, 69% of whom have been forced to take unpaid time off for injuries received on the job. Amazon workers are twice as likely to be injured than other warehouse workers, and, on the whole, Amazon reports 30% more injuries than industry average.
Even without accounting for the vast downstream costs/harms of LNG, the business doesn't hold up. Add those in, and the "big con" is monstrous.
@calxinstitute.bsky.social
And all of this within a few days. A REAL audit and cost-benefit analysis would take months, no ? How can MAGA not see how fake this all is?
2. making financial markets better for consumers, since they (we) have a clear and powerful channel for recourse in the event of large loss
BUT ALSO
3. A new slab of regulations does make it harder for startups, innovators, even with good intentions, etc.
2 of 2
It would take time, effort and access to non-public data. Several things that would have to go into a thorough analysis, in addition to the returns (fines and rebates), from our note:
1. making financial markets better for ~good actors, since bad actors get penalized (and shamed)
1 of 2
Is the CFPB efficient in getting returns to cheated consumers and penalizing bad actors? We ran the numbers: it generated ROI in 2020 of 4.5 and in 2024 of 10: for each $1 taxpayers put into the Bureau, it raised $10 in relief.
@calxinstitute.bsky.social
www.calx.institute/calculating-...
Another day, another institution gutted or dissolved by the caprice of an unelected billionaire.
But what does the CFPB actually DO? Is it worth it? What is its ROI? What downstream harms does it cause? We'll tell you.
👇👇👇
Value is more than just profit and loss. It is environmental health, human safety, and collective good — not for the benefit of shareholders, but for us all. Using modeling and analysis, we are working to redefine success, and create an economy that minimises harms while maximising equitable wealth.
"From Baylor to Florida State to Clemson to Ohio State, these are enormous places that will lose tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in research support under this move. Jobs will disappear, labs will close, trials will stop, drugs will go undiscovered, patients will die."
I was just told that I have to remove “climate” from the title of an ongoing grant if I want to keep it. And publications from that grant cannot include “climate” and other forbidden words. I can’t believe I’m writing this from the United States of America. #AcademicSky
Our mission.
P/L and the balance sheet that don't consider the real world do not represent the full value a company (or government) creates or destroys.
TLDR: Patel is reportedly (1) on SHEIN’s payroll, (2) appears to have concealed or understated these relationships, (3) *won’t divest while being FBI director* and (4) supports cutting efforts to counter PRC influence.
Value is more than just profit and loss. It is environmental health, human safety, and collective good — not for the benefit of shareholders, but for us all. Using modeling and analysis, we are working to redefine success, and create an economy that minimises harms while maximising equitable wealth.
As chaos reigns, we will continue to look at the downstream harms of the administration's real and proposed actions.
Today: The impact of mass deportation on American food supply and production would lead to a total GDP loss of $20-$25 BILLION.
Our normal work: quantifying the downstream harms from industry
At the moment: what are the downstream harms from proposed government actions?
Today: the consequences of widespread deportations of Ag field workers.
