Rocky Kistner
@therockyfiles.bsky.social
Independent journalist, Society of Environmental Journalists board. Formerly with ABC News, PBS Frontline, Marketplace public radio, NRDC OnEarth, HuffPost contributing writer. Mizzou J School alum. TheRockyFiles.org,
https://themoneytrail.substack.com/
https://themoneytrail.substack.com/
A year of magical thinking: billionaires claim climate change isn't an existential threat. "The notion that you can alleviate suffering in a world of uncontrolled warming isn’t just shortsighted, it edges toward magical thinking." @ElizKolbert @New Yorker www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
Governments and Billionaires Retreat Ahead of COP30 Climate Talks
Worldwide, every other week seems to bring a new climate-related crisis. Increasingly, the response has seemed to be a dulled acceptance.
www.newyorker.com
November 11, 2025 at 8:13 PM
A year of magical thinking: billionaires claim climate change isn't an existential threat. "The notion that you can alleviate suffering in a world of uncontrolled warming isn’t just shortsighted, it edges toward magical thinking." @ElizKolbert @New Yorker www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
The cost of a warming planet: Iran's record heat and drought may result in catastrophic measures. "Facing Iran’s worst drought in 60 years, the country’s president warned that the capital might need to be evacuated" nytimes.com/2025/11/09/w...
@SanamMahoozi @ErikaSolomon @nytimes
@SanamMahoozi @ErikaSolomon @nytimes
As Aquifers Dry Up, Tehran Rations Water and Calls for Rain Prayers
nytimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:46 PM
The cost of a warming planet: Iran's record heat and drought may result in catastrophic measures. "Facing Iran’s worst drought in 60 years, the country’s president warned that the capital might need to be evacuated" nytimes.com/2025/11/09/w...
@SanamMahoozi @ErikaSolomon @nytimes
@SanamMahoozi @ErikaSolomon @nytimes
Governments are committed to fighting climate change except one major polluter: “every country remains committed to the Paris Agreement, except one. That’s the United States.” via @NYTimes @SominiSengupta www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
10 Years After a Breakthrough Climate Pact, Here’s Where We Are
Has anything really changed in the decade since the Paris Agreement was reached? Actually, quite a lot.
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Governments are committed to fighting climate change except one major polluter: “every country remains committed to the Paris Agreement, except one. That’s the United States.” via @NYTimes @SominiSengupta www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Scientists: treat the rising threats of climate tipping points for the real danger it is. “Crossing one tipping point could set off a cascade of other tipping point crossings with the majority of interactions being destabilizing," @patrickpester
www.livescience.com/planet-earth...
www.livescience.com/planet-earth...
Global warming is forcing Earth's systems toward 'doom loop' tipping points. Can we avoid them?
Earth may be on the verge of crossing several climate change tipping points that could have irreversible and devastating consequences. Here's everything you need to know about these "points of no retu...
www.livescience.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Scientists: treat the rising threats of climate tipping points for the real danger it is. “Crossing one tipping point could set off a cascade of other tipping point crossings with the majority of interactions being destabilizing," @patrickpester
www.livescience.com/planet-earth...
www.livescience.com/planet-earth...
Will the new owner of @CBSNews capitulate on climate news? ”If this is the model for how CBS News will now approach its climate coverage, the shift will not be toward independence, but capitulation.” @emorwee
heated.world/p/bari-weiss...
heated.world/p/bari-weiss...
Bari Weiss vs. climate change
At The Free Press, Weiss consistently rebrands tired fossil fuel talking points as courageous, rebellious dissent.
heated.world
November 6, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Will the new owner of @CBSNews capitulate on climate news? ”If this is the model for how CBS News will now approach its climate coverage, the shift will not be toward independence, but capitulation.” @emorwee
heated.world/p/bari-weiss...
heated.world/p/bari-weiss...
A journalistic Swiss-army knife who had no boundaries: "Every day is a chance to practice the highest and best form of journalism: interviewing, reporting, witnessing and writing stories that will startle our readers, taking them to places and events they’ve never known.” wapo.st/4oTWndS @SBHendrix
Edward Cody, globe-trotting correspondent at The Post, dies at 82
He reported on conflicts and disaster zones from Mexico to Lebanon. “Rarely in a career do you enjoy a task that is so solitary and intense,” he wrote.
wapo.st
November 6, 2025 at 4:53 PM
A journalistic Swiss-army knife who had no boundaries: "Every day is a chance to practice the highest and best form of journalism: interviewing, reporting, witnessing and writing stories that will startle our readers, taking them to places and events they’ve never known.” wapo.st/4oTWndS @SBHendrix
Journalists should step up and provide climate context and out misinformation: “Extreme heat, floods, and storms tend to be reported as unique events as opposed to part of an unfolding and long-term crisis, which prevents a fuller understanding of the issue.”
I know I've said this before, but from advertorials to false equivalence the media really needs to own up to its role in warping the climate issue. www.thenation.com/article/envi...
The Media Is Complicit in the Climate Confusion
The vast majority of people want their governments to take climate action—but most wrongly think they’re in the minority. The media is partly to blame.
www.thenation.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Journalists should step up and provide climate context and out misinformation: “Extreme heat, floods, and storms tend to be reported as unique events as opposed to part of an unfolding and long-term crisis, which prevents a fuller understanding of the issue.”
Fire crews increasingly at risk from developing serious respiratory illness and cancer from growing levels of toxic smoke. This New York Times investigation paints a devastating picture of the health risks to come as the planet burns. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
November 5, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Fire crews increasingly at risk from developing serious respiratory illness and cancer from growing levels of toxic smoke. This New York Times investigation paints a devastating picture of the health risks to come as the planet burns. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
The importance of people's voices on the front lines of #climatechange: “Come to the village, sit by the riverbank, listen to the women’s songs, the children’s cries, the elders’ counsel. That’s how one understands what a just transition means for us.” @yessfun @sejorg www.sej.org/publications...
Tapping Into COP30 To Cover Indigenous Issues
COP30 negotiators from around the world gather next week in Belém, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River. Our Voices of Environmental Justice columnist Yessenia Funes says it’s a vital opportunity ...
www.sej.org
November 5, 2025 at 6:14 PM
The importance of people's voices on the front lines of #climatechange: “Come to the village, sit by the riverbank, listen to the women’s songs, the children’s cries, the elders’ counsel. That’s how one understands what a just transition means for us.” @yessfun @sejorg www.sej.org/publications...
Pouring cash into coal: “Those types of retrofits for a single plant can cost hundreds of millions of dollars…you’d be putting those billions of dollars into clunkers. Literally burning that money.” @AJBeamer.bsky.social
insideclimatenews.org/news/0311202...
insideclimatenews.org/news/0311202...
‘Burning Money’: Dept. of Energy Directs $100 Million to Modernize Declining Coal Plants - Inside Climate News
The funding represents Trump’s latest attempt at coal revitalization, but updating the nation’s aging facilities would cost billions, experts say.
insideclimatenews.org
November 5, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Pouring cash into coal: “Those types of retrofits for a single plant can cost hundreds of millions of dollars…you’d be putting those billions of dollars into clunkers. Literally burning that money.” @AJBeamer.bsky.social
insideclimatenews.org/news/0311202...
insideclimatenews.org/news/0311202...
Excellent reporting on the Trump administration's efforts to silence science: “Now they are starting to proffer misinformation and putting a government seal on it” @virginiagewin @Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Dismantling of US federal agencies will ‘destroy science’
From NASA to the National Institutes of Health, federal agencies conduct research that universities cannot. Agency scientists speak out about the irreplaceable facilities, institutional knowledge and ...
www.nature.com
November 4, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Excellent reporting on the Trump administration's efforts to silence science: “Now they are starting to proffer misinformation and putting a government seal on it” @virginiagewin @Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41...
As UN warns carbon emissions are still too high and will lead to dangerous warming.
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
November 4, 2025 at 10:43 PM
As UN warns carbon emissions are still too high and will lead to dangerous warming.
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Deja vu all over again: UN says world not cutting emissions fast enough. "...countries will not prevent warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius – the main goal of the Paris Agreement... Instead, the world is on track for an extreme 2.3 - 2.5°C of warming" @reuters www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
World will overshoot 1.5C climate goal, UN says
The world has failed to meet its main climate change target of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and will likely breach this threshold in the next decade, the United Nations' Environment Programme said on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Deja vu all over again: UN says world not cutting emissions fast enough. "...countries will not prevent warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius – the main goal of the Paris Agreement... Instead, the world is on track for an extreme 2.3 - 2.5°C of warming" @reuters www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Good piece: The powerful conservative network you never heard of. “Buskirk helms the Rockbridge Network, a secretive organization…that has established itself as one of the most influential forces in GOP politics.”
@lizzadwoskin @washingtonpost
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
@lizzadwoskin @washingtonpost
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
The secretive donor circle that lifted JD Vance is now re-writing MAGA’s future
Chris Buskirk put tech elites in power in Trump’s Washington. His efforts are grounded in a controversial theory — an ‘aristocracy’ is needed to move the country forward.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Good piece: The powerful conservative network you never heard of. “Buskirk helms the Rockbridge Network, a secretive organization…that has established itself as one of the most influential forces in GOP politics.”
@lizzadwoskin @washingtonpost
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
@lizzadwoskin @washingtonpost
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Meltdown in the Antarctic: “Grounded glaciers like Hektoria, which rest on the seabed and don’t float, generally retreat no more than a few hundred meters a year. But between November and December 2022, Hektoria retreated by 5 miles”
@laurapaddison @CNN www.cnn.com/2025/11/03/c...
@laurapaddison @CNN www.cnn.com/2025/11/03/c...
Antarctic glacier saw the fastest retreat in modern history; it could spell trouble for sea levels, report finds | CNN
Hektoria glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula lost nearly half its size astonishingly rapidly. Scientists have now discovered the reasons behind its rapid retreat and say it raises fears for sea level r...
www.cnn.com
November 3, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Meltdown in the Antarctic: “Grounded glaciers like Hektoria, which rest on the seabed and don’t float, generally retreat no more than a few hundred meters a year. But between November and December 2022, Hektoria retreated by 5 miles”
@laurapaddison @CNN www.cnn.com/2025/11/03/c...
@laurapaddison @CNN www.cnn.com/2025/11/03/c...
After cutting a $3 billion river diversion that would have destroyed fisheries and dolphins, Louisiana has a clear path forward to protect its coasts: “We are restoring the guardrails that keep high-risk projects rightsized."
@DennisL71538025 www.nola.com/opinions/let...
@DennisL71538025 www.nola.com/opinions/let...
Letters: Canceling bad projects puts coastal protection back on solid ground
Your Oct. 19 editorial warns that canceling the Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton erodes a hard-won coastal “consensus.” From an engineering standpoint, the opposite is true: We are restoring the guardrail...
www.nola.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:50 PM
After cutting a $3 billion river diversion that would have destroyed fisheries and dolphins, Louisiana has a clear path forward to protect its coasts: “We are restoring the guardrails that keep high-risk projects rightsized."
@DennisL71538025 www.nola.com/opinions/let...
@DennisL71538025 www.nola.com/opinions/let...
Clueless on MoneyTrail: "it is extremely risky for the United States—and the rest of the world—to have a man child who has no idea what he is doing beyond stuffing his pockets determining U.S. economic policy. But that’s the current reality." themoneytrail.substack.com/p/on-the-mon...
On the Money: Trying to Make Sense of Trump’s Economics of Crazy
Anyone looking for coherence is searching for something that’s not there
themoneytrail.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Clueless on MoneyTrail: "it is extremely risky for the United States—and the rest of the world—to have a man child who has no idea what he is doing beyond stuffing his pockets determining U.S. economic policy. But that’s the current reality." themoneytrail.substack.com/p/on-the-mon...
Climate change is not an existential threat? This could change your mind: "the amount of water vapor moving through Earth’s atmosphere has increased 12 percent. That increase is equivalent to 35 Mississippi Rivers flowing through the air every second." www.washingtonpost.com/weather/inte...
Deadly rivers in the sky
A new Washington Post investigation reveals where climate change has supercharged the movement of moisture through the skies.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Climate change is not an existential threat? This could change your mind: "the amount of water vapor moving through Earth’s atmosphere has increased 12 percent. That increase is equivalent to 35 Mississippi Rivers flowing through the air every second." www.washingtonpost.com/weather/inte...
Let by rising distribution costs, skyrocketing electric rates hit low income ratepayers the most: “It’s a perfect storm of misery for low-and-middle income households”
@nytimes @bradplumer @rfelliott @Harry_Stevens www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/c...
@nytimes @bradplumer @rfelliott @Harry_Stevens www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/c...
Why the Price of Electricity Is Spiking Around the Country
www.nytimes.com
November 2, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Let by rising distribution costs, skyrocketing electric rates hit low income ratepayers the most: “It’s a perfect storm of misery for low-and-middle income households”
@nytimes @bradplumer @rfelliott @Harry_Stevens www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/c...
@nytimes @bradplumer @rfelliott @Harry_Stevens www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/c...
Important to call out the hallucinations of AI.
Beware of AI-generated articles like this one from "International News & Views". The quote is fabricated! I never said this (even if might actually agree w/ the basic sentiment): internationalnewsandviews.com/harrison-for...
November 2, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Important to call out the hallucinations of AI.
On the eve of millions losing their SNAP food benefits, Trump throws a party: “Gatsby and “a little party never killed nobody” was the “official theme” of the night” the-independent.com/news/world/ame… @Independent x.com/therockyfile...
November 1, 2025 at 7:33 PM
On the eve of millions losing their SNAP food benefits, Trump throws a party: “Gatsby and “a little party never killed nobody” was the “official theme” of the night” the-independent.com/news/world/ame… @Independent x.com/therockyfile...
Check out Randy Rieland’s wrap-up of last week’s highlights and lowlights on Money Trail: themoneytrail.substack.com/p/trail-note... tariff ad meltdown / SCOTUS tariff time / Kash's FBI jetaway / $7b shutdown hit / SNAP benefits battle / Soybean farmer Bessent / Donald Jr. cashes in yet again
Trail Notes
Trump tariff ad meltdown / SCOTUS tariff time / Kash's FBI jetaway / $7b shutdown hit / SNAP benefits battle / Soybean farmer Bessent / Donald Jr. cashes in yet again
themoneytrail.substack.com
October 31, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Check out Randy Rieland’s wrap-up of last week’s highlights and lowlights on Money Trail: themoneytrail.substack.com/p/trail-note... tariff ad meltdown / SCOTUS tariff time / Kash's FBI jetaway / $7b shutdown hit / SNAP benefits battle / Soybean farmer Bessent / Donald Jr. cashes in yet again
A top network climate team is eviscerated by its new owners: “There is no bigger issue facing the world or America right now than climate change. It’s a five alarm fire, and we should be treating it like that, not retreating from the story.” Emily Atkin
heated.world/p/cbs-news-k...
heated.world/p/cbs-news-k...
The fall of the CBS News climate team
David Ellison, the new pro-Trump chief executive of Paramount Skydance, has dismantled the best climate change reporting team in cable news.
heated.world
October 31, 2025 at 8:28 PM
A top network climate team is eviscerated by its new owners: “There is no bigger issue facing the world or America right now than climate change. It’s a five alarm fire, and we should be treating it like that, not retreating from the story.” Emily Atkin
heated.world/p/cbs-news-k...
heated.world/p/cbs-news-k...
This has been a long time coming: “the facility will be capable of producing about 50,000 Tesla Semi units annually. This should help the Semi disrupt and potentially saturate the United States’ transport sector” @ResidentSponge @Teslarati www.teslarati.com/tesla-semi-f...
Tesla Semi factory looks nearly complete
Based on recent images taken of the facility, it appears that the Semi’s initial production might be right on schedule.
www.teslarati.com
October 31, 2025 at 6:42 PM
This has been a long time coming: “the facility will be capable of producing about 50,000 Tesla Semi units annually. This should help the Semi disrupt and potentially saturate the United States’ transport sector” @ResidentSponge @Teslarati www.teslarati.com/tesla-semi-f...
Setback for climate coverage: “CBS News — fresh off its acquisition by Skydance Media and the installation of anti-woke opinion writer Bari Weiss as editor in chief — fired most of the reporters who specialize in covering climate change.”
@Sammy_Roth www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/cbs-news-g...
@Sammy_Roth www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/cbs-news-g...
CBS News just gutted its climate team
Paramount and Bari Weiss aren't off to a great start. Here's why David Ellison should change course.
www.climatecoloredgoggles.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Setback for climate coverage: “CBS News — fresh off its acquisition by Skydance Media and the installation of anti-woke opinion writer Bari Weiss as editor in chief — fired most of the reporters who specialize in covering climate change.”
@Sammy_Roth www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/cbs-news-g...
@Sammy_Roth www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/cbs-news-g...