since july, i've been talking with residents of east palestine about their efforts to confirm whether pollution lingers in their homes, and how it will affect the rest of their lives. this is the story:
i am a proficient cook. i had electric stoves in my seattle apartments for three years. i hosted elaborate dinners that i cooked entirely on those stoves and people loved them. they were not even nice electric stoves. you can figure it out
for
@TheAtlantic
, i make the argument that we should be funding our urban public pools -- which have declined over the last half-century -- as climate infrastructure.
(this includes what i am pretty sure is the highland park pool's atlantic debut.)
sorry but growing up in western pennsylvania winters gives you endurance for a kind of meteorological misery truly unparalleled by anywhere else in America
itโs kind of depressing how many tweets there are about there โnot being enough media coverageโ of the east Palestine derailment. local news stations in PA and OH have been doing nonstop coverage. there were even four headlines in the New York Times this week
feeling surprisingly melancholy about the likely end of a platform that, in spite of wasting so much of my time and inspiring a great deal of distress for the human condition, introduced me to a number of wonderful real life friends that I donโt think Iโd ever meet otherwise
we do have armed security at high holidays. we assume that if people want to kill us theyโll go for the most high-profile gatherings. this time it was just a bris, we should have known better. apologies to the president, the stupidest incarnation of evil iโve ever seen
to commit to a "social first" strategy, whatever the fuck that means, is to see your audience not as readers or thinkers or people but consumers, seeking nothing more than 10,000 25-second videos that they will never remember, and that is such a dark outlook i can't take it
sorry but the Pittsburgh airport is the best one in America!!! $7 a day parking? one minute security line??? TWO T.G.I. Fridayโs??? tell rich fitzgerald to call off the renovation, donโt gild the lily
well, after 8.5 years (!) today is my last day at
@grist
. i am focusing on getting my book out the door and then figuring out what i want my life to look like. it's a big change and it's definitely been an emotional one. (1/)
it's kind of amazing that seattle, the urban incarnation of a rice krispie treat, the gentlest lil fishing hamlet on the pacific coast, somehow gained national notoriety for being a lawless war zone
idk man maybe in between berating "the media" for ignoring climate change you could pleasantly ask more people to just click on the many articles published about it every day
and i don't actually believe that anyone WANTS this strategy. i would say every single person i know complains about how their phone makes them feel terrible, have ruined their brain, there is such a brewing backlash against this way of being -- only an idiot would commit to it
anti semitism feels very far off and abstract right up until someone shows up to your familyโs temple with an assault rifle, which happened four years ago this week to me personally. it will happen again thanks to Kanye westโs words, I am sure of it. but get your sneakers!
since the east palestine derailment happened, i wanted to put it in context of both the polluted history of the upper ohio valley region and its petrochemical present. this is that story:
tonight i am testing a developing theory that if you have a group of 6+ people you do not want to go to an actually good restaurant/bar. you want an extremely mid establishment, unremarkable in almost every way. a blank canvas
@HollyAnderson
@jrocro
@rachsyme
yes!!!! my mother too!!!!!! i'm not at the fancy guest toiletries yet but i keep a king's ransom of dentist sample toothbrushes stocked for visitors
people are always like, what's life like out there in pittsburgh...... and i'm like, we are disproportionately buffered from things like increasing global temperatures and sea level rise thanks to our many microclimates...... and they're like, sick
Appalachia's natural resiliency puts it alongside the Amazon rainforest as one of the most globally important landscapes for tackling climate change. As
#COP28
wraps, we looked to the region for solutions.
What we found will surprise you.
@voxdotcom
:
my sister has devoted her career to building affordable housing for pittsburghers, and this article does a really lovely job of capturing how thoughtful, effective, and driven she is. i'm very proud of her:
small announcement for you, big one for me: the time has come for me to go back to where i'm from...... which is pittsburgh!!! i have loved a lot of things about seattle but it's just time to move on, and i'm ready to feel more connected to where i live. see yinz in august babyyy
the thing i wasn't fully prepared for moving back to western PA is the part where i read and write about climate change all day, close my laptop, and drive over a literal operating coal mine on the way to my boyfriend's house
after months of trying to understand more about plastics and human health, i finally put together a feature story on it.
here it is -- an exploration of what all that plastic in the ocean you've been hearing about might be doing to us:
so New York media/publishing/academia strikes are very exciting but the pittsburgh post-gazette staff has been on strike for nearly two months now! this is a big deal! follow their union publication if you have not:
@ThePUPNews
another thing I would add is that for a journalistic outfit to independently confirm EPA statements that the air/water is safe TAKES TIME. it does not happen in a week. anyway, please follow:
@AlleghenyFront
,
@EnvirHealthNews
,
@PublicSourcePA
. thanks for yelling at me
same number of sunny days as seattle? honey yes! signature precipitation a kind of frigid airborne slush? baby thatโs what i like! every february journey down a sidewalk or side street requiring a prayer? hallelujah!!!
if I had billions of dollars and my driving motivation was to help people address very real emotional demons I would put it toward making psychological care more accessible and affordable in this country instead of starting a for-profit consultancy
the beautiful print version of the
@bonappetit
feature on going plastic-free went digital, so you can read words of wisdom from
@anya_hoffman
,
@ShilpiChhotray
, and yours truly right here:
bad news: climate change is really about PEOPLE so it's going to endanger lots of human lives
good news: pretty much anything you do to alleviate inequality AMONG PEOPLE mitigates climate change! hell yeah
nextdoor has advised me that the lawrenceville shop n save is CLOSING....... IN THREE WEEKS.......... this will be the only neighborhood in the city where you can buy a million dollar home but NO GODDAMN EGGS
I started working on this
@WeAreDrilled
@voxdotcom
story about carbon capture ages ago--it took me so long because I couldn't believe what people were saying: the industry rebranded an oil production hack as a climate solution and got taxpayers to fund it
This is on the amazon campus in south lake union in Seattle. I stopped on the sidewalk and stared at it for a full two minutes to try to figure out if it was extremely dark installation art. I donโt think it is.
i love pittsburgh very much but there are a few things that are missing that would make it a world class city
1) pay-by-the-day spa with steam rooms, saunas, hot tubs, etc
2) indie perfume store
3) that's about it
there is something extremely heartbreaking about looking at all the photos of california right now and thinking about everyone who has written in to umbra to ask about the least wasteful alternative to dish sponges
Annie Dillard, Mac Miller, and I all grew up in the same neighborhood and they welcomed the whole world into it.
Thank you
@popula
and
@shujaxhaider
for publishing an essay about home that Iโve been wanting to write for a long time:
whenever i do reporting on plastics every conversation is like "oh we don't even have a real concept of how fucked we are and we may never know. yeah you enjoy the rest of your day too!"
have you ever had a major breakup, driven to New York to see friends and take your mind off it, risked life and limb in a downpour gale on the freeway to get there, and then tested for positive for COVID upon arriving? well A-M-fuckin-A
don't forget the part where you can pay $200 or however much for the five-year privilege of not having to take your shoes off at the airport. every so-called precaution evolves into a way to make money. can't wait to see how that one plays out with masks
I take my shoes off at the airport to help stop an attack that almost happened 20 years ago and this dude on the bus won't wear a mask to help stop a disease that killed 10,000 people yesterday
a story about *personal climate choices*: i had an amtrak ticket to travel to seattle from berkeley last night and after delays piled up for over two hours i said fuck it, cancelled it (for a refund), and bought a last minute plane ticket for $70 less (!) than the train ticket
you know i'd say most days i genuinely believe i am a good writer and can get meaningful and coherent and hell sometimes even appealing words down on a page
and then there are other days
me: perhaps i should date
god: here's a UTI
me: can't keep a ho down god
god: here's your ex's profile on bumble
me: oh yikes. nonetheless i shall persist
god: here's coronavirus. your office is closed
me: ugh what
god: stay inside and write your fucking book
new year's eve baby! resolution o'clock! i talked to
@mrmoneymustache
and
@KA_Nicholas
about the benefits of giving up your car, which i did 2.5 years ago.
watch umbra's latest video to see if it might work for you.
washington county, pa has been fracked for 20 years, and its residents are now learning the potential health risks of being surrounded by wells. for
@GuardianUS
, i talked to two women working to help their neighbors understand what they're living with:
i've been at grist 8 years (!) as of this week and i'm proud to be part of this effort. grist has grown and flourished so much during my time here, and we want to support that and see that continue!
๐งตHello world! We are the employees of
@grist
, and today we are asking management to voluntarily recognize our union.๐
@PacNWGuild
@newsguild
. 1/3
i can't tell you how many people have made fun of me for holding onto my 5c and then SE until they were basically impossible to use. but constantly-updated-smartphone culture is deranged and has made fools of us all!
the latest umbra:
checking my notifications after barely surviving 5 hours on I-80 in blowing zero-visibility fog and finding that hundreds of strangers want me to die for tweeting about a stove
this woman is standing basically on my doorstep explaining to her dad everything that people fucked up with old Pittsburgh row houses in the 70s and 80s and Iโm about to open the door and ask does she just want to come inside and talk shit about my house from the living room
i swear i read this as not close in the temporal sense. like that space-time would completely transform before the election and stretch out for centuries. and i thought "oh, i guess it could happen." that's where i'm at
listen!!! i'm a lunatic who loves presents so i put together *~*79*~* climate-friendly gift ideas for you and i have to tell you they are GOOD ideas!!! i wouldn't publish them otherwise, because again, i love presents and i take them VERY seriously!!
i have been thinking about a story about this very complicated proposed fracking site right on the edge of pittsburgh, and what it means for and about my home, for quite a long time. i finally had the chance to write it.
so, so many women have had a disturbing sexual experience that's messy and hard to explain.
what does it mean when that experience happens on a leadership expedition for women scientists?
thatโs the q i tried to tackle here:
if nothing else this whole process has confirmed, without question, that the model republican man is just the whiniest most petulant little bitch you can pull out of the country club bar
yesterday i was moping at dinner about how i wasn't ready to go back to work and my dad absolutely roasted me by saying "so what does that mean, you log on?" and then this happens. didn't even have to do that. humbled left and right
@heypenner
to sum up: if even someone with extra time, money, a substantial heaping of climate guilt, and a genuine enjoyment of train travel gets dissuaded from a PLANNED!!! train trip, why do we keep yelling at everyone else?
my boyfriend who is blessedly not very online came home from Arizona and I asked him how his family was and he was like โwell my uncle is having a real feral hog problem on his ranchโ and he was 100% not making a joke
she's right! and not only that, i am pretty weary of stories that are like "FINALLY, someone is covering climate change!!!!" sir??? there are a whole bunch of smaller publications that have done top notch climate reporting for years and they would LOVE some more readers!
very exciting to see my first print byline in the march issue of
@bonappetit
! finally my lunatic plastic-conserving habits are recognized as โexpert adviceโ
I believe this is a fundamentally American story, all about corporate brutality and ruined land and the fickle attention of the public eye and love of home. I hope youโll read it:
are there any writers out there who have been thinking about the idea of chosen family w/r/t climate change? subtopics could include childbearing decisions, changing priorities w/r/t ideology, community bonds, etc.
if this resonates, pitch me please! eandrews at grist dot org
my across the alley neighbors are having a crowded birthday party in their apartment. my dad came over earlier and we watched them set up from my yard and after awhile he just said โthat party looks really lame.โ imagine risking your life just to get roasted by my dad like that