A note from Rebekah:
The planet is on fire—figuratively, yes, but also literally.
Floodwaters rise, forests burn, and skies choke with smoke. And just as we need good information most—clear-eyed, science-driven, unflinching—newsrooms are cutting their environmental desks, shuttering the very windows through which we might still glimpse a way forward.
For years now, I’ve stood in the path of disaster, trying to track it, understand it, and—where possible—push back.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I defied threats from the state to make data public—because truth is oxygen, and people were suffocating without it.
Later, when I ran for Congress, it wasn’t to climb a ladder—it was to stand firm for science, community, and the fragile threads of democracy.
Now I write to you through this newsletter.
It’s not just commentary; it’s an effort to trace the fault lines between people and planet, to explain how those fractures became chasms, and how we might yet build bridges across them.
I won’t pretend to have all the answers. But I’ve learned how to read the signals—both the quiet ones whispered in data, and the loud ones shouted by the wind. And I can help you read them too. Because understanding the world is the first step toward changing it.
Please upgrade to a paid subscription so that I can afford to remove all paywells from my posts and media.
If only 10% of my free subscribers upgraded to a paid plan, I would be able to continue this important work freely and independently.
My hope is that you will see the value in this work and upgrade to a paid subscription to help me continue this public service.
As the media stifles important content in order to “fall in line,” we need to support voices who will, without hesitation, be willing to step out of line. That’s who I’ve proven myself to be.
NASA — under pressure from the current White House — has quietly begun planning the destruction of two state-of-the-art sensors whose only crime is helping humanity see the carbon it emits.
Among those in the crosshairs: OCO‑2, the independent Orbiting Carbon Observatory launched in 2014, and OCO‑3, its still‑functional counterpart aboard the International Space Station.
Both have delivered the clearest, most detailed global snapshots of atmospheric CO₂ ever collected — maps that tell us, moment by moment, how and where our carbon is piling up on the globe.
Already, Republican-appointed officials at NASA under Acting Administrator Sean Duffy have directed staff to draw up unauthorized plans to terminate both missions — even though the satellites still function well and have years of life ahead.
The directs reportedly include intentionally crashing the satellite into the atmosphere for it to burn up and be destroyed.
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