@mollybergen
Freelance writer/editor available for hire. Previously: climate comms for WRI, Central Africa comms, blog editor for Conservation International. Primate nerd. Opinions my own. See examples of my work at www.molly-bergen.com
At ~$1 billion/day, the US has spent as much on the war in Iran in ten days as the entire FY25 budget for the National Science Foundation ($10 billion).
Trump's FY26 budget request for the agency declined to $3.9 billion, due to a "realignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment."
Many things are terrible but the kakapo chicks are hatching!
a picture of a huge, low, heavy cloud of black oil over Tehran
This is the cloud of oil currently hovering over Tehran, released when the US bombed the city's oil depots. A stew of particulate matter, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, heavy metals & volatile organic compounds is raining down into the city right now. 1/2
Now that everyoneβs paying attention to global energy markets and effects of faraway events on prices and decision-making, is it a good time to talk about the indirect land use effects of dedicating cropland to biofuel production or nah?
If you're doomscrolling, guess what? So far there are 51 kΔkΔpΕ chicks hatched and thriving this season, the same number of birds as we had in TOTAL in the 90s! Only one chick has died and there are still fertile eggs waiting to hatch!
My entire journalistic career, editors & owners & bosses told me again & again that my stuff was too long, too in-depth, too wonky, no one would read it.
Again & again, readers flocked to the longer, wonkier pieces, passed them around, wrote me to thank me for them, cited them years later.
Imagine it's your job to cover the most existential threat to the planet, and yet you're rarely greenlit to talk about THE MAIN REASON WHY IT'S HAPPENING.
This would drive any real journalist insane. It's a wonder more haven't walked away.
An ICE detainee in Arizona has died of a TOOTH INFECTION after it went untreated for weeks, a local official says. He was a Haitian asylum seeker imprisoned in Florence, Arizona. @emilybregel.bsky.social reports.
tucson.com/news/local/b...
there's a lot going on right now but did you know a massive amount of the world's fertilizer flows through the middle east, and did you know that that fertilizer needs to be shipped to the us *right now* for planting season, and uh did you know we are at war with iran
As the tech industry increasingly turns to onsite fossil fuel power for data centers, what does this mean for nearby communities? A new study evaluates the impacts of fine particulate matter from a VA facility's onsite power system & finds $53Mβ$99M/yr in health damages.
just thinking about how USAID was dismantled under the rationale of cost savings but there's an unlimited budget for war
Bernie Sanderβs 2028 litmus test would strangle Americaβs golden goose
Surprise! The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post is against my 5% billionaire wealth tax. I wonder why?
If enacted, Bezos would owe $12 billion in taxes, and an average family of 4 would receive a $12,000 direct payment.
Poor Jeff would be left with just $224 billion to survive.
I think we all need an aardvark today
As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.
Whether youβre represented by Democrats or Republicans, itβs extra important for your Members of Congress to hear from you right now.
Urge your elected officials to use every lever in their toolbox to put an immediate stop to Trumpβs illegal war with Iran.
π¨ The final number of dead at the Shajareh Tayyebeh girlsβ school in Minab, southern Iran, is 108 school girls, a spokesperson for the Iranian Red Crescent Society said β more than half of the roughly 170 students who attend the school.
It remains unclear whether the strike was carried out by...
DO NOT LET ANY MEMBER OF CONGRESS WALK AROUND THINKING THEIR CONSTITUENTS DONβT CARE
Seems worth noting that ChatGPT Health failed to identify medical emergencies more than half the time in a recent study. The company that made that product just signed a deal with the "Department of War" and said trust us, it's all very safe and ethical.
They were going to pass rules to phase out gas stoves, until they received 20,000 public comments against the regulations. Except, oops, it turns out the comments were generated by AI.
I canβt stop thinking about this.
βBlame It on the Grain,β describes the construction of a dam that created a reservoir in the eastern part of the park to support farming. βRename it something else,β Interior guidance sent to the park says. ββBlameβ has negative tone to it."
A mom was able to smuggle kidsβ drawings & letters out of for-profit detention campβguards are confiscating them. βIβm writing this letter so that you can hear my storyβ¦I have been detained for 23 days with my mom and my 3-year-old sister. I cry a lotβ¦there are many children we are kidnapped help!β
As of tonight, licenses of trans people across Kansas are being invalidated en masse, enabling the overnight criminalization of an entire group of people for going about our lives. Itβs often said you never know when youβre living through history, so let me assure you: thatβs whatβs happening now.
"The utility has pointed to the regionβs historically cold winter as a cause of rising heating demand and costs...But in an email to The 51st, Pepcoβs own data show that their D.C. customers actually used more energy in January 2025 than January 2026."
The Supreme Court has decided to hear a major climate case against fossil fuel companies
Alito has not recused himself, despite owning nearly $200,000 in fossil fuel stocksβincluding in Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips, which are being sued in cases that would be directly affected by a SCOTUS ruling
It's just insane the degree to which the federal government has simply declared war on a U.S. state. A punitive war with no discernible objective other than to immiserate its people. bsky.app/profile/apne...
After considerable local pushback from Tennesseans and officials of both parties, ICE confirms to us -- (with just one minor typo) -- that they have abandoned plans to build a new Trump prison camp in Lebanon, Tennessee:
Aliya Rahman, woman who was dragged out of car by ICE in Minneapolis: "I've spent the last month learning the names of the tendons in my shoulder, because both of my shoulders are torn -- cartilage and tendons. But what I haven't learned is the names of the people who did this to me."
This. Just because you CAN "do your own research" in a given field that you know nothing about...doesn't mean your research is good.
In fact, given the constraints of search, AI and the algorithm? It's probably worse than ignorance.
Ashley Fairbanks @ziibiing.com launched Stand With Minnesota standwithminnesota.com, a mutual aid repository supporting residents under ICE's siege, in early Jan. in the weeks since, it's facilitated covering people's rents and flown folks detained back home from Texas.
she can help you do it, too.
