Dana R. Fisher (aka the Apocalyptic Optimist)
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fisherdanar.bsky.social
Dana R. Fisher (aka the Apocalyptic Optimist)
@fisherdanar.bsky.social

Director, Center for Environment Community, & Equity and Professor, AU | NonRes Sr Fellow, Brookings | IPCCWG3 AR6 | www.danarfisher.com | TED Talk on Saving Ourselves: go.ted.com/danarfisher

Dana R. Fisher is an American sociologist, professor of sociology, public speaker, and author. She is the director of the Center for Environment, Community, and Equity and a professor in the School of International Service at American University. Her areas of research and expertise are activism, democracy, the climate crisis, and environmental policy. .. more

Political science 27%
Environmental science 23%
Pinned
My TED Talk on Saving Ourselves is OUT! Tune in to learn why we ALL need to be apocalyptic optimists: Prepared for the climate shocks that are coming and ready to rally as activists, disruptors, and bridge-builders to save ourselves from the climate crisis. go.ted.com/danarfisher

Anyone have the snow day over-under for Montgomery County Md tomorrow?

Such a great word 🔥
HOLY SMOKES!

"Starbucks will pay about $35 million to more than 15,000 workers in what officials are calling the largest worker protection settlement in New York City history."

VENTI-sized accountability. ✊

Absolutely 💯--when the government works for you, you would not support a statement saying that we may need political violence.

Reposted by Dana R. Fisher

From Copernicus: This shows how the expected date for breaching 1.5C has been creeping ever closer in recent years. The orange date shows the baseline for the extrapolation; the red date shows when 1.5C is breached based on the trend...

What does that even mean???

They should follow the information here to see if their work is part of the settlement: arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified
Copyright class actions could financially ruin AI industry, trade groups say.
arstechnica.com

Nope, I got an email directly from the lawfirm managing the settlement with information about my books.
I’m so thankful for the chance to compile & share #ScholarSunday threads of great public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books. So let’s end the holiday weekend with my 252nd! Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️

blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
#ScholarSunday Thread 252 (11/30/25) – Black and White and Read All Over
I’m so thankful for the chance to compile & share #ScholarSunday threads of great public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. So let’s end the holiday weeke...
blackwhiteandread.com

Just filled out the paperwork for a class action lawsuit for 3 of my books that were part of the Anthropic AI training settlement. I've got emails from others now asking me to sign away the rights to 2 other books for payment. I have been refusing, but am starting to feel trapped--THOUGHTS??
a close up of a woman 's face with her eyes closed
ALT: a close up of a woman 's face with her eyes closed
media.tenor.com
“Ah, just one more thing, sir. You’re blowing up those boats, saying they’re filled with drugs headed for the US. But then you go and pardon the guy who brought in 400 tons of cocaine. That’s billions of doses. Help me understand that.”

Reposted by Dana R. Fisher

Targeting the free press is nothing new for this administration or for Trumpism but this feels like an elevation of hostiles

Reposted by Dana R. Fisher

You know, apropos of nothing in particular, and although I haven't researched it yet, I strongly suspect that a president starting a foreign war to distract from his extensive ties with child sex traffickers is probably a high crime or misdemeanor under the Constitution's impeachment clauses.
Don't know whether this is new or has been up for awhile. Either way, when the White House creates a hit list of journalists it doesn't like, the free press is in danger. www.whitehouse.gov/mediabias/
Media Offenders
Explore the Media Bias Tracker that fact checks and holds Fake News accountable. False claims debunked, Hall of Shame for serial offenders, Leaderboard of networks ranked by Repeated Lies. Stay inform...
www.whitehouse.gov
The White House web site now includes a "media bias" tracker with a leaderboard and an offender hall of shame. www.whitehouse.gov/mediabias/

Reposted by Dana R. Fisher

“President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has fallen five percentage points to 36%, the lowest of his second term, while disapproval has risen to 60%.”

news.gallup.com/poll/699221/...
Trump's Approval Rating Drops to 36%, New Second-Term Low
President Donald Trump's job approval rating has slipped to a new second-term low point and is approaching his all-time low of 34%.
news.gallup.com

Thanks for this information!

Reposted by Dana R. Fisher

The sociology, political science, and law and science DDRIG programs all moved to being administered by their respective professional associations / discipline-wide organizations in 2020

Reposted by Katharine Hayhoe

I'm delighted that episode 5 of the COPOut Podcast (with @amywestervelt.bsky.social and @katharinehayhoe.com) is now available at @drilledmedia.bsky.social!

Tune in at Drilled: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Or check out all of our episodes here: cece.american.edu/cece-launche...

It still seems to me that some of the SBE opportunities that supported social science dissertations is missing--I was funded through a grant directly from NSF (not @asanews.bsky.social ) a lifetime ago, which is the only way I was able to fund my field research in Japan and Europe

Ohhh, that's a good one! I'm very curious how it will go in backwards order--since the whole premise of the podcast was that the COP was expected to be a waste of carbon, I expect it will flow very well, but lemme know!
a black and white photo of a woman sitting in front of a curtain holding a lamp .
ALT: a black and white photo of a woman sitting in front of a curtain holding a lamp .
media.tenor.com

Reposted by Dana R. Fisher

All good I'm listening in backwards order anyway :) next up is @davidho.bsky.social + @frediotto.bsky.social

Thanks for posting, K! I didn't know it had gone up at @drilledmedia.bsky.social and am so happy to see it there!!

Reposted by Dana R. Fisher

"[The fossil fuel industry] no longer feel any compulsion to pretend that they're not [at COP] to......fart in church"

@amywestervelt.bsky.social on @fisherdanar.bsky.social's fantastic #COP30 pod along w/ @katharinehayhoe.com

cece.american.edu/cece-launche...

With lots of discussion about the shooting in DC earlier this week by one man, it seems like the right time to repost this piece about how support for political violence in the US has shifted over the past year (and what it might mean):

Reposted by Caroline Krafft

FYI: law and science, political science, and sociology all still have DDRIG programs run outside of the NSF but funded by NSF. The rest of these programs unfortunately do not.

I run the political science DDRIG.
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.

Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪

Absolutely 💯

Reposted by Dana R. Fisher

“The year featured a record number of violent incidents over water around the world, far surpassing the 355 in 2023, continuing a steeply rising trend. The violence more than quadrupled in the last five years.” www.latimes.com/environment/...
Violent conflict over water hit a record last year
Violence over water is on the rise worldwide. Researchers counted a record 420 incidents of conflict in 2024, many in Ukraine and the Middle East.
www.latimes.com