Emily Johnston
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enjohnston.bsky.social
Emily Johnston
@enjohnston.bsky.social
Climate, writing, running, beasts. Valve turner. Host: https://sites.libsyn.com/459540/awabw
poetry: https://www.hummingbirdpoetry.org/books/her-animals-by-emily-johnston-2nd-ed

Making good trouble: troublemakerscommunity.org
Pinned
What if one of the problems with democracy is that we pretend the world is made of only humans?
Reposted by Emily Johnston
hell yeah
It's not this platform. It's all of society that hates AI
November 26, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
We're firing a shot across the bow!

1000 Amazon workers have signed our Open Letter: AI hype is a distraction from its staggering costs.

And here's the letter if you haven't signed yet (Not just for Amazonians; we also love solidarity signatures): www.amazonclimatejustice.org
PR: AI hype is a distraction from its staggering costs, say 1000+ Amazon employees
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, November 26, 2025 Press contact: [email protected] AI hype is a distraction from its staggering costs, say 1000+ Amazon employees Over 1,000 Amazon emplo...
docs.google.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
Lots of people sharing this clip because it's funny and cathartic but I also genuinely believe it's important.

We have to win the narrative battle between "I live in a corrupt society and that's just how it is" and "I live in a corrupt society and we are going to defeat and humiliate these ghouls."
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 4:07 PM
And with @wilsonforseattle.bsky.social in office....oh, my, will we double down on that.
November 26, 2025 at 6:51 PM
This is both frightening in its implications, and truly sad.

Outlets simply do not have the time/money to do this kind of digging on every piece; therefore, a lot of garbage will continue to be published, and in most cases, we'll never be the wiser, knowing it to be utter BS.
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
thelocal.to
November 26, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
turns out best way to beautify your city is also best way to adapt to climate change:

deprioritize cars & on-street parking

prioritize sustainable mobility and sponge city principles (de-paving streets for trees)

bonus points: cleaner air, reduced urban heat islands, better public health outcomes
Vingt rues de Paris avant / après en une minute
November 26, 2025 at 5:08 PM
This nails a fundamental problem with our entire society. It's also what made the Gates toilet prize so absurd: the best answers didn't involve breakable, hard-to-replace things.

The best innovations often don't need whiz-bang stuff invented in a lab for profit.
To say that you can build high-performance buildings with straw and earth without needing a laboratory, industry, or Professor XY is not startup enough.
November 26, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
Again:

"Critics warn that a small group of tech companies, including Nvidia, are essentially buying & selling to each other in circular deals that inflate their actual value."

@governorferguson.bsky.social why should regular folks shoulder the safety net, while these companies get tax breaks?
November 26, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Again:

"Critics warn that a small group of tech companies, including Nvidia, are essentially buying & selling to each other in circular deals that inflate their actual value."

@governorferguson.bsky.social why should regular folks shoulder the safety net, while these companies get tax breaks?
November 26, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
"Medical culture, in contrast, tends to approach preventable tragedies as teachable moments. This is a mistake. Crises are opportunities to show people what you can do for them, not to ask them to change their minds."

Such an important & seldom-made point: just show up.

(Gift link.)
Opinion | I Went to an Anti-Vaccine Conference. Medicine Is in Trouble.
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
if there's a reason to keep up the "tribunals for all involved" discourse one such reason it is to put in stark relief how far away some of the Dem politicking is from the mood on the ground
eric swalwell said on msnow that a major goal of a dem majority after the midterms would be for ice masks to come off and badges to come out, this is insufficient
November 24, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
Every time
November 23, 2025 at 1:59 PM
I just….find it really hard to believe that IN SEATTLE we’re letting industry burn old tires for power, near residential communities. That’s outrageous, PSCAA.
“Overburdened, overpolluted, community voices can’t be muted!” “No more burning, no more fires, protect our kids from burning tires!” VERY spirited rally by Duwamish River Community Coalition, vs Puget Sound “Clean Air” Agency’s decision to let Ash Grove Cement burn tires for OVER 30% of its energy.
November 22, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
Mamdani getting Trump to back down & even *compliment* him costs Mamdani absolutely nothing (& indeed actually shows his skills) & probably also saves a lot of vulnerable ppl in this city a trememndous amount of pain if it means Trump is less inclined to act shitty towards us bc of this meeting
Folks fun police line is forming
November 21, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
"Ha ha, bitches, I got a new scooter!" is the rallying cry we need.
November 20, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
Some billionaires, while building "apocalypse shelters" as personal escape hatches from the climate crisis, are urging Democrats to stop talking about and adopting policies to tackle this existential threat. Don't buy their bullshit. 1/ @aaronregunberg.bsky.social @thenewrepublic.bsky.social
Here’s the Data Showing Why Dems Must Keep Talking About Climate
Centrist groups want to see Democrats retreat from climate policy. That’s the wrong thing to do—both morally and strategically.
newrepublic.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:30 PM
I knew that AI hype is delusional and/or pure lies. I knew the AI boom is wildly destructive to air, water, climate, society, & politics. I knew the AI boom is a scary bubble.

I did not know that the economics of it are essentially a trillion dollar circle jerk.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
How Clean Energy Could Prepare for an AI Bubble
Podcast Episode · Shift Key with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins · 11/19/2025 · 1h 19m
podcasts.apple.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:32 PM
"Downtown businesses supported free buses because they helped bring people downtown & decreased workers’ transit costs."

Ditto protected bike lanes. If you make travel easy, it turns out that people spend their time & money doing what they need & want to do--not fighting traffic.

(Gift link)
Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.
www.nytimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
A new state-by-state evaluation of the projected energy and water use of "AI" data centers in the US. Looks… real bad. Like, "undoing tech sector climate gains" bad.

Strongly recommends immediately ensuring any & all new "AI" data centers to run on existing & expanded renewables grids. Which… yeah.
Environmental impact and net-zero pathways for sustainable artificial intelligence servers in the USA - Nature Sustainability
The rapid expansion of AI server installations in the United States poses sustainability challenges in terms of water usage and carbon emissions. A study now quantifies these potential impacts and out...
www.nature.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by Emily Johnston
After much deliberation and a grueling interview process, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve accepted a new job and will not need any financial support from my parents to cover the high costs of childcare going forward. #AmericanDream #ThisIsYourCity
November 18, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Seeing them all in prison gives me (another) something to live for.
Some of you point out that the big players have used various tricks to keep their own $ safe. True.

That's why we need to think about how to prosecute them for fraud.

Those bubble-inflating claims - AI will cure all disease! end climate change! double lifespans! - are essentially Theranos X 1000.
The AI bubble may be about to bust.

Peter Thiel has sold all of his Nvidia stock.

We all need to say this very clearly:

NO BAILOUTS FOR THEFT-TECH!

Expropriate their asses instead.

They stole from all of us and fully plan to burn the planet.

They owe us - not the other way around. 1/3
November 17, 2025 at 10:16 PM
In Seattle? Join us for this on Wednesday night! We have some great speakers from @amzn4climate.bsky.social, the People's Tech Project, and lots more!
Concerned about climate, affordability, water, surveillance?

Join us on November 19 and December 8 (6pm, Prospect Church) for the first two iterations of the People's Forum on AI.

Come learn more about the dystopian trajectory the tech overlords have us on, and WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!
November 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM