Alex Steffen
Planetary foresight and personal climate strategies.
Courses: alexsteffen.thinkific.com
Podcast/newsletter: alexsteffen.substack.com
Consultation: app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule/21f79c52
Start here → alexsteffen.com/start
- "No matter what we do, we are in for massive and unprecedented climate, ecological and societal upheavals. That discontinuity is now hard-wired into every plausible future in front of us." alexsteffen.substack.com/p/what-is-a-...
- The planetary crisis will define our future, and almost none of us have personal strategies for meeting it. This four-week Personal Climate Strategy Workshop is probably the best crash course in applied climate foresight anywhere. Check it out: alexsteffen.thinkific.com/courses/Pers...
- "Help is not on the way. Even the best-governed societies aren’t responding at the pace demanded... there’s less sign than ever that someone else — the government, markets, activists — is coming to the rescue. We have to rescue ourselves." alexsteffen.substack.com/p/we-thought...
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- Discontinuity is here. Climate and ecological disruptions are having unprecedented impacts in the lives of every person on Earth. And, yes, that has profound security implications. "Nature is a foundation of national security" is exactly right. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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- Reposted by Alex Steffen“We think of climate impacts as huge, monstrous things — giant dinosaur weather-beasts rampaging across our cities. But it turns out we should be at least as worried about the plague of small strains spreading through our lives, eating away at systems functionality like a horde of gnawing rodents.”
- NEW: When it comes to climate foresight, the small stuff really adds up. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/things-fal...
- NEW: When it comes to climate foresight, the small stuff really adds up. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/things-fal...
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- The moment of escalating discontinuity. When we pass what thresholds—and how extreme the systems upheavals they trigger will be—we don't precisely know. But we know we should be cutting emissions on an emergency basis and ruggedizing our societies for conditions no one has ever experienced before.
- ”There is a growing fear that climate change in the future won’t, as it has until now, happen gradually. It will happen suddenly, as formerly stable planetary systems transgress tipping points — thresholds beyond which things cannot be put back together again.“ e360.yale.edu/features/1.5...
- Reposted by Alex SteffenI wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free
- About that "we should track clean energy deployment, not emissions cuts" argument... A thread from long ago... Clean energy is, in some ways, the least challenging piece of the puzzle.
- People who never paid attention to climate before are now suddenly telling us "no place is safe" from climate chaos. What they really mean is "don't compare the risks facing different places — because our brittle investments will lose value if you do." alexsteffen.substack.com/p/why-do-som...
- It really shouldn't take you very long to pick sides between a gang of masked bullies and a five-year-old child.
- Reposted by Alex SteffenIt's not quite the most pressing issue at the moment, but the American people absolutely have a right to know the names of the federal officials who shot and killed a man peacefully protesting, who was on his knees, prone in the street when they shot him in the back.
- Reposted by Alex SteffenIan Austin, an Army veteran, was arrested for protesting ICE in Minneapolis. But he’s continued protesting. Senior reporter @julialurie.bsky.social spoke to him. “When they say, ‘Why would you be out here?’ How the fuck could I not be out here?” he says. “My nation is under attack."
- Reposted by Alex SteffenOpenAI exec James Dyett calling out the cowardice
- Reposted by Alex SteffenThe killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.
- The Brittleness Bubble in the Times. The solution? Buyouts! 🎉 Every politician loves a buyout program, despite evidence that the scale of climate risk and overvaluation of brittle assets make them unsuited to address the problem in any fiscally realistic scenario. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/o...
- James Murray knows what time it is. Read this thread.
- Quick thread on how it is shocking the government has supressed this report, but it is equally shocking that anyone should be surprised by its contents. www.businessgreen.com/news/4524657...
- Climate predatory delay, attacks on scientific capacity, undermining of diplomatic efforts, refusals in policy and planning to recognize rising brittleness, and the sudden silence on climate from business and professional leaders— a broad, coordinated attempt to postpone action by smothering speech.
- The dark truth of CEO silence on Trump’s climate retreat ft.trib.al/8XHHEl5 | opinion
- Predatory delay on climate action is a central engine driving the fascism we see around us today. When given the choice of accepting the evidence and shifting to a low-carbon economy, or undermining democracy itself, the Carbon Lobby went all in on Trump.
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- The nuclear codes are in the hands of a man who is ranting threats to invade Greenland because he wasn't given the Nobel prize. This is probably fine.
- Knowing that we will reclaim our country, end this chaos and renew our democracy is the single most important step towards winning.
- Reposted by Alex SteffenFrom ever-brilliant @rubenbolling.bsky.social another great cartoon. See original here bsky.app/profile/rube... And reminder that a certain SCOTUS member will be immortalized for something other than "I like beer!" We should use his name in every account of these skin-color-based roundups.
- AI is eating the career of every creative whose work can be easily described, modeled and predicted. Spend time learning how to think along orthogonal, unpredictable, new (or forgotten) paths... make your mind hard to model. @bruces from the mist times: bruces.medium.com/the-wonderfu...
- Reposted by Alex SteffenAfter the US admin cancelled the $B Climate + Weather Disaster dataset, @climatecentral.org hired the scientists who ran it and set it back up. Now the 2025 numbers are in: it's 3rd highest year on record and highest year w/o land-falling hurricanes. More: www.climatecentral.org/climate-serv...
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- The geopolitics of energy moving way faster than many pundits in the US seem able to see or admit. The US isn't winning and the GOP is doubling down on losing strategies. Climate action has always been inevitable. How fast it goes and who benefits the most are the questions.
- My sense is that China is using this oldie but goodie @rockymountviews.bsky.social playbook to destroy global oil demand. With subsidized EV technology, China can help 50+ emerging markets destroy 3-4 million barrels per day of oil demand by 2030.
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- 20 years ago today, we published Worldchanging. The team that put it together was simply brilliant, and it was very much the right project at the right time. I've met hundreds of people since then who've told me it had a major impact on their lives. I'm grateful. www.amazon.com/Worldchangin...
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- This was, surprisingly. the most popular letter I wrote this year "My firm belief was that sooner or later, whether folks were ready or not, actual reality would force them to see the crisis clearly, and embrace action. ... I was wrong." alexsteffen.substack.com/p/after-eart...
- Former CDC official on rolling for the counterpunch. This advice is just as solid on climate as it is on public health.
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- Your uncle's house in an intensifying wildfire zone didn't lose value because researchers documented the growing risk of it burning down. It lost value because burning fossil fuels has made wildfires worse. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/will-your-...
- If you're looking for an example of the systemic ways brittleness filters through systems, causing losses and eroding capacities far from the scene of a disaster, this is a good one. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/u...
- Tbh, my reading list/ saved episodes/ watch later selections are now all things I feel I *should* read, listen to or watch but likely never will. 1,000s of boring little guilt bombs. Unread books at least force you to eventually decide if they deserve a place on your shelves.
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- I found this essay touching and beautiful. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...
- "If risk accountability means that current sellers get less money for the homes they sell, that is good. Those homes are worth less money than they used to be. Suppressing risks doesn’t make property worth more, it just dumps the losses on the next buyer." alexsteffen.substack.com/p/will-your-...
- New podcast! All is not lost: the harsh future we’re tumbling towards is still a future full of choices. Dooming-out is not a plan. alexsteffen.substack.com/p/does-clima...
- The last Personal Climate Strategy: The Basics class is tomorrow, and there's still time to sign up. Is 2026 the year you plan to start readying your life for climate chaos? This is a great places to start. alexsteffen.thinkific.com/products/cou...
- Clearheaded, supportive review of my personal climate strategy workshop from former colleague Justus Stewart. If you’re trying to chart your own path through climate discontinuity, please check it out! substack.com/home/post/p-...
- Reposted by Alex SteffenThe horrific antisemitic terrorist attack in Bondi Beach is shocking in its brutality and utterly inexcusable. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
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