{"id":7066661,"date":"2026-09-25T13:04:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/legal\/i-skipped-ny-climate-week-and-read-these-books-instead\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T13:04:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:04:49","slug":"i-skipped-ny-climate-week-and-read-these-books-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7066661","title":{"rendered":"I Skipped NY Climate Week and Read These Books Instead"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I Skipped NY Climate Week and Read These Books Instead<\/h3>\n

The Drain is a roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.<\/h2>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Climate World descended on New York City this week for the annual mad dash of panel discussions, press briefings, newsmaker interviews, influencer gatherings, and sponsored parties that is NY Climate Week, but I stayed home and read books instead.<\/p>\n

To be more specific, I went to my local bookstore (Village Well in Culver City!) and bought 4 new climate books that I\u2019ve been excited to read:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Carbon Wave<\/a>: A Story of Democracy, Parenthood, and the Race to Protect Our Planet,\u201d by Leah C. Stokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrought to You By<\/a>: How Corporations Warped the Truth, Conned the Public, and Broke Democracy,\u201d by Amy Westervelt.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnd Times Fascism<\/a> and The Fight for the Living World,\u201d by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding Post-Carbon Futures<\/a>: Land, Justice, and Energy Transitions,\u201d by Billy Flemming.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I started with \u201cThe Carbon Wave\u201d so here are my thoughts. It has been years since I sat down and read a book from front to back, but I burned through it in less than 24 hours. Leah Stokes<\/strong> is a well-known climate advocate and a professor of environmental politics at UC Santa Barbara. This is not her first book about policymaking, but it is the most personal. \u201cThe Carbon Wave\u201d weaves together the narratives of her and her family as well as a handful of fellow policymakers, political aids and researchers who together helped create what we now call the Inflation Reduction Act, aka the largest climate law ever passed in U.S. history. It\u2019s a fascinating read.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Carbon Wave\u201d manages to be lots of different things\u2014a dramatic page-turner, an insider tell-all, a legislative history about a landmark bill, something of a memoir, and a blueprint (or a cautionary tale) for climate policymakers next time around.<\/p>\n

As a Canadian American academic based in Santa Barbara, Stokes is not your typical Washington insider. She tells this story from her own perspective but also that of several of her policy partners: aides to then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer; climate advisors in the Biden White House; and activists at influential environmental groups. Key players include Adrian Deveny<\/a>, Sonia Aggarwal<\/a>, Brian Deese<\/a>, Gina McCarthy<\/a>, Sam Ricketts<\/a>, Varshini Prakash<\/a>, Ari Matusiak<\/a>, and Stokes herself of course.<\/p>\n

The narrative opens in October 2021 and bounces around the chronological timeline, but it essentially functions as a ticktock, behind-the-scenes look at this major legislative roller coaster ride to cut climate pollution. Not just the sausage-making but the idea-making. The spreadsheet making. The emissions tracker making. And the political dealmaking. Many later chapters, when the legislation is close to passing, provide valuable, and infuriating, political insights into the machinations of Joe Manchin, the former West Virginia senator who nearly tanked the bill multiple times. Even then, Stokes maintains an optimism for the democratic process.<\/p>\n

Chance, preparation, luck, skill, and failure all play a role in staffers like Deveny and White House advisers like Aggarwal being in the right place at the right time. The COVID pandemic turned the world upside down for a couple years right when this cast of characters found themselves facing a very short window of opportunity to push a big climate energy bill, from the 2020 midterms to the early months of the Biden administration. The pandemic made it possible to influence policy via off-camera Zoom meetings on the other side of the country, yes, but it also interfered by sending crucial senators into isolation when they tested positive just as negotiations were happening.<\/p>\n

Stokes is able to put this political page-turner into historical context. Sen. Ed Markey shows up several times as an elder statesman of the climate movement but also a warning of previous failures. The Waxman-Markey Bill on clean energy passed the House in 2009 and never made it to the Senate. \u201cIn the post-mortem of the Waxman-Markey failure, several political scientists had found that the lack of public mobilization for the bill was one cause of its failure,\u201d Stokes writes. \u201cI didn\u2019t want us to make the same mistake twice.\u201d That message looms large to the end.<\/p>\n

My very first post<\/a> for Legal Planet back in February 2023 was about President Biden\u2019s reluctance, or inability, to sell some of the environmental features of the IRA. To my mind, Stokes\u2019 telling provides insights into the questions of why this happened; why some voters never got excited about the climate law; how hyper-politics divided the climate movement on the IRA; why some features of the law were vulnerable to attack.<\/p>\n

The memoir component is compelling too \u2014 and not just to add drama to what is otherwise a legislative thriller. It\u2019s central to her point. If a cardinal sin of climate communications in the last few decades has been a failure to connect climate change to our everyday lives and our emotions, Stokes isn\u2019t making that mistake. Her precarious pregnancy jockeys with the policy bill. One day, her family gets a clean bill of health, but the bill looks dead on arrival; the next day it\u2019s the reverse. Most of the protagonists who are working tirelessly to help save the world in this story are either new parents or expecting parents motivated by their love. This portrayal is a powerful rebuttal of the idea that caring about climate change means you should forego raising children because of the carbon footprint. That\u2019s an idea Stokes takes head-on, saying essentially, \u201cWhat nonsense to blame an infant child for the carbon-intensive energy system they\u2019ve just been born into \u2014 blame the adults who aren\u2019t doing something, anything, to save them.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the outset, this book serves as a refutation of that old, industry-backed concept of the carbon footprint, aka that we should all focus on reducing our own personal emissions rather than systemic change. Hence the title. A carbon wave is a good, visual metaphor for the \u201ctwo steps forward, one steps back\u201d of climate policy, but it also acts as a call to action. \u201cLet\u2019s replace the carbon footprint with a new idea: the carbon wave,\u201d she writes. \u201cWorking together, we can make waves.\u201d Hers is the story of people who did it once \u2014 and might be called upon to do it again.<\/p>\n

Next up: Amy Westervelt\u2019s \u201cBrought to You By.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welcome to The Drain, a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news. This week\u2019s song is <\/em><\/strong>\u201cBurning,\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/a> by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which is one of 500+ songs on my climate playlist (on\u00a0Spotify<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Apple Music<\/a>).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

NY CLIMATE WEEK<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres<\/a><\/strong> convened world leaders for a High-Level Event on Climate Action and the Just Transition<\/a><\/strong>. This is the final General Assembly session under Guterres. He gave an exit interview<\/a><\/strong> to David Gelles<\/strong> of the NYT and others. \u201cIt\u2019s my duty to use that voice without any compromise, to tell the truth and to alert the international community to the dangers it faces,\u201d Guterres<\/a><\/strong> told<\/a><\/strong> Fiona Harvey <\/strong>at the Guardian.\u00a0Let\u2019s hope the next Secretary-General raises their voice like he did.<\/p>\n

Trump raised his voice at the UN to say artificial intelligence should be rebranded as \u201csuper intelligence\u201d and then compared the risks of AI to climate change and falsely claimed that the latter has been a hoax that hasn\u2019t lived up to warnings of its dangers, Scientific American writes<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Al Gore<\/strong> and others at NYCW tried to prevent AI data centers from hijacking the attention<\/a>, noting that many other areas of the global economy are greater drivers of climate pollution. \u201cThe emissions from uncovered landfills around the world are a large multiple of the emissions from all of the AI data centers put together,\u201d Gore said. \u00a0Electricity for air conditioning is another.<\/p>\n

Also in attendance at UNGA, French President Emmanuel Macron <\/strong>came\u00a0asking<\/a> the EU to delay its upcoming methane regulation for one year. Many researchers, scientists and advocates are answering why this is bad policy.<\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/strong> is a frequent flyer at NY Climate Week and often makes news announcements timed to his appearance at the event. This year \u2014 his last as governor as he contemplates a presidential run \u2014 he announced<\/a><\/strong> that California continued to cut climate pollution, reducing statewide greenhouse gas emissions by 3.9% while growing the economy in 2024 \u2014 according to new data<\/a>. Newsom also announced<\/a> that California is moving forward with plans to link its signature climate program, cap-and-invest, to that of Washington state. \u201cTalking about climate change may be out of style in U.S. politics, but it remains Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/strong>\u2019s ticket to the world stage,\u201d POLITICO\u2019s California Currents newsletter says.<\/p>\n

THE STATE OF CLIMATE COMMS<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Amy Harder<\/strong>, climate and energy journalist for Axios, shared what she described as a \u201chot take\u201d for NY Climate Week: that PR firms and climate communicators who share news items should practice more restraint during busy weeks like this and stop bugging the few reporters who remain on the beat. Weeks like these underline \u201cthe vast imbalance between the number of reporters and the number of people pitching us stories.\u201d Take a hint if you don\u2019t get a bite and stop texting reporters, she writes<\/a><\/strong> at LinkedIn. Can\u2019t argue with that.<\/p>\n

Journalist and meteorologist Chase Cain<\/strong> went further and said<\/a><\/strong> \u201cdo NOT launch your news during NY Climate Week *or* Earth Week.\u201d\u00a0If you have thoughts about this, leave \u2018em in the comments.<\/p>\n

Beyond timing, climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe <\/strong>and researcher Dana Fisher<\/strong> co-wrote an article<\/a><\/strong> for TIME that asks, \u201cWhat\u2019s working in climate communications?\u201d and found an answer: Don\u2019t talk about climate like it\u2019s partisan. \u201cThe first and most important lesson is that talking about climate change means talking about everyday life. When we asked climate newsletter writers, podcast hosts, people who regularly post on social media, and those building climate content for non-profits, their response was clear. Their first priority is to connect the climate crisis to other concerns people face: our jobs, our health, the places we love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe logic of the climate crisis is clear. What we\u2019re missing is the magic,\u201d writes<\/a><\/strong> Solitaire Townsend <\/strong>in another piece for TIME. Finding the magic is the role of storytellers connecting climate to emotions, Townsend writes.<\/p>\n

POLITICO has an interview<\/a><\/strong> with Sen. Ed Markey<\/strong>, a co-author of the Green New Deal, about why affordability is a stronger talking point than climate change in the 2026 midterms. \u201cThe Big Tech and the fossil fuel agenda are one and the same,\u201d Markey told POLITICO\u2019s Surge. \u201cThey\u2019re married the same way auto and oil used to be married. And you\u2019re not going to hear a single word from the AI industry except some vague promise that they\u2019ll solve the energy crisis 10 years from now.\u201d<\/p>\n

And here<\/a><\/strong> are the 100 top environmentalists and climate campaigners, according to the Independent. The list is published each year to coincide with NY Climate Week.<\/p>\n

El NINO + DISASTERS\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Scientists are\u00a0forecasting more than 450,000 deaths\u00a0from intense heat generated by El Ni\u00f1o, according<\/a> to a new study from the Climate Impact Lab.<\/p>\n

About 1,000 heat deaths are expected in California, Jack Dolan<\/strong> writes<\/a> for the Essential California newsletter, while most are expected in Africa and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

The \u201cjaw-dropping\u201d El Ni\u00f1o currently heating up the planet has burst through the highest temperature ever recorded for the phenomenon, several months before its expected peak, Damian Carrington<\/strong> reports<\/a> for the Guardian. \u201cThe \u2018Godzilla-level\u2019 phenomenon is supercharging the climate crisis and will heavily impact communities across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Newsom proclaimed<\/a> a state of emergency this week, mobilizing state resources ahead of potential winter storms and other impacts. He also asked state agencies to work with local governments to reduce flood risk and prep for a response to flooding, landslides or erosion.<\/p>\n

In Long Beach, Mayor Tom Modica proclaimed a local emergency ahead of what is brewing. That emergency proclamation gives Long Beach greater flexibility to prepare and respond if conditions worsen, NBC4 reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an age of serial disaster, rebuilding is no longer enough, even when it can be achieved. Resilience is demanded, as David Wallace-Wells<\/strong> reports<\/a> for a New York Times Magazine cover story, the climate issue. One problem is that there is rarely someone truly in charge \u2014 no \u201crecovery czar,\u201d Juliette Kayyem<\/strong> tells him.<\/p>\n

Less than half of blue-state major disaster declaration requests have been approved by Trump, Phillip Bump<\/strong> reports <\/a>in a piece called \u201cTrump is treating federal power like something he owns.\u201d<\/p>\n

LITIGATION<\/strong><\/h3>\n