Wen Stephenson

New from @michaelfakhri.bsky.social
‘Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it’s always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024.’
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

And to cap it off, we were joined in jail (literally the same cell) by the brave souls from @jvp@bsky.social who had just shut down Schumer and Gillibrand's offices demanding "Let Gaza Live." There was real solidarity in that jail cell.
bsky.app/profile/jvp....

Working class people of color from the Gulf South directly confronting fossil capital.

Organized by Texas Campaign for the Environment, @planetoverprofit.org, & national @stopmoneypipeline.bsky.social coalition, it was one of the most powerful actions I've been a part of in a long time.

Great to see this. On Friday 30 of us were arrested, led by many of these same frontline community members fighting for their lives, at Citi CEO Jane Fraser's condo in NYC, demanding Citi stop financing ecocide/genocide from the Gulf South to Gaza. See:
www.instagram.com/p/DM2xOISsbD...

And what's more, we were joined in jail (literally the same cell) by the brave souls from @jvp@bsky.social who had just shut down Schumer and Gillibrand's offices demanding "Let Gaza Live." There was real solidarity in that jail cell.

bsky.app/profile/jvp....

Organized by Texas Campaign for the Environment, @planetoverprofit.org & @stopmoneypipeline.bsky.social, it was among the most powerful actions I've ever engaged in.

Earlier today, police arrested mass numbers of Jews and people of conscience at the offices of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand in New York City as they chanted, "Let Gaza Live," "End The Siege, and "Let Aid In Now."

The air I breathe and the water I drink everyday isn't poisoned by fossil fuels - and the banks that finance them - like they are for my Gulf South & Global South comrades. I'm here for them and for everyone & everything I love.

Gulf South to Global South

Lake Charles resident: "We're not going to stop fighting!"

From yesterday's Toxic Billionaires Tour of Manhattan, with stops at Chubb, AIG, Mitsubishi (shown here), Blackrock.

@stopmoneypipeline.bsky.social
@planetoverprofit.org
@ran.org
@oilchange.bsky.social

Cc: @stopmoneypipeline.bsky.social
@planetoverprofit.org

Gulf South to Global South
www.climatedefendersaction.org/gulfsouth

These comrades from Gulf South communities in TX & LA don't have the luxury of giving up. Fossil capital is killing them right now.

They came all the way to NYC to tell Chubb, AIG, Blackrock, and Citi to stop insuring & financing crimes against humanity from the Gulf South to the Global South.

📣 THIS FRIDAY—we’re going SHUT CITI DOWN!

Citibank continues to fund fossil fuel projects that are poisoning + displacing communities in the Gulf South. They also continue to finance g*nocide and starvation in 🇵🇸.

Join us as the frontlines rise up!

www.climatedefendersaction.org/gulfsouth

Heading to NYC for this.

Gulf Coast LNG expansion is among the biggest greenhouse bombs on the planet, and exposes overburdened frontline communities, aka "sacrifice zones," to ever greater risks. A lot more of us need to show up in solidarity with these communities, and take some risks ourselves.

The EU’s ‘fantasy’ $750B energy promise to Trump Technical issues, limited U.S. supplies and the EU’s minimal control over imports render the pledge infeasible, experts say.

🧵Yesterday’s trade deal is predicated on forcing the EU to buy more US oil and gas—specifically triple what it imports now. Lots of scoffing among the data crowd.

Fantasy or not, achievable or not, the fight against further #LNG build-out just got even harder. 1/4

www.politico.eu/article/eu-t...

These Kids in Gaza Are Starving. So Are Their Mothers. “There’s not enough food for me, so how can I have enough milk for her?” one woman says.

"I’m barely eating. There’s not enough food for me, so how can I have enough milk for her?”

Today in @thenation.com: Mothers in Gaza are trying to keep their kids from starving to death. But they're starving too.

Please, please listen to them.

www.thenation.com/article/worl...

The final chapter of *Learning to Live in the Dark* (@haymarketbooks.org) - www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2523-l... - is a new essay called "The Desperate of the Earth," in which I read Frantz Fanon in the context of Gaza and global climate justice. Here's where it ends up:

"The US bank is among the biggest financiers of planet-warming oil and gas companies, with $39bn in fossil fuel investments in 2024 – a 30% rise on the previous year, according to the most recent annual Banking on Climate Chaos report."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Icymi, this was yesterday in SF and NYC. Such an important campaign.

Gaza is starving. Where are the American Jewish leaders? A fear of being labelled antisemitic still deters American Jews and Jewish institutions from taking a position that is morally correct.

The mass starvation & killing of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli gov’t is a chillul hashem, a desecration of God.

Jewish leaders who criticized Zohran Mamdani for three words he doesn’t use should raise their voices loudly here as well.
forward.com/opinion/7575...

“Walking corpses”: Israel's blockade starves Gazans, aid groups say "People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses."

“As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. [H]umanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.”

The Guardian view on starvation in Gaza: it will take more than words to halt Israel’s genocide | Editorial Editorial: Condemnation is rightly growing. But until concrete action is taken, western allies will remain complicit with these horrifying crimes

"Faced with the systematic destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza, other states must together produce a systematic, comprehensive and concrete response. If not now, when? What more would it take to convince them?"

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

How Climate Justice Reached the UN’s Top Court—and Won The International Court of Justice’s ruling that countries have a legal duty to curb climate change was the result of a years-long campaign that began with university students.

The International Court of Justice declared that states have legal duties—not just moral ones—to protect the climate. This landmark opinion, writes @panthealee.bsky.social, is part of a years-long campaign that began with university students.

Book that is various shades of purple on a brown counter top. It is "Learning to Live in the Dark by Wen Stephenson. It brings hope by analyzing other writers who have lived through politically dark times.

This book by @learning2live.bsky.social is lifting me OUT of a dark place. Highly recommend. #hope

Down by the River | Wen Stephenson In Nepal, financial ascendancy is outpaced by its increasing vulnerability to climate change.

"...accelerating impacts of global warming threaten to make much of the Kathmandu Valley unlivable in the coming decades, starting with the areas closest to the rivers."

I reported from one of Kathmandu's hardest-hit slum communities last year:
@thebaffler.com
thebaffler.com/salvos/down-...

"...at least 17% of the global-south population ... more than 880 million people, live in slums. ... [Many] are situated in areas that face substantial flood exposure. The study identifies northern India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Rwanda and the coastal regions of Rio de Janeiro as notable hotspots..."

Columbia Agrees to $200 Million Fine to Settle Fight With Trump

A complete and total capitulation of an institution, a brand, the commitment to free speech, academic freedom, and dignity. This is unimaginably terrible.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/n...

The final chapter of *Learning to Live in the Dark* (@haymarketbooks.org) - www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2523-l... - is a new essay called "The Desperate of the Earth," in which I read Frantz Fanon in the context of Gaza and global climate justice. Here's where it ends up:

In landmark opinion, World Court says countries must address climate change threat The United Nations' highest court on Wednesday said countries must address the "urgent and existential threat" of climate change by cooperating to curb emissions, as it delivered an opinion set to determine future environmental litigation.

This just in from the UN's highest court:

"The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is essential for the enjoyment of other human rights."

Yes, friends, a habitable planet is a human right.

How hard are we willing to fight for it?

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

World on brink of climate breakthrough as fossil fuels ‘run out of road’, UN chief says António Guterres says ‘sun is rising on a clean energy age’ as 90% of renewable power projects cheaper than fossil fuels

Say what one will (and I have many times) about reckless climate optimism and magical thinking, etc., the point here is that there's every reason to stay in the fight.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

🙏🏻