2026-2027 @NovaForHealth Media Fellow; Climate/EJ reporter; 2024 @TEDTalks speaker; @NAHJ past president; @uproot_project founding member
Santa Barbara, CA
Joined June 2009
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🧵So I’ve been working on a little something that I never imagined I could do. A Ted Talk! My hope: that it can turn into a big something. And it just might, with your help. This happened thanks to a partnership between @RockefellerFdn @TEDTalks: shorturl.at/9zATP
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
Yet another extreme rainfall event is currently unfolding across Arizona and the Four Corners portion of AZ, NM, UT, and CO--and very serious major to locally catastrophic/record-breaking flooding is unfolding. Some areas will see *even worse* flooding than last week by tomorrow.
ALT Current snapshot of flood watches/warning and forecasts from NOAA's Water Prediction Center. It depicts numerous locations at or above predicted flood stage, with more than a few at or predicted to se "major" flooding.
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
🚨NEW🚨We obtained nearly 200 pages of handwritten testimonies from men in ICE detention in Texas, denouncing allegations of abuse and conditions inside.
They include details of an aggressive ICE arrest, the beating of a man by private guards, substandard conditions, and labor “exploitation” inside.
The packet we reviewed also includes vivid drawings and songs:
theguardian.com/us-news/2026…
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
Here it is: My big October update on the now near-record/record-strength El Niño event and the still-increasing likelihood of significant California impacts this winter. This deep-dive post is meant to accompany my Tuesday 1pm PT livestream. weatherwest.com/archives/441…
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
We’ve stopped naming what is happening to us. Humans have seen this dynamic for at least 700 years. In Tales of Count Lucanor, no one will tell the king that he’s naked, too afraid of what telling the truth might cost them. And so we have silence from so many politicians and media outlets, even as our planet breaks another record, day after day, barreling toward an off-the-charts Super El Niño.
Entry #1 of my El Niño diary in today's Notes from the Electric Era newsletter.
electricnotes.news/p/el-nino…
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
So I think it is fair to say that the warning lights are flashing--in California, and also beyond. This extreme El Niño event will have widespread global impacts. We've never seen an event this big before in the context of our rapidly warming climate. Expect some surprises.
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
This kind of outlook is one reason why California's pre-emptive emergency declaration, I think, is justified. Disaster is not guaranteed! But with a forecast like this, it is hard to image ever having a clearer advanced warning of a potentially difficult winter ahead in CA.
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
To be quite honest, this is a seriously concerning outlook. While it remains true that El Niño, even a very strong one, "tilts the odds" rather than guaranteeing outcomes, the current forecast suggests one heck of an odds tilt toward wet conditions--perhaps problematically so.
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
Just did some number crunching using latest (Oct 1) ECMWF seasonal data, and I must say that I've never seen such high predictive confidence in a very wet California winter. This is a truly extraordinary forecast amid a record-strength El Niño event. [Thread: please read to end.]
ALT Model-relative sea surface temperature anomalies for November 2026–January 2027. The supplied grid is displayed without added smoothing or coastal filling. Beige marks land and gray marks missing ocean values. The main colour scale spans -2 to +10°F, with white at zero. Hot pink marks anomalies above +10°F. This map does not establish an operational ENSO category.
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
🌞🌞🌞Scoop - Trump admin weighing 12 data center proposals for 17,600 acres of public land across six states
Far more than previously known
By @mara_hop & @jadelozada_
washingtonsun.com/climate-en…
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
Breaking news: The Trump administration secretly obtained 6 months of phone records for a journalist without a search warrant or any judicial oversight, raising alarm over an obscure legal tool it is deploying theguardian.com/us-news/2026…
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
SCOOP: Trump officials are pressuring the National Park Service to find a way to give a small piece of Yosemite to a private developer.
The land would be used for a road, to give the developer rare private access to the heart of the park.
notus.org/agencies/trump-adm…
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
Gary, Indiana, which just had most of its power turned on after a 2 week blackout, is a story about structural neglect and racism, but also about the frontlines of climate change. My report from Gary on how the slow boil of climate chaos is accelerating prospect.org/2026/08/28/gary…
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
"What’s clear is that no country is truly prepared for a major climate disaster, and the risks are changing," @peterprengaman writes. "As powerful as extreme weather events have already gotten, much worse is likely to come. It’s basic physics." apnews.com/article/climate-c…
Thrilled to share I've been named a @NovaForHealth media fellow! I'll be tackling climate issues I studied at @KSJatMIT. So grateful to my KSJ family for getting me here & for the warm embrace of everyone at Nova as I begin this next chapter with such an esteemed group of fellows
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
“Louisiana is already dealing with a coastal crisis. Destroying 400 more acres in Plaquemines Parish is ridiculous." - Matt Rota, Healthy Gulf
grist.org/energy/trump-energ…
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
NEW: Meta’s Data Center Will Be the Biggest in the U.S., but No One Knows Who They’re Hiring
The two neighboring towns have a majority Black population, but residents fear that the jobs are not reaching them.
capitalbnews.org/louisiana-m…
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
The conventional wisdom is the Democrats' big climate law failed to deliver votes, then died. That's wrong. My new study finds its factories moved 2.5 million votes—more than Trump's margin. And the law's still alive.
My latest in @TheAtlantic, gift link! theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
Phenomenal writing and reporting here, can't recommend it enough:
This piece is out! 4 sites, 10 days, and 6000 words on the politics of data centers in the Midwest: jasmi.news/p/no-data-centers…
I talked to union leaders and real estate brokers, activists and local officials, politicians from Kathy Hochul to Abdul El-Sayed. A few takeaways:
- Activists are as pissed at their local officials as at AI companies
- The bigger the dollar signs, the more skeptical people are
- Past corporate failures (Foxconn, GM, DTE) prime community distrust
- Even data center proponents regret the NDAs
- Media narratives turn local grievances into national movements
- Residents fear getting left with the bag if the bubble pops
The AI buildout is showing up in an environment of extreme distrust, and it slots perfectly into existing worries about risky tech bubbles & dark money in politics. Rationally speaking, I often agreed with the proponents; emotionally, I empathized with the opposition more.
It was also just very fun (WI is esp lovely) and I highly recommend similar field trips to SF friends
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
The smoke haze hanging over much of the United States today, Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at U of Michigan, said, is “the harbinger of worse times to come.”
nytimes.com/2026/07/16/weath…
Yvette Cabrera retweeted
There are growing indications that large, intense, & perhaps record-breaking mid-atmospheric high pressure system (aka a "heat dome") will develop somewhere between Rockies & Central Plains by mid-Jul. This could bring a widespread & severe heatwave across much of the U.S.
ALT Map from ECMWF ensemble showing predicted 500mg GPH anomalies in mid-July. A massive ridge is depicted, centered near Colorado but extending from California to the Ohio River Valley.