Writing Team
In Maricopa County last summer, 94% of people who died of heat indoors had air conditioning. In nearly three quarters of those cases, the unit wasn't running. We kept coming back to that while putting this issue together. The AC was there. The person still died. That gap between what the record says and what's happening at the address turned out to be the whole story: buyouts awarded but nowhere near closed, coastlines mapped from a baseline that's off by a foot, coverage that satisfies a lender but won't rebuild the house. The protection exists on paper. Everything in here lives in the room where it doesn't.
Maya Jiménez
Maya Jiménez, 34, is a Polk Award-winning narrative journalist covering climate adaptation, environmental justice, and community resilience. Born in Guatemala City and raised in Oakland, she specializes in collaborative journalism that centers frontline voices, spending months embedded with communities facing climate impacts.
Seth D. Carrington
Former merchant seaman and labor journalist who spent decades watching working communities navigate crises while elites offered empty promises. Writes with dark humor about the gap between climate rhetoric and lived reality.
