Writing Team
A study this year found air conditioning prevents about 5,200 heat deaths annually in the US. Real finding. But the data is county-level. It can't see whether a specific unit cools the room, whether someone can afford to run it, whether the power holds through the peak. We kept running into that distance. A Colorado rancher hauls water nine hours a day because the creek went dry. Federal assistance reimburses eligible hauling costs. Not his time. Not the calves losing weight. Not the question of whether to sell the herd. The protection is real. So is the remainder, and nobody's counting it.
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.
