Brian Kahn, Author at Gizmodo

For Sale: Oil Company Headquarters, Slightly Used

When you fall on hard times, you sometimes have to downsize. So it is with BP, which is in talks to sell its London headquarters because of massive financial losses. Multinational oil companies: They’re just like us. The company’s office is located in what the Wall Street Journal calls the “tony Mayfair section” of London…

Climate Change Brian Kahn

This Wasn’t the Climate Election It Seemed to Be

I had a brief glimmer of hope and cognitive dissonance when a few images from Fox News crossed my screen last night. Polling by the conservative cable network showed 72% of voters were concerned about climate change and 70% wanted increased federal clean energy spending. It aligns with other polling similarly showing the majority of…

Earther Brian Kahn

The Election Misinformation Is Only Beginning

All the votes have been cast in the 2020 election, but thanks to the pandemic, unprecedented turnout, and Republicans delaying early counting, the results are still coming in. The misinformation campaign is in full swing, though. Early on Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump falsely declared victory. His lead has shrunk as more ballots get counted…

Politics Brian Kahn & Alex Cranz

Shell’s Bad Tweets Reek of Desperation

“Social license to operate” is one of the life-bloods of brands. Reportedly coined by Canadian mining CEO James Cooney in 1997 after a disaster, the concept is basically how much the public is willing to embrace (or at least put up with) how an industry operates. If it evaporates, an industry’s business model can shrivel…

Earther Brian Kahn

Rapidly Intensifying Hurricane Eta Will Bring ‘Catastrophic’ Conditions to Central America

I know there’s a lot going on, but pause for a moment and consider the Caribbean. Hurricane Eta is a monster bearing down on Central America, cranking up from a tropical storm to a major hurricane in 24 hours. Nicaragua—where it’s expected to make landfall—faces “catastrophic” conditions, as do the surrounding countries that will be…

Earther Brian Kahn

The ‘Petro-Masculinity’ of This Weekend’s Trump Highway Rallies

This weekend, highways from Texas to Kentucky to New Jersey were overrun with Trump-supporting caravans. They tried to run a Joe Biden campaign bus off the road, held up traffic, shut down a bridge, and generally pissed people off and intimidated them. It’s perfectly emblematic of the Trump era, particularly the seamless blend of fossil…

Earther Brian Kahn

California’s Hills Are Haunted by the Ghosts of Wind Energy’s Past

Interstate 580 runs from the California’s North Bay through to the Central Valley. Along the way, it goes over the crest of Altamont Pass and hills that turn golden in summer and lush green with the winter rains. Take Exit 63 and you’ll end up Jess Ranch Rd., a nice place to park and take…

Earther Brian Kahn

How a Biden Administration Could Fight Climate Change Without the Senate

Somewhere between a dream and nightmare is this scenario for Jan. 20, 2021: Joe Biden becomes president, while the Senate remains in Republican control. The latest election polls (I know, I know) at FiveThirtyEight give Biden an 89% chance of winning the White House and Democrats a 76% chance of gaining a slim majority in…

Climate Change Brian Kahn

Exxon Pays Off Shareholders, Lays Off Workers

The tragedy of Exxon continues. On Thursday, the company said it expects to lay off roughly 14,000 workers over the next year. The huge reduction comes even as it pays out shareholders, albeit at a flat level for the first time in nearly four decades. The tumult hitting what was once the biggest, baddest oil…

Earther Brian Kahn

Why Saving Nature Is the Best Way to End the Pandemic Era

When the scientists who warned the world last year that 1 million species face extinction issue a new warning about the “pandemic era,” we should probably listen. On Thursday, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services released a new report chronicling how human activities have created unprecedented risks for pandemics and other zoonotic diseases.…

Earther Brian Kahn

Why the Internet Should Be a Public Utility

The internet is here, it’s just not evenly distributed. While some people have access to high-speed fiber-optic cable running to their house or phones ready to connect to 5G, there are also swaths of broadband deserts where people can’t access internet at reliable speeds. Decades of disinvestment have left communities in what are essentially Sahara,…

Tech News Brian Kahn & Alex Cranz

The Department of Interior Releases Trump Propaganda Video

The Trump administration continues to stretch the limits of decency and legality as it tries to turn the government into a propaganda arm of President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. The latest example comes from the Department of Interior, which released a Dear Leader-style video touting Trump’s environmental record less than a week before Election Day…

Earther Brian Kahn

Ugh, Zeta

By Tuesday afternoon, we should have Hurricane Zeta, the twelfth hurricane of the 2020 season. The storm is expected to reach Louisiana by Wednesday and batter a state that’s spent much too much time in the bullseye this year. Zeta is currently a tropical storm swirling away from the Yucatán Peninsula, a region that’s also…

Earther Brian Kahn

On Big, Beautiful Windows

The president has riffed on many a bizarre subject from his toilet-flushing habits to his appearance under LED lightbulbs. But Donald Trump has a new target in his unending war of grievances against modernizing how we live: windows. Specifically, tiny windows. During Thursday’s debate with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Trump wandered off into a…

Earther Brian Kahn

A Colorado Wildfire Just Climbed Over the Rockies. In October.

Every time you think you’ve seen it all as a climate reporter, the crisis throws something new at you. The latest point in case: the aptly-named East Troublesome Fire has traversed the continental divide in the Rocky Mountains at a time when snow is usually beginning to settle into the hinterlands. While most eyes have…

Earther Brian Kahn

Trump Has Overseen a Pollution Nightmare, Including in the Backyards of Members of Congress Overseeing the EPA

President Donald Trump’s environmental rollbackapalooza has been well-documented, as has the Environmental Protection Agency’s transformation into the Environmental Pollution Agency (please clap). But a new report chronicles what that means on the ground, including the local impacts in districts and states of representatives and senators tasked with making sure the EPA does its job. The…

Environmental Justice Brian Kahn

The Hummer EV Is the Last Thing We Need

Way back in the Before Times, during February’s Super Bowl, GMC hinted an electric Hummer was coming. Now, it’s here (for preorder). The company unveiled the Hummer EV on Tuesday with a commercial featuring Lebron James intoning that this truck is about “seeing the world not as it is but how it could be,” and…

Climate Change Brian Kahn

Mourners Hold a Funeral for a Dead Oregon Glacier

Twelve years ago, I strode by Clark Glacier on the flanks of South Sister, the tallest of a cluster of three volcanoes in Oregon’s Cascades. The mass of ice clung to the slopes, strewn with red and brown streaks left behind by volcanic cinders that tumbled across its face. The glacier was unremarkable compared to…

Earther Brian Kahn

Trump’s Closing Pitch for Some Reason: Biden Will ‘Listen to the Scientists’

It appears we’ve reached the throw-shit-at-a-wall-and-see-what-sticks phase of President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign messaging. On Sunday, somewhere between talking up the experimental drugs that supposedly cured his case of covid-19 and his toilet flushing bit, he attacked (????) Democratic nominee Joe Biden by saying, “He’ll listen to the scientists.” More than 219,000 Americans are dead,…

Earther Brian Kahn

A Texas House Race Could Bring Unions to the Table to Build a Green New Deal

Texas, unions, and a Green New Deal are three ideas that on the surface seem incompatible. But dig deeper, and it’s clear that’s not the case. In fact, a House race in Texas could well be the template that shows how to meld progressive climate politics and union organizing. Teacher and union organizer Mike Siegel…

Earther Brian Kahn

Brian Kahn

For Sale: Oil Company Headquarters, Slightly Used

This Wasn’t the Climate Election It Seemed to Be

The Election Misinformation Is Only Beginning

Shell’s Bad Tweets Reek of Desperation

Rapidly Intensifying Hurricane Eta Will Bring ‘Catastrophic’ Conditions to Central America

The ‘Petro-Masculinity’ of This Weekend’s Trump Highway Rallies

California’s Hills Are Haunted by the Ghosts of Wind Energy’s Past

How a Biden Administration Could Fight Climate Change Without the Senate

Exxon Pays Off Shareholders, Lays Off Workers

Why Saving Nature Is the Best Way to End the Pandemic Era

Why the Internet Should Be a Public Utility

The Department of Interior Releases Trump Propaganda Video

Ugh, Zeta

On Big, Beautiful Windows

A Colorado Wildfire Just Climbed Over the Rockies. In October.

Trump Has Overseen a Pollution Nightmare, Including in the Backyards of Members of Congress Overseeing the EPA

The Hummer EV Is the Last Thing We Need

Mourners Hold a Funeral for a Dead Oregon Glacier

Trump’s Closing Pitch for Some Reason: Biden Will ‘Listen to the Scientists’

A Texas House Race Could Bring Unions to the Table to Build a Green New Deal

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Adds ‘Succulent Chinese Meal’ Guy

Feds Sniffing Around Polymarket After Suspicious Bets

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Don’t Get Too Attached to Any AI App

‘Paradise’ Writer Teases What’s Coming in Season 3 After That Huge Twist

Trump’s New White House App Is Mildly Concerning and Weird for a Lot of Reasons

Bloodsucking Ticks Can Survive Inside Your Home Longer Than You Might Think

The Best New Toys of March 2026

Judge Denies Liking LinkedIn Post Critical of Elon Musk But Reassigns His Cases Anyway

Amazon Slashes 50% Off Keurig K-Cup Pod Coffee Maker, Now a Budget Alternative to Breville and Nespresso Espresso Machines

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets