Robinson Meyer

In fact, more than one new episode, I think.

Until then, I'm Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of HeatMap News, and you are listening to Shift Key.

Jesse, let's start.

Yeah, let's start at the big question.

The quiescence of fire beginning in the early 20th century has likely contributed to the belief that fire did not have a substantial influence here.

However, this recent absence is actually an outlier that stands in stark contrast to the Cape's fiery past." Too bad Robinson Meyer doesn't have Google on his computer.

Or his colleague Jessica Lange, who wrote, quote, heat kills more Americans than any other extreme weather event in the United States, but wildfire smoke, while not strictly weather, appears to kill even more, end quote.

Bosh! In fact, cold kills 10 times as many Americans as heat, or more, and it kills more of them than even the most tendentious measures of smoke deaths, which involve long-term exposure and the PM2.5 kludge.

What's story number one?

Former show guest Robinson Meyer from HeatMap News, exclusive 75% of Americans now oppose local data center development.

That number has been ticking up for a while.

I remember the studies that, hey, it's more than half.

But I was listening to a sportscast on the radio yesterday afternoon where the announcer was giving the headlines and said, this happened in baseball, that happened in football, and Dolly Parton died today.

And then last night, I opened a climate newsletter that I read, Heat Map, climate newsletter by Robinson Meyer, who's been on the show.

And he wrote, I was planning on writing about a different topic today.

And then Dolly Parton died.

What we gonna do when it all burns down? And the heat map site added this.

Have you seen this yet? It says that in a fluke, the next tropical cyclone to form in the Atlantic Ocean will be named Dolly.

So thank you, Robinson Meyer and heat map.

And isn't that crazy? The names were chosen a long time ago.

A poll, for instance, from Heatmap News found significant erosion over the course of the last year.

Quote, "It's a swift, massive shift in US public opinion on a scale I wouldn't have thought possible," writes Robinson Meyer of Heatmap.

This shift is happening in spite of the fact that data centers are economic boons to their neighbors.

They generate so much money for Loudoun County, Virginia, for example, that the local government was able to cut everybody else's property taxes.

Yeah.

But, um, I, I, I did wanna get this up, too, because just going back to, like, how unpopular this is becoming, this is from Robinson Meyer of Heatmap News.

I was pretty shocked at how much the goalposts have, or not goalposts, to how much the Overton window has shrunk here, Charlie.

Quote, "Over the past year, we've asked Americans whether they would support or oppose a data center being built near where they live.

We talk about how this state of affairs came about, how it might be remedied, and what it means for California's economy and climate progress.

I'm Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News, and you are listening to Shift Key.

[upbeat music] Lauren Teixeira, welcome to Shift Key.

Thank you.