Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff

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Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff linktr.ee/rachellincolnsarnoff

Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff is a writer and climate communicator who hosts "Ask an Author" on Instagram, the Good Newsletter on Substack, and the Santa Monica Silent Book Club IRL.

“Nearly 80 percent of land east of the Mississippi is privately owned, and 135 million acres are now in residential land...
10/23/2026

“Nearly 80 percent of land east of the Mississippi is privately owned, and 135 million acres are now in residential landscapes. That puts the private property owner in charge of conservation. If 10 to 20 percent of landowners planted native plants, this would add up to a habitat larger than 10 Yellowstones.” - Doug Tallamy in Reasons to be Cheerful (photo)

Wheel, reinvention: The USDA announced a new program to increase local food in schools while states called for reinstatement of existing programs that, until recently, delivered $1 billion to buy food from farmers.

Meanwhile, agrovoltaics — adding solar panels to farmland — isn’t just better for crops, it’s also good for workers, new study shows. In a state first, New Jersey just green-lit 16 agrovoltaic projects that will pair solar panels with active fields producing soybeans, fruit, livestock, and more – plus as much as 200 megawatts of power over three years.

All facts are linked in the free September Good Newsletter. You don’t have to be a subscriber to read it (but that would be awesome). https://rachellincolnsarnoff.substack.com

What's good?The new Melanesian Ocean Reserve — the world’s first Indigenous-led ocean governance framework — will protec...
10/20/2026

What's good?

The new Melanesian Ocean Reserve — the world’s first Indigenous-led ocean governance framework — will protect six million kilometers of ocean waters, protecting 75% of known coral species and 3,000 reef fish species. As the ocean warms, what could build coral reef resilience? Researchers point to…probiotics. Meanwhile, Norway just protected the ocean equivalent of 260,000 (EU) football pitches, and a new report shows signs of recovery on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. (Photo: AIMS via The Conversation)

A brand-new penguin species was recently discovered in the Kerguelen Islands — the first in 100 years. With the first foal born in 200 years, wild horses are returning to Kazakhstan. In Bolivia, a new wild cat was recently discovered, the first in over a century. Jaguars are coming back to North America, an otter in the Bronx River means the city’s river clean-up initiatives are working, and 10,000 animals have now safely crossed Washington’s I-90 on a wildlife overpass that opened in 2014.

Fact check me in the Good Newsletter! https://rachellincolnsarnoff.substack.com

Fun fact: If you are accompanied by a performing magician, a photo is allowed The Magic Castle. And the second snap may ...
10/15/2026

Fun fact: If you are accompanied by a performing magician, a photo is allowed The Magic Castle.

And the second snap may not mean anything to you, but it was an early sign that Phil Goodman was about to blow our minds. (Also, Adam Wylie omg.)

Gold friends are awesome and magic is real and I about it all (of course).

Renewable progress, state by state:• In Illinois, two community solar projects opened on the site of a former coal mine,...
10/15/2026

Renewable progress, state by state:

• In Illinois, two community solar projects opened on the site of a former coal mine, reflecting a national shift as solar overtook coal to become the third-biggest energy generator in the U.S.
• North Carolina is developing a web of solar microgrids, preparing a diesel-free solution to hurricane relief.
• The Community Lighthouse program is the nation’s largest network of solar and storage resilience hubs, providing commercial-scale solar power and back-up battery capacity at churches and community buildings during power outages. The newest project will soon power up at a church in Houston, Texas; meanwhile, in the state, renewables are stabilizing the power grid in 100-degree heat. (Graphic: Heatmap)
• And the CL project in New Orleans, Louisiana will soon connect every resident to solar-powered backup electricity in just a 15-minute walk. Also in that fair city, green infrastructure projects are community-led and designed to defend from urban flooding.
• A federal judge checkmated the EPA from blocking California’s Clean Air Act exemptions requiring vehicle pollution standards that are stricter than federal requirements, and her roast was so spot-on I just had to share. “Such gamesmanship may seem like a clever policy move, but undermines honest compliance with the law, which is what Americans should expect from executive branch agencies,” said Judge Beryl A. Howell. Cooked.
• After petitions from environmental groups, New Mexico halted buildout of a massive data center.
• In Arizona, tree-sitters in a 200-year-old giant cottonwood have for over a month blocked construction of a 30-foot border wall in a remote area rarely crossed by humans but heavily trafficked by animals.

Too good to be true? Check the links in the (free) Good Newsletter! https://rachellincolnsarnoff.substack.com

Act local, track global:• Co-located renewable energy — basically solar panels and grid batteries on the same site — att...
10/13/2026

Act local, track global:

• Co-located renewable energy — basically solar panels and grid batteries on the same site — attracted $25 billion of global investment in the first half of this year, doubling previous records.
• As part of an Australian plan that rolled out last year, more than 500,000 batteries have been installed to capture solar energy, so much of which is now generated that even homeowners without panels benefit from free power.
• Africa installed 100,000 solar panels each day this year — a 45% increase for the third consecutive year.
• Methane leaks in aging oil and gas facilities are a serious global problem; in Turkmenistan, which had the most in the world in 2023, they’re pulling the “emergency brake.”
• File under committed: With a population of just six million people, Bulgaria became one of the world’s highest battery storage capacity countries in less than two years.
• Germany — the EU’s largest economy — just became the third country, after France and the Netherlands, to establish a plan to phase out fossil fuels, citing energy independence as a primary concern.
• London’s iconic Spitalfields Market is now solar-powered.
• In Cuba, the fuel crisis has spawned an explosion of solar-powered, EV tricycles – reducing air pollution, costs, and time in transit.

And finally (drumroll, please) it’s time to rethink the world map. The one we currently recognize was established in the 16th century and is distorted: Africa is depicted as equal in size to Greenland, even though it is in fact 14x bigger, a choice some call “cartographic colonialism.” Now, the UN voted unanimously minus one – guess who? – to phase out the Mecator map and adopt the 2018 Equal Earth design, on which the U.S. and EU look (accurately) smaller. (Photo: The Guardian)

Fact check me in the (free) Good Newsletter. Link in bio!

“That’s a place that you can fight from when you realize that everybody across the political spectrum in power is united...
10/08/2026

“That’s a place that you can fight from when you realize that everybody across the political spectrum in power is united.” - Will Lawrence, Democratic congressional candidate in Michigan, on data centers. (Photo: Atmos)

Will data centers decide the U.S. election? Seven in 10 Americans oppose building these environmentally unfriendly behemoths in their communities, and the opposition transcends party lines.

Speaking of the aisle: When it comes to getting votes, climate hushing can backfire, new analysis shows. Although it’s true that the issue ranks lower than the economy or healthcare for both Democrats and Republicans, talking about global warming does not polarize or lose supporters — and climate supporters are far more motivated to vote on this issue than those who oppose it. Let’s talk!

Which brings me to the nonpartisan Environmental Voter Project, whose recent news from Michigan at press time was powerful: At a time when statewide turnout was at just 1.1%, nearly 3x the amount of climate voters had already voted! With the election just three weeks away, EVP’s work in battleground states like this one has massive impact — and they sure could use our support.

It’s all linked up in the free Good Newsletter – click the link to read or (better yet) subscribe! https://rachellincolnsarnoff.substack.com

We knew it was coming, right? Even Utah green-lit balcony solar. But when California’s Governor Newsom signed SB 868, I ...
10/07/2026

We knew it was coming, right? Even Utah green-lit balcony solar. But when California’s Governor Newsom signed SB 868, I did a little happy dance.

No, we didn’t get everything, but new laws will also prohibit new oil and gas leases on our coast, force gas utilities to incentivize electrification, limit utility profits, accelerate EV charging infrastructure, and open the door to virtual power plants that pay customers to supply power to the grid, and support for farmers converting to agrovoltaics.

Also, that Golden Gate stunt was ludicrous in the best possible way. (Photo: Governor Gavin Newsom)

It’s all linked up in the free Good Newsletter, hot off the press! You don’t have to be a subscriber to read it (but that would be awesome). https://rachellincolnsarnoff.substack.com

Weird science: For the first time ever, researchers were able to grow meat flavor on lettuce, giving new meaning to prot...
10/07/2026

Weird science: For the first time ever, researchers were able to grow meat flavor on lettuce, giving new meaning to protein-style. (Photo: Science Alert) Increasingly, innovation is turning to waste – like new toxic-dye removing filters made from discarded rice husks.

Replacing gas stoves with electric in homes of asthmatic people showed “massive improvement” and scientists studying asthmatic children in London were “stunned” by how quickly their lungs recovered after breathing cleaner air because of pollution restrictions.

Honeybees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops every year and now they have their own doctors. Meanwhile, a nonprofit group supporting beekeeping collectives in Ethiopia helps make sure the profits stay with the women working to earn them.

Fact check me in the (free) Good Newsletter! https://rachellincolnsarnoff.substack.com

“Rising electricity demand spurs investment in new capacity despite the US administration’s efforts to thwart a solar an...
10/06/2026

“Rising electricity demand spurs investment in new capacity despite the US administration’s efforts to thwart a solar and wind rollout.” That’s from a new report that predicts clean energy additions will increase by a record 45 gigawatts in 2026. (Photo: ArsTechnica)

Separate analysis shows lost federal incentives still can’t stop onshore wind and large-scale solar from delivering the lowest levelized cost of energy in the U.S. Also, solar can now power over 50 million U.S. homes — and Q2 showed a 45% year-over-year increase in new electricity generating capacity.

Critical to reducing building emissions are super-efficient heat pumps, which move heat from inside to outside and vice-versa using electricity (rather than carbon-intensive methane aka natural gas) and can slash a household’s carbon footprint by as much as 64% even when powered by a fossil-fueled grid. Last year, they were installed in over half of new U.S. apartment complexes.

And even in the fact of federal headwinds, the pipeline for clean power was up 11% in the first half of 2026, versus the previous year. Plus, solar energy and battery storage employed nearly 500,000 workers across all 50 states in 2024 — employing more than three times as many people as coal.

Get linked stories in the brand-new Good Newsletter, which dropped today! https://rachellincolnsarnoff.substack.com

My essay “On Viewing the P**n Trading Cards Catalogue (1925-2025)” is up on Writers Resist! It’s a true story — there re...
10/06/2026

My essay “On Viewing the P**n Trading Cards Catalogue (1925-2025)” is up on Writers Resist! It’s a true story — there really was a catalogue and it floored me.

I wrote the flash essay as a series of commands to expose how ridiculous beauty standards have been marketed across generations. It interrogates who profits from the female body and what happens when that body begins to speak back.

Writers Resist is intersectional feminist online literary collective and journal founded in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. I’m thrilled to join their ranks!

Along with other super-impressive Fall issue writers, I’ll be reading on Saturday November 14th from 4:30 PST on Zoom. If you’d like to join, message me for the link and passcode. (Graphic: Writers Resist)

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