How did 3M’s “forever chemicals” end up in all of us? The inside story of the corporate scientists who discovered—then helped to conceal—the dangers of its chemicals.

You can’t ban defiance! ✊🏼✊🏾📢⚖️

A nearly Connecticut-sized, oxygen-depleted area of ocean is decidedly abnormal. But the last 4 decades of annual measurements and failed efforts to stop chemical pollution flowing off midwestern farms and into the Gulf made this week’s announcement entirely predictable.

“We’re being treated like animals… I’m brown. If I go out they can stop me every day just cuz of my skin color.” What are we doing? 🇺🇸 (from @rokhanna.bsky.social )

Sadako Sasaki was two when the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima. She was 12 when she died of leukemia caused by radiation. In her hospital bed, she folded 1,000 paper cranes for peace. Today, we fold cranes in her memory & to build a safer world free from the threat of nuclear weapons. #CranesForOurFuture

There are historical cases, going back hundreds or thousands of years, of humans reacting quickly to climate change. And then there is the current case of humans both causing the climate change and refusing to react to it. www.wired.com/story/kerr-c...

“The fossil fuel industry was sent a powerful message by the court in this case — the health, well-being, affordability, and prosperity of our communities matters more than the industry’s profits and the hollowness of its fear mongering.” ~ Dawn Wells-Clyburn, executive director of PUSH Buffalo

A university scientist who discovered alarming levels of toxic chemicals in a lake in southeastern Louisiana was abruptly removed from her research position this week without explanation

“We found an average of seven different pesticides per butterfly, including multiple insecticides that are highly toxic to insects.” ~ Staci Cibotti, lead author of the study and pesticide risk prevention specialist @xercessociety.bsky.social

This made us laugh… and cry. If you felt it too, here’s one way to help two agencies in the bunker 👇

“What makes our discovery groundbreaking is not just its greater depth – it’s the astonishing abundance and diversity of chemosynthetic life we observed... this community thrives like a vibrant oasis in the vast desert of the deep sea.” ~ Mengran Du, IDSSE, Chinese Academy of Sciences

“Oil and gas development in these fragile ecosystems would have devastating impacts on biodiversity, communities, land rights and the global fight against climate change.” ~ Anna Bebbington, research manager @earth-insight.org

Cooper's Hawk (Astur cooperii) Seward Park, Seattle, US #Aves #Birds #Nature #Hawks #Photography

“Every child deserves the chance to grow and thrive. Yet over 190 million children under the age of 5 are affected by undernutrition... This robs them of the chance to live to their fullest potential.” Catherine Russell, executive director ‪ @unicef.org , @fao.org

“We are stretching the limits of how much ecological damage we can get away with." ~ ‪@lewisakenji.bsky.social , @footprintnetwork.bsky.social

Federal investments in science have been an engine driving the development of life-saving technologies such as early warning systems for tsunamis & storms, diagnostic tests and vaccines, the early internet & cell phones. But the Trump admin’s budget proposal could take this engine out of commission.

“For centuries, we’ve mapped mountains, forests, and oceans. But these fungi have remained in the dark, despite the extraordinary ways they sustain life on land.” @tobykiers.bsky.social , @spun.earth

I wrote about the EPA dismantling greenhouse gas regulations, the International Court of Justice’s climate ruling and the limits of belief newrepublic.com/article/1982...

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling supports the obligation of UN member states to tackle the climate crisis and outlines the consequences they could face if they fail to do so.

“Teams are not fully functional right now because we have lost so many people... There was no efficiency in this – they just slashed it with an ax.” ~ Bobbie Scopa, retired firefighter with the USFS for 45 years

“No one voted to turn on their kitchen faucet and serve their family tap water laced with toxic chemicals.” ~ Erik Olson, senior strategic director of health @nrdc.org

“Unless further thwarted by counterproductive federal proposals, the northeast will see an increasingly diversified clean energy portfolio... minimizing the reliance on aging, inefficient fossil fuel power plants to serve peak demand.” @acadiacenter.bsky.social

“The endangered Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, which has lived harmoniously with the haenyeo (female sea divers) in Jeju waters, is an important species that requires protection.” ~ Governor of Jeju Oh Young-hoon

“Communities and states face devastating consequences when the federal government doesn’t meet its obligations to the public, and I will hold the Trump administration accountable for abandoning their safety.” ~ Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown ‬@atg.wa.gov

How we've failed the promise of making “genocide” a crime

“Acoustic interaction between plants and animals doubtlessly has many more forms and a wide range of roles. This is a vast, unexplored field — an entire world waiting to be discovered,” the researchers concluded.

“The mountains are issuing a distress call." ~ United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, @un.org

“This pace of change and clustering of consecutive records is not a natural variation in our climate. Numerous studies have shown how human emissions of greenhouse gases are warming the atmosphere and changing the weather we experience on the ground." ~ Mike Kendon @metoffice.gov.uk

This is a great article by Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social on how solar power hit an inflection point and has now become an unstoppable force. A must read. www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...

Florida is first and worst in an insurance storm that will be hitting many other places soon. Buckle up; this gets ugly.

“These environmental changes can affect everything from photosynthesis and growth rates to the synthesis and storage of nutrients in crops.” ~ Jiata Ugwah Ekele, doctorate student @ljmuofficial.bsky.social ‪

“Plastic pollution of the marine realm is widespread, with most scientific attention given to macroplastics and microplastics... Our findings suggest that nanoplastics comprise the dominant fraction of marine plastic pollution.” @dusanmateric.bsky.social, @ufz-cite.bsky.social

“Our study provides the first evidence in dolphins for a wider repertoire of shared, context-specific signals, which could form the basis for a language-like communication system.” @whoi.edu

“Glaciers tend to suppress the volume of eruptions from the volcanoes beneath them." @pmorenoyaeger.bsky.social , @uwmadison.bsky.social ‪

“Other countries have banned diquat, but in the U.S. we’re still fighting the fights that Europe won 20 years ago. It hasn’t gotten to the radar of most groups and that really says a lot about the sad and sorry state of pesticides in the U.S.” ~ Nathan Donley @biologicaldiversity.org

Thanks to @ecowatch.bsky.social for such comprehensive coverage of Poisoning the Well and the pervasiveness of the #PFAS problem in US communities! www.ecowatch.com/poisoning-th...

“These products are useful — waterproof stuff is nice to have, and there are other uses like medical and military uses that are very important... preventing jet fuel fires is essential. But the price that we pay for all of that is the contamination in these communities.” ~ @rachelfrazin.bsky.social

"It's a constant therapy through action... Even if you don't know how to act right away." ~ graphic artist Christophe Blain

How did we go from decades of broad political support for US science & scientists to unprecedented attacks on their autonomy and independence? And how can scientists build stronger community connections today? Science Network member Christopher Fisher explores these questions and more in this blog.

"We haven’t found a way to destroy PFAS, but our findings open the possibility of developing ways to get them out of our bodies where they do the most harm." ~ @indraroux.bsky.social, @mrc-tu.bsky.social

"... a transition to a renewable energy-based economy [is] now cheaper and safer for our economics and a healthier option for our societies… [it] seems radical and unrealistic because fossil fuel companies have been so good at making it seem so.” ~ UN special rapporteur on human rights Elisa Morgera

‪"Today, we stand together in dissent against the current administration's focus on harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA actions, and disregard for scientific expertise,” the declaration states. @standupforscience.bsky.social

“We’ve recorded butterflies at several new sites, including areas where they haven’t been seen since the 1990s.” ~ Jenny Plackett, South West England conservation manager @savebutterflies.bsky.social

“The substances do not penetrate the animals’ cells, but rather stick to the surface of the animal. This physically affects the animal, making it unable to move as well, and it impairs its ability to ingest food.” ~ Hans Sanderson, Department of Environmental Science at Aarhus University