Nearly half of the weather balloons in the lower 48 are missing because of DOGE

I'll have a live update on Mon, Jun 29 at 3pm PT on the severe and still-expanding wildfire outbreak across the interior West, including role of both long-term climate & short-term weather in driving extremely critical risk. Plus: live satellite imagery.

One year ago this month, the MSC Elsa 3 was sailing up the Indian coast when it began to tilt dangerously to its right side. The next morning, the ship sank, spilling more than 70,000 bags of a particularly pernicious cargo of tiny plastic pellets known as nurdles www.biographic.com/no-one-knows...

It was so hot inside our old Seattle house during the heat dome that we slept outside, underneath towels we'd soaked and then frozen in the freezer. I'll never forget the incredible relief of waking up in the middle of the night to the cool breeze that broke the heat.

The Colorado River’s endangered fish have become a living proxy of its health. When they struggle, it often means the river itself is struggling. And in 2026, nearly every indicator is flashing red. www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/...

anybody who follows climate policy remembers the "wedges" paper

This is just to say, I am on the coolest and weirdest reporting trip. And it involves more poop than ever before, which is saying something.

And they say there's no good news

The president is trying to downsize the U.S Forest Service and eliminate wildfire and smoke research as the American West is facing a potentially epic summer fire season.

This is a work of art: the headline of the obit of Lee Raymond, ExxonMobil CEO and a leading architect of predatory delay on climate. He helped launch the Global Climate Coalition, a well-funded anti-climate industry front group, in 1989. heatmap.news/daily/lee-ra... ht @gwagner.com

During the pandemic I wrote about the wild and crazy whirlwind that is the cherry harvest, and what it says about the agricultural workers we depend on utterly but take for granted. www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/m...

The sweet taste of freedom* *cow shit

Let's try to wrap our heads around these numbers again, shall we. One million seconds from now it will be a week from Tuesday. One billion seconds from now it will be February... in 2058. One trillion seconds from now won't arrive for almost 32,000 years.

Periodic reminder that Teapot Dome, the worst scandal in American history prior to Watergate, involved $9 million changing hands. That’s adjusted for inflation. This story by itself is 55500% bigger than Teapot Dome. That’s not a typo.

During the pandemic I wrote about the wild and crazy whirlwind that is the cherry harvest, and what it says about the agricultural workers we depend on utterly but take for granted. www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/m...

No joke, it would be cheaper to pay every coal miner $5m every year to not mine coal. There are only 40,000 coal miners, while the coal industry produces >$500 billion in external costs every year, including by routinely burning coal just to burn it despite it costing more ("uneconomic dispatch").

Refinishing some 100+ year-old oak dining chairs I got for $15/each. They're have slightly different histories, and I counted 12 different fabrics, from 90s polyester stripes to 70s corduroy through the damask/satin mid-century...

“If the person is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.” Justice Brett Kavanaugh www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

There's not even really any rationale given? Just wanton destruction of knowledge for wanton destruction's sake. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/c...

We've got a big feature out today (with gorgeous photographs) about the Ukrainian conservationists working to save a herd of bison from the ongoing Russian invasion. It's about the hope that conservation can offer in times of war, and the ways that animals' lives are entangled human geopolitics.

“.. The U.S. is now spending more on data center construction than on public transportation infrastructure, according to new Census Bureau figures out today.” @bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Hegseth Strikes Female and Black Navy Officers From Promotion List. The net result: a slate of 22 new one-star admiral nominees that bears little resemblance to the broader force these officers will help lead. Of special note: The list has no women. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/u...

The BART dragon dance started as a whimsical idea for a wall scroll painting a few years ago, and is now a real life prop that I bring to Bay Area transit-related rallies and celebrations. 🚃🚃🚃

A family member sent this pic of a full-page ad in Virginia's oldest continually publishing newspaper (The Recorder covers Bath and Highland Counties in western Virginia, the two least populated counties in the state, 76.5% and 71.3% Trump voters in 2024)

I’m a climate scientist. Let me fix this headline. “Nearly a century ago, scientists showed that burning fossil fuels warms the planet. Today, we know human emissions account for over 100% of the warming. Yet dark money and disinformation still work to keep Americans addicted to fossil fuels.”

🧵 Public science in the US has taken some heavy hits over the last year, but the White House OMB is proposing a series of changes that will result in a TKO for science as we know it unless we fight back. Here's what's happening, and why it matters. 1/n

It’s truly astonishing to see how comprehensively the US government is tearing down every part of the system that has made it up until now a world-leading power in science, research, and technological development. The entire world will suffer from this wanton destruction.

but the FIFA peace prize

As I've been saying: Inflation is just getting started. I think this is going to be a major theme of the next few years. It is not going to be pleasant, even for people with money. For people without, it's going to be (and is already) devastating.

They stole the internet’s knowledge and all the work that went into it and they want to sell it back to us for a fee. What a business model.

Dear editor, my article is 95% done. The remaining 5% of work is focused on researching it and writing it

A two-decade study conducted in the southeastern Brazilian Amazon found that while degraded forests show high ecological resilience and no sign of transitioning to savanna, species diversity at forest edges halved. Suzana Camargo on @mongabay.com news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amaz...

Toxic chemicals in pet flea treatments harming wildlife, UK study warns

"Americans should be cleareyed about what the president is doing. He is taking their money and showering it on criminals." 🎁 link: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/o...

Policymakers cast doubt on peer-reviewed science and lean into misleading ideas around the adaptability of Indian people to dirty air as part of delaying stricter regulation on air pollution. Fascinating @rishpardikar.bsky.social @earthjournalism.bsky.social story drilled.media/news/air-pol...

Happy to share my thoughts for this piece w @circleofblue.bsky.social. A rare case where an extreme headline is not hyperbolic. www.circleofblue.org/2026/supply/...

NEW from me: News headlines adopted Trump’s deceptive framing of his new $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund presswatchers.org/2026/05/news...

why do all the apps now have to act like the creepy guy who interrupts you at the library to ask you what you’re reading, who wants this

I’m not sure why this isn’t being mentioned more, but: IRS policy for 50 years has been that the sitting president & VP get audited every year, in an effort to reassure the public they’re not corruptly abusing the office to enrich themselves.

Periodic reminder that "de-extinction" is not a real thing www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/m...

JFC. During an oil crisis, when EVs are a lifeline, Congress is about to *put a tax on EVs*. Spectacularly stupid.

More than 100,000 children have been separated from their parents during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, a new analysis by the Brookings Institution suggests. Roughly three-quarters of those children are likely U.S. citizens. nyti.ms/42CBGKt

For you to understand how much the world has changed, in the 1970s as a second grader we were REQUIRED to watch the TV show adaptation of ROOTS. REQUIRED. www.knoxnews.com/story/news/e...

Today in neighborhood bumper stickers #bugsky #insectthursday

So many species that we associate with a certain habitat -- grizzly bears in the mountains, condors by the coast, jaguars in the jungle, etc etc -- live there not because it's the only place they can/used to/like to live, but because that's all that we've left for them

Me: smugly indignant that the great Joni Mitchell, of whom I am clearly the world's number one fan, was not on this list Also me: forgot that she's Canadian www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

wtaf: "At one point, the lawsuit alleges, ChatGPT said that it’s much more likely for a shooting to gain national attention 'if children are involved, even 2-3 victims can draw more attention.'" www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

It is so hard to watch the journalism crisis hit your favorite publications. We need way more nature/biodiversity reporting, not less!