We're hiring! I'm recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Associate in climate & paleoclimate modeling of the tropical Americas. Come obsess over the tropical rain belt with me! :) Please share w/folks who may be interested. Ad here: wustl.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

Congratulations to the new class of Packard Fellows!

Honestly, this 8.8-mag quake and tsunami seems a fabulous demonstration of the capabilities that the US, Japan, and others have marshalled to protect their citizens. This doesn't just exist. It has to be built and maintained.

“More than 140 employees of the National Science Foundation have signed a letter denouncing what they described as efforts to undermine one of the country’s main science funding agencies. … Out of fear of retaliation, all but one of the employees’ signatures are redacted.”

FYI, #AGU25 will be PC-only (no macs) 🙃

NOAA is essential to the health, welfare, and safety of all Americans. Dismantling climate.gov makes us all less safe. Here’s an article we wrote about the value of NOAA to the American public: bsky.app/profile/cost...

Sad to see that leadership didn’t approve of my suggested post language (assuming since this is what is posted) that I submitted on my last day in May as the social media manager. Allow me share some of our team’s kind words here instead:

and many of these swaths of the USA are not prone to wildfires locally, so folks do not have a habit in place of checking the AQI (which is second nature in, e.g., the west)

If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow. The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.

One of the most fascinating interviews I've ever done. Seriously. On the eve of #hurricane season, #tornadoes moving across the South and Canadian #wildfire smoke descending on the upper Midwest, there is no more important time to focus on #climate impact on #finance #economy. @climate.noaa.gov

How bad will it be? Catastrophic. Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come. But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget. Speak up now before it is too late. (inflation adjusted $-s below)

2 weeks ago, an EF3 tornado tore through my neighborhood and others in STL city. Relief efforts are almost entirely grassroots, which on the one hand is beautiful, and on the other hand is so depressing. Houses' roofs and brick walls are torn wide open like dollhouses and yet, no one is coming.

The marathon livestream of weather & climate scientists talking about their research, and its importance, continues. Drop in anytime through the weekend for learning opportunities. I just heard a discussion about what everyone's favorite cloud is! #wx wcstreamathon.netlify.app

There’s so much happening right now, I thought I’d put together a running thread on the dismantling of #climate and research and knowledge infrastructure in the United States 🧵

BREAKING from @science.org: The Trump admin is seeking to kill nearly all climate research at NOAA, its climate science agency. Its near-final budget proposal would end all NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers. And it wants to fully end the NOAA Research division.

The rationale for this cancellation is climate denial. There is no dressing it up, there is no tiptoeing around it. Yet climate change doesn’t care if we believe it. It will destroy our homes, multiply insurance rates, wreak economic havoc and more — regardless of our opinions or voting record.

Paleo folks: Does anyone know if NOAA/NCEI's Paleoclimatology database is part of NOAA's Amazon Web Services contract? Does the US paleo community need to start archiving datasets at Pangaea now too? FAIR data principles don't really work if the website can disappear with little notice.

I worry all the competitive rhetoric over the years has brainwashed everyone to think that there is stable global demand for science and if the jobs aren’t here they will move somewhere else. No, there will just be less science.

Should you need a gift link…

Happy omega day to those who celebrate. The March equinox is our reference point for the ever-changing position of perihelion relative to the solstices. Seasons, stars, time itself, they’re always changing. So find yourself a good reference point. A little mindfulness from #paleoclimatology 🤓

"[T]he entire system felt rigged, designed to make it nearly impossible for anyone to get out. The reality became clear: Ice detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit." This story is beyond insane ...

Hey #StLouis, the air quality outside is extremely dangerous. Stay indoors. It’s WILD that we got 1,000,000 tornado alerts last night but have gotten NO alerts about the wildfire smoke & dust borne by that same weather system! Did the air quality alert folks at #NOAA / #NWS get fired or something?

AGU has joined a lawsuit challenging the firing of probationary employees at federal agencies. These actions weaken science, harm public health & the environment, and threaten national security. 🧵 #StandWithScience

It's happening again. Stillwater (MN) Area Public Schools are restricting access to my book "Call Me Max," citing bogus concerns about "the age and maturity of the intended audience." You can read my full letter to them here: www.kylelukoff.com/blog-1/2025/.... I'll also post the highlights below.

IAGLR and dozens of other scientific societies have united on a call to action urging Congress to prioritize the integrity and funding of scientific research. By investing in science, lawmakers can help safeguard our future and foster an informed citizenry. www.ucsusa.org/about/news/s...

SCOOP: Some of the DOGE staffers are drawing salaries from the agencies they are cutting. We got some new details: www.wired.com/story/doge-g...

Hi - I'd like to share this story of what is happening at NOAA GFDL, where some of my colleagues and I worked until the mass firings at NOAA last week. "...the birthplace of weather and climate forecasting"

Thread

Check out the external affairs page at NOAA right now. That's right. Everyone at NOAA external affairs was fired. www.noaa.gov/external-aff...

Update: according to a now-former NOAA Great Lakes lab employee, it seems like the entire communications team was cut - the group that was responsible for relaying info to the public about things like harmful algal blooms, waves/currents, and lake-effect snow www.wzzm13.com/article/news...

NOAA's #GreatLakes Environmental Research Lab will be taking an "indefinite hiatus" from communications due to staff cuts. GLERL communicates critical weekly updates about the extent of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie - like the one that left my hometown of Toledo without drinking water in 2014

Democrats are fundamentally misunderstanding the moment: We're not asking them to be *legislators* right now. We need them to be *politicians.* There's nothing to be done about the legislative situation. They're right about that. But there's PLENTY to be done as politicians.

It may not be cool or hip in some circles, but we legitimately do need a massive amount of people to run for office. Flood the school boards, councils, county seats, state legislatures, Congress, etc. Big changes at the top happen when the ground shifts at the bottom. And that can start now.

‼️The US-based @ipcc.bsky.social technical support unit (TSU) for Working Group 3 Co-Chairs has been terminated, and the US won’t be attending next week’s IPCC meeting where the AR7 chapter outlines will be approved. More by @afreedma.bsky.social here:

Science funding = people. This point is too often lost. It's the majority of where my grants go. Quick math on 4 of my recent #NSF awards: Of $525,058 in direct costs over 6 yrs, 87% is for people (6 ppl). Salary/stipends 78%, fringe benefits 9%. Lab analyses 8%, travel 4%, fieldwork 1%, other <1%.

US academics, *please read* this excellent thread on how you can help the remaining PO's at NSF.

Inside the lobby at NSF…

"I don't know what NSF is going to be now, but it's not more efficient. It's just a mess." My story on today's firings and their impact. www.npr.org/2025/02/18/n...

Please let the GEO/EAR community know: Program Directors and Mission Support who’ve been at NSF under two years were just terminated via Zoom. Even those of us whose offer letter stated one probationary year and whose government data states “permanent”.

NEW: NSF confirmed that they fired 168 employees today, out of their staff of ~1,500 feds. This includes some people who'd finished their 1-year probationary periods, which were extended to 2-years last month without explanation. More to come.

This is how almost everyone who works on climate feels almost all the time. 🤷‍♀️

Most people in the US have no idea about the attacks on federally funded science or our government institutions. Many (or most!) of your family, coworkers, neighbors, and friends have no idea. My own MAGA dad thinks DOGE is just identifying waste, and that nothing has been cut. We have to tell them.

The biggest US bank, which has financed nearly $400 billion in fossil-fuel projects since the Paris Agreement, launches an important and credible climate advisory note for clients, who apparently have been clamoring for such a thing. 🎁🔗 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

For every dollar of federal research funding in the United States, universities generate between $2.30 and $3.00 of economy activity, much of that in local communities. That doesn’t even include the return on investment of getting a college or graduate degree, which research also dollars support.