I had my students do a quick exercise in class with @xkcd.com's Simple Writer, where you're limited to the 1000 most common words in English. To make things fair, I wrote alongside them and did a quick research bio:

Posting a reminder that no disasters are natural, & a certain one twenty years ago was especially not natural. So, you should not use the phrase. You can just say "disaster". (Although in this particular instance it was a catastrophe, not a disaster but... baby steps) www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT9-...

Gross, creepy, and with a heaping side order of misogyny

Alluvial fans....

Have any of you smart folks studied/written about the effects of family/friends/social pressures on people's disaster prep and decision to evacuate, particularly in this era of social media (and mis/disinformation)? This keeps coming up over and over in interviews with evacuees from the LA fires.

Poster #13 at the @comsher.bsky.social section in Salon 9, come say hi and learn about nature zines and how people construct identity through their experiences with nature and the environment!

These AI murals are a grimly amusing backdrop to the heavy AI focus at AEJMC:

A cursory USGS look-up reveals that this M8.8 tied for 6th largest quake ever recorded by instruments. Also, taxpayer-funded science and tech agencies save lives. www.usgs.gov/media/images...

And now the west coast of the US and BC has been put under a Tsunami Advisory. www.weather.gov/safety/tsuna...

I understand for lots of reasons people aren't paying attention to the earthquake in Myanmar but the estimated death toll is as high as Cyclone Nargis in 2008 which killed 140,000 people which. That's roughly the population of Coral Springs, FL; Elizabeth,NJ; New Haven, CT or Pasadena,CA

One of the more galling aspects of the Liberation Day nonsense is that they couldn’t even find it within themselves to delay the 45% tariffs on Myanmar, which is currently dealing with an earthquake that killed more than 3,000 people and displaced countless more on Friday.

The new satellite imagery to the right of the surface rupture is perfectly aligned with the historical Google imagery. On the left, you can see the rupture and offset.

Update: The USGS has made a notable update to its ShakeMap. Now showing a substantially larger rupture that suggests major impacts for an even bigger portion of Myanmar. 3.71 million people now estimated to have felt Violent (MMI: IX) shaking. That is hugely concerning. Strong aftershocks persist.

I just used @5calls.org to urge my representatives to protect the EPA, you should too: 5calls.org

Information produced by the state is a public good. This administration seems dead set on destroying basically all public goods, from public health to education to weather forecasting. It’s breathtaking in its simplicity and its harm.

Kicking off Sustainability Innovation Week - drop by our table at the Expo in the Curry Student Center Ballroom from 1:30 to 3pm to learn about sustainability, #scicomm, and public engagement opportunities!

As my friend @drshepherd2013.bsky.social says, asking why we need a National Weather Service when we have apps and the Weather Channel is like asking why we need potato farmers when we can buy fries at McDonalds.

The U.S. has two tsunami warning centers, both operated by NOAA. Employees were terminated from these centers today. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center covers Hawaiʻi, and now it is less safe to be near the beach. www.tsunami.gov

BREAKING: A federal judge in California has ordered OPM to rescind memos calling for the mass termination of probationary employees, saying the agency overstepped its legal authority and must inform other agencies it lacked the authority to issue such a directive.

It’s not for us to feel hopeless. You’ve already impacted this family’s ability to survive; the ask is to continue to believe in them! With the occupation still blocking aid, surviving is still difficult in غaza. Every € has a real impact. Match my 10?

A challenge for Ramadan ‼️ today’s drive is to keep the lights on at this community workspace offering free internet & electricity for students. They’ve asked us to raise £550 by Saturday to keep operating. A modest ask in 3 days - I believe in us!💡 https://chuffed.org/project/spark-space-gaza

Happy International Day of Women in Science. The National Science Foundation’s list of flagged words includes both “Women” and “Female.”

For US EPA EnviroScreen data accessibility: screening-tools.com/epa-ejscreen

Don’t just say DEI as if it’s a bad word. Spell it out. Say diversity, which is the lifeblood of American society & culture & innovation. Say equity, which a just society should pursue. Say inclusion, because decent people believe in increasing belonging, not isolating people who are different.

I suppose, my job being what it is, I'm obligated to learn about these stupid executive orders, but man do I just not feel like it.

Thinking about useful words for today: "Nobody can know the full consequences of their actions, and history is full of small acts that changed the world in surprising ways...." From @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social's Hope in the Dark #sciart

Since Monday, the online store has sold out of a lot of their stock and now shows the following message, which is heartwarming! I'm sure it's a drop in the bucket compared to what they need but I hope they know how beloved the Museum is 💔

A THREAD on how disaster donations can be extremely harmful instead of helpful to communities experiencing a disaster. I'll be using the movie Clueless to illustrate this issue but there is also decades of disaster research about this and plenty of first-hand accounts. #GreySky

Go home, Outlook, you're drunk

One day the stars will align, and #SRA2024 and #AGU24 will be in the same city, and that day will be the death of FOMO

This was a big earthquake (M7) and there will likely be felt aftershocks. Drop, cover and hold on when you feel earthquake shaking. If you are near the coast immediately move away from shore and seek high ground.

Fascinated by this AI illustration for an article on #geothermal and how it ends up overtly contradicting the points of the article - which, like most promotions of geothermal, emphasizes the small surface footprint. Instead we have a massive powerplant... (source: ukdayone.org/briefings/br...)

Good to be back in NY.

Got to hear Robin Wall Kimmerer speak tonight in Cambridge!

The highlight of a campus decarbonization event today - connected with a group of students competing in the DOE geothermal collegiate competition (that I did myself not all that long ago as a student 😅)

...yep 😂 go.bsky.app/Po82tCi

I made a separate account for my art stuff so that this one can pretend to be professional, but I'd like to have some record here of my best piece:

Here’s where you come in. We have enough funding to bring some staff to bioGraphic, but not the whole team. We’re looking everywhere for financial support, and to bring more people over, we need to raise US $150,000. Will you help us? www.biographic.com/hakai-magazi... bsky-sos&c_src2=hakai

Whoohoo!🎉 Hakai is always a great read

I'm at #Geothermal Rising this week, getting ready to add some social science to the conversation and share insights from our research on public perceptions of deep geothermal!

"Elite panic" is a phrase you're really going to become familiar with in the 21st Century.

Two things I love, prepping a fun class and public libraries with physical media ❤️