Brazil’s $125bn forest fund – framed as the “biggest thing to come out of COP30” – goes live tomorrow. Critics point out that TFFF “puts private investors first”, forest payouts last + sets a 🌳 bar too low to be “scientifically credible”. @yaninequiroz.bsky.social and I 🕵🏽‍♀️, for @carbonbrief.org.

🚨 NEW: Climate change is already causing 30,000 deaths per year - a global annual economic loss of $100-350B USD - but the true damage is probably 10x higher. Out TODAY in Nature Climate Change: the first systematic look at the science of "health impact attribution" 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

If you're an early-career journalist, consider applying for @theopennotebook.bsky.social's paid, mentored fellowship and follow in the footsteps of @katherinejwu.com, @janehu.bsky.social, @sciwriabdul.bsky.social, @1juliarosen.bsky.social, @celiaford.bsky.social and many more! Deadline: 10/31.

This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

For folks not in DC: - There are full-on police checkpoints most nights - Gangs of 30+ federal agents roam DC - National Guard folks w/ guns patrolling a Harris Teeter - Every day, multiple friends see ICE kidnapping ppl - Daycares are scared to have kids go on walks due to ICE

An excellent article in the NYTimes about the impending demise of the last U.S. Antarctic research vessel, the N.B. Palmer, featuring US and overseas colleagues (including @polarrobs.bsky.social). Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/c...

FREE DC.

Georgetown?

NEW – UN report: Five charts explaining the rise of global food insecurity | @yaninequiroz.bsky.social @giulianaviglione.bsky.social Read here: buff.ly/LhONOi6

Chat is it a good idea to divert more than half of the soybean oil we produce in the United States to feed vehicles instead of people, necessitating more soy-related deforestation in other countries to supply the world’s growing demand for soy as food and feed?

all of the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence about executive power - all of it - can be replaced with a simple flow chart. is the president a Republican? if so it’s ok. if not, it’s presumptively not ok.

i mean, also a blow to those of us who would like to be told about impending hurricanes

All of this AND food systems are the #1 driver of pandemic risk! www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Shot/chaser

This is horrible. I don't even know what to say. Some of our most key polar data. "As a result, the level of services for affected products below will be reduced to Basic—meaning they will remain accessible but may not be actively maintained, updated, or fully supported." nsidc.org/data/user-re...

Our journalism internship is back for another year! Come work with me and the whole @carbonbrief.org team Paid at London living wage. Happy to answer any q’s

I keep saying this... both operationally and in research, the situation is still much worse than most people seem to realize or want to accept.

huge news from @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social on the coming bloodbath at the energy department more than 2,500 agency staff asking to resign via buyouts would gut agency programs read the full story and share it widely please heatmap.news/politics/doe...

One-third of soya crop failure in the Americas was due to climate change in 2012 #climatecrisis Story by @giulianaviglione.bsky.social www.carbonbrief.org/one-third-of...

My personal take is that I really feel for these students. They went from COVID to this mess. Like many of the folks we spoke to, I'm also very worried about who'll end up leaving science as opportunities continue to disappear.

literally nothing can prepare you for this EPA press release www.epa.gov/newsreleases...

I am now hearing from multiple folks in the past two hours (including some who have personally been fired) that mass firings have now commenced within NOAA--including, yes, at the National Weather Service.

USDA says it accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is trying to rehire them In a statement, an Agriculture Department spokesperson told NBC News that officials are "working to swiftly rectify the situation." www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...

🆕 The fight for a new nature fund brought #COP16 talks to a halt in Colombia last year. A week before talks resume in Rome, a "reflection note" from Susana Muhamad – whose COP16 presidency has been under a cloud after her resignation – suggests a way out. www.cbd.int/doc/c/b0ca/7...

“It feels like a betrayal by NASA....It’s inefficient, it’s wasteful, and it’s also just messed up.” This is how scientists inside and outside the agency are feelings about the cuts to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Words by me: 🧪

In the past two years, floods ruined soybeans growing in Brazil, a hurricane destroyed millions of $$ worth of crops in Jamaica and drought hit Sri Lankan rice This new interactive map gives a snapshot of how extreme weather is damaging crops, feat. 100 news stories from 2023-24 buff.ly/42Rqf2D

NPS [Feb 12] -- Natl Park Service scrubs "TQ+" from Stonewall National LGBTQ+ Monument in Christopher Park & the accompanying text. Monument to a riot launched by trans women of color like Sylvia Rivera & Marsha P Johnson reads "LGB." [@rikiwilchins.bsky.social‬] [HT @jenniolsonsf.bsky.social‬]

So far, the president’s freeze on climate and infrastructure law spending has been covered as a constitutional issue. But Trump is also about to start breaching hundreds of federal contracts — and *that* could soon open a new front in the legal war. I wrote about it: heatmap.news/politics/tru...

i am going to put a finer point on this: executive orders are not laws. and they certainly are not royal decrees. they are interpretations of existing law for the purposes of enforcement. the fact that so many people are treating them as laws is actually driving me a bit insane.

Super thrilled Carbon Brief's @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org has been shortlisted for "Environment Journalist of the Year" at the Press Awards, widely seen as UK journalism's 'Oscars'. He's the only journo from a specialist outlet, amid mainstream outlets such as Guardian, Express, FT, i, Politico

Surely if we don't plan for the future, it just won't arrive? h/t @heatmap.news

The first ever US national nature assessment has been terminated and its USGCRP and DOI webpages have been removed. A PDF of the zeroth order draft is still available here: review.globalchange.gov/system/files...

Sobering. When I talk to people about long-term bird population declines in N America, I mention that the main cause is habitat loss, not climate change - yet. But new research shows that climate change is causing bird declines even in otherwise pristine places. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

🧪The CDCs weekly science report is indefinitely on hold, stalling important bird flu studies. This unprecedented freeze sparks concerns of political meddling in science. "If it’s not short-lived, it’s censorship.” My latest @kffhealthnews.bsky.social kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Each Thursday Latin America is featured in our Daily Briefing - Mexico passed secondary laws to make Pemex and CFE state-owned companies - Javier Milei could withdraw Argentina from the Paris Agreement - Brazil "needs to run to avoid fiasco at COP30" - 378 municipalities in Colombia at risk of fire

Horrific news this morning out of the DCA crash. Love to all those affected.

BREAKING: Trump signs an executive order that attempts to restrict all schools that receive federal funds from protecting trans and nonbinary students or supporting diversity measures, while at the same time purporting to advance "patriotic education." www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

what

Today in our newsletter: - Environmental impacts of Trump's actions. - The UK is “falling short” on meeting its nature targets. - Surging bird flu in the US contributed to a doubling of egg prices. - Interview with Nury Martínez, from Fensuagro, on Colombia’s land reform conference. and more...

The US Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) website is now offline. Since 1985, FEWS NET has provided assessments of the location and severity of food crises. These assessments are used by gov and non-government humanitarian organizations across the world to allocate aid. static.fews.net

Earth, climate, and planetary scientists: If you have an expected upcoming NASA/NSF/NOAA/DOE grant payment in the next couple weeks that, if not received, will have a real impact on your lab and staff, please let us know about it @science.org. You can reach me at [email protected].

The National Science Foundation cancelled over 60 grant review panels today, effectively grinding funding of new projects to a halt. The so-far indefinite pause comes as NSF grapples with the impact Trump's executive orders will have on their grantmaking process. www.npr.org/sections/sho...

If you're a scientist that serves on an NSF panel that got cancelled today, I'd love to talk to you about it for an NPR story. DM, email or reach out on signal.

In an unprecedented move, research-grant reviews have been suspended indefinitely at the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research https://go.nature.com/4gc0Bc5

Since March 13, 2023, global sea surface temperatures have been setting daily records compared to the pre-2023 record high for each day, with the exception of 5 days in late December, 2024. Thanks to @leonsimons.bsky.social for the idea to graph this.

In the midst of one of the most gruesome periods of modern human history, whales experienced a rare moment of peace. Now, a long-forgotten post-war museum collection is revealing how the slaughter has literally been etched into the very fibers of those whales. www.biographic.com/how-whales-f...

There's a lot of replies to our new paper talking about how capitalism or overpopulation are the real enemy. Without getting into whether that's true of the climate emergency or the sixth mass extinction (🙃), I want to briefly explain why pandemics are different. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Latest labor of editing love: the amazing @giulianaviglione.bsky.social with a gripping tale about how the stress of industrial whaling wrote itself into whales' very bodies, for @biographic.bsky.social: www.biographic.com/how-whales-f...