Fieldwork carries real risk in rural Mexico. That context matters in the disappearance of biologist Miguel Ángel de la Torre Loranca, kidnapped in Veracruz in Nov 2025 after a “request for dialogue.” His family says he was taken alive and is calling for visibility.

Rebuilding is more difficult than destruction. "The NWS was given permission to begin refilling its ranks in late July, reopening 450 of the roughly 550 jobs cut...But progress has been sluggish. In December, only 80 final job offers had been accepted, CNN reported."

My sense is that China is using this oldie but goodie @rockymountviews.bsky.social playbook to destroy global oil demand. With subsidized EV technology, China can help 50+ emerging markets destroy 3-4 million barrels per day of oil demand by 2030.

Me too! Helpful stuff you don’t see elsewhere.

Reposting for morning crowd. Started Breakneck last night thx to @busbyj2.bsky.social & availability on Libby.

China building geopolitical power w/energy tech of the future, while US pursuing military lawlessness for energy tech of the past. (1/x)

this is one of the problems with scheming viziers running the show, trump says, clearly, that it's about the oil, and to him, it might be; for rubio, it's something different, for hegseth, it's yet again something different. the insanity comes from trying to reconcile three competing thoughts

Anyone listened to a great audiobook lately? I need better dishwashing entertainment.

4/This is part of a broader phenomenon that @segoddard.bsky.social and I describe as neo-royalism. It is a world order based not on national interests but those of elite cliques pledged to absolute sovereigns. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Useful thread. Suggests need for a 'key assumptions check' in foreign/security policy analysis -- new models of understanding needed in this moment.

Steven Soderbergh has pretty terrific taste in books. extension765.com/blogs/soderb...

"To pump more, Venezuela would need to overcome three problems: a dire need for funds, a shortage of labour and a saturated global market" www.economist.com/finance-and-...

Trump was crystal clear about his intentions to exploit Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. But exactly what does that entail — and are U.S. oil companies even interested? The smartest piece you’ll read on the subject (while 2/3 of media ignores the whole “oil thing” altogether) from @mollytaft.com

Exactly. Yes, oil is a part of the story (though some reporting suggests some oil companies are like, uh, no thanks). But it is complex-there can be lots of different bad reasons for a bad thing.

The 6 year old watched Men in Black over the break and I just found him in the bathroom making faces in the mirror and repeating this line to himself.

this is a careful and thorough interview with Oona Hathaway where neither of them ever concedes a premise to the Trump administration

Via Jake Sherman: ‘MARK WARNER, top dem on senate intel, with a scathing statement’

When I said I wanted to relive my 20s, this is not what I meant.

Among the many reasons you don’t kidnap a foreign head of state at gunpoint even if you have the capability, is that it sparks consequences you can neither control nor anticipate.

Best thing I’ve read this morning, from a human rights lawyer in Mexico. Translation is in the ALT-text.

For those who praised the NSS as hyper realist, explain how this one fits.

Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change. I didn’t trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress.

Exactly the actions of “a government of laws, not men.” The Founders would be elated. Happy 250th, America.

Karen Budd-Falen, the No. 3 at the Interior Department, didn’t disclose a $3.5 million water-rights contract between her husband and the developers of a Nevada mine, records show. By NYT Lisa Friedman www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/c...

Another feedback loop (involving a mix of trace gases and aerosols, rather than “just” albedo effects, this time) with climatic impacts detected arising from fracturing polar sea-ice expanses. www.earth.com/news/small-s...

This is not hard. Artists are not responsible for ensuring the Kennedy Center remains relevant and successful. The center’s board is responsible for that, in a fiduciary way. All of this energy being directed at artists should be re-directed at the board.

Military personnel helping with clean water, medical evac, logistics distribution, & trauma recovery services in wake of intense floods and landslides.

🎷💪

"Everything will not be fine. Not at this rate. No matter what government scaffolding the Trump administration manages to dismantle next, the destructive fire lit in Washington is already spreading across the country."🌎😤

Move over, Tokyo — the world has a new biggest city ft.trib.al/ie5klr9 #FTEdit

Centrist pundits ignore the choice presented to the U.S.: We can thoughtfully phase-out U.S. O&G dependency as production declines or we can let it chaotically unravel. The former is good for the climate, land, people, & U.S. security. The latter is good for CEOs & investors hoarding wealth.

During the Biden Admin, I had the honor of serving on the the Climate Science Adaptation Centers Advisory Council -- and learned about their amazing work to protect local communities. They've had bipartisan support in the past, and Congress should act to restore them.

"It was Christmas week: we took to no settled employment, but spent it in a sort of merry domestic dissipation." --Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Have learned the hard way to always ask if the podcast will be filmed. So annoying.

The Party of National Security in 2 headlines

The "Lost Science" series from the NYT is an infuriating and heartbreaking must-read. What a security disaster -- more Americans are in harms way because of the loss of programs like this one:

47. As Amory Lovins has said for years, no one wants a lump of coal, or a barrel of oil. All we want is a hot shower and a cold beer. And if we can get that heat and light and chilling without paying for (or burning) fuel, we're all happier... with one notable exception.

36. Finally this. The mark of the fossil fuel shill who never loses the arrogance to walk into a room, say "the sun doesn't shine at night and its not always windy", drop the mic and leave, confident that no one else knows what they just discovered.

2013 was the first time in 30 years the Maine shrimp season was canceled. It never reopened (if you had Maine shrimp in the intervening years, it was from the small "test catch" done to see if they could reopen. This year's catch was < 7 pounds). This is just so sad. We did this.

What great company -- honored that Climate Change on the Battlefield made @elmirab.bsky.social Interruptrr roundup with all these other amazing female authors: open.substack.com/pub/interrup...

thinking about one of the big things about reagan's last years was, y'know, doing a much better job of covering up how his brain was doing

Trump Announces 5,000% Increase In All Numbers

Caribou Reflection Kananginak Pootoogook ~ Inuk 2002

Great points from Gov. Polis in this article -- destroying NCAR puts American families at risk and weakens the United States geopolitically. It's a national & homeland security own goal.

"Generative AI is designed to create things that look real; predictive AI identifies what is real. A misunderstanding that generative systems are retrieving things when they are actually creating them has led to grave consequences"

Trump administration to dismantle key climate research center Any such plan "would set back our nation’s ability to predict, prepare for, and respond to severe weather and other natural disasters,” said Antonio Busalacchi, who oversees the center: www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Cause for a shell-ebration! These beautiful shells represent some of the 67 new species of auger snails, discovered by Belgian scientist Yves Terryn with support from the Ocean Census Species Discovery Awards. More here: oceancensus.org/67-new-auger... @naturalsciences-be.bsky.social

Article discusses impacts on fish stocks/food security -- both in poisoned rivers and in Arctic more generally as waters warm.