Well, this is an utter disaster for science. This gutting of peer review is very likely driven by Project 2025/OMB/Vought, very likely is about funding junk science, and very likely is coming for #NIH and biomedical research next. 🧪

I wrote about the multiple tragedies of the last few days, Hanukkah, Trump and how the forces of light and dark are trapped in a battle for our souls.

Our paper looks at the build-out of lithium mines in CA and NV on imperiled and vulnerable species. Key points: 54 vulnerable species occurred on proposed mine sites, 20 with their entire range within the mine site. Avoidance and mitigation will be important. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Such terrible news re Rob and Michele Reiner. I went to a live taping of “All In The Family” when I was living in LA between 1977 - 84, and the whole cast was amazing. Rob attended UCLA and was classmates with Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek at UCLA's film school: newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/reme...

Did you know that you can attend the 51st Annual Desert Tortoise Council Symposium… Virtually?... Photo: Andres Galindo #desert #tortoise #science #conservation #symposium #meeting #presentation #mojave #sonora #mexico #california #utah #nevada #arizona #lasvegas #virtual #reptile

@biologicaldiversity.org is suing to wipe Trump's face off the America the Beautiful National Parks pass. By law, the pass must display the winning photo of a federal #PublicLands picture contest. Instead, Trump plastered his own face on it. Trump's vanity pass is not American, beautiful, or legal

New report from the Colorado River Research Group: Dancing with Deadpool. It begins: "Conditions on the Colorado River are, to put it bluntly, dire." www.colorado.edu/center/gwc/C...

EXCLUSIVE: Senate climate hawks are throwing their weight against the SPEED Act. Here's @jael.bsky.social with the scoop: heatmap.news/politics/sch...

It's time to fight. Not confer heightened discretion on the executive branch via "permitting reform." This is not a hypothetical risk. Sect. 110B(a) of the SPEED Act, HR 4776, would compel federal judges to provide the Trump administration's environmental reviews with "substantial deference."

So, it's Monday, and there's no way to say this that doesn't sound stupid, so I'm just going to come out and say it: I've decided to Twitch stream the entire writing of an NIH R01 proposal, and you can follow along at twitch.tv/ColinDoesScience

Want to support bird conservation in Nevada?! Chip in to survey this site's unburned neighbor, JT-26, & push it over the finish line :) Plus you can double your impact! Thanks to a kind supporter, all of your donations will be matched, dollar-for-dollar. THANK YOU! www.gbbo.org/highlighted-...

The Administration is degrading the country's scientific R&D capabilities, that have been built up over many decades. These capabilities can't just be switched back on later.

I was a biologist on the construction of ISEGS. It’s located next to the Primm Valley Resorts golf course w/extensive water features which attracts many birds, both migratory and resident, that fly through the solar fields, and can literally catch on fire. Some of them have federal protection.

HUGE: In a letter to Congress, more than 140 solar companies detail how the Trump permitting freeze on renewables is worse than imagined and hitting copious projects on private lands They’re asking Congress to intervene and say “bipartisan permitting reform” won’t help without forcing Trump’s hand

I beg to differ... thebulletin.org/2024/08/proj...

It radically weakens the Fed govt's duty to assess environmental harm, neuters NEPA by legislatively rendering it "purely procedural," & hobbles the public's right to participate in the decisions that affect their lives & seek recourse in court. 🚨It's a rollback of environmental protections.🚨

I work on solar and transmission systems in the Mojave, surveying the areas to find state and federally protected plants and wildlife, long before construction begins as part of the planning process. Solar is a short-term solution, quickly and easily constructed to scale, but Nuclear is the future.

The Trump administration has renamed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, now calling it the National Laboratory of the Rockies, an identity shift for the institution that has been a global leader in wind, solar and other renewable energy research.

LAST CALL! Applications for the 2026 David J. Morafka Memorial Research Award are due TODAY, November 30, by 11:59PM PT. The award was established, with the aid of several donors, to help support research that contributes to the understanding, management and conservation of.. Photo: Andres Galindo

Happy Thanksgiving! We’re thankful for all of you, for the voices that rise up, the hearts that refuse to back down, and the courage that keeps the resistance moving forward. Tomorrow, there will be more of us. 💚✊

With the government now reopened, this season of gratitude and reflection feels like the right moment to recognize the extraordinary public servants who keep our country running. 1/4

Nevada’s landscapes are full of stories—and now you can explore them from anywhere. #VirtualOutdoorExperiences blend science, culture, and interactive maps to make Nevada’s heritage accessible to all. Start exploring: www.dri.edu/voe

This week the Trump CDC attacked science — and our health, and our kids’ health — by twisting the truth on the CDC website. There’s things to say about the playbook they used, and that’s helped by a little explanation about scientific truth in practice. New vid explainer from me: 🧪 part 1/

More attack on vaccine from RFK Jr.

The fall issue of the NWRRI newsletter is now available on our website. Read now at bit.ly/nwrrinov25 Inside, you'll find articles on the research being conducted in Nevada as part of the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) program. Learn more: www.dri.edu/nwrri #NWRRI

REMINDER! Applications for the 2026 David J. Morafka Memorial Research Award are due November 30. The award was established, with the aid of several donors, to help support research that contributes to the understanding, management and conservation of tortoises of the genus Gopherus...

What was lost with recent federal defunding of 3 out of 9 regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs), written by leaders/staff from Northeast, South Central and Pacific Islands CASCs. We haven't given up on getting their funding restored, along with other cuts to the rest of the network.

NEW: When RFK Jr. first told Trump that Tylenol might cause autism, the president wanted to tweet out a warning. Kennedy told him not to do that. There was nuance, and the drug companies would push back. “I don’t give a shit about that,” Trump responded. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

I'm seeing claims that progress was made at #COP30, but it really wasn't. Each passing year with no fossil fuel phaseout comes at great opportunity cost as we further burn through the vanishing carbon budget that remains for averting dangerous warming. See my commentary: michaelmann.net/bad-cop/

“Once a species is extinct, it’s gone. Is that the legacy we want to leave behind?” - Stephanie Adams, NPCA’s Director of Wildlife

can't believe rfk jr wants to stop me from eating red M&Ms but he'll eat *** out of an ****

Watching RFK Jr destroy U.S. health policy — while patients (including his own family) fight for their lives in hospital beds, relying on the research he attacks — is the heartbreak of our era. This isn’t leadership. It’s a betrayal of science and the people it protects. RFK Jr has to go!

No, my dad was opposed to the Vietnam war and successfully fought attempts to be deployed overseas. He was a journalism major at Fresno State and had the Air Force pay for it. He was a lifelong Democrat, supported Johnson’s Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. He married a folk musician; my mom.

It did not go as planned, but it DID go as expected ... insideclimatenews.org/news/2211202...

Trump diktat to Ukraine shameful. Russia will use pause to rearm and prepare next phase of seizing all Ukraine.

Do me a favor and forward this post.This needs to get out to everyone. We need to be unified.

My dad was a career Air Force officer, a B-52 navigator and Electronic Warfare Systems officer during Vietnam and the Cold War. He would be horrified that the Trump administration’s “Peace Plan” is basically written in the Kremlin, and Ukraine is being threatened to accept it or no more US support.

The horse-trade framing here is *unconscionable*, @karlmathiesen.bsky.social. As the world starts to boil over 1.5C, the COP30 silence on fossil fuels does not mean a "disappointment for European countries and small island nations." IT MEANS THE COPs ARE FAILING TO HALT GLOBAL HEATING, FFS.

Federal "permitting reform" (e.g., The SPEED Act, HR 4776) is the Billionaire's version of climate action. People, land and water, wildlife are little but: (1) Commodities for extraction; or (2) Barriers to wealth and power accumulation. It's a giant grift.

Today, the House Natural Resources Committee passed the SPEED Act, a “permitting reform” bill that hobbles the National Environmental Policy Act & will make it far easier for DOI to justify these lease sales & kneecap Californians’ ability to seek redress in federal court.

“A key House panel this afternoon advanced a bipartisan permitting deal that would include language appearing to bar Donald Trump or any other president from rescinding permits for energy projects.” heatmap.news/energy/speed...

My comments with @cnn.com @reportergoodman.bsky.social www.cnn.com/2025/11/20/h...

The CDC can no longer be trusted to issue accurate information about vaccines.

We are not going to be able to trust the federal government to release accurate information about anything anymore, but especially regarding Covid-19.

Y’all better give a listen to this:

Robert Francis Kennedy’s 100th birthday

The Trump administration announced new efforts today to roll back key parts of the Endangered Species Act, aiming to reinstate changes from his first term that were previously halted by a federal court.

The Interior Department proposed reviving a suite of changes to Endangered Species Act regulations first made during the Republican's first term. Those changes were reversed under former President Biden. n.pr/49Yn5Oc

Habitat loss is a primary driver of extinction. “Critical habitat," as defined by the Endangered Species Act (ESA), refers to specific geographic areas that contain essential physical and biological features necessary for the conservation and recovery of a threatened or endangered species.

The proposed changes, announced by the USFWS and NOAA today, both now completely taken over by the Trump regime, aim to strip key safeguards for imperiled plants and animals and their habitats. The changes aren’t based on science, but on political and business interests. www.cnn.com/2025/11/19/c...