For the next five years, the EPA has indicated it will not require public water utilities to test for microplastics or pharmaceuticals in drinking water, according to a proposed rule. @susrust.bsky.social @latimes.com www.latimes.com/science/stor...

Since the start of President Trump’s second term, The New York Times has been documenting examples of moves by members of Mr. Trump’s family or the families of top aides to profit off of Trump administration policy actions. Today we take another look.

This badger wasn’t photographed in a zoo or a wildlife refuge. It was photographed earlier this month in the Trout Creek Mountains of Oregon. This is also the landscape being considered for a new lithium mine. Every mine begins as someone else’s habitat.

A trail cam check on Monday revealed 3 clips of a beautiful male jaguar in a Sky Island south of Tucson, in the ancestral lands of the Tohono O'odham. Jaguars’ northern range is being ripped apart by border wall, mining, groundwater depletion and climate-driven drought. @biologicaldiversity.org

Now The Center for Biological Diversity sued two Interior Dept. agencies today for failing to protect endangered species and their streamside habitat from unauthorized cattle and grazing damage in southern Arizona’s Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press...

Now: Tribal and conservation groups today sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop a land trade that would hand 715 acres of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in south Texas to SpaceX. biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press...

Trump axes Public Lands Rule open.substack.com/pub/landdesk...

Bluesky is a such a bubble now. Maybe it’s still useful for some things, but if you don’t understand how unrepresentative it is, your perception is going to be badly distorted.

We're never going to be able to fix what they destroy. #PublicLands Steve Pearce will likely be confirmed tomorrow for BLM director. Overseeing 245 m/ac of our mountains, canyons, grasslands & rivers. He's spent his career trying to sell off & destroy our public lands. Now he can.

SpaceX satellites half the size of pickup trucks are falling from the sky — every day The solar panels, plastic, metal, batteries — it’s all getting melted and deposited in the upper atmosphere. And sometimes they leave debris on the ground. thenarwhal.ca/space-junk-f...

Posting, again, for the record that political violence is wrong, dangerous, and not a good strategy for change. Period.

“How *late* could we date the gospels?” An incredibly clear discussion about when the canonical gospels may actually have been written, and what the evidence actually supports. It is plausible that *all* of the gospels were written in the 2nd century. 1/n youtu.be/CYMgxhYSmiw?...

A new era of industrial logging looms Road less rule that protected 58 million acres of forest is gone Loggers are euphoric as theyCAN vastly increase their profits but everyone will else will pay a high price as these ancient eco systems are obliterated www.hcn.org/articles/a-n...

One of last great forests Trump is targeting Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska is world's largest remaining intact coastal temperate rain forest At almost 17 million acres, this unique area houses some of oldest trees in nation—many over 800 years old www.audubon.org/conservation...

DHS is rapidly moving forward with plans to wall off virtually every river access point to Big Bend National Park. This would effectively end all whitewater boating on this world-class stretch of the Rio Grande, killing the recreation economy and robbing this majesty from us all.

More than 130 orgs, outfitters & rural Texas businesses are urging Congress to block funds for border wall construction through Big Bend. Walls here would cut off public river access, decimate rural economies & block wildlife from their only reliable water source.

I take it as a metaphor. Rivers are vital and deserve to be protected, not tamed for human use. Beautiful map.

Last week: what forests reveal. This week: what institutions quietly train us not to see. open.substack.com/pub/lylel/p/...

“God doesn’t care about you at all.” — Aristotle (paraphrased)

Confirming Pearce would put many of our favorite campsites, streams, and hiking trails across the West directly in the crosshairs 🎯🎯 Save our #PublicLands! Urge your Senators to VOTE NO on Steve Pearce for BLM Director by calling them at 202-224-3121 and by clicking this link ➡️ biodiv.us/pearce

Vote NO on Steve Pearce for BLM Director. @bennet.senate.gov @hickenlooper.senate.gov

Many Christians define ‘God’ as an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent being/person who somehow manages to just exist without preexisting structure or context. They then accuse atheists like me of “hating God.” No, I’m just convinced that no such thing exists.

83° F, and it’s still February. We haven’t really had a winter this year in the Southwest.

I have no problem following or conversing with people with whom I disagree, provided that they can discuss those disagreements (or ignore them) civilly. I don’t think that is too much to expect.

Grasshoppers are not just plain green or brown; many are among the most colorful of insects. Check out this glamhopper from 2018 in Madagascar: #bugsky 🌿🐙

Early Christian writers lied all the time, actually. If you think that the writers who got into the New Testament are an exception, you need to broaden your reading. I’d suggest starting here.

“The most striking finding of the Cass review, a 2024 British inquiry that found ‘remarkably weak’ evidence to back up the practice of youth gender medicine, was the shoddy quality of the professional guidelines for this treatment.”

Bluesky users are objectively in favor of violent threats deployed against the 'right' targets. When Bluesky does the right thing and bans or suspends one of its many users who engage in violent threats, the only possible explanation is a conspiracy theory.

“American doctors are no longer united on the wisdom of medicalizing gender dysphoria in minors.” They never were. Many were just intimidated into silence. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Information that, I understand, is not welcome here. www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-trans-...

This bill is absolutely horrifying. Senator Mike Lee is one of the worst scumbags in this country. 🤬 #publiclands

Dusk in the Borderlands #SonoranDesert

I’m saddened to share that my friend and collaborator Evan Frost has died. Evan spent decades defending forests and in recent years found a public voice here. His work gave context to what we’ve lost, and clarity to what remains at risk. He will be deeply missed.

Found a really pretty waterfall today! Video: youtube.com/shorts/DN3r2...

“What political positions does atheism necessarily entail?” It entails none.

Trump needs to be impeached. Now.

Trump demanding control of Greenland—which the US already has access to—is based on multi-layered lies. Threatening NATO allies to get it undermines the Western alliance. I did a point-by-point breakdown of Trump's aggressive letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Støre about the Nobel and Greenland.

I stand with Greenland, Denmark, and our NATO obligations, which are U.S. law. Trump is betraying his oath of office; he is betraying allies; he is betraying the Constitution. 🇬🇱 🇩🇰

Most extinctions today are ‘dark extinctions’….species that vanish before they’re described, monitored, or counted. No database can record what was never discovered. Biology is not accounting, and absence of paperwork is not absence of extinction. news.arizona.edu/news/extinct...

If Brazil thinks this is a win for loggers and not protecting forests they will collapse. Look at Nauru and Indonesia. The president said Palm oil trees are trees too. Sumatra gone now. One by one countries will collapse for corporations

“The Sierra Club Embraced Social Justice. Then It Tore Itself Apart.” Yup. The Sierra Club officially sucks now. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/u...

What kind of evidence would it take to convince you that a dead Jewish preacher rose from the grave and flew up into the sky? How about a visionary experience from a person who never met him (Paul), some vague hearsay from the same person, and some anonymously written stories?

For 20 years, a voluntary agreement kept major soy traders from buying crops grown on newly deforested Amazon rainforest. It collapsed because a tax incentive disappeared. Profit always wins…..over forests and a habitable planet. grist.org/business/a-m...

Thomas Jefferson on the gospels: “We find [in the gospels] . . matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications. Intermixed with these, again, are sublime ideas . . .” (From a letter to John Adams)

This bird flu investigation is well worth your time. I got a little peek behind the curtain into the data analysis and it's truly impressive work from @natlash.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/bird...

A very good piece of environmental justice reporting about a very bad problem. (Gift link)

Africa has the highest fertility rates in the world — the continent’s human population has more than tripled since 1979, to around 1.5 billion today, and is projected to more than double again by 2070. This is bad news for elephants, very large-bodied mammals that require vast tracts of wilderness.

“The Sierra Club Embraced Social Justice. Then It Tore Itself Apart.” Yup. The Sierra Club officially sucks now. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/u...

The Executive is laying taxes without the consent of Congress. The Executive is spending money without the consent of Congress. Other than that, everything is totes normal.

If the Democratic Party were a functional, reasonable party, Trump never could have won. It’s not sufficient to say, “The voters are just bad.” A country doesn’t elect a demagogue like Trump without major preexisting dysfunction, and the Democratic Party is part of the problem.