The bar for keynote speakers at ESA just went stratospheric

I am sad and angry. I have many things to say, but not yet. I need to manage my sad first.

Humans have emitted 2750 gigatons of CO2 since the industrial revolution from burning fossil fuels and land use change. To put this in perspective, this is more than the (dry) mass of all living things on earth and everything humans have ever built combined:

Happy penultimate! The weather shift is making a nice sunset this evening.

“South Africans like Dr. Booley have found a remedy for power cuts that have plagued people in the developing world for years. Thanks to swiftly falling prices of Chinese made solar panels and batteries, they now draw their power from the sun.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/c...

This is a very valuable thread. Learn something.

More than half a million chikungunya cases reported globally in 2025 Through December 10, the world has seen 502,264 chikungunya cases worldwide, with 291,451 in the Americas region alone www.cidrap.umn.edu/c...

Yayyyyyy

Just a reminder that funding runs out for a big chunk of the government (not all) on Jan. 30, one month from today. 9 of the 12 yearly government funding bills remain unfinished. The original spending deadline was Sept. 30.

Sir Idris Elba. I'm so here for this. Would rather be there for it, but I'll take it.

Hi from the Ocklawaha river, aka the drawdown of the Rodman Reservoir, and the drowned forest.

Merry Christmas from us to you - wandering downtown after midnight. Yes, I'm the shortest. By a lot.

Everybody else gets renewbles. "You could tell watching the climate talks this year in Belém, Brazil, that people are sort of moving past the US, like we’re sort of receding into the rearview mirror." www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Happy Solstice - may your long night be restful, and the promise of longer days raise your spirits.

The official death count in South Sudan is nearly 1,600, making it the worst cholera epidemic in the country’s history. But that toll is a dramatic undercount. ProPublica found newly dug, unmarked graves alongside roads and in backyards.

Monthly global climate data update from @metoffice.gov.uk HadCRUT5 for the month of November 2025. Third hottest month of November since 1850. #climate datagraver.com/climate-data...

Me: oh look, there must be funding over there.

Two more fully funded PhDs in real-time infectious disease modelling & forecasting — developing methods for operational use by @ukhsa.bsky.social and others in outbreak response. UK home students, starting April or September 2026. www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/fees-a...

Unbelievable. This would be a terrible blow to American science, writ large. It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of weather, wildfire, and disaster research that has underpinned half a century of progress in prediction, early warning, and increased resilience.

Still unclear on my feelings about taking 6-7 hours to take two very short flights north (NC) then south (LA) to get somewhere I could drive to on sketchy highways in 15 hours, and cannot take a train or bus to. (Probably could string buses together and get there in 2.5 days)

Kentucky has lost three babies to pertussis, or whooping cough, along with two in Louisiana and two in Texas. The pertussis vaccine, given in combination with vaccines against diphtheria and tetanus, is safe and lifesaving.

Really pleased to share this website with you all for our Wellcome Trust funded TACTIC project developing tools, analyses, engagement, and communication around health impact assessment. Check out our site, the team, and stay tuned for more! www.tactic-tools.org

It is that time of the year where I have to update my password for all work applications. l33t saved me again so I can rock a totally appropriate password. <ahem>

Learn about using the VectorByte Databases, VecTraits and VecDyn, to answer cool questions! Save the date for the VectorByte training workshop at Virginia Tech, together with EEID, May 30-June 1, 2026!!

@WHO World Malaria Report out today ⏬️ Successes ~ 1 million lives saved in 2024 & progress towards global elimination goals. But there were 282 million cases & 610 000 deaths in 2024, ~9 million more cases than 2023. Progress in reducing the mortality is far off track share.google/aZEcdOqzpAI6...

Imagine paying for Netflix every month, then paying when you watch the movie, and then getting another bill three months later because one of the actors isn’t signed with Netflix so you have to pay him directly. That’d be STUPID right? This is a post about health insurance. (h/t Salaam Bhatti)

Getting into the spirit of the season.

What happened is precisely what the world's leading macroeconomists predicted would happen.

I think about this tweet a lot

I attended a lovely invited @wikipedia.org page editing meeting today. It's been a while since I did one, and relearning how it works was great. Apologies for topic vagueness, but just giving a shout out to such a highly used resource in health. Yes, really.

Great to see this one out - one of the original questions on this #NSF BII journey - are wildlife more or less 'zoonotic' as they become more endangered? Read on below... Congrats to Kayla and the OG team!

Dialing down the use of social media for a week reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression and insomnia in young adults, according to a study published on Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open.

Hi #planetaryScience folks, we have an open position for a *Professor in Planetary Sciences* at the Space Research & Planetary Sciences Division of the @unibe.ch. Application deadline: *Jan 31, 2026* Full ad: ohws.prospective.ch/public/v1/jo... Reach out to me if you have any questions! 🧵 1/5

This is a recurring theme among climate deniers & delayers. From The #MadhouseEffect (bookshop.org/p/books/the-...)

Unsurprisingly, the suspected cases of HPAI H5N1 in elephant seals on Australia's subAntarctic island (Heard Island) have been confirmed. 👉 minister.agriculture.gov.au/collins/medi...

Sawn

A fantastic effort from the @carbonbrief.org team pulling this together. A great resource summarising major outcomes and process at COP30. A must read 👇👇👇 And just a day after the gavel came down. Impressive. I bet next year, they'll beat the COP closing plenary :)

More of this.

Some much-needed good news: “Indonesia’s response included two rounds of nationwide immunization using novel oral polio vaccine type 2 and improved routine coverage… “This shows what is possible when communities, health workers and partners unite,” said UNICEF Indonesia Representative Maniza Zama”

The Conversation: Renewable energy is cheaper and healthier – so why isn’t it replacing fossil fuels faster? theconversation.com/renewable-en...

Tis the season - got flu and covid shots as a family on Friday evening. Software upgrades are being installed.

A Washington resident died of complications from an infection with a bird flu strain never before reported in humans, the state Department of Health said. Read more: https://cnn.it/4o796sL

While this is a bit of a harsh way to put it, it is not a false scare. The importance of resource allocation to health, to health infrastructure, to basic staffing, is misunderstood by the people with the resources. I appreciate the efforts to retain core services.

In 4 months, 100,000 households in Australia have installed #batterystorage! It works perfectly for storing electricity from #solarpanels - to use when the sun is not shining. The rate of expansion of solar panels+batteries is increasing By rikardlinde.bsky.social matochklimat.nu/australien-i...

Environmental Scientist position available with the City of San Diego #WSN2025 www.sandiego.gov/public-utili...

Turkey is set to host the flagship United Nations climate change conference next year, beating a rival proposal from Australia following a protracted contest between the two countries

In a rapidly warming world, heat waves will become mass mortality events. If 2003 European heat wave were to recur with 1.5 °C of warming (we're close to that today), this study predicts 17,800 excess deaths across Europe in *one week.* With 3 C of warming, the toll rises to 32,000.

It's great to be back on campus!

An important post about the climate science-policy interface: 👇👇👇