They're going to have to set up a Texas Railroad Commission for romance novels to throttle back production and maintain profits

Ok, so what are their names and when is their trial?

Few books have made such an impact on my thinking recently as Brannen's "The Story of CO2." Can't wait to discuss with @peterbrannen.bsky.social on March 4th. Come by if you're in Western Mass, and if you're not, go get yourself this book!

it's funny how quiet all the people who crow about the need to "save civilization" are about this kind of stuff, losing the administrative capacity to effectively collect taxes is like civilizational collapse 101

and they ran a bjorn lomborg oped today we are in hell

The Utah Historical Society just produced a new, excellent map of "The Peoples of North America in 1776." Great resource for anyone teaching, writing, presenting about Native peoples as part of their 250th work. america250.utah.gov/power-of-pla...

I once said hi to Bob Bakker at a used book store in Boulder and he gave me an impromptu hour-long lecture on the stratigraphy of the early Permian red beds of Oklahoma and Texas

One of most mind-boggling things about climate change is how much faster it is than planet can accommodate. It takes ~1,000 years for deep water to mix with surface (as Scott Denning puts it "The deep water does not know we are here yet!"), and some Earth processes that remove CO2 take 100,000 years

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Carbon dioxide may be the most important—and most misunderstood—molecule on Earth. @peterbrannen.bsky.social explains why in his brilliant, epic new book—and in this conversation with me. I hope you read both! www.scientificamerican.com/article/carb...

it appears the computer people on X are holding flashlights under their chins and giving themselves the willies again

As an ambassador from geoscience Bluesky I think it's my duty to inform the wider world that there's currently a "sand discourse" happening

”There is a growing fear that climate change in the future won’t, as it has until now, happen gradually. It will happen suddenly, as formerly stable planetary systems transgress tipping points — thresholds beyond which things cannot be put back together again.“ e360.yale.edu/features/1.5...

Some great book recs from @powells.bsky.social 👀

"NCAR is not just another research center. It is purpose-built critical infrastructure designed to integrate observations, modeling, supercomputing, and applied research in ways that no single university, agency, or contractor can replicate on its own."

The US government lost more than 10,000 STEM PhDs last year, according to an analysis by Science of newly released OPM data, with 11 departures for every hire. And many OPM calls "voluntary" separations were probably pushed. www.science.org/content/arti...

To cool Earth 1°C, >100 aircraft would have to spread many millions of tonnes of SO2 in the stratosphere every year (Duffey et al 2025). They'd have to do that without interruption by disputes, wars, pandemics, etc. Otherwise we'd face termination shock.

recommendation: Read @billmckibben.bsky.social’s review and @peterbrannen.bsky.social’s book the story of CO2 is the story of everything

The govt lying about the killing of a U.S. citizen at the hands of the state, is by itself, a front page a story, worthy of drumbeat coverage, resignations, and impeachments.

Any prospective government shutdown should not end until and unless this ghoul is removed from public life

So excited and honored by this

Hey Providence, Rhode Island, I'll be talking at Symposium Books tomorrow night at 6, about my book on geochemistry, organic chemistry, geology, geobiology, paleontology, paleoclimatology, evolutionary biology, thermodynamics, economics, and political economy. (unrelated book pictured)

Some very nifty visualizations of the smoking impact crater the administration has put in the country’s scientific research community for no reason whatsoever

Some of our books of the year: Every Version of You by Grace Chan The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything by Peter Brannen Positive Tipping Points by Tim Lenton Hello Cruel World by Melinda Moyer On today's podcast we chat about these and more... open.spotify.com/episode/2sXI...

Like all Peters' papers this one's a little mind-blowing. Where in Precambrian, volcanic CO2-turned-limestone kept piling up on seafloor & getting recycled in subduction zones, in Phanerozoic it started piling up on continental crust, leaving deep sea starved of carbonate, worsening the end-Permian

ICE has kidnapped one of my MN News Guild siblings

The worst climate and weather news you’ll see today.

Brilliant gambit sir

Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

There is, in fact, plenty of money sloshing around that could do things like build a nationwide macrogrid or lots of high-speed rail via @nathanielbullard.com

Pairs well with news of the 1st private space telescope, a return to the era of Licks and Lowells. Turn out we've lived in a brief window where cosmic exploration was driven by the curiosity of citizens in a democracy, not rich eccentrics, insecure sovereigns, industries, or navies. It was awesome.

I have to say, I’m really not thrilled that my country is devolving into a lawless gangster state abroad, and at home, one officially dead set on destroying science, art, and any shared feeling of common humanity

Earth, I can't emphasize enough, is a very special place

The Tides of History @patrickwyman.bsky.social - @peterbrannen.bsky.social interview touched on this and was illuminating open.spotify.com/episode/5yOa...

Made a pilgrimage to 2 ghosts of sea level past & future in Florida, from last time global temp was similar to today 120,000 years ago: an outcrop of oolite in Miami from when it was a sandy shoal under the waves, and in Windley Key a fossil coral reef that now ominously sits 20 feet above sea level

Bill McKibben (@billmckibben.bsky.social) on why CO2—not corn, germs, guns, or cod—explains the history of everything https://go.nybooks.com/4pg5fdA

Going to try to be resilient in 2026, like the ammonites in Denmark that survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid and limped on for another ~100,000 years www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Somehow missed this October paper announcing that staghorn and elkhorn corals are officially functionally extinct on the Florida Reef after a 2023 heatwave. It was a good run in the Holocene, RIP www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This was a fun story to write, stick around to the end for a speed run through the past 500 million years of climate history

"If we are going to go all in on a fossil fuel future in the U.S., it probably would be good to check if we have the fossil fuels to do that." Geology strikes back

Hey, I wrote that!

I got New York Review of Books’d by Bill McKibben www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

I've been covering the Colorado River since 2017 and I gotta say my takeaway after this year's Las Vegas gathering: In my time on the beat, it's never looked more bleak.

A couple of years ago I read "The Ends of the World", by @peterbrannen.bsky.social, and it was literally life-changing. I'm now reading his last book, "The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything". Best book of the year.

An absolute bedrock institution for understanding how the planet works, just civilization-scaled vandalism by the most incurious morons on Earth

I've tried and failed a couple times to write a post explaining how serious this would be. NCAR is globally essential to our climate change response. This can't just be replaced. Every scientist in the world will be doing climate research with one hand tied behind their back for at least a decade

If you’re looking for a last minute holiday gift for the Earth science/climate person in your life, I would never say any of these things about my book but other people have www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

If you’re looking for a last minute holiday gift for the Earth science/climate person in your life, I would never say any of these things about my book but other people have www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

TR has a package of stories up today recalibrating the AI hype, exploring what it will deliver & where it's coming up short: www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/h...

Touched to see the great British novelist Kate Atkinson giving my book some love (although the scorpions were as big as dogs!)