With all the July model runs now in, it is very likely that 2026 will see the largest El Niño event since records began in the late 1800s – and potentially by a truly mind-blowing margin. The median estimate is now 3.6C, roughly 0.8C hotter than the prior record (2.75C). www.theclimatebrink....

Late to the publication of this piece because I'm out on sabbatical, so in case you ALSO missed @zteirstein.bsky.social's masterful overview of the climate × health intersection for @grist.org, it is here: grist.org/article/how-... Watch this space! Rumor has it Zoya has a book brewing...

Gun 🤝 foot

Climate vs. Teeth. @earthislandjournal.bsky.social www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...

"Not preparing for wildfire smoke is a policy choice." Tremendous reporting by @zteirstein.bsky.social grist.org/health/wildf...

There was some concern that export figures in March 2026 may have been higher because of expiring tax rebates. But April figures out now and the world continues to want Chinese solar panels, batteries, and electric cars in record amounts. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202... 🎁🔗

MAHA? NAH Trump’s EPA Vows to Fight ‘Forever Chemicals’ by … Loosening Regulations. “It seems like they have largely adopted the positions of the chemical industry.” by @zteirstein.bsky.social www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Wildfire smoke engulfed their cities. Did it make their babies sick? Reporting by @zteirstein.bsky.social & Jess Davis. grist.org/health/wildf...

"Parents are left wondering whether asthma, developmental delays, and other health problems suffered by their children began with what was in the air before they were born — and whether it’s safe to raise a family in a place where every summer brings the same threat back to their doorsteps."

A/C can be a life-saver, but it's also a technology of forgetting. Forgetting how we built cool buildings in hot places for thousands of years. Wind towers, dog trot homes, even just transoms above doors to let heat escape rooms. (lots more in ch. 11, The Heat Will Kill You First)

A year ago I warned what would happen if the US tore down our disease detection system around the world With Hantavirus & Ebola we are seeing VERY clearly what we’ve lost And why it matters Read my @theatlantic.com piece from last year outlining what happened www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

“After Britain abolished slavery on 1 August 1834, £20m was paid in compensation to enslavers for loss of their “property”. The enslaved people themselves received nothing.”

I went to a small fishing town in west Florida to talk to shellfish growers about vibrio vulnificus, more commonly known as “flesh-eating bacteria.” As conditions for outbreaks ripen, shellfishers and scientists have vastly different views on how to protect the public. grist.org/health/vibri...

This was a tough one to write, and I took a bit of a personal risk sharing my own career-long process of discovery from tentatively swayed by the potential for deep-sea mining to convinced that we are simply not ready.

Sounds of silence: study finds declining bird populations in North America. "...it’s even worse when that loss is stronger with each year, because eventually you will get to the point of no population left.” @sarahkaplan48 @washingtonpost wapo.st/4cRKORA

the US coal mining industry employees ~50k people. For some perspective, The Gap has about 82,000 employees

There is no evidence that vaccines cause autism, but there is growing research that shows a link between wildfire smoke exposure in pregnant mothers and autism diagnoses. Two studies published in the last month indicate wildfire smoke has profound neurological impacts: grist.org/health/growi...

The Washington Post’s decision to cut a large share of its climate and environmental reporters is not just a newsroom story; it reflects a broader weakening of the institutions that sustain a shared, reliable public record on complex and contested issues. news.mongabay.com/2026/02/what...

"The relative fragility of Trump’s assault on bedrock environmental and climate laws could be a product of the president’s prioritization of political dominance over lasting change." Great and surprisingly encouraging piece by @zteirstein.bsky.social for @grist.org grist.org/politics/how...

I've attended many climate COPs over the years and it seems some nations... *cough* ...are very well versed indeed in this now-declassified "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" first issued by the CIA in 1944

Scientists were frustrated by a piece in the Guardian earlier this week that seemed to call into question the science on microplastics in the body. I wrote about why researchers are certain microplastics are in the human body -- and what we still don't know: www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Variations in annual dengue intensities are explained by temperature anomalies Our new work led by Abbey Porzucek, @rafalpx.bsky.social, @colincarlson.bsky.social, Dan Weinberger to develop a method to compare relative dengue intensity between years and countries. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Good story on what happened in Tehran and why the politically difficult thing to do is almost always the way out.

Global temperature projected to hit 1.7C in 2027, according to @drjamesehansen.bsky.social et al, boosted by a return of El Niño #climatecrisis (PDF) www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailin...

On the 10th Anniversary of the Paris climate agreement, a chilling paragraph from the negotiated final outcome of the 30th Conference of the Parties in Brazil last month: a request for nations to start counting their dead.

Propublica doing what the government won’t: disease surveillance.

The final plenary here in Belém just fell apart after Colombia registered an objection over lack of fossil fuel phaseout language in the final text. “This is not a point of order. It’s an objection.” Do Lago has paused the gaveling to confer with objectors. Stay tuned!

A fire broke out in the pavilion section of #COP30 in Belém this afternoon, forcing an evacuation of the entire conference and the cancellation of meetings today. Source of fire unclear and future of the conference, in its second to last day, also unclear.

So thrilled to share the launch of this new project, Vital Signs, with climate desk readers. @who.int says climate change threatens to erode 50 years of public health gains. What does that look like? We’ll be reporting from five continents. First story in the series: grist.org/health/valle...

“How do you do that to people?” one homeowner asked. “How do you insure people in the South, take all of these premiums, and then just belly-up?” Great reporting on insurance industry woes and trickery from @zteirstein.bsky.social | grist.org/economics/in...

Catching up on this vital series from @grist.org on the "Disaster Economy" - such good reporting here from @zteirstein.bsky.social on insurance bankruptcies leading to mergers and payouts for execs while families are left high and dry. grist.org/economics/in...

SCOOP from me: I uncovered that the Interior Department just quietly defunded *two* multimillion dollar research programs studying how whales move and behave near U.S. wind farms actively being built. Trump blames wind turbines for whale deaths, then cuts vital research on the topic. 🧵

Supersoaker winters and parched summers in the American West fuel soil-borne fungus. This piece traces newly built testing protocols, real-time surveillance, and a near-ready dog vaccine that could pave the way for a human shot. By @zteirstein.bsky.social in @grist.org

Bodes well for multilateral climate negotiations next month

"If you live in the United States, you could be forgiven for thinking that renewable energy is on the outs," writes @zteirstein.bsky.social. But the world is betting on solar and wind, despite Trump's championing of fossil fuels in the US.

Big huge thanks to @seywarddarby.bsky.social for this thoughtful summary of my recent piece on valley fever for the @longreads.com newsletter. Full piece is here: grist.org/health/valle...

This is a great read by @zteirstein.bsky.social. Living in Arizona, Valley Fever is scary! This piece breaks down the threat perfectly, how climate is turbocharging it, and the challenges to protect the public under an administration attacking public health. grist.org/health/valle...

SPECIAL REPORT: A large swath of the U.S. currently does not have the basic, ground-level immunity necessary to stop the spread of viruses that had once receded into the past, a six-month NBC News investigation in collaboration with scientists at Stanford University finds.

❤️ data (and amazing work by @zteirstein.bsky.social ‪ @compatibilism.bsky.social and Jesse Nichols) grist.org/business/a-l...

This latest story builds on Expecting worse: Giving birth on a planet in crisis, a project by @vox.com, @grist.org and @19thnews.org that examines how climate change impacts reproductive health — from menstruation to conception to birth. Explore the full series here: www.vox.com/climate/3515...

Climate change reshapes reproductive health — from conception to birth. Now, in a new collab with our friends at @grist.org, new data show how heat, poor air and floods are rewriting the earliest stages of life. @zteirstein.bsky.social at @vox.com: www.vox.com/climate/4578...

With @zteirstein.bsky.social and Jesse Nichols for @grist.org, here’s a chart-heavy look at some of the dynamics underlying the business of disaster: grist.org/business/a-l...

U.S.-funded contraceptives worth nearly $10 million are being sent to France from Belgium to be incinerated, after Washington rejected offers from the U.N. and family planning organisations to buy or ship the supplies to poor nations, two sources told Reuters. www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

In March, a jury ordered Greenpeace to pay $666 million to the companies behind the Dakota Access pipeline. But Indigenous leaders, water protectors, activists, and court records agree: Greenpeace played a bit part in the Standing Rock movement, at best. grist.org/project/indi...

the times is reporting that fema let call center operator contracts expire on july 5, the day after the texas flood, and calls answered went from 99.7% that day to 36% the next to 16% the next www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/c...

A 15-yo is now caring for his little brothers bc ICE snatched their mom. And another family that the local Santa Barbara paper found, pretty much same thing. Think how many stories aren’t being told www.independent.com/2025/07/11/c...

A community’s rapid response to a heavily militarized raid targeting undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles’ diverse MacArthur Park neighborhood helped stave off authorities. capitalandmain.com/when-ice-cam...

The conversation around who should shoulder the blame for what in Texas overlooks the larger context: Trump has eliminated pretty much all disaster preparedness funding the federal government offers. Including the resilience program HE established. grist.org/extreme-weat...

Wind and solar projects that start construction before July 2026 or are placed in service by 2027 would be able to take advantage of existing tax credits. Under the IRA, those credits were set to continue in some form until the country achieved its climate goals. grist.org/politics/sen...

👀 Scoop: Trump and Republicans want USPS to sell off its brand new EVs and chargers. That would mean literally **ripping up post office parking lots** to auction off assets with no private-sector value. It’s buried in the Senate’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...