molly taft

im having a BLAST

a crude drawing of a woman with a bow and arrow and the text BUFFY WILL PATROL TONIGHT

gf is showing me Buffy for the first time and i FINALLY get this joke now

honestly that’s the vibe I got from these instances too! whatever happened it clearly didn’t get a very thorough edit

lots of examples on bsky rn about messy citations in the DOE report - a few authors I talked to for my piece also noticed typos/bad citations for little details (eg a paper pubbed 2020 being cited as 2021)/bad links etc. unclear if it’s AI or just messy work (or both!)

There is a paper in another journal, with another set of authors, and a different DOI that I think they were intending to cite: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Lee, S., Byrne, M. P., Loikith, P. C., & O’Dell, C. W. (2024). Zonal contrasts of the tropical Pacific climate predicted by a global constraint. Climate Dynamics, 62(1–2), 229–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-023-06741-7

Lots of interesting stuff buried in the DOE report.

For example, here's a reference that doesn't exist:

Interior Order Chokes Off Permits for Solar and Wind on Federal Lands The department creates a seemingly impossible new permitting criteria for renewable energy.

The Interior Department released a new order Friday saying it may no longer issue any permits to a solar or wind project on federal lands unless the agency believes it will generate as much energy per acre as a coal, gas or or nuclear energy. via @jael.bsky.social
heatmap.news/sparks/inter...

We must now all ask a crucial question:

Does the Trump administration expect that by choking off the flow of permits, cities and companies will simply pony up to build gas, coal or nuclear instead?

MASSIVE issue for the West, and radius *will* expand if more anti-renewable actions follow.

SO 3438 - Managing Federal Energy Resources and Protecting the Environment | U.S. Department of the Interior SO 3438

Here’s the text of the new Interior Department order that made my phone blow up this evening.

It’s very complicated. I recommend you read the story I have posted above, as I spent my Friday night digesting it and it hasn’t been elucidated clearly elsewhere.

Interior Order Chokes Off Permits for Solar and Wind on Federal Lands The department creates a seemingly impossible new permitting criteria for renewable energy.

HUGE: The Trump administration will no longer permit any solar or wind projects on federal lands unless they produce more energy-per-acre than coal, gas or nuclear power plants.

Solar and wind literally produce less energy per acre, so simply this may just kill off any project on federal lands.

bro what are we even paying taxes any more for lmao

A tweet from the Energy Department showing a piece of coal and the text "she is the moment." There's a sparkle effect on the coal

just checking in on what the Energy Department is up to on twitter...

thanks emily :)

the way i RAN to get my tix for this tour!!!!!

Conservative Activists Join a New Assault on Vineyard Wind And more of the week’s most important conflicts around renewable energy.

Scoop: Conservative activists have petitioned the Trump administration to take away the permits for *an operating offshore wind project* — Vineyard Wind — after the admin expressed openness to undoing previous approvals for such projects

heatmap.news/plus/the-fig...

DOE climate report response form We are collecting names to assemble a writing team to respond to the DOE climate working group report. If you'd like to contribute, enter your info below. At this point, there is no guarantee what we'll do (if anything), but we want to keep our options open by collecting names. If you have any further questions, feel free to email me. We are primarily looking for Ph.D. scientists at universities or government labs in appropriate fields. I realize that this will exclude some qualified people and I apologize, but we felt this was necessary for a variety of reasons.

🚨 If you're interested in working on a coordinated response to the DOE climate report, please enter your info on this google form 🚨

Please RT this so as many people see it as possible.

forms.gle/BL9xUAfRxA...

How Trump-Vetted Scientists Are Trying to Shred the Climate Consensus A new report commissioned by the Energy Department downplays global warming as the administration seeks to unwind environmental rules.

One of the questions I wondered is to what end? Obviously it was used to support the EPA's rollback of the endangerment finding, but a prominent legal scholar told us the ultimate target might be getting the landmark climate case Mass vs. EPA overturned by the Supreme Court

Scientists Say New Government Climate Report Twists Their Work A new Department of Energy report “fundamentally misrepresents” climate research and leaves out key context, multiple scientists cited in the report tell WIRED.

Multiple scientists cited in the DOE report downplaying the severity of climate change said their work was misrepresented. @mollytaft.com has the scoop on just how exactly data from nine of them was cherrypicked and twisted

The Grave Long-Term Effects of the Gaza Malnutrition Crisis The WHO believes one in five children in Gaza are acutely malnourished, with the health effects potentially lasting for generations.

Experts say Gaza’s malnutrition crisis has progressed to a newer, deadlier phase, and the World Health Organization believes one in five children in Gaza are acutely malnourished, with the health effects potentially lasting for generations.

Scientists Say New Government Climate Report Twists Their Work A new Department of Energy report “fundamentally misrepresents” climate research and leaves out key context, multiple scientists cited in the report tell WIRED.

"But nine scientists across several different disciplines told WIRED that the report mishandled citations of their work by cherry-picking data, misrepresenting findings, drawing erroneous conclusions, or leaving out relevant context."
www.wired.com/story/scient...

How Scientific Empires End And what it means for America

Trump burns everythng to the ground

www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

ty emily!!

Scientists Say New Government Climate Report Twists Their Work A new Department of Energy report “fundamentally misrepresents” climate research and leaves out key context, multiple scientists cited in the report tell WIRED.

Great reporting from @mollytaft.com on how the DOE's climate science report misuses scientists' work to downplay the negative effects of climate change www.wired.com/story/scient...

we’ve already got 2 more scientists whose work was cited and misrepresented in the replies to this post, less than 24h after our story went up…

scientists if you were cited in the new doe report would love to hear from you! my contact info in bio

Senate Confirms Conspiracy Theorist To Lead National Counterterrorism Center

Hey no big deal and all but... Senate Republicans just confirmed Joe Kent, a conspiracy theorist with alarming ties to white nationalists and far-right groups, to lead the National Counterterrorism Center. www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

I've been asked by reporters to comment on this. I wish I could but I don't want to.

What I will say is that I'm relieved to find out that ocean acidification from fossil fuel CO₂ emissions isn't a problem because the ocean was more acidic when life first evolved billions of years ago. 🙄

EPA attacks climate science. Here are the facts. The Trump administration's proposal to roll back the endangerment finding includes many misleading and inaccurate claims.

This is a rare @science.org news analysis – or, what happens when your blurb for the newsletter keeps growing.

I hadn’t planned to do a story as I knew lots of debunkers were coming. And so they have, starting with @scottpwaldman.bsky.social and @chelseaeharvey.bsky.social.

Contrarian climate assessment from U.S. government draws swift pushback Researchers say DOE report cherry picks data to downplay threat of greenhouse gases

So what makes a climate assessment? In short: not this new Energy Dept report, which rehashes contrarian greatest hits with areas of known uncertainty -- that climate scientists talk about all the time.

It's all a little grim. Who needs 721 authors when you have 5?

Scientists Say New Government Climate Report Twists Their Work A new Department of Energy report “fundamentally misrepresents” climate research and leaves out key context, multiple scientists cited in the report tell WIRED.

And @mollytaft.com has done a great reporting job running through a bunch of the studies cited with their authors.

lmao one of my fave genres too - thanks brandy :)