Rachel Parsons

Letting People Move - Climate and Community Institute Transportation policy represents a key tool to address both the cost of living and climate crises. In the United States, the shortcomings of today’s transportation system …

What’s the best way to spend $1 billion for transportation?

Our latest report shows the positive impacts of every $1 billion shifted from highways to transit and identifies key policy levers to shift transportation investments away from highway spending.

climateandcommunity.org/research/let...

Wasn’t this the title of an episode of Dateline? Or perhaps one waiting to happen?

Resident ownership helps US mobile homes weather climate change | Context by TRF Forming ownership cooperatives is helping mobile home communities across the United States to better adapt to extreme weather

About 22 million Americans live in mobile homes, and they often get walloped hardest by climate disasters. But some communities have taken an innovative approach to mitigating their own climate risks from floods to tornadoes to heat. For @contextnewsroom.bsky.social www.context.news/climate-risk...

Federal Science Workers Say Agencies Are 'Going in the Wrong Direction' Hundreds of staffers at the National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and the National Science Foundation have signed public letters to leadership opposing the direction in which the agencies are headed

Hundreds of staffers at the National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and the National Science Foundation have signed public letters to leadership opposing the direction in which the agencies are headed

Resident ownership helps US mobile homes weather climate change | Context by TRF Forming ownership cooperatives is helping mobile home communities across the United States to better adapt to extreme weather

About 22 million Americans live in mobile homes, and they often get walloped hardest by climate disasters. But some communities have taken an innovative approach to mitigating their own climate risks from floods to tornadoes to heat. For @contextnewsroom.bsky.social www.context.news/climate-risk...

Before I moved into journalism, I had a series that aired on public television. It was a pivotal moment in my career, and it would not have happened without public media. The U.S. is poorer today for this egregious decision.

@michaelrlowry.bsky.social, hello, I sent you an email a few minutes ago, I’d like to talk to you more about this.

So far this week:

❌ SSMIS data halted (think sea ice, snow, hurricane, ice sheet monitoring, etc)
❌ climate[dot]gov removed and redirected to...
❌ NOAA Climate homepage, which was modified (e.g., removed Climate Stripes and Climate Ready Nation references)
❌ false bills to ex-probationary employees

P.S.: This story came about because I heard concerns among practitioners here on Bluesky that it wasn't getting enough attention compared with coverage of how cuts would affect hurricane offices. Let me know what else we should be talking about.

Is the U.S. prepared for the wildfire season? | Context by TRF With wildfire season threatening the western United States, alarms are sounding over understaffed weather forecast agency

Spoiler alert: the answer is no. Find out what veteran BLM and NWS pros @jimwhittington.bsky.social and @skiwxman.bsky.social say needs to be done in my latest for @contextnewsroom.bsky.social. #IMETs #wildlandfire #wildfire
www.context.news/climate-risk...

True. A wet bulb temperature reading (that is, with max humidity) only needs to be 36c, ~96f (not extreme for those of us used to living in hot places), to kill you within about 6 hours of exposure.

Show Your Stripes Visualising how the climate has changed for every country across the globe

No surprise to anyone but Phoenix, and all of Arizona, has seen intense warming over the last few decades. One of the worst parts of this is the hot nights. I live in northern Arizona, but still the coolest temp of the day yesterday was 70F at 5am showyourstripes.info/c/northameri...

Indicators of Global Climate Change 2024: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence Abstract. In a rapidly changing climate, evidence-based decision-making benefits from up-to-date and timely information. Here we compile monitoring datasets (published at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15639576; Smith et al., 2025a) to produce updated estimates for key indicators of the state of the climate system: net emissions of greenhouse gases and short-lived climate forcers, greenhouse gas concentrations, radiative forcing, the Earth's energy imbalance, surface temperature changes, warming attributed to human activities, the remaining carbon budget, and estimates of global temperature extremes. This year, we additionally include indicators for sea-level rise and land precipitation change. We follow methods as closely as possible to those used in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Working Group One report. The indicators show that human activities are increasing the Earth's energy imbalance and driving faster sea-level rise compared to the AR6 assessment. For the 2015–2024 decade average, observed warming relative to 1850–1900 was 1.24 [1.11 to 1.35] °C, of which 1.22 [1.0 to 1.5] °C was human-induced. The 2024-observed best estimate of global surface temperature (1.52 °C) is well above the best estimate of human-caused warming (1.36 °C). However, the 2024 observed warming can still be regarded as a typical year, considering the human-induced warming level and the state of internal variability associated with the phase of El Niño and Atlantic variability. Human-induced warming has been increasing at a rate that is unprecedented in the instrumental record, reaching 0.27 [0.2–0.4] °C per decade over 2015–2024. This high rate of warming is caused by a combination of greenhouse gas emissions being at an all-time high of 53.6±5.2 Gt CO2e yr−1 over the last decade (2014–2023), as well as reductions in the strength of aerosol cooling. Despite this, there is evidence that the rate of increase in CO2 emissions over the last decade has slowed compared to the 2000s, and depending on societal choices, a continued series of these annual updates over the critical 2020s decade could track decreases or increases in the rate of the climatic changes presented here.

Our new paper updating key metrics in the IPCC is now out, and the news is grim:

⬆️ Human induced warming now at 1.36C
⬆️ Rate of warming now 0.27C / decade
⬆️ Sharp increase in Earth's energy imbalance
⬇️ Remaining 1.5C carbon budget only 130 GtCO2

essd.copernicus.org/...

Q&A: HIV vaccine funding cuts in U.S. 'devastating' | Context by TRF Trump's decision to gut medical research funding will undermine efforts by U.S. scientists to develop an HIV vaccine

In my latest for Context, I spoke with a member of the team at Scripps Research Inst. working on vaccines for HIV. NIH funding had allowed tremendous progress toward that end, he said. Now, the future looks grim.
Q&A: HIV vaccine funding cuts in U.S. 'devastating'

www.context.news/socioeconomi...

Storm damage costs are often a mystery – that’s a problem for understanding extreme weather risk Forecasters already patch together very rough estimates, and ending NOAA’s ‘billion-dollar disasters’ list means less access to insurance data. Texas’ state climatologists explain why that matters.

From my @tamu.bsky.social colleagues, John Nielsen-Gammon and BJ Baule

Storm damage costs are often a mystery – that’s a problem for understanding extreme weather risk theconversation.com/storm-damage...

A surprise find in Michigan shows the extent of ancient Native American agriculture Hundreds of acres in Michigan are covered in parallel rows of earth that are the remains of an ancient Native American agricultural system. The surprise find has archaeologists amazed.

Hundreds of acres in Michigan are covered in parallel rows of earth that are the remains of an ancient Native American agricultural system. The surprise find has archaeologists amazed.

Thanks!

Thank you so much. I will send you a DM, if you don’t mind. I am based in LA right now, so speak wildfire nearly fluently.

Thank you, Cyrus.

As one climate policy researcher told me, it’s not just about moving people and homes. Malibu and towns like it have vast infrastructure that still needs to be protected. In Malibu, it’s Pacific Coast Highway, used for more than 40k commutes a day. My latest:

Hello, #climatescience Bluesky, journalist here. I’m interested in getting to know you. Specifically those of you in the US who can speak to the way NOAA and NWS cuts will affect local hurricane preparedness and all things related, since it’s that season and all.

Rising seas complicate Los Angeles wildfire rebuilding | Context by TRF As seas rise, California coastal communities damaged by wildfires debate if they should remain on the shoreline.

For my latest in @contextnewsroom.bsky.social, I spoke with sisters who represent the dichotomy when it comes to coastal rebuilding after disasters in the face of sea level rise: one wants to rebuild with adaptation in mind, the other wants to let the property go. www.context.news/climate-risk...

Groundwater is rapidly declining in the Colorado River Basin, satellite data show As the Colorado River’s reservoirs have declined, even larger amounts of groundwater have been drained from aquifers. Using satellite data, scientists have estimated the vast water losses.

www.latimes.com/environment/...

Come on @pbsnews.org, keep it in context. In 2020, multiple sources, though they asked for anonymity, confirmed he called the dead “losers” and “suckers.” apnews.com/article/elec... Report: Trump disparaged US war dead as 'losers,' 'suckers'

I’m working on a climate change piece this week in the context of coastal rebuilding after the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. As a community that’s the definition of coastal squeeze, Malibu is an interesting case study. Stay tuned.

After LA wildfires, lead contamination threatens residents | Context by TRF Los Angeles wildfire fallout prompts county to offer free blood tests over fears of lead contamination among local residents

Soil testing in LA has found levels that exceed state limits for lead and several other potentially toxic chemicals. Children are especially at risk. My latest for @contextnewsroom.bsky.social

www.context.news/climate-risk...

How is Bangladesh preparing farmers for increasingly salty soil? | Context by TRF Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi farmers are being trained to farm on soils getting saltier due to climate change

Thousands of women farming in Coastal Bangladesh have been trained to cope with increasing soil salinity, and are seeing progress. With generous support from @pulitzercenter.bsky.social, my latest for @contextnewsroom.bsky.social.
www.context.news/climate-risk...