Pam McElwee

A line graph showing NSF grant awards made through 2/27/26 for fiscal year 2026 compared with grant awards for fiscal years 2021-2025 for the Directorate of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences.

7/10

Trump Is Attacking Climate Science. Scientists Are Fighting Back. It’s easy, looking at the past year, to see the damage the administration has done. But researchers are also stepping up, trying to fill the gaps.

One year in the federal assault on climate science — a review and prospective

Order your Faves on my Digital Cookie Site Today That's right! You can order your favorite Girl Scout Cookies from me online, all while helping my troop and I do great things in our community and beyond! Check it out.

The world is a mess right now and if you need carbs to help you cope (I certainly do) my kiddo is selling Girl Scout cookies. She's a long way away from her goal due to multiple snow storms. But you can order online & have them shipped anywhere in the US! digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/riley5...

This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won’t George W. Bush may think that a war against Iraq is the solution to our problems, but the reality is, it will only serve to create far more.

This turns 23 next month theonion.com/this-war-wil...

Our alliance shows the need to work together when a problem pops up! Proud to be able to support the nearly 80 US authors working with IPCC across AR7

Thanks! Congrats on the CDR author selection and hope LAM1 goes well! Jealous re Rome

The Future of Conservation Without U.S. Aid In the United States, efforts to save a beloved species face pushback from a surprising foe: gun rights advocates.

Very glad to see this deep dive on what the demise of USAID has meant for global #biodiversity conservation - we used to be one of the biggest funders, and that all stopped nearly overnight. www.biographic.com/the-future-o...

Science-Policy Forum on biodiversity and transformative change On 21 April 2026, Biodiversa+ will host its Science-Policy Forum on Biodiversity and Transformative Change. Register now!

How can Europe deliver transformative change for biodiversity?
🗓️ Join our Science-Policy Forum on 21 April (afternoon, online) for discussions on the IPBES TC assessment, KMGBF implemention, EU policy, justice, finance, systemic change and more!
www.biodiversa.eu/2026/02/25/s...

The Biden Administration enacted over $198 billion in clean energy and manufacturing incentives, with the expectation that delivering material economic benefits could yield political dividends. This nationwide study examines whether these investments affect public opinion. Although proximity to green projects makes them more visible to the public, it does not bestow credit on the Biden Administration which pushed for them. The most substantial political beneficiaries are governors, who more actively claim credit than the White House. For policies to affect politics, voters need to be able to trace them back to the responsible political actors, which is challenging in a complex information environment. Green spending channeled through private firms alone is unlikely to build ground-up coalitions for climate policy.

The Biden administration did a lot of good things that did not generate political gain. This paper argues that "voters need to be able to trace them back to the responsible political actors" made harder by federalism and the role of private actors in delivery
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Nearly blind refugee found dead in New York days after immigration agents dropped him at a coffee shop alone, officials say | CNN The death of a nearly blind refugee in Buffalo, New York, days after Border Patrol agents dropped him off at a coffee shop alone, has prompted an investigation into the circumstances of his final days...

As someone who has worked on projects in Burma and seen what the military coup and ethnic cleasing of the Rohingya has done to that country and its people, this death of an asylum-seeking refugee in *this country* - where he came for REFUGE - is horrifying www.cnn.com/2026/02/26/u...

The equity impacts of nature and biodiversity loss in the US are huge. We discussed this in our #NCA5 ecosystems chapter but great to see this new deeper analysis.

Two job opportunities with the @ipcc.bsky.social WG1 TSU:

Science Officer: www.ipcc.ch/2026/02/17/s...

AI Officer (deadline passed but will consider applications until the end of the week): www.ipcc.ch/2026/01/12/a...

Glacier grafting: How an Indigenous art is countering water scarcity Residents in the northern part of Pakistan are creating artificial glaciers to tackle climate change.

The importance of Indigenous knowledge for finding creative solutions to impacts of the climate crisis: www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/...

Chúc mừng năm mới to all in Vietnam! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Tet holiday in this year of the fire horse!

New Jersey peeps: New Brunswick has proposed scrapping a new city park to instead build a data center, located near homes and school. There has been very little info shared about this plan and why the sudden change. City meeting Wed 18th @ 5:30pm City Hall for those who want to express their concern

#IPBES12 is underway with opening statements. Colombia for GRULAC begins with a tribute to a ‘founding member’ who has left—the US—and hopes they will be back soon. Got a little choked up at that - ❤️ - I too hope the US will be back soon.

Great to be here in Manchester to focus on global biodiversity knowledge, especially given misguided US federal withdrawal from IPBES last month. US universities and institutions are still in! Happy to represent @Rutgers and network with other orgs on how we can support a biodiversity agenda

The execution of Alex Pretti is playing so badly because you can look at his actions and life story - his last act was helping, boy scout, athlete, health care worker to veterans - and compare those to the men who killed him and know which you would want to be your son, brother, father, uncle.

Amid all the horrors in MN right now, the fact that Alex Pretti was an interdisciplinary environmental studies graduate from UMN got to me. He was just like my students, who care deeply about both people and nature. Hoping for justice for his family.

Biodiversity collapse threatens UK security, intelligence chiefs warn Ecosystem destruction will increase food shortages, disorder and mass migration, with effects already being felt

Given all that's going on, here's another systemic risk out there: the collapse of food production due to biodiversity loss in key areas of the world. This UK security analysis get it - a key message of the @ipbes.net Nexus Assessment as well. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Sign on in opposition to the U.S. leaving the IPCC and other critical global climate and environment organizations and treaties Join me in opposing the US leaving critical global science-based organizations

Please sign letter @agu.org has organized in opposition to the withdrawal of the US from UNFCCC and other global #climate and environmental policy institutions 🧪

agu.quorum.us/campaign/152...

At any rate it's infuriating that scientists who follow rules, processes and methods are dismissed, as the CWG did for the hundred of people who worked on NCA5. The NCA report was scrubbed from previous govt websites but you can still find it here! 10/10 repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/61...

CWG admitted as much in emails telling each other they didn't really look at health. Several DOE reviewers said they didn't have expertise in topics they were asked to review too! So blind leading the blind to a predetermined location. This is why we have formal assessment processes and methods! 9/

A major point of EPA endangerment finding is that GHGs endanger human health. And yet the CWG had zero health experts and couldn't be bothered to look at the overwhelming evidence in that field! NCA5 had a whole chapter on human health written by eminent experts at CDC, NCAR, etc 8/

NCA5 process took > 2 YEARS because of all meetings, reviews, responses, multiple drafts etc. The CWG had only a few weeks and were told what the end product needed to look like. Which even that they failed to do! CWG report said almost nothing about human health (nor about ecosystems btw) 7/

The CWG group's emails note that they should get a formal review and several members plot about who would be 'sympathetic' - eg DOE not only cherry picking authors but cherry picking reviewers of those authors! They decided against NASEM as 'not objective' - that's the pot calling the kettle 🙄 6/

NCA5 had external review editor assigned to our chapter team to make sure we responded to all these comments appropriately and the text reflected our changes - EVERY chapter had an external review editor! We also had public meetings where people could hear what we were doing. CWG had none of that 5/

We got several sets of public and agency review comments and a full review with detailed comments by a National Academy of Sciences (NASEM) consensus panel. EVERY comment had to be responded to. The CWG got internal DOE review comments but were told most would be ignored and not to edit too much! 4/

Meetings all had to follow FACA guidance as to who could be there and what was public. It was a pain sometimes for those of us outside govt as to when we could speak with agency scientists! But it was meant to wall off any whiff of undue influence and ensure transparency in the process 3/

The CWG people clearly thought they were subbing for the National Climate Assessment (NCA) process. I led the Ecosystems chapter of NCA5. Not once did I ever meet or hear a political appointee ANYWHERE (Interior, Energy, EPA) having any input or thoughts about NCA content or process. 2/