John (Jack) Williams

Trump zet steeds meer stappen om onafhankelijke wetenschap de nek om te draaien.

Interested in helping out with one of the most innovative, grassroots, publishing efforts around? The Journal of Open Source Software (@joss-openjournals.bsky.social) is looking for editors. We conduct collaborative checklist-based peer review of research software using GitHub issues.

2025 has seen the second warmest first half of the year on record after 2024 – and is on track to be the second or third warmest year since records began in 1850. My latest State of the Climate report over at Carbon Brief: www.carbonbrief.org/...

I hope a journalist on the climate beat will report on this - this may be only one piece of the general awfulness that is happening to federal science, but the NOAA Climate and Global Change Fellowship has trained many of the current leaders in weather and climate: cpaess.ucar.edu/cgc/current-...

NOAA OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH The Committee's recommendation provides $657,053,000 for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. OAR programs provide environmental research and technology needed to improve NOAA weather forecasts, climate predictions, and marine services. To accomplish these goals, OAR supports a network of scientists in its Federal research laboratories, universities, and joint institutes and partnership programs. The budget request proposes eliminating OAR, potentially terminating many of its programs and transferring others to operational NOAA line offices, such as the National Weather Service and NOS While the Committee could be open to realigning some programs to enhance operational outcomes, the absence of detailed plans hinders informed decision-making. Consequently, the Committee maintains funding

Good news! Trump sought to eliminate NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), which would have led to the closure of NOAA Research Labs. Among other important climate research, this would have meant eliminating the Keeling Curve.

The Senate Appropriations Committee said no!

bit.ly/3TShZKk

I'm back home with my dad and have thoughts about being an Indigenous scientist and academic. I'm writing this in real time so it might get disrupted and will have typos.

I am fairly successful by academic standards. I have a tenure track job, wrote papers, have grant funding, mentor students.

Lately I keep having to choose between open access and paying my staff's salaries. It would be nice... not to have to do that.

Two good #AGU2025 sessions about vegetation-climate interactions and past ecosystems... abstracts due July 30!
PP019: Modeling and Reconstructing Vegetation-Climate Interactions in the Past.
PP026: Paleoecological Perspectives on Past Climates
Section: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology

Hi folks. I’m doing a panel. Hit me with your best networking tips for your academic career. Conference or meeting networking, professional networking - give me your best tips for ECRs and I’ll pass them forward for my panel!

4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment In the past two years, without much notice, solar power has begun to truly transform the world’s energy system.

This is a great article by Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social on how solar power hit an inflection point and has now become an unstoppable force.

A must read.

www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...

Even in oil country, the energy shift is undeniable. In just 6 yrs, Texas (ERCOT) flipped its midday grid from gas-heavy to solar-dominant—with wind & batteries now key players. This isn’t theory. It’s reality. Even in a red state, the sun shines & change wins. Yellow = progress.⚡☀️ #EnergyTransition

Very sorry to learn that Martin Cruz Smith, author of the incomparable Arkady Renko series, has died. My deepest condolences to his family, including @luisacruz.bsky.social.

His final book, HOTEL UKRAINE, was published earlier this month and was a fitting send-off to the series.

Senate appropriators showed today they are *not* down with Trump's proposed budget cuts for NASA and NSF. (Likely NOAA too, but can't say for 100% yet.)

Long way to go to a law. But this is rare good news for scientists this year.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Climate change outpaces trees: Forests face centuries-long lag in adaptation Ecologists are concerned that forest ecosystems will not keep pace with a rapidly changing climate, failing to remain healthy and productive. Before the rapid climate change of the past century, tree ...

In the interest of celebrating good things, former lab postdoc David Fastovich (and new Assistant Prof at University of Georgia!) has a new paper looking at rates of ecosystem change in response to past climate change: press release: phys.org/news/2025-07...

Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Trump admin tries to kill the most indisputable evidence of human-caused climate change by shuttering observatory | CNN The Mauna Loa laboratory in Hawaii has measured atmospheric carbon dioxide, which — along with other planet-warming pollution — has led directly to climate change, driving sea level rise, superchargin...

The GOP is trying to kill the Keeling Curve, the most iconic time series in the environmental sciences.

Things are looking DRY out west, especially in the Colorado and Rio Grande river basins. The Missouri too. This is megadrought country, and it's a HOT megadrought (since 1999) thanks to climate change.
droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/S...

My new favorite conference activity: themed fossil stamps of conference swag! Kudos to @vojtechabraham.bsky.social for this fun activity.

Dug Up Treasures Fast times and paleontological headaches from the archives of the Texas WPA

From 1939-41, the WPA funded a massive Texas paleontology survey. I wrote about some of my favorite discoveries from its archives. Field crews behaving badly! Landowner nightmares! The creation of a creationist myth! Someone unexpected accidentally joins the Manhattan Project!

It's HEAT DEATH!
🧪🦖

Excited to see (and be part of) this conceptual framework now published about the ecoevolutionary acclimation of ecosystems to climate change, across a range of timescales. Really nice press release here: www.ecosystemscience.ca/news/bridgin...

20. Furlough of @unidata.bsky.social (May 9, 2025)

‘Natural history museums can save the world’: anti-colonialism, conservation and climate change Zoologist Jack Ashby explains why it’s vital to invest in protecting specimens stored in scientific collections.

Well this is exciting! Here's an interview I did for @nature.com about #NaturesMemory - talking about how natural history #museums can help save the world, as the best evidence we have for understanding environmental change, plus colonial legacies, male bias, and more:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

An empty booth at ASM that should have housed the NSF

Well this is f’in sad #ASMicrobe

250+ million acres of public lands eligible for sale in SENR budget reconciliation package The bill mandates disposal of over 2 million acres of BLM and National Forest lands; public lands eligible for sale in the bill encompass over 250 million acres, including local recreation areas, wild...

"Over 250 million acres of public lands are eligible for sale in the bill...demanding the nomination of tracts within 30 days, then every 60 days until the arbitrary multi-million-acre goal is met, all without hearings, debate or public input"

www.wilderness.org/articles/med...

One of my friends noted early on, in relation to the DoD removing photos of the Enola Gay because it had the word ' gay', that no one does malicious compliance quite like the DoD.

IEA data shows global demand growth for oil has been eliminated for road transport and is declining for aviation and shipping and is now negative for other sources. Additional demand growth remains in aviation and as petro-chemical feedstocks.

This IEA graphic shows how global sales of electric vehicles & improved efficiency of combustion vehicles (eg hybrids) is slashing growth in global oil demand. Use in road transport has peaked & likely to soon post annual declines. Aviation & petro-chemical feedstocks only drivers of growth now.🔌💡🔌🚗

Tired in Tornado Alley A crucial National Weather Service office, battered by cuts, is trying to put on a brave face as tornado season peaks.

This is one the most authentic, frustrating, and alarming inside looks at what pressure, cuts and "forced" retirement have done to a critical National Weather Service forecast office. Worth a read to illustrate what many of us have been saying
www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...

Taking a quick peek at firesmoke.ca/data/ ... things are heating up.

Science saves lives in a changing world

Check out the weather and climate 100-hour livestream!

@drkatemarvel.bsky.social currently talking about climate change and uncertainty. "One of the things we don't understand is what will happen to cloud cover when climate changes."

Your research opportunities in Sweden Do you wish to contribute to the world’s advancement of knowledge in the land of the Nobel Prize? We have gathered information about opportunities for researchers wanting to work in Sweden.

"Working life is secure, with good employment conditions, collective agreements, and access to tax-funded welfare benefits, such as healthcare, paid parental leave, and subsidised childcare. .. and diversity and inclusion are protected by law."

www.vr.se/english/rese...