John Ryan

Trump Will Order Defense Department to Buy Coal Power - Inside Climate News Climate and security experts say the plan is outdated and could place the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage.

The US coal industry is $28B - about the size of Southwest Airlines - and employs fewer people than Arby's.

The public health cost is multiple times the revenue.

Let it go. Or just buy out your cronies and wind it down, I could live with that.

insideclimatenews.org/news/1002202...

Western U.S. snowpack is worth trillions of dollars Putting a price tag on the water stored in the region’s high-elevation frozen reservoir

How much is the West’s snowpack worth?

I dug into research that puts a price tag on the water stored in snow—and projects how climate change will alter that value.

Snow also sustains ecosystems and economies while supporting winter recreation and cooling the planet.

waterdesk.org/2026/02/west...

FDA won’t review Moderna application for first mRNA-based flu vaccine The decision, which shocked company officials, comes as the FDA says it will take a stricter approach to federal vaccine approvals.

So the feds ARE NOT considering an mRNA vaccine for the flu, which could save countless lives, but ARE backing research into whether horse dewormer can cure cancer, because the right views vaccines as elite and ivermectin as populist.

Cool.
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

This is a major repudiation of Trump's efforts to use the law enforcement system to attack his political opponents. Grand juries only hear the prosecution side and rarely reject indictments. But in this case, the everyday citizens found even the one-sided case unconvincing.

We have a groundbreaking technology that could prevent untold death and suffering.

But its development is being hindered because HHS is led by a eugenicist roadkill enthusiast and an assortment of cranks and quacks who think their own self-serving contrarianism trumps established health science.

One of every thousand American residents has been taken into custody by ICE in the last year.

This floodplain restoration benefits *some* nearby farmers with a beefier levee, while eliminating ~230 acres of farmland. So, as with any land use, there are tradeoffs.

The Stillaguamish Tribe gives its river north of Seattle room to roam “Now the river can connect to its floodplain like it hasn't in 140 years.”

The Stillaguamish Tribe has been buying back ceded lands for floodplain restoration, benefiting salmon and nearby farmers.

“It is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow to buy back the land that we essentially traded for the resource, the fish, but it's what we have to do to get things back on track."

The Stillaguamish Tribe gives its river north of Seattle room to roam “Now the river can connect to its floodplain like it hasn't in 140 years.”

www.kuow.org/stories/the-...

A cloud of dunlins (Arctic-nesting shorebirds) erupts in "a visual symphony" from a newly restored 230-acre wetland north of Seattle. Who-where-what-when-why-how? @kuow.org's got the story:
www.kuow.org/stories/the-...

@WeRateDogs gives Ring and its ad 0/10

Warm winter liquidates nearly half of Washington state snowpack Washington state’s snowpack held just 52% of its normal volume of water on Thursday, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

December and January are usually the main snowpack-building months in Washington state.

By early February, winter is far enough along that it would take a “miracle” amount of snow to dig the state out of its low-snow rut.

www.kuow.org/stories/warm...

Since I reported on the Northwest's snow drought on Friday, Washington's winter blanket has dropped another percentage point below normal. (Now at barely half, or 51%, of the 1991-2020 median.) #drought #wawx

The situation is even worse in much of the West:
www.kuow.org/stories/warm...

Since I reported on this on Friday, Washington's winter blanket has dropped another percentage point below normal. (Now at barely half, or 51%, of the 1991-2020 median.) #drought #wawx

The United States has fallen to its worst-ever position in a leading global index that measures views of corruption in the public sector among independent experts and businesspeople. https://cnn.it/4r5GoL9

Trump threatens to block opening of US-Canada bridge Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday he had a "positive" talk with Trump following the Gordie Howe International Bridge threat.

The facts, as seen from across the pond:
www.bbc.com/news/article...

It seems POTUS is the ex-husband of reality, since he is clearly divorced from it here.

Post Apocalypse

Awesome piece and very helpful, thanks!

American political and economic elites continue to pal around with a guy who killed 750,000 kids.

Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation

Pretty good summary of the forces arrayed against the CO2 endangerment finding. I think they are counting their chickens prematurely.

🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/c...

This is the 38th time that the U.S. military has unlawfully killed civilians on the orders of Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump. At least 130 people — never charged with crimes, their identities unknown to their executioners — are now dead.

“A broad range of legal specialists on the use of lethal force have said that the U.S. strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings because the military cannot deliberately target civilians who do not pose an imminent threat of violence, even if they are suspected of engaging in criminal acts.”

Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation

Great reporting by @nytimes.com Lisa Friedman and @maxinejoselow.bsky.social on the long campaign by four hardcore climate deniers to take down the Endangerment Finding. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/c...

and yet, real

Trump's tariffs cost American households $1,000 last year: Research group President Donald Trump’s tariffs cost the average American household $1,000 last year, according to new research from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.

President Trump's tariffs cost the average American household $1,000 last year, according to new research from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. The cost is set to go even higher this year to $1,300 per household, assuming the existing tariffs stay in place.
abcnews.go.com/Business/tru...

The Stillaguamish Tribe gives its river north of Seattle room to roam “Now the river can connect to its floodplain like it hasn't in 140 years.”

How about most recent writing about floodplains?
www.kuow.org/stories/the-...

This is important to keep in mind when we do things such as increasing SO2 limits to allow for dirtier coal to be burned to reduce electricity rates.

Just because health care costs aren’t on our power bills doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

National Lab of the Rockies, formerly NREL, lays off more than 130 employees The cuts impacted staffers engaged in both research and operations at the lab.

NEW: There's been another round of layoffs at the lab formerly known as NREL.

Weeks after scrubbing “renewable energy” from its name, the National Laboratory of the Rockies in Golden has cut 134 staffers.

www.cpr.org/2026/02/09/n...

Scott Boyd. Photo by Kathleen Lumiere.

“It is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow to buy back the land that we essentially traded for the resource, the fish, but it's what we have to do to get things back on track,” Scott Boyd of the Stillaguamish Tribe says.
www.kuow.org/stories/the-...