Jim Elser

Jim feeding a giraffe.

I said there would be giraffes incoming.
At the Giraffe Center.

Looking forward to getting out of the city tomorrow.

Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires Climate change and land mismanagement are creating increasingly fire-prone built and natural environments. However, despite worsening fire seasons, evidence is lacking globally for trends in socially ...

Published today: our new paper showing a 44-year trend of increasing global wildfire disasters (fatalities and economic losses) due to climate change-induced extreme weather. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Blank tv screen.

This is what you can watch on Voice of America channel in Kenya.

“If a foreign adversary snuck into our Federal budget and cut science research and education the way we're cutting it ourselves — strategically undermining America's long-term health, wealth, and security — we would likely consider it an act of war." - Neil deGrasse Tyson

J and M on skyscraper overlooking the city.

Storks lurking at the meat market

A colorful starling looking at the camera

A brown weaver bird with nest.

In Nairobi now, getting ready for 2week tour of Kenya and Tanzania. Giraffes incoming.

In the American system of government, a legislature of the people’s elected representatives decide how to allocate the people’s money, then an unelected appointee in the executive branch called “OMB Director” decides if he feels like distributing the people’s money that way or if he’d rather not.

A recipe for avoiding 15 million deaths a year and climate disaster is fixing food, scientists say Scientists are presenting new evidence that the worst effects of climate change can’t be avoided without a major transformation of food systems.

"If the populations of high- and mid-income countries were to limit beef & lamb consumption to about one serving/wk, they could reduce emissions = to Russia’s annual emissions total."
@enviroem.bsky.social

⬆️ THIS is the recommendation outlined in the EAT-Lancet report, are you in?

bit.ly/476DOgl

‘This is real progress’: airlines on sustainable aviation fuels and the chances of net zero flying The EU and UK have imposed mandates, and investors see its value – but the industry has mixed views

I dont often agree with Ryan Air boss Michael O’Leary but he is right about SAF "There is no possibility of meeting 6% SAF by 2030; not a hope in hell."
Thats because the bio feedstock for SAF will hit food production and cause inflation. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Learned about Pan Africanism, W.E.B. Dubois, and ancient to modern history of Ghana today during a city tour of Accra.

YouTube video by MSNBC ‘F--- them kids’: ICE agents drag children out of bed, ransack Chicago building

According to eyewitnesses, armed ICE agents dragged kids out of their beds in the middle of the night, zip tied them and put them in rented vans while raiding an * entire apartment building* on the South Side of Chicago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOXO...

Changes in phosphorus concentration and flux from 2011 to 2023 In major U.S. tributaries to the Laurentian Great Lakes Reducing phosphorus (P) flux to the Great Lakes is critical for improving water quality and controlling eutrophication. We used 13 water years (2011–2…

Changes in phosphorus concentration and flux from 2011 to 2023 In major U.S. tributaries to the Laurentian Great Lakes

#GreatLakes 🧪

"Spring accounted for the largest share of annual P flux in most tributaries"

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Jim , Kazuyo, Phil, Dana, and Gen.

Jim, Jango, Jacob

Had a fun sendoff party to close #sps8 ! Looks like the next P Summit will be in Japan !

What kind of a ridiculous headline / story is this ? Good lord.

Dive into the new #ASLO_Bulletin for the latest news in #aquaticscience! This issue features articles on ‘The Power of Pack Mules’ and a ‘Journey of Creating an Immersive Museum Exhibit’. Discover meeting highlights, community news, viewpoints & more: aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

asm.org/press-releas...

The Oklahoma Biological Survey at the University of Oklahoma is hiring a tenure-track freshwater ecologist. This is a great opportunity at a wonderful place to work. Please spread the word and encourage folks to apply: apply.interfolio.com/174472

A joyful ending to #sps8 celebrating the launch of the African Sustainable Phosphorus Network. Some great momentum generated.

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated' The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

My god.

“Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers…’It was heartbreaking to watch…seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.’”

Some problems have simple solutions. This new “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” is one. The answer is simply saying no.

Simple does not mean easy. But Brown, Dartmouth, MIT, Vanderbilt, Univ of AZ, UPenn, USC, UT Austin & UVA must understand what they’ll lose if they sign on.

Jim and Phil signing books with a happy recipient.

Jim and Phil goofing around in the meeting room.

Having a lot of fun and learning a lot here at #sps8. Phil H and I took the chance to distribute copies of our Phosphorus book to early career researchers here.

As California glaciers disappear, people will see ice-free peaks exposed for the first time in millennia The glaciers of California's Sierra Nevada are disappearing as temperatures rise. Scientists recently found that the glaciers probably have never before melted in human history.

“When these glaciers die off, we will be the first humans to see ice-free peaks in Yosemite.”

www.latimes.com/environment/... by @ianjames.bsky.social

ICE agents raid South Shore apartments; Trump says Chicago could become military training ground ICE agents raided a South Shore apartment building overnight as the city braces for a possible military deployment.

“ABC7 spoke to Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building. She said ICE agents took everyone in the building, including her, and asked questions later….’They was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other.’”

It can’t happen here, you say. But it is happening.

Good luck with this important new adventure !

I’m a limnologist.
Sewage systems are sexy.

Earth scientists Maggie Osburn and Mia Tuccillo bag up plant samples in a rocky Greenland landscape, with an iceberg-spotted fjord and glacier-covered mountains in the background.

New paper! PhD student Mia Tuccillo has uncovered another big impact of past warming in Greenland: lakes lost oxygen for thousands of years and cyanobacteria took over 🦠 🧪 🦠. It's kinda yikes...
With collaborator @geobiomaggie.bsky.social (1/3)

Ya gotta commit to the bit!

A poster with a background image of Lake Volta, a QR code with a link, logos for SPS8, FARA, UKCEH, Rothamsted Research, Lancaster University, and headline saying 8th Sustainable Phosphorus Summit Africa, Free Virtual Registration Open

FREE Virtual Registration is now open for the 8th Sustainable Phosphorus Summit Africa #SPS8

🗓 30 Sep–3 Oct 2025
📍 Virtual & Accra, Ghana

Join global experts, policymakers & practitioners to co-create solutions for sustainable phosphorus futures.

Register: buff.ly/9QCPGIe 🧪

Jim in front of a tent with local musicians and dancers in background.

Excited for the start of the Eighth Sustainable Phosphorus Summit. Starting now in Ghana ! #sps8 Representing @steps-stc.bsky.social and @sustainablep.bsky.social