Dr. Bess Koffman

I experienced some of this at the polls yesterday, too.

Deadly rivers in the sky A new Washington Post investigation reveals where climate change has supercharged the movement of moisture through the skies.

Gift Article!

A great article! Well-researched and written, with an excellent animation that makes climate change and the associated increase in atmospheric water vapor much easier to understand!

"The water vapor in Earth's atmosphere has increased by 12 % in the last 85 years.“

A tweet from John Fugelsang reads in all caps: "NO FOOD FOR YOU UNTIL THE DEMOCRATS LET US TAKE AWAY YOUR HEALTHCARE" – US House Speaker Mike Johnson.

This perfectly encapsulates what the GOP position is on the shutdown.

Maine wins early victory in climate lawsuit against oil companies A federal judge rebuffed the fossil fuel industry's bid to move the case to a more favorable court.

#ClimateInTheCourts
www.eenews.net/articles/mai...

After Trump cut the National Science Foundation by 56 percent, a venerable Arctic research center closes its doors The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States funded programs that aided Indigenous communities and tracked melting sea ice, among dozens of initiatives.

"After nearly 40 years, the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, or ARCUS, will close September 30."

"The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States funded programs that aided Indigenous communities and tracked melting sea ice, among dozens of initiatives."

"Health losses attributed to anthropogenic climate change," a brief communication in the journal Nature Climate Change. There's a map showing regions of the world, and pie charts of relevant studies as they apply to different health impacts like "heat-related deaths" and "maternal and child health"

🚨 NEW: Climate change is already causing 30,000 deaths per year - a global annual economic loss of $100-350B USD - but the true damage is probably 10x higher. Out TODAY in Nature Climate Change: the first systematic look at the science of "health impact attribution" 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

History rhymes a bit too well sometimes.

Updating Mental Models of Risk Disasters are no longer isolated events. This demands a fundamental change in how we think about and respond to complex risk.

To understand modern risk, we have to grapple with emergent and novel aspects of hazard, vulnerability, exposure, and response that comprise risk.

Find out more in a new article with @danielaldrich.bsky.social and Daniel Hoyer, just out in @issuesinst.bsky.social.

issues.org/mental-model...

Curious whether this approach could work in other environments

I'm looking for someone who could give an engaging seminar about natural disasters and the intersection of science and human vulnerability. Maybe a scientist who works in disaster response? Grateful for any recommendations!

Ice breaking capabilities are essential to support critical research on the Antarctic ice sheet and its response to climate change. This reversal of decades of US leadership in polar research is shortsighted and counterproductive.

Hurricane Erin achieved something most storms do not this weekend. "Extreme Rapid Intensification". Did climate change play a part? Science says, yes.
In 12 hours winds increased by ~65 mph. Only 3 other storms have done that and Erin was the earliest & only August storm to do so.
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Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose The Trump administration has asked NASA staffers to draw up plans to end at least two satellite missions that measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to current and former NASA employees.

The Trump administration has asked NASA staffers to draw up plans to end at least two satellite missions that measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to current and former NASA employees.

U.S. socked with 15 billion-dollar weather disasters during the 1st half of 2025 » Yale Climate Connections Four of the top 20 costliest weather disasters have occurred in the last year.

Of the 20 costliest weather disasters in history, four have occurred in just the last year.

Basic science is cool!!!

It is hard to convey in words how lethal the ideology of necropolitics truly is, but the sarcastic, smirking delivery here reinforces that in 2025 we must contend with a political class that publicly delights in human suffering and death.

Graphs showing 25 years of budgets for the National Institute of Health, NASA, and the NSF. In all cases, the proposed budget for next year is far, far below any year of the previous quarter century.

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

Baby Is Healed With World’s First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment

An incredible triumph for medicine, underscoring the critical importance of basic research !!! www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/h...

America, what have you become?

A post from Vivian (@suchnerve ) on X reads: "drug tests for EVERYONE in the White House and I'm not joking." Below, a reply from Laura Miers (@LauraMiers ), posted 2 days ago, says: "Excuse me?" The post also quotes a White House statement: "But we are capable of so much more. Our technologies permit us to manipulate time and space. They leave distance annihilated, cause things to grow, and improve productivity," with "annihilated" highlighted in yellow.

If there is ever a breach in the spacetime continuum, we’ll know where it began.

Calling all US and Canadian students thinking about graduate studies! Come study science at #SFU in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Graduate admissions have been reopened. Apply by April 25th. ⚛️ 🧪👩‍🔬🎢 🇨🇦

Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale

Writing about this right now, just need to scream.

"Investigators wishing to expand participation in STEM for women & underrepresented groups must ensure that all outreach, recruitment, or participatory activities in NSF projects are open & available to all Americans"

www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

NSF starts to kill grants that violate Trump’s war on diversity efforts Attracting women and minorities into science and studying misinformation are no longer priorities, agency says

NSF has spent decades—and billions of dollars—trying to attract more women and members of underrepresented groups into STEM. Not anymore. scim.ag/3RUtgZg

Funding for the Regional Climate Center program lapsed on April 17, 2025 due to a suspension of federal funding from NOAA through the Department of Commerce. It is unknown if or when funding will resume. All data and services offered under the HPRCC contract, including this website, are unavailable. If there are particular products and services you rely upon, please fill out this form so we can identify products to prioritize for continuance. Unfortunately, some products will be discontinued indefinitely because of their association with the Regional Climate Center program.

Support for all MRCC-hosted products and services is currently suspended as of April 17, 2025, due to a lapse in federal funding from the Department of Commerce through NOAA.

Federal funding for the Regional Climate Center program lapsed on April 17, 2025. It is unknown when or if funding will resume, pending decisions by NOAA and the Department of Commerce. If there are particular products and services that you rely upon, please contact us at sercc@sercc.com or reach out to your federal representatives and communicate their value and why you need them.

Oh no! Several of the Regional Climate Centers have had their funding lapse through DOC/NOAA. These institutes are critical for connecting weather and climate data and services to local communities across the United States.

Spread the word to drive attention and support!

“Yes, they’re anxious. But they’re ignoring the cause of that anxiety, which is the failure of governments to act.”

US universities’ faculty unite to defend academic freedom after Trump’s attacks Indiana University leads the push for a pact among 18 institutions as Donald Trump targets diversity

“If a pact is formed, the universities shall “commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund”. The fund will be in turn used to provide “immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement.”

#defendhighered

Climate activists were hacked. There was a link between the victims and an alleged attacker Prosecutors say the operation was aimed at gathering information to foil lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry over damage communities have faced from climate change.

Prosecutors say the operation was aimed at gathering information to foil lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry over damage communities have faced from climate change.

Trump seeks to end climate research at premier U.S. climate agency White House aims to end NOAA’s research office; NASA also targeted

More grim details on the complete destruction of US science.
There are 2 reasons for this:
Republicans hate any aspect of government that actually works to benefit people, &
Climate science threatens the livelihoods of the fossil-fuels industry, the GOP's donors.

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

Red line graph time series of monthly carbon dioxide abundance from January 1959 through March 2025. There is a seasonal cycle and long-term increasing trend. Current levels of CO2 are at 428 ppm. This is the Keeling Curve graph. A line for CO2 10 years ago is also annotated.

🚨 I have another record to share - carbon dioxide (CO₂) averaged a record high of 428.2 ppm in March 2025

10 years ago March averaged about 401.7 ppm

Provided by gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/. Climate monitoring and data like this are at risk. #StandUpForScience