Ka Hei 🏔️ 🛰️

Tropical biodiversity loss from land-use change is severely underestimated by local-scale assessments - Nature Ecology & Evolution Analysis of data on 971 bird species in natural habitat and cattle pasture in Colombia finds that near-national-scale losses of bird diversity greatly exceed losses recorded at the local scale, sugges...

Analysis of data on 971 bird species in Colombia finds that near-national-scale losses of bird diversity greatly exceed losses recorded at the local scale, suggesting that extrapolations from local studies will severely underestimate biodiversity losses
www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪

Drought is climate change’s biggest threat, since it impacts both food and water.

This (nearly 2 hour long!) livestream discussing the meteorology and broader context surrounding the Texas flood disaster was recorded live, and is now available in its entirety at link below. Journalists: as always, please feel free to pull any audio/video content from this recorded broadcast.

After a great week at #LPS25 with diverse #remotesensing research topics our staff and students are heading back - thanks a lot to @esaearth.esa.int for this fantastic event and we are looking forward to #LPS28! In the meantime follow us for #EarthObs news @jsrieder.bsky.social @schwalb-willmann.de

Big paper on global CO2 emissions. Some context - If the remaining carbon budget to 1.5C is 130 GtCO2 & global emissions are 37.8 GT/y, we are ~4 yrs away from reaching that level. The longer we wait to #StopBuringFossilFuels, the worse the damage. #KeepItInTheGround 🧪🔌💡☀️💨🔋

Did you know a new glacial lake is threatening a French Alps valley? 🧊🌊

It is located in Vanoise N.P. (Grand Marchet Gl.) above Pralognan whose campsite will remain closed all summer!

Drainage work (due to start on Monday) raises many (ethical) questions

www.montagnes-magazine.com/actus-menace...

Snow melt-out date (SMOD) change spanning four decades in European temperate mountains at 30 m from Landsat time series - Scientific Data Scientific Data - Snow melt-out date (SMOD) change spanning four decades in European temperate mountains at 30 m from Landsat time series

We have generated a Landsat-based dataset to characterize the snow melt-out date in the Pyrenees, Alps, and Greater Caucasus. Data and code available! www.nature.com/articles/s41... by Bayle et al.

YouTube video by hankschannel They Didn't Make Dire Wolves, They Made Something…Else

I really appreciated @hankgreen.bsky.social’s dire wolf video, which is really worth watching. He breaks down the science, the hype, and why it’s important to tell the truth about extinction:

youtu.be/Ar0zgedLyTw?...

Graph of science funding of NASA from 1980 until present with estimated 50% cut included. This drops NASA Science to under $4B. Image source: Casey Dreier/The Planetary Society

Cuts to #science of >50% at NASA and >75% at NOAA would end US climate and space science research.

NASA cuts are '...an "extinction level" event': arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...
"At this funding level, Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research is eliminated...": www.science.org/content/arti...

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

BREAKING from @science.org: The Trump admin is seeking to kill nearly all climate research at NOAA, its climate science agency.

Its near-final budget proposal would end all NOAA research labs, academic institutes, and regional climate centers. And it wants to fully end the NOAA Research division.

122 companies responsible for a third of present day sea-level rise: Study What’s new: Almost half of global average temperature rise and a third of sea-level rise can be attributed to the “carbon majors,” the world’s 122 largest fossil fuel and cement producers, a recent…

Almost half of global average temperature rise and a third of sea-level rise can be attributed to the world’s 122 largest fossil fuel and cement producers, a recent paper shows.

By 2300, greenhouse gases from the companies’ past production could result in 35 centimeters of sea-level rise.

Map of global lake distribution, colored by the number of SWOT overpasses per 21 day cycle. There are many lakes with a high number of SWOT overpasses at high northern latitudes, but there are also tens of thousands to more than a million lakes on every continent. Lakes are graphed by latitude and longitude on the edges of the figure.

Do you work on lakes globally? Check out what is, to my mind, the most complete global database of lakes (~6M) and associated attributes, newly published in WRR. Also the basis for SWOT lake data. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Uttarakhand’s extreme weather wreaks havoc on crops, livelihoods & futures Rita grew up in a small village in Uttarakhand with mountains forming the backbone of her childhood. In a recent call with her sister, she laughed, repeating a little rhyme they used to recite as…

In Uttarakhand, extreme weather events like droughts, erratic rainfall and hailstorms have severely affected farming, leading to lower crop yields, increased pests and financial distress for farmers and are also impacting tourism and small businesses.

Read more:

Rising global temperatures can influence the timing of events, such as when crops are ready to plant and harvest and when flowers and trees bloom.

One example is the timing of the peak cherry tree blossom in Kyoto, Japan, where records stretch back to the ninth century — that’s over 1200 years.

Gorner Glacier
1930 | 2022

The second largest glacier in the Alps (towered by second highest peak, Monte Rosa) retreated 2.7 km over this period! 🧊📈

@vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

UK must spend £1.5bn a year on flood defences to protect public, experts warn Researchers cite £2.4bn annual cost of flooding and say a third of England’s critical infrastructure is at risk

UK must spend £1.5bn a year on flood defences to protect public, experts warn

Researchers cite £2.4bn annual cost of flooding and say 2 million people and a third of England’s critical infrastructure are at risk

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Twelve polar stereographic maps showing 2-m air temperature anomalies in the Arctic from March 2025 to February 2025. Blue shading is shown for colder anomalies, and red shading is shown for warmer anomalies. All months are warmer than average overall. Anomalies are computed relative to a 1981-2010 baseline.

And now the regional temperature anomalies across the #Arctic over the last 12 months...

Data from ERA5 reanalysis at doi.org/10.24381/cds...

Viedma Glacier (Patagonia, ARG)
1931 | 2025

Hot from the camera! 🔥

Few days ago, IANIGLA researchers were at Viedma to repeat a photography by De Agostini, first scientific explorer of the area! 🧊❄️🏔️

Beware of distances! 🔭
In the meantime, The glacier has lost 5.2 km in length! 📏

📷 R. Villalba

"From 2000-2023, direct U.S. losses from natural disasters attributed to climate change totaled $700 billion, but the harms to productivity were almost six times greater, amounting to $4 trillion in losses."

Amazon rainforest cut down to build highway for COP climate summit The infrastructure required to host climate talks in Belém is undermining the cause, campaigners say.

I don't understand why 50,000 people need to go to this conference every year

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Tropical forests in the Americas are changing too slowly to track climate change Understanding the capacity of forests to adapt to climate change is of pivotal importance for conservation science, yet this is still widely unknown. This knowledge gap is particularly acute in high-b...

In our new paper in @science.org, we show that tropical forests are changing over time, but too slowly to track climate change. Our article, led by @jeaggu.bsky.social just out:

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

@oxfordgeography.bsky.social
@naturerecovery.bsky.social
@forestplots.bsky.social

We can also add Austria to this sad list of winter wildfires: noe.orf.at/stories/3296...

An Interview With A Fired NOAA Budget Analyst | Defector Growing up, Sabrina Valenti felt like she was genetically predetermined to work for the government. Her dad’s father was in the Navy. Her dad was in the Air Force. Two of her uncles served in the arme...

I spoke with Sabrina Valenti, a NOAA budget analyst fired under the DOGE layoffs, about the work she did and her fears for NOAA's future
defector.com/an-interview...

Canopy functional trait variation across Earth’s tropical forests - Nature Data from a variety of sources—including satellite, climate and soil data, as well as field-collected information on plant traits—are pooled and analysed to map the functional diversity of tropical fo...

Tropical forests are not all the same: they show many shades of geographical variation. Our new paper in Nature led by @jeaggu.bsky.social combines field and satellite data to make a first map the canopy functional traits of the world’s tropical forests: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Latest @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social data shows

One of the consequences of a warmer world is melting sea ice.

📉 Daily global sea ice extent reached a new all-time minimum

🌡️ February 2025 was 3rd warmest February globally, 1.59°C above the 1850-1900 average

🌍🛰️🌡️⚒️🧪🌊 #ClimateAction

Agroforestry stores less carbon than reforestation, but has many other benefits, study finds A recent study in Ecological Solutions and Evidence shows just how complicated and challenging it is to achieve carbon sequestration goals through forest management — but not impossible. The research ...

New research finds that a reforestation and agroforestry project on Indigenous land in Panama missed its carbon sequestration goal, but returned better-than-average results and had many other benefits.

It brought benefits to the local community in terms of extra income and food security.

As my friend @drshepherd2013.bsky.social says, asking why we need a National Weather Service when we have apps and the Weather Channel is like asking why we need potato farmers when we can buy fries at McDonalds.

Distressing snow conditions across the Alps! 🔥

At (what should be) the peak of the winter season! 😱

91 cm at Rudolfshütte, 2317 m (Salzburg, AT)
17 cm at Ristolas, 1665 m (Queyras, FR)
1 cm at Sella Nevea, 1124 (Julian Alps, IT)

@wetterblogat.bsky.social
@gaetanheymes.bsky.social
@aametsoc

🌍 Reforestation & Forest Restoration: A Climate and Biodiversity Solution 🌿

Tropical forests can regain 50% of their carbon stocks in 20 years, reaching 90% in 60-70 years​.

👉👉 Read the report here: files.ipbes.net/ipbes-web-pr...

#Reforestation #ClimateAction #ForestRestoration #Biodiversity

More than half of countries are ignoring biodiversity pledges – analysis Many of the nations gathering in Rome for Cop16 have offered no plans to honour their agreement to protect 30% of land and sea for nature

WAKE UP CALL: More than half the world’s countries have no plans to protect 30% of land and sea for nature, despite committing to a global agreement to do so less than three years ago, new analysis shows 🌎🧪 #biodiversity www.theguardian.com/environment/...