Chris Mooney

Line graph time series of 2026's daily Arctic sea ice extent compared to decadal averages from the 1980s to the 2010s. The decadal averages are shown with different colored lines with purple for the 1980s, blue for the 1990s, green for the 2000s, and white for the 2010s. Thin white lines are also shown for each year from 2000 to 2025. 2026 is shown with a thick gold line. There is a long-term decreasing trend in ice extent for every day of the year shown on this graph between January and March by looking at the decadal average line positions.

Friday ice update - #Arctic sea ice extent is currently the 2nd lowest on record (JAXA data)

• about 390,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 980,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 1,430,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 1,970,000 km² below the 1980s mean

More: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...

Thanks so much for sharing my story, @jeffsharlet.bsky.social !

If you go back to 1990, there are actually over 450,000 U.S. newspaper jobs. The number has been declining ever since, but faster during/after the Great Recession. The overall decline is over 80 percent.

www.datawrapper.de/_/sqclG/

I can't get over this number: in 2007, there were 360,000 newspaper jobs. Now, there are 80,000. "My local paper sucked!" Sure. What sucks even more? The void. "I get all my news from the Guardian!" No, the Guardian doesn't report on your town council, your school board, local cops.

It looks like the U.S. newspaper industry lost about 8 percent of its remaining employees in just one year in 2025.

I wish I could say that was unusual, but as this recently updated graphic shows, it has been going on for a long time...

My story here: reportearth.substack.com/p/2025-was-a...

🏆 The 2026 Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards are now open! 🥇

🆓 There is no fee to enter
⏳ Entries will be accepted through March 31 at 11:59pm US ET
🌍 Work published anytime in 2025, from anywhere in the world, is eligible
🔗 Learn more and apply: coveringclimatenow.org/projects/the...

Just updated: My chart showing trends in climate change coverage at the big 5 U.S. newspapers, with data via
@media-climate.bsky.social. Data now run through Jan 2026, and are pretty timely with the recent Washington Post news

For more of my charts: reportearth.substack.com/p/reporteart...

This chart. Wow. reportearth.substack.com/p/the-washin... via @chriscmooney.bsky.social

I was told today my Washington Post job is being eliminated

It's just a job, but it's one that I was proud to do for 8+ yrs alongside the best in the business

I'm here for opportunities to tell stories about the natural world and how we impact it

dino.grandoni@gmail.com

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Chris Mooney Named Julia G. and Alfred G. Hill Chair of Excellence - College of Communication and Information Photo courtesy of the University of Virginia This article was written by Noreen Premji. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s College of Communication and Information is proud to announce Pulitzer ...

First NY Times veteran @jswartz.bsky.social transitions to teach journalism at the University of Texas, now former Washington Post Pulitzer winning climate reporter @chriscmooney.bsky.social moves to teach at the other UT, the one on Rocky Top. Both grew up on Gulf Coast.
cci.utk.edu/blog/2026/01...

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Chris Mooney Named Julia G. and Alfred G. Hill Chair of Excellence - College of Communication and Information Photo courtesy of the University of Virginia This article was written by Noreen Premji. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s College of Communication and Information is proud to announce Pulitzer ...

A little bit of news about me! cci.utk.edu/blog/2026/01...

2025 was an exceptional year for the Earth's climate
⬆️ Warmest ocean heat content
⬆️ Tied as second warmest surface temps
⬆️ Second warmest troposphere
⬆️ Record high sea level and GHGs
⬇️ Record low winter Arctic ice

New State of the Climate over at Carbon Brief: www.carbonbrief.org/...

🌡️ WMO confirms 2025 was one of warmest years on record.

2025 was one of the 3 warmest years on record, with the global average surface temperature at 1.44°C ± 0.13°C above the 1850-1900 average, according to WMO’s consolidated analysis of 8 datasets.

🔗 https://bit.ly/49xpkWP

Multi-dataset comparison of global temperatures from 1850-2025, with 2025 values highlighted in a separate panel for each individual dataset. Baseline is a combination of 1850-1900 means.

Most 2025 global temperatures are now out (degrees C above 1850-1900 baseline)

1.41 HadCRUT5
1.44 Berkeley
1.46 JRA-3Q
1.47 Copernicus
1.53 DCENT-I

NOAA and NASA GISS values will be public at 2pm UK time and but based on already public Jan-Nov data they will likely be between 1.3 and 1.4 degC.

Bound for Antarctica: A Voyage to Earth’s End Is Underway

South Korean RV ARAON is indeed the only ship in the world regularly visiting Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica. US no longer has a dedicated Antarctic RV.

ARAON headed south now, with Raymond Zhong (NYT) & Miles O’Brien @pbsnews.org on board documenting! Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/27/c...

Climate Lab Book Discussions on various aspects of climate science. Click to read Climate Lab Book, by Ed Hawkins, a Substack publication.

📣 New estimates shed light on late-18th century temperatures!

🕰️🌡️🌎 New research provides the first global record from near-surface air temperature measurements, peering back in time to the late-18th century.

Read more about it here: brnw.ch/21wYn3Z

New estimates of surface temperature change since the late 18th century Releasing an observation-based global temperature dataset extending back to 1781

The new GloSAT temperature dataset extends our observational estimates of global temperature change back to 1781

Blog: climatelabbook.substack.com/p/new-estima...

Paper by Morice et al.: essd.copernicus.org/articles/17/...

New data raises questions about how much the Earth has warmed | CNN New climate data raises questions about how much the Earth has warmed

Article on the new GloSAT dataset and implications by @chriscmooney.bsky.social for @cnn.com

edition.cnn.com/2025/12/15/c...

Thanks @jswatz.bsky.social ! One of my favorite stories, I’m so thrilled that it turns out to have had this next chapter

Line graph time series of 2025's daily Arctic sea ice extent compared to decadal averages from the 1980s to the 2010s. The decadal averages are shown with different colored lines with purple for the 1980s, blue for the 1990s, green for the 2000s, and white for the 2010s. Thin white lines are also shown for each year from 2000 to 2024. 2025 is shown with a thick gold line, which is currently a record low for the current date. There is a long-term decreasing trend in ice extent for every day of the year shown on this graph between October and January by looking at the decadal average line positions.

🚨 Monday ice update - #Arctic sea ice extent is currently the lowest on record (JAXA data)

• about 1,110,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 1,600,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 2,310,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 2,810,000 km² below the 1980s mean

More: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...

Lowell Observatory slashes research funding in the midst of financial struggle Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.

Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.

Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.

ReportEarth chart archive Since I began this Substack in March, I've been making lots of charts. Now they can all live in one place.

13. For an archive of more charts like these, see here
! /end reportearth.substack.com/p/reporteart...

Don't bet against physics Don't be surprised by short term fluctuations in Earth systems as the planet warms. In the long term, heat is hard to overcome.

12. Further explanation in my latest Substack story here reportearth.substack.com/p/dont-bet-a...

11. But the scientific expectation remains the same: Warming will continue. That means the Earth, in the long run, will keep losing ice.

Don’t bet against physics.

10. So what’s the upshot here?

Even with record global warmth, the planet’s ice regions do not necessarily march in lockstep. The whole system is very complex.

What's happening in Antarctica Is the massive southern continent really gaining ice? Or poised to lose massive amounts? Clearing up some stuff this week.

9. Increasing snowfall appears to be behind this, and the new sea ice configuration could be at play in the overall weather situation. reportearth.substack.com/p/whats-happ...

8. And this may be contributing to a surprising effect. Antarctic *grounded ice loss*, the kind that contributes to sea level rise, has also seemingly paused its decline, at least in the last few years.

7. Antarctic sea ice, in contrast, is clearly down lately, though this is a rather recent development.

Regime Shift in Arctic Ocean Sea‐Ice Extent A regime shift occurred in 2007 in the September Arctic sea-ice extent, from a downward trend (1979–2006) to no trend (2007–2024) The period of no trend is inconsistent with a linear model of dec...

6. What’s up with that? Well, recent scientific papers suggest an ice “regime shift” happened in 2007 and also that, well, natural variability can do this, even on a warming Earth.
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

5. In fact, there is really not a downtrend in September, the month of lowest ice annual concentrations, between 2007 and the present.