Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman

EPA eliminates research and development office, begins layoffs The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees.

The EPA has eliminated its research division, which for decades has provided the science behind regulations on clean air, clean water, and toxic chemicals.

The US can afford to monitor, research, and regulate the impacts of industries on human and environmental health. We are just choosing not to.

The evil that men do lives after them

I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.

I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.

I imagined the Chatsubo in 1984. 41 years later I opened its door. Neuromancer is in production.

It will also kill a lot of people.

if you doubt the anger of scientists...read and circulate this piece.

eos.org/opinions/sen...

A science-based list of the most effective ways an individual can catalyze action.

The most important thing you can do about climate change has nothing to do with …

what we eat

what we drive

what we wear

or any other aspect of our personal carbon footprint.

Our VOICES are the most powerful force we have to change the world.

That’s why …

Wrapping up the semester in "Science, fiction, and our environmental future" with a discussion of the hope/solar punk of Becky Chambers and some synthesis on their thoughts on the next 10-20 years.

“The NSF can be understood not only as a catalyst of scientific promise for national purpose, but also as a guarded response to fears about centralized control over knowledge and thought, shaped by the dark shadows of the Third Reich and the emerging Red Scare.”

Opinion | Trump Tried to Derail Our Work. We Banded Together and Moved Forward. (Gift Article) When knowledge is threatened, don’t just mourn it. Build around it.

This would be a major setback! Do you know if there’s any opportunity to reorganize like the National Nature Assessment has? www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/o...

Trump makes sweeping move to undercut state climate laws, including California's 'These State laws and policies are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration's objective to unleash American energy,' the president wrote. 'They should not stand.'

Another garbage, unconstitutional executive order from the President. Now he claims that states can't set their own environmental laws, like California's carbon trading program, which by the way, has existed since... 2006.
www.latimes.com/environment/...

10/10 Onion headline

A picture of two sea cucumbers, which instead of being normal dark colours are a pale orange. The main sea cucumber is extended out from the wall of an aquarium tank into the water column, its feeding appendages extended, and a set of plastic vampire fangs are poorly photoshopped approximately near to where its mouth is.

BREAKING NEWS: DIRE SEA CUCUMBER OFFICIALLY DE-EXTINCTED! These incredible predators were once feared throughout the Pleistocene landscape by even the mightiest of slowly falling marine detritus particles

What if the Government later determines that it sent one of these detainees to CECOT in error? Or a court eventually decides that the President lacked authority under the Alien Enemies Act to declare that Tren de Aragua is perpetrating or attempting an “invasion” against the territory of the United States? The Government takes the position that, even when it makes a mistake, it cannot retrieve individuals from the Salvadoran prisons to which it has sent them. See Defendant’s Memorandum of Law in Opposition in Abrego Garcia v. Noem, No. 25–cv–951 (D Md., Mar. 31, 2025), ECF Doc. 11, at 7–9. The implication of the Government’s position is that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal. History is no stranger to such lawless regimes, but this Nation’s system of laws is designed to prevent, not enable, their rise.

Sotomayor says the Trump DOJ's position is that it can ship off citizens and immigrants alike to El Salvador then detain them indefinitely without judicial review.

"History is no stranger to such lawless regimes, but
this Nation’s system of laws is designed to prevent, not enable, their rise."

FEMA moves to end one of its biggest disaster adaptation programs In an internal FEMA memorandum obtained by Grist, the Trump administration announced it plans to dismantle the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.

Scoop from me and Jake: FEMA is ending BRIC. grist.org/politics/fem...

People will say this is the result of a presidential election, and that’s partly true. But the Constitution does not delegate tariff power to the president, and he is only able to impose these ruinous, peace-destroying taxes because Congress has let him do so. Congress can end this at any time.

The 2024 US annual national security threat assessment from the Office of the Director of National Security mentions #climate threats ~20 times.
Trump's 2025 report? Not once.

The 2024 assessment mentions Greenland zero times.
The 2025 Trump report? 4 times.

www.dni.gov

We need to find a better word than "benefits". I paid in to SS for 53 years and I won't live long enough to get even half what I paid in back. That's fine - it's how SS should work, but I'm sick of aholes like Elmo calling them "benefits" as if he's giving me something.

Closing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis City of Madrid significantly boosted the takings of its shops and restaurants last Christmas by banning cars from the CBD, finds an analysis by Spain's second largest bank.

Keep this in mind when people claim cars mean business — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY.

There was also a 71% drop in air pollution.

Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople

Rebellions are built on hope.

Congestion pricing works.

Our special issue on #Green #Infrastructure Futures is now complete in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
Including our editorial: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@ianmell.bsky.social @mitchzuckerman.bsky.social @oh-the-urbanity.bsky.social & Sarah Clement

Trump Administration Aims to Eliminate E.P.A.’s Scientific Research Arm More than 1,000 chemists, biologists and other scientists could be laid off under a plan to dismantle the Office of Research and Development.

Breaking News: The EPA plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists.

Card 5: Ides of Trump — Card Campaign For Democracy DONALD TRUMP: YOU WORK FOR US You weren’t elected as a king or dictator. Our Constitution prevents this. You lack a mandate from the American people to dismantle our rule of law, wreck our economy,...

Here’s a campaign to send Trunp postcards at the White House on March 15 - here comes the Ides of Trunp cc4democracy.com/2025-cards/c...

Give to Professor Thomas Meixner Maryland Promise Scholarship | Giving Day I’m ready to support Professor Thomas Meixner Maryland Promise Scholarship on March 5, 2025 during Giving Day. Learn more about Professor Thomas Meixner Maryland Promise Scholarship

Today is #givingday at UMD - I’ll be giving to the Tom Meixner Promise Scholarship fund - will you give too? Tom was an alum of our program and a promise scholarship is a great was to honor his legacy and memory

givingday.umd.edu/campaigns/pr...

🏳️‍⚧️ Yay! It’s the absolute minimum from Ds but we’ll take it 🏳️‍⚧️

You can be trained to be a worker drone - but critical thought, context, complex thinking… on your own 🙄

They asked for data and evidence, not your guarantee

Not “bad” - unsafe driving

I just took action on "Support the Maryland Bottle Bill to Reduce Litter and Plastic Pollution, and Increase Recycling" -- will you join me?

t.co/320dAc0fi8