Robert W. Gray

Hearing Trump speak is often like hearing the voices of enslavers echoing down the centuries.

The Raging Gifford Fire, Like Many, Began Near a Highway The wildfire in the Los Padres National Forest grew to 82,000 acres on Tuesday. Officials are still trying to determine the cause.

The cause of the Gifford fire, which has burned more than 82,000 acres in south-Central California since Friday, is still being investigated. But its location near a highway raised the strong possibility that it was caused by cars.

On a smoky day, when AQI levels reach 100 to 200, "the exposure to the fine particulate matter, the air pollution, is similar to smoking a quarter to half a pack a day," May-Lin Wilgus, a pulmonologist and professor at UCLA, says.

Tree rings reveal persistent Western Apache (Ndee) fire stewardship and niche construction in the American Southwest | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

More than 60,000 metric tons of food aid have languished in warehouses in the United States and around the world after the Trump administration’s breakneck dismantling of the USAID. wapo.st/4fmJAx2

‘They roll right over’: Many Democrats call their party weak and ineffective, AP-NORC poll finds A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that many Democrats see their political party as “weak” or “ineffective.”

This shouldn’t be surprising. The only way to fight back is to… actually fight back.

If Democrats want to improve their approval rating (or far more importantly, make actual change), we need real leadership to put up real resistance to authoritarianism.
apnews.com/article/ap-p...

With reforms in place, California’s Karuk Tribe works to reestablish cultural burning as 'common practice' For millennia, Indigenous peoples have intentionally set fires to care for the land. Colonization and fire exclusion largely put an end to those practices, though the tradition endured. Now, Californi...

While small, the burns represent a major step forward in the tribe’s longstanding effort to promote cultural burning. It’s the fruit of years of advocacy, and collaboration with federal agencies and nonprofits to bring down barriers to it. www.boisestatepublicradio.org/environment/...

Firing the BLS Commissioner — the wonk in charge of the statisticians who track economic reality — is an authoritarian four alarm fire.

It will also backfire: You can't bend economic reality, but you can break the trust of markets. And biased data yields worse policy.

PG&E Falls on Newsom Plan for Investors Payment into Fire Fund PG&E Corp. shares fell on a proposal by California Governor Gavin Newsom that would require the utility company’s shareholders to make a significant contribution to the replenishment of California...

One additional update: not all utilities (who need to be this bill’s loudest advocates) love the details. But this is a six week negotiation and one that utility leadership has to conduct on two sides - with the Governor and legislature AND with shareholders:

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Newsom Seeks $18 Billion for Utilities’ Wildfire Fund as California Faces Future Blazes California Governor Gavin Newsom is circulating a legislative proposal to shore up a state fund for utilities that’s at risk of being depleted following the deadly wildfires that struck Los Angeles Co...

Important news in the California wildfire world.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Climate Change Is Making Fire Weather Worse for World’s Forests

The chances of seeing extreme fire weather are roughly double in today’s climate compared with the preindustrial period. “It really puts to bed any debate about the role of climate change in driving these extreme fires,” Dr. Cunningham said.

On Controlling Fire, New Lessons from a Deep Indigenous Past For centuries, the Native people of North America used controlled burns to manage the continent's forests. In an e360 interview, ecologist Lori Daniels talks about the long history of Indigenous burni...

“There’s a school of thought that you can just put a fence around a forest and keep people out, and it will be protected, which is a very old-school view, a very colonial view. It comes from this idea that we came to a land that was ‘empty’ and there for the taking.”

Map of central and northwest Alaska showing 2025 analyzed wildfire perimeters as of July 23, 2025. Also shown on the map are community locations and major rivers.

2025 wildfire perimeters in central and northwest Alaska as of July 23rd courtesy Alaska Interagency Coordination Center. The Klikhtentotzna fire, north of Hughes is the largest fire at 115,600 acres (46,800 ha). Statewide total area burned at 957,900 acres (378,600 ha). #akwx #Wildfire #Summer2023

The Forest Service Claims It’s Fully Staffed for a Worsening Fire Season. Data Shows Thousands of Unfilled Jobs. This article first appeared at ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up...

The Forest Service Claims It’s Fully Staffed for a Worsening Fire Season. Data Shows Thousands of Unfilled Jobs. talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/the-for...

Climate Change Is Making Fire Weather Worse for World’s Forests

Forest fires are on the rise globally. An increase in severe fire weather is largely responsible. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/c...

For 1st Time, Fires Are Biggest Threat to Forests’ Climate-Fighting Superpower

Forests play a major role pulling planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. As the world heats up, some forests are becoming emitters in their own right www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/c...

More research needed on wildfire smoke toxicity, scientists say as they warn of pollution 'time bomb' | CBC News Scientists are concerned the smoke from wildfires in Manitoba could be even more toxic than usual, saying more research needs to be done on the kind of pollutants that are being released into the air.

Flames may re-release toxic chemicals in historical mining areas, though risks are unknown: researcher www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

US faces alarming firefighter shortage during peak wildfire season, data reveals

Check out our new paper "Ecohydrological drivers of Boreal Shield peatland fire refugia" in Ecohydrology.

Authors: Alex Tekatch, Chantel Markle, Sophie Wilkinson, Paul Moore, @mercury-ecohydro.bsky.social, @peatofmind.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Can plants keep up with fire regime changes through evolution?

Our new paper is out in the July issue of @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social

📖 www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

with Hoffmann, Nitschke & @jgpausas.bsky.social
#fireecology #PlantBiology #ecoevo 🔥🌿🧬

Photos: The Grand Canyon Burns The Dragon Bravo wildfire in Arizona grew rapidly over the past weekend, destroying the historic Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of other structures along the canyon’s North Rim.

The Dragon Bravo wildfire in Arizona grew rapidly over the past weekend, destroying the historic Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of other structures along the canyon’s North Rim. See more images via The Atlantic Photo.

Climate change has increased the odds of extreme regional forest fire years globally - Nature Communications The authors show that extreme fire years in global forests align with rare fire weather extremes. Climate change has made such extremes 88-152% more probable. These findings highlight the need for act...

"Years with such extreme FWI metrics are 88-152% more likely across global forested lands under a contemporary (2011–2040) climate compared to a quasi-preindustrial (1851–1900) climate, with the most pronounced increased risk in temperate and Amazonian forests." www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Using Zotero as library app for e-documents? Just saw, it also catalogs Bluesky threads as snapshots, including clickable URLs.
Very handy tool. A browser extension pulls metadata and abstract from papers, YTvideos, news articles,... and adds pdf or snapshots. For locally stored files per drag&drop

That statement is a not-very-coded call for a return to apartheid

In 2021, Biden admin awarded Kerr County TX $10m in American Rescue Plan Act funds, which could have been used for flood prevention infrastructure. But commissioners, facing political pressure from conservative residents, opted not to pursue warning system. www.texastribune.org/2025/07/10/t...

Aspen impedes wildfire spread in southwestern United States landscapes Aspen (Populus tremuloides) forests are generally thought to impede fire spread, yet the extent of this effect is not well quantified in relation to other vegetation types. We examined the influence ...

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Our research team just published a new paper: "Aspen impedes wildland fire spread in southwestern United States landscapes".

Aspen forests are thought to be more resistant to burning compared to conifer forests, but this has not been well studied.
🧪🔥

Canadian wildfire smoke ruining Americans' summer, says letter from Congress members | CBC News Canadian wildfire smoke is travelling south and making it difficult for some Americans to enjoy their summer, says a letter from six members of Congress to Canada's ambassador in Washington.

www.cbc.ca/news/world/c...

As Oregon’s wildfire risk map dies, Washington creates its own A recent Klickitat County meeting marks the early stages of a process to gauge the risks and hazards wildfire poses in Washington and to guide new codes for fire-resistant construction.

www.opb.org/article/2025...

Decreasing Stem Growth in Common European Tree Species Despite Earlier Growth Onset Our findings reveal that elevated winter and spring temperatures led to earlier attainment of annual growth levels, indicating an earlier onset of tree growth driven by early season warming. Despite ...

Our new results challenge the expectation that climate warming will offset carbon losses caused by heat and drought with a longer growing season in forests: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We know:
--> smoke from the fires had high levels of lead, detected at least 20 miles away
--> firefighters in L.A. had elevated lead in the blood compared to other firefighters
--> lead is being detected in soil and there is simply not enough testing and remediation happening