Colorado's ban on "conversion therapy" for minors infringes on a therapist's freedom of speech, the Supreme Court held in Chiles v. Salazar. The majority separated talk therapy from other medical conduct. It could mean big problems for patients, therapists and the regulation of medicine. 🧵
Posts by Paul Higgins
GSA wants to add new certifications to federal grant agreements — affecting universities, nonprofits & research orgs across every agency.
Potential civil & criminal penalties for noncompliance. Comment period is open until 3/30. Make your voice heard. buff.ly/KNfXj0h
Happy democracy to all who practice!
AMS reaffirms the threat of climate change to people, the nation, and nature. www.ametsoc.org/ams/about-am...
Do you study disinformation or want to start working in that area?
Come to the DSI June 15-18th with @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, @rcalo.bsky.social, @naomioreskes.bsky.social, @emmaspiro.bsky.social, and many more.
disinfoinstitute.org
Terminating the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is an act of identity politics gone mad...bat sh-t crazy mad. My colleagues at @ametsoc.org are far too polite to put it in such crass terms, but they surely agree. Read their statement below.
Graphic for the 2026 AMS President-Elect (President in 2027) and Council featuring names and headshots of the president-elect candidates and headshots of the council candidates.
AMS Elections are NOW open 🔓!
President-Elect Candidates:
Jack Kaye, Richard Spinrad, Bruce Telfeyan
Council Candidates:
Michael Eilts, Renée Leduc, Maureen McCann, Randall Bass, Jordan Gerth, Aaron Piña, Julie Demuth, Kevin Goebbert, Jon Nese
Learn more and vote here: https://bit.ly/3Iaapbo
The @ametsoc.org Climate Variability & Change (CVC) Committee is recruiting new members! If you’re passionate about advancing climate science and service, I encourage you to get involved. It is incredibly rewarding.
Apply here: www.ametsoc.org/ams/get-invo...
Not the research itself, per se. But I would say this is even more evidence for the fact that we need a large scale effort that uses a social media as a tool to make people aware of these six key facts. It is astonishing and disappointing to me that so few see the need and none want to fund it.
A detailed technical assessment of the DOE Climate report is now available. It's an impressive effort that involved more than 85 scientists. If you wanted a deeper dive after reading AMS's 5 page response (bit.ly/climateDOE), this is it.
AMS released a statement on climate change today that points out five foundational flaws with the Department of Energy's 2025 climate report: www.ametsoc.org/ams/about-am...
on this date eight years ago, Tom Holland wowed Zendaya on Lip Sync Battle with his cultural critique of impervious surface stormwater runoff.
For hundreds of years, humanity has relied on science to improve lives and build civilization. Science tests hypotheses, uses data, and follows a systematic method in pursuit of the truth. It’s not perfect of course. But destroying American science as we know it will only send us backward.
This is what happens when you ask me to help sanewash the Trump tariffs.
Consider adding to the syllabus:
“The Glass Hotel” by Emily St. John Mandel
This is so spot on. As a climate scientist and public intellectual, I see or experience these often
Science News just published a piece on our ten favorite books from 2024. My contribution was Leigh Ann Henion's Night Magic, a lively and moving account of the fauna, flora and fungi that thrive in darkness and the wonder night holds. My review from September: www.sciencenews.org/article/nigh...
For climate-interested people new on bluesky, here is an excellent starter pack of climate scientists to follow from @katharinehayhoe.com
@edhawkins.bsky.social @lisaschipper.bsky.social @andrewdessler.bsky.social @rahmstorf.bsky.social @oceanterra.bsky.social
go.bsky.app/7Mbnoge
If anyone would like to learn more about the history of vaccines & infectious diseases and people's stories of the 1918 flu and other epidemics, I wrote this series in 2021. Lots of historical photos and videos. May help if you need to win over a vaccine skeptic. www.sciencenews.org/century/epid...
Please welcome the @ametsoc.bsky.social to Bluesky!
AMS advances the atmospheric & related sciences (including of course climate), applications, and services for the benefit of society.
I've added them to this starter pack of scientific organizations that do climate-related work ⬇️
Please share!
UW-Madison’s Dept of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences invites applications for a faculty position with research broadly related to modeling, remote sensing, and/or analysis of climate and extreme weather risk, impacts, or solutions.
More info: jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/profess...
Analysis is helpful but for those who want to see it for themselves and without the filter, here's a link to the CSPAN simulcast of the Presidential debate:
www.c-span.org/video/?53805...
I am very pleased to announce that the AMS Policy Program is initiating a Climate Policy Colloquium (www.ametsoc.org/cpc), which will occur from December 15-19, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Please see the preliminary agenda (bit.ly/AMSCPC24) and event webpage for details and updates.
"As the linguist Emily M. Bender has noted, teachers don’t ask students to write essays because the world needs more student essays. The point of writing essays is to strengthen students’ critical-thinking skills."
Some rough numbers to keep in mind
Every living thing on Earth put together: 1 trillion tons
All the stuff we’ve built or made: 1 trillion tons
Total CO2 we emitted: 2.5 trillion tons
Last spring, Washington state passed a bill banning commercial octopus farming.
Today, we (myself and 99 others, led by Jennifer Jacquet, Becca Franks, Peter Godfrey-Smith, and Walter Sanchez-Suarez) have a letter in Science supporting the US OCTOPUS Act, which would do the same nationwide.