Landing page for scienceimpacts.org

Today, our #SCIMaP team released an impact analysis of the White House proposed FY 2027 NIH and NSF budgets.

Bottom-line: if enacted, cuts to science and medical research would lead to $35B in economic losses and 150,000 lost jobs in communities all across the US.

scienceimpacts.org

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GFS map of temperature anomalies over the contiguous USA for March 21, 2026.

We need to talk a bit about how utterly absurd the March heatwave was in the USA.

This heatwave would have been impossible without a boost from climate change, but even with climate change it remains a deeply unlikely event.

A thread looking at some of the numbers.

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Map showing snow water equivalent percent of the 1991-2020 median for the Western United States on April 10, 2026.

This is a frightening map, especially given the fact that this is normally near the peak in snowpack across the West. There are many far-reaching consequences from this historic snow drought, ranging from increasing risk of summer wildfires to major water concerns.

Map by nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov

Protest sign of dancing squash with crowns saying "Squash Kings!"

Our sign today in Augusta, Maine.

Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here's How to Use It. 40 Google features to find exactly what you need, the alternative search engines that do things Google won't, and the reference desk framework underneath all of it.

I know this has circulated with alacrity recently, so you may have already seen it, but if you haven't... WOW BOY HOWDY it's the most useful thing.

Thank you cardcatalogforlife.substack.com -- this is a very very very helpful public service:

cardcatalogforlife.substack.com/p/google-has...

Wanna see how an earthquake works? Here's today's lab in my seismology class. An explanation follows.

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As always, my last post of the year reminder...

Reducing emissions will reduce future climate warming and impacts. The time is now. Visualization made by globalcarbonbudget.org.

Thanks for being here in 2025! I appreciate all the support 🙂

The administration dismantling NCAR is scientific vandalism, much like the Taliban demolishing cultural artifacts.
www.theguardian.com/world/2001/m...

Be sure to talk to #AGU25 student poster presenters! See someone standing around at their poster, stop and ask them to give you a short overview, and ask a friendly question or two.

It's a good -- and fun & easy -- way to support professional development and skill building in the geosciences. 🧑‍🎓

Photo of three scientists raising a Pride flag on the Kahiltna glacier in Denali National Park, with Denali in the background.

Celebrating #PolarPride today. Thanks to all my LGBTQ+ colleagues for your many contributions to polar science! Raising a #Pride flag in Denali National Park during fieldwork in 2017.

I experienced some of this at the polls yesterday, too.

Deadly rivers in the sky A new Washington Post investigation reveals where climate change has supercharged the movement of moisture through the skies.

Gift Article!

A great article! Well-researched and written, with an excellent animation that makes climate change and the associated increase in atmospheric water vapor much easier to understand!

"The water vapor in Earth's atmosphere has increased by 12 % in the last 85 years.“

A tweet from John Fugelsang reads in all caps: "NO FOOD FOR YOU UNTIL THE DEMOCRATS LET US TAKE AWAY YOUR HEALTHCARE" – US House Speaker Mike Johnson.

This perfectly encapsulates what the GOP position is on the shutdown.

Maine wins early victory in climate lawsuit against oil companies A federal judge rebuffed the fossil fuel industry's bid to move the case to a more favorable court.

#ClimateInTheCourts
www.eenews.net/articles/mai...

After Trump cut the National Science Foundation by 56 percent, a venerable Arctic research center closes its doors The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States funded programs that aided Indigenous communities and tracked melting sea ice, among dozens of initiatives.

"After nearly 40 years, the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, or ARCUS, will close September 30."

"The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States funded programs that aided Indigenous communities and tracked melting sea ice, among dozens of initiatives."

"Health losses attributed to anthropogenic climate change," a brief communication in the journal Nature Climate Change. There's a map showing regions of the world, and pie charts of relevant studies as they apply to different health impacts like "heat-related deaths" and "maternal and child health"

🚨 NEW: Climate change is already causing 30,000 deaths per year - a global annual economic loss of $100-350B USD - but the true damage is probably 10x higher. Out TODAY in Nature Climate Change: the first systematic look at the science of "health impact attribution" 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

History rhymes a bit too well sometimes.

Updating Mental Models of Risk Disasters are no longer isolated events. This demands a fundamental change in how we think about and respond to complex risk.

To understand modern risk, we have to grapple with emergent and novel aspects of hazard, vulnerability, exposure, and response that comprise risk.

Find out more in a new article with @danielaldrich.bsky.social and Daniel Hoyer, just out in @issuesinst.bsky.social.

issues.org/mental-model...

Curious whether this approach could work in other environments

I'm looking for someone who could give an engaging seminar about natural disasters and the intersection of science and human vulnerability. Maybe a scientist who works in disaster response? Grateful for any recommendations!

Ice breaking capabilities are essential to support critical research on the Antarctic ice sheet and its response to climate change. This reversal of decades of US leadership in polar research is shortsighted and counterproductive.

Hurricane Erin achieved something most storms do not this weekend. "Extreme Rapid Intensification". Did climate change play a part? Science says, yes.
In 12 hours winds increased by ~65 mph. Only 3 other storms have done that and Erin was the earliest & only August storm to do so.
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Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose The Trump administration has asked NASA staffers to draw up plans to end at least two satellite missions that measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to current and former NASA employees.

The Trump administration has asked NASA staffers to draw up plans to end at least two satellite missions that measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to current and former NASA employees.

U.S. socked with 15 billion-dollar weather disasters during the 1st half of 2025 » Yale Climate Connections Four of the top 20 costliest weather disasters have occurred in the last year.

Of the 20 costliest weather disasters in history, four have occurred in just the last year.

Basic science is cool!!!

It is hard to convey in words how lethal the ideology of necropolitics truly is, but the sarcastic, smirking delivery here reinforces that in 2025 we must contend with a political class that publicly delights in human suffering and death.

Graphs showing 25 years of budgets for the National Institute of Health, NASA, and the NSF. In all cases, the proposed budget for next year is far, far below any year of the previous quarter century.

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

Baby Is Healed With World’s First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment

An incredible triumph for medicine, underscoring the critical importance of basic research !!! www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/h...

America, what have you become?

A post from Vivian (@suchnerve ) on X reads: "drug tests for EVERYONE in the White House and I'm not joking." Below, a reply from Laura Miers (@LauraMiers ), posted 2 days ago, says: "Excuse me?" The post also quotes a White House statement: "But we are capable of so much more. Our technologies permit us to manipulate time and space. They leave distance annihilated, cause things to grow, and improve productivity," with "annihilated" highlighted in yellow.

If there is ever a breach in the spacetime continuum, we’ll know where it began.