Publishers weekly listing for the new novel Battleground States that will be out within the next year: Screenwriter and co-producer of House of Sand and Fog Shawn Otto's BATTLEGROUND STATES, pitched as THE ROAD meets STATION ELEVEN, in which a scientist and her young son embark on a harrowing journey through the Midwest in the not-too-distant post-civil war future in which the country has divided into different geographical factions, disinformation reigns, and the most powerful weapon ever created is about to be unleashed, to Daniel Slager at Milkweed, by Joy Tutela at David Black Literary Agency (NA).

New book coming soon! Hopefully fiction…

I will be with Trevor Christian on @WUSBradio.bsky.social 90.1 FM in Stony Brook on Monday, June 23rd (9 AM-11 AM), as we interview @ShawnOtto.bsky.social discussing his book The War on Science #media #journalism #politcs #FreedomOfSpeech #ClimateCrisis

www.facebook.com/share/15WZk6...

In early 2016, before #Trump won his first Republican presidential nomination, a prescient book by @shawnotto.bsky.social described three components of the war on #science.

1) Industrial
2) Religious/Ideological
3) Identity Politics

Here's my review of Otto's book

denisgilbert.com/blog/f/war-o...

NOAA terminates space, climate and marine life advisory committees Experts caution the groups play a key role in ensuring agencies use the best available science in their decision making.

NOAA terminates space, climate and marine life advisory committees

Shawn Otto | science writer • novelist • screenwriter • speaker Website and blog of Shawn Otto, an award-winning science writer, novelist, screenwriter, speaker, and science advocate

Want to understand this madness? Read thewaronscience.com

What TruMusk don’t get is this is a government by the people, which literally means a lot of people are involved in running it, and we arrive at policies by consensus, not by diktat from the presidents (pronouns: they/them)

Implementing The President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Workforce Optimization Initiative By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:     Section 1.

This new exec order functionally puts Elon Musk in charge of the executive branch, with all departments reporting to him. Is this a coup?

La Leona waterfall in Costa Rica

La Leona waterfall in Costa Rica. An intense hike and swim to get there but worth it!

Thanks Chris! Good rec re: the watch speed!

Follow Chris for climate!

This is insanely cynical and/or journalistically irresponsible timing, especially with the Trump assault on anything climate related, which is certainly newsworthy and a raison d’etre for journalists in a democracy. WTF, HuffPost?

So sorry to hear about your uncle.

This is insanely cynical and/or journalistically irresponsible timing, especially with the Trump assault on anything climate related. WTF, HuffPost?

Thinking of my uncle whose early #Alzheimer's disease encroaches like a slow but uncontrollable wildfire, & remembering how excited the #neuropsychology community was when these conferences began. RIP #NIH RIP science. And it's not as if @shawnotto.bsky.social didn't warn y'all almost 10 years ago.

A train through highland tea country to Nanu Oyo

On a train through highland tea country to Nanu Oya.

@michaelconnelly.bsky.social

The fires in Los Angeles County are climate change in action. Today, I spoke with BBC News about how drought is causing devastating impacts in what should be the rainy season. Thanks to climate change, the fire season in California is now year round.

Evidence Against Drinking Has Grown. Will Federal Advice Change? Officials in other countries are warning about the health hazards of alcohol in any amount. Americans are still told that moderate drinking is safe. What gives?

I love complex Italian red wine, craft beer, and single malt scotch, but I stopped drinking alcohol in 2016 after reading the shocking science on how many different types of cancer it is associated with.

1977 memo on climate change

The prescient 1977 climate change memo to President Jimmy Carter that could have changed everything - but didn’t.

‘A Complete Unknown’ Review: Timothée Chalamet Goes Electric The actor stars as a young Bob Dylan, who woos folk followers only to betray them later at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

This is a somewhat spineless review by someone trying to hedge their bets and straddle a fence of their own imagination. The movie is great. Go see it.

Hiroko Tabuchi Hiroko Tabuchi covers pollution and the environment for The Times. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years in Tokyo and New York.

Hiroko Tabuchi is one of the very best reporters on critical stories in science and the environment, like the EPA’s colossal failure to regulate PFAS being spread on farm fields. Follow her. www.nytimes.com/by/hiroko-ta...

Shawn Otto | science writer • novelist • screenwriter • speaker Website and blog of Shawn Otto, an award-winning science writer, novelist, screenwriter, speaker, and science advocate

@futureisorg.bsky.social functional democracy also requires 1) policies be based on objective evidence; the undermining of objective truth is what is challenging U.S. democracy now. 2) separation of church and state; lack of this is why the Arab Spring fizzled. See my book thewaronscience.com

EPA knew PFAS were being unwittingly spread on millions of acres of farmland two decades ago and haven’t stopped it because of staffing shortages and the arduousness of setting new regulations. REALLY?

E.P.A. Will Make Polluters Pay to Clean Up Two ‘Forever Chemicals’ The step follows an extraordinary move that requires utilities to reduce the levels of carcinogenic PFAS compounds in drinking water to near-zero.

Sure, EPA, but what about the literally thousands of other PFAS chemicals? Do your job with a little more urgency please.

All breadbasket states should immediately BAN use of sewage sludge as fertilizer unless tests show it is PFAS free.

EPA Promotes Fertilizer Carrying PFAS, Long After 3M Shared Risks The agency obtained research from 3M in 2003 revealing that sewage sludge, the raw material for the fertilizer, carried toxic “forever chemicals.”

Total toxic failure by the EPA

A ruler placed in a dish after a rainfall measures the same amount of rain no matter the identity of the person holding the ruler

Yes science is attacked by the right, but also by authoritarians on the left who claim all “ways of knowing” are =, science & math are tools of white patriarchy, & there’s no objective truth. Disagree & you’re an oppressor. It’s a manipulative power play. If you love justice, love science.

Trump’s ABC Settlement Forces the Network to Bend the Knee The $15 million settlement follows several unsuccessful Trump lawsuits against “fake news” media outlets.

It’s hard to overstate the danger to freedom when a major news organization goes full-on sycophant. ABC seems to have forgotten where their journalistic duty lies.

Today’s haiku:
The Sound of Music’s
antifa theme urges me
to stiffen my spine.