Check out this new article by NOAA Research that summarizes three complementary studies from our research team on what is driving recent CH4 growth! Despite using different approaches, each study comes to the same conclusion that microbial emissions are to blame. research.noaa.gov/pioneering-n...

Pioneering NOAA-University of Colorado research converges on role of microbes in methane’s surge - NOAA Research

Stable isotope analysis points to impact of agriculture and wetlands, not fossil fuels as a driver of the rapid rise in atmospheric methane.

research.noaa.gov

My personal take-home: always test the "null" hypothesis when it comes to palaeoclimate. Eric Mei, @bayesicallyalex.bsky.social, @cristiproist.bsky.social, et al., www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Fun times working with Eric on this as part of @fetch4.bsky.social

Multidecadal preindustrial methane variability can be explained by noise in the source–sink imbalance | PNAS

Ice core records of preindustrial methane indicate variability of ±30 ppb (±5%) on multidecadal-to-centennial timescales. Previous work has attribu...

pnas.org

NCAR just won in court! A US district judge in Colorado has prohibited NSF from taking #NCAR apart, specifically in spalling off its supercomputing center in Wyoming. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... Our earlier story on this and why it matters: www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪

World-leading climate centre takes Trump administration to court

Universities that run the National Center for Atmospheric Research want to keep it from being dismantled.

nature.com

In the contiguous US, for every 10 heat records, there are ~7 cold records, but between 2015 and 2025, this drops to just ~2 cold records for every 10 heat records. THIS chart 📊 is global #climatechange. #dataviz

Getting direct measurements of CO2 from Pliocene-aged ice has been a Holy Grail of climate science! A new paper by @jmarkspeterson.bsky.social provides a record of CO2 going back 3million years(!), with (let's say) intriguing implications for anthropogenic climate change doi.org/10.1038/s415... 1/

Broadly stable atmospheric CO2 and CH4 levels over the past 3 million years - Nature

Blue ice records from Antarctica are used to determine methane and carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 3 million years.

doi.org

There has been a lot of recent interest by companies in mitigating short-lived climate "super-pollutants" like methane and refrigerants. This can have a strong short-term climate impact, but to credibly counterbalance CO2 emissions requires combining them with durable carbon removal.

Glad to see our group's work featured in this @nytimes.com article on how different methane emission categories are changing over time. 🧵↓ www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/c...

Methane Hunters Track Swamp Gas That Is Driving Climate Warming

nytimes.com

Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...

I just signed - consider signing if you work or have worked in Greenland “We hope many U.S.-based researchers in Greenland …will join us in signing this letter to… call upon our elected representatives to vocally support Greenland’s right to self-governance”. forms.gle/csef7uCnU11y...

"Science Under Siege -- the NCAR Development" | My new commentary: michaelmann.net/science-unde... #ScienceUnderSiege

Science Under Siege -- The NCAR development | Michael E. Mann

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has played a key role developing the science of climate modeling and the measurement of climate observations going back […]

michaelmann.net

A deeply dangerous — and blatantly retaliatory action against Colorado — by the Trump administration. NCAR is one of the most renowned scientific facilities in the WORLD — where scientists perform cutting-edge research everyday. We will fight this reckless directive with every legal tool we have.

USA TODAY@usatoday.com · 8mo ago

Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.

Congrats to @benryoung.bsky.social and team for a new publication on methane emissions. They found: 1) The fossil fuel industry is getting better at increasing production but not emissions, and...

Microbial driver of 2006–2023 CH4 growth indicated by trends in atmospheric δD–CH4 and δ13C–CH4 | PNAS

Methane (CH4) is the second most important greenhouse gas and has been rising following a brief period of stabilization from 1999 to 2006. Determin...

pnas.org

Ben Riddell-Young@benryoung.bsky.social · 8mo ago

With support from the @cires.colorado.edu and @noaa.gov

Excited to share our new PNAS paper! We find that recent methane growth was driven by agriculture/waste and wetland emissions, while fossil fuel emissions have remained stable despite growth in production, highlighting recent progress and further mitigation potential. www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

The order is the latest move by the Trump administration to assert control over US science go.nature.com/3H6IxVr

Trump order gives political appointees vast powers over research grants

Researchers are alarmed that the move might upend a long-standing tradition of peer-review for grants.

go.nature.com

So now, regardless of the scientific merit of your grant proposal, a Trump appointee with no specified qualifications gets to decide whether to fund it or not based entirely on how it aligns with the Trump administrations policy goals…seems real bad.

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

whitehouse.gov

"A climate nonprofit is planning to revive a key federal database tracking billion-dollar weather disasters that the Trump administration formally stopped updating in May. The database - which was produced by NOAA - is set to return this fall as a product of @climatecentral.org."

Researchers Are Resurrecting Billion-Dollar Disaster Tool Trump Killed

Nonprofit Climate Central has hired the scientist behind a key database of costly weather disasters to rebuild it.

bloomberg.com

Breaking: US shortage of cherries since so many were picked for the DOE ‘critical’ review of climate science.

Nat Geo would kill for legit science-driven adventure like they found in “For Winter,” over content less credibly grounded in pursuit of knowledge +humans pushing limits. Instead they’ve (Disney?) gotten cold feet & deeply disrespected my colleague Ali & her family. defector.com/why-did-nati...

Why Did National Geographic Disappear Its Own Documentary About A Queer Climate Scientist? | Defector

If you’re not a particular kind of mountain sports nerd, you might not be familiar with the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour. But for people who live their lives in the overlapping circl...

defector.com

See interviews from lab alum Ben Riddell-Young and PI Ed Brook in this Mother Jones article on the future of ice core research.

The critical research that unlocks our climate's past and future may be on thin ice

“There’s questions that we don’t know we should be asking yet.”

motherjones.com

🚨The Trump Administration is proposing devastating cuts to key national agencies in Colorado that play a vital role in protecting our country, including through cutting-edge research on wildfires, droughts, and more. Senator Bennet and I are fighting back against the attacks on NOAA, CIRES & CIRA 👇🏾

Problems don’t exist if you don’t see them! 😐

Zack Labe@zacklabe.com · last yr.

The poor "Sea Ice Index" nsidc.org/data/seaice_... 😢 See thread for more on this tragic data loss: bsky.app/profile/zack...

Funding for ice core research is at risk. Ben Riddell-Young, a CIRES postdoctoral researcher in NOAA GML, shares why ice core research is important for understanding past and future climate change. “There’s questions that we don’t know we should be asking yet.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The critical research that unlocks our climate's past and future may be on thin ice

“There’s questions that we don’t know we should be asking yet.”

motherjones.com

About 20 years ago, researchers drilled a 3,260-meter ice core in East Antarctica. Now, scientists are using it to uncover new insights. 🧪🌊

When Ice Ages End, Ocean Circulation Fine-Tunes Ocean Heat - Eos

New Antarctic ice core data bolster model predictions of ocean heat content during glacials and interglacials.

eos.org

@noaa.gov just released the 2024 CO2 growth rate and it doesn’t look good. It is more important than ever to continue monitoring how and researching why GHGs are changing and what these changes mean for our climate system. @climate.noaa.gov

To the world: We are fighting back. Our movement has been silenced by the media here—but we are not backing down. This is what our streets looked like across multiple cities. Tomorrow, there will be more of us! Raise a glass to freedom. —With love, Your American allies.

My friend from the NOAA lab that brings you the Keeling Curve wants that world to know that things are horrible inside NOAA.

We have an exciting opportunity for postdoc to join our group at @bas.ac.uk and take part in two big ice core projects: www.beyondepica.eu and @fetch4.bsky.social. Package includes: mugs, stickers, maps, trips to Copenhagen, Grenoble and (maybe) Greenland. bas.ciphr-irecruit.com/applicants/v...

Having fun with new lecture on: Wendt et al., 2024, Southern Ocean drives multidecadal atmospheric CO₂ rise during Heinrich Stadials | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Riddell-Young et al., 2025, Abrupt changes in biomass burning during the last glacial period | Nature doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Happening at the NOAA/NIST entrance in Boulder, CO today. Spread the word!

New lab account! Please share this post to help us connect with our network. We are a lab at Oregon State University headed by Dr. Ed Brook and Dr. Christo Buizert using ice samples to study past climate. See coldex.org for info on our search for old ice. #science #coldex #oregonstateuniversity