Chris McDermott
@chrismcdermott.bsky.social
editor | fmr. managing editor at EcoWatch | animal rights | climate | science | biodiversity | wildlife | oceans | biophile | Asheville, NC
“The problem with climate change reporting is that sometimes it feels like you’re intellectualizing something that doesn’t actually need to be intellectualized. This is pretty simple. It’s fossil fuel companies destroying our future for a quick buck. That’s all you need to say.” @emorwee.bsky.social
Emily Atkin Is Not an Optimist
The founder of HEATED on fossil fuel advertising, billionaires taking over media, and what removing plastic from her life is teaching her about systems change.
buff.ly
This is what happens when the corrupt fossil fuel industry’s emissions add zettajoules of excess heat to the oceans (look it up).
No shortage of woe and doom in our present world. But we can still make a difference. #RadioFreeAmerica www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Mining made this US tribal area a toxic wasteland. This Indigenous nation brought it back to life
The Quapaw Nation is the only US Native community to carry out a cleanup of one of the country’s worst sites of environmental contamination
theguardian.com
Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, keeps shooting out of the ground in Oklahoma. Experts say it means even more wastewater is spreading underground, poisoning the state’s water supply. Published Oct. w/ @readfrontier.bsky.social
Toxic Wastewater From Oil Fields Keeps Pouring Out of the Ground. Oklahoma Regulators Failed to Stop It.
Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, is spewing from old wells. Experts warn of a pollution crisis spreading underground and threatening Oklahoma’s drin...
propublica.org
A portrait of the kind of science we are losing, and for no reason www.statnews.com/2025/12/05/r...
His lab was humming with discovery. After one year under Trump, it’s almost silent
John Quackenbush built a lab that is at the forefront of human genetics research and bioinformatics. Trump administration cuts have put it in danger of collapse.
statnews.com
Well done! A Massachusetts church displayed an “ICE was here” sign in its Nativity scene.
📽️ WATCH: Photographer @annie-flanagan.bsky.social went to Clairton, PA, where residents live in the shadow of the country’s largest coke plant. Coke is a product used to manufacture steel. This is what Annie saw — and inhaled — while on assignment in Clairton. Link to our story below ⤵️
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Australia finally acknowledges environment underpins all else. That’s no small thing | Ken Henry
In what are dangerous times for democracies around the world, parliament’s overhaul of nature laws in the EPBC Act shows ambitious reform remains possible
theguardian.com
NEW: Trump’s climate policies could lead to 1.3 million more temperature-related deaths by 2115, our analysis found. “The sheer numbers are horrifying,” a climate advocate said. “These are people with lives, with families, with hopes and dreams.”
Trump’s Anti-Green Agenda Could Lead to 1.3 Million More Climate Deaths. The Poorest Countries Will Be Impacted Most.
Most of the people expected to suffer these temperature-related deaths live in poor countries in Africa and South Asia that are least prepared to cope with the increasing heat from climate change.
propublica.org
How did 3M’s “forever chemicals” end up in all of us? The inside story of the corporate scientists who discovered—then helped to conceal—the dangers of its chemicals.
How 3M Discovered, Then Concealed, the Dangers of Forever Chemicals
The company found its own toxic compounds in human blood—and kept selling them.
newyorker.com
A nearly Connecticut-sized, oxygen-depleted area of ocean is decidedly abnormal. But the last 4 decades of annual measurements and failed efforts to stop chemical pollution flowing off midwestern farms and into the Gulf made this week’s announcement entirely predictable.
“We’re being treated like animals… I’m brown. If I go out they can stop me every day just cuz of my skin color.” What are we doing? 🇺🇸 (from @rokhanna.bsky.social )
Sadako Sasaki was two when the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima. She was 12 when she died of leukemia caused by radiation. In her hospital bed, she folded 1,000 paper cranes for peace. Today, we fold cranes in her memory & to build a safer world free from the threat of nuclear weapons. #CranesForOurFuture
There are historical cases, going back hundreds or thousands of years, of humans reacting quickly to climate change. And then there is the current case of humans both causing the climate change and refusing to react to it. www.wired.com/story/kerr-c...
The Texas Floods Were a Preview of What’s to Come
Mounting evidence shows no US state is safe from the flooding that ravaged Texas’ Kerr Country.
wired.com
“The fossil fuel industry was sent a powerful message by the court in this case — the health, well-being, affordability, and prosperity of our communities matters more than the industry’s profits and the hollowness of its fear mongering.” ~ Dawn Wells-Clyburn, executive director of PUSH Buffalo
New York Finalizes Rule for New Buildings to Be Electric - EcoWatch
New York is now the first state to require new buildings to be built entirely electric, without hookups to fossil fuels including gas.
ecowatch.com
A university scientist who discovered alarming levels of toxic chemicals in a lake in southeastern Louisiana was abruptly removed from her research position this week without explanation
University sidelines scientist who exposed toxic metals in Lake Maurepas
The SELU scientist who discovered alarming levels of toxic chemicals in Lake Maurepas was abruptly removed from her research position without explanation.
lailluminator.com
“We found an average of seven different pesticides per butterfly, including multiple insecticides that are highly toxic to insects.” ~ Staci Cibotti, lead author of the study and pesticide risk prevention specialist @xercessociety.bsky.social
Mass Die-Off of Western Monarch Butterflies Linked to Pesticides, Study Finds - EcoWatch
A new peer-reviewed study has linked pesticides as a likely cause to a mass die-off of Western monarch butterflies that occurred in 2024.
ecowatch.com
This made us laugh… and cry. If you felt it too, here’s one way to help two agencies in the bunker 👇
Protect NOAA and FEMA from Trump's Dangerous Budget Cuts
Tell Congress to reject any proposal that weakens the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Weather forecasting, emergency prepared...
secure.ucs.org
Elle Cordova@ellecordova.bsky.social · last yr.Federal agencies hiding out in a bunker
“What makes our discovery groundbreaking is not just its greater depth – it’s the astonishing abundance and diversity of chemosynthetic life we observed... this community thrives like a vibrant oasis in the vast desert of the deep sea.” ~ Mengran Du, IDSSE, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Deepest-Known Animal Communities Found Almost Six Miles Below Sea Level - EcoWatch
Thousands of mollusks and worms have been discovered by a Chinese submersible in the Mariana Trench, almost six miles below sea level.
ecowatch.com
