Common loon coming in for a landing TT: @harrycollinsphotography

Macro photography by explore with Dara. Incredible

A pigeon built a nest for her kitty friend when the cat became pregnant. This unusual act of interspecies care highlights the remarkable capacity for empathy and connection that can exist between different animals. 😍❤️❤️🐈🐦‍⬛

Cannot think of anything that could go wrong once the United States establishes a precedent that one country can seek reprisals for how another country affects its climate

ICYMI: The proposal to overhaul federal government grantmaking is the latest step in Vought's quest to wrest control of spending from Congress and hand it to the president - a potential outcome that should alarm us all: www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/russell-voug... via @quittingcarbon.bsky.social 🔌💡

Russell Vought wants complete control over the $1.1 trillion in federal grants handed out each year

Local and state governments, scientists, and research institutions are alarmed by a Trump administration proposal that would give political appointees across federal agencies the power to kill grants ...

quittingcarbonmedia.com

A longform piece I did on the conversion of rainforests in Liberia into cacao plantations, the economic incentives driving it, and an upcoming collision with EU rules that it’s going to provoke.

Mongabay@mongabay.com · 2w ago

A "cocoa rush" in Liberia’s remote southeast is driving a major deforestation crisis. Tens of thousands of migrant workers from Côte d’Ivoire are clearing West Africa’s last remaining rainforests for cocoa plantations, pushing Grand Gedeh county to record forest loss. @shokes.bsky.social reports.

The U.S. government will lease nearly 127,500 square kilometers of seabed near American Samoa for deep-sea mining. While the Trump administration argues it secures critical minerals, Indigenous communities and environmental groups warn of irreversible harm to Pacific marine ecosystems.

US government announces plans to lease deep-sea mining rights in American Samoa

The U.S. government has taken another definitive step toward launching a deep-sea mining industry, starting in the waters of American Samoa, despite public opposition. On July 17, the Marine Minerals…

mongabay.cc

People have been asking me this question for decades. The answer is in most places, reducing demand by improving efficiency and cutting waste, and recycling and reusing wastewater, are cheaper, easier, and more environmentally beneficial than desalination. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/19/o...

The world needs more fresh water. Why isn’t desalination the answer? - The Boston Globe

There is obvious demand for the technology. And solar power should be making it more economical. If only it were that simple.

bostonglobe.com

Trump Cuts Habitat Protections for Endangered Species "Cuts" is a massive understatement. "Under the rule, destroying an endangered species’ nest or habitat would no longer be considered illegal." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/c...

Trump Cuts Habitat Protections for Endangered Species

The rule change ends a safeguard that had been in place for 50 years and could hasten the demise of imperiled animals.

nytimes.com

We lost Kongjian last year in a tragic accident. But his vision lives on.

Erica Gies / SlowWater.world@ericagies.bsky.social · 2y ago

Mr. Sponge City, Kongjian Yu, makes cities porous to soften floods & droughts. I told his story, part of the 🌎 #slowwater movement, in my book "Water Always Wins." Now we & Dr. Warren Wood have a Comment in Nature Water on how to help stabilize the climate: a Sponge Planet. rdcu.be/d5ouG

An "Object at Rest" is an animated cartoon by Seth Boyden. He says, the cartoon "follows the life of a stone as it travels over the course of millennia, facing nature's greatest obstacle: human civilization." It was his final thesis film at CalArts. Well done, Seth! I feel bad for the rock though.

I just signed this too. SciAm has been educating the public about science for 180 years, and the editors I've worked with there are at the top of the field. They deserve to be treated fairly, and the magazine's reporting is needed now more than ever.

Hannah Waters@hanner.bsky.social · last mo.

I just signed a @theactionnetwork.bsky.social petition: An Open Letter In Support of Scientific American @sciamunion.bsky.social. Sign here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/an...

Brian Goggin's building-sized installation, "Defenestration," in San Francisco, charmed me every time I saw it. Here's a worthy description of the piece and its artist: metaphorm.org/portfolio/de...

One of my favorite annual traditions is creating a list of important new books (and films). Some of them are acclaimed, while others are still under the radar and deserve more promotion: www.thegreenspotlight.com/2026/06/book... #books #authors

are you interested in toad calls, cemeteries, walking around at night, and/or what the wood frog has in common with Jesus Christ? you can learn about all these things and more in my new essay for @biographic.bsky.social: www.biographic.com/listening-fo...

Listening for Life Among the Dead - bioGraphic

A local chapter of a national frog survey convenes at a storied Massachusetts cemetery.

biographic.com

📣 BIG NEWS! 📣 We're re-launching bioGraphic as a completely independent nonprofit! As we make this transition, we're taking a publishing (and social media) break in July and August. Then we'll be back with more inspiring, paywall-free journalism about the natural world. More details below 👇

www.latimes.com/california/s... Trump administration takes aim at California Coastal Commission, sparking alarm 🦑🌎🧪

Trump administration takes aim at California Coastal Commission, sparking alarm

The Trump administration has initiated a review of the California Coastal Commission and other powerful state coastline watchdogs.

latimes.com

The height of irresponsibility. Part of the larger phenomenon of "#climate hushing."

FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting)@fairmediawatch.bsky.social · last mo.

From a speech entirely about climate change and its tangible impacts, NBC Nightly News managed to cherrypick a soundbite of Guterres essentially saying nothing more than “it’s hot.” fair.org/home/coverin...

Beautiful story on Glen Canyon's reslience by @jbrookelarsen.bsky.social @waterdesk.bsky.social waterdesk.org/2026/06/as-l...

As Lake Powell drops, a thriving ecosystem is emerging

“We’re entering beaver land!” Zanna Stutz yelled joyfully. Stepping lightly over slick, wobbly mud and splashing through ankle-deep water, she approached a small dam created by nature’s engineers. A W...

waterdesk.org

What Bethany said. SciAm has been one of my best clients for many years. Its coverage was deep, its editors fantastic, its vision bold. The loss of core science media publications is of a piece with the loss of government science institutions. Both make society less scientifically literate.

Bethany Brookshire@beebrookshire.bsky.social · last mo.

This news breaks my heart. SciAm being sold and a PILE of great editors getting fired. The Sciam editorial team is one of the best I've had the pleasure to work with. Smart, incisive, they make every piece better and I'm so proud to have worked with them. group.springernature.com/gp/group/med...

On this day in 1969, the Cuyahoga River caught fire, helping to ignite a nationwide environmental movement to clean up our waters. (This photo is from the 1952 fire, just one of many previous times pollutants on the river burned.) #water

What is the Great Drying? Human activities have degraded 75% of land on Earth, spreading drought. But we can fix it. Water isn't just a physical system. It needs life to work. Slow water enables life, rebalances rain -& even helps stabilize the climate. My TEDx talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vKu...

We broke the rain meddling with the planet's cooling system. What now? | Erica Gies | TEDxBoston

YouTube video by TEDx Talks

youtube.com

The popular wildfire tracking app is adding flood monitoring to its platform. It’s the first new disaster alert on the service, with many more to come.

Watch Duty Is Adding Flood Alerts to Its Wildfire App

The popular wildfire tracking app is adding flood monitoring to its platform. It’s the first new disaster alert on the service, with many more to come.

wrd.cm

Rainwater management, flood risk assessments, and NBS* are not frivolous. They are meant to address increasingly common rainstorm events. Sponge cities, or "slow water", as described in @ericagies.bsky.social 's 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘀, are the only way forward. www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/2166...

No. 1722 hotline activated for storm or flood risk

The Interior Ministry has activated Hotline 1722 for persons in need of assistance with storm damage or flooding.

brusselstimes.com

Bitter Honey is officially out w/ @princetonupress.bsky.social! It began with a question: why are bees struggling when we need them so badly? The answer led me into a bigger story about food, farming, and how we care for the living world. I hope you’ll check it out! #bees #farming #savethebees

Island Press@islandpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A revealing investigation into how industrial farming poses a growing threat to America's bees. Bitter Honey by @jenniedurant.bsky.social is now available (21 July UK pub). Find it here: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #Agriculture #Bees

From the full story linked in comments: "The beavers have also allowed the city to scrap expensive plans to dig a reservoir and levee. 'We said the beavers can do it for a fraction of the cost, certainly more sustainably,' McCormack says."

Yashar Ali 🐘@yasharali.bsky.social · 2mo ago

1. London Underground station flooding has reportedly been reduced by around 90% thanks to a group of engineers: beavers. After conservationists reintroduced a family of beavers into a nearby city park, the animals built dams and restored wetlands that now absorb and slow floodwater naturally.

Thanks to Pauline Holdsworth for including me in her CBC IDEAS podcast about the Cowichan efforts to restore the Cowichan Estuary in B.C. I’m featured in Pt 2 Pt 2 | What the River Wants to Be: app.magellan.ai/listen_links... Pt 1 | What the River Wants to Be: app.magellan.ai/listen_links...

Pt 2 | What the River Wants to Be

Listen to Ideas

app.magellan.ai

After the Dixie Fire, I noticed that burned areas in Lassen National Park were green with life. Forest Service lands outside remained a hellscape. @paperwords.bsky.social finds one reason why in this disturbing expose for @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202... @paperwords.bsky.social

When Rubio abruptly halted foreign aid last year, cleanup crews in Vietnam were forced to abandon one of the largest chemical spills in the world for weeks. Left exposed: open pits of soil contaminated with dioxin, the deadly byproduct of Agent Orange. From Pulitzer finalist “The End of Aid”:

Trump Halted an Agent Orange Cleanup. That Puts Hundreds of Thousands at Risk for Poisoning.

Diplomats in Vietnam warned Washington that halting USAID’s efforts to clean up the massive deposit of postwar pesticides would be a catastrophe for public health and relations with a key strategic pa...

propublica.org

Ugh, this hurts! bioGraphic, its editors, and reporters are telling great an important stories. Foundations and philanthropists: please step up!!!

Brooke Jarvis@brookejarvis.bsky.social · 3mo ago

It is so hard to watch the journalism crisis hit your favorite publications. We need way more nature/biodiversity reporting, not less!