@erikerann.bsky.social
Dancing through raindrops, waiting to crone, will ride at dawn -- if absolutely no other time works.
1/ 2026’s Triple Danger Season is here, with (1) climate extremes, (2) Trump admin cuts, and (3) the affordability crisis all on a collision course. And this week, many millions of people will start to feel the heat.
Danger Season Is Here Again, with Triple the Danger for 2026
Climate change, harmful leadership, and an unaffordable cost of living loom large this Danger Season.
blog.ucs.org
1/ We have entered an age of climate-driven ocean heat, where the fact that we’ve overheated our water planet (70% of it covered by ocean) will loom large for centuries to come. (🧵⬇️)
Overheating a Water Planet: Warmed Oceans Will Not Be Ignored
The Trump administration is canceling oceanic research, as our world's oceans overheat. What could go wrong?
blog.ucs.org
This #EarthDay, we’re grateful to NASA and the Artemis II crew for giving us a whole new perspective on our work tackling the world’s most pressing issues.
Life in our changed climate from the burning of fossil fuels is on full display across much of the US as the unprecedented, early-season heatwave marches on and people endure temps 20 to 40⁰F above normal. x.com/NWSWPC/statu...
Giving thanks is a complicated proposition in this [climate | societal | political | cultural | authoritarian | disinformation | techbroligarch | choose your adventure] moment. And... gratitude is powerful. Here's what I'm working with. How about you?
Union of Concerned Scientists@ucs.org · 8mo ago"Gratitude is powerful. It’s both something we offer up and, when we mean it, it’s a gift we give ourselves that can help us to hold grief, move anger, and bring us into right relation with what is." UCS's Erika Spanger shares a few reasons to feel grateful, even in this challenging climate moment.
Who’s surprised? #DHS Sec. #KristiNoem changes draft FEMA review council report. Former #FEMA head Cameron Hamilton asks blunt Q. “What degree of confidence do you have that the report that you submit to DHS will be what is submitted to the president?” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Noem at odds with Trump-appointed panel over future of FEMA
Instead of further shrinking and dismantling FEMA, the FEMA Review Council wants to make it more independent.
washingtonpost.com
Hurricane Melissa has made landfall in Jamaica as a powerful Category 5 hurricane with 185 mph sustained winds. It will tie the strongest hurricane to make landfall in Atlantic recorded history based on central pressure. Follow the latest forecast here: www.hurricanes.gov
Hurricane Melissa is the kind of rapidly-intensifying, terrifyingly powerful storm our overheated oceans and atmosphere can now produce. My team crowd-sourced these observations on the climate connections and the implications for people in harm's way. blog.ucs.org/erika-spange...
Hurricane Melissa Is a Monster Climate Change-Fueled Hurricane: Here’s What to Know
This is the third Category 5 hurricane this year.
blog.ucs.org
At a time when the US slides dangerously into authoritarianism, people "must reject the use of the vast resources of the country to threaten or carry out military assaults on sovereign nations, and instead demand their use for the life-saving work of humanitarian aid in the wake of a disaster."
The Caribbean Needs US Climate, Humanitarian Response, Not Military Aggression
US role in climate change requires us to help those most affected.
blog.ucs.org
We are on the verge of a major humanitarian disaster for Jamaica and southern Haiti. Melissa is expected to rapidly intensify into a category 4 hurricane while moving slowly along the Jamaican coast…. www.hurricanes.gov
Danger is brewing this week in the Caribbean, and it’s not just the Trump Administration's sinking of boats. In his latest blog, @decletbarreto.bsky.social calls for US climate and humanitarian aid, rather than military aggression, as Tropical Storm Melissa forms in the Caribbean: bit.ly/477G0o8
The Caribbean Needs US Climate, Humanitarian Response, Not Military Aggression
US role in climate change requires us to help those most affected.
bit.ly
Climate change won’t stop for a government shutdown. We’re following a developing late-season heatwave in the Midwest and Northeastern US. Temperatures are expected to be over 20F above normal today through early next week.
🧵 #DangerSeason 8/7 Beware the air. This week, some of the worst air quality (AQ) conditions on Earth enveloped US cities, particularly in the Midwest and Northeast. The wildfires burning now aren’t the same fires that burned 30 years ago, and we know who to blame: the fossil fuel industry.
What We’re Watching: Wildfire Smoke and Trump Administration Mirrors
Believe your lungs, not the lies.
blog.ucs.org
🧵7/31 in #DangerSeason: Staying safe under a #HeatDome while watching the craven and shameless efforts of the Trump administration. The con: #ClimateChange isn't a danger. Let's roll back the #EndangermentFinding. Believe your own experience, not their gaslighting. And act accordingly.
What We’re Watching: Endangered in Danger Season
Erika Spanger and Ashley Seifert-Nunes contributed to this post. This week in Danger Season, many of us are trying to avoid the health impacts of an extended heat dome while watching the craven and...
bit.ly
#KillerHeat is... killing us🌡️ 💀. The ocean is losing its cool🌊🥵. We're making a U-turn away from solutions. (!!!). BUT heat responds quickly to reduced emissions if we #ActOnClimate. #DangerSeason is baking us. And this could be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives. This is #ClimateChange
Hot Summer 2025 Could Be the Coolest for the Rest of Our Lives: 6 Things to Know
It's hot and getting hotter. But climate action is cool.
bit.ly
This week in #DangerSeason: #KillerHeat, back in a big way; people get it: this is #ClimateChange; a counterintuitive factor fuels #FlashFloods; the Trump administration's policy whiplash widens. Want to push back? Join our action hour. 🔗⬇️ bit.ly/3Uu8Oji
What We’re Watching: Climate and Political Whiplash
This week in Danger Season we’re thinking about the current whiplash the nation is experiencing from both our climate and our politics, we’re looking at the gathering eastern US heat wave, and we’re t...
bit.ly
This week in #DangerSeason: #Climate extremes collide with Administration cuts; 💧multiple #FlashFlood records broken; 🔥wildfires make for bad air quality; 🥵 hot all over; ⛽SHOCKER - #FossilFuel industry doesn’t want their share of blame or costs. 🔗 bit.ly/46hUuBQ
What We’re Watching: Heat, Floods, and Fires Threaten Multiple US Regions While Fossil Fuel Industry Seeks Legal Immunity
More flash flood warnings have been issued this year to date than any other year since 1986.
bit.ly
This week in Danger Season had more than its share of terrible news AND some reasons for guarded optimism. In our #DangerSeason Weekly Outlook we capture both.
Danger Season Disasters Hit People Hard Even as NOAA, FEMA Still Under Threat from Trump Administration
Keep demanding Congress protect their funding and staffing.
blog.ucs.org
I wrote a (long) thing about this knife's edge moment. There is nothing inevitable about this authoritarian takeover, but we have to show up to not give up the ship.
Union of Concerned Scientists@ucs.org · last yr.We are headed into an unprecedented authoritarian moment this weekend. A military parade in DC will be countered by 2000+ protests around the country. This tense dynamic can't balance on the knife’s edge for long. Where it falls—toward tyranny or democracy—depends on us.
We are witnessing the dismantling of NOAA--the United States' best defense against extreme weather, the climate crisis, and, simply, the prediction of day-to-day weather--in real time. This will damage the scientific infrastructure in the US for decades. blog.ucs.org/marc-alessi/...
5 Reasons NOAA and NASA Cuts Will Be Disastrous for Everyone in the US
The Trump Administration plan to cut research on climate change and extreme weather events, including tornadoes and hurricanes, puts us in peril.
blog.ucs.org
We don’t feel much like a “climate” movement right now and that’s as it should be, too many urgent fronts to fight on. But we’re still here. And this assault on climate science needs the greatest response we can marshal. Thanks @marc-alessi.bsky.social & Rachel Cleetus blog.ucs.org/erika-spange...
Dear Climate Movement: They've Come for Our Climate Science. We Have to Stop Them.
They can't take it from us if we refuse to let it go.
blog.ucs.org
The Trump admin plans to gut climate research at NOAA & NASA, following #Project2025 agenda. Proposed cuts include NOAA’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Division, all 16 cooperative institutes, 10 labs, 6 climate centers, NASA’s Goddard Space Institute budget, and $70M in grants—plus mass firings.
Trump Administration’s Anti-Science Attacks on NOAA, What It Means for People Across US
YouTube video by Union of Concerned Scientists
youtube.com
The Trump Administration and DOGE have announced the cancellation of 1 in 10 Federal leases country-wide, including the lease for NOAA's Center for Weather and Climate Prediction. www.axios.com/2025/03/03/d...
DOGE moves to cancel NOAA leases at critical forecasting centers
NOAA's nerve center of national weather forecasting is on a lease cancellation list.
axios.com