Kerry Cook
@kerrycook.bsky.social
Climate scientist and educator Professor of Climate System Science The University of Texas at Austin
If we lose the National Center for Atmospheric Research, it will not be temporary. The science funding environment is so radically different today from when NCAR was established (1960) that it will not be possible to recreate it.
From @AGU.org: Senators are working on legislation to save NCAR, but we need extra support for these 8 states. Your Senators in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming need to hear from you.
Please raise your voice to oppose dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research. NCAR provides essential support for university science, including the training of the next generation of atmospheric scientists to predict weather and climate.
The President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. "HANG THEM", he posted. If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.
I wrote about the humility of expertise and the arrogance of ignorance, the profound laziness that attends believing that you can find knowledge by ignoring the accumulation of inherited human knowledge, and the ways lazy arrogance fuels narratives of fascism. www.the-reframe.com/your-ignoran...
Your Ignorance Doesn't Make You An Expert
Let's go chasing waterfalls.
the-reframe.com
Today is the last day of work for many U.S.A.I.D. workers. This agency has saved an estimated 25 million lives around the world, not to mention reducing countless suffering, while representing the best of what American can be. I feel profound appreciation and admiration. Thank you all.
Elon Musk casually, and illegally, dismantled USAID. According to a new study in the Lancet, that action will lead to *14 million* premature deaths between 2025 and 2030. Again: Elon Musk is directly responsible for 14 million coming deaths. 4.5 million will be children.
Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis
USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a...
thelancet.com
Having a moment as I sign my book, Climate Dynamics, for Russell Ogle as we prepare to head out to the Hill to advocate for science funding as part of #AGU Days of Action. Thanks to AGU for organizing and supporting 100 earth scientists for this visit to Senate and Congressional offices .
Queues for the supercomouter at the Texas Advanced Compuring center where we run our high resolution climate simulations have declined to zero = no wait. A month ago the queues were 3-6 days. Is this U.S. science winding down? Has anyone else seen this at other centers?
Even when the political winds shift, science must keep moving forward. That’s why @AGU and @ametsoc are stepping up with a first-of-its-kind special collection on climate change in the U.S.—across 29+ peer-reviewed journals. 🌍📚 Read all about it: buff.ly/6G05hQD
For hundreds of years, humanity has relied on science to improve lives and build civilization. Science tests hypotheses, uses data, and follows a systematic method in pursuit of the truth. It’s not perfect of course. But destroying American science as we know it will only send us backward.
Greenland ice melt and its contributions to sea level rise. 🧪
Time series of annual mean temperature anomalies (ºC) averaged over the U.S. Decreasing temperatures in mid-century, from 1960 to about 1980, were due to unregulated industrial pollution. Air quality regulations have improved our health, and at the same time unmasked the global warming signal.🧪
A figure for my class - time series of the global temperature anomaly. Uncertainties are indicated by the gray lines. They are minimal after about 1960 – before the steep rise of the last 40 years. Will these error bars now will start to increase due to the failure of the U.S. government?
Scientists have just cured pancreatic cancer in some patients with personalized mRNA vaccines. Pancreatic cancer. And this Trump administration wants to throw it all away. They’re throwing away a cure for cancer.
Alex Wayne@aawayne.bsky.social · last yr.Exclusive: NIH officials have advised scientists to remove reference to mRNA vaccines from their grant applications, in expectation the Trump administration intends to abandon most research in the field. By @arthurallen202.bsky.social kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
🚨 Everyone needs to call their Dem Senator right now. They are starting to cave. Tell them: 1. Vote NO on Cloture AND 2. Vote NO on the Republican spending bill. Don’t let them pivot to reconciliation. GOP doesn’t need Dem votes on that and they know it. TODAY is the showdown. 🤳🏽: (202) 224-3121
The latest CO2 record from the Mauna Loa Observatory. (Thank you, NOAA!) Regular measurements, same method, since 1958. Incontrovertible. I think it's the most important geophysical record ever produced. Do you agree?
$1.38 billion spent on NWS. $102.1 billion returned in estimated public value. Those values produce a return on investment (ROI) of 73.98. Full report (135 pages): doi.org/10.1175/cofu... (Yet NOAA has long been **underfunded** as Scott Rayder noted last year: www.federaltimes.com/opinions/202...)
NOAA’s budget is too small. That’s costing the US billions of dollars
Opinion: With a fiscal year 2024 budget of $6.3 billion, the nation’s leading weather and climate agency remains significantly underfunded.
federaltimes.com
For when you need a break from the chaos, I discovered this lovely podcast when they interviewed me last week. thisgreenplanetpodcast.com
Home - This Green Planet Podcast
This Green Planet A Podcast about Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math Listen on your favorite app Latest Episodes All Arts Engineering Math Science Technology STEM vs STEAM and Why it Mat...
thisgreenplanetpodcast.com
Cost of saving the lives of 12 million children suffering from malaria: $20 million. #TeamUSAID #saveforeignaid
This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen. Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !” globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca
In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.
globalnews.ca
Rumor that USAID will be dissolved as an independent agency, slashing scope and effectiveness. Possibility acknowledged by @schumer.senate.gov who says it would be illegal. Mr. Schumer - are we still a country governed by laws? We have a rich criminal in the White House. What does that tell you?
Here is the surface temperature anomaly (difference from the 1951-1980 mean) for the most recent decade (2015-2024) from NASA GISS in degrees C (multiple by 1.8 for Fahrenheit). Land has a lower heat capacity than ocean so it is warming more quickly. 🧪
My book, "Climate Dynamics, second edition" is now available as an ebook from Princeton University Press (PUP). Hardcopy available next month. Hoping this book helps people understand how the climate system works, and why it is changing. So excited to see it in print!! Thanks to PUP!! 🧪
This is why I support DEI. The existing system operates to exclude women and minorities. Period.
