Peter de Menocal
@pdemenocal.bsky.social
President & Director Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
NSF grantmaking update Three weeks ago (6/28) New grants: 1835/5202 — 35.3% of avg. Obligations: 1.9/3.08 billion — 61.6% of avg. Now (7/20) New grants: 2850/6,397 — 44.6% of avg. Obligations: 3/4.04 billion — 74.3% of avg. Data from grant-witness.us/funding_curv...
Latest multimodel plume of El Niño forecasts courtesy of @columbiauniversity.bsky.social/IRI. As we begin to cross the spring predictability barrier, model consensus converging toward peak Niño3.4 anomaly of 1.8-2.2C in late winter (comparable to 2023/2024 event). iri.columbia.edu/our-expertis...
Fantastic work by Aidan Starr, @ianhall.bsky.social & colleagues published in Paleo Paleo yesterday: Subsurface-to-deep C isotope gradients in the Southern Ocean across the MPT! agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
Southern Ocean Vertical Carbon Stratification Across the Mid‐Pleistocene Transition
Breakdowns of Southern Ocean carbon isotope stratification occur at multiple glacial terminations back to at least 1.55 million years ago An increasingly efficient Southern Ocean biological pump ...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
It's not just Florida, the US ocean economy depends on science. Great piece by Dr. Dennis McGillicuddy, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)!🧪🌊 www.tampabay.com/viewpoints/2...
Florida’s ocean economy depends on science | Column
From sharks to plankton, ocean life matters deeply to Florida.
tampabay.com
One of our paper from 2016 on the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on crops was cited in the DOE report commissioned by the Trump administration, giving misleading conclusions that rising CO2 emissions are beneficial to agriculture.
Gavin Schmidt@climateofgavin.bsky.social · last yr.First comprehensive fact check of the DOE ‘critical review’ of climate science.. Multiple pinocchios! interactive.carbonbrief.org/doe-factchec...
There’s so much happening right now, I thought I’d put together a running thread on the dismantling of #climate and research and knowledge infrastructure in the United States 🧵
Read this from @pdemenocal.bsky.social, @msleinen.bsky.social, and John Richardson, retired Navy admiral, whose son was my student, about how investing in ocean science is not just about curiosity, but about ensuring our future readiness, resilience, and national security. 🌊
Opinion | Why U.S. dominance at sea is shrinking
The U.S. still has an advantage on the waves, but ocean science needs more — not less — investment.
washingtonpost.com
Please read this OpEd in the Wa Post by @pdemenocal.bsky.social. Federal investment into fundamental research about our ocean planet has led to profound discoveries with direct implications for national security. (h/t: @ashevenell.bsky.social) www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | Why U.S. dominance at sea is shrinking
The U.S. still has an advantage on the waves, but ocean science needs more — not less — investment.
washingtonpost.com
In recognition of his deep commitment to ocean advocacy, WHOI President @pdemenocal.bsky.social officially recognized His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco with a #WHOI Centennial Medal at #UNOC3 this morning. Here's to a continuing legacy of ocean leadership!
The importance of being there! HOV Alvin and the first live observation of a deep sea eruption www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/s...
Volcanic Eruption in Deep Ocean Ridge Is Witnessed by Scientists for First Time (Gift Article)
Researchers diving in a submersible in the eastern Pacific realized that the landscape they had studied the day before had been glassed over by fresh lava.
nytimes.com
A record increase in atmospheric CO2 according to data released by NOAA gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/..., much higher than projected in the Global Carbon Budget essd.copernicus.org/articles/17/.... This occurred in the presence of an El Niño (red bars, data also from NOAA!). What does this mean? 1/
Bennu asteroid geochemistry results in - Evidence for extraterrestrial soluble organic matter e outer protoplanetary disk."... "We detected amino acids (including 14 of the 20 used in terrestrial biology)…” www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Abundant ammonia and nitrogen-rich soluble organic matter in samples from asteroid (101955) Bennu - Nature Astronomy
Rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu contain some of the molecular building blocks of life on Earth, such as amino acids and nucleobases. They also carry ammonia that formed billions of years ago in...
nature.com
Welcome to the feed from the Million Year Ice Core Project, or MYIC. This project has been underway for some years, preparing to drill the oldest continuous ice core record from Antarctica, extending to more than a million years, possibly to 1.5 million years or more. /1
Why is WHOI such an inspiring place to work? - sharing our 2024 year end reel. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dmc...
WHOI Best of 2024
YouTube video by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
youtube.com
🙏We have much to be grateful for, including the #philanthropicsupport that drives our search for solutions. This year, the Grossman Family Foundation gifted $10 million towards innovative projects at #WHOI. 📲Find out what inspired this generous gift: go.whoi.edu/grossman #GivingTuesday
You can now share the Warming Stripes directly to BlueSky, such as these for my town of Reading: showyourstripes.info/s/europe/uni... (Find the graphic you want to share, click the blue options button - the one with three horizontal lines - and select the butterfly!)
Show Your Stripes
Visualising how the climate has changed for every country across the globe
showyourstripes.info
Welcome to the #COP29 #OceanPavilion! With @scrippsocean.bsky.social + partners from around the world, we’re forming an #ocean-climate nexus, pushing the needle for #sciencebased, marine policy #solutions in the UN’s #climate negotiations. 📲 Hear from @pdemenocal.bsky.social: youtu.be/O_63TlozFfI
Representing the Ocean at COP29
YouTube video by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
youtu.be
How long does CO₂ have to be stored in #CarbonDioxideRemoval #CDR? At least 35 years? 100 years? Longer?🤔 In a new study, @hausfath.bsky.social, @retoknutti.bsky.social & I find that for #netzero CO₂, anything less than 1000 years is not enough to neutralize warming.🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Such fantastic news from @whoi.bsky.social! Onward and “downward” 🌊🦑 we go and congratulations Kaitlyn! 🧪
A gutting piece in the New York Times as we’re here at #cop29 “What it means to become of age in climate chaos”. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
What It Means to Come of Age in Climate Chaos
Today’s teenagers were born into the global-warming crisis, but already it’s upending their adolescence — and will define their future.
nytimes.com
Wonderful to see my old friend and great colleague again, Ousmane N’diaye, renowned Senegalese meteorologist and newly Knight in the Order of the Lion
We are here, and we are ready. If you are a scientist in need of free legal help: csldf.org/contact If you are a lawyer who can provide pro bono support: csldf.org/contact If you are able to support our work for the fight to come: csldf.org/donate
Contact - Climate Science Legal Defense Fund
CONTACT If you’re a scientist and would like a free, confidential consultation with one of our attorneys, please reach out.…
csldf.org
Dr. Jeff Masters@drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 2y agoTake positive action to counteract this devastating blow to climate: donate to the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, @csldf.bsky.social. They provide free legal and educational support to researchers facing harassment and intimidation, and will be very busy soon. I'm a founding board member.
With the October data in GISTEMP, it is almost certain that 2024 will be a new annual temperature record. Best estimate is for 1.47°C above pre-industrial, but it could be above 1.5°C depending on the this month and next (of course).
WHOI announced our newest Alvin pilot yesterday, Kaitlyn Beardshear. The attached picture shows Kaitlyn with the Alvin team and the Navy representatives that served as her “murder board” yesterday, the final step in a rigorous training and testing process. @whoi.bsky.social
With the (belated) September data now in, the updated prediction is that 2024 is almost certain to be a new annual surface temperature record, and possibly by more than 0.1ºC. 50% change of exceeding 1.5ºC above the late 19th C.
Congratulations Ben Van Mooy! www.whoi.edu/press-room/n...
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Benjamin Van Mooy named 2024 MacArthur Fellow
The goal of the fellowship is to provide recipients the greatest possible flexibility to pursue their vision in the absence of specific obligations or reporting requirements.
whoi.edu
“No year has confounded climate scientists’ predictive capabilities more than 2023 has” - Climate by Gavin www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Climate models can’t explain 2023’s huge heat anomaly — we could be in uncharted territory
Taking into account all known factors, the planet warmed 0.2 °C more last year than climate scientists expected. More and better data are urgently needed. Taking into account all known factors, the pl...
nature.com
