Did you write your comment yet on the OMB rules on federally funded science yet? No? Don’t worry, you can do it this weekend. Here are some resources that can help you get started.
Scott Winton
@rswamper.bsky.social
Swamp lover, birder, dad, Assistant professor in environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz
I just submitted my formal comment on the disastrous proposal to transform essentially all U.S. federal grantmaking--affecting every sector of American science, technology, education, & health--into an overtly partisan political process. Full text here: weatherwest.com/wp-c...
I keep looking for mitigating factors, or ways the impact of these new policies (which are already being applied, at least in part, per recent anecdotes/reporting) might have been overstated. And I have found none. This is a genuinely extreme, extraordinarily, and immensely dangerous development.
Daniel Swain@weatherwest.bsky.social · 2mo agoI know there is a lot going on, and not all of this is new, but numerous aspects of this OMB proposal are highly alarming and would, if enacted, effectively force American scientists receiving federal funding (which is...most of them in some capacity or another) to stop engaging with the public.
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.
Looking for a way to do something? read the EPA reversal of the endangerment finding, and then file a public comment explaining why it is false, wrong, misguided. Your comment can be scientific, legal, or just about what the American people want.. Reversal: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
Regulations.gov
regulations.gov
Nice brief from @pewresearch.org about the ecological and economic importance of peatlands in the US. www.pew.org/en/research-... These are some of the most valuable ecosystems and there's still so much we don't know about them.
Peatlands Play a Vital Ecological and Economic Role in the U.S.
Peatlands are wetland ecosystems that store more carbon than any other natural habitat. By removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and trapping carbon from dead organic matter in waterlogged condi...
pew.org
My article is trending at Environmental Research Letters! Retweet and help it trend more ;) iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
This is an absolute disaster. If we don't stop this, they will turn NSF into a pawn of the Trump administration. There will be no research on climate, biodiversity, or anything that isn't eugenics or AI or how to more efficiently destroy the planet for profit. This cannot be allowed to happen.
Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions
Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund
science.org
Just went to an amazing seminar by @weatherwest.bsky.social at @ucscscicomm.bsky.social . This guy is a national treasure. Be sure to give him a follow if you experience weather and climate in the US west
Yall wanna hear something extremely embarrassing? Before Trump’s election, a bunch of academics who lumbered rightward after being criticized by the left (Pinker, Dawkins, Krauss) wrote essays for a book that is coming out in July about the threats to academia from the left. YALL, THE TITLE!!
Thrilled to finally share my new paper in Environmental Research Letters on Colombia’s lowland peatlands — ecosystems that store vast amounts of carbon, were almost unknown, and are now newly mapped thanks to years of fieldwork. 🌍🌿 🧵👇