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Ashley Braun

@ashleybraun.bsky.social
2.6K followers 587 following 177 posts

Science + Environmental Journalist, Sr. Editor @ DeSmog, Fact-checker. Seattle, WA. ashleybraun.com

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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 15/09/2026
Energy Transfer, whose CEO is a major Trump donor, named as biggest single methane producer in new rankings
theguardian.com
US ‘super-emitters’ of planet heating methane identified by satellite analysis
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Colin was one of my favorite editors to work with and we published so many great stories together at Hakai Magazine and bioGraphic. Someone, please hire him! Ideally, selfishly, in science/environmental news so we can work together again 💛
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Colin Schultz @colinschultz.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
My Pebble Mine coverage with @ashleybraun.bsky.social was cited in Congress. I'm pretty sure other pieces changed laws. News stories show up in the references of academic papers, and @drlauraguertin.bsky.social's students even turned some of them into a quilt. journeysofdrg.org/2024/12/15/s...
journeysofdrg.org
SciQuilt – Thank you, Hakai Magazine
I have been using Hakai Magazine articles with students in all of my courses, especially my coastal issues and oceanography courses. I am a huge fan of supporting independent journalism, especially…
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Colin Schultz @colinschultz.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I'm really not sure how to say this, so I'm just going to say it: My contract at @biographic.bsky.social is not being renewed. As management let me know not long ago, the latest funding crisis--really, the latest in a string of funding crises--was just too much to handle.
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Rachel Santarsiero @rsanta.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Special thanks to @rebleber.bsky.social, @juliakane.bsky.social, and @ashleybraun.bsky.social who were integral in helping me disentangle extremely complex methane and greenhouse gas reporting rules for this investigation.
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Join @robertakwok.bsky.social tonight 7pm in Seattle at Third Place Books Ravenna as she discusses her new book, Lost in Curiosity: Field Notes from Scientists' Adventures into the Unknown. It's about science's messy pursuit of understanding (and it's a delight!) thirdplacebooks.com/event/robert...
thirdplacebooks.com
Roberta Kwok presents 'Lost in Curiosity'
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Featuring a chapter from @desmog.com’s @geoffdembicki.bsky.social on reporting strategies for investigating private and state-owned fossil fuel corporations
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
"Under the rule, destroying an endangered species’ nest or habitat would no longer be considered illegal." www.seattletimes.com/nation-world...
seattletimes.com
Trump administration sharply cuts protections for endangered species
By adjusting the meaning of "harm," the Trump administration could in effect open the habitats of imperiled animals to farming, drilling, mining and more.
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Former Exxon lawyer Robert Levy joins the DOJ division that dubs itself ‘the nation’s largest environmental law firm.' In reaction, a Koch lawyer says: "You will be missed in our circles" in Levy's now-deleted LinkedIn announcement. @desmog.com's latest www.desmog.com/2026/07/10/e...
desmog.com
Exxon’s Robert Levy Is Joining the DOJ Division That Dubs Itself 'the Nation’s Largest Environmental Law Firm'
The longtime Big Oil attorney has major ties to conservative legal groups.
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Our next story following up on @joefassler.bsky.social’s reporting that Colorado gave these same oil companies a $1 billion pass on financial assurance for oil and gas cleanup
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
This is today! I'll be in conversation with @michaelemann.bsky.social about the climate denier playbook and where we go from here. Still a few spots, join us! 👇
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Couldn't agree more! Come join our discussion of fossil fuels and fascism, the evolution of climate denial, and solutions to the polluted information ecosystem next Wednesday. Sign up for the July 8 virtual party 👇
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
This is tomorrow, June 30 (not June 23, d’oh). Come hang and talk patient advocacy, pollution in the Anthropocene, and moving from rage to action at Third Place Books in Ravenna. Can’t wait to co-host this discussion with the amazing @lodrinkswater.bsky.social!
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
bioGraphic @biographic.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Shrimp Shell Slurry to the Rescue? A new, multistep chemical process can turn bits of organic waste into “carbon-negative” fuel, food, and construction material. by @ashleybraun.bsky.social www.biographic.com/shrimp-shell...
biographic.com
Shrimp Shell Slurry to the Rescue? - bioGraphic
A new, multistep chemical process can turn bits of organic waste into “carbon-negative” fuel, food, and construction material.
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
My latest for @biographic.bsky.social: transforming biomass trash into green hydrogen and carbon gold
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Even the climate deniers didn’t expect this level of climate hushing www.desmog.com/2026/03/04/c...
desmog.com
Climate Deniers Expected More Resistance to Trump’s Fossil Fuel Blitz
‘I’ve never seen anything like this,” longtime denier Marc Morano said recently of climate action advocates going ‘silent’ on the issue.
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Mary Stuart (she/her) @marylouisestuart.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I can't wait to ask @naomiaklein.bsky.social about the fossil fuel-AI nexus and her forthcoming book End Times Fascism at our webinar! Register now: luma.com/snaz4qbo
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/11/2024
This is why it is such a bad thing that so many future visions of climate action rely *very* very heavily on CCS; many times bigger than what that study optimistically says is feasible or possible. Eg: here's my compilation of fossil company scenario assumptions: www.rff.org/publications...
a chart showing fossil fuel company projections way more optimsitic than real ccs dpeloyment
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Seattle! Join the talented @lodrinkswater.bsky.social next Tuesday, June 23 at 7pm at Third Place Books in Ravenna as we discuss her beautiful and deeply personal new book, Body Weather: Notes on Chronic Illness in the Anthropocene. www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/lorrai...
thirdplacebooks.com
Lorraine Boissoneault presents 'Body Weather: Notes on Chronic
"Body Weather connects the challenges of the planet to the trials of the body and dares to imagine a future where we address both with humanity. It's a singular, stunning book.” —Ed Yong, author of
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Major new investigation reported by @joefassler.bsky.social (and edited by me) into Colorado's celebrated oil cleanup reforms. The regulator had the chance to incentivize the three largest oil companies to clean up their thousands of dead and dirty drill sites. It quietly gave them a $1 billion pass
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
By the way, this Trump post didn't happen by accident. It's a result of a carefully crafted narrative being promoted by polluters, petrostates and right wing think tanks, built on claims by professional propagandists like #RogerPielkeJr of the American Enterprise Institute:
https://www.aei.org/articles/rcp8-5-is-officially-dead/
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Hugely consequential: lack of $ for prescribed burning, slowed pace, a full suppression strategy. “It's in defiance of all that we have learned, decades of fire ecology research, all that indigenous people have shared with us about how they stewarded the land with fire," www.npr.org/2026/05/17/n...
npr.org
New burn bans and Trump's battle with immigration and DEI are impacting forest fires
Firefighters say setting fires on purpose is one of the best  ways to protect against massive wildfires later. But the Trump administration is banning or stalling preventative burning across the U.S.
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
This 👉🏼 “content creators and marketing firms are increasingly compensated to promote candidates or points of view and where there are few requirements for disclosure. The paid advocacy exists outside the realm of traditional lobbying and campaigning, reaching younger, more online audiences.”
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
"Heartland Institute Podcast Questions Whether All Americans ‘Should Have the Right to Vote’" by Rei Takver for @desmog.com: www.desmog.com/2026/05/05/h...
desmog.com
Heartland Institute Podcast Questions Whether All Americans ‘Should Have the Right to Vote’
A couple days later, the Trump-linked group hosted EPA chief — and potential attorney general — Lee Zeldin at a Washington, D.C. event.
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Emily Pontecorvo @emilypont.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Story to come, but here's some interesting tidbits I learned in reporting on Microsoft's potential pullback to its target of 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030. 🧵 1. Microsoft set the goal in 2021, but unlike Google, has never publicly reported on progress toward it.
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Brooke Jarvis @brookejarvis.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
It is so hard to watch the journalism crisis hit your favorite publications. We need way more nature/biodiversity reporting, not less!
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
This is awful news. The erosion of support for thoughtful independent journalism dedicated to covering biodiversity and conservation means more time spent scrambling for resources and less time doing the essential work of reporting, writing, editing, photography—understanding and connection
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Great reporting from @jamesctobias.bsky.social + Julia Kane for Public Domain on the way Harold Hamm's Continental crafted a "roadmap" that paved the way for speedier drilling in Wyoming & skirted using an environmental review tangled up in court www.publicdomain.media/p/emails-sho...
publicdomain.media
Emails Show How Interior Dept Delivered New Drilling Permits for Burgum's Billionaire Ally
Oil and gas giant Continental Resources wanted the Bureau of Land Management to sign off on new wells in Wyoming, despite a court injunction there. The agency obliged.
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Murphy Woodhouse @murphywoodhouse.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
The U.S. Wildland Fire Service is the big new thing in wildfire. To understand its significance, I spoke with its inaugural chief Brian Fennessy, as well as a number of thoughtful critics and supporters. Here’s my best effort to string it all together. www.boisestatepublicradio.org/politics-gov...
boisestatepublicradio.org
As potentially significant season kicks off, the U.S. Wildland Fire Service’s first chief shares priorities
“Suppression is always going to be there,” Chief Brian Fennessy told the Mountain West News Bureau. “But we're not going to suppress our way out of this situation.”
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
A space to watch 👀 Insightful thread on what the new Wildland Fire Service Chief thinks about wildland firefighter health and cultural burning
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Murphy Woodhouse @murphywoodhouse.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
For @opb.org , @ashleybraun.bsky.social with a fascinating story on the Indigenous cultural burning revival in the wet Pacific Northwest. It raises questions about widespread assumptions about the infrequency of fire in Oregon’s Coast Range www.opb.org/article/2026...
opb.org
How Indigenous leaders are ‘carrying fire’ from Northwest history to the present
The fire scars in Oregon forests tell a story, and it’s a familiar one to Indigenous communities.
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Is this the best use of taxpayer dollars? Is this communications policy serving the public interest? Gov. "Ferguson has been directly involved in reviewing and editing some agency news releases and talking points, contributing to delays, according to email records." www.axios.com/local/seattl...
axios.com
Scoop: Governor sign-off rule snarls flow of information in Washington
Records show delays in public updates on vaccine access, measles exposure risk and more.
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Having followed and edited stories on this topic for years, I still learned a lot from the discussion 👏
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
My story for OPB on the revival of an essential part of Northwest Indigenous culture: 🔥 fire 🔥 And the emerging research that suggests what many people think they know about fire in Oregon's wet western forests may be wrong...
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Earlier this month, I traveled to Southern Oregon to witness the growing momentum among Pacific NW Indigenous elders, youth, knowledge holders, and their supporters as they gathered to revive an essential part of their culture: 🔥fire🔥 1/
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
It's a stellar line up of investigative journalists digging into the oilfield pollution seeping into drinking water (or bursting from the ground 💦), the regulatory failings stretching back decades, and options for industry accountability. See you tomorrow?
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
🎊
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Go behind the scenes with top-notch investigative journalists about their ongoing reporting on regulatory failings, pollution blowouts, radioactivity, the oil industry's options, and impacts to public health and the environment Tuesday, April 28! Register 👇
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 07/04/2026
2/ “I sincerely hope you decide to stand with the journalists and other workers who make ProPublica the investigative powerhouse that it has become,” Schleuss wrote.
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 07/04/2026
1/ Management at @propublica.org is refusing to agree to fair contract language around artificial intelligence usage, so @newsguild.org President Jon Schleuss wrote to them today to urge them to get on the right side of history. www.propublicaguild.org/updates/news...
Dear Robin Sparkman and ProPublica board of directors:

Our world needs more investigative journalism in the public interest. Continuing ProPublica’s mission will require a strong, fair collective bargaining agreement that uplifts journalistic integrity.

And that means ProPublica needs to have contractual language prohibiting any potential for artificial intelligence to replace journalists and other workers who make ProPublica the important publication it is today.

As the rare union leader with a background in journalism and computer programming, I fully support the need to leverage technology to improve our ability to tell stories.

And there are many recent examples of how AI can be helpful in reporting, when used ethically. For example, ProPublica journalists published the “Deleting DEI” story, which chronicled how nonprofit organizations have removed language connected to diversity, equity and inclusion. Reporters used AI to help find DEI related scrubs from nonprofit statements. In “Gutted: How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies,” reporters used AI to help categorize job types into groups. And then reporters manually checked them all.

ProPublica journalists, represented by the Guild, have shown how AI can be used ethically, and they deserve newsroom leadership who agrees with its ethical use.

Unfortunately, your leadership team is refusing common sense provisions at the bargaining table that would protect both jobs as well as the integrity of the journalism they produce. And now, 92% of ProPublica’s workers have voted to walk off the job in part due to the company’s stance on AI, in addition to its position on job security, layoff protections and wages.

ProPublica management should follow the example set by nonprofit news organizations such as Grist, the Associated Press and others. For example, CalMatters has agreed to:

• protect jobs from being eliminated because of AI
• protect the salaries of employees from being reduced because of AI• listen to workers’ input when evaluating the use of AI and get the consent of employees before handing off material to a third-party company for training AI systems
• a strong editorial integrity clause, ensuring that AI is clearly labeled and is not published unless several requirements are met
• obtain the consent of employees before impersonating someone using AI

CalMatters agreed to these protections more than a year ago. Why would ProPublica management refuse similar protections? 

Time is quickly running out for your leadership team to make a decision that will determine whether the public can trust ProPublica on this important issue.

I sincerely hope you decide to stand with the journalists and other workers who make ProPublica the investigative powerhouse that it has become.

Jon Schleuss
he/him
President
The NewsGuild - Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA)

cc: Paul Sagan
Claire Bernard
Tomiko Brown-Nagin
Mark Colodny
Steve Daetz
Angela Filo
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Anu Khosla
Jonathan Klein
Carrie Lozano
Claire Hoffman
Katie McGrath
Bobby Monks
James M. Stone
Charles Whitaker
Paul Steiger
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Aaron Szabo, as an oil industry lobbyist, helped draft a letter arguing against the methane rules that as a top Trump EPA official, he now oversees, reports @propublica.org www.propublica.org/article/trum...
propublica.org
The Trump EPA Official in Charge of Methane Regulations Helped Write Oil Industry Argument Against Those Rules
Before becoming a top official at the Environmental Protection Agency, Aaron Szabo was a lobbyist for the oil and gas industry. Metadata shows he helped draft a trade group’s 2022 letter to the EPA ob...
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Pay attention: Do you rely on @propublica.org's reporting and investigations right now? Support their reporters and workers
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
I’ve reported on some alt technologies to reduce whale strikes—such as AI systems to alert ship captains in real time—and one founder created it because reducing ship speeds wasn’t enough to save right whales. “We cannot afford to ever miss an animal,” he told me. www.biographic.com/ping-youve-g...
biographic.com
Ping, You've Got Whale - bioGraphic
A new artificial intelligence-powered detection system is giving ship captains real-time alerts when a whale is in their path.
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
U.S. Judge says Kari Lake broke law in overseeing Voice of America www.npr.org/2026/03/08/n...
npr.org
U.S. Judge says Kari Lake broke law in overseeing Voice of America
He declared all of Lake's actions over the past year to be null and void, including the layoffs of more than 1,000 journalists and staffers.
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 05/03/2026
THREAD: We just released a tool that allows you to search billions of dollars in wealth, ties to the most powerful companies in the country, and details of the personal finances of President Trump and over 1,500 of his appointees. Here’s how it works 1/
Screenshot of ProPublica webpage titled “Explore Financial Disclosures From President Trump and 1,500 of His Appointees,” accompanied by this blurb: “Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their debts, among other things.” A search bar prompts the user to search for a person or financial holding.
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
Andrew Dessler @andrewdessler.com · 19/02/2026
Quite a good article by @desmog.com about the DOE Climate Working Group report. Well done, @sharonkelly.bsky.social. www.desmog.com/2026/02/13/t...
desmog.com
Trump EPA Abandons Climate Working Group Report in Endangerment Finding Repeal
Emails from the hand-picked, secretive group of climate crisis deniers revealed flaws in their methods and “animus” toward leading scientists.
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
What we mean when we say the oil industry's "toxic wastewater" which can — and very likely does — get into people's drinking water.
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Reposted by Ashley Braun
DeSmog @desmog.com · 18/02/2026
More excellent reporting from @readfrontier.bsky.social and @propublica.org on what happens when the public, legislators, and regulators grapple with the legacy of historic oil and gas pollution and toxic wastewater, the amount of which only grows by the day.
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Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
The Climate Working Group was hand-picked by Energy Secretary Chris Wright "for their rigor, honesty, and willingness to elevate the debate." We see their actual process in hundreds of pages of emails and documents, including attacks on mainstream scientists and institutions and rushed review.
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