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Ben Riddell-Young

@benryoung.bsky.social
276 followers 202 following 16 posts

Ice cores, climate, GHGs. Postdoctoral Associate at CIRES working with NOAA GML. Earth Scientist/Enthusiast. Views are my own.

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Ben Riddell-Young @benryoung.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Check out this new article by NOAA Research that summarizes three complementary studies from our research team on what is driving recent CH4 growth! Despite using different approaches, each study comes to the same conclusion that microbial emissions are to blame. research.noaa.gov/pioneering-n...
research.noaa.gov
Pioneering NOAA-University of Colorado research converges on role of microbes in methane’s surge - NOAA Research
Stable isotope analysis points to impact of agriculture and wetlands, not fossil fuels as a driver of the rapid rise in atmospheric methane.
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Thomas Bauska @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
My personal take-home: always test the "null" hypothesis when it comes to palaeoclimate. Eric Mei, @bayesicallyalex.bsky.social, @cristiproist.bsky.social, et al., www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Fun times working with Eric on this as part of @fetch4.bsky.social
pnas.org
Multidecadal preindustrial methane variability can be explained by noise in the source–sink imbalance | PNAS
Ice core records of preindustrial methane indicate variability of ±30 ppb (±5%) on multidecadal-to-centennial timescales. Previous work has attribu...
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Alexandra Witze @alexwitze.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
NCAR just won in court! A US district judge in Colorado has prohibited NSF from taking #NCAR apart, specifically in spalling off its supercomputing center in Wyoming. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... Our earlier story on this and why it matters: www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
nature.com
World-leading climate centre takes Trump administration to court
Universities that run the National Center for Atmospheric Research want to keep it from being dismantled.
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Dr. Dominic Royé @drxeo.eu · 29/03/2026
In the contiguous US, for every 10 heat records, there are ~7 cold records, but between 2015 and 2025, this drops to just ~2 cold records for every 10 heat records. THIS chart 📊 is global #climatechange. #dataviz
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Cristi Proistosescu @cristiproist.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Getting direct measurements of CO2 from Pliocene-aged ice has been a Holy Grail of climate science! A new paper by @jmarkspeterson.bsky.social provides a record of CO2 going back 3million years(!), with (let's say) intriguing implications for anthropogenic climate change doi.org/10.1038/s415... 1/
doi.org
Broadly stable atmospheric CO2 and CH4 levels over the past 3 million years - Nature
Blue ice records from Antarctica are used to determine methane and carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 3 million years.
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 09/03/2026
There has been a lot of recent interest by companies in mitigating short-lived climate "super-pollutants" like methane and refrigerants. This can have a strong short-term climate impact, but to credibly counterbalance CO2 emissions requires combining them with durable carbon removal.
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Ben Riddell-Young @benryoung.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Glad to see our group's work featured in this @nytimes.com article on how different methane emission categories are changing over time. 🧵↓ www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/c...
nytimes.com
Methane Hunters Track Swamp Gas That Is Driving Climate Warming
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Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...
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Brian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
I just signed - consider signing if you work or have worked in Greenland “We hope many U.S.-based researchers in Greenland …will join us in signing this letter to… call upon our elected representatives to vocally support Greenland’s right to self-governance”. forms.gle/csef7uCnU11y...
forms.gle
STATEMENT FROM U.S. SCIENTISTS IN SOLIDARITY WITH GREENLAND
We are U.S.-based scientists who have conducted research in Kalaallit Nunaat / Greenland, and we write to express our solidarity and gratitude to Greenland’s people for years of friendship and partner...
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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
"Science Under Siege -- the NCAR Development" | My new commentary: michaelmann.net/science-unde... #ScienceUnderSiege
michaelmann.net
Science Under Siege -- The NCAR development | Michael E. Mann
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has played a key role developing the science of climate modeling and the measurement of climate observations going back […]
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Rep. Joe Neguse @neguse.house.gov · 17/12/2025
A deeply dangerous — and blatantly retaliatory action against Colorado — by the Trump administration. NCAR is one of the most renowned scientific facilities in the WORLD — where scientists perform cutting-edge research everyday. We will fight this reckless directive with every legal tool we have.
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CIRES @cires.colorado.edu · 10/12/2025
Congrats to @benryoung.bsky.social and team for a new publication on methane emissions. They found: 1) The fossil fuel industry is getting better at increasing production but not emissions, and...
pnas.org
Microbial driver of 2006–2023 CH4 growth indicated by trends in atmospheric δD–CH4 and δ13C–CH4 | PNAS
Methane (CH4) is the second most important greenhouse gas and has been rising following a brief period of stabilization from 1999 to 2006. Determin...
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Ben Riddell-Young @benryoung.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Excited to share our new PNAS paper! We find that recent methane growth was driven by agriculture/waste and wetland emissions, while fossil fuel emissions have remained stable despite growth in production, highlighting recent progress and further mitigation potential. www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
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Nature @nature.com · 11/08/2025
The order is the latest move by the Trump administration to assert control over US science go.nature.com/3H6IxVr
go.nature.com
Trump order gives political appointees vast powers over research grants
Researchers are alarmed that the move might upend a long-standing tradition of peer-review for grants.
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Ben Riddell-Young @benryoung.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
So now, regardless of the scientific merit of your grant proposal, a Trump appointee with no specified qualifications gets to decide whether to fund it or not based entirely on how it aligns with the Trump administrations policy goals…seems real bad.
whitehouse.gov
Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal
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Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 06/08/2025
"A climate nonprofit is planning to revive a key federal database tracking billion-dollar weather disasters that the Trump administration formally stopped updating in May. The database - which was produced by NOAA - is set to return this fall as a product of @climatecentral.org."
bloomberg.com
Researchers Are Resurrecting Billion-Dollar Disaster Tool Trump Killed
Nonprofit Climate Central has hired the scientist behind a key database of costly weather disasters to rebuild it.
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Gavin Schmidt @climateofgavin.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Breaking: US shortage of cherries since so many were picked for the DOE ‘critical’ review of climate science.
A punnet that has only a single cherry in it.
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Dr. Peter Neff @icy-pete.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Nat Geo would kill for legit science-driven adventure like they found in “For Winter,” over content less credibly grounded in pursuit of knowledge +humans pushing limits. Instead they’ve (Disney?) gotten cold feet & deeply disrespected my colleague Ali & her family. defector.com/why-did-nati...
defector.com
Why Did National Geographic Disappear Its Own Documentary About A Queer Climate Scientist? | Defector
If you’re not a particular kind of mountain sports nerd, you might not be familiar with the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour. But for people who live their lives in the overlapping circl...
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OSU Ice Core Lab @osu-ice.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
See interviews from lab alum Ben Riddell-Young and PI Ed Brook in this Mother Jones article on the future of ice core research.
motherjones.com
The critical research that unlocks our climate's past and future may be on thin ice
“There’s questions that we don’t know we should be asking yet.”
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Rep. Joe Neguse @neguse.house.gov · 03/07/2025
🚨The Trump Administration is proposing devastating cuts to key national agencies in Colorado that play a vital role in protecting our country, including through cutting-edge research on wildfires, droughts, and more. Senator Bennet and I are fighting back against the attacks on NOAA, CIRES & CIRA 👇🏾
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Ben Riddell-Young @benryoung.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Problems don’t exist if you don’t see them! 😐
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CIRES @cires.colorado.edu · 16/06/2025
Funding for ice core research is at risk. Ben Riddell-Young, a CIRES postdoctoral researcher in NOAA GML, shares why ice core research is important for understanding past and future climate change. “There’s questions that we don’t know we should be asking yet.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
The critical research that unlocks our climate's past and future may be on thin ice
“There’s questions that we don’t know we should be asking yet.”
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Eos @eos.org · 19/04/2025
About 20 years ago, researchers drilled a 3,260-meter ice core in East Antarctica. Now, scientists are using it to uncover new insights. 🧪🌊
eos.org
When Ice Ages End, Ocean Circulation Fine-Tunes Ocean Heat - Eos
New Antarctic ice core data bolster model predictions of ocean heat content during glacials and interglacials.
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Ben Riddell-Young @benryoung.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
@noaa.gov just released the 2024 CO2 growth rate and it doesn’t look good. It is more important than ever to continue monitoring how and researching why GHGs are changing and what these changes mean for our climate system. @climate.noaa.gov
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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
To the world: We are fighting back. Our movement has been silenced by the media here—but we are not backing down. This is what our streets looked like across multiple cities. Tomorrow, there will be more of us! Raise a glass to freedom. —With love, Your American allies.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
My friend from the NOAA lab that brings you the Keeling Curve wants that world to know that things are horrible inside NOAA.
A screenshot of a text conversation discussing chaotic and troubling conditions at NOAA, expressing concerns about the administration's lack of care and the need for legislative attention.
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Thomas Bauska @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
We have an exciting opportunity for postdoc to join our group at @bas.ac.uk and take part in two big ice core projects: www.beyondepica.eu and @fetch4.bsky.social. Package includes: mugs, stickers, maps, trips to Copenhagen, Grenoble and (maybe) Greenland. bas.ciphr-irecruit.com/applicants/v...
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Thomas Bauska @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Having fun with new lecture on: Wendt et al., 2024, Southern Ocean drives multidecadal atmospheric CO₂ rise during Heinrich Stadials | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Riddell-Young et al., 2025, Abrupt changes in biomass burning during the last glacial period | Nature doi.org/10.1038/s415...
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Ben Riddell-Young @benryoung.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Happening at the NOAA/NIST entrance in Boulder, CO today. Spread the word!
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OSU Ice Core Lab @osu-ice.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
New lab account! Please share this post to help us connect with our network. We are a lab at Oregon State University headed by Dr. Ed Brook and Dr. Christo Buizert using ice samples to study past climate. See coldex.org for info on our search for old ice. #science #coldex #oregonstateuniversity
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Eric Steig @ericsteig.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Important paper in Nature today about collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. There is a positive isotope anomaly at Skytrain Ice Rise during the last interglacial, consistent with what we found in our high-resolution water-isotope simulations when WAIS collapses. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The Ronne Ice Shelf survived the last interglacial - Nature
Sea salt data from an ice core record show that Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf survived the last interglacial, the last period of enhanced and sustained global warmth about 125,000 years ago.
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Ben Riddell-Young @benryoung.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
I'm thrilled to share our new @nature.com paper! We present ice core methane isotope data revealing that past abrupt climate changes likely triggered surges in wildfires, simultaneously driving rapid methane—and possibly CO2—rises 🌎🔥 Read it here 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Abrupt changes in biomass burning during the last glacial period - Nature
An increase in wildfire extent and related greenhouse gas emissions can be linked to abrupt climatic changes during the last glacial period.
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INSTAAR @instaar.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
🚨 New paleoclimate paper published in Nature investigates ancient methane trapped in Antarctic ice. ⬇️ Learn about the wide-ranging results from CIRES & Oregon State below. 👏🏽 Congrats to Ben Riddell-Young & his team, which includes REID CLARK from INSTAAR's Stable Isotope Lab
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CIRES @cires.colorado.edu · 07/01/2025
During the last glacial period, rapid, repeating shifts in temperature & rainfall continually altered environments around the world. A new study led by CIRES' @benryoung.bsky.social finds past wildfire activity tracked these abrupt changes. buff.ly/40nA6eY
White text over blue box: CIRES. News. Wildfires accompanied past periods of abrupt climate change. Image shows air bubbles in an ice sample.
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Ben Riddell-Young @benryoung.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
@tinyicybubbles.bsky.social always making the best animations!
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Thomas Bauska @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Other than us (see right panel), what causes the fastest increases in CO₂ and the strangest bumps in CH₄ in the ice core record (see left panel)? @benryoung.bsky.social's new paper may have the answer and it's literally 🔥. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵👇
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Kelly Hereid @kellyhereid.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Big climate shifts from paleoclimate record (Heinrich and D-O for the paleonerds) may have been associated with *90–150% increase in global wildfire extent* which produced a fair chunk of carbon cycle shift associated with those events. Bazinga.
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Ben Riddell-Young @benryoung.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
I'm thrilled to share our new @nature.com paper! We present ice core methane isotope data revealing that past abrupt climate changes likely triggered surges in wildfires, simultaneously driving rapid methane—and possibly CO2—rises 🌎🔥 Read it here 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Abrupt changes in biomass burning during the last glacial period - Nature
An increase in wildfire extent and related greenhouse gas emissions can be linked to abrupt climatic changes during the last glacial period.
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Thomas Bauska @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
New ice core paper by Kaden Martin, @osuceoas.bsky.social ice crew, @benryoung.bsky.social et al. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/NQUDGS...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Greenland Ice Cores Reveal a South‐To‐North Difference in Holocene Thermal Maximum Timings
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