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Emily May

@emtomology.bsky.social
3.4K followers 1.9K following 176 posts

Agricultural conservation scientist @xercessociety. Pollinators, pesticide toxicology, IPM, habitat restoration, resilient food systems. Views are my own.📍Vermont | she/her

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Reposted by Emily May
Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
No joke, it would be cheaper to pay every coal miner $5m every year to not mine coal. There are only 40,000 coal miners, while the coal industry produces >$500 billion in external costs every year, including by routinely burning coal just to burn it despite it costing more ("uneconomic dispatch").
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
The House just voted to strip the provisions that would have shielded pesticide manufacturers from lawsuits and stronger state-level restrictions out of the Farm Bill. Now we wait for the Supreme Court to tell us if they can still be sued for failure to warn about the risks of their products.
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Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 30/04/2026
The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) is higher than at any point in at least the past one million years (according to evidence from paleoclimate records). More climate change indicators: zacklabe.com/climate-chan...
Line graph time series of carbon dioxide levels over the last 800000 years. The previous maximum was around 350000 years ago at 300 ppm. Current levels are over 420 ppm.
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
New study finds a consistent negative association between insecticide use and insectivorous bird populations, based on 15 years of data from 2783 sampling plots in France. Less food? Fewer birds. 🐛🐦 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Declines in insectivorous bird abundance are related to increasing agricultural insecticide use
Pesticide use is suspected to contribute to bird population declines in Europe, but few studies link long-term pesticide trends to bird population abu…
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Fascinating op ed on the digital gamification of K-12 education and its downsides - been thinking about this more as I enter the relevant age of parenting. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | You Can’t Game Your Way to a Real Education
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Reposted by Emily May
Dan Wade @dwade.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
This is why Minnesotans are begging folks outside the state to keep talking about us. Please don’t let the world forget we are still in danger.
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Did you miss Pollinator Pathway's winter webinar on pollinators, pesticides, and what you can do to help? Catch up here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkI6...
youtube.com
Winter Webinar - Pesticide-Free Landscapes for Pollinators and People: How We Can Help
YouTube video by Pollinator Pathway
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Reposted by Emily May
Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Take a break today to revel in the joy of a man unapologetically celebrating his Boricua culture. youtu.be/G6FuWd4wNd8 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Then learn more from @beckyhammer.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/beck...
youtu.be
Bad Bunny's Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show
Watch the world's biggest artist on the world's biggest stage at the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. Get 3 free months of Apple Music and listen to Bad Bunny in Spatial Audio, access…
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Over-the-top dicamba: still a bad idea for non-target crops, plants, and wildlife. Yet here we are again. www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...
dtnpf.com
Controversial Dicamba Herbicides Receive 2-Year Registration
After doing without in 2025, farmers will have access to
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Are you in NYC, Philly, or elsewhere in NJ/PA? Does your community garden, library, school, urban farm, etc. want a pollinator garden? Applications for Xerces habitat kits for this region are open through Feb 17th! Pick up and plant in May/June 🐝🦋🌻 xerces.org/pollinator-c...
xerces.org
Mid-Atlantic Monarch and Pollinator Habitat Kit Program
The eastern monarch butterfly population has declined more than 80% since the 1990s. One of the most significant actions we can take to protect this iconic butterfly and other pollinators is to increa...
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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
EXCLSUVIE: The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules and shared them with the companies they're meant to regulate, without making the new rules publicly available. We've obtained a copy of the new rules and here's what we found. www.npr.org/2026/01/28/n...
npr.org
The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules
The rewrite was done to speed up the construction of a new generation of nuclear reactors. Critics warn it could compromise safety and public trust.
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Mark D. Levine @marklevinenyc.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
New study: backyard mosquito sprays lead to insecticide levels high enough to kill pollinators, and sprays travel easily into neighboring yards. stacksjournal.org/article/ande...
stacksjournal.org
An initial assessment of risk to pollinators from mosquito control in residential settings - Stacks Journal
Peer-reviewed research - An initial assessment of risk to pollinators from mosquito control in residential settings
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Andy Revkin 🌎 ✍🏼 🪕 ☮️ revkin.substack.com @revkin.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
See the influential paper and @undark.org commentary on Monsanto's ghostwriting by Alexander Kaurov & @naomioreskes.bsky.social: undark.org/2025/08/15/o... #pesticides #agtwitter
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Reposted by Emily May
Andy Revkin 🌎 ✍🏼 🪕 ☮️ revkin.substack.com @revkin.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Boy, retraction is the thing these days. After years of critique, a foundational 25-year old paper on the safety of glyphosate herbicide has been pulled. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/2
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Great listen! Wondering how to improve kids’ health and educational experience? Cleaner indoor air might be part of the solution.
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
6/ EPA says it's committed to reducing PFAS pollution. So why does it keep advancing new PFAS pesticides? Especially ones like isocycloseram, a chemical that exceeded levels of concern for bees and aquatic life for most proposed uses? #PFAS #Pesticides #ForeverChemicals #PublicHealth #EPA
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Reposted by Emily May
Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
4/ 🐝 Isocycloseram: Proposed broad spectrum insecticide with very high toxicity to aquatic invertebrates and honey bees. Risk quotients exceeded levels of concern for both, in some cases by orders of magnitude. Yet no full field studies for bees were required. 📄 www.regulations.gov/docket/EPA-H...
regulations.gov
Regulations.gov
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Now that EPA has approved several of these, it’s time to bump this thread on PFAS pesticides:
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Excited to share our new video, Growing Pollinator-Safe Plants: What Nurseries Can Do (and How You Can Help)! 🐝🌸🌎 This project has been 3 years in the making, featuring interviews with nursery managers on steps they take to reduce pesticide risks. Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcdv...
youtube.com
Growing Pollinator-Safe Plants: What Nurseries Can Do (and How You Can Help)
YouTube video by The Xerces Society
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Reposted by Emily May
Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
Time for the world to install a gigawatt of solar power capacity 2004: A year 2010: ~ a month 2015: ~ a week Now: < A day ourworldindata.org/data-insight... 🧪
Line chart showing that there's been a rapid escalation in how quickly the world installs a gigawatt of solar power capacity.
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Exciting new meta-analysis: compared to calendar spraying, threshold-based management cuts insecticide use by 44% and costs by 40% without reducing yields, and supports more beneficial insects. www.nature.com/articles/s43...
nature.com
Threshold-based management reduces insecticide use by 44% without compromising pest control or crop yield - Communications Earth & Environment
Pest control programs using pest density thresholds cut insecticide uses by 44% and costs by 40%, while maintaining yield and pest suppression, and enhancing beneficial insect populations, as revealed...
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Newly registered or re-registered insecticides and herbicides will be rolling out with labels that may require drift/runoff mitigations to protect ESA-listed species. Learn more about how to navigate the menu of mitigations in a 90 min webinar next Tuesday from EPA: www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...
dtnpf.com
Mitigation Math: Webinar Offers Tips to Tally Points for Pesticide Use
In 2026, more pesticide labels are likely to require measures to protect endangered species. EPA is offering a webinar next week to help farmers navigate these requirements.
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Evan Frost @wildwoods.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
"Places that are used to fire, to relying and thriving on it, are now encountering fire regimes that are staggeringly different from those with which they evolved...The complex ecologies that thrived alongside their milder predecessors will be pushed beyond the point of recovery." 🌏
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Pam Kan-Rice @ucanrpam.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
“As classroom temperatures rise over time ... students tend to show declines in attention, memory and test performance,” said @edithdeguzman.bsky.social @ucanr.edu @luskininnovation.bsky.social www.latimes.com/environment/...
latimes.com
Rising heat is causing students to underperform across the globe
A new study, which reviewed dozens of published articles from around the world, found that cumulative heat exposure has negative consequences for students' cognitive outcomes.
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Vermont is a soccer state! What an incredible season and undefeated run to the national #USL2 championship @vermontgreenfc.bsky.social
People sitting in the stands at Virtue Field at UVM looking out at the soccer pitch before the finals match. The back of the shirts read “Vermont Green Football Club”Selfie in the line of people waiting to get into the stands for the national championship, an hour before it opens up. All of the people in line are garbed and ready for the undefeated Vermont Green FC to take on Ballard FC for the USL2 finals.
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Vermont Green FC @vermontgreenfc.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
UNDEFEATED NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! 🏆 THE INVINCIBLES! ✨ YOUR VERMONT GREEN FOOTBALL CLUB! 💚
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Reposted by Emily May
Elizabeth Hilborn @elizabee.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Hundreds of monarch butterflies died in a winter 2024 event. Investigation implicated multiple pyrethroid insecticides: tinyurl.com/3h3y7wuf From The Guardian: "Combinations of pesticides can have a synergistic effect that makes them even more toxic. The solution...less pesticides." 🧪🌍🦋
theguardian.com
Monarch butterflies’ mass die-off in 2024 caused by pesticide exposure – study
New peer-reviewed research found an average of seven pesticides in each of 10 butterflies tested
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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 21/07/2025
Starlink's connection speeds drop below the federal definition of "broadband" at a density of ~7 customers per square mile, according to recent research. The more the customers in an area, the slower everybody's connections get. Data shows that 83% of US Starlink customers get sub-broadband speeds.
thexlab.org
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Reposted by Emily May
Dan Jagger @auditorynerves.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
US scientists describe the effects of Trump's cuts. “If you cut the funding to the people who are doing the work right now, you don’t know what they would have innovated in 10 years or 15 years or 32 years like Rosalind Yalow. We don’t know what we’re losing.” 🧪 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
‘A disaster for all of us’: US scientists describe impact of Trump cuts
President’s assault on science –particularly climate science – has led to unprecedented funding cuts and staff layoffs
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
USDA rescinded more than $1 billion in regional conservation grants. These local partnerships help make federal dollars go further. Without RCPP investment, tens of thousands of acres of land and water conservation projects won’t happen. www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...
dtnpf.com
Groups Weigh Options After USDA Rescinds $1 Billion in Regional Conservation Grants
In June, USDA canceled more than $1 billion in conservation grants to nearly 70 groups under the Regional Conservation Partnership Program. Some groups are appealing USDA's decision. Meanwhile, other ...
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
USDA disaster assistance is now open for farmers hit by 2023–24 storms or weather events! If you had crop insurance or NAP, check your mail for a pre-filled form and apply at your local USDA office. A separate sign-up for uninsured losses is coming this fall. www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...
dtnpf.com
USDA Opens up Natural Disaster Aid for Crop Farmers Who Faced 2023, 2024 Losses
USDA has opened up enrollment for the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP), which will provide aid to crop farmers who suffered losses in 2023 and 2024 due to natural disasters. The first stage...
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Third year of flooding on July 10th in Vermont - the impacts are being felt, and the urgency is real.
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Tony R. Walker @tonyrwalker1.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
🚨 New paper published in @nature.com today by L. Monclús, H. P. H. Arp, K. J. Groh, A. Faltynkova, M. E. Løseth, J Muncke, Z. Wang, R. Wolf, L. Zimmermann & M. Wagner 👇 Mapping the #chemical complexity of #plastics www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Mapping the chemical complexity of plastics - Nature
An inventory of 16,325 known plastic chemicals, including &gt;4,200 hazardous&nbsp;compounds, supports the development of safer plastics.
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
On Aug 1, tariff rates are scheduled to rise to historic highs. average tariffs on women’s clothing will rise to 48 percent, wine to 20 percent, and toys to nearly 50 percent. taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/too-m...
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
So sad to hear about Sheila’s passing. She was a brilliant native bee scientist, advocate, and mom, gone far too soon. The world feels smaller today. Rest in power, Sheila. We’ll keep fighting for the wild things and for justice, as you did fiercely and with so much heart. 🐝🌻💛
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 08/07/2025
BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
In January 2024, 200 monarchs were found dead or dying on the ground at a CA overwintering site. The likely culprit? Nearby residential/commercial pesticide use. 1/ academic.oup.com/etc/advance-...
academic.oup.com
Pyrethroid insecticides implicated in mass mortality of monarch butterflies at an overwintering site in California
Abstract. Since the 1980s, monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus plexippus) populations across North America have declined by 80–95%. Although several studie
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Entomological Society of America @entsocamerica.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Stay connected with ESA—even through employment disruption. The ESA Member Support Fund supports entomologists who have faced job loss in 2025 by waiving membership dues, allowing beneficiaries to maintain access to key benefits. Learn more and apply: www.entsoc.org/support/memb...
The image includes white text on a blue background that reads “Apply for the ESA Member Support Fund.” It includes the ESA logo and an image of a grapevine beetle.
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Phil Sturgeon 🌳🚵⚓️ @philsturgeon.com · 18/06/2025
No Climate Action, No Food.
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United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
We feed you. They hunt us.
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Aaron Weiss (no relation) @aweiss.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
It's 50 pages of legal contortion trying to find a way to argue that the Antiquities Act does not say what it clearly says — presidents only have the power to create national monuments. Congress reserved the power to eliminate or shrink them.
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Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
"Secretary Kennedy’s team argues that there is insufficient evidence to support updated COVID-19 vaccines for healthy Americans under 65, but this claim is unfounded. Years of data demonstrate that vaccines save lives and reduce hospitalizations across all age groups." time.com/7292898/rfk-...
time.com
RFK Jr. Purging the CDC Advisory Committee Will Put Lives at Risk
"The stakes are high, but a better path is possible," writes Trump’s first Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams.
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Joshua Basseches @joshuabasseches.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
This week, the Trump EPA is expected to roll back the regulation of carbon emissions from power plants, which account for about a quarter of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Trump's first administration scrapped Obama's rules and his second will scrap Biden's.
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Scott Waldman @scottpwaldman.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
NEW: The White House is quietly ordering agencies to freeze billions of dollars in additional funding for the EPA, Interior, Ag, National Science Foundation and more as part of a strategy to make cuts to education, climate, etc permanent and weaken role of Congress. www.eenews.net/articles/whi...
eenews.net
White House looks to freeze more agency funds — and expand executive power
The latest move targets more than $30 billion in spending at EPA, the National Science Foundation and other agencies.
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CNN @cnn.com · 09/06/2025
In an unprecedented move, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 members of the CDC's expert panel of vaccine advisers, citing conflicts of interest. cnn.it/4mYohFy
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Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Nuestro blog reciente sobre qué hacer si ves muchas abejas muertas se ha publicado en el blog de Extensión en Español de la Universidad de Maryland. ¡Esperamos que te sea útil! 🐝 @xercessociety.bsky.social @umdentomology.bsky.social extensionesp.umd.edu/2025/06/09/v...
extensionesp.umd.edu
Vi muchos insectos muertos: qué hacer y por qué es importante
Por Jacqueline Buenrostro y Emily MayTraducido por Anahí EspíndolaFor a version of this article in English, follow this link. Los informes suelen ser siempre parecidos: abejas, mariposas u otros in…
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
There's an effort afoot to try to save #GMRLN (pronounced Gremlin), the global #measles & #rubella lab surveillance network that was reliant on US funding that has disappeared. It costs a pittance, in global health terms, to run. Its loss would be huge. www.statnews.com/2025/06/09/t...
statnews.com
Philanthropies rush to save measles surveillance network pushed to brink of collapse by U.S. cuts
The Trump administration’s gutting of global aid is threatening to collapse a network of laboratories responsible for global measles and rubella surveillance
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