iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Pam McElwee

Climate Social Science Network @cssn.org · 23/09/2026

Happening now! Rutger's Climate Week's "The Science and Politics of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Current Challenges in Informing Policy," featuring CSSN scholars @daniellefalzon.bsky.social @kdepryck.bsky.social and @pammcelwee.bsky.social.

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The NASA and USAID-supported SERVIR Hindu Kush observing program was set up to help identify and provide early-warning of hazards, just like the flooding that struck Nepal last week. It was defunded the first week of this administration in 2025. www.independent.co.uk/climate-chan...

independent.co.uk

Trump cut climate aid to Nepal – just over a year later devastating floods struck

Jeremy Konyndyk, who ran the US Agency for International Development (USAID) response to the 2015 Nepal Earthquake, has criticised the government for closing climate and disaster-focused programmes in...

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Amazing visual presentation in the story of what we will lose if the US Pacific monuments are opened back up to commercial fishing. These are crucial hotspots of biodiversity.

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Glad to see Sesame Street tackling disaster risk, but even kids can understand that much of it is driven by increasing global temperatures that humans have caused. Wish they had stressed that message #climatechange www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/c...

nytimes.com

Climate Change Comes to Sesame Street (Gift Article)

An episode this week focuses on the dangerous effects of warming, without mentioning climate change.

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

A good reminder for all of us, especially those looking at the impending end of a more open summer workday schedule 😩https://open.substack.com/pub/theconversationus/p/how-to-get-more-nature-into-your?r=8eu8y&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

open.substack.com

How to get more nature into your 9-to-5 and why it matters for your mental health

Sometimes the best escape isn't a weekend away. It's the park just down the road.

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coyotebroad (Jayne Cravens) @coyotebroad.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

SpaceX rocket that exploded shortly after takeoff destroyed land & wildlife: Concrete chunks had left craters a foot deep & were strewn across tidal flats, almost four acres of state park burned, 7 bobwhite quail eggs & a collection of blue land crabs incinerated. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

bloomberg.com

SpaceX Blast Left Officials in Disbelief Over Environmental Damage

Fish and Wildlife Service biologists expressed frustrations in emails obtained by Bloomberg.

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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

An important and surprising discovery arriving the same week policy leaders in Washington tell us we no longer need federal investment in the biological and life sciences.

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Reposted by Pam McElwee

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Trump administration admits, in court filings, that it canceled billions in federal grants not for policy or performance reasons, but because recipients lived in blue states. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

Months later, in court filings, federal officials indicated there was little else that had informed the final decision about which grants to cancel.

“With one exception,” a lawyer for the Energy Department conceded in a court filing this month, “the 284 terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-caucusing senators.”

The lawyer acknowledged that none of the grants were included in the October terminations “based on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction or performance-based factor.”

In contrast, the administration left untouched hundreds of additional energy grants in states that were represented by Republicans and had backed Mr. Trump in the last election, even though the Energy Department had recommended canceling them, the government confirmed in the July court filing.

The cancellations coincided with a broader White House effort at the time to pressure Democratic lawmakers to cave in a fight over funding that had shut down the government. That month, Mr. Trump had vocalized the strategy: He threatened openly to slash what he described as “Democrat agencies,” while Mr. Vought announced a series of additional spending cuts targeting other Democratic-led states.

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Great example of nexus solutions - tackling climate, food and water all at once

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

My daughter’s Girl Scout camp in NJ just cancelled their overnight camping due to poor air quality. Our kids deserve to have fun outdoors, not be punished for grownups’ failures to tackle climate change.

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Gratified that my voice was just one of nearly half a million comments on the proposed OMB rule that would dramatically politicize science funding in the US. But this is just the start of the fight, not the end www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

insidehighered.com

Legal Threats Loom Over OMB Grant-Control Rule as Comments Close

The White House’s plan to cement political appointees’ control over research and other grants received hundreds of thousands of comments. Lawsuits are likely next.

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Reposted by Pam McElwee

James Goodwin @jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

It is extremely unusual for *any* regulatory proposal to receive this many comments. But for one that is this technical is simply unheard of. If the point of this exercise was to hide a massive power grab in the arcane garb of administrative law, it failed. Spectacularly.

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

You've got less than 1.5 hours to submit a comment to OMB opposing their "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance" (OMB-2026-0034) that would devastate the US research enterprise with political decision-making. I just submitted my comment - don't delay if you still need to do yours!!

Screenshot of OMB webpage indicating successful submission of a comment

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

WTAF? Anyone one who works in biodiversity conversation knows that habitat destruction/land and sea use change is the #1 driver of biodiversity loss globally. See every @ipbes.net report, ever.

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Climate change and upstream dams are often blamed for the rapid water and land changes in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. But local sand mining is playing an important negative role as well, and can be much more easily tackled through better regulation: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Counterfactual modeling isolates sand mining impacts, revealing it as a key driver of Mekong Delta destabilization

Sand mining drives ~25 to 30% of total channel erosion and ~16 to 30% of salinity increase in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.

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Reposted by Pam McElwee

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 09/07/2026

It is not headed by a “climate critic“. It is headed by someone who is unqualified in this area, who cannot offer valid critiques but instead shares debunked claims, and who regularly attacks climate scientists. Like me.

politico.com

The administration has a new climate change office. It’s headed by a climate critic.

The office that produces the National Climate Assessment has been reconstituted, after the administration gutted it last year.

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

USGCRP being revived- but put in the hands of someone who has never published on climate and who runs a political blog 😡

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

What is happening at NIH is a test case for all grants if the new OMB rule goes through - political interference, wasted money, and stalled science 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

Inside the new political screening that’s stalling NIH grants

Mandatory reviews by top health officials and checks for 235 disfavoured terms have left hundreds of vetted grant applications in administrative limbo.

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

The right of citizens to monitor and sue polluters is engrained in US env laws, but current DOJ wants to block people from exercising the right, particularly with regard to enforcing pollution laws around data centers. This is a hugely important case watershednewsletter.substack.com/p/the-laws-s...

watershednewsletter.substack.com

The Laws Still Exist, the Consequences Don’t: America’s Vanishing Environmental Enforcement

The Trump administration has stepped back from suing polluters and is now claiming the right to block citizens from doing so too.

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Reposted by Pam McElwee

Erin Sikorsky @erinsikorsky.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

El Niño is officially here — NOAA puts the odds of a record-strength event at 63% this winter. It lands as the Iran war strains food + energy systems. New survey of global security experts on what’s most at risk 🧵 (1/x) councilonstrategicrisks.org/2026/06/12/c...

councilonstrategicrisks.org

CCS Survey: Food Insecurity Top Security Threat from Historic El Niño, Experts Say - The Council on Strategic Risks

A new global survey of climate security experts conducted by the Center for Climate and Security has identified food insecurity as the top national security risk at the intersection of El Niño, the Ir...

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Reposted by Pam McElwee

Heidi B. Hammel @hbhammel.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

The Planetary Society built an interactive side-by-side "track changes" comparison for the proposed OMB rules. They show exactly what the current rules say versus what the proposed rules would change, section by section, across all *399* affected provisions. dashboards.planetary.org/rules-change/ 🧪🔭

dashboards.planetary.org

Federal Grant Rule Comparison

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Reposted by Pam McElwee

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 06/06/2026

The plan from the government to use politics to pick winners in R&D affects way more than just science. I talked about the way it affects environmental research, and how it would stop our understanding of how vulnerable communities are affected by pollution: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

bloomberg.com

White House Plan to Vet Grants Puts Climate Science in Jeopardy

The Trump administration’s proposal to tighten political control over federal grants would hinder research, experts say.

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Reposted by Pam McElwee

Bob Berwyn @bberwyn.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Scientists live-streaming for 50 hours to highlight the importance of science to society and warning that cutting funds for research has dangerous consequences: www.youtube.com/@wclivestrea...

youtube.com

YouTube

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

If this OMB rule goes through, it is not hyperbole to say that US scientific research on climate change (of which the federal government has been largest funder) will come to a screeching halt. Political appointees will be able to cancel ANY grant on disfavored topics www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/u...

nytimes.com

White House Seeks to Impose Political Test on Billions in Federal Grants

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Rutgers has played a key role in the OOI since inception-horrible to see such a fundamental monitoring system being demolished for no reason. Perhaps Congress might like to weigh in on the waste of money if we tear down something we already built? www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/c...

nytimes.com

Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Biodiversity chapter of Fifth National Climate Assessment that I led noted North Atlantic Right Whales as key species already vulnerable & further endangered by #climatechange Glad to see so many working on saving these amazing creatures- another example of why we need federal investment in science!

nytimes.com

Could New Tech Help Save Some Very Rare Whales?

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Calling all scientists! If you are interested in action against the proposed OMB rule that would politicize all federal science grants, please join the Stand up for Science call this week! events.standupforscience.net/stand-up-for...

events.standupforscience.net

Emergency Science Meeting by Stand Up for Science

OMB’s latest proposed rule, “Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance,” would place political ideologues over scientific experts in federal research funding decisions. Say goodbye to cancer treatme...

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Reposted by Pam McElwee

LaurelJStandley.bsky.social 🌳🌎 @laureljstandley.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

"Knowledge, once learned, cannot be taken away," Federal funds may completely disappear… but "it's not going to take away the truth, and we have that knowledge now, and we will continue on our path to protect what's out there." www.npr.org/2026/05/18/n... Via @katharinehayhoe.com ‘s newsletter.

npr.org

Montana tribes combine traditional knowledge and Western science in climate plan

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are moving forward with their climate plan despite the loss of state support and federal funding.

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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

tl,dr; Scientists no longer allowed to use federal funding to publish, attend meetings, or talk to the public. They cannot collaborate internationally. Grants can be cancelled for any reason, at any time, political appointees have a final say over what gets funded, and who gets funded.

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Reposted by Pam McElwee

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Once again: German universities were the envy of the world before the Nazis rose to power and took an ideological wrecking ball to the entire enterprise. If you want to know how long it took for German universities to recover… they haven’t.

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Reposted by Pam McElwee

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

This is one of the most insane things I’ve seen from this regime. Please read this excellent summary and comment in the federal registry. 🧪🌊

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Reposted by Pam McElwee

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

“Food is going to become less affordable.” Economists warn El Niño and the Iran war haven’t yet fully hit US food prices, which were already rising www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

bloomberg.com

Americans Are About to Pay Even More at the Grocery Store

As Americans confront a surge in prices at the pump, another inflation wave is headed for the grocery store.

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

On this Memorial Day, as we remember our military sacrifices, here's a way nature can potentially help prevent conflicts: in Europe, peatland restoration on borderlands provides a defense against Russian tanks www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/c...

nytimes.com

They’ve Got a Plan to Combat Global Warming (and Also Russian Tanks)

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

WTH? The political interference with science to no clear aim other than chaos continues....

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Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Network (BES-Net) @besnet.world · 20/05/2026

🌿 The challenge is big, but we are not starting from zero. The evidence is here. The tools exist. The next step is action to support stronger action for biodiversity, climate, food, water, health and sustainable development. 🔊 Hear from @pammcelwee.bsky.social at the #BESPINtrialogue in Skopje. ⬇️

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Massive fuel tanker 🔥 in central NJ this am sent black smoke over sport fields where our local kids had season championships for lacrosse and softball 😡😷😡 Remind me when the last time a solar panel or wind turbine sent pollution and caused injuries like this? www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/l...

mycentraljersey.com

Route 287 tanker fire in Edison leaves 4 hurt, major closures

Fuel tanker fire on Route 287 near Edison injures 4, closes major roads and disrupts traffic across the area.

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Climate change always intersects with other drivers - here, deforestation plus climate change creates greater and earlier risks for tipping points in the Amazon system www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/c...

nytimes.com

New Study Shows Risks of Amazon Deforestation. And Rewards of Protection.

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