@petergleick@fediscience.org cover
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar

petergleick

@[email protected]

#Climate and #water scientist and communicator. Interested in many things, including #birds, mandolin, politics. You can also find my stuff (or message me) at www.gleick.com.
Author of a mess of scientific papers, the 9 volumes of The World's Water (Island Press); Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water (Island Press); A 21st Century US Water Policy (Oxford); and my new book: "The Three Ages of Water." Email me at pgleick (at) gmail

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Department of War? Let's do them all.

Dept of Agribusiness
Dept of Ignorance
Dept of Industry
Dept of Fossil Fuels
Dept of Human Disease
Homeland Gestapo
Dept of Private Parks
Dept of Unpaid Labor
Dept of State Control
Dept of SUVs & Trucks
Dept of Bankrupt Treasury
Dept of Veterans Abuse
Center for Disease

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Dear Nobel Peace Prize committee,
It now appears likely that one of the people nominated for your prize just committed a war crime. Thought you should take that into consideration.

https://www.justsecurity.org/119982/legal-issues-military-attack-carribean/

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

The graph shows what happened when the vaccine became available. Deaths and illness stopped. People begged to get it when it became available.

Reversing this is what Florida just announced it intends to do.

Picture of 30 or 40 people in "iron lungs" after succumbing to polio.

Picture of 30 or 40 people in "iron lungs" after succumbing to polio.
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

If they can no longer use Alligator Auschwitz as a concentration camp, maybe they can use it for the iron lung facility after polio returns to Florida.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/03/florida-vaccine-mandate

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

The stupid, it burns.
This guy is US Secretary of Energy and blithely puts certifiably and grossly and embarrassingly incorrect statements on social media.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

This claim about windfarms and whales is 100% bull****.

Either RFK Jr. actually believes this, in which case he's insane, or he doesn't and he's saying it to suck up to Trump, in which case he's an a**-kissing quisling.

https://youtu.be/hanKluuJV3A

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Everyone around that Cabinet table with Trump is either insane, a true fascist, or has sold their soul just to be at that table. They're just the worst people.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Breaking. Trump signs Executive Order saying he can do things the Constitution and Supreme Court says he can't. Also an Executive Order saying people aren't allowed to do things the Constitution and the Supreme Court says we can.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/news-wrap-trump-signs-order-aimed-at-flag-burning

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Another fact. This one isn't fun, however.
As much as a third of all food production today comes from unsustainable groundwater extraction —where groundwater is being used faster than it's being replenished. That cannot continue, but where is the replacement water going to come from??

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Here's another fact about you may not know.
More than 97% of Earth's water is saltwater — too salty to drink or use for agriculture.
Most of the rest, the freshwater, is locked up in ice caps on Antarctic and Greenland or in deep groundwater.
Only a tiny fraction is available to us in ... 1/2

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Want to learn something about and change?
A simple approximation is that for every degree C of warming, the atmosphere holds 7% more water. That's one factor behind the growing number of extreme flooding events.
And climate scientists have been predicting these impacts for literally a half century or more.
The Trump administration's efforts to hide these kinds of basic scientific truths are just fossil-fuel industry propaganda.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

I found a quote from Abraham Lincoln but simply couldn't find where it was from.
So I asked an AI for the attribution. It named a speech, but I looked and it wasn't there. Then 3 different Lincoln letters it wasn't in. Then an address to Congress it wasn't in.
Turns out Lincoln never said it.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

I'm not a fan of Gavin Newsom but heaven knows he's doing and saying things the rest of the democratic party should be doing and saying.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Copied from a post on Bluesky for all authors.

"If your books were uploaded to LibGen/fed into the LLMs, add your name to the potential class action lawsuit by tomorrow." Details:

LibDem database: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/

Attorney form: https://www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-author-contact/

(This information comes via a reliable Discord source.)

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Well, you won't see jellyfish shutting down solar plants or wind farms.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx299eyg7qko

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

I joked a couple of days ago that Trump was meeting Putin in Alaska because he didn't know it was part of the United States but maybe it wasn't a joke. Today he just said

"You know, I’m going to see Putin. I’m going to Russia on Friday."

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

I just do not understand why you would choose to make a TV series supposedly based on (and named the same as) a beloved set of books and then completely rewrite the plot, characters, and storyline into something almost unrecognizably different.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Richard Nixon resigned August 9, 1974... An era when there were consequences for presidents being corrupt criminals.

@kevinrothrock@infosec.exchange avatar kevinrothrock , to random

I have many favorite bad movies, but the deep-fried comfort food I come back to more than anything has got to be the 2003 science fiction disaster film "The Core." Every line delivery from Stanley Tucci and Delroy Lindo is delicious gold.

petergleick ,
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar

@kevinrothrock Seriously?

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

The Trump administration has not only deleted all previous National Assessment reports from government websites and fired the scientists working on the next iteration, but now say they're going to go back and rewrite the previous reports, all of which were written by real scientists and independently reviewed.
This is scientific sabotage and a rewriting of accepted history and science.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/07/climate/wright-national-climate-assessments-updating

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

JD Vance had the level of a lake manipulated to accommodate his vacation plans.
It's not always the big corruption stories that rankle.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/06/jd-vance-ohio-lake-water-levels

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Those mRNA vaccine programs that RFK Jr. is killing because he claims they don't work?
The people who invented them got the f***ing Nobel Prize.
And they've saved literally millions of lives already.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/rfk-jr-pulls-funding-for-vaccines-being-developed-to-fight-respiratory-viruses

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

It's a bit hard to know which of the Trump sycophants and cultists is going to kill the most people and destroy the most science, but RFK Jr. has got to be close to the top.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/rfk-jr-pulls-funding-for-vaccines-being-developed-to-fight-respiratory-viruses

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

That thing where some Republicans express "concern" over something Trump has done? It's pure b*******. They're still voting completely in lockstep for all of his proposals, nominees, illegal and immoral bills.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Muppet plant.

Red multipetaled flowering plant with two protruding yellow bulbs that look like eyes. This is red tower ginger (Costus comosus). Photo: P. Gleick 2025 (UC Botanical Garden)
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Firing the person responsible for reporting job numbers just makes the jobs numbers one worse.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

In the old Soviet Union, there was always a political "Apparatchik" assigned to oversee all media operations to make sure nothing negative was posted about the regime.
Welcome to the new Trump Dictatorship.

https://gizmodo.com/fcc-to-appoint-a-babysitter-to-make-sure-cbs-isnt-anti-trump-2000634566

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

I've been an academic for decades and I still can't get over the fact I get invited all the time to write things "with no publication charge" as though that compensates for not being paid at all.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

The monitoring station on Mauna Loa provides the longest direct measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Trump wants to shut it down, which is like taking the batteries out of your screaming smoke alarm and pretending the house isn't on fire.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Take a long hard look at this graphic, the longest continuous direct measurement of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This is the famous Keeling Curve from the station atop Mauna Loa, Hawaii.
Trump and the GOP are closing the observatory.

https://scripps.ucsd.edu/bluemoon/co2_400/mlo_full_record.png

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Weird how the fossil fuel industry claims it's renewables that are expensive.
My solar panels paid for themselves in 7 years (instead of the predicted 13) and our solar electricity is free now. And it runs our car.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

I was wrong. It turns out there IS a use for crypto.
It's good for buying politicians.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

A reminder about the prohibitions in the Geneva Conventions against starving civilians, destroying foodstuffs or drinking water installations, or forcing civilians to move away. Here's the text of Article 54 of Protocol I of the 1977 Geneva Convention (alt-text is embedded in the image):

Article 54 of Protocol I of the 1977 Geneva Convention. 1. Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited. 2. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as food-stuffs, agricultural areas for the production of food-stuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive.
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

The massive measles outbreak and other growing health crises aren't just a result of the last six months of RFK Jr. and MAGAs. They're the result of decades of RFK Jr. and MAGAs sowing doubts about science, vaccines and medicine, and the role of government.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/u-s-measles-cases-reach-33-year-record-high-as-outbreaks-spread/

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

If Trump was president during the Revolution, we'd still be a colony of Great Britain.
If he'd been president in 1861, the US would be two countries & one of them would still have slaves.
If he'd been president in 1941, the English would be speaking German.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/03/united-states-ukraine-russia/84466037007/

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

The New York Times today if it was December 7, 1941.

"The US base at Pearl Harbor hosting navy ships reports several stopped floating Sunday morning."

NY Times subhead: "The federal website hosting five legislatively mandated reports stopped working Monday afternoon."
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Dear Dems,
Stop asking. No more money. None. Until you get your act together and respond with the fire and fury and action the times demand.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Some of my LA Times comments on the deletion of https://globalchange.gov.

“It’s scientific censorship at its worst,” said Peter Gleick... “This is the modern version of book burning.”

“The deeper threat to the country is that we won’t do the new assessments that are necessary to understand the latest research on climate threats to the country,” Gleick said. “It seems like anything related is being either cut to the bone or completely eliminated, with no assessment of its value or importance.”

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-07-01/trump-us-climate-website

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

I know some of my climate colleagues have been downloading documents and website content from both climate.gov and globalchange.gov websites before they were stripped of content or shut down entirely.
But is there a single new mirror site that has these all together? Anyone know?

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Trump has deleted the entire US Global Change Research Program website -- a research program required by federal law.
I know many people have downloaded and preserved documents from that website in recent days. The problem is bigger though: the entire future research effort has been cancelled. Existing documents can be saved. End future research blinds the public and policymakers to current and future risks to the country and public health.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

The massive effort to destroy renewable systems with massive taxes in the is, pure and simple, a giveaway to the dying fossil fuel industry that owns so many of our politicians.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

If all the rich people are really going to leave if we raise taxes then let's raise taxes nationally and maybe they'll leave the country.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Language is important.
I'm tired of media euphemisms.
It's not climate skeptic, it's climate denier.
It's not vaccine skeptic, it's anti-vaxxer.
And it's "lies" and "racism" and "genocide" and "war." Words have meaning.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

This is exactly what Trump plans to do to our national parks, forests, wilderness area.

Trump bulldozes the White House Rose Garden.

https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/politics/2025/06/20/white-house-rose-garden-renovation-photos/84292209007/

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Impeachment now.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

The current Acting Director of ICE, Todd Lyons, needs to be arrested and charged with ordering his agents to violate countless laws and civil rights.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Once again, Brendan Loper and The New Yorker cartoons nail it. Is this a chance for the global community to make real progress on international agreements that the US has long sabotaged?

A New Yorker cartoon by Brendan Loper: Five people sitting at a table, with papers in front of them saying "Hopefully we can have a productive dialogue, now that the Americans are sitting at the kids' negotiating table." In the background sitting alone at a little table with little legs and little chairs and a little American flag are two American negotiators.
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random