@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

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@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

You want to know how bad Canadian-US relations have become? There's a serious discussion in Canada about developing nuclear weapons. Insane.
This is one of the US's longest, closest, and best ally. And in one month, Trump has destroyed that relationship.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Yes, in 2021 JD Vance literally said
"[W]e have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country... The professors are the enemy."
And no, he wasn't joking. The video is chilling.

https://bryanalexander.org/politics/the-professors-are-the-enemy-j-d-vance-on-higher-education/

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Oh please, please, please, I'd like to see him try to drive it.

Also, he could save a lot of money buying a used one. They're really cheap right now.

Trump to "buy a brand new Tesla" to support his buddy, Elon.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

The Trump Administration is eliminating the Office of the Chief Scientist at NASA.
The current head of that office is Dr. Katherine Calvin, an expert on climate change, global modeling, and international scientific negotiations.

https://www.science.org/content/article/nasa-eliminate-chief-scientist-position

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

As an American Jew, let me be clear:
-Criticizing Israel is not being "antisemitic"
-Defending the human rights of Palestinians is not being pro-Hamas
-Arresting someone for these things is a violation of our 1st Amendment
-Violating 1st Amendment rights, and bragging there's more to come, is bad

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Trump is now killing Ukrainians and directly helping the Russian army.

Traitorous.
https://time.com/7265679/satellites-front-failing-hundreds-dead-fallout-trump-ukraine-aid-pause/

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

I can't quite get over the fact that so many people seem shocked and surprised that really, really bad things are being done by people who we've known are really, really bad for a long time and who said, if they get into power, they would do really, really bad things.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Incredible statement from the American Meteorological Organization. It takes a lot for a scientific organization to issue a statement like this:

"U.S. leadership in scientific innovation is at risk due to the recent and ongoing reductions in U.S. federal science capabilities. The consequences to the American people will be large and wide-ranging, including increased vulnerability to hazardous weather...Recent terminations within the government workforce for science are likely to cause irreparable harm and have far-reaching consequences for public safety, economic well-being, and the United States’ global leadership."

Full statement here: https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/about-ams/ams-statements/statements-of-the-ams-in-force/the-u-s-weather-enterprise-a-national-treasure-at-risk/?_zs=m2nfc1&_zl=iOL6A

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Strong, supportive comments for Zelenskyy from democrats here. These need boosting:

Senator Schiff: ““A hero and a coward are meeting in the Oval Office today. And when the meeting is over, the hero will return home to Ukraine.”
Senator Murphy: “What an utter embarrassment for America. This whole sad scene.”
Senator Gallego: “This is a disgrace.”
Senator Van Hollen: “beyond disgraceful”.
Senator Durbin: “The people of Ukraine and President Zelenskyy deserve an apology.” “Trump and Vance berating Zelenskyy – putting on a show of lies and misinformation that would make Putin blush – is an embarrassment for America and a betrayal of our allies,” Durbin said. “They’re popping champagne in the Kremlin.”
Senator Schumer: Trump and Vance “are doing Putin’s dirty work
Sheldon Whitehouse: Trump and Vance of “acting like ventriloquist dummies for Putin”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/zelenksyy-trump-meeting-democrats-reactions

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

And there it is. The first death from measles in over a decade in the United States. In, of course, an unvaccinated child. This is the direct result of the anti-vaxx lies spread by people like RFK Jr.

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/26/nx-s1-5309800/texas-measles-child-death-vaccination

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

This is happening. Make it big.
Stand up for Science marches in Washington and nationwide on March 7th.

Some local information here: https://standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/

March for science "Stand Up for Science 2025" march poster. Local information here: https://standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Nice to see that some organizations are still respecting and rewarding science, fact, and public services.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is recognizing Dr. Fauci with its "Excellence in Public Policy and Public Affairs" award.

https://www.amacad.org/news/fauci-excellence-public-policy-award

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

So apparently they're doing LSD non-stop over at the Trump EPA.
Really hard to believe they actually issued this hallucinatory crap as a official press release.

https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/icymi-administrator-lee-zeldin-finds-gold-bars-epa-stacey-abrams-connected-group-biden

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Wall art in Oaxaca, Mexico.

(Artist and photographer unknown)

Black and white art of Elon Musk making his Nazi salute in a Nazi uniform and dangling from his raised hand is a little puppet Trump with a Pinocchio nose.
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Climate change is real. There are only three options:

  1. Reduce climate-damaging pollution
  2. Adapt to unavoidable impacts
  3. Suffer.

By denying and misrepresenting the science and by cutting science and disaster funds, Trump and the Republicans have chosen the third option.

@kevinrothrock@infosec.exchange avatar kevinrothrock , to random

wow i did not think ChatGPT would agree to answer this

petergleick ,
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar

@kevinrothrock But did it also tell you that such a nuclear exchange would lead to globally catastrophic nuclear winter, for everyone else?

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Reagan "won" the Cold War.

Trump just unilaterally surrendered America to Russia.

For nothing.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

I'm a scientist because 52 years ago the National Science Foundation supported me, as a high school student, to do real research at a university summer science program.
The destruction of US science by Trump and the Republicans today will weaken the country for decades.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

The Democratic party needs to immediately appoint and support Shadow Cabinet Secretaries able to give press conferences and issue statements every single day.

petergleick OP ,
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar

@gsymon @GottaLaff On the contrary.
Some, like Peter Buttigiege, have been relatively successful in getting on Fox.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Seems right.

🪶

Chestnut-backed chickadee perched on a bird book opened to the Chestnut-backed chickadee page.
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Thank you, Encyclopedia Britannica.
Here's the map from their 1st Edition in 1768.
Note the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
As of now, they're keeping that name.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

What a completely crappy negotiator Donald Trump is. He's trading a major Russian cyber criminal for a minor drug offender. He's trying to give away key elements of Ukraine's sovereignty and land before negotiations have even started, and he's taken Ukrainian membership in NATO off the table getting nothing in return.
It's almost as if Trump is a Russian plant.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Little acts of resistance. Do this. It takes 2 minutes

A quick resistance task: 1. Google Gulf of Mexico 2. “Gulf of America" is the top 3. Click on the three little dots to the right of it 4. Select "Send Feedback" 5. Click on "Gulf Of America" 6. Select "Inaccurate content" 7. Select "Incorrect" and type in "The correct name is “Gulf of Mexico"
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

This is as un-American as it gets. Ripped from the playbook of fascists throughout history.

BBC headline "Vance questions authority of US judges to challenge Trump."
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Here's a lesson for all of us that the universities are relearning today:
Staying silent in the face of fascism will not protect you.

@SamCrawley@sciences.social avatar SamCrawley , to AcademicChatter group

Hmm, is it normal to get 2 review requests for 2 different articles from the same journal within 7 minutes? academicchatter@a.gup.pe icon AcademicChatter group

petergleick ,
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar

@SamCrawley academicchatter@a.gup.pe icon AcademicChatter group
lol, that literally just happened to me minutes ago.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Because, of course.

Donald Trump Jr. Accused Of Killing Protected Duck In Italy
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2025/02/04/donald-trump-jr-accused-of-killing-protected-duck-in-italy/

🪶🦆

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Keep pushing back. Hard.

He blinked on tariffs when Mexico and Canada showed some spine.
His California water stunt failed and has been ridiculed.
He was forced to roll back cutting grants and govt payments.
NSF support is resuming.
CDC webpages are being restored.
Street protests are starting.
Lawsuits are being filed.
Fight back.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

If the reports are correct, Trump has ordered 32,000 acre-ft (~10 billion gals) of released from these reservoirs. That water will, mostly, be lost. Some will evaporate, some will seep into groundwater. Farmers who had rights to that water in the reservoir are now unlikely to have physical or legal access to it. Anticipate legal chaos over water allocations in the summer.

https://sjvwater.org/trumps-emergency-water-order-responsible-for-water-dump-from-tulare-county-lakes/

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Dear California farmers and Congressional representatives:
Trump has just literally thrown billions of gallons of away that farmers were counting on this summer, purely to brag that he could.
That cannot be captured or used now by anyone.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-01-31/trump-california-dams-opened-up

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

I was in China in December. If we really, seriously wanted to compete with them, we would do what they're doing: invest in , , and .
But in a massive gift to China, Trump's MAGA policies are going to do the exact opposite.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Ever wondered WHY Trump and his allies are so viciously attacking and cutting science?
It's because science puts the lie to everything they're trying to do. It identifies the real people and actions causing our problems. It exposes the truth behind their disinformation.
Science not silence.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Hidden among the Trump administration's first week assault on the American people is withdrawing the long-awaited proposal on PFAS forever chemicals effluent limits in drinking .

https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/statement/2025/01/trump-epa-withdrawal-pfas-effluent-limits-setback-public-health-ewg

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

What whitewashing responsibility is next, New York Times?

How the Jews drove the Nazis to kill them?
How climate scientists drove the fossil-fuel companies to destroy the climate?
How immigrants drove Trump to put them in camps?

New York Times opinion headline: "How Democrats Drove Silicon Valley Into Trump's Arms" written by a Silicon Valley billionaire.
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

We were warned:
Frank Press's accurate and prescient memo on change to President Jimmy in 1977.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/14/1977-us-presidential-memo-predicted-climate-change

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

The /water paradox: As global temperatures rise, more evaporates into the atmosphere and so more precipitation occurs. But vast areas of the planet are getting drier not wetter. Why? Because as temperatures rise, more water is lost from soils. And the precipitation that does fall is falling in more intense events in fewer regions, leading to more extreme . As a result, we're getting both more dangerous and floods simultaneously.
Stop burning carbon now.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

So yesterday Russia shot down a commercial airliner and intentionally destroyed a major undersea power connection between Finland and Estonia, in case you're wondering if Russian military aggression is limited to Ukraine.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Did you know you can download an entire copy of Wikipedia for use offline? Takes some storage space but there are text-only or (larger) versions with images.

https://www.howtogeek.com/260023/how-to-download-wikipedia-for-offline-at-your-fingertips-reading/

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

If you've never donated to Wikipedia, now's the time. Elon Musk is attacking it because it's one of the only sources of honest, curated information that he can't control.

https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-takes-aim-wikipedia-fund-raising-editing-political-woke-2005742

@AnarchoNinaWrites@jorts.horse avatar AnarchoNinaWrites , to random

Lol, just caught a report that NY State officials are considering setting up a hotline for CEO's to report "perceived threats."

Folks, this is how Ancien Régime went out. Might as well get to it; they're gonna bust out the jackboots and/or boil us all to death anyway. Nothing left to lose.

petergleick ,
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar

@AnarchoNinaWrites Really. Where's the hotline for climate scientists, doctors, and others who have received hate mail and death threats for as long as we've been communicating science?

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

We call it Earth, but only because we're land dwellers. And we rarely see this picture but it shows how massive the Pacific Ocean is, covering about a third of the Earth's surface.
This is a cloudless satellite image of the Earth, centered on the Pacific Ocean. To get a single cloudless image, NOAA satellites took photos over eleven ten-day periods and merged them.

A cloudless satellite image of the Earth, centred on the Pacific Ocean. Only ocean is visible over the entire disk except for a glimpse of Australia bottom left and a hint of North America top right with the Arctic ice cap visible at the top.
ALT
@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Artificial intelligence is not.

We need a better term for what's being shoved in our faces. I'm open to suggestions.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

We're not going to terraform Mars, but we're doing a good job of venusforming Earth.

@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

It is “virtually certain” that 2024 will be the first year to be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than in the preindustrial era, before heat-trapping fossil fuels began accumulating in the atmosphere, the European Union’s Copernicus Change Service (C3S) announced today.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/2024-will-be-the-first-year-to-exceed-the-1-5-degree-celsius-warming/

Graph of annual global temperature anomalies compared to pre-industrial period, showing massive growth in temperature increases, now exceeding the 1.5 degrees C (2.7 deg F) limits, and showing 2024 as the (again) record warm year.
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@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

Alarm bells are ringing loudly as the world's largest river, the Amazon River dries up:
"Never has so little rain fallen in the rainforest, never have dry conditions lasted so long, and never has such a vast region of the jungle been in drought"

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/19/world/americas/south-america-drought-amazon-river.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Uk4.A32D.p84BitppF7lo&smid=em-share

Photo by Cesar Olmedo/Reuters. A boy walking on exposed sandbanks of the Paraguay River in Paraguay. Water levels in the river have plunged during an extended dry spell across much of South America.
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@petergleick@fediscience.org avatar petergleick , to random

According to Oxfam, four engineers were killed in Gaza today, targeted by Israel. Reports say the men were killed "on their way to conduct repairs to water infrastructure in Khuzaa, east of Khan Younis. Despite prior coordination with Israeli authorities their clearly-marked vehicle was bombed."

https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/oxfam-condemns-killing-water-engineers-gaza