John W. Williams | Lightnews

John (Jack) Williams

@iceageecologist.bsky.social

820 followers 680 following 28 posts

Climate change ecologist, paleoecologist, biogeographer, open data scientist.
Prof. at UW-Madison, co-leader of Neotoma Paleoecology Database www.neotomadb.org
Fearless sifter and winnower. All posts my own.

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Environmental science 45%

Geology 17%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by John W. Williams

Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 13d

Come work with us!

We have three openings right now.

Project Drawdown @projectdrawdown.bsky.social · 13d

We currently have openings for a Senior Analyst, Climate Philanthropy and Investing; Program Manager, Global Strategic Partnerships; and Research Fellow. Check out our Careers page to learn more and apply today! #hiring #climatejobs drawdown.org/careers

Careers

Project Drawdown careers page.

drawdown.org

Reposted by John W. Williams

Garry Peterson @resiliencesci.bsky.social · 17d

Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2-year (2026-2028) - 2 positions OPEN

UBC, Vancouver, Canada
biodiversity.ubc.ca/training-and...

"The UBC Biodiversity Research Centre comprises over 100 faculty members with interests in ecology, evolution, systematics, biodiversity, and conservation"

Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunities

Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2-year (2026-2028) - 2 positions OPENAt UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in resea...

biodiversity.ubc.ca

Reposted by John W. Williams, Kevin J. Anchukaitis

Nathalie Goodkin @margelab.bsky.social · Sep 6

AMNH is hiring a tenure track Assistant Curator/Professor in Climate Physics. You can find the posting here: careers.amnh.org/postings/4579

Assistant Curator in Climate Physics: Atmosphere or Ocean

The Division of Physical Sciences at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) seeks an outstanding colleague to join the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS). This is an Assistant lev...

careers.amnh.org

Reposted by John W. Williams, Stephen D. Murphy

Nic Rawlence @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social · Aug 9

Check out this great article in the US magazine Slate by their Dunedin based reporter about why the moa should not be brought back from extinction. slate.com/technology/2...

Those De-Extinct Dire Wolves Were a Warning. Well, the Next Phase Is Coming.

It involves a giant flightless bird.

slate.com

Reposted by Brian J. Enquist, John W. Williams, Steve Peers

Alexandra Witze @alexwitze.bsky.social · Aug 8

Trump's new executive order "looks like an explicit attempt to destroy peer review for federal science grants,” a physicist in Texas tells @dangaristo.bsky.social. 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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.

www.nature.com

Reposted by Ben Bond‐Lamberty, John W. Williams

Ethan White @ethanwhite.weecology.org · Aug 8

Interested in helping out with one of the most innovative, grassroots, publishing efforts around? The Journal of Open Source Software (@joss-openjournals.bsky.social) is looking for editors. We conduct collaborative checklist-based peer review of research software using GitHub issues.

Call for editors | Journal of Open Source Software Blog

Blog for the Journal of Open Source Software • <a href='https://joss.theoj.org'>https://joss.theoj.org</a>

blog.joss.theoj.org

Reposted by John W. Williams, David J. Galbreath

Zeke Hausfather @hausfath.bsky.social · Jul 29

2025 has seen the second warmest first half of the year on record after 2024 – and is on track to be the second or third warmest year since records began in 1850. My latest State of the Climate report over at Carbon Brief: www.carbonbrief.org/...

Reposted by John W. Williams, Enrique Fatás, Daniel Zappala , and 3 more John W. Williams, Enrique Fatás, Daniel Zappala, Kristina Pistone, Kerri M. Crawford, Trevor M. Faske

Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · Feb 18

Firings are happening right now at the National Science Foundation. Essential staff are being cut.

This isn’t about the budget. If it was, they’d be going after the military (17%) or state appropriations (38%). NSF is 0.7% of the federal budget. All federal employees make up only 4% of the budget.

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich, John W. Williams

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · Jul 22

Good news! Trump sought to eliminate NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), which would have led to the closure of NOAA Research Labs. Among other important climate research, this would have meant eliminating the Keeling Curve.

The Senate Appropriations Committee said no!

bit.ly/3TShZKk

NOAA OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH
The Committee's recommendation provides $657,053,000 for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. OAR programs provide environmental research and technology needed to improve
NOAA weather forecasts, climate predictions, and marine services.
To accomplish these goals, OAR supports a network of scientists in its Federal research laboratories, universities, and joint institutes and partnership programs.
The budget request proposes eliminating OAR, potentially terminating many of its programs and transferring others to operational
NOAA line offices, such as the National Weather Service and NOS While the Committee could be open to realigning some programs to enhance operational outcomes, the absence of detailed plans hinders informed decision-making. Consequently, the Committee maintains funding

Reposted by Peter Thorne, John W. Williams, Kevin J. Anchukaitis , and 1 more Peter Thorne, John W. Williams, Kevin J. Anchukaitis, Victor Galaz

The Carlson Lab @ Yale @carlsonlab.bsky.social · Jul 21

In a few weeks, we'll be publishing the finding that [redacted] people die every year because of climate change, equivalent to a loss of $[redacted]T USD, every year.

Here's what it costs us to open that publication to you. We have no federal grants for that work, and can't apply for them.

$12,690 OA fees for Nature Climate Change

Reposted by John W. Williams

Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · Jul 21

I'm back home with my dad and have thoughts about being an Indigenous scientist and academic. I'm writing this in real time so it might get disrupted and will have typos.

I am fairly successful by academic standards. I have a tenure track job, wrote papers, have grant funding, mentor students.

John (Jack) Williams @iceageecologist.bsky.social · Jul 18

Two good #AGU2025 sessions about vegetation-climate interactions and past ecosystems... abstracts due July 30!
PP019: Modeling and Reconstructing Vegetation-Climate Interactions in the Past.
PP026: Paleoecological Perspectives on Past Climates
Section: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology

Reposted by John W. Williams

Bethan Davies @iceybethan.bsky.social · Jul 18

Hi folks. I’m doing a panel. Hit me with your best networking tips for your academic career. Conference or meeting networking, professional networking - give me your best tips for ECRs and I’ll pass them forward for my panel!

Reposted by John W. Williams

Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

This is a great article by Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social on how solar power hit an inflection point and has now become an unstoppable force.

A must read.

www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...

4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment

In the past two years, without much notice, solar power has begun to truly transform the world’s energy system.

www.newyorker.com

Reposted by John W. Williams

Sarah Weinman @sarahweinman.com · Jul 13

Very sorry to learn that Martin Cruz Smith, author of the incomparable Arkady Renko series, has died. My deepest condolences to his family, including @luisacruz.bsky.social.

His final book, HOTEL UKRAINE, was published earlier this month and was a fitting send-off to the series.

Reposted by John W. Williams

Felix Hamer • electricfelix @electricfelix.bsky.social · Jul 11

@johnarnoldfndtn.bsky.social:
"Good illustration of how much the Texas grid has changed in just 6 years.
yellow = solar; purple = batteries; dark green = wind; blue = gas; brown = coal; light green = nuke"

#alwaysbecharging nitter.net/JohnArnoldFn...

Reposted by John W. Williams, Beth Tellman

Paul Voosen @voosen.me · Jul 10

Senate appropriators showed today they are *not* down with Trump's proposed budget cuts for NASA and NSF. (Likely NOAA too, but can't say for 100% yet.)

Long way to go to a law. But this is rare good news for scientists this year.

www.science.org/content/arti...

www.science.org

Reposted by Catherine Mitchell, John W. Williams, Kevin J. Anchukaitis

Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · Jul 7

I hope a journalist on the climate beat will report on this - this may be only one piece of the general awfulness that is happening to federal science, but the NOAA Climate and Global Change Fellowship has trained many of the current leaders in weather and climate: cpaess.ucar.edu/cgc/current-...

Reposted by John W. Williams, Benjamin I. Cook

Dr. Tripti Bhattacharya @triptychphrases.bsky.social · Jul 4

In the interest of celebrating good things, former lab postdoc David Fastovich (and new Assistant Prof at University of Georgia!) has a new paper looking at rates of ecosystem change in response to past climate change: press release: phys.org/news/2025-07...

Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Climate change outpaces trees: Forests face centuries-long lag in adaptation

Ecologists are concerned that forest ecosystems will not keep pace with a rapidly changing climate, failing to remain healthy and productive. Before the rapid climate change of the past century, tree ...

phys.org

Reposted by John W. Williams

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · Jul 3

The GOP is trying to kill the Keeling Curve, the most iconic time series in the environmental sciences.

Trump admin tries to kill the most indisputable evidence of human-caused climate change by shuttering observatory | CNN

The Mauna Loa laboratory in Hawaii has measured atmospheric carbon dioxide, which — along with other planet-warming pollution — has led directly to climate change, driving sea level rise, superchargin...

edition.cnn.com

Reposted by John W. Williams

Jonathan Overpeck @greatlakespecktwo.bsky.social · Jul 2

Things are looking DRY out west, especially in the Colorado and Rio Grande river basins. The Missouri too. This is megadrought country, and it's a HOT megadrought (since 1999) thanks to climate change.
droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/S...

John (Jack) Williams @iceageecologist.bsky.social · Jul 2

My new favorite conference activity: themed fossil stamps of conference swag! Kudos to @vojtechabraham.bsky.social for this fun activity.

John (Jack) Williams @iceageecologist.bsky.social · Jun 27

Excited to see (and be part of) this conceptual framework now published about the ecoevolutionary acclimation of ecosystems to climate change, across a range of timescales. Really nice press release here: www.ecosystemscience.ca/news/bridgin...

Reposted by John W. Williams

Asher Elbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · Jun 26

From 1939-41, the WPA funded a massive Texas paleontology survey. I wrote about some of my favorite discoveries from its archives. Field crews behaving badly! Landowner nightmares! The creation of a creationist myth! Someone unexpected accidentally joins the Manhattan Project!

It's HEAT DEATH!
🧪🦖

Dug Up Treasures

Fast times and paleontological headaches from the archives of the Texas WPA

heat-death.ghost.io

Reposted by John W. Williams

Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · Jun 23

Well this is exciting! Here's an interview I did for @nature.com about #NaturesMemory - talking about how natural history #museums can help save the world, as the best evidence we have for understanding environmental change, plus colonial legacies, male bias, and more:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘Natural history museums can save the world’: anti-colonialism, conservation and climate change

Zoologist Jack Ashby explains why it’s vital to invest in protecting specimens stored in scientific collections.

www.nature.com

Reposted by John W. Williams

Brittany Bennett @greenwoodbritt.bsky.social · Jun 21

Well this is f’in sad #ASMicrobe

An empty booth at ASM that should have housed the NSF

Reposted by John W. Williams

Alan Rhoades @mtnclimrhoades.bsky.social · Jun 17

"Over 250 million acres of public lands are eligible for sale in the bill...demanding the nomination of tracts within 30 days, then every 60 days until the arbitrary multi-million-acre goal is met, all without hearings, debate or public input"

www.wilderness.org/articles/med...

250+ million acres of public lands eligible for sale in SENR budget reconciliation package

The bill mandates disposal of over 2 million acres of BLM and National Forest lands; public lands eligible for sale in the bill encompass over 250 million acres, including local recreation areas, wild...

www.wilderness.org

Reposted by John W. Williams

Marcus Hutchins @malwaretech.com · Jun 15

It’s basically the meme where people replace the audio with squeaky shoe sound effects to mock boring parties

Reposted by John W. Williams, Patrick Meier

Jesse D. Jenkins @jessedjenkins.com · Jun 7

This IEA graphic shows how global sales of electric vehicles & improved efficiency of combustion vehicles (eg hybrids) is slashing growth in global oil demand. Use in road transport has peaked & likely to soon post annual declines. Aviation & petro-chemical feedstocks only drivers of growth now.🔌💡🔌🚗

IEA data shows global demand growth for oil has been eliminated for road transport and is declining for aviation and shipping and is now negative for other sources. Additional demand growth remains in aviation and as petro-chemical feedstocks.

Reposted by John W. Williams

Marshall Shepherd @drshepherd2013.bsky.social · Jun 7

This is one the most authentic, frustrating, and alarming inside looks at what pressure, cuts and "forced" retirement have done to a critical National Weather Service forecast office. Worth a read to illustrate what many of us have been saying
www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...

Tired in Tornado Alley

A crucial National Weather Service office, battered by cuts, is trying to put on a brave face as tornado season peaks.

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