Nancy Knowlton
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nancyknowlton.bsky.social
Nancy Knowlton
@nancyknowlton.bsky.social

marine biologist, boomer not doomer, solutionista, 💗Maine💗
Member Natl. Acad. Sci., Darwin Medal
#EarthOptimism #OceanOptimism #BeyondTheObituaries
Author-Citizens of the Sea https://www.amazon.com/Citizens-Sea-Wondrous-Creatures-Census/dp/1426206437 .. more

Nancy Knowlton is a coral reef biologist and a former Sant Chair for Marine Science at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Source: Wikipedia
Environmental science 57%
Geography 16%
A picture is worth 1000 words...

This appeared on the BBC News today, showing the increase in solar electric generation in the UK.

Not sure who produced it, but genuinely think this is a genius piece of scientific communication - the construct and choice of colour scale is near-perfect.

Chapeau!

Reposted by Nancy­ Knowlton­

Captive bred sunflower stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) successfully released into Monterey Bay for the first time! This species has been more or less extirpated south of Washington since the 2014 outbreak of sea star wasting disease.🧪🦑
Sunflower star recovery project in California hits major milestone
Their return could help reverse a decade of kelp forest die-offs along the coast.
www.sfgate.com
How do you know whether or not your conservation monitoring program is helping you to deliver outcomes? We have made a checklist of 15 distinct reasons - some more directly connected to outcomes than others.
2025 Georgina Mace Review now out in #ProcB - How monitoring matters for nature #conservation: 15 reasons framed in a theory of change #OpenAccess royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Meow meow. My news to me good news for Dec 26 is the return of a tiny wild cat to Thailand after being MIA for 30 years. #EarthOptimism #BeyondTheObituaries. www.popsci.com/environment/...
Tiny wild cat spotted in Thailand for first time in 30 years
The flat-headed felines are the smallest wild cats in Southeast Asia.
www.popsci.com

Reposted by Nancy­ Knowlton­

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy

My news to me good news for Dec 23? You can watch laysan albatrosses doing their thing live on Midway Atoll. For those of you with frazzled nerves (all of you?) it is very calming.... Picture below doesn't convey the actual sights and sounds. Give it a try! www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3iK...
Midway Atoll NWR Wildlife Live Camera
YouTube video by Friends of Midway Atoll NWR
www.youtube.com

Reposted by Nancy­ Knowlton­

seems good
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.

Reposted by Nancy­ Knowlton­

Mangroves help store carbon in oceans and are effective in reducing the speed and intensity of tsunamis and tidal surges.

That’s why groups of women are working hard to preserve an ancient mangrove forest straddling the border between India and Bangladesh: reasonstobecheerful.world/women-preser...
New Zealand just recorded its first-ever day of zero coal- or gas-fired electricity. In fact two days, 20 & 21 December. (Still some co-gen, about 1.8%.)

Reposted by Nancy­ Knowlton­

Ride, and park, with pride! After the Florida state government banned rainbow crosswalks, one city has found a workaround: rainbow bike racks! 🚲🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
www.advocate.com/politics/st-...
Florida city installs Pride bike racks after being forced to remove rainbow crosswalks
St. Petersburg's new bike rack publicly displays LGBTQ+ Pride while complying orders to keep crosswalks undecorated.
www.advocate.com
Auto Freedom - Winter Edition.

📸 @ldnontbikecafe.bsky.social

“Last year more than 40% of electricity generation on Christmas Day came from renewables. It stood at 1.7% in 2009” #GreenSky #GreenShoots
“An extra 2 gigawatts of #wind and 3GW of #solar power came on to the network in 2025” @katharinehayhoe.com @350.org

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
This year’s Christmas could be Britain’s greenest yet, energy operator says
System operator Neso predicts lowest carbon intensity ever on Christmas Day after new wind and solar power come online
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Nancy­ Knowlton­

So excited to see this out! Metabarcoding shows fishes shift diets on degraded reefs; growth rates similar, condition diverged → species-specific coping strategies buff.ly/kGkEDpw @mattleray.bsky.social @nancyknowlton.bsky.social @odealab.bsky.social @sbac-manmetuni.bsky.social @stri_panama +others

In big cities walking to the grocery store is something that is (or should be) routine. In the suburbs it can be harder. But not impossible, as my news to me good news for Dec 18 shows. #EarthOptimism #BeyondTheObituaries yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/12/in-a...
In an Ohio suburb, sprawl is being transformed into walkable neighborhoods » Yale Climate Connections
Rethinking American suburbs could help people drive less, lowering emissions.
yaleclimateconnections.org

file under couldn't resist... the story itself has some very cute mice photos. www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/wim...
After Wimbledon, these tennis balls have a second life as homes for mice
After the world-famous tennis tournament, the balls go on to become artificial nests for mice.
www.goodgoodgood.co
Science has named the seemingly unstoppable growth of renewable energy worldwide as the 2025 Breakthrough of the Year.

Learn more about this year's #BOTY and other big advances in science: https://scim.ag/493Tpgx

I agree (and actually not just in the US - in France I eventually just plugged my rental into an outside outlet of the house we rented because the payment system for commercial chargers was so opaque (and I speak French). But that will change... the writing is on the wall.

I agree, and that percentage will only increase. As the owner of an EV (chevy bolt), I can say that it is the best car I have ever owned. The US is moving backward but most of the rest of the world is moving forward, and at some point the US will too.

EVs are unstoppable... www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/b...
On British Roads, Chinese Cars Are Racing Ahead
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Nancy­ Knowlton­

We are making a lot of progress on climate change. But not yet enough.

We need to see what’s working, and why, and build on this momentum to match the challenge of stopping climate change.
"Using the latest Global Carbon Budget data, it finds that decoupling is now the norm across advanced economies, with 46% of global GDP in countries that have expanded their economies while cutting emissions."

https://bit.ly/4q830JY
Economic growth no longer linked to carbon emissions in most of the world, study finds
Analysis marking 10 years since Paris climate agreement underscores effectiveness of strong government policies
bit.ly

Reposted by Nancy­ Knowlton­

It is not just in CAISO where fossil gas is losing ground to renewables with storage. Western Australia is trading gas for renewables with storage too. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋https://theconversation.com/big-batteries-are-now-outcompeting-gas-in-the-grid-and-gas-rich-western-australia-is-at-the-forefront-271753
Big batteries are now outcompeting gas in the grid – and gas-rich Western Australia is at the forefront
Gas was long thought to be essential as a backup for a clean energy grid. But enormous growth in grid-scale batteries has changed the game.
theconversation.com
“The transformation is astonishing. [Paris] has quietly—& quickly—become one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world. What started as a series of emergency “coronapistes” or pop-up bike lanes, built during the pandemic has evolved into a permanent bike network spanning hundreds of kilometres.”
New Study Shows How Paris Pedaled Its Way to a Cycling Revolution
Cycling through central Paris meant weaving between buses and scooters—a bold choice reserved for the fearless few.
momentummag.com
“Dutch people cycle an average of 2.6km each per day. If this pattern was replicated worldwide, annual carbon emissions would drop by 686 million tonnes.

This mammoth figure exceeds the entire carbon footprint of most countries, including the UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Australia.” @euronews.com
Cycling like the Dutch would slash the world’s carbon footprint
If everybody cycled like the Dutch, we could offset the UK or Australia’s entire carbon footprint.
www.euronews.com
No surprise: new analysis shows that heat pumps can deliver excellent performance even in older buildings with no meaningful correlation between building age & heat pump efficiency.

This is in line with my own experience of having a heat pump in a 1880 Victorian home with only modest insulation.