Peter Brannen
@peterbrannen.bsky.social
Pinned
I got New York Review of Books’d by Bill McKibben www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Some very nifty visualizations of the smoking impact crater the administration has put in the country’s scientific research community for no reason whatsoever
Trump has been in office for one year. We at @nature.com did a deep dive looking at the administration's disruption of science in numbers.
Take a look—the numbers are staggering. By me, @dangaristo.bsky.social, Jeff Tollefson, @kimay.bsky.social, & help from @noamross.net @scott-delaney.bsky.social
Take a look—the numbers are staggering. By me, @dangaristo.bsky.social, Jeff Tollefson, @kimay.bsky.social, & help from @noamross.net @scott-delaney.bsky.social
US science after a year of Trump: what has been lost and what remains
A series of graphics reveals how the Trump administration has sought historic cuts to science and the research workforce.
www.nature.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:45 PM
Some very nifty visualizations of the smoking impact crater the administration has put in the country’s scientific research community for no reason whatsoever
Reposted by Peter Brannen
Some of our books of the year:
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything by Peter Brannen
Positive Tipping Points by Tim Lenton
Hello Cruel World by Melinda Moyer
On today's podcast we chat about these and more... open.spotify.com/episode/2sXI...
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything by Peter Brannen
Positive Tipping Points by Tim Lenton
Hello Cruel World by Melinda Moyer
On today's podcast we chat about these and more... open.spotify.com/episode/2sXI...
December 26, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Some of our books of the year:
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything by Peter Brannen
Positive Tipping Points by Tim Lenton
Hello Cruel World by Melinda Moyer
On today's podcast we chat about these and more... open.spotify.com/episode/2sXI...
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything by Peter Brannen
Positive Tipping Points by Tim Lenton
Hello Cruel World by Melinda Moyer
On today's podcast we chat about these and more... open.spotify.com/episode/2sXI...
Like all Peters' papers this one's a little mind-blowing. Where in Precambrian, volcanic CO2-turned-limestone kept piling up on seafloor & getting recycled in subduction zones, in Phanerozoic it started piling up on continental crust, leaving deep sea starved of carbonate, worsening the end-Permian
PreꞒ/Ꞓ fundamental change in sedimentation:
"... relatively abrupt shift in the principal locus of CaCO3 burial, from short-lived oceanic crust during much of the Proterozoic to longer-surviving continental crust in the early Paleozoic"
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧪 #Geology ⚒️ #Paleobio
"... relatively abrupt shift in the principal locus of CaCO3 burial, from short-lived oceanic crust during much of the Proterozoic to longer-surviving continental crust in the early Paleozoic"
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧪 #Geology ⚒️ #Paleobio
January 16, 2026 at 8:50 PM
Like all Peters' papers this one's a little mind-blowing. Where in Precambrian, volcanic CO2-turned-limestone kept piling up on seafloor & getting recycled in subduction zones, in Phanerozoic it started piling up on continental crust, leaving deep sea starved of carbonate, worsening the end-Permian
Reposted by Peter Brannen
ICE has kidnapped one of my MN News Guild siblings
January 16, 2026 at 4:03 PM
ICE has kidnapped one of my MN News Guild siblings
Reposted by Peter Brannen
The worst climate and weather news you’ll see today.
Update: A bid to safeguard the National Center for Atmospheric Research failed Thursday after the Senate passed a spending package without an amendment to save the center's funding. eos.org/research-and...
Trump Administration Plans to Break Up NCAR - Eos
The Trump administration is planning to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, one of the world’s leading climate and Earth science research laboratories, according to a statement fro...
eos.org
January 16, 2026 at 3:26 PM
The worst climate and weather news you’ll see today.
Brilliant gambit sir
January 15, 2026 at 10:37 PM
Brilliant gambit sir
Reposted by Peter Brannen
Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
January 15, 2026 at 7:22 PM
Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
Reposted by Peter Brannen
There is, in fact, plenty of money sloshing around that could do things like build a nationwide macrogrid or lots of high-speed rail
via @nathanielbullard.com
via @nathanielbullard.com
January 15, 2026 at 4:36 PM
There is, in fact, plenty of money sloshing around that could do things like build a nationwide macrogrid or lots of high-speed rail
via @nathanielbullard.com
via @nathanielbullard.com
Reposted by Peter Brannen
Pairs well with news of the 1st private space telescope, a return to the era of Licks and Lowells. Turn out we've lived in a brief window where cosmic exploration was driven by the curiosity of citizens in a democracy, not rich eccentrics, insecure sovereigns, industries, or navies. It was awesome.
January 8, 2026 at 3:34 PM
Pairs well with news of the 1st private space telescope, a return to the era of Licks and Lowells. Turn out we've lived in a brief window where cosmic exploration was driven by the curiosity of citizens in a democracy, not rich eccentrics, insecure sovereigns, industries, or navies. It was awesome.
I have to say, I’m really not thrilled that my country is devolving into a lawless gangster state abroad, and at home, one officially dead set on destroying science, art, and any shared feeling of common humanity
January 7, 2026 at 5:11 PM
I have to say, I’m really not thrilled that my country is devolving into a lawless gangster state abroad, and at home, one officially dead set on destroying science, art, and any shared feeling of common humanity
Earth, I can't emphasize enough, is a very special place
New paper alert!
tl;dr: the seafloor of Europa is probably tectonically inert, meaning little to no active fracturing that could expose fresh rock to seawater.
Without such water–rock reactions the prospect for there being life within Europa just took a big hit.
A thread:
tl;dr: the seafloor of Europa is probably tectonically inert, meaning little to no active fracturing that could expose fresh rock to seawater.
Without such water–rock reactions the prospect for there being life within Europa just took a big hit.
A thread:
January 6, 2026 at 7:33 PM
Earth, I can't emphasize enough, is a very special place
Reposted by Peter Brannen
The Tides of History @patrickwyman.bsky.social - @peterbrannen.bsky.social interview touched on this and was illuminating
open.spotify.com/episode/5yOa...
open.spotify.com/episode/5yOa...
January 6, 2026 at 5:42 PM
The Tides of History @patrickwyman.bsky.social - @peterbrannen.bsky.social interview touched on this and was illuminating
open.spotify.com/episode/5yOa...
open.spotify.com/episode/5yOa...
Made a pilgrimage to 2 ghosts of sea level past & future in Florida, from last time global temp was similar to today 120,000 years ago: an outcrop of oolite in Miami from when it was a sandy shoal under the waves, and in Windley Key a fossil coral reef that now ominously sits 20 feet above sea level
January 5, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Made a pilgrimage to 2 ghosts of sea level past & future in Florida, from last time global temp was similar to today 120,000 years ago: an outcrop of oolite in Miami from when it was a sandy shoal under the waves, and in Windley Key a fossil coral reef that now ominously sits 20 feet above sea level
Reposted by Peter Brannen
Bill McKibben (@billmckibben.bsky.social) on why CO2—not corn, germs, guns, or cod—explains the history of everything https://go.nybooks.com/4pg5fdA
It’s a Gas | Bill McKibben
I’m writing this in the last days of the northern hemisphere’s autumn in 2025. Over recent weeks we’ve seen a hurricane hit Jamaica with wind speeds a few
www.nybooks.com
December 29, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Bill McKibben (@billmckibben.bsky.social) on why CO2—not corn, germs, guns, or cod—explains the history of everything https://go.nybooks.com/4pg5fdA
Going to try to be resilient in 2026, like the ammonites in Denmark that survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid and limped on for another ~100,000 years www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ammonite survival across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary confirmed by new data from Denmark - Scientific Reports
We provide a reassessment of the hypothesis of ammonite survival across the Cretaceous–Paleogene (Maastrichtian–Danian) boundary, based on new data from the lower Danian Cerithium Limestone Member at ...
www.nature.com
January 1, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Going to try to be resilient in 2026, like the ammonites in Denmark that survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid and limped on for another ~100,000 years www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Somehow missed this October paper announcing that staghorn and elkhorn corals are officially functionally extinct on the Florida Reef after a 2023 heatwave. It was a good run in the Holocene, RIP www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Heat-driven functional extinction of Caribbean Acropora corals from Florida’s Coral Reef
In 2023, a record-setting marine heat wave triggered the ninth mass coral bleaching event on Florida’s Coral Reef (FCR). We examined spatial patterns of heat exposure along the ~560-kilometer length o...
www.science.org
December 31, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Somehow missed this October paper announcing that staghorn and elkhorn corals are officially functionally extinct on the Florida Reef after a 2023 heatwave. It was a good run in the Holocene, RIP www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
This was a fun story to write, stick around to the end for a speed run through the past 500 million years of climate history
Paleoclimatologist Jessica Tierney recently published a global temperature record covering almost the past half-billion years. According to her model, 50 million years ago, inland temperatures approached 122 degrees Fahrenheit. www.quantamagazine.org/climate-extr...
December 30, 2025 at 1:55 PM
This was a fun story to write, stick around to the end for a speed run through the past 500 million years of climate history
"If we are going to go all in on a fossil fuel future in the U.S., it probably would be good to check if we have the fossil fuels to do that." Geology strikes back
Good morning. How about 2000 words about the state of the US oil industry?
"Hamm admitted the Bakken is 'tapped out.' The reason he is buying shale assets in other countries is because the reality is that the U.S. oil industry is tapped out."
"Hamm admitted the Bakken is 'tapped out.' The reason he is buying shale assets in other countries is because the reality is that the U.S. oil industry is tapped out."
Lessons from the Bakken
The New York Times recently profiled Harold Hamm, Continental CEO Resources chairman emeritus and noted how Hamm is advising Trump to go all in on fossil fuels. This should surprise no one as Harold H...
powering-the-planet.ghost.io
December 29, 2025 at 4:54 PM
"If we are going to go all in on a fossil fuel future in the U.S., it probably would be good to check if we have the fossil fuels to do that." Geology strikes back
Hey, I wrote that!
“From a planetary perspective, human society is now, above all else, a conduit for moving carbon in the crust into the atmosphere. CO2 is what we make.”
"It’s a Gas" by @billmckibben.bsky.social for New York Review of Books: www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
December 29, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Hey, I wrote that!
I got New York Review of Books’d by Bill McKibben www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
December 26, 2025 at 4:38 PM
I got New York Review of Books’d by Bill McKibben www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Reposted by Peter Brannen
I've been covering the Colorado River since 2017 and I gotta say my takeaway after this year's Las Vegas gathering: In my time on the beat, it's never looked more bleak.
December 19, 2025 at 5:24 PM
I've been covering the Colorado River since 2017 and I gotta say my takeaway after this year's Las Vegas gathering: In my time on the beat, it's never looked more bleak.
Reposted by Peter Brannen
A couple of years ago I read "The Ends of the World", by @peterbrannen.bsky.social, and it was literally life-changing. I'm now reading his last book, "The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything". Best book of the year.
December 17, 2025 at 7:38 PM
A couple of years ago I read "The Ends of the World", by @peterbrannen.bsky.social, and it was literally life-changing. I'm now reading his last book, "The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything". Best book of the year.
An absolute bedrock institution for understanding how the planet works, just civilization-scaled vandalism by the most incurious morons on Earth
December 17, 2025 at 2:52 AM
An absolute bedrock institution for understanding how the planet works, just civilization-scaled vandalism by the most incurious morons on Earth
Reposted by Peter Brannen
I've tried and failed a couple times to write a post explaining how serious this would be. NCAR is globally essential to our climate change response. This can't just be replaced. Every scientist in the world will be doing climate research with one hand tied behind their back for at least a decade
Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
bit.ly
December 17, 2025 at 2:30 AM
I've tried and failed a couple times to write a post explaining how serious this would be. NCAR is globally essential to our climate change response. This can't just be replaced. Every scientist in the world will be doing climate research with one hand tied behind their back for at least a decade
Reposted by Peter Brannen
If you’re looking for a last minute holiday gift for the Earth science/climate person in your life, I would never say any of these things about my book but other people have www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
December 15, 2025 at 6:36 PM
If you’re looking for a last minute holiday gift for the Earth science/climate person in your life, I would never say any of these things about my book but other people have www.harpercollins.com/products/the...