Peter Brannen
@peterbrannen.bsky.social
Pinned
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...
Ah well, nevertheless
January 3, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Ah well, nevertheless
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...
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...
Reposted by Peter Brannen
TR has a package of stories up today recalibrating the AI hype, exploring what it will deliver & where it's coming up short: www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/h...
Hype Correction
An MIT Technology Review series Hype Correction It’s time to reset expectations. AI is going to reproduce human intelligence. AI will eliminate disease. AI is the single biggest, most important inven...
www.technologyreview.com
December 15, 2025 at 4:39 PM
TR has a package of stories up today recalibrating the AI hype, exploring what it will deliver & where it's coming up short: www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/h...
Touched to see the great British novelist Kate Atkinson giving my book some love (although the scorpions were as big as dogs!)
December 14, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Touched to see the great British novelist Kate Atkinson giving my book some love (although the scorpions were as big as dogs!)
Reposted by Peter Brannen
This weekend is the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. I wrote about the biggest change to global climate politics since its passage: The climate story *is* the China story now, and how countries pursue decarbonization is itself a wager on China’s future. heatmap.news/climate/pari...
10 Years After Paris, China Is Shaping Our Climate Future
The seminal global climate agreement changed the world, just not in the way we thought it would.
heatmap.news
December 13, 2025 at 4:08 PM
This weekend is the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. I wrote about the biggest change to global climate politics since its passage: The climate story *is* the China story now, and how countries pursue decarbonization is itself a wager on China’s future. heatmap.news/climate/pari...
Reposted by Peter Brannen
With support from Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify, Running Tide billed itself as on the cutting edge of carbon removal. In the end, it resorted to dumping thousands of tons of wood chips in the sea. www.wired.com/story/how-th...
How the Next Big Thing in Carbon Removal Sunk Without a Trace
With support from Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify, Running Tide billed itself as on the cutting edge of carbon removal. In the end, it resorted to dumping thousands of tons of wood chips in the sea.
www.wired.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:04 AM
With support from Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify, Running Tide billed itself as on the cutting edge of carbon removal. In the end, it resorted to dumping thousands of tons of wood chips in the sea. www.wired.com/story/how-th...
Reposted by Peter Brannen
“The Daily Nebraskan found in the leaked spreadsheet that every program eliminated appeared to be profitable…every program that the chancellor proposed eliminating generated more money from tuition dollars than the department costs to run”
December 7, 2025 at 2:11 PM
“The Daily Nebraskan found in the leaked spreadsheet that every program eliminated appeared to be profitable…every program that the chancellor proposed eliminating generated more money from tuition dollars than the department costs to run”
Reposted by Peter Brannen
Peter’s book also introduced me to a theory about the origin of life on earth that really blew my skull
Obviously I am in it for idiotic sandwich discourse and goofy sports shit, but it's always fun when I can learn something I didn't know about before during an episode of The Distraction. This week we got all three thanks to our guest, ace science writer Peter Brannen: defector.com/another-side...
Another Side Of Carbon Dioxide, With Peter Brannen | Defector
It is a strangely nice thing that putting up a post containing the link to that week’s episode of The Distraction has become part of my Thanksgiving observance. Most of it still amounts to going up an...
defector.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Peter’s book also introduced me to a theory about the origin of life on earth that really blew my skull
Reposted by Peter Brannen
And buy Peter's latest book. The writing in here as as impressive as anything I've ever read. www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything
How carbon dioxide made planet Earth, shaped human history, and now holds our future in the balance
Every year, we are dangerously warping the climate by pu...
www.harpercollins.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:20 PM
And buy Peter's latest book. The writing in here as as impressive as anything I've ever read. www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
Reposted by Peter Brannen
🧪📡 Fantastic piece, and feeds into #SETI #technosignature ideas too
Wrote strange a story for @sciam.bsky.social about where on Earth you'd put a time capsule if you wanted to find it as far in future as possible. Maybe bury a laser-etched zircon in Namibia and hope it erodes out of central mountain range of Pangaea Ultima? www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-...
Could a Time Capsule Outlast Plate Tectonics?
A ridiculous but instructive thought experiment involving deep time, plate tectonics, erosion and the slow death of the sun
www.scientificamerican.com
December 2, 2025 at 4:34 PM
🧪📡 Fantastic piece, and feeds into #SETI #technosignature ideas too
Wrote strange a story for @sciam.bsky.social about where on Earth you'd put a time capsule if you wanted to find it as far in future as possible. Maybe bury a laser-etched zircon in Namibia and hope it erodes out of central mountain range of Pangaea Ultima? www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-...
Could a Time Capsule Outlast Plate Tectonics?
A ridiculous but instructive thought experiment involving deep time, plate tectonics, erosion and the slow death of the sun
www.scientificamerican.com
December 1, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Wrote strange a story for @sciam.bsky.social about where on Earth you'd put a time capsule if you wanted to find it as far in future as possible. Maybe bury a laser-etched zircon in Namibia and hope it erodes out of central mountain range of Pangaea Ultima? www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-...
The gorgeous 🇬🇧 cover in the wild!
I’ve been looking forward to this journey. Arrived today after months on order. Thanks @peterbrannen.bsky.social
November 29, 2025 at 8:25 PM
The gorgeous 🇬🇧 cover in the wild!
About to hop on a podcast to talk about something I like thinking about much more than depressing climate change stuff: the Late Neoproterozoic Shuram-Wonoka carbon isotope excursion
November 25, 2025 at 6:22 PM
About to hop on a podcast to talk about something I like thinking about much more than depressing climate change stuff: the Late Neoproterozoic Shuram-Wonoka carbon isotope excursion