Union of Concerned Scientists
@ucs.org
The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet's most pressing problems.
ucs.org
ucs.org
It’s December, and we’re honoring UCS’s 2025 Science Defenders! Meet Dr. Yanelli Nunez, a senior scientist at PSE Healthy Energy, who provides data and analysis to help empower communities, amplify their voices, and work toward a healthier energy future.
December 26, 2025 at 2:39 PM
It’s December, and we’re honoring UCS’s 2025 Science Defenders! Meet Dr. Yanelli Nunez, a senior scientist at PSE Healthy Energy, who provides data and analysis to help empower communities, amplify their voices, and work toward a healthier energy future.
When we created this report on renewable energy in 2008, solar panels and wind turbines weren’t as common as they are today. ☀️🌬️ What is renewable energy, and what are the benefits? Check out our updated resource to learn how renewables help our health, air, and economy.
7 Benefits of Renewable Energy Use
Renewable energy—wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass—provides substantial benefits for our health, our climate, and our economy.
www.ucs.org
December 26, 2025 at 5:12 AM
When we created this report on renewable energy in 2008, solar panels and wind turbines weren’t as common as they are today. ☀️🌬️ What is renewable energy, and what are the benefits? Check out our updated resource to learn how renewables help our health, air, and economy.
Get your friends and family to act on climate during the holidays! Our Climate Action Button offers dozens of easy climate change actions that you can take RIGHT NOW.
🌎Clicking the button won't solve the climate crisis. But it'll help! 👇
🌎Clicking the button won't solve the climate crisis. But it'll help! 👇
The Climate Action Button
Clicking the button won't solve the climate crisis. But it'll help.
climatebutton.ucs.org
December 25, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Get your friends and family to act on climate during the holidays! Our Climate Action Button offers dozens of easy climate change actions that you can take RIGHT NOW.
🌎Clicking the button won't solve the climate crisis. But it'll help! 👇
🌎Clicking the button won't solve the climate crisis. But it'll help! 👇
For all of us who care about science, evidence-based policymaking, our changing climate, and democracy, this has been a sobering year. But thanks to your support, UCS has been monitoring and responding to these attacks with the arsenal of tools at our disposal.
Announcing the Union of Concerned Scientists' 2025 Annual Report
YouTube video by Union of Concerned Scientists
youtu.be
December 24, 2025 at 7:38 PM
For all of us who care about science, evidence-based policymaking, our changing climate, and democracy, this has been a sobering year. But thanks to your support, UCS has been monitoring and responding to these attacks with the arsenal of tools at our disposal.
"We see Illinois as an inspiration for other states, taking action to address rising electricity costs and signaling that it will not allow the Trump administration to dictate a dirty energy future for its people." Learn more in James Gignac's blog:
Illinois Passed New Clean Energy Legislation—What to Look for in 2026
Illinois clean energy advocates are justifiably still giddy over the state legislature’s passage of the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA, or surge-ah as we call it). The wide-ranging legislation contains several energy policy updates to help Illinois achieve its clean electricity goal
blog.ucs.org
December 23, 2025 at 5:15 AM
"We see Illinois as an inspiration for other states, taking action to address rising electricity costs and signaling that it will not allow the Trump administration to dictate a dirty energy future for its people." Learn more in James Gignac's blog:
Reposted by Union of Concerned Scientists
It is hard to overstate how wildly inappropriate it is to replace a National Climate Assessment--A process normally involving hundreds scientists, significant public and expert input, and US government-wide coordination--with five climate skeptics using AI.
www.eenews.net/articles/its...
www.eenews.net/articles/its...
It’s the gold standard of US climate research. Contrarians could write the next one.
Researchers who have downplayed the threat of global warming have been asked to author the next National Climate Assessment.
www.eenews.net
December 22, 2025 at 5:58 PM
It is hard to overstate how wildly inappropriate it is to replace a National Climate Assessment--A process normally involving hundreds scientists, significant public and expert input, and US government-wide coordination--with five climate skeptics using AI.
www.eenews.net/articles/its...
www.eenews.net/articles/its...
What’s the relationship between winter weather & climate change? It starts with the polar vortex. UCS's @marc-alessi.bsky.social breaks it down for you.
This holiday season, show some love to your local meteorologists and support science and scientific funding.
This holiday season, show some love to your local meteorologists and support science and scientific funding.
December 22, 2025 at 7:13 PM
What’s the relationship between winter weather & climate change? It starts with the polar vortex. UCS's @marc-alessi.bsky.social breaks it down for you.
This holiday season, show some love to your local meteorologists and support science and scientific funding.
This holiday season, show some love to your local meteorologists and support science and scientific funding.
The Science for Public Good Fund is back! Apply today for up to $1500 to support your science advocacy efforts.
Science for Public Good Fund—Apply Today
The Union of Concerned Scientists wants to fund your efforts to defend science. Apply today for up to $1,500 to support creative approaches for reaching people and and to advance equitable science-based policy. Application deadline is Tuesday, January 6, 2026.
secure.ucs.org
December 22, 2025 at 5:12 PM
The Science for Public Good Fund is back! Apply today for up to $1500 to support your science advocacy efforts.
In Massachusetts, electricity prices have risen 50% over the past decade. To address affordability, lawmakers are considering new approaches. Unfortunately, a House energy bill includes provisions that could slow climate action and clean energy progress. UCS’s Paula Garcia explains in her blog.
Massachusetts and Energy Affordability: Three Priorities for 2026
The affordability crisis is more than a political talking point: for too many families across the United States, it is a lived experience that follows them each and every day. Working families are faced with impossible choices, trying to stretch their budget to cover the essentials, and too often, c
blog.ucs.org
December 21, 2025 at 5:05 PM
In Massachusetts, electricity prices have risen 50% over the past decade. To address affordability, lawmakers are considering new approaches. Unfortunately, a House energy bill includes provisions that could slow climate action and clean energy progress. UCS’s Paula Garcia explains in her blog.
One positive outcome from this year’s #COP30 was the launch of the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change, which has now been signed by 20 countries. In her blog, UCS’s Kate Cell discusses how we can fight for the right to information and highlights the perils of silencing science.
Disinformation Undermines Our Right to Science
What I wrote in the UNESCO report on World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development.
blog.ucs.org
December 20, 2025 at 3:19 PM
One positive outcome from this year’s #COP30 was the launch of the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change, which has now been signed by 20 countries. In her blog, UCS’s Kate Cell discusses how we can fight for the right to information and highlights the perils of silencing science.
A February 2026 deadline requires the EPA to address air pollution from soot, but the agency appears to have taken few steps, if any, to do so. Learn more and read the letter that 106 groups, including UCS, signed opposing this move.
Breathing the Consequences: EPA's Refusal to Implement Strengthened Soot Standard Endangers Public Health
A February 2026 deadline calls for EPA to address air pollution from soot, but it appears the agency has taken few steps, if any, to do so
earthjustice.org
December 19, 2025 at 5:44 PM
A February 2026 deadline requires the EPA to address air pollution from soot, but the agency appears to have taken few steps, if any, to do so. Learn more and read the letter that 106 groups, including UCS, signed opposing this move.
65 years after President Eisenhower’s famous farewell address, military industrial power still appears largely unchecked. Sean Manning, a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow, provides a critical analysis of how the scope of the military industrial complex has grown and changed in recent years.
The Exploding Scope of the Military-Industrial Complex
Members of both major political parties have begun to question ballooning defense expenditures, which have almost tripled since the 1990s.
blog.ucs.org
December 19, 2025 at 4:05 PM
65 years after President Eisenhower’s famous farewell address, military industrial power still appears largely unchecked. Sean Manning, a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow, provides a critical analysis of how the scope of the military industrial complex has grown and changed in recent years.
"Attempting to erase a country’s scientific heritage, as the Trump administration is now trying to do, should be of concern to every US citizen. Because if climate science is viewed with disfavor today, other fields of scientific inquiry might be next in line for the chopping block."—Ben Santer.
Threatening NCAR, Trump administration seeks to extinguish a beacon of climate science
The Trump administration’s world view is that the US doesn’t need a climate science brain trust because it doesn’t like what the brains say.
thebulletin.org
December 19, 2025 at 3:31 PM
"Attempting to erase a country’s scientific heritage, as the Trump administration is now trying to do, should be of concern to every US citizen. Because if climate science is viewed with disfavor today, other fields of scientific inquiry might be next in line for the chopping block."—Ben Santer.
Reposted by Union of Concerned Scientists
Scientist at #AGU25 are speaking out to #SaveNCAR. Join more than 2000 of your colleagues to call or email your members of Congress to ask them to support NCAR today: agu.quorum.us/campaign/151...
December 18, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Scientist at #AGU25 are speaking out to #SaveNCAR. Join more than 2000 of your colleagues to call or email your members of Congress to ask them to support NCAR today: agu.quorum.us/campaign/151...
Reposted by Union of Concerned Scientists
At an @agu.org Town Hall today, @ncar-ucar.bsky.social President Antonio Busalacchi spoke to #AGU25 attendees about what's at stake if NCAR is dismantled.
One attendee asked anyone who uses NCAR research to stand up. Almost everyone in the room stood.
Read more here:
eos.org/research-and...
One attendee asked anyone who uses NCAR research to stand up. Almost everyone in the room stood.
Read more here:
eos.org/research-and...
December 18, 2025 at 8:30 PM
At an @agu.org Town Hall today, @ncar-ucar.bsky.social President Antonio Busalacchi spoke to #AGU25 attendees about what's at stake if NCAR is dismantled.
One attendee asked anyone who uses NCAR research to stand up. Almost everyone in the room stood.
Read more here:
eos.org/research-and...
One attendee asked anyone who uses NCAR research to stand up. Almost everyone in the room stood.
Read more here:
eos.org/research-and...
“The research done at NCAR is an investment by every single tax-paying citizen in the United States, and it benefits all of us,” said UCS's @marc-alessi.bsky.social. “We are able to predict the weather days in advance, giving warning for hurricanes, extreme precipitation events, and droughts.”
We're all at risk if Trump dismantles this legendary lab
Breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research would be a "genuinely shocking self-inflicted wound."
grist.org
December 18, 2025 at 9:09 PM
“The research done at NCAR is an investment by every single tax-paying citizen in the United States, and it benefits all of us,” said UCS's @marc-alessi.bsky.social. “We are able to predict the weather days in advance, giving warning for hurricanes, extreme precipitation events, and droughts.”
Divorced from reality: Trump and his appointees are gutting the very scientific institutions needed to support the Genesis Mission—a planned AI-driven federal research platform stacked with potential risks. UCS analyst @jbd-phd.bsky.social weighs in:
“A Band-Aid on a giant gash”: Trump’s attacks on science may ruin his AI moonshot
Trump’s AI “Manhattan Project” will fail if DOGE cuts are kept, critics say.
arstechnica.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Divorced from reality: Trump and his appointees are gutting the very scientific institutions needed to support the Genesis Mission—a planned AI-driven federal research platform stacked with potential risks. UCS analyst @jbd-phd.bsky.social weighs in:
Applications are open! The Science for Public Good Fund offers up to $1500 to support community-driven science advocacy projects. From workshops to local campaigns, you can help spark change. Apply here now:
Science for Public Good Fund—Apply Today
The Union of Concerned Scientists wants to fund your efforts to defend science. Apply today for up to $1,500 to support creative approaches for reaching people and and to advance equitable science-based policy. Application deadline is Tuesday, January 6, 2026.
secure.ucs.org
December 18, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Applications are open! The Science for Public Good Fund offers up to $1500 to support community-driven science advocacy projects. From workshops to local campaigns, you can help spark change. Apply here now:
Reposted by Union of Concerned Scientists
Of the 536 attacks on science that @jbd-phd.bsky.social and @ucs.org colleagues have tracked since January 20, 2025, many relate to how agencies "have attacked the science behind vaccine safety, development, and efficacy."
Consequence for public health will be severe.
blog.ucs.org/jules-barbat...
Consequence for public health will be severe.
blog.ucs.org/jules-barbat...
The Trump Administration’s Assault on Vaccines Endangers Us All
As the calendar year comes to an end, the Trump administration continues its campaign against science. Since January 20th, 2025, there have been 536 attacks on science—actions, decisions, and policies...
blog.ucs.org
December 18, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Of the 536 attacks on science that @jbd-phd.bsky.social and @ucs.org colleagues have tracked since January 20, 2025, many relate to how agencies "have attacked the science behind vaccine safety, development, and efficacy."
Consequence for public health will be severe.
blog.ucs.org/jules-barbat...
Consequence for public health will be severe.
blog.ucs.org/jules-barbat...
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today announced a series of federal actions that will slash funding and access to gender-affirming care for minors, building on broader Trump admin’s restrictions on transgender Americans.
Kennedy, US health officials outline new rules, warnings to block transgender care for youth in the US | CNN
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other health officials said Thursday that the federal government will block hospitals and doctors from providing transgender care to ch...
www.cnn.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:48 PM
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today announced a series of federal actions that will slash funding and access to gender-affirming care for minors, building on broader Trump admin’s restrictions on transgender Americans.
It has not been an easy year for science, but there are bright spots worth celebrating. We are honoring our 2025 #ScienceDefenders, inspiring people using science to help communities and protect it from political or other interference.
Meet Katelyn Jetelina, founder of Your Local Epidemiologist.
Meet Katelyn Jetelina, founder of Your Local Epidemiologist.
December 18, 2025 at 5:28 PM
It has not been an easy year for science, but there are bright spots worth celebrating. We are honoring our 2025 #ScienceDefenders, inspiring people using science to help communities and protect it from political or other interference.
Meet Katelyn Jetelina, founder of Your Local Epidemiologist.
Meet Katelyn Jetelina, founder of Your Local Epidemiologist.
Yesterday, Rep. @joeneguse.bsky.social joined us via Zoom at #AGU25 to reject the Trump admin’s proposal to dismantle the Ntl. Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), one of the US’ leading weather & climate research institutions.
Urge Congress to halt this dangerous action: act.ucsusa.org/4oWtCwz
Urge Congress to halt this dangerous action: act.ucsusa.org/4oWtCwz
December 18, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Yesterday, Rep. @joeneguse.bsky.social joined us via Zoom at #AGU25 to reject the Trump admin’s proposal to dismantle the Ntl. Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), one of the US’ leading weather & climate research institutions.
Urge Congress to halt this dangerous action: act.ucsusa.org/4oWtCwz
Urge Congress to halt this dangerous action: act.ucsusa.org/4oWtCwz
Reposted by Union of Concerned Scientists
An important new report from @climateintegrity.org illustrates how BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil & Shell have inundated the public w/ deceptive advertisements, positioning themselves as "green" when in fact they are actively fueling climate catastrophe around the globe. #Greenwashing #ClimateAccountablity
Big Oil’s Deceptive Climate Ads | Center for Climate Integrity
How Four Oil Majors Sold False Promises from 2000-2025
climateintegrity.org
December 17, 2025 at 8:43 PM
An important new report from @climateintegrity.org illustrates how BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil & Shell have inundated the public w/ deceptive advertisements, positioning themselves as "green" when in fact they are actively fueling climate catastrophe around the globe. #Greenwashing #ClimateAccountablity
Reposted by Union of Concerned Scientists
“Dismantling an institution so central to weather forecasting and climate change prediction would not only undermine scientific research, it would leave people across the nation less prepared for the dangers of a warming world,” says Carlos Martinez of @ucs.org www.latimes.com/environment/...
Trump administration moves to dismantle leading climate and weather research center
Experts say a closure of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., would leave millions vulnerable to worsening climate hazards.
www.latimes.com
December 18, 2025 at 4:53 AM
“Dismantling an institution so central to weather forecasting and climate change prediction would not only undermine scientific research, it would leave people across the nation less prepared for the dangers of a warming world,” says Carlos Martinez of @ucs.org www.latimes.com/environment/...
Reposted by Union of Concerned Scientists
@ucs.org has released a letter you can write to your Congressperson to save @ncar-ucar.bsky.social
Share your voice on the significant value of this bedrock climate and weather insitution. Your story matters!
secure.ucs.org/a/2025-prote...
Share your voice on the significant value of this bedrock climate and weather insitution. Your story matters!
secure.ucs.org/a/2025-prote...
Protect the National Center for Atmospheric Research
Write today and urge your members of Congress to oppose the Trump administration's plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR.) Your message to Congress will help protect NC...
secure.ucs.org
December 17, 2025 at 8:36 PM
@ucs.org has released a letter you can write to your Congressperson to save @ncar-ucar.bsky.social
Share your voice on the significant value of this bedrock climate and weather insitution. Your story matters!
secure.ucs.org/a/2025-prote...
Share your voice on the significant value of this bedrock climate and weather insitution. Your story matters!
secure.ucs.org/a/2025-prote...