Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
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fkearns.bsky.social
Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
@fkearns.bsky.social
6.5K followers 1.4K following 3.2K posts
Scientist-communicator working on water, wildfire, climate, & disaster issues in AZ + CA | Words: High Country News, New Republic, & more | Book: Getting to the Heart of Science Communication | Water Talk podcast co-host | www.faithkearns.com | views=mine
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fkearns.bsky.social
“More than half the river basins in the western US are facing real challenges & might arguably be in a state of bankruptcy where we’re consuming more water than is physically available.” Brian Richter

It's a new episode of Water Talk out! Wherever you get your podcasts and at watertalkpodcast.com
Water Talk. New episode. Water budgeting and bankruptcy. “More than half of the river basins in the western United States are facing some real challenges and might arguably be in a state of bankruptcy—meaning that the water is not being used in a sustainable way and that we’re consuming more water in many cases than is physically available.” Brian Richter, Sustainable Waters. Listen wherever you get your podcasts and at watertalkpodcast.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:04 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
Seems…serious?
“The Congress is adrift,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska. “It’s like we have given up. And that’s not a good signal to the American public.” No leverage Trump and his aides have usurped congressional power with little G.O.P. resistance. In many instances, House and Senate leaders have willingly ceded their prerogatives and cheered on the president. The Constitution gives Congress responsibility for levying tariffs, and Trump’s may hurt rural America, but the Republicans who represent it have been mainly silent.
October 23, 2025 at 2:46 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
Scout girl here is very much enjoying the almost fall feel in the air.
A medium sized black dog with a blue harness and leash looks into the camera with her tongue hanging out, sitting on a limestone outcropping with desert vegetation.
August 29, 2025 at 8:09 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
Brilliant Arizona desert sunrise this morning, following a brief but intense 4am thunderstorm.
Golden sunrise in a stormy, cloudy sky over desert landscape of sage green brush with a trail winding through the center and low mesas and mountains in the background.
August 29, 2025 at 3:40 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
Update: We’re due for some good monsoon rains in coming days, with corresponding flood and debris flow warnings for trails and drainages throughout the Grand Canyon all the way down to the Colorado River. Hopefully rain will help with fire suppression, but worries about water contamination as well.
Dragon Bravo Fire scar, enhanced threat for flash, floods, and debris flows. Post wildfire, landscapes are much more susceptible to flash flooding due to the lack of vegetation and changes in soil composition impacts to expect downstream of the dragon bravo fire: flooding in areas that don’t typically experience flooding increased debris and downstream, significant flood threat for monsoon thunderstorms. Areas of greatest concern include the bright angel Creek drainage. Other drainages of concern include Kwagunt Creek, south creek, North Canyon, and Crystal Creek drainages. All streams of enhanced risk are highlighted in red on the map and corresponding number indicates mileage where it will hit the Colorado river.
August 22, 2025 at 7:41 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
Mind-blowing: the Grand Canyon has a single primary water source: a fragile spring near the bottom of the canyon. Water has to be pumped up ~3K feet to the rim and gets around via an old system of "creative" pipes. Photos via the National Park Service.
Water gushes forth directly out of a spring in cliffs, cascading over moss and fern. The transcanyon pipeline (seen here in 1965) carries freshwater from Roaring Springs, thousands of meters below the North Rim, to both rims of the Grand Canyon.
August 15, 2025 at 4:44 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
I mean, look at this place!
A high mountain prairie meadow surrounded by low forested mountains with limestone rocks and wildflowers in varying shades of yellow everywhere.
July 29, 2025 at 12:15 AM
fkearns.bsky.social
For my fellow geology nerds. This aquifer (the Red Wall) that is perched 3K feet down from the top of the Colorado Plateau comes out as a spring near where I live at 4K feet. They have to drill through basically all the geologic layers of the Grand Canyon and down here it just kinda comes out.
A man in a blue polo shirt with blond hair stands pointing at a geological cross section on a large screen.
July 29, 2025 at 12:08 AM
fkearns.bsky.social
There's a lot of news about Arizona's groundwater challenges, but Northern Arizona is in a different boat for many reasons, including a perched aquifer that has to be pumped from 3,000 feet through a massive volcanic field. Still, residents are concerned azwaterinnovation.asu.edu/northern-ari...
A woman with long dark hair tied back and dressed in denim stands addressing a room of workshop participants. A woman with long dark hair tied back and dressed an ASU polo shirt and jeans stands addressing a room of workshop participants. A woman with medium length red hair stands in font of a podium with an open notebook talking to a group of people. A group of people sit in a circle listening intently to a man talk.
July 28, 2025 at 11:54 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
Stormy Sedona sunset, a view from the cheap seats
A vivid yellow sunset stormy sky hangs over mesas and receive outcrops in the distance with shrubby desert vegetation in the foreground.
July 20, 2025 at 2:58 AM
fkearns.bsky.social
Speaking for everyone, I guess? Had no idea this is what I was doing.
First, current participatory engagement practices are inherently transactional—that is, they prioritize the agendas of scientists and their sponsors—as opposed to transformational, i.e., seeking to empower communities to address underlying causes of disparities and inequalities, as detailed in Pandya et al.’s paper (64). Moreover, applications of community engagement are primarily motivated by the notion of “science in service of society,” but not also consideration of how science and scientists themselves can benefit from such practices by leveraging knowledge and practices developed in communities
July 18, 2025 at 8:51 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
So…community engagement arose because some “audiences” don’t have “capacity, motivation, and opportunity?” It’s just deficit all the way down I guess.
and trust in science (65). However, not all audience groups have the capacity, motivation, and opportunity to participate in science unless deliberate actions are taken to promote inclusive and equitable science engagement. This recognition, in turn, motivated the rise of community engagement as a critical component of effective science communication. By integrating community expertise, participatory research projects are better equipped to implement programs that benefit communities (66). Community engagement is thus integral to the translation of scientific knowledge
July 18, 2025 at 8:46 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
So…practitioner knowledge is “intuition” or belief, communicators are “stakeholders,” and surely any reliance on their own knowledge and experience is a “practical indifference” to research.
When crises emerge (e.g., a pandemic), communicators tend to not rely upon the existing empirical base about effective science communication strategies, instead relying upon their own intuitions, scientists’ instincts, cognate fields (e.g., advertising, marketing), or what they believe to be new—but highly reactive—guidance. Put another way, with each new science communication challenge, stakeholders turn to whatever is most accessible instead of insights from the science of science communication. This reflects a practical indifference to research about effective science com
July 18, 2025 at 8:40 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
Second. 😂
Speaking of other records, did you ever listen to Foxes in the Snow? I put that record on. I appreciate the musicianship.
July 15, 2025 at 8:34 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
First, the biggest truth. Always keep your friends the closest. Always.
You sing about it quite eloquently on the new album, but what do you feel like you’ve learned about yourself throughout the making of this record? I can actively name the feeling of anxiety when I feel it in my body, which I’ve never experienced so much of in my life. I guess I learned that it’s all manageable, even when you feel like it’s not. Also, even if you think things couldn’t possibly get worse, they definitely can. And I learned, *no matter what happens in my future going forward, there’s no place in my life I can imagine not keeping my friends close to me. Nobody ever thinks anything’s going to end, and also nobody really expects people to take sides, but they do.* I learned that I have to keep on putting myself first. And I learned that you can exist for six months on a diet of double stuffed Golden Oreos and rosé champagne. What else did I learn? I’ve learned that I can face armadillos on my own in the yard. All kinds of things.
July 15, 2025 at 8:33 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
There are now two active fires near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon near the Arizona - Utah border. The White Sage fire is over 40k acres at this point having grown quickly, and the Dragon Bravo is 5k acres. #WhiteSageFire #DragonBravoFire
Screenshot from Watch Duty app showing two fires in northern Arizona near the Utah border. The Dragon Bravo fire is 5k acres and the White Sage is 40k on 7/13 at noon MST.
July 13, 2025 at 7:25 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
Glad to have had the chance to talk with the crew from the Environmental Professionals Radio podcast about the changing landscape of a science communication practice career here in 2025 www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com
Faith Kearns, working with communities, listening as a skill, building a career in science communication. Environmental Professionals Radio. Woman with dark hair and glasses on a bright green background.
July 7, 2025 at 5:33 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
Well, things are bad, but at least monsoon season has officially begun. We need the rain, badly.
A desert sage scrub landscape with clouds in gold against a dark blue sky exploding upward over Sedona, Arizona.
July 4, 2025 at 3:08 AM
fkearns.bsky.social
Some days, it’s just nice to remember that science is kinda cool and that many of the people doing it are dedicated to making sure what they do is useful. Fun to write about a colleague who builds custom equipment to measure desert ag water use azwaterinnovation.asu.edu/measuring-wa...
Three men stand in a sunny desert chili pepper field, one talking to a crowd and the other two standing behind.
June 24, 2025 at 5:03 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
A bright spot in a bleak landscape: our team is making good headway, along with a lot of other collaborators, in addressing Arizona's rural groundwater problem with a mix of state-of-the-art research, ongoing community partnership, and policy innovation azwaterinnovation.asu.edu/momentum-add...
A group of around 30 people sit at a U shaped table in a community center watching a man present data on groundwater levels in La Paz County, Arizona.
June 17, 2025 at 7:12 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
I'm low key obsessed with this topic right now because salt accumulation has been an issue for humans for a very long time. In this case, I got to include mention of the salt mines that exist in my hometown, which ultimately end up downstream in the Phoenix area via the Verde and Salt rivers.
An earthen mound with a mine hole ringed by salt deposits.
June 16, 2025 at 4:42 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
I’ve got at least 5 nests on various structures this year. The newest is wedged into a bike helmet
Inside a metal carport, a bike and bike helmet hang; there is a birds nest filling the helmet.
May 24, 2025 at 5:17 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
Two of my new favorite water warriors: La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin and shop owner, local leader, and all around fantastic person, DeVona Saiter.
Top photo of a woman leaned over a table writing with a sharpie on butcher paper. Bottom photo a woman in a southwestern shirt talking to a room of people.
April 23, 2025 at 9:15 PM
fkearns.bsky.social
Climate Risks & Interactive Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Predictability: This cooperative agreement suggests that the Earth will have a significant fluctuation in its water availability as a result of global warming. Using federal funds to perpetuate these narratives does not align with the priorities of this Administration and such time and resources can be better utilized elsewhere.
April 9, 2025 at 5:33 AM
fkearns.bsky.social
It’s a March miracle here in northern Arizona with our first snows of the winter and good rains. Sorry Spring Breakers, but the state has been barely drivable for two days.
Road map of northern Arizona showing road closures across all major routes.
March 15, 2025 at 5:38 AM