Meehan Crist
@meehancrist.bsky.social
Writer in residence in biological sciences, Columbia University. Writing on the intersection of science, culture, and politics. IS IT OK TO HAVE A CHILD? on climate crisis and reproductive justice forthcoming from Random House.
Wait. This year's NSF GRFP solicitation is finally up and... 2nd year PhD students are no longer eligible to apply??
This means a whole cohort of bright young scientists will never have the opportunity to apply for this federal funding??
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
This means a whole cohort of bright young scientists will never have the opportunity to apply for this federal funding??
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
www.nsf.gov
September 26, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Wait. This year's NSF GRFP solicitation is finally up and... 2nd year PhD students are no longer eligible to apply??
This means a whole cohort of bright young scientists will never have the opportunity to apply for this federal funding??
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
This means a whole cohort of bright young scientists will never have the opportunity to apply for this federal funding??
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
Reposted by Meehan Crist
Two sources tell WashPo EPA readying a decision to completely rescind the climate-critical endangerment finding (re: greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and welfare) and eliminate all resulting limits on motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
EPA drafts rule to strike down landmark climate finding
The agency proposes to overturn the 2009 “endangerment finding,” which underpins nationwide greenhouse gas emission limits on vehicles and power plants.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 23, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Two sources tell WashPo EPA readying a decision to completely rescind the climate-critical endangerment finding (re: greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and welfare) and eliminate all resulting limits on motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
Reposted by Meehan Crist
Read this from @eroston.bsky.social and I that shows how exactly fossil-fuel advocates fiddle with climate science www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Inside the Showdown Between UN Climate Science and Global Politics
The IPCC will put out a major new climate science report on Monday. Last time this happened, in 2018, oil-producing nations created last-minute tumult.
www.bloomberg.com
July 2, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Read this from @eroston.bsky.social and I that shows how exactly fossil-fuel advocates fiddle with climate science www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Reposted by Meehan Crist
Duke appears to have lost NIH grants because they used the prefix "trans" in reference to disease transmission, transgenic genetic material, translational studies, or signal transduction www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025...
June 27, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Duke appears to have lost NIH grants because they used the prefix "trans" in reference to disease transmission, transgenic genetic material, translational studies, or signal transduction www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025...
Reposted by Meehan Crist
Viktor Orban banned pride events in Hungary, the people took it as a challenge and just had the largest pride march in their country's history.
June 28, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Viktor Orban banned pride events in Hungary, the people took it as a challenge and just had the largest pride march in their country's history.
Reposted by Meehan Crist
NEW: Musk's xAI data center in Memphis is emitting plumes of methane and other pollutants, which are drifting into nearby Memphis neighborhoods
Video from @oilfieldwitness.bsky.social @txsharon.bsky.social captured it on camera
gasoutlook.com/analysis/xai...
Video from @oilfieldwitness.bsky.social @txsharon.bsky.social captured it on camera
gasoutlook.com/analysis/xai...
xAI data centre emits plumes of pollution, new video shows - Gas Outlook
A massive data centre at xAI’s controversial site in Memphis, Tennessee is emitting huge plumes of pollution, according to new footage.
gasoutlook.com
June 12, 2025 at 1:20 PM
NEW: Musk's xAI data center in Memphis is emitting plumes of methane and other pollutants, which are drifting into nearby Memphis neighborhoods
Video from @oilfieldwitness.bsky.social @txsharon.bsky.social captured it on camera
gasoutlook.com/analysis/xai...
Video from @oilfieldwitness.bsky.social @txsharon.bsky.social captured it on camera
gasoutlook.com/analysis/xai...
Reposted by Meehan Crist
This fascinating new research overturns longstanding assumptions. It finds that lower-income groups are more concerned about the environment and prefer environmental protection over economic growth, compared to higher-income groups. Data from the USA.
June 2, 2025 at 10:55 AM
This fascinating new research overturns longstanding assumptions. It finds that lower-income groups are more concerned about the environment and prefer environmental protection over economic growth, compared to higher-income groups. Data from the USA.
Reposted by Meehan Crist
Fossil fuel execs have talked for years about how they are "saving" Africa and solving energy poverty. Probably best to listen to Africans on that score: drilled.media/news/total-m...
Dispatch from the Front Lines of Mozambique’s Gas Gamble
Mozambique’s LNG project was supposed to bring prosperity to the country. Instead it has fueled the fires of civil unrest. And while local residents are struggling to survive, a small cadre of elite c...
drilled.media
May 29, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Fossil fuel execs have talked for years about how they are "saving" Africa and solving energy poverty. Probably best to listen to Africans on that score: drilled.media/news/total-m...
Reposted by Meehan Crist
NEW: The US government has collected DNA samples from 133,000+ migrant children and teenagers and uploaded them into CODIS, a national criminal database originally built for convicted sex offenders and violent criminals, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.
The US Is Storing Migrant Children’s DNA in a Criminal Database
Customs and Border Protection has swabbed the DNA of migrant children as young as 4, whose genetic data is uploaded to an FBI-run database that can track them if they commit crimes in the future.
www.wired.com
May 29, 2025 at 12:49 PM
NEW: The US government has collected DNA samples from 133,000+ migrant children and teenagers and uploaded them into CODIS, a national criminal database originally built for convicted sex offenders and violent criminals, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.
Reposted by Meehan Crist
the modern information environment
May 29, 2025 at 3:16 PM
the modern information environment
So universities are free to do... propaganda?
Linda McMahon: "Universities should continue to be able to do research as long as they're abiding by the laws and in sync, I think, with the administration and what the administration is trying to accomplish."
May 28, 2025 at 5:46 PM
So universities are free to do... propaganda?
Reposted by Meehan Crist
you cannot compete with me. i want you to win too
May 28, 2025 at 5:23 PM
you cannot compete with me. i want you to win too
"But using crops like corn and soybeans to produce fuel instead of food not only increases food prices and global hunger, it spurs farmers around the world to tear down more forests and plow up more grasslands to create new farmland to replace the lost food."
I wrote about a scandal in the Big Beautiful Bill that should really be shocking even if it isn’t surprising. Replacing jet fuel with corn and soybeans doesn’t pencil out for the climate, so Congress wants to take away the government’s pencils. @yalee360.bsky.social
e360.yale.edu/features/cor...
e360.yale.edu/features/cor...
The ‘Green’ Aviation Fuel That Would Increase Carbon Emissions
The U.S. agriculture lobby has long promoted ethanol for cars. If President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” becomes law, the industry would be given tax credits for producing crop-based fuel for planes, ...
e360.yale.edu
May 28, 2025 at 5:34 PM
"But using crops like corn and soybeans to produce fuel instead of food not only increases food prices and global hunger, it spurs farmers around the world to tear down more forests and plow up more grasslands to create new farmland to replace the lost food."
Reposted by Meehan Crist
Dear science journalism,
Please start including the funding source and whether it has been imperiled by the coup in your coverage of cool new science papers. The public should know the floor is being cut out from under us.
Please start including the funding source and whether it has been imperiled by the coup in your coverage of cool new science papers. The public should know the floor is being cut out from under us.
May 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Dear science journalism,
Please start including the funding source and whether it has been imperiled by the coup in your coverage of cool new science papers. The public should know the floor is being cut out from under us.
Please start including the funding source and whether it has been imperiled by the coup in your coverage of cool new science papers. The public should know the floor is being cut out from under us.
Reposted by Meehan Crist
This is genuinely quite troubling
Audubon insurance canceled because it is an "environmental advocacy" organization. WTF?!?!? @climatebrad.hillheat.com eedition.timesunion.com/infinity/art...
Audubon chapter gets surprise insurance cancellation
Audubon chapter gets surprise insurance cancellation
eedition.timesunion.com
May 4, 2025 at 5:24 PM
This is genuinely quite troubling
Reposted by Meehan Crist
From a hydrologic risk perspective, these new mass cuts at USGS would further compound broadening NOAA National Weather Service personnel/capability losses when it comes to quantifying and predicting real-time flood risk (among other things).
Trump has ordered closure of ~½ of USGS Water Sci Centers that monitor US waters for flooding & drought, measure levels & quality in ground & surface water with 1000s of gages, & do sci studies (in coop w/local-to-federal agencies) allowing successful water mgmt.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Trump officials gut 25 centers that monitor flooding and drought in the US
White House orders closure of USGS water science centers, which shares data with weather service for flood warnings
www.theguardian.com
May 2, 2025 at 2:55 PM
From a hydrologic risk perspective, these new mass cuts at USGS would further compound broadening NOAA National Weather Service personnel/capability losses when it comes to quantifying and predicting real-time flood risk (among other things).
Reposted by Meehan Crist
we no longer have a chief meteorologist at the NWS office serving NYC
Donald Trump and Elon Musk have left Houston, Tampa, New York and other major cities without head meteorologists just ahead of what will be another busy hurricane season
This is straight-up life-threatening malpractice
(h/t @lisamjarvis.bsky.social )
www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/w...
This is straight-up life-threatening malpractice
(h/t @lisamjarvis.bsky.social )
www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/w...
May 2, 2025 at 3:08 PM
we no longer have a chief meteorologist at the NWS office serving NYC
LSE announces new centre to study animal sentience - Shaping the world
shapingtheworld.lse.ac.uk
May 2, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Reposted by Meehan Crist
AGI is coming for all of us. It will write symphonies, direct movies, and author the best novels.
The only thing it won’t be able to do is VC investing, which must be reserved as a task only for the most-special people
The only thing it won’t be able to do is VC investing, which must be reserved as a task only for the most-special people
April 30, 2025 at 3:14 PM
AGI is coming for all of us. It will write symphonies, direct movies, and author the best novels.
The only thing it won’t be able to do is VC investing, which must be reserved as a task only for the most-special people
The only thing it won’t be able to do is VC investing, which must be reserved as a task only for the most-special people
Reposted by Meehan Crist
“However bad everyone on the outside thinks it is, it is a million times worse. They’re dismantling and destroying everything.”
Read, share, respond. Call your representatives.
The health and well-being of Americans & America's innovation economy are at stake.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Read, share, respond. Call your representatives.
The health and well-being of Americans & America's innovation economy are at stake.
www.science.org/content/arti...
NIH insiders: Trump is ‘dismantling and destroying everything’
After just 100 days, agency scientists say U.S. health institutes are demoralized and have lost essential staff and funding
www.science.org
May 1, 2025 at 1:03 AM
“However bad everyone on the outside thinks it is, it is a million times worse. They’re dismantling and destroying everything.”
Read, share, respond. Call your representatives.
The health and well-being of Americans & America's innovation economy are at stake.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Read, share, respond. Call your representatives.
The health and well-being of Americans & America's innovation economy are at stake.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Meehan Crist
"...for protests to succeed, they must be backed by movements with the ability to promise to withhold—labor, debt payments, rent payments, or consumer support—and to follow through if demands aren’t met."
Glad to have gotten the opportunity to push this line in Time
time.com/collections/...
Glad to have gotten the opportunity to push this line in Time
time.com/collections/...
Why Protests Should Be Promises
Modern movements that aim to advance racial equity should withhold and promise, rather than perform, writes Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò
time.com
May 1, 2025 at 12:05 PM
"...for protests to succeed, they must be backed by movements with the ability to promise to withhold—labor, debt payments, rent payments, or consumer support—and to follow through if demands aren’t met."
Glad to have gotten the opportunity to push this line in Time
time.com/collections/...
Glad to have gotten the opportunity to push this line in Time
time.com/collections/...
Reposted by Meehan Crist
Claudia Sheinbaum:“Plan Mexico is the path that I am certain will lead us to a Mexico with more well-paid jobs, with less poverty & inequality...with a lower carbon footprint that respects the environment and increases our self-sufficiency and sovereignty"
www.netzeropolicylab.com/mexico-green...
www.netzeropolicylab.com/mexico-green...
April 29, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Claudia Sheinbaum:“Plan Mexico is the path that I am certain will lead us to a Mexico with more well-paid jobs, with less poverty & inequality...with a lower carbon footprint that respects the environment and increases our self-sufficiency and sovereignty"
www.netzeropolicylab.com/mexico-green...
www.netzeropolicylab.com/mexico-green...
Reposted by Meehan Crist
RIP Leonard Zeskind, whose book about the rise of white nationalism was just purged by the U.S. Naval Academy.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/u...
Leonard Zeskind, Who Foresaw the Rise of White Nationalism, Dies at 75 (Gift Article)
With “Blood and Politics,” he predicted that anti-immigrant ideologies would become part of mainstream American politics, and warned about downplaying the threat.
www.nytimes.com
April 28, 2025 at 2:39 AM
RIP Leonard Zeskind, whose book about the rise of white nationalism was just purged by the U.S. Naval Academy.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/u...
Reposted by Meehan Crist
Why the National Climate Assessment is important: “It takes [a] global issue and brings it closer to us,” says @katharinehayhoe.com. “If I care about food or water or transportation or insurance or my health, this is what climate change means to me if I live in the Southwest or the Great Plains.”
April 29, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Why the National Climate Assessment is important: “It takes [a] global issue and brings it closer to us,” says @katharinehayhoe.com. “If I care about food or water or transportation or insurance or my health, this is what climate change means to me if I live in the Southwest or the Great Plains.”