Claire G. Griffin
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polargriffin.bsky.social
Claire G. Griffin
@polargriffin.bsky.social
Asst Prof, Ex-pat Texan, biogeocheminist and arctic scientist, excited about organic matter and rivers. Water science, fluffy pet photos, #QueerinSTEM, and crafty things.
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I have been making a playlist of Fresh Water Songs for my Hydrology class, with some help from friends. It's pretty great! Please enjoy.

open.spotify.com/playlist/7jl...
Fresh Water Songs
Playlist · cofertest · 70 items · 8 saves
open.spotify.com
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
#klamathriver a year after the final dam removal: lots of fish, recovering health. www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...
A year after the last dam was removed, Klamath River has 'come alive' with salmon
As the Klamath River continues healing from 100 years of mismanagement, tribes and environmentalists must deal with funding cuts and policy changes.
www.azcentral.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
If you're curious about how I got into aviation (or seek assurance that I really do have an aviation background), (yes, some folks continue to suggest my high-time pilot husband is the person who really writes this stuff) (sigh), here's a new profile from @adn.com. /1 www.adn.com/arts/books/2...
Author and pilot Colleen Mondor continues to shine a light on Alaska’s aviation industry
Mondor’s email newsletter Probable Cause covers a range of aviation-related subjects, with accidents a particular focus.
www.adn.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Genuinely sad about Claude! Cal Academy is one of my favorite museum/aquariums and Claude was a delight to see whenever I was in SF
It's with heavy hearts that we share that Claude, our beloved albino alligator, has passed away at the age of 30. Claude brought joy to millions of people at the Academy and across the world during his 17 year tenure. We will miss him dearly. 🤍
December 3, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Article title: The NYT wrote more about Harvard last year than all community colleges combined

I posted three main figure from the article below

www.vox.com/2014/7/23/59...
December 3, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
3. This would create just a unending flow of zero-value paperwork, amidst a culture of fear. Just all the best aspects of the USSR in one neat package.
TX Tech has a flow chat for guidance on what can be taught in the university system. Two things:
1. Very little content seems to be permitted. This is partisan control of the curriculum.
2. I would not enjoy teaching under these conditions, but I really would not want to be a Chair or Dean.
December 2, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Nightmare of a flowchart.
TX Tech has a flow chat for guidance on what can be taught in the university system. Two things:
1. Very little content seems to be permitted. This is partisan control of the curriculum.
2. I would not enjoy teaching under these conditions, but I really would not want to be a Chair or Dean.
December 2, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
when someone tells me not to use em dashes because AI uses em dashes
November 30, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
I have come to the idea that we have to collectively, brutally, ritualistically kill Target just to show capital that we truly aren’t fucking around.
December 1, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
November 28, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Universities are assembling larger and larger teams to deal with academic integrity issues--mostly focused on AI--while simultaneously holding AI "writing" contests, AI-themed events, "hey, come play with these fun tools!" The messages are so mixed, it's criminal. Because AI is bloated with money.
November 28, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Elon Musk and the Trump administration gleefully shutting down USAID “has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children.”

People throw around terms like genocide quite freely online but it’s hard to find other words to describe this level of man-made death.
USAID shutdown has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, accord...
hsph.harvard.edu
November 28, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
“Gawande noted that the toll will continue to grow and may go unseen because it can take months or years for people to die from lack of treatments or vaccine-preventable illnesses—and because deaths are scattered.“
November 27, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Nearly the entire Canadian Arctic Archipelago recorded temperatures warmer than 5°C above the 1981-2010 baseline in October 2025. And as I shared yesterday, sea ice in the Baffin Bay is currently a record low for the date... Hudson Bay too (I'll share that next).

Data from doi.org/10.24381/cds...
November 25, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Public land grant universities with a mission to serve the residents of their respective states are the great economic equalizers. So of course Republicans and billionaires want to destroy them. 😖
November 23, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
November 23, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
the nuzzi story is fun and all but at the center of it is the elevation of a man who has dedicated his life to making children catch preventable diseases to a position where he can enact harm at enormous scale
CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”
November 20, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Happy International Day of LGBTQIA+ People In STEM!

How are you celebrating it?

#LGBTQSTEMDay #PrideInSTEM
November 18, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Occasional reminder that if you're interested in the history and practice of scientific writing, and folks who give advice about scientific writing, I made a starter pack: go.bsky.app/TwZVnjU
November 18, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Like some kind of grim Omen of things to come, #Hawaii ’s #Kilauea volcano just unleashed a MASSIVE WING SHAPED eruption with lava fountains soaring 1,500+ feet high
November 17, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
⚒️🧪 Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (among other programs) to be eliminated at University of Nebraska-Lincoln #UNL. A tragedy all around. #Geosciences
They are really planning to go through with these cuts at Nebraska, despite recommendations not to. Unbelievable.

If you want to hire highly qualified, very successful earth and atmospheric sciences faculty in teaching and research, quite a few are probably looking for jobs for next year.
Final Budget Reduction Plan | Budget Process | Nebraska
budgetprocess.unl.edu
November 17, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
They are really planning to go through with these cuts at Nebraska, despite recommendations not to. Unbelievable.

If you want to hire highly qualified, very successful earth and atmospheric sciences faculty in teaching and research, quite a few are probably looking for jobs for next year.
Final Budget Reduction Plan | Budget Process | Nebraska
budgetprocess.unl.edu
November 10, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Trump's campaign to kill an industry where America runs a massive trade surplus is succeeding
November 17, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
This whole piece is all the actual horribles on parade, and this one is just infuriating
November 17, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Jim Ryan wrote a letter to UVA detailing his "resignation" and I'm gonna get some fresh tea before I read it because I feel pretty certain I'm gonna be filled with righteous anger by the end

I'll do a thread but here's the full letter provided by the chronicle

www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
Jim Ryan letter
www.documentcloud.org
November 14, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Claire G. Griffin
Are you located in the DC-Baltimore-Philadelphia-New York corridor?

Have you always wanted to have your very own 11 foot long papier-mâché hammerhead shark?

Now available for free!

Perfect for museums, community centers, or your living room!

Save this lovely creature from imminent destruction!
November 14, 2025 at 7:41 PM