Elizabeth Kolbert

I will be live-streaming with the @scifri.bsky.social book club on March 27 at 4 PM ET. Join us!

This month’s SciFri Book Club pick is here! 📚

We’re reading “Life on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches from a Changing World” by @elizkolbert.bsky.social for March and April. Start reading with us:
buff.ly/WaRgEwO

Birds Aren’t Just Declining. They’re Declining Faster, a New Study Finds.

“The American dream turns into the American nightmare as we start to look at what we’re doing to biodiversity and systems that we depend on as humans."

UK readers -- I'm excited to announce that my new book, "Life on a Little-Known Planet," will be the Kindle Daily Deal on February 28th, on sale for 99p!

Grand Jury Rebuffs Justice Dept. Attempt to Indict 6 Democrats in Congress

Renewing one's faith in the American people:

Federal Judge Blocks Texas Law Targeting Critics of Fossil Fuels

A small bit of good news:

Embracing ‘Cathedral Thinking’ with Elizabeth Kolbert | The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh

It was a pleasure speaking to Willow Defebaugh about the Nature Of, well, everything:

U.S. Manufacturing Is in Retreat and Trump’s Tariffs Aren’t Helping Levies on imports were supposed to bring back a golden age of U.S. manufacturing. They haven’t worked, so far.

"Manufacturing construction spending, which surged with Biden-era funding for chips and renewable energy, fell in each of Trump’s first nine months in office."

‘Ghost forests’ are even more widespread than we thought These haunting landscapes, with their unmistakable gray, barren tree trunks rising like sentinels, offer one of the most startling and recognizable signals of a changing climate.

"Forests that once teemed with maple, sweet gum, bald cypress and stately pines have given way to scrubland."

Rejecting Decades of Science, Vaccine Panel Chair Says Polio and Other Shots Should Be Optional

My freedom, your kid's paralysis:

Park Service Erases Climate Facts at Fort Sumter, Where the Civil War Began

This is really going to help:

This is a truly horrifying account of increasingly likely collapse of essential natural systems which would bring mass food shortages, price rises & global disorder. Commissioned from UK intelligence chiefs but scandalously suppressed by Govt, & sneaked out now while attention is elsewhere 👇

It’s the middle of winter, but drought covers the U.S. That’s concerning. Unusual dryness or drought covers more than two-thirds of the U.S., from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast. In the West, the situation is particularly concerning.

“It’s terrifying to think of the upcoming fire season."

We are witnessing record tropical heat waves everywhere
Hundreds of records are being smashed in Oceania (New Caledonia,Fiji,Indonesia),Africa (French Territories,Mozambique,Gulf of Guinea),Central America and Caribbean,every day,no stop
We can only imagine how hot tropics will be with the next Nino

‘Yankee, Go Home’: Greenlanders Protest Trump’s Takeover Plans

It was raining on this protest in Nuuk. Temperatures in Greenland have been absurdly warm recently. THAT is what we should be talking about.

How Wall Street Turned Its Back on Climate Change

"On company earnings calls, mentions of words like climate and sustainability have plunged by 75 percent over the past year."

‘We’re Not Stupid’: What Greenlanders Would Say to Trump

“We’re not going to sell our soul."

Opinion | $25 Billion. That’s What Trump Cost Detroit.

Trump's war on EVs "isn’t industrial policy; it’s industrial suicide."

U.S. carbon emissions were falling. Why did they go up in 2025? The rise comes even before the Trump administration’s pro-fossil fuel policies fully take hold, the authors of a Rhodium Group analysis found.

“This is not the right direction." To say the least.

🚨 2025 observed the lowest #Arctic sea-ice extent AND the lowest sea-ice volume for their yearly average values. This comes as no surprise to me as the polar environment continues to change. The consequences are far-reaching.

More graphics & stats already on my website: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...

Bar graph showing global ocean heat content change in the upper 2000 m from the late 1950s through 2025. There is a long-term warming in the time series, which is using IAP/CAS data.

2025 was the hottest year on record for ocean heat content. Unfortunately, we now say this every year. 🥹

"In addition to setting a new record in 2025, the global
ocean continues to show sustained and intensified warming."

+ #OpenAccess Study: doi.org/10.1007/s003...
+ Data: www.ocean.iap.ac.cn

White House floats military option for Greenland, rattling Denmark and NATO The rhetoric follows a dramatic U.S. raid in Venezuela and revives Trump’s long-standing focus on Greenland, transforming diplomatic discussions into fears of coercion. But U.S. military posture there...

Does Trump realize that all land in Greenland is publicly owned? Someone ought to let him know.

Interior pauses construction of all offshore wind projects, citing national security concerns The halts of five projects is a major ramp up of the administration's hostility toward the industry in the United States.

This is madness. Freezing offshore wind projects in progress will waste money, cost jobs, make electricity less reliable and more expensive, and will cause health harms given that fossil fuels will be used instead.

www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

Greenland Ice Sheet I Life on A Little-Known Planet I The Biggest Threat to Biodiversity and Planet YouTube video by Science Talk

This week, I sat down with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist @elizkolbert.bsky.social to discuss her new book, Life on a Little-Known Planet. We discussed biodiversity loss to melting ice sheets and the future of life on Earth. Grateful for her time and expertise.
youtu.be/3kcOYHS3yBY?...

Trump administration to dismantle key climate research center Russell Vought, who directs the White House Office of Management and Budget, announced plans to split up the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, citing concerns about “clima...

Killing the messenger:

Coal demand reaches new annual record as US output rises IEA forecasts a decline in years to 2030 despite ‘many uncertainties’

"The global coal demand increase of about 40mn tonnes this year was largely due to the US."

Immigrants kept from Faneuil Hall citizenship ceremony as feds crackdown nationwide Trump administration is pausing naturalizations for immigrants from 19 countries.

“She showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled.”

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social

Like I've said before, if you have any doubts about climate change, just go to a super-boring insurance conference and listen to the super-boring panels where they dryly talk about the growing threat of disasters so catastrophic and unpredictable in scope they simply cannot be insured at any price.

Excited to learn that @scifri.bsky.social" has chosen "Life on a Little-Known Planet" for its book club! Look forward to talking to them in March.

thank you!