Gavin Ballantyne

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Programme leaders holding accreditation certificate

Practical field surveying

CIEEM Accredited Degree logo. https://cieem.net/i-want-to-be/how-to-become-an-eem/what-to-study/accredited-degrees/

https://www.napier.ac.uk/courses/msc-wildlife-biology-and-conservation-postgraduate-distance-learning

Distance-learning MSc Wildlife Biology and Conservation @ Edinburgh Napier University accredited by Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management = graduates have skills most valued by employers www.napier.ac.uk/courses/msc-... @edinburghnapier.bsky.social @greenercareers.bsky.social

Another little creb 😊

The island that banned hives: can honeybees actually harm nature? On a tiny Italian island, scientists conducted a radical experiment to see if the bees were causing their wild cousins to decline

Some surprisingly good coverage of the damage domesticated honeybees can do to habitats:

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“We may feel like we’ve seen lots of butterflies this summer, but that’s only because last year was so awful." - Dr Richard Fox, Head of Science at Butterfly Conservation.

More about the results, and why they matter, here

#BigButterflyCount #butterflies #moths #insects

MIGRANTS AREN'T THE PROBLEM INEQUALITY IS Green Party Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ

Migrants didn't cut council funding. Migrants didn't cut NHS funding. Migrants didn't close youth centres. Migrants didn't sell off council houses. Migrants aren't filling our rivers with sewage.

Farage and co. will tell you to point the finger at migrants.

Don't fall for it.

A wasteland of rubble, dust and graves: how Gaza looks from the sky The Guardian joins a Jordanian military airdrop for a rare chance to observe a landscape devastated by Israel’s offensive Seen from the air, Gaza looks like the ruins of an ancient civilisation, brought to light after centuries of darkness. A patchwork of concrete shapes and shattered walls, neighbourhoods scattered with craters, rubble and roads that lead nowhere. The remnants of cities wiped out. But here, there has been no natural disaster and no slow passage of time. Members of Jordan’s military stand among pallets of aid about to be dropped on Gaza. Continue reading...

A wasteland of rubble, dust and graves: how Gaza looks from the sky

Our political leaders cannot say they didn't know - @michaelfakhri.bsky.social first warned that Israel was orchestrating the deliberate starvation of Palestinians in January 2024 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

A closeup photo, front three-quarter view, of a colorful poison frog in the dark leaf litter. The light teal green legs with dark speckles, a flame-orange body and head, and nearly black eyes. There is something on its back that may be the front half of an ant that at some point bit the frog and since lost its abdomen.

A crop of the previous photo, a front three-quarter view of a colorful poison frog in the dark leaf litter. Most of the frog isn't visible in this crop, just the eye, back, and upper part of one foreleg. The frog is overall flame-orange with nearly black eyes. There is something on its back that may be the front half of an ant that at some point bit the frog and since lost its abdomen.

I noticed something interesting when looking closer at my pics of this tiny frog (Granular Poison Frog, Oophaga granulifera) in Costa Rica. I'm not positive, but it looks like half an ant is embedded in its back, I think missing the abdomen. Some poison frogs eat ants - maybe one bit back? 🌿🐙🐸

New UK AI datacentre could cause five times emissions of Birmingham airport Exclusive: emissions from power-hungry computer warehouses at Lincolnshire facility expected to be 850,000 tonnes a year A vast new datacentre to feed Britain’s rising demand for artificial intelligence could cause more greenhouse gas emissions than five international airports. Elsham datacentre in Lincolnshire is on course to cost £10bn and its 15 power-hungry computer warehouses are projected to release five times the carbon dioxide of Birmingham airport, including from take-offs and landings. Continue reading...

New UK AI datacentre could cause five times emissions of Birmingham airport

The tough forewings of beetles and earwigs can be confusing to students learning insect identification for the first time. The Ant Lab videos are such a brilliant resource, showing how these amazing animals use their wings

‘Half the tree of life’: ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects A new point in history has been reached, entomologists say, as climate-led species’ collapse moves up the food chain even in supposedly protected regions free of pesticides

Half the tree of life’: ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects

- A new point in history has been reached, entomologists say, as climate-led species’ collapse moves up the food chain even in supposedly protected regions free of pesticides

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

😱👇🏽

#nametheharm
Increased global greenhouse gasses will increase global temperatures making ice sheets in polar and alpine zones melt and become unstable. Their collapse will cause local & regional damage

Humanity is being buried in Gaza. We must rise up to save our collective future. Gaza is not an anomaly. It is a mirror. A reflection of our world as it really is today. And for many, a preview of what is to come.

Gaza is not an anomaly. It is a mirror. A reflection of our world as it really is today. And for many, a preview of what is to come.

mondoweiss.net/2025/05/huma...

#Palestine #Israel

Gaza aid chaos ‘completely avoidable’ says UNRWA director Sam Rose works for the UN Relief and Works Agency, where he is the Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza.

Gaza aid chaos ‘completely avoidable’ says UNRWA director

Something a bit different for today's #foxoftheday . Watch some newts , accompanied by a drinking fox's tongue , shared by @urbanponds101 ! Top work !

Open Letter “An Urgent Call to the Heads of Academia in Israel” by the “Black Flag" Action Group

Open letter by Israeli academics.

“This is a horrifying litany of war crimes and even crimes against humanity, all of our own doing. … It is human societies, not governments alone, that commit crimes against humanity. … We cannot claim that we did not know. We have been silent for too long.”

Bees come in all shapes and sizes...

This wee cutie measures around 7mm and is one of the UK’s smallest bee species. Halictus tumulorum, I think (commonly known as The Bronze Furrow Bee) - but my identification skills leave a lot to be desired, so do please correct me if I’m wrong.

#bees #nature

Seas off Cork a 'marine desert' due to overfishing of sprat, says owner of whale-watching business Skipper Colin Barnes said the whales have left his search area of ocean off Cork because the sprat they feed on has been fished to near extinction

"Seas off Cork a 'marine desert' due to overfishing of sprat, says owner of whale-watching business."

Sprat, the basis of entire ecosystems, is being hoovered out to turn into fishmeal, an *insanely* wasteful process.

Who or what gives them the right???
www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster...

‘Staggering’ scale of injuries is ‘barbaric’, says surgeon in Gaza We spoke to Dr Victoria Rose, a surgeon working in Nasser Hospital in Gaza, and started by asking her about the sorts of injuries she is seeing among the children she's treating.

‘Staggering’ scale of injuries is ‘barbaric’, says surgeon in Gaza

www.channel4.com/news/stagger...

Revealed: UK Supermarket Seabass Linked to Devastating Overfishing in Senegal Waitrose, Co-op, Lidl, Asda and Aldi among retailers selling fish fed on west African catch

🔴 NEW 🔴

UK Supermarket Seabass Linked to Devastating Overfishing in Senegal

Waitrose, Co-op, Lidl, Asda and Aldi among retailers selling fish fed on west African catch

📝 @hazelhealy.bsky.social & @brigitte-whl.bsky.social

Always a pleasure to come across a Golden-fringed Mason Bee (Osmia aurulenta) nest! This is one of 3 UK bee species to nest in empty snail shells. A female had just finished pasting leaf mastic over the entrance to the shell when I came across her yesterday at Porth Neigwl.

#SolitaryBeeWeek

Colossal Liar Wolves “What is most concerning is that Colossal’s ‘dire wolves’ have now attracted the attention of the Trump administration.” – Ronan Taylor

Colossal Liar Wolves
forbetterscience.com/2025/05/21/c...

This Ivy-leafed toadflax does not give up its pollen easily but this small furrow bee is determined.

#bees #pollination #naturephotography #wildflowers #macrophotography #wildlifephotography

@brigitstrawbridge.bsky.social @ianbeavis.bsky.social @jeffollerton.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @

Even more terrifying than the numbers - the likelihood that Labour will conclude that they need to push even harder to the right instead of setting out why the cult of Farage is wrong, dishonest and corrupt.

New paper: science denial, insect apocalypse and biodiversity loss Saunders, Lees, Grames (2025) Understanding and counteracting the denial of insect biodiversity loss Science denial is one of the greatest threats to humanity. Denial of climate change and public h…

New blog: new paper on science denial. Combatting denialism depends on community approaches to scicomm. Experts need to be supported by academic and research institutions, policymakers, and journalists #academicsky #commsky wp.me/pF3Q3-TP

It’s not a rich list – it’s gone far beyond that. We need to talk about ‘extreme wealth’ | Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah We recognise extreme poverty as ruinous, but this turbo-charged affluence is deeply damaging too. Treat it as such, says Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah of the New Economics Foundation

There is a point at which wealth gives you too much power to shape politics, just as there is a point above which super-rich lifestyles cause extreme harm to the environment.

@dhnnjyn.bsky.social on why we need an "extreme wealth line" in @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Fuck the fuck off #eurovision #genocidedeniers

Here is the grad speech that NYU is now withholding the student's diploma for:

"As I search my heart today in addressing you all…the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine."

Gazans Once Escaped To Rafah. Now Israel Is Razing It. (Gift Article) In the last few weeks, Israel has demolished extensive areas of Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah.

Israel has rapidly accelerated its destruction of Rafah in April and May. It's hard to understand the magnitude of this, even when spending time analyzing recent satellite imagery. From me, Samuel Granados, Aaron Boxerman, and @rileymellen.bsky.social

Gift link:
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...