Rod Schoonover-Rey

Ten days later, everyone just calls it the War in Iran and nothing. Nothing matters.

You know what else (usually) flows through the Strait of Hormuz?

Fertilizer.

Lots of it.

Vital Desalination Plants in Iran and Bahrain Are Attacked

I have been warning for over a decade that desalination plants would almost certainly emerge as security targets, given the critical dependence of Middle East nations on them.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/w...

Stratospheric Warming Begins: A Rare Early-Spring Polar Vortex Core is Set to Descend into the U.S. and Canada A major Polar Vortex split is underway, with a Vortex core forecast to drop into the United States next week, bringing along unseasonably cold polar air

This has the potential to disrupt a lot of springtime phenology, including the beloved cherry blossom blooms here in DC. 🥶

www.severe-weather.eu/global-weath...

Hegseth says US won’t get ‘bogged down’ in Iran – but doesn’t rule out sending troops Defense secretary refuses to establish timeline for how long operation will continue in first public remarks since strikes

Boots on the ground “possible” in Iran…

Words from an officeholder that doesn’t believe in “climate change crap.”

How about water stress? El Niño?

Does he believe in physiological limits of outdoor activities in high wet-bulb environments?

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Microplastics found in 90% of prostate cancer tumors, study reveals Researchers have detected microplastics in nearly all prostate cancer tumors examined in a new study. Tumor tissue contained about 2.5 times more plastic than nearby healthy prostate tissue. Scientist...

Seems bad.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

Opinion | Why Have You Started This War, Mr. President?

It’s a reasonable question, although the administration has shown time and again that you can’t believe anything they say. We witness an impeachable offense every day from this mob.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/o...

In league with Israel, the Peace President just bombed Iran without approval from Congress

Year 5 of the Ukraine invasion. Heroes like Svitlana Romanko of @razomwestand.bsky.social are clear - Putin's war machine won't stop until fossil fuel money pipeline stops. And that won't happen unless we move faster to clean power and renewables. watch/read - news.wickedproblems.uk/p/for-ukrain...

Peatland lakes in the Congo Basin release carbon that is thousands of years old Over thousands of years, the swamps and peatlands in the Congo Basin have accumulated and stored huge amounts of carbon. A research team led by ETH Zurich has now shown that large lakes in this ecosys...

The Congo Basin is emitting large volumes of CO2 via peatland lakes. Over thousands of years, the swamps and peatlands have accumulated and stored huge amounts of carbon, which they are now releasing with long-term impacts on the global climate. 
ethz.ch/en/news-and-...
#emissions #wetlands #Congo

‘I live in constant fear’: surge in giant sinkholes threatens Turkey’s farmers Falling groundwater, extreme heat and water-intensive farming are accelerating land collapse, forcing a rethink in agricultural practices

‘I live in constant fear’: surge in giant sinkholes threatens Turkey’s farmers

Russia questions how Trump's Board of Peace will work with UN Security Council Russia questioned on Thursday how U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace would work with the United Nations Security Council, which has served as the fulcrum of collective international peacemak...

A decent question from an <un|likely> source. What do you think @msharp80.bsky.social?

www.reuters.com/world/china/...

Czechia at the Center of Europe’s Wildlife Trafficking Networks - Transitions From tiger farms to eel smuggling, Czechia’s legal wildlife market is enabling a thriving underground trade.

tol.org/client/artic...

Australia hands record prison sentence to reptile smuggler in trafficking crackdown The seizure of dozens of live Western blue-tongued lizards, bearded dragons and spiny-tailed skinks covertly packed into popcorn bags, biscuit tins and women’s handbags have led to the longest prison…

Australia is home to 10% of the world’s reptile species, and 90% can be found nowhere else in the world.

Authorities are now stepping up and cracking down on wildlife trafficking. Arrests have tripled from mid-2023 to early 2025, with 780 native animals seized from 200+ parcels.

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

I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/c...

Trump's Climate Supercomputer Plans Threaten US Insurance Market: Actuaries A new letter from the American Academy of Actuaries draws a direct line between the planned dismantling of NCAR and higher homeowners insurance costs for US consumers.

www.riskmarketnews.com/trumps-clima...

More than 70% of American adults are very or somewhat concerned about exposure to toxic chemicals in their food and drinking water, according to a new survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts. https://cnn.it/3OBhqFh

These people act like there will never be accountability for abuse of office.

Unprecedented increase in ice melt in Greenland due to climate change A study published in Nature Communications shows that water resulting from ice melting has increased six-fold in recent decades.

"Since 1990, the area affected by extreme melting episodes has increased at a rate of 2.8 million km² per decade. And the production of water from ice melt has increased six-fold"

#Greenland 🇬🇱
#ClimateEmergency

Probably regional water swaps (e.g. California)

Trump wants to make Great Salt Lake ‘GREAT AGAIN.’ Utah leaders will float him a $1B plan. President Donald Trump pledged to help Utah save the Great Salt Lake — and make it "GREAT AGAIN." Utah leaders said they are preparing an ask for a $1 billion in support.

The effect of climate change on reduced snowpack is almost never mentioned in these stories. Likewise, we rarely see ag withdrawals or consumptive water use on the system acknowledged.

Stresses on the Great Salt Lake just happen [gesturing vaguely at the sky].

www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Virus outbreak kills 72 captive tigers at Thailand tourist parks Tests found that the tigers were infected with feline parvovirus

www.independent.co.uk/asia/southea...

After leaving WHO, Trump officials propose more expensive replacement to duplicate it HHS proposes spending $2 billion a year to re-create systems the U.S. accessed through the WHO at a fraction of the cost, according to officials briefed on the matter.

More of that “running government like a business” efficiency…

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

Ousted South Korean president sentenced to life in prison for insurrection While the court denied prosecutors’ request for the death penalty, the life sentence imposed on Yoon Suk Yeol is a pivotal moment for South Korea’s democracy.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

Climate Change Could Make This Horrific New Jersey Wildlife Disease Worse - Inside Climate News The Garden State is home to ranavirus, a pathogen capable of killing amphibians en masse. Scientists still aren’t sure what’s causing outbreaks and what the long-term effects might be, and rising temp...

Ranavirus has caused mass die-offs in both captive and wild fish populations, and tends to be more infectious as temperatures gradually increase.

insideclimatenews.org/news/1702202...

@markgongloff.bsky.social good article, and if you haven’t seen this 2012 workshop of climate folks meeting with tobacco control folks, to compare notes and especially to learn from their longer history in litigation, see:
climateaccountability.org/pdf/Climate%...
Great 2-day intense workshop.

One of Big Oil’s Biggest Defenses Is Getting Blown Up For decades, fossil-fuel companies and their climate-change-denying allies obsessively tried to kill the federal government’s right to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. Like Ahab, they may find that ...

This is an interesting take & well worth reading.

Ultimately, however, these companies will need to be nationalized to move us, collectively and rapidly, towards the inevitable transition. We cannot let a set of villainous ideologues take us backwards again.

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Salty, Oily Drinking Water Left Sores in Their Mouths. Oklahoma Refused to Find Out Why. State regulators discovered strong signs of oil pollution, including high levels of salt and toxic metals, in one family’s drinking water. But for two years, they repeatedly delayed basic tests to fin...

NEW: Oklahoma regulators discovered strong signs of oil pollution, including high levels of salt and toxic metals, in one family’s drinking water.

But for two years, they repeatedly delayed basic tests to find the culprit — then closed the case.

With @readfrontier.bsky.social

There is no scientific merit to this decision, and the Administration has already been thumped by the courts for using ideology rather than science in other such actions.

If the Trump administration succeeds in rolling back the Endangerment Finding on #climate change, it won't be because the facts support it, it'll be because the system is corrupt.