Cheryl Katz

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads In this edition: Bezos, paper, scissors; feast or famine; one reason to stay here; any way you slice it; the real Winter Olympics, and more.

Thanks @Longreads for picking my Rockhoppers story as one of this week’s Top 5! Love the write-up — you really captured the piece. Team Penguins! 🧪🐧 longreads.com/2026/02/06/t...

The Olympics are ditching PFAS waxes — and the ‘ridiculous’ speed they gave skiers A key source of speed is gone, as concerns over toxic “forever chemicals” reshape Olympic skiing and the science behind winning on snow.

Great to see the Olympics finally ban PFAS in ski wax! I first reported on this environmental health hazard in 2011: www.scientificamerican.com/article/ski-...
grist.org/culture/the-... 🧪⛷️❄️

Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.

Climate reporters among WaPo’s carnage:
Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team🧪
open.substack.com/pub/climatec...

Opinion | Hey, Republicans: Trump Is the President

I'm thrilled to have the Rockhopper penguins story I reported from the Falklands called out in today's New York Times! No, it's NOT about Trump... it's in the second half of Frank Bruni's column: "For the Love of Sentences." 🧪🐧 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/o...

Rockhopper Penguins' Athleticism Makes Them the Daredevils of the Animal World. Will a Warming Climate Slow Them Down? A visit to the Falkland Islands, where the fearless seabirds navigate the rugged topography with tenacious spunk, shows the new challenges they face

Southern Rockhoppers are the world’s cutest and most badass penguins. I visited their Falkland Islands colonies to report on the problems they now face—and the pluck that may see them through. My story in Smithsonian Magazine, with photos by Chris Linder🧪🐧 www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

Tufted Puffins Are Vanishing Across the Pacific Northwest—Can an Ambitious New Effort Save Them? Armed with enthusiasm, researchers and volunteers have joined forces to safeguard the flamboyant seabirds as climate change warms their ocean homes.

Puffins in the Pacific? Yes, Tufted Puffins! They’re every bit as cute as Atlantic Puffins—and largely unknown. My latest, for Audubon Magazine, about scientists looking for causes and solutions to these intrepid mariners’ steep decline. 🧪🐧
www.audubon.org/magazine/tuf...

Interesting new study finds polar bears aging faster due to stress caused by #ClimateChange. Age advancing by a year for each degree of #Arctic warming—which is now up to +3 C. (Note: report in preprint) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧪❄️

Research | Watershed Futures Initiative | British Columbia Research paper by Marta Ulaski, et al "Barriers and opportunities for the effective management of cumulative effects in salmon ecosystems in British Columbia, Canada"

New report on the “thousand cuts” behind Pacific salmon’s population plunge—and some solutions: www.watershedfuturesinitiative.com/research/ula....
My story about this complex dilemma and its tragic impacts on the Salmon People, for Smithsonian Magazine: www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

Svalbard Archipelago Lost 1% of Glacial Ice During Summer 2024 Heat Wave, New Study Finds Record-level temperatures battered Svalbard during summer of 2024. Researchers have now quantified the damage the heatwave caused: One percent of the archipelago’s ice had disappeared by the end of th...

Last summer’s record heat wave sent 1% of Svalbard’s ice down the drain.(Well not exactly, but you known what I mean…)❄️🧪
www.highnorthnews.com/en/svalbard-...

Svalbard winter warming is reaching melting point - Nature Communications The Arctic winters are changing fast. In February 2025, Svalbard endured rain, thawing tundra, and pooling meltwater. The Comment by Bradley and coauthors describes how winter warming is reshapin...

Winter temps in Svalbard above freezing for half of Feb.; new @nature.com paper shows the impacts. “When winter warming crosses the 0 °C threshold, it marks more than just a warm anomaly — it signals a fundamental shift in Arctic winter dynamics.” 🧪❄️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Scientists urge global action to prevent industrial activity in Central Arctic Ocean A coalition of over 1,000 scientists has taken the occasion of this week’s U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice to call for a global agreement that would prevent industrial activities in the Central Arctic O...

www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-a...

Super-rich Russians plan big party on North Pole - ArcticToday Rock band Leningrad will perform and popular DJs, stand-up comedians and fitness celebrities will entertain. A group of well-connected Russians will on August 21 board the French luxury yacht Le Comma...

Waiting for my invite…
www.arctictoday.com/super-rich-r...

“Another year, another record… It’s sad.” —Ralph Keeling thehill.com/policy/energ...

Public Domain | Substack Investigative reporting on public lands, wildlife and government. Click to read Public Domain, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

Hidden inside “big, beautiful” bill — opening 1000s of acres at edge of Minnesota’s irreplaceable Boundary Waters wilderness to mining. www.publicdomain.media?utm_source=n...

🧪

Salmon and related fish in global decline since 1980, Concordia study shows - Concordia University A new database covering over 1,000 rivers and streams reveals a sharp drop in the biomass of salmon, trout and similar species

Worldwide, populations of salmon and related species have dropped nearly 40 per cent since 1980, a new study finds: www.concordia.ca/cunews/stori... My recent @smithsonianmag.bsky.social story about the tragic impacts on Pac NW tribes: www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/... 🧪

Salmon in the Pacific Northwest Are Facing a New Threat: Booming Populations of Seals and Sea Lions The mammals' return to the region represented a conservation success story, but their appetite for endangered fish is upsetting the balance of a delicate ecosystem

“Managing an endangered species that is preyed on by another endangered species is a complex thing.”
My latest, on the conservation conundrum in the Pacific Northwest, for @smithsonianmag www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu... 🧪

The Weather & Climate Livestream | Speakers Information for potential speakers at the Weather & Climate Livestream

Don’t miss the Weather & Climate Livestream, 5/28-6/1: a 100-hour nonpartisan talkathon about climate science and why it matters for everyone: wcstreamathon.netlify.app Scientists - sign up to speak and help Save America’s Forecasts 🧪

Roar!
🧪🔭💡🌎❄️🧬

AGU and AMS join forces on special collection to maintain momentum of research supporting the U.S. National Climate assessment Congressionally mandated, the NCA draws on the latest scientific research to evaluate how climate change is affecting the United States. The new special collection does not replace the NCA but instead...

Kudos to @agu.org and @ametsoc.org for stepping up to fill the National Climate Assessment void! 🧪
news.agu.org/press-releas...

Trump slaps bizarre tariffs on Arctic islands with almost no export The uninhabited volcanic island of Jan Mayen and the Svalbard archipelago are among the strangest places Trump has imposed tariffs on.

Tariffs on Svalbard and Jan Mayen? Just about the only thing these remote Arctic islands export is science…🧪
www.thebarentsobserver.com/news/trump-s...

Arctic sea ice has shrunk to a new record low this year @nsidc.bsky.social reports. Meanwhile, Arctic winter temps have been running up to 2 C above average. 🧪

Trump cuts target world-leading greenhouse gas observatory in Hawaii | Honolulu Star-Advertiser The Trump administration is considering canceling the lease of the support office for a renowned Hawaii climate research station, sources said, raising fears for the future of key work tracking the im...

“It looks like our monitoring program will soon be dead.”https://www.staradvertiser.com/2025/03/11/breaking-news/trump-cuts-target-world-leading-greenhouse-gas-observatory-in-hawaii/ 🧪🔭

Burning at both ends—global daily sea ice hit new low in Feb., @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social reports, and Antarctic seasonal ice cover remains near record low, @nsidc.bsky.social shows. nsidc.org/sea-ice-toda...

sites.ecmwf.int/data/c3sci/b...

Help Denmark Buy California – Because Why Not? Buy it from Trump, the bigliest crowdsourcing ever

As a Californian, I’m all for this: denmarkification.com I’m especially excited about the smørrebrød! 🇩🇰

Best wishes to my favorite “Undesirables.” Keep up the great work, @thebarentsobserver.com!!!

NSF reexamines existing awards to comply with Trump’s directives Normal operations have been disrupted as staff look for offending words

Self-censorship at NSF?
www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

Could Trump Use the ‘God Squad’ to Override Environmental Law? The president wants to convene the rarely used panel, which has the power to carve out exemptions to the Endangered Species Act. Here’s what to know.

Today’s alarming question: will the “God Squad” be marshalled to wipe out endangered species? 🧪
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/c...

1000s of Greenland lakes have abruptly shifted from carbon sinks to sources — driving CO2 output up 350%, new @umaine.bsky.social paper in @pnas.org finds. I accompanied the researchers in 2023 and wrote this report from the field: e360.yale.edu/features/gre... 🧪

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...