Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
@fkearns.bsky.social
Scientist-communicator working on water, wildfire, climate, & disaster issues in AZ + CA | Words: High Country News, New Republic, & more | Book: Getting to the Heart of Science Communication | Water Talk podcast co-host | www.faithkearns.com | views=mine
Pinned
Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
@fkearns.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Grand Canyon’s Dragon Bravo megafire shows the growing wildfire threat to water systems
Water systems are vulnerable to melting plastic components, toxic contamination and failures that can leave firefighters without flowing water.
theconversation.com
The Dragon Bravo Fire at the Grand Canyon hit a water system facility, setting off a dangerous chlorine gas leak that halted the firefight at a critical time.
That was just one of many water-related challenges on this fire, and is indicative of a larger pattern across the western US.
New, from me.
That was just one of many water-related challenges on this fire, and is indicative of a larger pattern across the western US.
New, from me.
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
big late breaking news: the market monitor for the largest energy grid in the u.s., covering much of the midwest and mid-atlantic, has called to block new data centers connections to the grid, saying current course of growth assures regular blackouts
No more PJM data centers unless they can be reliably served: market monitor
The PJM Interconnection’s market monitor urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to rule that large data centers can only come online if the grid operator can still meet reliability metrics.
www.utilitydive.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:17 AM
big late breaking news: the market monitor for the largest energy grid in the u.s., covering much of the midwest and mid-atlantic, has called to block new data centers connections to the grid, saying current course of growth assures regular blackouts
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
If you are serving a salad tomorrow (in the US), then it likely came from the Imperial Valley. Great listening while you cook.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
Episode 80: The Imperial Valley—winter produce basket and living border
Podcast Episode · Water Talk · 11/26/2025 · 44m
podcasts.apple.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:26 AM
If you are serving a salad tomorrow (in the US), then it likely came from the Imperial Valley. Great listening while you cook.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
Did you know sweet potatoes should be baked not microwaved? 😳
I learned a lot writing this story about @ucanr.edu & @lsuagcenter.bsky.social sweet potato breeding & variety testing bit.ly/purplesweets
I learned a lot writing this story about @ucanr.edu & @lsuagcenter.bsky.social sweet potato breeding & variety testing bit.ly/purplesweets
Purple sweet potatoes create buzz | Food Blog
When West Coast consumers buy sweet potatoes at a store, chances are good that they will be choosing varieties that were selected by Scott Stoddard, UCCE farm advisor.
bit.ly
November 26, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Did you know sweet potatoes should be baked not microwaved? 😳
I learned a lot writing this story about @ucanr.edu & @lsuagcenter.bsky.social sweet potato breeding & variety testing bit.ly/purplesweets
I learned a lot writing this story about @ucanr.edu & @lsuagcenter.bsky.social sweet potato breeding & variety testing bit.ly/purplesweets
Fears of post-wildfire groundwater well contamination in New Mexico www.taosnews.com/news/environ...
Fears ratchet up over Mora County well contamination
The bottled water at the Las Vegas Walmart is a better deal than the water in Mora. The superstore is 36 miles away from Helen and Julian Olivas’ home in
www.taosnews.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Fears of post-wildfire groundwater well contamination in New Mexico www.taosnews.com/news/environ...
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
I read this sentence and had to stop to admire it. Gorgeous.
(It's a gift link so everyone can enjoy the full essay)
(It's a gift link so everyone can enjoy the full essay)
I’ve read a lot of descriptions of that meeting but none as perfect as @tressiemcphd.bsky.social’s:
“Yet Trump showered Mamdani with praise. He glowed up at him beatifically, looking to all the world like a young girl in a Renaissance painting.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/o...
“Yet Trump showered Mamdani with praise. He glowed up at him beatifically, looking to all the world like a young girl in a Renaissance painting.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/o...
Opinion | Has Marjorie Taylor Greene Really Seen the Light?
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I read this sentence and had to stop to admire it. Gorgeous.
(It's a gift link so everyone can enjoy the full essay)
(It's a gift link so everyone can enjoy the full essay)
Highly recommend! Huge @leahsottile.bsky.social podcast fan. Binge them all!
The final episode of Hush is out today, episode 8: "The Allure of an Answer."
Every podcast I finish, I think it's the hardest thing I've done as a journalist. This time that might be the most true. Someday soon, I'll tell you why.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...
Every podcast I finish, I think it's the hardest thing I've done as a journalist. This time that might be the most true. Someday soon, I'll tell you why.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...
Episode 8: The Allure of an Answer
Podcast Episode · Hush · S2 E8 · 42m
podcasts.apple.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Highly recommend! Huge @leahsottile.bsky.social podcast fan. Binge them all!
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
Violence over water is on the rise around the world. Researchers counted a record 420 water-related conflicts last year. Dozens of violent incidents occurred in Ukraine and Gaza. Water-related violence also erupted in countries including India, Iran and Mexico. www.latimes.com/environment/...
Violent conflict over water hit a record last year
Violence over water is on the rise worldwide. Researchers counted a record 420 incidents of conflict in 2024, many in Ukraine and the Middle East.
www.latimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Violence over water is on the rise around the world. Researchers counted a record 420 water-related conflicts last year. Dozens of violent incidents occurred in Ukraine and Gaza. Water-related violence also erupted in countries including India, Iran and Mexico. www.latimes.com/environment/...
Waiting for those first 100 degree night time temps…
Listen, it’s anyone’s game but I still think Phoenix is going to be the first big U.S. city to be unlivable (broadly defined) because of failure to take climate action.
November 26, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Waiting for those first 100 degree night time temps…
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
On Trump's arroyo-phobic Clean Water Act rule
www.landdesk.org/p/on-trumps-...
www.landdesk.org/p/on-trumps-...
On Trump's arroyo-phobic Clean Water Act rule
Plus: Congress kills another RMP, sows chaos; Trump endangers Endangered Species Act
www.landdesk.org
November 26, 2025 at 2:30 PM
On Trump's arroyo-phobic Clean Water Act rule
www.landdesk.org/p/on-trumps-...
www.landdesk.org/p/on-trumps-...
Looking for a good listen while traveling? Catch up with the Water Talk crew talking about the US/MEX borderlands where your winter produce is grown, and the people and water that make it happen! www.watertalkpodcast.com/episodes/epi...
Episode 80: The Imperial Valley—winter produce basket and living border — Water Talk
A conversation with University of California Desert Research and Extension Center Director Dr. Jairo Diaz about water, agriculture, and border dynamics in the Imperial Valley of California. Re-release...
www.watertalkpodcast.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Looking for a good listen while traveling? Catch up with the Water Talk crew talking about the US/MEX borderlands where your winter produce is grown, and the people and water that make it happen! www.watertalkpodcast.com/episodes/epi...
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
Lee Canyon, an hour west of Las Vegas, has received more snow than California’s Donner Pass so far this season. Arizona Snowbowl in Flagstaff, Ariz., is having its snowiest November since 2004, with nearly five feet of powder.
Tahoe and Colorado are mostly dry. Here’s where you can still ski out West
While many Tahoe ski resorts delay opening day, a surprising corner of the West has experienced its snowiest start to the season in decades.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Lee Canyon, an hour west of Las Vegas, has received more snow than California’s Donner Pass so far this season. Arizona Snowbowl in Flagstaff, Ariz., is having its snowiest November since 2004, with nearly five feet of powder.
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 12:19 PM
It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
"Online and in private, however, some Vietnamese have begun to criticize the government’s lack of preparedness and slow response...Why, many ask, aren’t alarm and evacuation systems providing more help to residents as rivers rise?"
Vietnam’s Year of Floods, Mud and Death
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:08 AM
"Online and in private, however, some Vietnamese have begun to criticize the government’s lack of preparedness and slow response...Why, many ask, aren’t alarm and evacuation systems providing more help to residents as rivers rise?"
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
"I look at that, and I have affection for a young man. It’s a Saturday night, and I’m at a typewriter with the fucking headphones on. I’m putting in the work. I’m doing it."— @themountaingoats.bsky.social's John Darnielle to Grayson Haver Currin for @GQmagazine.bsky.social
The Story John Darnielle Lived to Tell
When he was a teenager, the Mountain Goats founder never expected to live to 21. He has since become one of this century’s best songwriters. The lessons of his survival, life, and work feel endless.
www.gq.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:16 PM
"I look at that, and I have affection for a young man. It’s a Saturday night, and I’m at a typewriter with the fucking headphones on. I’m putting in the work. I’m doing it."— @themountaingoats.bsky.social's John Darnielle to Grayson Haver Currin for @GQmagazine.bsky.social
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
New episode of Misguided just launched with @noupside.bsky.social!
We discuss her path into social media research, how online groups shape belief, and why AI is shifting the information battle upstream, plus what institutions must do to rebuild trust.
We discuss her path into social media research, how online groups shape belief, and why AI is shifting the information battle upstream, plus what institutions must do to rebuild trust.
Bespoke Realities, Invisible Rulers, and the Battle for Truth
Renée DiResta joins me to discuss how online influence networks shape belief, who steers the information ecosystem, and why AI’s reference layer is becoming the next battleground for truth.
matthewfacciani.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:43 PM
New episode of Misguided just launched with @noupside.bsky.social!
We discuss her path into social media research, how online groups shape belief, and why AI is shifting the information battle upstream, plus what institutions must do to rebuild trust.
We discuss her path into social media research, how online groups shape belief, and why AI is shifting the information battle upstream, plus what institutions must do to rebuild trust.
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
Data centers popping up on Indigenous lands everywhere, but especially perilous to us desert tribes where water availability for crops and for communities have new competition.
The data center boom in the desert
The AI race is transforming northwestern Nevada into one of the world's largest data-center markets—and sparking fears of water strains in the nation’s driest state.
www.technologyreview.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Data centers popping up on Indigenous lands everywhere, but especially perilous to us desert tribes where water availability for crops and for communities have new competition.
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
To be clear: he is in no way a "man in science." The entire premise here is laughable.
Over many interviews, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Michael Scherer about how he plans to remake America’s public-health system. Can he lead the scientific establishment he’s spent much of his life crusading against?
Read more in our new cover story: theatln.tc/q9hXxlbM
Read more in our new cover story: theatln.tc/q9hXxlbM
November 24, 2025 at 6:29 PM
To be clear: he is in no way a "man in science." The entire premise here is laughable.
We wrote a paper about wildfire shelter-in-place ideas in 2009 - headed by Scott Stephens with AUS colleagues - and they have always been largely and pretty vocally opposed by the fire service…until now? iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
November 24, 2025 at 4:32 PM
We wrote a paper about wildfire shelter-in-place ideas in 2009 - headed by Scott Stephens with AUS colleagues - and they have always been largely and pretty vocally opposed by the fire service…until now? iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
The idea that we somehow understand, or are likely to do so in the near future, even remotely how to dial in a particular magnitude of surface temperature change -- let alone rainfall -- is just not realistic (that's me being nice). 2/2
October 26, 2025 at 5:58 PM
The idea that we somehow understand, or are likely to do so in the near future, even remotely how to dial in a particular magnitude of surface temperature change -- let alone rainfall -- is just not realistic (that's me being nice). 2/2
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
data center water use goes down when they use renewables. whatdya know
How to make data centers less thirsty
There’s a way to reduce both the climate and water harms of data centers: build them in places with lots of wind and solar energy.
grist.org
November 24, 2025 at 2:59 PM
data center water use goes down when they use renewables. whatdya know
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
You all MUST READ this piece by Kaitlyn Greenidge about the power of art to “exist outside of a tech lord’s algorithm.”
www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-...
www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-...
The Artist Who Reminds Us that Another Way Is Possible
The late artist Abigail McGrath cultivated a creative life for herself filled with freedom, joy, and a commitment to beauty. In an age of authoritarianism and algorithms, it’s a kind of life worth pro...
www.harpersbazaar.com
November 23, 2025 at 6:09 PM
You all MUST READ this piece by Kaitlyn Greenidge about the power of art to “exist outside of a tech lord’s algorithm.”
www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-...
www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-...
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
“Heartbreaking scenes from Elit, Iran, where wildfire is damaging parts of the ancient Hyrcanian forests — a @unesco.org World Heritage treasure and one of Earth’s last temperate rainforests" Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health
#Iran 🇮🇷
#Iran 🇮🇷
Turkey sends aircraft to help battle Iran wildfires
Two Turkish firefighting planes, one helicopter and eight personnel will arrive in Iran on Saturday to help quell fires in the Hyrcanian forest in the country's north, Iranian environment chief Shina ...
www.iranintl.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:39 PM
“Heartbreaking scenes from Elit, Iran, where wildfire is damaging parts of the ancient Hyrcanian forests — a @unesco.org World Heritage treasure and one of Earth’s last temperate rainforests" Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health
#Iran 🇮🇷
#Iran 🇮🇷
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
Tehran is cutting water pressure 12-5 am. “If it doesn’t rain in Tehran by late November, we’ll…[formally] ration water,” Iran’s president said. “And if it still doesn’t rain, we’ll have to evacuate.” Drought & long-term sanctions have major reservoirs nr dry.
www.motherjones.com/environment/...
www.motherjones.com/environment/...
Iran's capital must relocate due to dire water situation, president insists
Tehran's troubles are a red flag for thirsty cities around the globe.
www.motherjones.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Tehran is cutting water pressure 12-5 am. “If it doesn’t rain in Tehran by late November, we’ll…[formally] ration water,” Iran’s president said. “And if it still doesn’t rain, we’ll have to evacuate.” Drought & long-term sanctions have major reservoirs nr dry.
www.motherjones.com/environment/...
www.motherjones.com/environment/...
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
🚨NEW: Iran will move its capital due to an ecological catastrophe. Experts warn the move won’t help the nearly 10 million people living in Tehran, who will continue to face the impacts of corruption and climate change.
“We saw this coming,” one source told me.
My story @sciam.bsky.social 🧪
“We saw this coming,” one source told me.
My story @sciam.bsky.social 🧪
Iran's Capital Is Moving. The Reason is an Ecological Catastrophe
The move is partly driven by climate change, but experts say decades of human error and action are also to blame
www.scientificamerican.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:01 PM
🚨NEW: Iran will move its capital due to an ecological catastrophe. Experts warn the move won’t help the nearly 10 million people living in Tehran, who will continue to face the impacts of corruption and climate change.
“We saw this coming,” one source told me.
My story @sciam.bsky.social 🧪
“We saw this coming,” one source told me.
My story @sciam.bsky.social 🧪
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
““If they’re not gonna run the programs, then what are we paying them for?” she said. “It’s like, you know, you’re paying us for a service and they’re not delivering. So let’s stop paying for it.”
👀 @mikiesherrill.bsky.social goes there …
👀 @mikiesherrill.bsky.social goes there …
New Jersey may stop paying federal taxes under new governor
Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill said on a podcast with Jon Stewart it's a "great idea."
www.politico.com
November 22, 2025 at 4:15 PM
““If they’re not gonna run the programs, then what are we paying them for?” she said. “It’s like, you know, you’re paying us for a service and they’re not delivering. So let’s stop paying for it.”
👀 @mikiesherrill.bsky.social goes there …
👀 @mikiesherrill.bsky.social goes there …