Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
@fkearns.bsky.social
6.5K followers 1.4K following 3.1K posts
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
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fkearns.bsky.social
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.
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
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
ketanjoshi.co
Roger Pielke Jr spent years moaning about being "cancelled", and now he's just spending his days at a fossil-funded think tank directly attacking climate scientists, and he has a fascist dictatorship to help him out now too

So seriously gross

www.eenews.net/articles/cli...
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Climatewire
Climate critics try to discredit IPCC author for linking disasters to global warming
By Lesley Clark, Sara Schonhardt, Chelsea Harvey | 10/09/2025 06:22 AM EDT

Roger Pielke Jr. and oil industry supporters are attacking climate scientist Friederike Otto, whose work has been used in lawsuits against polluters.

Friederike Otto. 
Fossil fuel industry allies have launched a campaign against the inclusion of scientist Friederike Otto in the next United Nations climate review. They say her work to attribute extreme weather to human-caused global warming is bolstering climate lawsuits against oil companies. The First/Facebook | The First/Facebook

Critics of mainstream climate science and allies of the fossil fuel industry are taking aim at a prominent expert who’s helping coordinate the next United Nations review of global climate research, arguing that her work aims to bolster multibillion-dollar lawsuits against oil and gas companies.

In an August New York Post op-ed, Roger Pielke Jr., a political scientist at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, raised concerns about the appointment of Friederike Otto as a coordinating lead author for the seventh assessment report of the influential Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The criticism is aimed at extreme weather attribution, a popular field of research that studies whether and to what degree human-caused global warming has made an extreme weather event, such as a heat wave or heavy rain, more severe or likely to occur. Otto co-founded World Weather Attribution, which develops analyses showing climate’s role in extreme weather events.

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Attribution science has been cited in congressional hearings and included in legislation to highlight the links between extreme weather event… UN Abandons Science and Hires Climate Change Zealots Who Damn the Facts
By Roger Pielke Jr.

New York Post

August 22, 2025

Life would be impossible without experts — doctors help us when we get sick, mechanics fix our cars when they break down, farmers produce our food, to name just a few.

But we live in a time when too many of these roles have become politicized.

President Trump recently fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the agency released a jobs report he did not like. Similarly, soon after his election, President Joe Biden fired the climate scientist leading the US National Climate Assessment and replaced her with a communications professional.   

Not surprisingly, public confidence in medical and scientific institutions has dropped overall and become more partisan as politicians increasingly select experts to advise them based on their politics rather than their willingness to call things as they see them.

The ongoing politicization of scientific institutions is not limited to politicians or to the United States.

Now we’re seeing it in the organization tasked with periodically assessing climate science under the United Nations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which distills the thousands and thousands of research papers on climate change to help inform decision-makers on the nature of the problem and possibilities for response.

The IPCC is so important for clarifying what we know and don’t know about climate that I have testified before Congress that if it didn’t exist, we would have to invent it.

Last week, the IPCC announced its list of authors for its seventh assessment report, which is just getting underway and will take several years to produce.

One of its most important chapters is on extreme weather events — how they may have changed over time, and understanding the reasons for any identified changes.
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
lizneeley.bsky.social
GOOD!

MIT officially rejects the compact/loyalty oath for higher ed. That’s 1 of 9. I hope we see many more announcements today.
byjoshmoody.bsky.social
MIT rejects "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.
MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...
Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart
orgchart.mit.edu
fkearns.bsky.social
It’s never quite resonated with me but I think Emily Fairfax used it quite a bit for her origin story from engineering to beavers and in that context it made sense.
fkearns.bsky.social
I saw a projection that included like 6-8 inches for some parts of the southern desert!
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
junoryleejournalism.com
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
dustinmulvaney.bsky.social
A park employee, who spoke with SFGATE on the condition of anonymity to protect their job, said they know of only one wilderness ranger working the entire park. And technically, that person is not even a ranger, the employee said, but a volunteer.
fkearns.bsky.social
I am in that red blob and a decent rainfall has begun this evening
nws.noaa.gov
Deep tropical moisture surging into the Southwest U.S. will lead to widespread showers and thunderstorms capable of producing flash flooding the next several days. For more info, visit www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/index.php#pa...
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
weatherwest.bsky.social
"The requirements to succeed on new media platforms are almost precisely the opposite of what successful experts have trained themselves to do: maintain an institutional tone of formal detachment and stay ruthlessly on-message at all times."
For Expertise to Matter, Nonpartisan Institutions Need New Communications Strategies
To avoid irrelevance when they are needed most, experts and nonpartisan analysts must rethink not just their channels of communication but also their theory of influence.
carnegieendowment.org
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
kevinjkircher.com
In April, Spain and Portugal suffered Europe's worst blackout in 20 years. Now, 5 months later, an expert panel has released a report on the blackout. In the meantime, opportunists filled the information void, blaming renewables without evidence. The misinfo stuck, @juliaradio.bsky.social reports.
After Spain's blackout, critics blamed renewable energy. It's part of a bigger attack
When millions lost power in Spain and Portugal this spring, some were quick to blame too much solar and wind power. That wasn't the cause, but the misinformation had an impact.
www.npr.org
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
nws.noaa.gov
An ongoing flux of moisture from the Tropical Pacific into the Southwest will foster locally heavy rainfall through early next week, brining daily flash flooding risks. Follow your local weather forecast office for specific information.
fkearns.bsky.social
Looks like a good scicomm opportunity for early career folks (one year of experience).
joshuasweitz.bsky.social
Best consideration deadline, Friday Oct 10:

#SCIMaP (scienceimacts.org) seeks to hire a Research Communications and Media Outreach Specialist at U-Maryland to facilitate public engagement related to federal investment in science and health research.

umd.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UMCP/j...
SCIMaP job opportunity - https://umd.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UMCP/job/Research-Communications-and-Media-Outreach-Specialist_JR102577
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself
blipstress.bsky.social
An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.
fkearns.bsky.social
Read about it today in Wudan’s newsletter-looking forward to reading!
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
nickmustoe.bsky.social
It is raining gold on the San Juans. Probably peak color for the season as rain moves in this weekend.
Golden aspen surround a dirt road. Golden aspen shade the sun. Golden aspen surround a dirt road. Golden aspen and Engelmann spruce surround a dirt road.
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
brothercadfile.bsky.social
maybe i’m a soulless technocrat at bottom but man, so much of the foundation for human prosperity is thinking carefully about stuff like this
fkearns.bsky.social
What can we realistically expect from water systems during urban wildfire conflagrations? We held a recent workshop with on-the-ground experts and have written up some initial takeaways ucanr.edu/blog/conflue...
Water Systems and Wildfire: Understanding Capacities and Limitations | UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
Image
ucanr.edu
fkearns.bsky.social
Thank you for reading and sharing - glad it was useful!
Reposted by Faith Kearns, Ph.D.
gregspierce.bsky.social
"A recent study led by Francisco Escobedo of the Forest Service suggested that the type and moisture level of vegetation in Zone Zero matters — that well-hydrated vegetation might not pose a threat — and that it varies among regions within California."
lapublicpress.bsky.social
California’s Zone Zero fire rules clash with LA’s desperate need for shade.

Homeowners in fire hazard zones may have to remove bushes, hedges and flowers within five feet of their houses — even as extreme heat becomes more dangerous.
California's Zone Zero fire rules clash with LA's desperate need for shade
Homeowners in fire hazard zones may have to remove bushes, hedges and flowers within five feet of their houses — even as extreme heat becomes more dangerous.
lapublicpress.org