Rod Schoonover-Rey
@rodschoonover.bsky.social
Scientist. Professor. Former Senior Intelligence Official. Public Speaker. Passionate about redefining security in the face of planetary change. Proudly Native.
Clear-eyed about our trajectory. Focused on radically changing course. Anti-fascist.
Clear-eyed about our trajectory. Focused on radically changing course. Anti-fascist.
Bird flu is NOW an acute ecological security threat. These actions allow that threat to intersect with people and societies even more intensely.
www.propublica.org/article/bird...
www.propublica.org/article/bird...
What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic
Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. After a disastrous Midwestern outbreak early this year, we tested that theory and found that where the wind blew, the virus followed. Vacci...
www.propublica.org
November 26, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Bird flu is NOW an acute ecological security threat. These actions allow that threat to intersect with people and societies even more intensely.
www.propublica.org/article/bird...
www.propublica.org/article/bird...
Ocean stress remains among the most underappreciated stresses to security in the 21st century.
phys.org/news/2025-11...
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Ocean's upper 1,000 meters undergoing unprecedented, deep-reaching compound change
Earth's ocean, the planet's life-support system, is experiencing rapid and widespread transformations that extend far below its surface. A promising international study published in Nature Climate Cha...
phys.org
November 26, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Ocean stress remains among the most underappreciated stresses to security in the 21st century.
phys.org/news/2025-11...
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Maybe another set of meetings among like-minded nations/entities should be held that doesn’t include petrostates, obstructionists, and lobbyists. The UNFCCC has failed the cause by how it has allowed COPs to be conducted.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
End of fossil fuel era inches closer as Cop30 deal agreed after bitter standoff
Wealthy countries should triple funds for countries to tackle climate impacts, but deforestation and critical minerals blocked from final deal
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Maybe another set of meetings among like-minded nations/entities should be held that doesn’t include petrostates, obstructionists, and lobbyists. The UNFCCC has failed the cause by how it has allowed COPs to be conducted.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Was a great honor to appear on @fisherdanar.bsky.social podcast last week. We need to seriously reconsider how the international approach to climate change, because #COPs have become inessential monstrosities (save for the actual negotiations).
In Episode 2, I spoke with @lisaschipper.bsky.social and @rodschoonover.bsky.social about how climate shocks and (mal)adaptation are increasing vulnerabilities and inequalities across and within countries and what can be done about it. cece.american.edu/copout-episo...
November 17, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Was a great honor to appear on @fisherdanar.bsky.social podcast last week. We need to seriously reconsider how the international approach to climate change, because #COPs have become inessential monstrosities (save for the actual negotiations).
I first alerted US principals about this possibility in the early 2010s, and speculated then that new avenues of diplomacy might be possible with respect to Tehran. Fifteen years later we see a catastrophe unfold.
#ecologicalsecurity
www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/i...
#ecologicalsecurity
www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/i...
Taps run dry as water crisis forces Iran to consider evacuating its capital
A prolonged drought along with years of overconsumption, an inefficient agricultural sector and mismanagement have led to the problem, analysts say.
www.nbcnews.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:12 AM
I first alerted US principals about this possibility in the early 2010s, and speculated then that new avenues of diplomacy might be possible with respect to Tehran. Fifteen years later we see a catastrophe unfold.
#ecologicalsecurity
www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/i...
#ecologicalsecurity
www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/i...
Reposted by Rod Schoonover-Rey
U.S. officials have confirmed more than a dozen attacks on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific since September, resulting in at least 76 deaths.
Here’s a closer look at all the strikes:
Here’s a closer look at all the strikes:
Mapping U.S. strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific
An ongoing record of U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since Sept. 2.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:30 PM
U.S. officials have confirmed more than a dozen attacks on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific since September, resulting in at least 76 deaths.
Here’s a closer look at all the strikes:
Here’s a closer look at all the strikes:
As a former U.S. intelligence official, I welcome this break. Such actions by the White House are likely illegal and definitely immoral. It is simply unacceptable, and more U.S. officials should be resigning in protest.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/11/p...
www.cnn.com/2025/11/11/p...
Exclusive: UK suspends some intelligence sharing with US over boat strike concerns in major break | CNN Politics
The United Kingdom is no longer sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in US military strikes and believes ...
www.cnn.com
November 12, 2025 at 2:59 AM
As a former U.S. intelligence official, I welcome this break. Such actions by the White House are likely illegal and definitely immoral. It is simply unacceptable, and more U.S. officials should be resigning in protest.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/11/p...
www.cnn.com/2025/11/11/p...
Reposted by Rod Schoonover-Rey
mods are out on the town: academics, don't ever send me an M D P I special issue invite or paper anything else, thank's, and students, if your advisor suggests this, run
November 8, 2025 at 3:27 AM
mods are out on the town: academics, don't ever send me an M D P I special issue invite or paper anything else, thank's, and students, if your advisor suggests this, run
I think one of the hardest things for many to swallow is that maybe he has been shallow on this issue the whole time.
“Why Bill Gates’ climate memo is being celebrated by skeptics while frustrating scientists" | Article by @ryankatzrosene.bsky.social for @us.theconversation.com:
theconversation.com/why-bill-gat...
theconversation.com/why-bill-gat...
Why Bill Gates’ climate memo is being celebrated by skeptics while frustrating scientists
Gates recently called for a ‘strategic pivot’ in climate strategy. That appears to have hit a nerve.
theconversation.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:31 AM
I think one of the hardest things for many to swallow is that maybe he has been shallow on this issue the whole time.
Such an easy thing to implement. We could make it happen if we had courage from the very same Congress that argues these same points.
You know what? There's actually a tested solution to this! it is brilliantly simple, and it WORKS.
I would love to see @bsky.app and @support.bsky.team test this out.
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2023/ju...
I would love to see @bsky.app and @support.bsky.team test this out.
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2023/ju...
November 8, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Such an easy thing to implement. We could make it happen if we had courage from the very same Congress that argues these same points.
I met Watson at a lunch when I was a Scripps Institute Visiting Professor in the late 1990s. Many of us were understandably mesmerized by meeting the legendary biologist, but his comments on women and race even then were uncomfortable to listen to.
November 8, 2025 at 3:02 AM
I met Watson at a lunch when I was a Scripps Institute Visiting Professor in the late 1990s. Many of us were understandably mesmerized by meeting the legendary biologist, but his comments on women and race even then were uncomfortable to listen to.
Lots of people these days offering up “Project 2029” type remedies for US futures. Great. But if those plans don’t initiate a fundamental departure from 20th century policies/thinking, we won’t come close to achieving the necessary escape velocity to leave our incrementalist present behind.
November 7, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Lots of people these days offering up “Project 2029” type remedies for US futures. Great. But if those plans don’t initiate a fundamental departure from 20th century policies/thinking, we won’t come close to achieving the necessary escape velocity to leave our incrementalist present behind.
Every musician loves and was affected by artists before (and after) them. I would love a YouTube/etc channel devoted to famous musicians geeking out about one of their favorite artists. (For example, I’d love to listen to the Flaming Lips expound about their love of Butthole Surfers or Nick Cave).
November 1, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Every musician loves and was affected by artists before (and after) them. I would love a YouTube/etc channel devoted to famous musicians geeking out about one of their favorite artists. (For example, I’d love to listen to the Flaming Lips expound about their love of Butthole Surfers or Nick Cave).
There is no US strategic interest served by bombing Venezuela. So what is this about?
October 31, 2025 at 10:12 PM
There is no US strategic interest served by bombing Venezuela. So what is this about?
Reposted by Rod Schoonover-Rey
Last year, @michaelfwehner.bsky.social and Jim Kossin made the scientific case for a Cat6 cyclone. This week, Hurricane Melissa became the 6th storm in recorded history to smash through that threshold, with max winds of 216mph. And conditions leading to these storms are on the rise.
Read more:
Read more:
The growing inadequacy of an open-ended Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale in a warming world | PNAS
Global warming increases available sensible and latent heat energy, increasing the
thermodynamic potential wind intensity of tropical cyclones (TCs...
www.pnas.org
October 29, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Last year, @michaelfwehner.bsky.social and Jim Kossin made the scientific case for a Cat6 cyclone. This week, Hurricane Melissa became the 6th storm in recorded history to smash through that threshold, with max winds of 216mph. And conditions leading to these storms are on the rise.
Read more:
Read more:
Reposted by Rod Schoonover-Rey
this is a very impressive analysis of some of the statistical "oddities" in Pielke Jr's analysis that normalized climate impacts are declining. Everyone should read this.
economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/10/26/r...
economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/10/26/r...
Roger Pielke Jr.’s Appallingly Bad Analysis of Billion Dollar Disasters – Economics from the Top Down
In a recent paper called Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters”, Roger Pielke Jr. published a chart that's so bad I've devoted a whole essay to debunking it.
economicsfromthetopdown.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:53 AM
this is a very impressive analysis of some of the statistical "oddities" in Pielke Jr's analysis that normalized climate impacts are declining. Everyone should read this.
economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/10/26/r...
economicsfromthetopdown.com/2025/10/26/r...
Reposted by Rod Schoonover-Rey
Perhaps the most ominous satellite presentation we've seen. Cat 5 Melissa within 2 hours of landfall in Jamaica. Winds at 185 mph (tied for 2nd highest on record). Pressure at 892 mb (tied for 3rd lowest). Will be one of strongest Atlantic storms to make landfall ever recorded.
October 28, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Perhaps the most ominous satellite presentation we've seen. Cat 5 Melissa within 2 hours of landfall in Jamaica. Winds at 185 mph (tied for 2nd highest on record). Pressure at 892 mb (tied for 3rd lowest). Will be one of strongest Atlantic storms to make landfall ever recorded.
Reposted by Rod Schoonover-Rey
I do copyediit over the phone from the manuscript rather than sit there and be insulted by the AI, or spend any time at all attempting to toggle it off. Nobody wanted this and nobody wants this
This morning’s hype anthem
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
October 28, 2025 at 12:50 PM
I do copyediit over the phone from the manuscript rather than sit there and be insulted by the AI, or spend any time at all attempting to toggle it off. Nobody wanted this and nobody wants this
This looks unbelievably bad. Wish we still had USAID expertise in the U.S. government.
www.reuters.com/business/env...
www.reuters.com/business/env...
Hurricane Melissa begins lashing Jamaica as 'catastrophic' Category 5 storm
Hurricane Melissa began lashing Jamaica with violent gusts on Monday as the U.S. National Hurricane Center upgraded it to a Category 5 storm packing sustained winds of 165 mph, the largest on record to slam into the Caribbean island.
www.reuters.com
October 28, 2025 at 12:50 PM
This looks unbelievably bad. Wish we still had USAID expertise in the U.S. government.
www.reuters.com/business/env...
www.reuters.com/business/env...
In 2028, whoever runs on updating the FCC and FTC to halt the flood of unsolicited text messages will score major points.
October 28, 2025 at 12:34 PM
In 2028, whoever runs on updating the FCC and FTC to halt the flood of unsolicited text messages will score major points.
Trump cuts probably hindered warning process for Alaska storm that displaced hundreds, experts say www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Trump cuts probably hindered warning process for Alaska storm that displaced hundreds, experts say
Reductions in weather balloon launches could have degraded forecasts that residents depend on to prepare
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Trump cuts probably hindered warning process for Alaska storm that displaced hundreds, experts say www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Rod Schoonover-Rey
It’s quite impressive how Mamdani has pulled almost every Dem into his coalition, not him into theirs. He keeps the door open for everyone but true enemies (Adams, Cuomo) & rather than try to extort a Hochul into a promise, he just puts her onstage & lets the popular will confront her. Amazing.
Governor Kathy Hochul is speaking on stage, but the crowd keeps interrupting to chant #TaxTheRich
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
October 26, 2025 at 11:47 PM
It’s quite impressive how Mamdani has pulled almost every Dem into his coalition, not him into theirs. He keeps the door open for everyone but true enemies (Adams, Cuomo) & rather than try to extort a Hochul into a promise, he just puts her onstage & lets the popular will confront her. Amazing.
