Helen Amanda Fricker
@helen-amanda.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.6K following 1.5K posts
Professor of Glaciology at Scripps Polar Center, UC San Diego https://bsky.app/profile/scrippsocean.bsky.social Studies Antarctica with satellites 🇦🇶🛰️🧊 Graduate of @UCL & @UTAS Happy to be safely on Bluesky ❄️❄️❄️
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helen-amanda.bsky.social
Ha ha ssh @lpadman.bsky.social, but now there is a cite it will soon be in the dictionary. It has grown on me. :-)
helen-amanda.bsky.social
I love it! And it's great to have a paper to cite for this term. Really nice -congrats!!
Reposted by Helen Amanda Fricker
scrippsocean.bsky.social
🏔️ New research finds that 5️⃣ widely discussed polar geoengineering proposals are unlikely to help the Arctic or Antarctic. Instead, they could cost billions & trigger ecological, political & environmental risks. Read more about the study supported by Scripps glaciologist @helen-amanda.bsky.social. ⬇️
Experts Warn Against Five Polar Geoengineering Ideas
A team of international scientists is urging caution against five of the most-discussed polar geoengineering ideas, stating they are highly unlikely to help the polar regions and could harm ecosystems...
scripps.ucsd.edu
Reposted by Helen Amanda Fricker
sifill.bsky.social
This may explain why there’s an aggressive response to people who merely post Kirk’s own words. It threatens the existence of the alternate Kirk - the motivational speaker that had been marketed to young kids and white Christian groups through selective quotation & clips.
Reposted by Helen Amanda Fricker
cosmokeir.bsky.social
Chuffed to be included in this review paper on the Foundation-Patuxent-Academy ice stream system, Antarctica led by Neil Ross - you can see the preprint in open review here: doi.org/10.5194/egus... - featuring the busiest figure I've ever made 🇦🇶🧊
A busy figure with three panels (a, b, and c). Panel a is a plot with distance along centreline (in km) on the x axis and elevation (in metres above sea level) on the y axis. The plot shows the location (along flowline) and elevation of samples collected for cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating at sites adjacent to the Foundation Ice Stream. Panel b is a map that shows the Foundation Ice Stream (and neighbouring ice streams and glaciers), the flowline used in panel a, and the locations from which the samples in panel a were collected. Panel c is a plot with age (in thousands of years) on the x axis and elevation above modern ice surface (in metres) on the y axis. Exposure ages (between 20 ka and the present day) from the sites in panels a and b are plotted, with most of them falling between ~4 and 9 ka. The ages show that the Foundation Ice Stream thinned by hundreds of metres (at least 700 to 800 m) between about 9 and 4 ka.
Reposted by Helen Amanda Fricker
journomack.bsky.social
This Sir Douglas Mawson quote from @helen-amanda.bsky.social study on the abrupt and unknown ice loss of Antarctica.
"We had come to probe its mystery, we had hoped to reduce it to terms of science, but there was always the 'indefinable' which held aloof, yet riveted our souls,"
Reposted by Helen Amanda Fricker
costasamaras.com
The climate data was fine

The labor data was fine

The crime data was fine

They just didn't like the answers (hot, not, not)
Reposted by Helen Amanda Fricker
Reposted by Helen Amanda Fricker
rbreich.bsky.social
Trump will spend his weekend promoting a new golf course at his resort in Scotland – costing taxpayers an estimated $10 million.

After this jaunt, he will have spent at least $52 million of taxpayer money on golf trips.

If that’s not fraud, waste, and abuse, I don’t know what is.
Donald Trump's Golf Spending Spree
Yesterday, Donald Trump said that the U.S. has "too many non-working holidays." Our "pro-worker president" thinks that w
www.youtube.com
Reposted by Helen Amanda Fricker
helen-amanda.bsky.social
There needs to be a #GoFundMe so that government scientists can attend #AGU2025. Their travel is restricted, but there's surely nothing stopping them from taking a personal trip to New Orleans?
Reposted by Helen Amanda Fricker
antarctic.bsky.social
#Antarctic sea ice is:

⚙️ a global climate engine
☂️ a cooling sunshade
🌀 a pumphouse for currents
🧊 a vast verandah for life
♻️ one of the largest seasonal cycles on Earth
🌬️ highly sensitive to climate variability

🌊 What happens when there's less sea ice?
aapp.shorthandstories.com/a-world-with...
helen-amanda.bsky.social
I love this! Amazing work. 🎉
Reposted by Helen Amanda Fricker
luckytran.com
NEW: Hundreds of NASA employees have filed a letter of formal dissent.

"We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety, scientific advancement, and efficient use of public resources. The consequences for the agency and the country alike are dire."
The Voyager Declaration
Dear Interim Administrator Duffy,

In light of your recent appointment as Interim NASA Administrator, we bring to your attention recent policies that have or threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security, and undermine the core NASA mission. We, the signatories of this letter, dissent from these policies, and raise these concerns because we believe strongly in the importance of NASA's mission, which we are dedicated to uphold.

Major programmatic shifts at NASA must be implemented strategically so that risks are managed carefully. Instead, the last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA's workforce. We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety, scientific advancement, and efficient use of public resources. These cuts are arbitrary and have been enacted in defiance of congressional appropriations law The consequences for the agency and the country alike are dire.
Our Shared Commitment to Dissentin� Opinions

We share a commitment to dissenting views in accordance with NASA Policy Directive 1000.0C,

NASA supports full and open discussion of issues of any nature (e.g., programmatic, institutional), including alternative and divergent views. Diverse views are to be fostered and respected in an environment of integrity and trust with no suppression or retribution. (NPD 1000.0C, Section 3.5.5)
Employees across the agency have raised concerns about recent actions to NASA leadership, yet we remain pressured to implement harmful measures. We choose to write to you directly because: (I) as Interim Administrator, you are the final step in the chain of Technical Authority, and (2) the issues we raise are agency-wide, rather than project-specific.
As defined in NASA Procedural Requirement 7120 5F, Formal Dissent is "a substantive disagreement with a decision or action that an indiv… •	We dissent to changes to NASA's Technical Authority capacities that are driven by anything other than safety and mission assurance. The culture of organizational silence promoted at NASA over the last six months already represents a dangerous tum away from the lessons learned following the Columbia disaster. Changes to the system of Technical Authority, as suggested would be made in the June 25th NASA Town Hall, should be made only in the interests of improving safety, not in anticipation of future budget cuts.
•	We dissent to the closing out of missions for which Congress has appropriated funding because it represents a permanent loss of capability to the United States both in space and on Eatlh. Once operational spacecraft are decommissioned, they cannot be turned back on. Additionally, cancelling missions in development threatens to end the next generation of crucial
observations.
•	We dissent to implementing indiscriminate cuts to NASA science and aeronautics research because this will leave the American people without the unique public good that NASA provides. Basic research in space science, aeronautics, and the stewardship of the Earth are inherently governmental functions that cannot and will not be taken up by the private sector. Furthermore, NASA has a nearly threefold return on investment in economic activity, and supports national security by ensuring the United States maintains its lead in science and technology.
•	We dissent to NASA's non-strategic staffing reductions because they will jeopardize NASA's core mission. Thousands of NASA civil servant employees have already been terminated, resigned or retired early, taking with them highly specialized, irreplaceable knowledge crucial to carrying out NASA's mission.
•	We dissent to canceling NASA participation in international missions because in doing so, NASA is abandoning America's allies. To date, 55 nations have signed on to the Artemis Accords, and withdrawing support from missions with our long-s… We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at the NIH and EPA who have released similar statements concerning the administration's actions at their respective agencies.

We dedicate this letter to Gus Grissom, Ed White, Roger Chaffee, Dick Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe, Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon. Their legacies underpin every conversation about our shared commitment to safety and dissenting opinions at NASA.
Reposted by Helen Amanda Fricker
out5p0ken.bsky.social
📌 Trump is the infection that spread through every institution meant to hold him accountable and he has corrupted the system while pretending to expose it.

He is not releasing the Epstein Files because he is implicated in them. 👇🏼
Trump and Epstein: Protecting a Sex Trafficking Ring
The Trump-Epstein story exposes how extreme wealth, political power, elite protection, and conspiracies dismantle any illusion of justice.
out5p0ken.substack.com
helen-amanda.bsky.social
We are so excited!
minwadhwa.bsky.social
Dear Friends, sharing some news here about my upcoming transition. While I’m sad to be leaving @seseasu.bsky.social after 19 incredible years, I am excited and honored to have the opportunity to contribute to @scrippsocean.bsky.social in the years to come.
scrippsocean.bsky.social
We are thrilled to announce that Meenakshi Wadhwa will serve as the Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Dean of the School of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at @ucsandiego.bsky.social!
helen-amanda.bsky.social
Stand Up for Science is asking folks to call Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) today. He is Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee. (202)225-4601

The main message is “ZERO cuts to NASA, NOAA and NSF in 2026!”

You can sign up for email alerts at standupforscience.net
STAND UP FOR SCIENCE
standupforscience.net
helen-amanda.bsky.social
I Concur. Pun intended! Awful software...and definitely discourages travel.