Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 1h

For 12 hrs no one could get a hold of this Nobel Laureate in Medicine to tell him the good news (and to begin all the pestering that will be his life now), because he was out in nature and off the grid w his wife. The karma must be v strong w this man!

www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

Nobel winner had no idea: he was off-grid in the Rockies

Fred Ramsdell shares the medicine prize with Mary Brunkow and Shimon Sakaguchi for their work on the immune system

www.thetimes.com

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 1h

Thats a headline, a message, I can get behind.

insideclimatenews.org/news/0710202...

Jane Goodall’s Final Message: ‘Don’t Give Up’ - Inside Climate News

Primatologist and global icon Jane Goodall died last week at 91. Her legacy lives on in the next generation of conservationists, scientists say.

insideclimatenews.org

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 1h

American Airlines and Google said they cut contrails by 54% in recent trial w flight schedule adjustments based on AI analysis of satellite imaging & weather forecasts (ie, cheaply). Contrails cause short but intense climate warming effects, as demo’d after 9/11.

www.semafor.com/article/10/0...

Slashing aviation’s climate impact could be ‘cheap’

Air travel releases CO₂, and also produces contrails — the white clouds aircraft leave in their wake.

www.semafor.com

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 1h

New Trump order (Oct 6) allows 211-mi industrial access road thru Gates of the Arctic National Park/Preserve (2nd-largest NPS protected area) for mining of copper, cobalt, & gold.

www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adve...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 2d

Nope, no Environmental Protection for us today. Entrance to EPA in DC locked up tight this hot Monday morning.

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 2d

For an (ancient) larger scale context, back in 2008, it was noted that—after the Western mountain snowpacks—the sloppy snows in the NE could be expected to be next most vulnerable to warming. ->Map of historically how much of precip that fell would have been above freezing if 2C warming applied.

https://www.mdettinger.com/_files/ugd/3b5c57_b9f6902fc6c14f4da54542683abea1b5.pdf

Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 2d

Fresh indications of snow loss in the Northeastern US, reflecting midwinter melt episodes more than rainfall-snowfall trade offs.

journals.plos.org/climate/arti...

Long-term measurements of seasonal snowpacks indicate increases in mid-winter snowmelt and earlier snowpack disappearance in the northeastern U.S.

Snowpacks are changing in northeastern North America as the regional climate warms, yet the relative influence of changes in precipitation compared to changes in ablation on snowpacks is poorly unders...

journals.plos.org

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 5d

Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires

Climate change and land mismanagement are creating increasingly fire-prone built and natural environments. However, despite worsening fire seasons, evidence is lacking globally for trends in socially ...

www.science.org

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 7d

Note in 9-panel panel...
+ One BIG-snow year (e.g., 2017, 2019 & 2023) can reverse long term storage declines, briefly.
+ Near-normal yrs 2016 & 2024 held their own but didnt undo prior declines; near-normal 2020 yielded rez loss.
+ Dry years (2018, 2021 & 2022) led to sig declines in rez storage.

Reposted by Mike Dettinger

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine @nationalacademies.org · 7d

The 2025 National Academy of Engineering Annual Meeting begins this Sunday, October 5 — featuring new member inductions, lectures on how AI is reshaping engineering solutions and society, and much more.

Register to attend: https://ow.ly/kGaw50X4wVA

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 7d

Just to cllose out the water year, here is my final wy2025 storage graphic for the Upper Colorado, along with the previous 9 yrs worth for context. @cw3escripps.bsky.social

Explanations at
cnap.ucsd.edu/water-storag...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 8d

15 of the original 21 Juliana et al. v. United States plaintiffs have filed a petition w/Inter-American Commission on Human Rights accusing US govmt of violating international law through its perpetuation of its fossil fuel-based energy system.

insideclimatenews.org/news/2909202...

Climate Activists Thwarted in U.S. Courts Are Headed to an International Tribunal for Review - Inside Climate News

Plaintiffs who sued the U.S. government in 2015 for promoting fossil fuel policies and failing to protect them from climate change have petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for an ...

insideclimatenews.org

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 9d

www.earth.com/news/world-r...

World Rivers Day: Why river health matters more than ever

On World Rivers Day, we are reminded that rivers are living systems, and that their well-being is inseparable from our own.

www.earth.com

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 10d

Is ecocide an intentional step towards the “Riviera Gaza” vision that the administration has proposed?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Israel’s ecocide in Gaza sends this message: even if we stopped dropping bombs, you couldn’t live here | George Monbiot

Consider the annihilation of agricultural land alongside the genocide – and grasp the chilling totality of this attempt to eliminate all life, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 10d

“Riverine heat waves” occur more often than air heat waves in 65 to 76% of sites, nationally.

www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/riv...

California “cold water droughts” (~same thing) increasingly result from mix of climate & landscape/water mgmt impacts, w/dire effects.

www.ppic.org/blog/tacklin...

Experts raise concerns over frightening phenomenon in US rivers: 'The trend … is actually increasing faster'

An in-depth study of riverine heat waves identified how America's rivers are running hot.

www.thecooldown.com

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 12d

Beaver reintroductions & beaver dam analogs are important options for reducing climate-change impacts on western water resources. Cool new study looks into mapping & widespread modeling to identify options & opportunities...in today's Eos.

eos.org/articles/wha...

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

What Makes Beaver Ponds Bigger? - Eos

For the first time, researchers are able to add hydrologic estimates to find where reintroducing beavers could best benefit a watershed and the humans who live within it.

eos.org

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 12d

McKibben is the father of modern climate journalism, so Covering Climate Now is honoring him with its first-ever lifetime achievement award. His advocacy-journalism re: the overheating Earth represents the best—not some aberration—of what journalism can do.

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Newsrooms Can Learn From Bill McKibben's Climate Journalism

Some traditional journalists complain that McKibben is an advocate — the same criticism Woodward and Bernstein faced during Watergate.

www.rollingstone.com

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 12d

Oh jeez! I forgot to call him out by name: The great Dr. Marty Ralph!

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 12d

New study of hydropower developmt vs flood risk at 107 hydropower dams finds 41% of the dams provide flood mitigation & 26% dams likely increase flood risks. Dams with shorter downstream river lengths tend to more flood-inducing than flood-protecting.

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 12d

@CW3EScripps's founding director was selected for an @agu.org's Ambassador Award this year! Given all his many contribs spanning & uniting atmospheric sci, hazards science, water engineering (FIRO) & public info for California, West US, & now East US & globally, this honor is incredibly deserved!

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Reposted by Mike Dettinger

Climate.us @climate.us · 12d

In case you missed the big news earlier this week...

We've brought the website of the Fifth National Climate Assessment back online. Explore it at nca5.climate.us

The assessment, which was released by the U.S. Global Change Research Program in 2023, is the most recent state of the science...
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Fifth National Climate Assessment

The Fifth National Climate Assessment is the US Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the…

nca5.climate.us

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 14d

Projected times until 1st occurrence of Day-Zero water shortages (extreme unprecedented water scarcities) under various GHG emissions reported in Nature Communications. Dates of 1st occurrence are in 2020-2030s in MANY areas globally.

www.cnn.com/2025/09/23/c...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 15d

A not-very-encouraging (for someone who’s been trying to communicate risks of climate change for most of 50 yrs) perspective on parallels between what American’s’ve accomplished re climate change & where we find ourselves re Trump/MAGA. Worth its quick read…

www.fastcompany.com/91408079/ame...

Americans are losing their democracy in the same way they’ve failed to stop climate change—not with a bang but a whimper

We’re getting used to rising authoritarianism and temperatures. This is the only message that can break the fever.

www.fastcompany.com

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 16d

>250 swimmers jumped into the Chicago River today, marking the first open-river swim in that urban waterway in nearly a century! The city approved the event—organized by A Long Swim, a local nonprofit—earlier this summer. We can restore our urban rivers!

insideclimatenews.org/news/2109202...

‘A Really Monumental Day’ for Chicago River: Clean Enough for Hundreds to Swim In - Inside Climate News

More than 250 swimmers jumped into the Chicago River on Sunday morning, marking the first open-river swim in the once-polluted urban waterway in nearly a century. After a false start last year, the ci...

insideclimatenews.org

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 16d

Two-thirds (16,500) of heat deaths in Europe this year are attributable to excess greenhouse gases (i.e., climate change).

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Report: Two-thirds of heat deaths in Europe this year were the result of Climate Change

Imperial College London researchers link 16,500 fatalities to excess greenhouse gases.

www.motherjones.com

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