Jessica Tierney

news.arizona.eduFootprints in the (white) sand: Humans experienced abrupt environmental shifts during the last ice ageIncreased precision of radiocarbon dating and archival evidence reaffirms 23,000 years as the age of the famous footprints discovered in White Sands National Park and demonstrates humans withstood abr...

In a new paper out today in Science Advances with my USGS colleagues, we describe the climate and environment of the White Sands playa when early humans walked on it 23,000 years ago. We also have an even tighter chronology with a lock to the Greenland ice core! news.arizona.edu/news/footpri...

essopenarchive.orgA reassessment of proxy signal preservation in Antarctic blue ice: Implications for Plio-Pleistocene CO2 | ESS Open ArchiveMarks-Peterson et al. (2026) measured greenhouse gas concentrations in “blue” ice from the Allan Hills, Antarctica and concluded that atmospheric CO2 was broadly stable over the past ~3 million years....

15 Sept

I rarely post on here (apologies) but: @danibarra.bsky.social and I have some thoughts about CO2 in blue ice 🧊 🧐 Preprint is up... essopenarchive.org/doi/full/10....

giphy.comYou Dont Win Friends With Salad GIF - Find & Share on GIPHYGIPHY image by GIPHY

16 July

Recent events necessitate a reminder media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2l...

Jessica Tierney reposted

Gwen C. Katz

@gwenckatz.bsky.social

9 Feb

Macbeth: SHIT

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Jessica Tierney reposted

Soraya Nadia McDonald

@soraya.press

9 Feb

Benito is a threat b/c he makes art so alluring and enjoyable you want to understand everything about it and then you end up learning about sugar and slavery and colonialism and the Taínos and Hawaii and then you probably have some thoughts of your own, and that's why art is powerful and dangerous

Jessica Tierney reposted

Daniel Thompson

@dr-thompson.bsky.social

9 Feb

This was everything. #SuperBowlLX

pnas.orgPaleoclimate pattern effects help constrain climate sensitivity and 21st-century warming | PNASPaleoclimates provide examples of past climate change that inform estimates of modern warming from greenhouse-gas emissions, known as Earth’s clima...

23 Jan

Really excited to see this paper out!! Led by @vtcoop.bsky.social we show that if you use cold and warm paleoclimates together, you can reduce uncertainty in Earth's climate sensitivity by quantifying the pattern effect and more precisely constrain future climate change www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

18 Dec 2025

Who I wonder is an "appropriate operator" for the Trump administration? 🤔 Will we be losing Derecho core hours to an AI company? 🤦‍♀️ #SaveNCAR

cnn.comThe Trump admin is closing a critical climate research center. Officials believe it’s really trying to punish a governor | CNNThe Trump administration announced plans Tuesday to shut down the National Center for Atmospheric Research, an organization responsible for improved weather models to tools that aid hurricane safety. ...

18 Dec 2025

The latest unhinged threat from the Trump administration would destroy the best climate modeling center in the world. It would also be a blow to US researchers (including me) who depend on NCAR's modeling expertise and educational training programs for students. #SaveNCAR www.cnn.com/2025/12/17/c...

arizona.csod.comLaboratory Coordinator I - GeosciencesMaintenance and repair of the Organic Geochemistry Laboratory equipment, including but not limited to gas chromatographs, liquid chromatographs & ...

15 Oct 2025

I am currently seeking a Lab Manager for our Organic Geochemistry Lab at the University of Arizona! Full time position with benefits. If you have a chemistry/biology/geology degree and like fixing things and working with students, this position could be for you! arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

quantamagazine.orgHow We Came To Know Earth | Quanta MagazineClimate science is the most significant scientific collaboration in history. This series from Quanta Magazine guides you through basic climate science — from quantum effects to ancient hothouses, from...

17 Sept 2025

The special issue @quantamagazine.bsky.social on Climate Science just dropped and I know what my weekend readings is gonna be 👍🏻 www.quantamagazine.org/how-we-came-...

8 Sept 2025

I do love Reddit for so many reasons. Thanks for accepting me bros!

theguardian.comJoe Rogan claims study shows Earth cooling – but report’s authors say he’s wrongScientists say ‘old-school denier nonsense’ isn’t helpful as podcaster repeatedly airs false claim on his show

4 Sept 2025

I stand by my offer to appear on Joe Rogan and set the record straight about our half-billion-year temperature reconstruction www.theguardian.com/environment/...

azluminaria.orgTucson City Council rejects Project Blue data center amid intense community pressure - AZ LuminariaThe Tucson city council voted unanimously Wednesday against bringing the massive and water-devouring Project Blue data center — tied to tech giant Amazon — into city limits. After weeks of escalating ...

7 Aug 2025

A proposed Amazon data center in Tucson (“Project Blue”, FFS) that would have sapped power and water from the city has been REJECTED thanks to amazing community solidarity. The people of the desert have spoken and won ✊🌵🏜️

Yana Kunichoff@yanak.bsky.social

The Tucson city council unanimously rejected the Project Blue data center today. That comes after weeks of dogged organizing plus our little team @azluminaria.org going hard on helping Tucson understand who was behind this project and its impact on our community azluminaria.org/2025/08/06/t...

wired.comHow Much Energy Does AI Use? The People Who Know Aren’t SayingA growing body of research attempts to put a number on energy use and AI—even as the companies behind the most popular models keep their carbon emissions a secret.

This @wired.com article is extremely timely for those of us in Tucson, Arizona, as we face the possibility of Amazon Web Services building a huge data center at our outskirts. Energy and water use for AI data centers are non-trivial. Read my thread below if you want to hear about our local story ⬇️

WIRED@wired.com

AI this, AI that, what about how much energy AI actually uses? “It blows my mind that you can buy a car and know how many miles per gallon it consumes, yet we use all these AI tools every day and we have absolutely no efficiency metrics, emissions factors, nothing." From the experts:

The good news is that Tucsonians are organized ✊ and are asking tough questions. azluminaria.org/2025/07/21/t...

azluminaria.orgThe Project Blue data center proposal sprang up fast — so did the organizing - AZ LuminariaUntil the first heady weeks of Tucson’s scorching summer, Vivek Bharathan and Elaina Richards had never worked or campaigned together, let alone been on a shared Google document. One month into coord...

en.wikipedia.orgDugway Proving Ground - Wikipedia

Here's some lovely artwork from the no desert data center (www.instagram.com/no_desert_da...) coalition that captures our feelings ⛈️ It would be great if a national news outlet picked up this story - its a type case for something that is increasingly an issue in the West. /fin

WIRED@wired.com

There is a long history in the American West of putting our country's junk in the desert. c.f. a large portion of the State of Nevada (incl. the nuclear test range) and Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, where chemical and biological weapons were tested en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugway_...

kold.comEmotions run high in public meeting held by City of Tucson over Project BlueThe project has drawn a lot of attention around Pima County

AI data centers are just the latest put your junk in the desert thing. But we as desert dwellers don't need to stand for it. Why would we repeat the past's mistakes? All for an AI response for a search (that sometimes you didn't ask for and don't really need!).

WIRED@wired.com

Economically the boost of the data center would be the construction jobs, and there is no denying that, hence for trade unions this is a really good thing. But in the long-term, there are almost no people working at places like this. www.kold.com/2025/07/24/e...

azcentral.comProposed data center raises concerns about drying up this Arizona riverThe Santa Cruz River, dried up and polluted, came back to life recently, sustained by highly treated wastewater from two water reclamation facilities.

It seems to me that data centers in the desert is the new "growing alfalfa in the desert." It makes more sense to put these in places with more water...but land is cheap in the desert and local cities might be more amenable to the deal...

WIRED@wired.com

Reclaimed water is used to restore the Santa Cruz River, which was in the early 20th century an actual flowing river but due to ground water pumping no longer flows on its own. But thanks to reclaimed water we now have these beautiful riparian areas coming back www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...

drive.google.comProjectBlue_SantaCruzImpacts_11Jul2025.pdf

The city claims the River won't be affected, but it's hard to imagine how, since water diverted to the data center means less outflow on the river at one of the flow stations no matter where it occurs. Prof. Michael Bogan at @uarizona.bsky.social crunched the math drive.google.com/file/d/1sSAp...

WIRED@wired.com

As far as power goes, the project is estimated to require 400-600 MW at full build. It's not clear yet how TEP our power supplier will meet that. Current peak energy demand is 2400 MW so this is non-trivial. It could involve keeping coal-fired plants up and running past their expiration date.

azluminaria.orgAmazon Web Services is company behind Tucson’s Project Blue, according to 2023 county memo - AZ LuminariaAmazon Web Services is revealed to be the company behind the Project Blue data center proposed for Tucson.

The water would rely on extending Tucson's reclaimed water system to the build to supply an estimated 0.8 million gallons per day (data centers in Phoenix use more than this). The problem is, reclaimed water demand is already very high in the city, and...

WIRED@wired.com

This summer Tucsonians started to hear about something called "Project Blue", a proposal to build data centers on our outskirts. The city officials signed a NDA to not disclose the company❗but thanks to @azluminaria.org the company was outed this week as Amazon 🤡 azluminaria.org/2025/07/21/a...

"Project Blue" is some (read: greenwashing) name for a data center that would be roughly the size of downtown Tucson, eat power and water, and provide only 180 jobs. For perspective, my department alone at the @uarizona.bsky.social employs about 130 people within 3-4 floors of a single building.

cpaess.ucar.eduNOAA Climate & Global Change (C&GC) Postdoctoral Program | Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System ScienceNOAA Climate & Global Change (C&GC) Postdoctoral Program | Cooperative Progra...

Update on the NOAA Fellows situation: as of late last week the furlough has been lifted (phew!). However, there are no new Fellows this year, and we still don't know the future of this program.

Jessica Tierney@leafwax.bsky.social

As of today, all current NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellows have been furloughed due to the Dept of Commerce not releasing the funding for the program. In addition no new Fellows were awarded this year. cpaess.ucar.edu/cgc

Also, while temporary, the furlough caused a lot of stress for the Fellows, who scrambled to file for unemployment or get temporary positions since no one knew when it would end.

Several Fellows I talked to have decided to leave the US and seek science positions in Europe, citing the lack of positions here and negative attitude towards science 😞 Brain drain is a real thing that will have lasting impacts on US scientific strength.

journals.uu.seHopanoid distributions differ in mineral soils and peat: a re-evaluation of hopane-based pH proxies | Advances in Geochemistry and CosmochemistryAdvances in Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry, ISSN 2977-1994 | CC BY 4.0

17 July 2025

✨Paper #2 has just been published @weareagc.bsky.social ✨ And it is about hopanoids!! Thank you @climategordon.bsky.social for trusting a brand new journal with your research. AGC is 💎 open access: free to publish and free to read 🙌 Geochemists, come publish with us! journals.uu.se/AGC/article/...

Jessica Tierney reposted

Becca Dzombak

@rdzombak.bsky.social

10 July 2025

The Trump administration's proposed budget would slash NOAA's climate research funds. It still has to pass Congress, but it's already affecting scientists. A program supporting promising new climate scientists furloughed its current cohort and canceled 2025 awards. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/c...

nytimes.comRecipients of a U.S. Climate Science Fellowship Are Put on Unpaid Leave

nytimes.comRecipients of a U.S. Climate Science Fellowship Are Put on Unpaid Leave

9 July 2025

Reporting on the NOAA Fellow furlough, from the @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/c...

One of the things that makes this Fellowship special is that unlike NSF fellowships it is open to non-citizens, with the aim of retaining climate science talent in the US. The furlough creates significant problems for non-US postdocs in how it complicates visa status 😳

7 July 2025

Unsure who to contact or pressure (ideas?), but pls spread the word on this issue.

The CGC Fellow program is small but has supported a large number of climate scientists over the years (including me)... it's not surprising that the current admin won't support it... but watching it being destroyed is heartbreaking.

5 June 2025

So cool!! The journey started in 2018, I think the photo on the left was 2021 (?) and now the Judd curve is on the wall in the Smithsonian 👍🏻

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youtube.comDid Climate Skeptics Get THIS Right?!YouTube video by PBS Terra

27 May 2025

The fact that "climate is always changing" should not bring us comfort! @hausfath.bsky.social and I break down common climate denier arguments on @pbs.org Weathered www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP2l... Feat. temp and CO2 reconstructions from our lab and @mudwaterclimate.bsky.social

Jessica Tierney reposted

Michael Baym

@baym.lol

13 May 2025

Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab

ecoevoevoeco.blogspot.comEco-Evo Evo-EcoAcademic musing by Hendry, Bolnick, Gotanda, and awesome guests. Opinions and statements expressed on this blog are the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent endorsement by the blog...

2 May 2025

Useful post here on things you can do to communicate the importance of science to your representatives.

Daniel Bolnick@danielbolnick.bsky.social

Upset about federal funding cuts in the US? Want some ideas of what to do? I wrote a long-ish blog post about it here ecoevoevoeco.blogspot.com summarizing things I learned meeting with Senate & House aides this week with the @aibsbiology.bsky.social Congressional Visits Day event.

2 May 2025

I would like to unsubscribe from this mailing list

nytimes.comRumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts Student, Is Detained by ICEThe university was told that the student’s visa had been terminated, its president said in a late-night email to students and faculty members.

10 Apr 2025

Hard to post about ‘normal’ things, but - we had an amazing field trip out to CA with ugrads to learn and practice oceanography this Spring ❤️🌊 when things are dark I get a boost from teaching great students!

Jessica Tierney reposted

Zeke Hausfather

@zekehausfather.com

27 Mar 2025

We've quickly moved from being the spokesperson for a protest movement to being arrested at a protest to publishing a critical op-ed as the criteria for summary deportation. A slippery slope for free speech indeed. www.nytimes.com/2025...

14 Mar 2025

Grijalva was my representative and a legend- defender of the environment, indigenous groups in southern AZ and sensible border policy. Going to be missed 💔 RIP

High Country News@highcountrynews.org

Spitfire Raul Grijalva, a congressman from Arizona for more than 40 years, advocate for public lands and fighter against climate change, has died at age 77 in a major loss for the West. 🧵👇

theatlantic.comMahmoud Khalil’s Detention Is a Trial RunThe pro-Palestine student was arrested without due process for exercising his right to free speech. He will not be the last.

13 Mar 2025

I identify with this iceberg. (Also a beautiful video)

Huw Griffiths@huwiceandstuff.bsky.social

Another berg faces the storm! #biopole2 @bas.ac.uk @biopole.bsky.social

Jessica Tierney reposted

Ladd Keith

@laddkeith.com

11 Mar 2025

"It does not matter if you approve of Khalil’s views. ... If the state can deprive an individual of his freedom just because of his politics, which is what appears to have happened here, then no one is safe." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...