Pam McElwee

In reading Bill Gates' recent #climate memo, I'm struck by how much he ignores huge body of research and action around integrated solutions - the whole reason we wrote the @ipbes.net Nexus Assessment on climate, biodiversity, water, food and health! So a few key facts & lessons from our report: 1/

If you are in Armenia for #CBD #COP17, please join us to remember a remarkable colleague and friend, Dr. Kofi Akamani of Southern Illinois U whom we lost last month. If you need the zoom link, it's on my LinkedIn or you can email. Kofi was part of @ipbes.net and #NCA5 families, and a friend to many.

Incredibly important messages in advance of next week’s biodiversity #COP17 in Armenia. Businesses need nature!

A terrible loss for the biodiversity community. We will all miss you Sepp 💔

Panama's Minister for the Environment:"It is unacceptable that even corporations have legal rights, but nature largely has none." Nature has rights — it is time the world recognized them www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The suppression of Indigenous burning practices in Australia after British colonization probably transformed swathes of the southeast into dense, flammable forests that contribute to bigger, hotter bush fires today: new Nature study using pollen and sediment records: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

The gutting of NSF's Social and Behavioral Sciences directorate makes me incredibly sad www.science.org/content/arti...

Southeast Asian economies have released more renewable energy than fossil fuel policies due to the US-Iran War: zerocarbon-analytics.org/energy/south...

To join this talk or their upcoming panels visit @ruclimateenergy.bsky.social: rcei.rutgers.edu/news-events/...

Happening now! Rutger's Climate Week's "The Science and Politics of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Current Challenges in Informing Policy," featuring CSSN scholars @daniellefalzon.bsky.social @kdepryck.bsky.social and @pammcelwee.bsky.social.

The NASA and USAID-supported SERVIR Hindu Kush observing program was set up to help identify and provide early-warning of hazards, just like the flooding that struck Nepal last week. It was defunded the first week of this administration in 2025. www.independent.co.uk/climate-chan...

Action now can still limit the magnitude and duration of the peak and preserve the possibility of returning to or below 1.5°C through an ‘overshoot, peak, and decline’ pathway.   Explore more: tinyurl.com/4k3rdtam

Why environmental treaties must also address mental health www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Amazing visual presentation in the story of what we will lose if the US Pacific monuments are opened back up to commercial fishing. These are crucial hotspots of biodiversity.

Nice to see this comment in Science: The bridge between science and policy: How IPBES redefined global conservation policy and its path to societal impact www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Glad to see Sesame Street tackling disaster risk, but even kids can understand that much of it is driven by increasing global temperatures that humans have caused. Wish they had stressed that message #climatechange www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/c...

As the US experiences unprecedented heatwaves this summer, the government is undoing OSHA protections meant to help workers cope with these impacts www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/c...

A good reminder for all of us, especially those looking at the impending end of a more open summer workday schedule 😩https://open.substack.com/pub/theconversationus/p/how-to-get-more-nature-into-your?r=8eu8y&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

SpaceX rocket that exploded shortly after takeoff destroyed land & wildlife: Concrete chunks had left craters a foot deep & were strewn across tidal flats, almost four acres of state park burned, 7 bobwhite quail eggs & a collection of blue land crabs incinerated. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Trump administration admits, in court filings, that it canceled billions in federal grants not for policy or performance reasons, but because recipients lived in blue states. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

This action is both unjustified and entirely predictable for this administration. Every aspect of science that touches the federal government is a target www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/c...

The fall elections in the US will see a lot of water/climate/food issues at stake: 🤞 voters agree www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Great example of nexus solutions - tackling climate, food and water all at once

My daughter’s Girl Scout camp in NJ just cancelled their overnight camping due to poor air quality. Our kids deserve to have fun outdoors, not be punished for grownups’ failures to tackle climate change.

Gratified that my voice was just one of nearly half a million comments on the proposed OMB rule that would dramatically politicize science funding in the US. But this is just the start of the fight, not the end www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

It is extremely unusual for *any* regulatory proposal to receive this many comments. But for one that is this technical is simply unheard of. If the point of this exercise was to hide a massive power grab in the arcane garb of administrative law, it failed. Spectacularly.

You've got less than 1.5 hours to submit a comment to OMB opposing their "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance" (OMB-2026-0034) that would devastate the US research enterprise with political decision-making. I just submitted my comment - don't delay if you still need to do yours!!

Join us in just under 2 hours for a webinar on how to review currently open @ipbes.net biodiversity assessments. This is particularly targeted at US experts but all are welcome to join. Co-sponsored by @agu.org and the Ecological Society of America. Registration link: agu.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

WTAF? Anyone one who works in biodiversity conversation knows that habitat destruction/land and sea use change is the #1 driver of biodiversity loss globally. See every @ipbes.net report, ever.

Climate change and upstream dams are often blamed for the rapid water and land changes in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. But local sand mining is playing an important negative role as well, and can be much more easily tackled through better regulation: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

It is not headed by a “climate critic“. It is headed by someone who is unqualified in this area, who cannot offer valid critiques but instead shares debunked claims, and who regularly attacks climate scientists. Like me.

USGCRP being revived- but put in the hands of someone who has never published on climate and who runs a political blog 😡

This heat wave brought to you by ExxonMobil and Chevron.

What is happening at NIH is a test case for all grants if the new OMB rule goes through - political interference, wasted money, and stalled science 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The right of citizens to monitor and sue polluters is engrained in US env laws, but current DOJ wants to block people from exercising the right, particularly with regard to enforcing pollution laws around data centers. This is a hugely important case watershednewsletter.substack.com/p/the-laws-s...

El Niño is officially here — NOAA puts the odds of a record-strength event at 63% this winter. It lands as the Iran war strains food + energy systems. New survey of global security experts on what’s most at risk 🧵 (1/x) councilonstrategicrisks.org/2026/06/12/c...

www.politico.com/news/2026/06...

Easy to miss this in all the other bad news for climate and science this week. Can't even report on GHGs in the US, let alone regulate them apparently. apnews.com/article/sec-...

Environmental damage: global data centers used 448 trillion watt-hours of electricity, more than all but 10 countries of the world apnews.com/article/ai-d...

Scientists live-streaming for 50 hours to highlight the importance of science to society and warning that cutting funds for research has dangerous consequences: www.youtube.com/@wclivestrea...

If this OMB rule goes through, it is not hyperbole to say that US scientific research on climate change (of which the federal government has been largest funder) will come to a screeching halt. Political appointees will be able to cancel ANY grant on disfavored topics www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/u...

Rutgers has played a key role in the OOI since inception-horrible to see such a fundamental monitoring system being demolished for no reason. Perhaps Congress might like to weigh in on the waste of money if we tear down something we already built? www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/c...

Biodiversity chapter of Fifth National Climate Assessment that I led noted North Atlantic Right Whales as key species already vulnerable & further endangered by #climatechange Glad to see so many working on saving these amazing creatures- another example of why we need federal investment in science!

Calling all scientists! If you are interested in action against the proposed OMB rule that would politicize all federal science grants, please join the Stand up for Science call this week! events.standupforscience.net/stand-up-for...