Mark Lubell

White House plan to break up iconic U.S. climate lab moves forward Bidders have lined up to take over pieces of the National Center for Atmospheric Research

My latest for @science.org on the fraught future of NCAR as NSF's deadline nears. It can still go so many ways.

@climatedaddykqed.bsky.social This nitrogen management Bill will be big news in CA Ag if it is passed

I returned my neuroscience grant to devote my career to the climate crisis US psychologist Adam Aron says it’s time to act to alleviate the devastating consequences of the planet’s current trajectory.

"I think many people in academia could do more if they wanted to. They could reorient part of their research line to the climate crisis in a similar way to how, during [WWII], many people repurposed themselves for the war effort. Or...be an activist or advocate."
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

New bill in California State legislature aims to establish strict farm-level limits on nitrogen fertilizer application. This is a big deal in California. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNa...

This Public Power Movement is Raising a Billion Dollar Question Who should pay to manage wildfire risk in California? As the climate gets warmer and weirder, it’s getting harder to safely move hundreds of gigawatts of electricity across millions of miles of pow…

Who should pay? Wildfire costs, the transmission grid, and California's electricity bills. New blogpost from the brilliant Meredith Fowlie:

energyathaas.wordpress.com/2026/03/09/t...

Nine ways extreme events reshape river biodiversity How floods, droughts, heatwaves, and compound events are impacting life in rivers

Nine ways extreme events reshape #river #biodiversity

1. They cause selective mortality that erodes genetic diversity
2. Droughts fragment rivers and refuges can become ecological traps
3. Long‑lasting physical legacies reshape habitats

Hurricane Helene Is Headed for Georgians’ Electric Bills - Inside Climate News A new storm recovery charge could soon hit Georgia Power customers’ bills, as climate change drives more destructive weather across the state.

This is why states rolling back climate laws to save a few pennies in short term are so misguided. We all end up paying for unmitigated climate change one way or another. A case in point: monopoly utilities recovering storm costs from captive ratepayers:
insideclimatenews.org/news/2602202...

Experts issue warning as historic crisis threatens US cattle industry — here's what's happening It creates a dangerous cycle.

Experts issue warning as historic crisis threatens US cattle industry — here's what's happening share.google/NVi0DuOM8bGO...

Climate change doesn’t affect everyone equally: up to 80% of those displaced by climate disasters are women.

But women aren’t just facing the crisis, they’re also leading the response.

This #WomensDay, meet the women driving climate adaptation: https://ow.ly/qjFG50YpZmz

every time I see this graph

it reminds me that the status quo thinkers and talkers and powers are an oil slick in our minds

telling us things can never change

what they really mean: STOP THE CHANGE

our answer: no
#SolarIsRadical

It's a beautiful map. If you're seriously interested in rivers and how they change over time, though, please read the work of later researchers, who had tools like radiocarbon dating that Harold Fisk did not, along with a better understanding of fluvial processes and past climate change.

A couple of years ago I wrote about how the idea of "sea level" has always been very, um, fluid. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Global sea levels have been underestimated due to poor modelling, research suggests Analysis shows average levels are 30cm higher than thought, and up to 150cm in south-east Asia and Indo-Pacific

New sea level rise study reveals ocean levels are higher than previously believed and following a relative sea level rise of 1 metre, (increasingly likely this century) more coastal areas and millions more people than previously believed will be affected:

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Climate change pushes tropical insects to their heat limit Up to half of the insects in the Amazon region could be exposed to life-threatening heat levels due to progressive, anthropogenic global warming. This is shown by a recent study by the universities of...

Climate change pushes tropical insects to their heat limit

Up to half of the insects in the Amazon region could be exposed to life-threatening heat levels due to progressive, anthropogenic global warming.

phys.org/news/2026-03...

Why winters are riskier in a warmer world | Talking Climate with Katharine Hayhoe Get more from Talking Climate with Katharine Hayhoe on Patreon

This week in Talking Climate: why a warming world can mean worse winter weather, and how one of the world's biggest cities just cleaned up its air 184 years ahead of forecast. Read on!

Sea Levels Are Already Higher Than Many Scientists Think, New Study Shows

“from a global perspective, the findings indicate that hundreds of millions more people — particularly in… Southeast Asian & Pacific nations — are living closer to sea level than widely assumed by Western experts & policymakers”

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/c...

Trump has launched an unprecedented assault on the environment. Where’s the pushback? Climate deniers expected more resistance to the fossil fuel blitz. But Democrats, billionaires and activists have gone silent

Hello? Anybody home?

Climate "hushing" and avoidance has allowed Trump and the fossil industry to destroy decades of effort.

Where is the climate movement? Where are the Democratic politicians?

Vast majorities are concerned about climate change.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Gave a 2-hour class on climate risk and mortgage finance at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. An engaging audience and I presented three papers. Link to the slides: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fxl0w...

‘We got there!’: Text messages reveal Woodside’s negotiating tactics Private text messages between Woodside officials and senior Australian decision-makers lift the lid on how the industry engages with government to get results.

Amazing piece giving insight into the relationship between major fossil fuel companies and senior government officials.

130 direct, personal, text messages in 4 months between a Woodside rep and a DCCEEW deputy secretary.
www.smh.com.au/environment/...

Good news: Scientists were wrong about how bad sea level rise is.

Bad news: It’s even worse than we thought.

Sea level much higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments - Nature Meta-analyses on a global scale show that the measured coastal mean sea level is higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments.

New paper out today suggests sea level rise may be substantially worse than we thought due to underestimates in models. What do all you slr modelers out there think of this paper??? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bob Marshall: Greenhouse gas reversal is ominous for south Louisiana The Trump administration’s rollback of a scientific finding that served as the backbone for federal climate change policy is terrible news for Louisiana, columnist Bob Marshall writes.

An existential problem for coastal Louisiana. Even the oil and gas companies didn't want EPA to rescind the finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and well being.
www.nola.com/opinions/gue...

NEW Paper led by Fiona Hoegh-Guldberg on principles, concepts, & a framework for thinking through integrated biodiversity & water management at multiple scales in urban design

Nature-Water Design: Integrating biodiversity and water sensitive urban design

👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Birds Aren’t Just Declining. They’re Declining Faster, a New Study Finds.

"an ever more robust body of evidence that birds — one of the best measured families of animals on Earth, and a sentinel for the health of other species — are not OK." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/c... Really a great news day.

Extreme events and river biodiversity under climate change Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 19 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s44358-026-00131-7Extreme events — such as floods, droughts and heatwaves — are escalating in frequency, magnitude and duration. This Review discusses the implications of these global changes for biodiversity in rivers, across population, community and ecosystem scales.

ICYMI: New online! Extreme events and river biodiversity under climate change

Extreme weather is transforming the world’s rivers. We need new ways to protect them Rivers support billions of people but are among the least protected parts of nature. A major review shows what needs to be done as climate change accelerates.

When extreme events happen together or in sequence, their impacts can be catastrophic for people and river biodiversity. Whether that’s a flood following a drought, a drought and heatwave operating in unison, or a flood falling on saturated ground, the impacts of these compound events can multiply.

Screen shot of article with image of tree in flooded landscape.

My latest piece for our local paper, this time on #resilience, with a focus on #food and #nature, and the need for it to include #adaptation. I got in a subtle dig at #Brexit as something that makes us less resilient to food shocks and shortages. Also online at www.edp24.co.uk/news/2587874....

💰🌍 #ResearchFunding: Economics of #Climate #Adaptation in Africa

RAIA will award 10–12 grants (US$ 80k–120k) to African research institutions working on economic barriers to #ClimateAdaptation & adaptation finance, in collaboration with Ministries of Finance.

⏰ Deadline 5 March.
🔗 bit.ly/3MwWjDr

Climate change media coverage fell 14% in 2025 Despite rising impacts, climate change received less attention in media around the world in 2025. CU Boulder sociologist Max Boykoff shares the reasons and

"People typically do not start their day with a cup of coffee and the latest peer-reviewed journal article. Instead, they turn to media — television, newspapers, radio, social media — to understand how science and policies could impact their everyday lives."
www.colorado.edu/today/2026/0...

High Costs and Few Benefits from California’s Proposed Sustainable Aviation Fuel Tax Credit This credit would reduce road funding, raise gasoline and diesel prices, and deliver small and expensive carbon emissions reductions. In California, road construction, maintenance, and repairs are …

Aaron Smith's EI blog reminds us that the details matter for full impact of enviro regulation. Mandate for "sustainable" aviation fuel will cannibalize renewable diesel for ground transport. Small incremental renewable fuel use, very small enviro benefit.
energyathaas.wordpress.com/2026/02/23/h...