Mike Dettinger

A marine heat wave continues to impact the U.S. West Coast EEZ (exclusive economic zone)
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-stor...

The first country to BAN the sale of new gas cars is doing just fine, actually Two years ago, Ethiopia became the first country to ban gas cars from its roads. Two years later, they seem to be doing great!

"The #Ethiopia story is fascinating... Ethiopia made history in 2024 by becoming the first country to ban the sale and import of new internal combustion-powered vehicles. Despite the predictions of the anti-EV hysterics, they’re doing just fine."

#ClimateSky

electrek.co/2026/02/20/t...

Former staff show how Trump acted to upend EPA's mission and "make America sicker" Their new report details relaxed restrictions on dangerous chemicals in food, consumer products, water and air.

Report from Environmental Protection Network (a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of 100s of former EPA staff) details how new EPA actions have eased limits on chemicals in food, consumer products, water & air.

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

www.environmentalprotectionnetwork.org/wp-content/u...

How Trump’s EPA rollbacks give US states new tools in climate suits Vermont and New York face high stakes to protect climate superfund laws as it faces attacks from Trump’s DoJ

Overeager Trump’s suit to kill Vermont’s climate-superfund policy (requiring major polluters to pay for damages from carbon emissions) claims federal law, not state law, governs GHGs. But EPA’s repeal of its endangerment finding ceded that federal authority.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Iran's FM condemns US attack on Qeshm's freshwater desalination plant, warns of grave consequences US President Donald Trump announced that Iran promised not to attack its neighbours anymore

Multiple news outlets are reporting a US attack on an Iranian #desalination plant.
If verified, this violates international law protecting #water systems during wars, and it sets a dangerous precedent, given intense dependence of Gulf countries on desalination.
timesofoman.com/article/1691...

Revision of decarbonization wedges divides the vast solution space into a detailed list of options w/o limiting to one strategy. They provide a scale-able planning toolkit: Set a temperature target & select enough strategy wedges to reach it, weighing the trade-offs.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

How the Rise of a Salty Blob Led to the Fall of the Last Ice Age - Eos Scientists have long suspected that high salinity levels in the deep ocean were responsible for keeping carbon dioxide locked away during the last ice age. New research finds the strongest evidence ye...

Study in Nature Geoscience seems to confirm that a giant blob of salty water held carbon dioxide deep in the ocean during the last ice age, & the blob released that CO2 during an upwelling event 18K years ago.

eos.org/articles/how...

Drought Drove the Amazon’s 2023 Switch to a Carbon Source - Eos The change was caused by thirsty vegetation taking up less carbon than normal, not by the year’s extended fire season, new research shows.

Despite 2023 drought-driven increased fires in the Amazon, fire-related emissions from the rainforest were w/in long-term avg. The rainforest’s change from carbon sink to carbon source was caused by vegetation absorbing less carbon due to drought, not fire-induced C release.

eos.org/research-spo...

Runaway Climate: The Point of No Return James Hansen

Hansen: “The danger of passing the point of no return is [a taboo topic] w/IPCC [but] deserves to be debated…The danger of passing [this] point is not reason to panic, though; climate’s delayed response [still] leaves time to take action” now.

jimehansen.substack.com/p/runaway-cl...

Texas Seizes the Solar Crown From California, and Other Key Points From the Latest Electricity Data - Inside Climate News Utility-scale solar soared in 2025 across the country; coal also grew, while natural gas was down.

The state’s leaders have pledged their fealty to fossil fuels, but we’re first in utility-scale solar. Wonder if that annoys them? Hope so. insideclimatenews.org/news/0503202...

Stand Up for Science plans second rally on March 7 Public health chaos and research funding cuts are inspiring nationwide pro-science protests against the Trump administration

Public health chaos and research funding cuts are inspiring nationwide pro-science protests against the Trump administration

Trump’s High-Profile Oil and Gas Lease Sale in Alaska Has No Takers

There were no bids on a Trump administration auction to drill in Alaska, undermining the US president’s push to expand domestic oil production.

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

Climate-chg projections indicate landmasses of the South Pacific (e.g., New Zealand) will be hotspots for among the largest increases in atmospheric rivers. Historical reanalyses show significant increasing (robust & coherent) trends in AR freq over the Southern Ocean.

cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-publica...

Western US snowpack is still looking BAD. Hope for snow, but plan for low river flows and severe wildfire risk.

It’s officially coming out two weeks from now, right?

A wake-up call re: recent atmospheric rivers over Antarctica!

AR-assoc'd weather significantly impacts Antarctic ice-mass balances despite arriving relatively infrequently & they have been occurring more during satellite era in some sectors. Serious SLR implications!

cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-publica...

In case you’ve started to think the protests aren’t growing, aren’t big, aren’t vast or maybe even aren’t worth participating in…NOT TRUE!

See this important thread (and database/analysis):

bsky.app/profile/chen...

Heads up!

Leaked Interior Department database reveals US plans to revise historical information The U.S. Interior Department said a database revealing how President Donald Trump's administration planned to revise information on key phases of ​American history at national park sites was deliberat...

On Monday, an internal government database reported by WaPo & posted on 2 public websites by unnamed civil servants reveals the scope of Trump ​efforts to revise & remove info re African-American history, LGBT rights, ​climate change etc from 100s of NPS ⁠sites.

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Dr. @mari-hydroclimate from @driscience (and now of @cw3escripps) offers a MAJOR improvement to the existing Atmospheric River scale, improving applicability & warnings for flood hazards (demo'd in California & Chile but likely everywhere), to appear in @NatComms.

cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-publica...

This longform history of doings in the Everglades is revealing (I often wondered what really went on there behind the scenes) & a cautionary tale (for early career & established scientists alike) of interfaces betwn science & big NGO bucks.

Unfortunately I can only find it online via Apple+.

Another perspective that I sometimes trot out with my locals (albeit at a water-year level).

December 2025 through February 2026 was the 2nd warmest winter on record for the Contiguous U.S. according to Prism climate data. The widespread record to near record warmth in the west easily outweighed the cool temps in the east. 🔥🔥🔥

Lawless Planet has become one of my favorites lately

Analysis of 261 bird species over 34 yrs shows continental decline of abundance of all birds, w/decline hotspots in southern warm parts of NAmerica & accelerating declines in Midatlantic, Midwest & California MATCHING PATTERNS OF AGRICULTURAL INTENSITY.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We need a global assessment of avoidable climate-change risks To understand the urgency of emissions reductions, policymakers and citizens need a full analysis of what is at stake.

We need more than IPCC: The IPCC is crucial for assessing climate-change science but is a politically-constrained summary of ONLY the most inarguable core of the science. A GLOBAL RISK ASSESSMENT is needed to clarify the real range of risks & priorities for action.

www.euronews.com/2026/02/27/t...

BLM Announces Plan to Fell Oregon's Last Great Forests One billion board feet per year... 30 days to make your voice heard.

open.substack.com/pub/morethan...

A New Investigation Revealed Nevada's EV Charging Stations Might Be In Trouble - BGR It might be difficult to find a working EV charging station in Nevada. Before you get stuck in the desert, find out why so many stations are without power.

Yup. Best “Electric Highway” plans and all that. We need to beat up (figuratively) Gov Lombardo about this very seriously! Make it HIS problem so he’ll prioritize fixing it with the legislature next yr.

www.bgr.com/2108152/neva...

North American Universities Support Global Expansion of Atmospheric River Science Program A program focused on key storm systems, known as atmospheric rivers, that provides students with hands-on research experience, launched its second season in January.

Last month & this the Coordinated University Sounding Program for Atmospheric River Reconnaissance, led by @CW3EScripps, engaged 16 US&Canada universities in special weather-balloon launches to study ARs & other weather events & give students hands-on experience.

scripps.ucsd.edu/news/north-a...

A Network of Wetlands Thrives in the Heart of the San Joaquin Valley Only about 5% of the Central Valley’s historic wetlands remain, but in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, a unique wetland persists. How has it survived? We spoke with Grassland Water District gener...

The 375 sq-mile Grassland Ecological Area is a mosaic of private, state, and federal wildlife areas located in Merced County, Central Valley, California. Its the remnant of the vast 4-million-acre wetland that stretched across the Central Valley until ~150 years ago.

www.ppic.org/blog/a-netwo...