• Land

Park Service Closes Shenandoah National Park But Some DC Monuments Remain Open

• #30x30
• #conservationist
• Appalachian Trail
• conservation
• environment
• hike
• Land and Water Conservation Fund
• science

The National Park Service continues to close parks on a piecemeal basis, this week Shenandoah National Park closed, but even after an appeal from D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) to close them before the weekend crowds descend, the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials in Washington, D.C. remain open.

Why This Matters:  Delegate Holmes Norton is right when she argues that “Federal agencies must do their part to flatten the curve,” but the Park Service is certainly not leading by example. 

• Sustainability

Blackrock Announces Climate Change/Sustainability Are Now Its Core Principles For Investing

• BlackRock
• climate change
• science
• sustainability

In a stunning and groundbreaking turnaround, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager with $7T under its control, BlackRock, announced that from now on the company will make its investment decisions with environmental sustainability as a core goal and will take climate change into account.

Why This Matters:  This is HUGE.  BlackRock is the single largest investor in fossil fuels in the world.  And they are getting out of that business.  

• Climate Change

Scientists Speak Out for Climate Action

• activism
• march for science
• science

Historically, scientists have gone out of their way not to make political statements. After all, their job is to provide facts, not suggest policy prescriptions that can often be complicated to implement.

But now, a growing number of climate scientists are deciding to buck tradition and speak up for the urgency of climate action.

• People

One Cool Thing: The Best Science Pics of the Year

• photography
• Royal Society Publishing
• science

The Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition announced the winners of its fifth annual competition, for outstanding achievements in science photography,   According to CNN, “the competition ‘celebrates the power of photography in capturing scientific phenomena’ and recognizes the role images can play in making science more accessible.”  The top image of the year (above) taken by […]

• People

Gender Bias in the World’s Natural History Museums

• gender
• gender bias
• Natural History Museum
• science

A scientist at the Natural History Museum in London has discovered that while the institution boasts an incomparable natural history collection, it has significantly more male specimens than female specimens.

The Problem: We’re just so used to seeing the male body and lifestyle as just the standard human body and the standard human way of doing things.

• Climate Change

Trump Administration Orders Manipulation of Climate Science

• #ActOnClimate
• #ClimateActionNow
• climate change
• climate deniers
• climate science
• science

The New York Times reported yesterday that in addition to significantly weakening Obama Administration policies and rules that would have cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, now the Trump Administration is working to “recalculate” the risks posed by climate change by ordering scientists to ignore long term impacts beyond 2040 and to omit analysis of the worst-case scenarios in the next national climate assessment report.  

• Cosmos

NASA’s carbon observatory set for liftoff despite attempts to defund the project

• carbon
• carbon dioxide
• NASA
• OCO-3
• science
• space

Despite the Trump administration’s best efforts to cut funding for NASA’ s carbon dioxide tracking instrument OCO-3, the observatory is scheduled to make its way to the Internationa Space Station (ISS) this week. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) explained that from its perch on the space station, OCO-3 will observe near-global measurements of carbon dioxide on land and sea

• Climate Change

French amusement park teaches kids about climate change

• children
• climate change
• education
• science

We wrote last week that climate education in American schools is seriously lacking despite the fact that parents and teachers would both like to have an expanded climate curriculum. While climate change can be a difficult subject to discuss with kids (there’s not a lot of good news), not doing so leaves kids woefully unprepared […]

• Politics

We Must Stand Up For Science

• Act on Climate
• climate change
• climate science
• research
• science
• scientific integrity
• Senate
• United States

I am one of many members of Congress who count on them and appreciate their work. I worked closely with this community on a bill I introduced with Congressman Paul Tonko this week on scientific integrity. The Scientific Integrity Act (S.775) would protect government science from political interference. It would make data and findings off-limits for political appointees and managers, and make sure scientists follow careful processes for review.

• Health

Tweet of the week: Dan Rather on science literacy

• climate change
• public health
• science
• science literacy
• vaccines

Many people including the president are cheering news of HIV cure in 2nd patient. You know what happened? SCIENCE. Science isn’t a goal, it’s a process of knowledge. And it applies to vaccines, climate change, and the wonder of understanding our universe and natural world. — Dan Rather (@DanRather) March 5, 2019 This week for […]

• Climate Change
• People

State of Connecticut Considers Law To Require Teaching Climate Change

• climate change
• Connecticut
• education
• science

A legislator in Connecticut in January introduced a bill requiring schools to teach climate change science starting at the elementary level.  Connecticut already has a science curriculum “standard” that encourages the teaching of climate science, but if it passes, this law would be the first in the country to mandate it, according to The Associated Press (AP).  

• People

Interview of the Week: Jon White, CEO and President, Consortium for Ocean Leadership

• climate change
• forecast
• global warming
• Greenland
• ice
• melt
• ocean
• science

Jon White had a 32-year career in the Navy, rising to its chief meteorologist and oceanographer before his 2016 appointment to lead the Consortium.  We asked him about the impact of ocean warming on our planet’s climate.