Brazil's transfer of power shows how democracy can work even in the face of extremist tides. It's shameful that Bolsonaro chose to flee to Mar-a-Lago instead of handing the presidential sash to Lula. But the deeply inclusive ceremony was beautiful, as Oscar Soria describes.

Stanford biologist Tony Barnosky says Earth has been through five mass extinction events -- times when at least 75 percent of known species disappeared from the planet. He told 60 Minutes that we’re now living through the sixth mass extinction. cbsn.ws/3G3qdYy

Mexican ecologist Gerado Ceballos is paying farmers to stop cutting down trees at a forest reserve in Latin America in an effort to save wildlife. 30 years ago, jaguars were nearly extinct in Mexico. Now, they’ve rebounded to about 600 in the reserve. cbsn.ws/3WZ95u0

“The next few decades will be the end of the kind of civilization we’re used to.” Humanity is consuming 175 percent of what the earth can regenerate. Biologist Paul Erlich says that our current way of life is unsustainable. cbsn.ws/3Gvv8mC

Lots of grants/fellowships at all levels from NSF/DOE are due in early January every year. Can’t we all be more human and accept that no one wants to work on this over the holidays?

We suggest banning all but subsistence hunting on public land. No trophy hunting of any kind, no trapping, no killing contests, none of it. Permits should be issued based on economic need, tribal rights and scientific review of population densities. Not a trophy Not for sport

We have 630 million acres of public land and another 680 million acres of farmland under subsidized production of some kind or another with 80% of all grains being used for either fuel or livestock feed. By eliminating non food related subsidies, we free up a lot of land.

In our new paper we find that invertebrate species richness 🐝🐞🕷 is greater inside vs outside protected areas in 🇬🇧 ✔ Yet, species are declining equally across both protected and unprotected areas 📉❌ 🔗sciencedirect.com/science/articl… #Biodiversity #ProtectedAreas #OpenAccess

Four common myths about science communication: facts change minds, scientific literacy will lead to enhanced research uptake, individual attitude change will shift collective behaviors, and broad dissemination is best. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

It just hit me that I’m the ONLY black ophthalmology resident in LA county. That’s for 10 million people

In the early 1800s, the human population hit 1 billion. As of late last year, human population 8 billion. And by the end of the century, it’s expected to top ten billion. What does that mean for humanity and the environment? wbur.org/onpoint/2023/0…

Systems ecologist Bill Rees joins me today on The Great Simplification in a wide ranging discussion on ecology, biocapacity, overshoot, ecological footprint, human behavior and prospects for the future. youtu.be/LQTuDttP2Yg

Thank you!

Dr. Daniel Swain I think yes, but it's diffuse and hasn't traditionally been emphasized in research-focused units. More of the training in those units seems to be "how to talk about your fabulous new research article" rather than "how to talk about this season's drought and today's big storm."

Welcome to the Farm!

Great new for the Clear Lake Hitch, which is a threatened species due to habitat loss. Millions of hitch used to spawn in the lake's feeder streams, this number is down to a few thousand today. #CAwater

Wow. Spring flood risk in the San Joaquin basin (and Tulare region in particular) continues to rise--total accumulated water stored upstream in the watershed is still rising, and pattern next 1-2 weeks favors *additional* snow water equivalent increases. 😬#CAwx #CAwater

Thrilled to see the fruit of a wonderful collaboration led by former Ph.D. candidate and now Dr. Dra. Kirsten Isabel Verster 🪰🧬🦠 (now a postdoc with Elizabeth Hadly) and Dr. Gyöngyi Cinege (Biological Research Centre, Szeged, Hungary) now out PNASNews: pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…! Kirsten et al. discovered.../1

Miss you all🥰