More than 300 workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration were told they were fired on Thursday. Now at least some of them are getting contacted and told to please come back to their jobs: nytimes.com/2025/02/14/us/po…

NYT has openings for two climate reporter positions — descriptions/how to apply at the links: 1) Climate policy reporter: nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.co… 2) Climate adaptation reporter: nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.co…

Desalination for drinking water is surprisingly affordable. Desalination for agriculture probably doesn't make a ton of economic sense apart from some high-value crops. Really interesting post by @_HannahRitchie sustainabilitybynumbers.com/…

More Americans Than Ever Are Living in Wildfire Areas. L.A. Is No Exception. nytimes.com/interactive/2025… This is a great article from @rjnskl and @bradplumer at @nytimes. Some important nuggets: "Between 1990 and 2020, the number of homes in fire-prone parts of California grew by 40 percent, according to research led by Volker Radeloff, a professor of forest ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison." "In California, many cities have restricted development in downtown areas, pushing people to the fringes. Mobile homes and low-income housing are prevalent in fire-prone areas." "The growth of housing in flammable areas is a big reason that wildfires are becoming more destructive. Not only are there more homes in the path of fires, but with more people living near forests and grasslands, there’s a greater chance fires will start in the first place." "Many of the homes in Pacific Palisades were 40 to 100 years old, and had avoided damage for many years in a region that burns frequently, said Crystal Kolden, director of the Fire Resilience Center at the University of California, Merced. But this time, there was more fuel and stronger winds. Much of the surrounding area used to be ranch land, and cattle grazing kept the buildup of flammable shrubs and grasses in check. Some of that land has since been converted into a park and a conservation area, allowing more vegetation to grow." "After the Camp Fire, one analysis found that about 51 percent of the 350 single-family homes in Paradise built to the new codes escaped damage, compared with just 18 percent of the 12,100 homes built before the standards." "In many cases, homeowners, state agencies and the federal government will have to do more to prevent vegetation buildup around high-risk areas, experts say." "“There are lots of disasters we have limited control over,” said Dr. Kolden. “But fire is one we do have control over. We can control the fuel. We can control what our structures look like.”"

Pretty big setback for early efforts to make low-carbon steel in the U.S. (Also raises the question of whether that $500 million will be repurposed by Trump's DOE or just go unspent.) canarymedia.com/articles/gre… by @mariagallucci

Wild story: A TVA dam was famously halted in the 1970s over fears that it'd threaten a rare endangered fish known as the snail darter. (Congress later approved the dam anyway.) Now, genetic evidence suggests the snail darter was never even a real species: nytimes.com/2025/01/03/scien…

Interesting take on the hydrogen rules by Mathias Zacarias of CSIS — if the AI data center boom is as big as hyped, there'll be a scramble for 24/7 clean power, and hydrogen producers using electrolysis may struggle to win out, even with hefty subsidies: linkedin.com/posts/mathias-z…