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jongertner.bsky.social
Writing about climate, science, and technology at the New York Times Magazine; author of The Idea Factory and The Ice at the End of the World. Working on a book about NASA’s Voyager mission.
47 posts 319 followers 509 following
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Nothing will kill more children than the ongoing decimation of CDC, NIH, and USAID work to lift vaccine uptake in the US and world. Child survival rose 75% in the last 50 years. Vaccines account for 40% of that. Measles vax alone was 60% of the benefit. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

submitted 4 days ago • 50 comments

His knowledge of Greenland's history is really bad. Saying this as someone who wrote a history of Greenland.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

“The rate of rise is getting faster and faster” www.nasa.gov/missions/jas...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Gina McCarthy, an Obama E.P.A. administrator, said it was “the most disastrous day in EPA history. Rolling these rules back is not just a disgrace, it’s a threat to all of us. The agency has fully abdicated its mission to protect Americans’ health and well being.” www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/c...

submitted 3 days ago • 7 comments

Obviously, if you’re not following Carl you should.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

I didn’t know Kevin Drum but I admired his writing. Here are tributes by two other writers I admire: Michael Hiltzik: www.latimes.com/business/sto... Paul Glastris: washingtonmonthly.com/2025/03/11/r... May his memory be a blessing.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

**This would end space science as we know it.** I’d probably be out of a job. Successful ongoing missions would be turned off. Future missions would be axed. Some research centers (NASA & non-NASA) would likely dissolve.

submitted 9 days ago • 4 comments

Interesting piece on the Severance-Lumon-Bell Labs connection . . . and that stunning building. (And yes, it does mention my book, The Idea Factory.) www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/r...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

This tracks with what I've heard. Brutal and completely unnecessary cuts to destroy 60 years of leadership in planetary and space science by those fucks in charge. arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...

submitted 9 days ago • 7 comments

A significant development. arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Not going to Mars just yet, I guess.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Being able to drop a quarterly US GDP prediction by 5.1% from +2.3% to -2.8% in a single week is one of the most impressive economic developments in the history of the world.

submitted 13 days ago • 667 comments

The state of the union is that the President is spitting in the face of the law. He is letting an unelected billionaire fire cancer researchers and wreck federal agencies like the Social Security Administration at will. I won't be attending tomorrow's Joint Address.

submitted 13 days ago • 711 comments

This is all lies. Reporting has made clear that - Food and health spending is still paused, or contracts have been cancelled entirely (e.g. Ready-to-use therapeutic food for starving children) - Money owed for work done during Biden still hasn't gone out - Musk's people are the blockers

submitted 13 days ago • 59 comments

Per senior USAID official, Trump Adm actions likely to cause * up to 18m additional cases of malaria; 166k additional deaths * 200k children paralyzed with polio * 1m children not treated for malnutrition * 28k new cases of infectious disease www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/h...

submitted 13 days ago • 77 comments

That only took 41 days. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

submitted 14 days ago • 4 comments

“It will have become clear to you now that we are heading for a great catastrophe.” www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

So depressing.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Interesting. . . But I’m not sure investors see panic until investors see panic. And then, well . . .

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Shotei Hiroaki (1871-1945) Evening glow at Sakawa Bridge #japanese #woodblock

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

Gift link. A small unelected, secretive crew now has free access to sensitive private data of everyone. And Musk is already publicly targeting family members of judges who rule against the administration. If this isn’t ringing alarm bells, I don’t know what would. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/o...

submitted 23 days ago • 32 comments

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

submitted 25 days ago • 88 comments

I actually don't think a single human being will make it to Mars—and back to earth, alive—in the next 20 or 30 years.

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Remarkable quote, and wise:

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Want to go visit the national parks this year? Sorry. The reservation system is shut down, EMT personnel are gone, so don't get hurt or lost. No one can clean the bathrooms or cabins, so they'll be closed. Rangers are fired. www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

submitted 27 days ago • 838 comments

relatedly, pointing out the hypocrisy of far-right actors and expecting it to have an impact on them is a complete fool’s errand. they know! the obvious hypocrisies are their way to project raw power over the very idea of truth/falsity and shouting HYPOCRISY to the world isn’t gonna cut it in 2025

submitted 30 days ago • 2 comments

The IRS was a simple test for DOGE: was it really interested in efficiency and state capacity? If so, you support the tax enforcement, the biggest ROI in govt. Or did it want to minimize parts of the state that bothered billionaires? We have our answer. open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

submitted 30 days ago • 136 comments

NEW: Despite Musk and Rubio’s statements, life-saving programs with USAID funds are NOT restarting. A funds transfer system is frozen. And a USAID official sent out an internal email obtained by @nytimes.com telling employees to halt applications to restart: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...

submitted 31 days ago • 19 comments

Now that is a good frame for a good story.

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

The real "geostrategic importance of Greenland to U.S. interests" is that the Greenland ice sheet is melting, with consequences that will drown parts of Ted Cruz's state. But I doubt that will come up at this hearing.

submitted 34 days ago • 14 comments

Ominous. The beginning of the end of US earth and climate observation?

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

The magnitude of the current size of the #Arctic sea ice extent anomaly is unheard of in the satellite-era record for the deep winter season months. Data from nsidc.org/data/seaice_...

submitted 36 days ago • 8 comments

Now under Trump, the NIH says it is cutting ~$9 billion in federal research grants supporting medical research ranging from cancer to Alzheimer's diseases. “I think it’s going to destroy research universities in the short term, and I don’t know after that." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...

submitted 36 days ago • 59 comments

"Today, however, the share of Republicans who say they want Musk to have “a lot” of influence has fallen substantially to 26 percent....Overall, 13 percent of surveyed Americans want Musk to have “a lot” of influence on the Trump administration" thehill.com/homenews/adm...

submitted 38 days ago • 1 comment

Rubio claims that @USAID lifesaving assistance for health and humanitarian needs will continue. But his team just communicated that the entire agency will be imminently reduced from 14,000 to 294 people. Just 12 in Africa.

submitted 38 days ago • 146 comments

In light of the EPA overhaul, I recalled this excellent story, which seems kinda . . . relevant: www.wsj.com/business/aut...

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

It's hard to convey how barrier breaking this is. Weather + climate people have always collaborated internationally, simply because weather does not respect national borders. Even during the Cold War, US + Russia shared weather observations. To be told this is to be told to "stop doing your job"

submitted 39 days ago • 1 comment

Two weeks into President Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid, H.I.V. groups abroad have not received any funding, jeopardizing the health of more than 20 million people, including 500,000 children. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/h...

submitted 39 days ago • 35 comments

You say: they shutdown USAID. You mean: they illegally broke in to a secure facility over a weekend, hijacked sensitive data on vulnerable people and US businesses, destroyed property Americans paid for, cut off resources for sick and hungry families, and fired Americans across the country.

submitted 41 days ago • 97 comments

I don't know how else to put this: This is fucking insane. NSF, a $10 billion grantmaking agency, is planning to lay off between a quarter and a half of its staff in the next two months.

submitted 40 days ago • 28 comments

This is VERY good news. Love bookshop.org and all the stuff they do! www.salon.com/2025/01/28/b...

submitted 40 days ago • 508 comments

Greenland’s parliament has passed a bill that bans political parties from receiving contributions “from foreign or anonymous contributors” after President Trump expressed his wish that the U.S. take over the island that belongs to Denmark.

submitted 40 days ago • 62 comments

To repeat: TSLA is a weak and vulnerable company.

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments