Science/climate writer recently @NYT and @WSJ. Bylines @latimes, @WIRED, @NatGeo and others. Have a good story? eric.niiler@gmail.com.
Washington, DC
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Eric Niiler retweeted
As the new Roman Space Telescope opens its eye on the sky, its home base on Earth is spiraling. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center built Roman, but workers there say deep cuts threaten Goddard’s ability to handle future big space science projects.
spklr.io/6012ET0qs
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As the Roman space telescope prepares to capture the universe, changes at @NASAGoddard mean uncertainty for future science missions. @sciam scientificamerican.com/artic…
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Eric Niiler retweeted
The sci-writing biz is looking bad after Scientific American was sold (half the staff gone, salaries cut) in June, following layoffs of science/environment writers at Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio and CBS News...
(NiemanLab) niemanlab.org/2026/09/is-sci…
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Eric Niiler retweeted
Water experts warn that the Colorado River’s flow may soon fall below a critical threshold at Lee’s Ferry, a bellwether river bend in Arizona that the 1922 Colorado River Compact says tells if there's enuf water, triggering Supreme Court lawsuits...
(CPR) cpr.org/2026/09/09/colorado-…
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Eric Niiler retweeted
El Niño is leading to a sudden increase in sea level along the California coast, by up to a foot. This dramatically increases the state's vulnerability to flooding, esp. when winter storms hit. cnn.com/climate/el-nino-cali… (Img shows the coastal Kelvin wave)
ALT Image showing how Kelvin waves moved across the Pacific and then up from South America to North America between April 16 and September 10, increasing ocean levels as they went. Red represents higher-than-normal sea surface heights. Some data for September is based on forecasts. Courtesy Dillon Amaya.
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Thoughtful look at new evidence, and uncertainty, about whether climate change is supercharging this year's El Niño by @whereishayley ihttps://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2026-09-04/research-suggests-global-warming-has-increased-super-el-ninos-punch
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Check out this deep dive by @SMeichtry and Ed Ballard into how Europe's hottest summer transformed French vineyards, English gardens, and scorched the continent's economy.
wsj.com/world/europe/the-sum…
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Bigger, hotter forest fires are transforming conifer forests into shrubland across a large area of the Western U.S. Here's a look at one such forest in California's central Sierras @nytimes nytimes.com/2026/08/23/clima…
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Eric Niiler retweeted
In parts of the west, record heat and fires mean the end of forests: "Recent studies estimate that as much as 40 percent of Western conifer forests will turn into shrubland by 2100 as a result." @eniiler @nytimes nytimes.com/2026/08/23/clima…
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An investigation revealed that glyphosate is being sprayed in California forests at record levels by timber companies and the U.S. Forest Service. to.pbs.org/4xgOgN6
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Here’s a look at Dragonfly, the last big planetary mission in NASA’s pipeline. It’s a nuclear-powered copter built to search for signs of life on Titan: ‘A lot’s riding on it’ latimes.com/science/story/20…
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Former colleague @scottmcalvert with another banger of a story, this one from the Chesapeake Bay: wsj.com/lifestyle/how-to-doc…
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Eric Niiler retweeted
The forecast for the annual average temperature in 2026 has been driven up by the forecast of a record-breaking El Niño at the end of the year.
This now puts the chance of a new record annual average in 2026 at 69%.
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Eric Niiler retweeted
No good. Also troubling: "Vandenberg Space Force Base is experiencing an Increased number of unauthorized entry attempts."
Invited Members of the Media Held at Gunpoint by Vandenberg’s 30th Security Forces Squadron
keyt.com/vandenberg-space-ba…
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Eric Niiler retweeted
On August 20 every year, Dr. Bill Gray would ring a bell denoting the start of the climatologically most active portion of the Atlantic #hurricane season. Historically, about 2/3 of all Atlantic hurricane activity occurs between August 20 - October 10.
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Eric Niiler retweeted
Breaking News: Trump officials are moving to open nearly 45 million acres of wilderness in national forests to new roads and logging, removing protections that had been in place since 2001. nyti.ms/4x9EoVt
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Oregon Zoo
Bombshell from @ScienceMagazine: new doubts over big Harvard study of genes hailed to ward off Alzheimer’s disease. "Macondo" mutation might be as fictional as its namesake. science.org/content/article/…
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