Claire G. Griffin

@polargriffin.bsky.social

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VAP @ Southern Oregon University, Asst Prof at Allegheny College Fall 2024. Ex-pat Texan, biogeofeminist and arctic scientist, organic matter is my fave. Water science, fluffy dog photos, #QueerinSTEM, and housing policy.

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Claire G. Griffin

Stromatolites within the Helena formation, Belt supergroup, Glacier National Park. ⚒️

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Claire G. Griffin

The media has largely erased the Biden Boom economy. Every story about Trump's scandals contained a "to be sure, the economy remains persistently strong under Trump" paragraph. Even when we get good-to-great economic news under Biden it's presented like we're in a recession!

If this were a normal election, President Biden would be extolling excellent economic news: inflation looks like it has not only been tamed, but turned around. Median wage growth (which excises returns for the top 1%) is outpacing inflation significantly. Unemployment is near record lows.

Prices fell in June for the first time since the start of the pandemic | CNN Businesswww.cnn.com Americans weighed down by fast-rising prices for three years just received more encouraging news on the inflation front.

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Claire G. Griffin

"Only 4% of national TV news segments about Hurricane Beryl mentioned climate change. By failing to consistently make these connections, they are leaving their audiences uninformed about the full scope of the climate crisis and its immediate impacts on their lives.” - Evlondo Cooper

Only 4% of national TV news segments about Hurricane Beryl mentioned climate changewww.mediamatters.org Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, rapidly intensified to a Category 5 storm by July 2, becoming the earliest recorded Category 5 hurricane in an Atlantic hurricane seas...

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Claire G. Griffin

Very unfun fact: Project 2025 specifically names Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area and wants to remove its protected status and open it up to mining. This is the future Donald John Trump wants.

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Claire G. Griffin

Cutting 25% of your curatorial staff due to 8% decrease in attendance --> Bad strategic plan and fund development. All that shitty tech money in the area and not one of these "thought leaders" has been hit up for 10 million annually. #CollectionsAreEssential www.science.org/content/arti...

California Academy of Sciences reeling from budget cutswww.science.org A major natural history collection loses one-quarter of its curators

The past couple days I wandered around Idaho! Mostly the Salmon River and the Sawtooths. Definitely need to go back for an extended visit!

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Claire G. Griffin

Please enjoy these 24 minutes of drone footage of the Channeled Scablands, a landscape formed by cataclysmic floods that is like nothing else on Earth. youtu.be/oWzFH7x6nLs?...

Scabland Couleesyoutu.be Come experience an aerial tour of 9 Ice Age flood coulees within the Channeled Scabland.

Doing a "break from driving/catchup on email/see college friend" day in Salt Lake, and that middle part has me pretty anxious.

That thing where you’ve been traveling and neglecting email for a week and now you’re finally going to have to deal with it and the thought fills you with unspeakable dread.

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Claire G. Griffin

Wow. "four out of 16 curators lost their jobs. Three other staff members in the division took voluntary buyouts, including the manager of the fish collection—one of the largest in the world.... One of the laid off curators had an endowed position"

California Academy of Sciences reeling from budget cuts

California Academy of Sciences reeling from budget cutswww.science.org A major natural history collection loses one-quarter of its curators

Which is worse (better?): the bird nerd who wants to pull over and identify anything that flits by or the geology geek who wants to stare at every outcrop? Yesterday was Glacier NP! I have so many photos of rocks, but limiting here to the glacial landforms and Flathead Lake :)

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Claire G. Griffin

🚨 Once again, last month's global temperature set a new record high. This time for the month of June. Of course, this is contributing to the unusually warm summer temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere too. Summary of June data: @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social: climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-...

Yesterday was the northern part of Channeled Scablands, then camping at Priest Lake in ID! It was SO COOL, I wanted to take photos of every single flood-transported boulder and views of coulees from every angle.

I reliably take 2+ hours longer than each day's because I keep pulling over for views or doing "short" side trips. Anyway, Idaho Panhandle! Includes glacial valleys, Pend Oreille (formed from a lobe of the ice sheet), and Clark Fork/Cabinet Gorge, through which Glacial Lake Missoula drained.

Fulfilling a decades long yearning to see the aftermath of the PNW Ice Age Floods and Channeled Scablands! Doing more tomorrow, and will eventually follow it up to Glacial Lake Missoula.

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Claire G. Griffin

Happy 4th of July! In the wise words of Ben Franklin: The Bald Eagle is a Bird of bad moral Character. Too lazy to fish for himself. The Turkey is a more respectable Bird, though vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would attack a Brit who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.

I'm on my meandering road trip back east! First stop was Steens Mountain, and I could have spent a week here.

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Claire G. Griffin

one element of Grants Pass is that it’s not just about whether you can enforce anti-camping laws against the homeless. it’s about whether you can enforce those laws **even when you haven’t provided adequate shelter beds**

First decision is Grants Pass. Gorsuch has the 6-3 opinion finding that the Eighth Amendment does not bar "generally applicable" laws banning public camping. Sotomayor writes the dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23p...

www.supremecourt.gov

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Claire G. Griffin

Mask bans are evil and dystopian and I am appalled that they’re even being proposed. Wearing masks to protect your health and the health of others needs to be recognized as a right for all and an absolutely essential protection for those who would otherwise be unable to participate in society

Where are we on mask bans? www.patreon.com/posts/mask-b...

Mask Bans | Matthew Cortlandwww.patreon.com Get more from Matthew Cortland on Patreon

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Claire G. Griffin

Great day for an ice cave hike. Castner Glacier, Alaska.

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Claire G. Griffin

Two pieces, same vibe 🏳️‍🌈⚗️ #chemsky

My kindle dying just before a cross country move is pretty inconvenient!

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Claire G. Griffin

Hotter, drier weather is leading to bigger and more dangerous wildfires across most of western North America. Texas recorded its largest fire on record earlier this year, and now a pair of devestating fires just across the border in NM remain 0% uncontained.

After wildfires ravage Ruidoso, New Mexico, leaving 2 dead, floods swamp areawww.usatoday.com Two wildfires tearing through southern New Mexico have destroyed about 1,400 buildings, and parts of the area were threatened with heavy rains.

Help protect this diverse, wonderful region!

Speak up for biodiversity! The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southern Oregon/northern California has a new draft management plan and we need people to submit substantive comments by July 5. More info: www.cascadesiskiyou.org/resource-man... Please RT! 🧪🌎

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Claire G. Griffin

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Claire G. Griffin

“New satellite data confirms that every corner of the earth has the incorrect quantity of water,” the report read in part, noting that even though the total amount of water on the planet seemed to be about right, the distribution of that water across the globe was “way off.”

Report: Every Place On Earth Has Wrong Amount Of Waterwww.theonion.com RESTON, VA—A new global report released Monday by the U.S. Geological Survey revealed that every place on earth currently has the wrong amount of water. “New satellite data confirms that every corner...

Moving is just the worst process. Always a pain in the ass.

Anyone have a good handle on S. OR geology? This was an exposure not far from Gold Beach, OR in the Klamaths, in Rogue-Siskiyou NF. I think it's a paleosol of some sort in the Yolla Bolly terrane, but I don't have a great map and there's a mishmash of 3 terranes in the area

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Claire G. Griffin

I am once again asking you to consider that an entire information ecosystem established as the primary form of communication over a hundred years and allegedly regulated by the federal government was destroyed by scammers virtually overnight and we just don’t, like, ever talk about it

The first rule of avoiding scam calls is to never answer unknown numbers, and even some known ones. Curious? Bored? Worried it’s an emergency? Wait the extra minute it takes for the call to go to voice mail, then decide if it’s legitimate.

Sick of scams? Stop answering your phone.www.washingtonpost.com Phone scams are still hugely popular — and they depend entirely on people curious enough to answer.