Luke Parsons

Our new @NatureComms paper: urban trees halve the heat island globally, but cooling skews to wealthy, suburban areas. Trees offset only ~10% of mid-century warming (SSP2-4.5) in urban areas, ~20% under max planting. Emissions cuts are still essential doi.org/10.1038/s41467…

@hausfath Inspired by @hausfath 's super El Niño temp lag figure. Super El Niños (MEI > 2.0) show a consistent signal in heat-related livability limitations for older adults in months after peak MEI. 2023/24 excluded (MEI peaked ~1.1). ERA5-Land + HEAT-Lim; Parsons et al. 2026 in ER:H.

If a strong El Niño develops in 2026 (quite likely now), the main effects on global temps will be in 2027. This is because there is historically a lag of about three months between when El Niño peaks (generally in Nov/Dec) and when the biggest effect occurs:

Grateful for the excellent coverage of our new heat & livability paper from Todd Woody (@greenwombat) at @business, @jonathanwatts at the @guardian, and @tomjennings at @nature_org Bloomberg: bloomberg.com/news/articles/… Guardian: theguardian.com/environment/20… TNC: nature.org/en-us/newsroom…

In the last decade, a 'cool' year is now about as heat limited as a 'hot' year in the 1950s.

Graphs from our paper (Fig. 5) showing growth of global population exposure to outdoor livability-limiting heat for younger adults (top, blue) and older adults (bottom, red) - note the spikes in El Niño years (red dots), and how heat exposure continues to spike in 2024 (!).

🚨 New paper in ER:H - Global heat livability limits doubled since 1950s Older adults: 600→900 hrs/year of dangerous heat Younger adults: 25→50 hrs/year ~25% of people live in "survivable but not livable" zones for older adults doi.org/10.1088/2752-5… #ClimateChange #HeatStress

Big thanks to @justinehausheer for her nice piece on our new @ScienceMagazine review paper on forests! For Climate Adaptation, Forests Offer More Than Carbon Storage blog.nature.org/science-brief/…

New in Science 🌳 Forests aren't just carbon sinks, they protect people from climate extremes. In the tropics, intact forests cool by 6°C. But heat from deforestation could reduce safe work conditions for ~3M people & is linked to ~28k deaths/yr. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Grateful to @nature_org media team (esp Tom Jennings and Robyn Day) for this excellent summary of our new @EarthsFutureEiC paper on heat inequity in the US. Great to see our science reaching wider audiences! nature.org/en-us/newsroom…

🔥 NEW paper in @EarthsFutureEiC: Vulnerable US communities already face ~13 extra days/yr of dangerous heat (>95°F/35°F). With 2°C warming, this gap widens to nearly 3 weeks/yr. Climate inequity in the US grows with warming. 📊 doi.org/10.1029/2025EF… @theAGU @DukeEnvironment

The exec administration plans to dismantle NCAR, the backbone of US climate and weather science. As a student, I trained at NCAR and was mentored by brilliant, careful scientists. I now rely on their data and expertise. If in the US, contact your reps: agu.quorum.us/campaign/15156…

🚨 Applications open for the Penn–TNC Sustainability & Conservation Science Postdoc Fellowship! 💰 $70K stipend + research/travel funds 🌍 Climate & conservation projects 📅 Deadline: Jan 30, 2026 🔗 Details: viest.upenn.edu/sustainability… #ClimateScience #Postdoc

We contributed to a new FAO report on forests & ag Forests cool landscapes, sustain crops, & protect workers. 🌡️ Deforestation raises temps by 3–5 °C → unsafe work hours & potential ~28k heat-related deaths/yr. 🌳 Forest conservation = climate adaptation. openknowledge.fao.org/items/f72affc8…

🚨 Funding Alert: Allen Family Philanthropies is offering $10M for projects that accelerate Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) in the U.S. through science & tech innovation. LOIs due Jan 15, 2026. Webinar Dec 9. allenphilanthropies.org/accelerating-n… #ClimateSolutions #NCS #FundingOpportunity

🚨 New paper alert! Migrant workers in India face rising indoor & outdoor heat stress, with labor capacity already down ~10% in key cities. Climate warming + El Niño = even worse risks. Proud to co-author this work in Earth’s Future. 🔗 doi.org/10.1029/10.102…

🚨 AGU talk alert! Presenting at #AGU25 in New Orleans — showing how extreme heat is already limiting safe physical activity for billions, especially older adults. 📅 Dec 15, 4:16PM CST 📍 Room 298-299 #ClimateHealth #ExtremeHeat #Livability

Want to learn more about estimating how heat limits human livability on a warming planet? Come to my talk at #AMS2025 Tuesday, 14 Jan 2025 at 9:00 AM (CT) in the Session "Novel Assessment of Heat Exposure and Risk" ! @AMS_Health

👋❤️‍🔥Please! Like and Repost! I'm participating in #GeoHealth 2024 #DataVizCompetition with the our new liveability metric to heat from "A physiological approach for assessing human survivability and liveability to heat in a changing climate" nature.com/articles/s4146… @JenniVanos

@thirstygecko Cool and it's led by Nathan. Nice. I always appreciate having a range instead of one time series/field to plot/assess!

Thanks to @CC_Yale for covering our recent @OneEarth_CP paper (doi.org/10.1016/j.onee…) on the rising threat of humid heat and climate change threatening outdoor workers in tropical regions: yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/09/climat…