Richard Waite
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waiterich.bsky.social
Richard Waite
@waiterich.bsky.social
43K followers 2K following 13K posts
Director, Agriculture Initiatives, World Resources Institute. Working with colleagues around the world to create a sustainable food future. DC-based. Own views.
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waiterich.bsky.social
Not sure I've ever seen a 10-point emoji Likert scale before

The 5 seems too sad
How likely are you to recommend Foxit PDF Editor to others? Shows 10 emojis from 1 to 10 varying from very angry to very happy with heart eyes
November 26, 2025 at 6:39 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
Careful with video clips and paraphrased quotes, folks. The survey this is based on does not say grocery prices are up 85% vs last year etc. It says that 85% of people say their grocery prices have gone up. That’s also bad, but it’s not the same thing.

See survey at www.foxnews.com/politics/fox...
Compared to a year ago, voters say costs have increased for utilities (78%), healthcare (67%), housing (66%) and gasoline (54%). And 85% their grocery prices went up this year, including 60% who say costs increased "a lot." Majorities of Republicans agree with majorities of Democrats and independents that costs have gone up on each of these items except gas.
November 24, 2025 at 3:45 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
Counting the land use side of the equation is important because global food demand continues to rise, and agriculture (the orange and yellow below) continues to drive tree cover loss, which adds billions of tons of CO2 to the atmosphere each year. www.wri.org/insights/for...
Chart showing global forest-related emissions by driver from 2001-2024. Emissions from tree cover loss have grown from 5 Gt CO2e in 2001 to 13 Gt CO2e in 2024. Historically half or more than half has been due to agriculture, which has caused ~5 Gt CO2e of emissions from tree cover loss each year since 2012. In 2023 and 2024, wildfire was a very significant factor. Logging also contributes 2-3 Gt of emissions each year.
November 21, 2025 at 7:23 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
Yesterday at #COP30, Brazil and the UK announced the Belém Declaration on Fertilisers, a ministerial call to action to improve the production and optimize the use of fertilizers in all their forms for food security, nature, and the climate. My statement is here: www.wri.org/news/stateme...
Synthetic and organic fertilizers are essential for achieving high crop and pasture yields and for feeding a growing global population. Yet, they are also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to air and water pollution. This call to action to improve fertilizer production and use is an important step forward for people, nature and climate. Globally, more than half of the nitrogen applied to crop fields is lost to the environment rather than absorbed by crops—a significant inefficiency. Fertilizer use is also unevenly distributed, with overapplication in some regions causing pollution and underapplication in others leading to low yields and food insecurity. More efficient nitrogen use is a multiple-win solution — it can cut emissions, increase profits for farmers, sustain high yields and food security, improve air and water quality, and strengthen soil health and resilience. Our research shows that raising global nitrogen use efficiency from less than 50 percent today to 70 percent in the future could reduce GHG emissions by 0.6 gigatons of CO2 equivalent per year. Producing lower-carbon fertilizers offers further potential to slash emissions. Achieving these wins requires smarter nutrient management, wider adoption of enhanced efficiency fertilizers such as nitrification inhibitors, and breeding crops that use nitrogen more effectively. More R&D is also needed for promising pathways such as biological nitrification inhibition and biofertilizers. Governments should develop policies and redirect subsidies toward strategies that improve nitrogen use efficiency, reduce nitrogen losses, and lower emissions from fertilizer production. Link to the Belem Declaration on Fertilisers: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/belem-declaration-on-fertilisers/belem-declaration-on-fertilisers
November 20, 2025 at 3:37 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
Once upon a time, It Happened To Me
My post: Why is the word “viscous” and not “thiquid” MERRIAM-WEBSTER MY CHILDHOOD DICTIONARY RESPONDS WITH AN EYES EMOJI
November 20, 2025 at 1:55 AM
waiterich.bsky.social
Your last saved meme is your moral philosophy…
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles logo that reads Grapefruit Flavored Fizzy Seltzer
November 17, 2025 at 3:09 AM
waiterich.bsky.social
Quiet
A reservoir reflects the evergreen and bare trees under a gray sky in November. There are some trees with red leaves and bushes with green and yellow leaves in the foreground.
November 15, 2025 at 6:31 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
Reports on 2025 GHG emissions and trends are dropping during #COP30. Please find attached the social media conversation you are about to have!
EXTENDED American Chopper meme Guy 1. Global GHG emissions are still going up Guy 2. Emissions are coming down in this specific place and/or sector, or if I give you an intensity metric 1. Even there they aren't coming down fast enough 2. I didn't say they were, but there are important areas of progress 1. And even when global emissions start coming down that won't be enough, we need to get to zero or below 2. You are scaring everyone, you doomer! Thanks to you no one will do anything! 1. You are peddling hopium to the masses! Thanks to you no one will do anything!
November 13, 2025 at 7:43 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
I get what this type of chart is saying, and it’s true that emissions & atmospheric CO2 keep going up despite annual COPs, but has anyone ever tried to make a counterfactual version of this with another line estimating what CO2 levels would have been if the world didn’t try to act on climate at all?
Chart showing increasing atmospheric CO2 levels from 1994 to 2021 despite annual climate COPs.
November 13, 2025 at 3:30 AM
waiterich.bsky.social
Oh! I see it! (Not through naked eye but on phone pic.)

DC area looking north
Pink and purple aurora in night sky over some bare trees.
November 12, 2025 at 2:17 AM
waiterich.bsky.social
Did not see aurora just now but picture still kinda cool
A tree is lit up by a streetlight. Behind it are more trees in the dark. The night sky is dark blue. Can’t see any aurora tho
November 12, 2025 at 2:10 AM
waiterich.bsky.social
First wintry day of the fall, first frost coming tonight, and this tree is still hanging on to its bright red leaves
A tall tree with very bright red leaves with partly cloudy skies behind it
November 10, 2025 at 8:14 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
Chris had some unconventional business practices, but the original apostrophe placement would have at least passed high school English (that said, the apostrophe without an s after a name ending in s also bothers me)
The original Chris' Steak House (1927–1965) edit Chris' Steak House was founded on February 27, 1927 by New Orleans entrepreneur Chris Matulich.[5] It was located at 1100 North Broad Street near the Fair Grounds Race Course, seated 60 people, and had no parking lot. During Matulich's 38-year management, the business was sold six times. Each time it was sold the business failed and Matulich bought the restaurant back cheaply from the purchasers.[6][7] In 2022, the building became the focus of a historic preservation dispute, when its new owner demolished the iconic wraparound terracotta-tile awning without the proper permits.[8][9]
November 9, 2025 at 2:58 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
Peak color this afternoon. If you look closely you can see a squirrel.
A tree with very bright red autumn leaves with a Bluesky behind it.
November 3, 2025 at 4:42 AM
waiterich.bsky.social
🎶 You can’t hurry leaves
No, you’ll just have to rake
Shred them up on your lawn now
Or compost them for goodness’ sake 🎵
A solid layer of red, orange, and brown leaves in the yard (more continue to fall).
November 3, 2025 at 1:58 AM
waiterich.bsky.social
First evening of Standard Time each fall
Astronaut meme Astronaut 1: Wait, it’s dark out at 5:30pm now? Astronaut 2: Always has been
November 2, 2025 at 10:44 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
Autumn vibes. Sound up.
October 31, 2025 at 12:03 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
Does burning more wood lead to more forests & help the climate? In a new Nature paper, WRI & Yale researchers show such claims rely on flawed accounting and models, and misinterpret underlying studies.

Read the papers: rdcu.be/eNkXX

RSVP to a webinar 10/31, 9:30 ET: hub.wri.org/events/2025/...
Reply to: Carbon implications of wood harvesting and forest management Timothy D. Searchinger, Steven Berry, Liqing Peng The critiqued study by two of the authors of this Reply uses the carbon harvest model (CHARM) to estimate carbon emissions from wood harvest as the carbon added to the atmosphere—fully accounting for silvicultural gains—relative to the carbon that forests would store if left alone. This comparison to no-human-activity is the standard approach for calculating emissions from burning oil, driving cars and other human actions, and is the same forestry-accounting approach used in land-use change models long relied on by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Global Carbon Project and many other papers. In the accompanying Comment, Sohngen et al. reject this approach, arguing mainly that emissions of one activity should be compared with those in an economic counterfactual, which means the emissions produced by the economically estimated, most-likely alternative activities. Citing their previously published global timber model (GTM), they claim that new wood harvests “can reduce” atmospheric carbon, which means they are carbon negative. However, although economic models, when credible, can usefully project shifts in behaviour, they do not determine the emissions of these behaviours; by confusing emissions of one activity with emissions avoided by another, the approach by Sohngen et al. makes physical emissions disappear. We elaborate below and also explain how the GTM’s findings that economic forces offset new wood-use emissions by creating more forests stem from large misinterpretations of underlying studies (even by a factor of 75) and from modelling structures that largely assume their conclusions.
October 30, 2025 at 8:49 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
Looking down / looking up
Fallen yellow, orange, red, and brown leaves on the ground Green, yellow, orange, and red leaves yet to fall. Behind the tree is a Bluesky
October 30, 2025 at 7:41 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
"average person eats 1 olive per serving" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 olives per serving. Olives Georg, who posts from this account & eats all the olives in a jar in one sitting, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
Some Mezzetta garlic stuffed green olives. Nutrition Facts say the serving size is 1 olive and that there are about 30 servings per container
October 28, 2025 at 1:38 AM
waiterich.bsky.social
Man soup
Campbell’s CHUNKY SOUP THAT EATS LIKE A MEAL STEAK AND POTATO 13g PROTEIN PER CAN EXTRA METAL ON TOP
October 28, 2025 at 12:17 AM
waiterich.bsky.social
Weird AI fail just now.

I tried to ask Google what country is about 35 million hectares.

It gave me wrong answers about Angola (actually ~125 million hectares) and also the US and China (each >900 million hectares). All wildly off.

.000 batting average after 3 trips to the plate. 🤷‍♂️
My prompt in Google: "35 million hectares country size" AI overview wrongly tells me Angola is about 35 million hectares (reality: 125 million), and wrongly compares it to the US at 98 million hectares (reality: more than 900 million) and China at 96 million (reality: more than 900 million)
October 27, 2025 at 4:10 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
This is where I’m posting from
Penny looking at her computer book in Inspector Gadget circa 1983
October 27, 2025 at 3:02 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
la vache qui rit de façon automnale
The Laughing Cow limited edition pumpkin spice flavor
October 26, 2025 at 11:16 PM
waiterich.bsky.social
🍁 It’s happening 🍂
A tall tree with a range of leaf colors from green to yellow and orange. Behind it is a Bluesky
October 23, 2025 at 9:24 PM