People of Bluesky! Are you ready for the Top Squirrels of 2025??????

"In roughly five years, according to Lanzerac’s operations manager, Tiaan Lategan, electricity for the estate will essentially be free. 'The pros definitely outweigh the cons,' he said" Simple math.

We are expanding into Florida, and we are hiring! www.perc.org/careers/flor...

Controversial take: some friction in our lives, like the beautiful agony of trying to write something original, is good and we shouldn't try to smooth it out with tech.

Brownfield solar, preferably with eco-voltaics like native vegetation re-planting, for the double win! Additional clean energy AND restoration, same site, same time! #ConservationAbundance

Like 2025, my 2026 resolution is to use zero gen-AI* It's bed for our cognitive function It's bad for our social lives, because it's algorithmic and addictive It's bad for our environment Nope *I'm ok with task-specific AI, like computer vision models for remote sensing of the environment

"Hard-to-abate" is sometimes code for "we haven't looked closely yet." This great new report shows opportunities for clean heat (low/medium-temp industrial process heat) through electrification, which also has public health benefits.

A Wildfire Is Coming for Electricity Bills #energysky -- via Heatmap News heatmap.news/energy/...

We are expanding into Florida, and we are hiring! www.perc.org/careers/flor...

"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction." "How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...

Ok folks, legal question here... CEQA seems to require a dynamic environmental baseline for the "no action" scenario/alternative, although I’ve never heard of it happening? - www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/...

Community solar via agrivoltaics! Community solar projects allow electricity ratepayers in nearby areas to save money by purchasing locally-produced solar power, even if they don’t have the means or desire to install solar panels on their own property. #EnergySky triplepundit.com/2025/farmers...

Another way to restart the world’s idea machine is to restore funding and grants to universities, researchers, and artists.

Controversial take: if you cite a fake paper in your journal article, you should have to retract it.

Wildfires are getting more destructive in the US, especially in conifer forests of the Northwest...10% of exposed buildings were destroyed in 2002–2012, but this percentage more than tripled, to 32% in 2013–2022. Nice work @amandacarlson.bsky.social and co-authors! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

"I pay $90,000 in an electric bill,” Teichert said... “Jason’s about $150,000. If Jason had that $150,000 back, his kids could all come back to Cokeville, and work and live here, and you’d be able to raise kids here in Cokeville.” insideclimatenews.org/news/1412202...

@afe-fireecology.bsky.social's Fire Gallery is so beautiful, and inspiring! More good fire, please. fireecology.org/photo-gallery

looking to chat with a lawyer about NEPA and Clean Water Act permitting today. shoot me an email [email protected] #greensky #cleansky #energysky #climatesky

What happened to "all of the above" and "level the playing field" and efficiency?! Hmmmmmm.

Slop wins Word of the Year, over gerrymander, touch grass, performative, tariff, six seven, conclave, and.... Lake Char­gog­ga­gogg­man­chaug­ga­gogg­chau­bu­na­gun­ga­maugg.

🤣🍪🤓

Animals with misleading names. I'm seeing this go around as part of a viral tumblr thread so I thought I'd reshare it.

What if there were fences that worked to manage livestock but were invisible to wildlife? Well, there are🧪🐂🐾! Virtual fences are a great grazing management tool, which makes them a powerful conservation tool as well. NYT article featuring our pilots with ranchers: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/c...

For-profit academic publishing companies are the biggest swindle around. They get their product - which is often taxpayer-funded - for free, then turn around and charge academic libraries exorbitant fees to access it. 🧪

Anyone know of a good analysis of which species are most involved with projects permitting delays under NEPA/ESA?

Audubon California is hiring for a senior director of conservation. Hybrid position based in either Oakland or Sacramento. Take a lewk audubon.wd503.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Audubo...

Ahhhhhhh so soothing. emp.lbl.gov/utility-scal...

Electricity affordability is a major concern. A new paper with grad student Fischer Espiritu Argosino shows renewable policies aren’t driving price increases once you control for confounders. ceepr.mit.edu/workingpaper... #EnergyAffordability #ElectricityPrices #Renewables #PolicyResearch

Air pollution in New York City down 22% after six months of congestion pricing #airpollution www.nature.com/articles/s44...

fat bear week is good, but don't forget about borb season

Let's make giant salmon boring again! Dolly Washburn and Calvin Washburn each with a giant fish looking pretty jaded by it all. Dolly's was 108 lbs, Calvin's *only* 76 lbs. #ConservationAbundance

I've written a lot about the abandoned well crisis in this country. It's an environmental and climate disaster but also a financial disaster. This new article notes the financial reality about why nothing is done. “They can’t, because it bankrupts the industry as we know it.”

As I say here, this is not about saving the planet. The planet will be orbiting the sun long after we’re gone. The question is, will there be a healthy, thriving human society on that planet? The answer to that question is very much up for grabs at this point.

Can biodiversity credits help pay for bison restoration? A test of the idea is underway! montanafreepress.org/2025/11/28/f...

What do houses, energy, and sixty-pound salmon have in common? All of them are currently scarce but could be plentiful with the right changes to policy and practice. 🧪🐟🏘️🔋 How do we get to this "conservation abundance" future for nature and people? I have thoughts! www.perc.org/2025/12/09/t...

“When you allow a machine to summarize your reading, to generate the ideas for your essay, and then to write that essay, you’re not learning how to read, think, or write.“

bUt iT ReDUcEs HoMe VaLUeS aNd mAkEs hOmES LeSs ApPeAliNg tO BuYErS!

Happy Thanksgiving

I was just listening to this and chortling and punching the air with glee, getting me MANY strange looks as I walked to the grocery store. Electrification is exciting, people! I'm not sorry!

You love to see it!

It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick. Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.

Going to show this to my 5-year-old as evidence for brushing his teeth better

The mommy-and-me baby earwig update I did not know I needed. But I did.

“For some reason, I didn’t expect this many of them to kiss.” So many species kiss- apes, bugs, fish, you name it. Really interesting work on the evolution of kissing by @matildabrindle.bsky.social and co-authors. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/s...

I was just watching The Day After Tomorrow with a geologist and a geophysicist (they were fact-checking it so they could teach it the next day in an undergrad class), and their conclusions were... none of it's wrong, just happens too fast in the movie compared to how long it would really take. 🫣

Why did I only just find out that that there are water striders that live IN (ON!!) THE OPEN OCEAN? 🧪 OCEAN STRIDERS!!

Like it or not this technology is here to stay and if you don’t use it you’ll fall behind in your industry

So there is an AI-powered NIMBY app called Objector in the UK that looks for reasons to delay a project and then auto-generates objections. But couldn't this just get turned on its head by YIMBYs to objection-proof a project? www.objector.ai

Wow my heart is filled with loathing