Beautiful thread about the function of terpenes for trees!

Ponderosa pine smells like butterscotch. Go ahead, sniff one the next time you're in the western US. Some say "vanilla", some say "oh no, my nose is covered in sap." Let's talk about birds, butterscotch, forest fires, blue wood, & boring beetles. But mostly this thread is about terpenes.

14,000 yr-old in situ stumps sampled today! 🥰 Wood that old cannot be found in the Alps, but in the Prealps! In Southern Alps, some torrential systems feature Lateglacial Pinus sylvestris outcrops! So BEAUTIFUL! (Rooted stumps+paleosol+alluvial sediments) 📷 L. Francon PI: C. Miramont (both IMBE)

Interesting site we sampled some years ago and has recently been published #dendrochronology #intertidal #archaeology historicengland.org.uk/research/res...

Why is is so hard for people to say these words?: Lough Neagh, the UK's biggest lake, is being killed by *livestock farms*.

When speaking to Tommy Robinson at the far right demonstration in London today, Elon Musk wore a t-shirt saying "What would Orwell think?" So let's dive in - what would George Orwell think about Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk? 🧵

Maritime Archaeology! Built Heritage! Trees! All together = perfect! Nice work here from @dendrorodbale.bsky.social

Ship’s floor (oak) reused as lintel. Removed during construction work from Cambrian Place Swansea. Dendro dated to spring summer 1778 and sourced from a locally grown Welsh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 tree! #dendrochronology #wales #archaeology

Ship’s floor (oak) reused as lintel. Removed during construction work from Cambrian Place Swansea. Dendro dated to spring summer 1778 and sourced from a locally grown Welsh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 tree! #dendrochronology #wales #archaeology

This has always been clear: plant-based meat alternatives are better for the planet and, at least compared to red meat, better for your health. That this is not widely accepted is the product of meat industry disinfo, science illiteracy, and some very stupid journalists. www.cnn.com/2025/07/21/h...

Pith hit! 🍾

Here's the alternative global warming plan. Draw up the drawbridge. Let the global south burn. Suck out the last fossil fuel profits. Get the population down to 1 billion (as per Peter Thiel) and let the oligarchs enjoy their vineyards in Siberia and feudal estates in other cool places

🐈

The list of terrible things done to farmed animals is so long, and meat/dairy/egg companies don't have to disclose them. That'll soon change in Switzerland — at least for one set of really awful practices. New story today in our Processing Meat newsletter:

In 3 months, bluefin tuna will be migrating back into our waters, where they'll be met with a fleet of commercial and recreational* fishers. It's a horrible way to welcome these magnificent, charismatic creatures. Let's try to get this to 250,000 before they arrive. www.change.org/p/protect-bl...

This Spring (March-April-May) may end up being the driest on record for the UK. This would also make it the driest of any season in a dataset that goes back to 1836. Spring in 1852 currently holds the record for driest season at 100.7 mm averaged across the UK. www.bbc.co.uk/weather/arti...

1. This is Piles Copse, the largest remaining fragment of high-ground temperate rainforest on Dartmoor. It’s a tiny speck of green in a dismal, human-made desert. Prepare yourselves for a story of breathtaking perversity, told in this thread. (There’s a one-page version at the bottom). 🧵

It's not Bake Off. It's a global far-right insurgency. To normalise Nigel Farage, is to normalise Donald Trump. We, the media, have to wise up fast. broligarchy.substack.com/p/springtime...

“A mery May”. The Betley Window, c. 1500, V&A.

forgot the tags #dendroarchaeologia 🏺🌳💍(archaeology and tree rings)

Drought weather in the northeastern United States, authored by Laurie Agel with @mathewabarlow.bsky.social, Christopher Skinner, and @ambarish.bsky.social journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...

An 1860s oak, in what was formerly a field, and some 1960s fir, chestnut and beech 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

🧵 You might have seen a post urging you to donate to Harvard, a wealthy university that needs no financial reward for doing the bare minimum. Instead, I'd like to tell you about some organizations that are working to protect academic freedom and at-risk scholars and deserve your support 1

I don't know how likely this unfolding is, but everyone should read it and decide for themselves. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. medium.com/@aletheisthe...

This would suggest that in some cases (and contrary to some previous studies, e.g. Sternberg) we can't treat the fractional exchange between oxygen in carbohydrates vs. water during cellulose synthesis as a constant academic.oup.com/treephys/adv...

Carney gets it. Trump 2.0 is the US’s Brexit moment

When did you ever see English streams/rivers full of large woody debris, like fallen trees or branches? Almost never, because of obsessive over-management and resistance to allow woodlands to develop naturally. But natural state of woodland streams is to be full of fallen trees, slowing the flow.

Bad day to post about anything besides everyone's tanking 401(k)s, but: I have an illustrated piece on the life of a dairy cow, finally out in the world! The dairy industry is brutal. There's really no good reason to mass produce another mammal for its maternal milk www.vox.com/future-perfe...

🧵New paper out in Remote Sensing of Environment led by Katie Orndahl and Logan Berner! In this study, we (really they) mapped aboveground plant biomass and woody plant dominance across the entire Arctic tundra biome—at 30 m resolution. A thread 👇 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New from @dustybowl.bsky.social et al. 'Megapluvials in Southwestern North America' agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... - drought usually gets all the attention, but especially 20th century wet periods were important too

These guys inherited one of the most functional state apparatus in the history of the world and they are inhabiting it like a crack house. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Banned Russian Channel RT Secretly Pays Video Bloggers Who Promote Kremlin Narratives www.occrp.org/en/investiga... via @occrp.org

Commute 🚲 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

There is no scientific evidence for any meaningful climate benefits of "grass-fed" beef, as many people, including myself and @gnrosenberg.bsky.social, have long been saying. This news study in PNAS further strengthens this point. newrepublic.com/article/1637...

Totally respect non-vegan environmentalists! Got to tip my hat to anyone bold enough to prioritise their preferred salad ingredients and enjoyment of cow body parts over the planet's survival. Proper commitment, that.

1. Against my own political instincts, I’ve taken what feels like a drastic step, and started stockpiling food. This week’s column explains why. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... Plus a brief thread.

Short but important paper: The meat industry has regularly pushed back against attempts to shift individual dietary practices. The inefficacy objection to meat reduction and veganism - so beloved on the left and online - is in effect a meat industry talking point. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

titanium n wood

The joy of bacon for me was utterly ruined by acknowledging the unnecessary suffering caused by its production

How many tropical tree species form annual growth rings? Around 500. How many #tree-ring chronologies exist there? Also 500. These data are important in #globalchange research. That s our message in review led by Peter Groenendijk. #dendrochronology #forest www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This piece is actually fine and the furor it has generated (typical online "they don't want you to have nice things" kvetching) misses the fact that the ubiquity and low prices of eggs are due to factory farming, a moral, environmental, and labor disaster. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

You might say we couldn't have written Trump's comments better. But we did write them.

Any remaining arguments against the rearmament of Europe just evaporated in front of the eyes of every single European head of state this evening.

‘We’ve lost some parts of nature for ever’: the #Ukraine war’s impact on environment – photo essay www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

1. European and UK ministers are still talking as if their biggest potential security problem is a withdrawal of US support. But that is not their biggest potential security problem. It’s that, under Trump, the US will back Putin not just diplomatically but also militarily. 🧵

Quietly, my university took down its webpage on diversity (diversity.arizona.edu) and edited its land acknowledgement to remove the clause, "Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives..." We need Universities to stand up for their values, not comply in advance 😡

The main arguments made against intervention in Syria to protect Syrians from Assad in 2013 were: 1 - Regime change will lead to a million dead and a 10 year civil war. 2 - It will lead to a wider global conflict between the west and Iran & Russia. 3 - Assad may be replaced by an Islamist.

I regret to say there has been a lot of foolishness on some sections the left about #Ukraine, echoing Russian and far-right talking points. (Just as shamefully, the same people supported Assad in Syria). Now is the time to put that foolishness aside. We should all stand with Ukraine.

It’s a coup. It’s a strategic alliance with Putin. It’s the end of the post-war international order. It’s the triumph of lies over truth and in Putin’s case, evil over good. We are through the looking glass & we all now have to decide who we are & what we stand for