Excellent article from @jamborg.bsky.social about "genetic" mercantilism. Highly recommended

The Call for Papers for 'Talking Records: Pollution in the Archive', a symposium at The National Archives in London, 4 December 2025, is now open! Submission deadline: Friday 19 Sept See the CFP and details about bursaries for speakers here: orlo.uk/Z8StS #envhum #envhist

For the last several months, I've been digging through endless scientific literature on what happens when pregnant mothers are exposed to plastic chemicals in their food, water, and everyday household products. The result is this story. I hope you'll take the time to read. wapo.st/4g3ZoFc

Nearly double Saudi reserves... God help us. indiandefencereview.com/russia-uncov...

I don't think we fully grasped yet how important solar will be as an energy source. Great graph @carbonbrief.org based on @iea.org data.

Please take a moment to join the class action!

New data paper out: Ammonia doesn't often make the headlines – but it’s one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss and air pollution in Europe, harming ecosystems and our health. > 90% of it in Europe comes from one source: agricultural fertiliser and manure 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Apropos of nothing, a reminder that German stock markets kept climbing in an almost uninterrupted fashion in the run-up to WW2. Investors are really, really bad at pricing serious institutional and political risks.

Do not trust AI or ChatGPT-5 to do the most basic things like labeling a picture of the hydrologic cycle. Here's what it gave me. (Evaporation arrow pointing into the ground. Both surface water and the "ocean" labels underground. Transpiration arrow coming from the #water surface, not plants...]

With @mbrescius.bsky.social I am very happy to announce the launch of a major new project in #Anthropocene history. The Long Acceleration brings together more than 20 scholars to consider the planetary emergency. Many thanks to Moritz and the Institute for European Global Studies for hosting us.

For anyone in the environmental humanities thinking about biodiversity and habitability, be sure to read this excellent new article by @julianordblad.bsky.social.

“In the heart of Illinois, while researching wildlife disease, I made a discovery that stunned me: More than half of the raccoons I sampled were infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas’ disease… It’s here, in the United States, spreading silently in wildlife.”

I for one welcome the clarity that the new AHA guidance on GenAI has brought to the debate.

I don't usually curse on social media but this pathetic attempt to vindicate AI deserves salty language. What in Beelzebub's name is wrong with our professional association? I don't need AI to "sharpen my language"! Sheer anger and disgust will do the trick.

College Lectureship and Fellowship in British History- University of Cambridge - Christ's College #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOE394/c...

An energy revolution is underway in this century, though it’s unfolded in ways slow enough and technical enough for most people not to notice (and I assume it’s nowhere near finished). It is astonishing – a powerful solution to the climate crisis... [Wrote it a while ago; came out yesterday.]

The AI infrastructure build-out is so gigantic that in the past 6 months, it contributed more to the growth of the U.S. economy than /all of consumer spending/ The 'magnificent 7' spent more than $100 billion on data centers and the like in the past three months *alone* www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sili...

All historians know the sinking feeling of tracking an "authoritative" reference back through several generations of writers to an unsourced assertion by someone nobody's ever heard of. Now AI can make up new ones in no time at all.

It is an extraordinary loss of intellectual expertise that the American people invested millions in developing Every scientist who earns a graduate degree in the US is the product of an investment by the public This is like setting money on fire

I was excited to find out that my book is available for pre-order! One for anyone interested in energy, climate, and the history of Britain. Thanks to MUP for making it pretty and affordable 🫶 manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526182968/

Exciting news! A new publication by ‪@hibbertsalex.bsky.social, @islayshelbourne.bsky.social @thenickpepper.bsky.social @alexworsfold.bsky.social @robertsuits.bsky.social @jdroberts.bsky.social (amongst others) which developed from our first workshop back in 2025. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

#History For 19thc historians an exciting new interdisciplinary journal coming soon!

📢 #histstm jobs! 📢 3 assistant prof. Jobs at Texas State in: #histsci/#histtech Europe/Empire #histmed North America/Atlantic 1500-1800 #envhist water

Once again grimly tapping the sign: “Irrigated agriculture consumes about 72 percent of Arizona’s available water supply” This mainly isn’t food for people. It’s water-intensive cotton and cow food that often gets exported earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/15456...

In one universe everyone is talking about how Michael Grunwald’s “We Are Eating the Earth” is opening their eyes to how important land use emissions are, while in another universe Congress just made it illegal to include land use emissions when determining what qualifies as a low-emission fuel.

Trump is closing all four climate observatory stations in Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa, and Antartica. Because you can't have high CO2 levels if you don't *measure* CO2 levels. roll_safe.gif

Campop blog #58: Malthusian ideas about the effects of population pressure on resources and the environment are still widespread. But what did Malthus actually say? And was he right? Romola Davenport explains. @camunicampop.bsky.social www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/07...

"Together, the papers help to build the case that many of the key characteristics animals needed to thrive on Earth were developing millions of years before the Cambrian" ⚒️ phys.org/news/2025-07...

Happy to announce that our essays for “Room for the Lost Paradise: A Symposium” — part of the Resplendent Dreams: Reawakening the Rococo exhibition at the IMA — are now available on Journal18 www.journal18.org/nq/room-for-... #18thcentury #18c #arthistory #art #skystorians

Come work with me for a year at St Anne's! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNW732/d...

Foundations: please step up and take over the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). This is an absolutely essential scanned archive of all of the old journals and books from the 1500s to about 1920. Has been indispensable for my research. about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-sup...

D'où vient la bascule dans "Le monde confisqué" ? guillaumeallegre.substack.com/p/dou-vient-... Tentative de contribution au débat entre @arnaudorain.bsky.social et @brankomilan.bsky.social cc @picharbonnier.bsky.social

This is definitely not the time to delay or dial back climate policy. The urgency has never been greater. We are approaching dangerous tipping points, almost 200 scientists warn. 🌊 news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-e...

Solar’s price drop is astonishing: panels are now 98% cheaper than when I first analysed the cost of solar in 2004. Today, building a fence with solar panels can be cheaper than using wood.

We are hiring! Fully tenured associate professorship in environmental history! We are looking for someone who can be a strong contributor to the history group, to a new #envhum related MA program (if all goes well), and to @greenhouseuis.net. #envhist

Worth a watch: Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.

I once had a fight with my publisher's lawyer over what constitutes "fair use." He said reprinting 4 lines of a poem without the poet's explicit permission was too much. But AI gobbling up whole books now counts as "fair use." Something is definitely wrong with US copyright law.

Sharing A new app details where your food comes from — and just how fragile the global food system really is | Grist grist.org/food-and-agr...

Wild how the Fed chair saying that *entire regions of the United States* won’t be able to get a mortgage in the next decade barely registered as a news event

Hooray that the big UN ocean summit this week made some progress. The two biggest ocean scandals (of many) still continue: the horribly destructive practice of bottom trawling still happens, and many Marine Protected Areas still allow fishing. More work needed! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

New on the (slightly new-look) BJPS Review of Books: The Land Is Our Community – Roberta L Millstein (‪@cepaea.bsky.social‬) Reviewed by Julia Pelletier, Aja Watkins & Andrew Zeppa (‪@andrewzeppa.bsky.social‬) #philsci #philsky #hpbio

Scientists are stunned that Earth’s energy imbalance is rising faster than expected. Maybe it’s time we admit: we don’t understand what we’re doing—and we never did. Only our arrogance is constant. www.livescience.com/planet-earth...

US climate scientists need all the help they can get. Including from foul-mouthed comedians! 🤡😱😱 Watch Emmy Award-Winning David Cross team up with Prof Michael Oppenheimer in the US launch of the hit series "Climate Science Translated". #climate #arresteddevelopment #climatescience

‘Simeon Koole asks what we can learn from tactility itself: how did people decide who could touch whom – and when and where – and who was allowed to do the deciding?’ @hannahrosewoods.bsky.social on a history of the sense of touch in Victorian Britain: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd. It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

New study confirms that the famous 'cold blob' or 'warming hole' observed in the northern Atlantic is caused by a weakening Atlantic overturning circulation. 🌊 www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Phoenix AI (University of Chicago)

Google AI

There’s so much happening right now, I thought I’d put together a running thread on the dismantling of #climate and research and knowledge infrastructure in the United States 🧵