Pleased to be part of this research led by Serafina Stone on the role of community gardens in Brisbane's food system that explores the motivations for participation by members across 4 different gardens - urban gardening is about a lot more than just food. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This is a great idea. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

A couple of years ago I stumbled across this 1919 intelligence report in the National Archives setting out how Bolshevism was incompatible with Islam. It recomends this report be disseminated to the colonial offices to "counteract.. Bolshevik agitators."

I wrote about the archaeology 🏺of porridge in Africa and what it means for food systems with Alison Crowther. If you're interested in interactions between culture, food, and biogeography, and their evolution over time - give it a skim (open access). www.frontiersin.org/journals/env...

Supermarkets are consistently undercutting small & independent businesses whilst exploiting workers. Let's make sure everyone has a wage where they can live in dignity and stop the hoarding of wealth by the super rich.

Video of pale fox cub exploring my parents garden in Forest Hill, SE London 🦊

Pale fox cub at my parents place in Forest Hill, SE London. Possibly one for @chrisgpackham.bsky.social

-People die in extreme heat events in the UK every year. Air conditioning is public safety. -People who die in extreme heat events are disproportionately poor, elderly, disabled, urban, or some combination. -Air conditioning is quickly becoming a social justice issue.

"The UK was built for a climate that no longer exists today and will be increasingly distant in years to come." New report from the UK's Climate Change Committee @thecccuk.bsky.social.

A 4-day week on full pay could slash Britain’s obesity levels by giving millions the time they need to ditch bad habits and make healthier choices. It’s essential that local and national governments consider the role that a shorter working week can play in improving the health of our communities.

My colleagues and I did a study on the relationship between working hours and obesity in the OECD. The paper is out for review but our recommendation for a 4 day week being part of a suite of interventions is getting some press 🙂

The incoming El Niño mentioned at the end of this article - expect to hear a lot more discussion about this in the coming months as the intersecting crisis of US war on Iran and low rainfall feedback into prices. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Short/interesting piece on Chinese food policy. www.ft.com/content/6372...

Australian privet hawk moth (Psilogramma casuarinae) on my shower screen.

AMOC Collapse Consequences: Atmospheric CO2 Rise by 83ppm & 7C Arctic Cooling & 6C Antarctic Warming In 2012 we had new record minimum in Arctic Sea Ice extent, and after 2015 we had a collapse of Antarctic sea ice. Are these signs?? youtu.be/T_hiFoQSmuU?...

The mass lead poisoning of children in Kabwe, Zambia, over decades is a catastrophe I saw with my own eyes - Families and NGOs are now asking the African Union to demand a clean-up @hrw.org 1/2 www.hrw.org/news/2026/04...

🐦‍⬛ 🐕‍🦺🐄🐴 Our Multispecies Mutualisms post doc roles are now also on jobs.ac.uk 🐦‍⬛ 🐕‍🦺🐄🐴 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQS438/4...

Looking forward to seeing all Africanists 🌍 exploring human-insect worlds 🪲 in Maputo 🇲🇿! Abstract by 30 March t.co/APhZy4lOGZ #archaeology #entomology #africanhistory 🏺

Shameful. A cut from 0.5% GDP for international aid to 0.3% to make room for military spending. Besides the absolute moral degeneracy of the UK government is the callous ignorance.

Excited this piece with excellent colleagues is now out! We examine implications of geopolitical turbulence in the world for the GEP research agenda @yixiansun.bsky.social @matpaterson.bsky.social direct.mit.edu/glep/article...

📣 call for papers for a special issue for Frontiers for Environmental Archaeology 🏺🦟 🐜 💀 🌍. Topic summaries/abstracts due May 20th. The topic is nice and broad so if you have an idea, please reach out. #archaeology #insects #entomology #multispecies www.frontiersin.org/research-top...

In "a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing" news, we are all hostages in the world of CO2 fans' disingenuous motivated reasoning 👍

📣 call for papers for a special issue for Frontiers for Environmental Archaeology 🏺🦟 🐜 💀 🌍. Topic summaries/abstracts due May 20th. The topic is nice and broad so if you have an idea, please reach out. #archaeology #insects #entomology #multispecies www.frontiersin.org/research-top...

Following ban of 'milk' as a term I fell into a small rabbit whole of the concept of milk as we understand it in Europe. 🧵

Excellent explainer of Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) & Atlas Network by Gareth Hutchens, ABC. #Auspol www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

Very happy to see that the UK can produce its own boneheaded agricultural nomenclatural protectionism after leaving the EU. Makes you proud.

A nice riposte to the cult of scaling

Now open access: Archaeology for Today and Tomorrow. www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mon... #archaeology #openaccess

Researchers from @ucl.ac.uk analysed + mapped data on which global regions are getting wetter, which drier as the climate changes. We've loaded this map onto our website so you can investigate what's happening in your area via this link: watershedinvestigations.com/find-out-wha...

Not a single day in 2025 was cooler than the 1991-2020 average, on a global scale. @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social

Friends, Claudette Colvin—the 15-year-old who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in March 1955 & joined the federal case against bus segregation that went to the Supreme Court — died today at age 86. But there are lots of myths and mis-impressions about her. A short corrective thread:

There is abundant empirical evidence that refutes the production /land equation. Whereas the belief in intensification tends to rely on modelling of optimal scenarios along limited variables.

Bringing the drama of a Caravaggio to asparagus 🫡

buttons coming back, shitty door handles slowly being made illegal, now just make cars small again and we’ll be getting somewhere

Finally met the Big Prawn 🦐

New paper out in Ecology Letters! Led by Ennia Bosshard and Chris Kaiser-Bunbury, we show that proximity to natural habitat doesn’t consistently support pollination in tropical smallholder farms. Landscape complexity matters more than distance. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🌍 African #savanna science is heavily skewed: 46% of studies come from just 2% of #ProtectedAreas. Using the new ADSPA geodatabase, this work identifies five #bioclimatic groups and reveals major research gaps across underrepresented savannas. 🐘 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/ddi....

I've been thinking about disability and vulnerability in urban food systems recently and just caught up with this gem. For what is a very rich discussion this was also a fantastic primer for anyone thinking about disability. Highly recommend.

AI is a climate issue. AI is a climate crisis.

Collapse of key Atlantic current could bring extreme drought to Europe for centuries, study finds. @swinda.bsky.social That's an under-appreciated impact of #AMOC shutdown, of particular concern given the recent results showing much higher likelihood of this. 1/2 www.livescience.com/planet-earth...

Great article. Food, IP, colonialism, so many themes. www.theguardian.com/food/comment...

For context, total crop output revenue in the UK is about £10 billion. Losses in 2024 due to heat and drought were £600 million. Pretty bad. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Migratory behavior may come and go throughout the deep history of an animal species. Do Africa’s Mass Animal Migrations Extend Into Deep Time? www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...

New post by me on #MITPressReader @mitpress.bsky.social On the 100th anniversary of the #ScopesMonkeyTrial the ways we depict #evolution can still give an erroneous progressive view (that evolution leads to humans or ‘increased complexity’). thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-our-pictu...

Interesting arguments here about persistent stress for humans in industrial societies - but misses out on highlighting all the weird health outcomes in human history that have been downstream from culture and society onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This was already demonstrated over half a century ago with the banning of DDT. Why are we on repeat here? share.google/tX0kljiyYfOn...

2 months ago I was speaking with a Neanderthal specialist and they brought up extinction. I put it to them that if Neanderthals and humans were mixing and their DNA is present in Eurasian ancestry, is extinction the right word? share.google/uVHOfFdQ6tPP...