This isn't just an environmental, corruption, sovereignty, and public-access disaster - it goes deeper. The Forest Service is an original kernel of the administrative state - more than any other, it's where the expert, nonpartisan civil service began. It's been a target of oligarchs for a century.

The latest oil shock has led to a resurgence of North Sea petro nationalism. I’ve written for @the-breakdown.bsky.social on the illusion of plenty behind Reform, Tory and SNP claims that red-green wreckers are sabotaging our energy security by blocking drilling. www.break-down.org/north-sea-na...

My only London event for Electric Wind, happening TODAY! Would be great to see you there.

I’ve said it before and I’ll no doubt say it again. Universities are roughly 1000 years old. They predate most operating models including capitalism and have lasted for a reason. Installing insecure, helpless managers who ape business methods results in bad businesses, not good universities.

Gift article. “This is all happening on a planet in the middle of its own transition, one that may well last thousands or even millions of years and to which few nations have even begun to properly adapt. In the meantime, vulnerabilities proliferate like heat.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/m...

STICK IT ON A FIVE POUND NOTE

This is the situation we find ourselves in

Friends! The deadline for Succession IV: Queering the Environment – “Queer Joy” is tomorrow. This is a biennial series that I edit for @nichecanada.bsky.social. The number of submissions is low right now, would love to see a few more roll in. niche-canada.org/2026/02/28/c... #queer #envhum

REMINDER - One week left to get your proposals in for Succession IV: Queering the Environment – “Queer Joy” Editors - @jessicamdewitt.bsky.social, @tinaadcock.bsky.social, and Sarah York-Bertram June 2026 Publication niche-canada.org/2026/02/28/c... #envhist #envhum #queerecology #affect

Nominations for the Judith R. Walkowitz Prize are due May 15! The Walkowitz Prize is awarded annually for the best published article on issues relating to gender and sexuality in British culture. Info and nomination instructions here: www.nacbs.org/prize-databa...

A few of us got together for a forum on degrowth in @envirohistory.bsky.social. Here is my bit: "It's the Economy Stupid." And check out the entries from @fredrikjonsson.bsky.social, @matthiasschmelzer.bsky.social, and www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Interested in environmental history? The IHR is offering a summer 2026 internship with the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH). Apply by 15 April 2026, 11:59 pm BST. More details at: buff.ly/Vzpz6G3.

This is as extraordinary as everyone says it is.

A good - useful - thread, this.

1/3 Since I wrote this response to Nigel Biggar’s malicious and completely false attack on me and university colleagues in The Spectator he has re-published it on his subscribers-only substack with me as the poster boy for “bad” history teaching at Sussex. alanlester.co.uk/blog/smearin...

I sat down with Filippo De Chirico to talk about Electric Wind for the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social . It was a really nice chat and is available to listen to here: newbooksnetwork.com/electric-wind @manchesterup.bsky.social

It is the anniversary of the My Lai massacre today. I'd say that even more than most years, it's important to remember what happened. And the role Hugh Thompson, an active serviceman, played in both stopping and publicising it. Despite enormous military, political and public pressure to stay quiet.

Petition to ban the expression 'beat out' from the English language. One film does not 'beat out' another, it beats it. Beat. The one verb is enough. Why yes I have been reading the Guardian Oscars coverage!

'some creative arts graduates don’t appear to earn a significant graduate premium, but the UK’s creative industries are worth £125bn a year or, to put it another way, more than £1 in every £20 in the UK economy – a larger proportion of the nation’s wealth than almost any other country on earth.' 1/3

'Swallows of the river' is a lovely corrective to lampreys' usual horror image

Reaching net zero by 2050 is often framed as a cost burden. The UK Climate Change Committee’s latest analysis suggests the opposite. The real risk is fossil fuel dependency.

Join us for this free public event in London with @dudleymarianna.bsky.social discussing her book Electric Wind with @drdomdavies.bsky.social and featuring an exhibition of art and sound made in response to energy and the weather. Refreshments also provided!! www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

Trump thinking this war is a win for American oil when in fact it’s the most effective marketing for renewables yet…

A great book!

I’m talking about Electric Wind in London on 31 March with the excellent @ttinfranetwork.bsky.social ! Public talk, all welcome. There’s going to be sound and visual art to enjoy too.

This is the company the UK government has embedded in the nation’s services. Seriously, fuck everyone who is excusing this.

Geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East once again shows that reliance on volatile oil and gas exposes economies to price shocks. Renewables, electrification and storage offer more stable long term energy costs and stronger energy security.

Tech has long since passed the point of solving problems or even making life more convenient. It's just throwing crap against the wall to see what will stick. And now there's crap all over the floor and the wall.

This appalling fat cat wants to shut the door on all my mature students, many of whom left school after GCSE and give up a lot to go to university. I can tell him that they’re the hungriest for education and far from being unable to graduate, they regularly get the highest grades. Hateful man.

UCU’s elections concluded this week and I am honoured to have been elected as the next Vice-President for Higher Education, to become President in 2029-30. Thank you for all the support. A short statement about the election and what’s to come after I take up the role in May.

Corporate broadcast coverage of climate change fell 35% in the last year, even as Trump systemically dismantled climate policy and billion-dollar disasters rose The gradual deprioritization led NBC climate reporter Chase Cain to hit a breaking point, and he quit last week Here's our interview:

Assistant Professor- Tenure Track Position- Department of History – University of Prince Edward Island Closing date for applications is March 13th, 2026. niche-canada.org/2026/03/02/a... #envhist #cdnhist #atlanticcanada #publichistory

Lmao. I guessed this might happen and glad to be proven right. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/c...

there's a lot going on right now but did you know a massive amount of the world's fertilizer flows through the middle east, and did you know that that fertilizer needs to be shipped to the us *right now* for planting season, and uh did you know we are at war with iran

Picture from @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social says it all! You can't improve the 'student experience' by demeaning and demoralising staff through freezing their pay @northumbriauni.bsky.social @andylong6.bsky.social @georgeclarke.bsky.social!

Are you interested in organizing the 2026 ESEH Summer School in Environmental History? ESEH offers advisory and financial support to the selected proposal. Consider submitting a proposal by 15 March 2026! eseh.org/call-for-pro... #EnvHist

For anyone attending @aseh.bsky.social this year, there will be a session on the necessity of translation in the field of environmental history on the late-afternoon timeslot on Thursday.

new Mary Oliver poem just dropped

for those of you who werent adults during iraq, its hard to overstate how much the media loves war porn. they salivate over pentagon spin briefings. they love stories about all the bombs and how supposedly infallible they are. they love the notion of the commander in chief, in the situation room etc

We're all experiencing this crisis of UKHE in our own way... (Love ya, Cambridge. And please keep employing & praising your pastry chefs, and having golden desserts. Just speak up for the sake of the sector from time to time.)

For months, ~40 journos across Asia, LatAm & EU delved into the environmental impact of data centers w. the Environmental Reporting Collective. I reported from Thailand, but as a whole, the project shows how unsustainable (and opaque) the AI data center boom's starting to look. www.dirtydata.earth

We stand with fellow trade unions in condemning the illegal war on Iran. Reports of civilian casualties, including students and schoolchildren are deeply disturbing and require urgent and independent investigation. The killing and wounding of civilians is indefensible.

Meanwhile, as it succeeded in dragging the US into a war on Iran, "Israel seeks to erase Palestinians as a society. First they are destroyed in the present. Then they are deleted from the past." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We'll be at Bristol City Hall on Monday 23 March to learn how we can best support private renters in light of the upcoming #RentersRightsAct. If you're working with renters or landlords in the #WestofEngland, we'd love to see you there! Sign up here 👉 https://bit.ly/4aH7rXy

Excited to be on the line-up for this fab seminar series — if you’re disgruntled with Emerald Fennell, come along next week to immerse yourselves in the dangerous histories of an alternative (and dare I say superior) moor

🎉 Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHL’s website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL 🌍 📚 🧪

Don't forget to sign up to our upcoming 'Rethinking Internationalism' conference on 19-20th March in London: csi.bbk.ac.uk/blog/rethink...

Starmer's ability to find the exact sweetspot which pisses off everyone is extraordinary. He's a savant.

Isn’t the whole spiel of the Russell Group that they’re the reesearch-intensive ones? That that is where you get research-led teaching? By the experts who are defining the field? That glorified lobby group will have to change its tagline or call their members to order.

1/ To celebrate #StDavidsDay, a short thread on some of the most spectacular council housing in Wales. Firstly, the Townhill Estate, Swansea, designed by Borough Architect Ernest Morgan and built between 1919-1924