We asked a passing bird to tell us. We asked the face we see in the mirror. We cut each page into many pieces, looked for pieces containing the word ‘truth’ and fed them to a goat. The next day the goat said, ‘Probably. Or maybe not.’ We smiled and told each other: ‘Time will tell.’

Interesting stuff on immunizing #bats www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...

Inspiring re new African architecture #sustainable #urbanism #climate www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjYh...

Ref every member of Trump's Cabinet www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/w...

Beware the nebbish #autocracy www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/w...

It's a relief to see the NYT using the C word in the context of the Trumpists. Took a while. #corruption www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/o...

#Zimbabwean high school marimba bands are the best #smileonyourdial www.youtube.com/watch?v=atH7...

"Preloved items now make up about a tenth of global #fashion sales and Jay believes there is much further to go" What proportion of this is because 1) people are too broke to buy new 2) new clothes are not well-made 3)environmental concerns among buyers? www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Maybe we should just let the robots kill each other and leave us out of it www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNPf...

The evidence that popular pet tick and flea treatments are causing significant environmental harm is mounting www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Fascinating article on the effects of the #Ukraine war on #birds www.theguardian.com/environment/...

#Denmark's years-long, focused efforts to expand renewable energy are now paying dividends #climate www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRTa...

NEW: Records released tonight show that Reynolds, makers of Vuse vapes, gave $5 Million to MAGA Inc. days before the FDA wrote a policy that could allow them to make millions selling flavored vapes. Via @kenvogel.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/u...

Hurricane seasons may soon swing between eerie calm and total chaos as climate change disrupts the Atlantic in ways scientists are only beginning to understand.

🔥 the 🇺🇳 UN General Assembly is about to be called upon to #VoteYesForClimateJustice as it considers an important resolution tabled by 🇻🇺 Vanuatu (and others) to welcome and build upon the historic #ClimateJustice ruling by the 🌐 ⚖️ International Court of Justice! 🧵⬇️ follow proceedings in thread below

Trump is literally out here saying random words and calling it a commencement address. Get a load of this gibberish.

We have no idea what children catching Covid repeatedly will do to our society in another decade. We already know it causes neurological and mental health problems and yet it never enters the mental health debate. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

This headline should be presidency-ending

South Africa is currently exporting a lot of coal to Israel www.news24.com/business/com...

Literary sleuths have found that Jamir Nazir’s “The Serpent in the Grove” is (probably) an AI generated text. lithub.com/a-prize-winn...

Friends, I want to stress this to you right now, with everything internet becoming shittier daily: subscribe to the newsletters/blogs of people you enjoy hearing from. Get the emails or other contact methods of your social media friends if you can. Find ways to stay directly connected.

I don’t know what to tell you, man. I’m a medieval historian, and, in my field, if you don’t check your sources (and your sources’ sources) you are just asking to be taken for a ride by some bored 19th C. aristocratic English antiquarian with a penchant for inventing history.

if there's no value to publishers in letting Google reference them, they should not let Google access their content.

when you utter “cereal” in a hard-surfaced room

The amount of bottled water consumed in the United States is truly shocking -- as are the potential health effects from all of that plastic packaging. @melissagaskill.bsky.social reports for @therevelator.org therevelator.org/bottled-wate...

Known for its vibrant plumage, the Timor green pigeon faces extinction due to intense hunting. With the species now nearly extinct in Indonesia, experts say strengthening Indigenous protections and halting hunting in Timor-Leste are vital to saving the bird.

...and yet the world turns and there are no consequences.

There are so many hilarious and awful things about this story but the coup de grace is the author responding by pledging to launch an investigation into his own book to figure out who wrote it www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/b...

Such absolute bullshit Besides anything else, if there really was a white #genocide going down in #SouthAfrica & the Trumpists really wanted to save us all from it, they'd have to up the quota by about 500x www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Slow-worm # 2 for 2026: a deceased male found squished at the side of the road. But it wasn't a car that killed him. He's covered in paired punctures, made by the canine teeth of someone's pet cat. I've bagged the body and will keep it since slow-worm specimens are sought after.

Looking north-east from Cape Point over False Bay this morning as a small winter weather system passes through. (I never take where I live for granted & it never gets old.) #capetown #capepeninsula #southafrica

As a citizen of the 90s internet, I can say this is true

Crop burning season in Thailand has become a trap for leopard cat cubs shelter in sugarcane fields. Leopard cat cub admissions at a rescue center have surged from 10 a year to up to 65 since 2023. Experts warn that habitat fragmentation are forcing these wild cats into agricultural landscapes.

I had a breathtaking eye-level view in #YushanNationalPark of this male Taiwan Vivid Niltava (棕腹藍仙鶲 / Niltava vivida), one of #Taiwan’s endemic species, during my recent trip there. Yes, those colours are real! (c)Adam Welz 2026 #taiwanvividniltava #birds #birdoftheday #birding #birdphoto

South Africa 👇

Absolutely tragic. An entire team, including her own daughter, died in a cave diving accident. There are also early reports that one of the Maldives SAR divers died during the rescue attempt. news.mongabay.com/2026/05/moni...

Interesting piece on sustainable #fish management in the Amazon Basin www.science.org/content/arti...

Another example of pro-#tree bias having bad environmental results: "...replacing open habitats with dense pine stands has increased soil erosion, reduced water availability, and diminished biodiversity, including endemic flora and pollinator fauna" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"Donors genuinely believe that funding civil society strengthens democracy and holds governments accountable. The problem is that the civil society they created bears little resemblance to the thing they meant to strengthen." www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Interesting case of wildlife experts being ignored www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I had a breathtaking eye-level view in #YushanNationalPark of this male Taiwan Vivid Niltava (棕腹藍仙鶲 / Niltava vivida), one of #Taiwan’s endemic species, during my recent trip there. Yes, those colours are real! (c)Adam Welz 2026 #taiwanvividniltava #birds #birdoftheday #birding #birdphoto

After months of pushback, Oxpeckers finally accessed Botswana’s flagship gas project EIA. The report flags risks including: ⚠️ gas leaks ⚠️ groundwater contamination ⚠️ wildlife disturbance ⚠️ climate impacts But we were were banned from copying or photographing it. Read more: bit.ly/4fbZM6n

Funny, but actually outrageous. This sort of behaviour should end academic careers overnight.

Coal pollution is cutting solar output worldwide #climate #energy phys.org/news/2026-05...

Marco Rubio says before Christianity people saw history as a “wheel to nowhere.” Yep, that’s ancient Egypt, just lying around, sighing, “what’s the point, why even try?”

Bigger, better batteries are going to make gas obsolete. www.ft.com/content/b5c5...

What is maddening about this debate is that citation practices are not just about AI hallucinations. Scholars should be familiar with the ongoing conversations in their fields. Citations aren't throwaway padding. They are about matters of methodology, ethics, and care. 🛢1/2