Laura Olkkonen

In the letter: “A handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth have bought up our democracies; taken over our governments; gagged the freedom of our media; placed a stranglehold on technology and innovation; deepened poverty and social exclusion; and accelerated the breakdown of our planet,”

💔

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

In the beginning of this speech, the PM of Canada Mark Carney refers to companies' role in sustaining powers that harm societies. It takes one company to start resisting for the illusion to begin cracking.

"Friends, it is time for companies and countries to take their signs [of compliance] down."

CEOs are on eggshells as Trump retreats from climate institutions that don't "serve American interests".

"When even the most powerful business leaders stay quiet because they fear retribution, it says something about the state of the democracies they operate in".

What a difference to the 1st term.

“We will not let ourselves be blackmailed. … This is an EU issue that affects many more countries than those now being singled out. Sweden is now having intensive discussions with other EU countries, Norway and the UK for a coordinated response.” - Ulf Kristersson, prime minister of Sweden

Predictions from sustainability leaders for 2026 🌱
Number 1: Addressing the energy impacts of AI

"[Communicators] will need to spend far less time elevating high-level commitments and far more time translating complex, operational decisions into language stakeholders can understand and trust."

"The long term is sooner than we think" 🚨

Kuvakaappaus lakitekstistä: (Haitta)vaikutus voidaan kuitenkin katsoa vähäiseksi, sillä sen on tutkittu vaikuttavan lähinnä naisiin ja lakimuutoksen arvioidaan koskevan vain joitain tuhansia synnytysikäisiä, jotka työskentelisivät ilman perusteltua syytä solmitussa määräaikaisessa työsuhteessa.”

Oli pakko käydä lukemassa, lukeeko hallituksen esityksen perusteluissa määräaikaisuuksien helpottamiseen liittyen ihan oikeasti näin kuten on väitetty, että vaikutus on vähäinen, "sillä sen on tutkittu vaikuttavan lähinnä naisiin".
Kyllä siellä tosiaankin näin lukee.

JUST IN: A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore $12 million in grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics, saying the terminations appear to be retaliation for the group's view points re: vaccine safety/efficacy. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

Altmetric Explorer screenshot: Showing 5,011,088 mentions (from 4,918,333 individual posts) of research outputs from the results of your search query.

Since Jan 1 2025, which feels like four trillion years ago, research has been shared on here 5 million whole-ass times. Bluesky recently passed 2 billion posts IN TOTAL.

So 0.25% of the entire site's traffic was citations to research.

That is actually massively high. Is it? Yes. Here's why.

We had a good run

Joululahja kiersi jälleen eduskunnassa, ja sen laittoi liikkeelle Riikka Purra – antoi sen yllättävälle henkilölle Eduskunnassa joululahjan voi saada ihan keneltä vain. Moni yllättyi kunnolla. Entäpä kuka on jakanut kollegoille itse tekemiään pipareita joulun alla?

Every year, I see this story about Finnish members of the Parliament giving their political opponents praise as a surprise Christmas gift. This year, especially, it feels good to know that we can still reach beyond antagonism in Finland.

It’s especially ironic because the lecture is exactly about the ‘paralyzing cowardice’ of today’s elites.

About universities, corporations and media networks bending the knee to authoritarianism. /4

How much do elites influence societal polarization? Quite much, it turns out. This is such an intriguing study that shows how a handful of influential voices is enough to drive dramatic societal rifts - even in a country with a strong tradition of political plurality, such as Finland.

YouTube video by DRM News Finland’s Alexander Stubb Calls for Rules-Based Approach to Global Wars in First G20 Speech | AC1B

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb @alexstubb.bsky.social made an excellent short 3 minute speech at the G20 summit in South Africa about multilateralism and urging nations to cooperate fairly following the rules to achieve sustainability.

Worth watching:

The Dual Climate Impact of News Media Organizations - NordMedia Network Commercial news media organizations hold a unique and vital role in the climate crisis. As business organizations, they have a corporate responsibility to evaluate, report on, and minimize the environ...

Commercial news #media face dual climate duties: cutting their own footprint and weighing the impact of their #journalism. A new MedieKultur article by Meri Frig, @lauraonen.bsky.social &
@maaritjii.bsky.social shows how #Nordic newsrooms navigate both.

nordmedianetwork.org/latest/news/...

YouTube video by LUT University, Finland CSRCOM 2026 – LUT University

Longer clip here!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucHf...

We are waiting for your submissions! The call for the International CSR Communication Conference in Finland closes on March 31, 2026 📢
The conference theme is "CSR Communication in the age of political instability: Building hope in a hopeless world"🕊️
csr-com.org/call-for-pap...
#CSRCOM2026 @lut.fi

Tässä muutama kysymys, jotka auttavat arvioimaan törkyriskiä:
❓ Ärsyttääkö tutkimusaiheemme räyhäoikeistoa tai kiihkouskonnollisia?
❓ Voiko tutkimusaiheemme kuulostaa banaalilta, jos sitä katsoo tarkoitushakuisesti?
❓ Olemmeko saaneet 6-numeroisen summan julkista tutkimusrahoitusta?

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Winning the Debate on Climate Change (Gift Article) We asked heads of state how they’re steering their countries as America retreats.

In this NYT piece, Finland gets billed as Europe’s radical climate leader.

Meanwhile the distance between promises and policy is growing. The story boosts the 2035 net-zero brand without asking if this cabinet is on course. Targets haven’t changed. Implementation has, and not for the better. 🧵

Call for inclusive and diverse universities by Finnish Education Employers, The Union of Research Professionals, and The Council of Rectors of Finnish Universities.

Join us on Bluesky! We are proud to introduce our brand new strategy, System Earth 2030. 🚀

We are seeking solutions to global issues with our expertise in technology, business, and social sciences.

➔ Learn more about us and watch our video: www.lut.fi/en/about-us/...

#unilut

Helsinki goes a full year without a traffic death A city traffic engineer credits the success to lower speed limits and smarter design.

"Helsinki has not recorded a single traffic fatality in the past 12 months, city and police officials confirmed this week."

This is the direct and predictable result of policy decisions, not random happenstance.

#visionzero #publichealth

yle.fi/a/74-20174831

The upside is lots of steps during the day!

When lost in the #AOM2025 maze, just try, try again 🤞

AOM entrance

Bike in Kilen

Danish souvenirs

Hello @aomconnect.bsky.social #AOM2025 Copenhagen! Corporate political activity, activism & qualitative methods and more on my sunny agenda (spotting bikes in weird places as a bonus) 🚲

CSR Communication Conference 2026 is hosted by @lut.fi LUT Business School! The deadline for abstracts and session proposals is March 31 📨
This interdisciplinary conference is open to anyone working in the intersection of CSR and communication - welcome to Lappeenranta! #CSRCOM2026
csr-com.org

Only two years left of world’s carbon budget to meet 1.5C target, scientists warn Breaching threshold would ramp up catastrophic weather events, further increasing human suffering

We’re wasting the remaining carbon budget on war and AI.

The Enlightenment. Well, it was nice while it lasted.