Paul Robbins

Birds Aren’t Just Declining. They’re Declining Faster, a New Study Finds.

Birds are _not_ ok. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/c...

Cover of Ice Geographies: The Colonial Politics of Race & Indigeneity in the Arctic. The cover features an abstract art piece by Darcie Bernhardt. The piece is titled Beluga Hunting and depicts a light pink, green, and blue marbled pattern. Forked green and white lines within the pattern evoke topographic striations.

Congratulations to Jen Rose Smith @sprucehen.bsky.social, whose book "Ice Geographies" has been named a co-winner of the On the Brinck Award, given by the University of New Mexico School of Architecture + Planning @unm_saap. bit.ly/4aGYo7K buff.ly/eXBh6OO

Nelson Issue Brief - Plastics: Challenges and Pathways Toward Sustainability The Nelson Institute Issue Brief summarizes the latest scholarship from UW-Madison on key environmental issues.

Plastics, plastics, everywhere. Our newest Nelson Institute "Issue Briefs", surveying research on plastics from across @uwmadison.bsky.social. nelson.wisc.edu/news/nelson-...

Fascinating. As someone who has only ever seen the mixed results of "The Valley" and "More", I'm not sure I would have guessed Barbet Schroeder would have had something like this in him. On my list now.

A portrait of Eric Wilcots under the arches of Bascom Hall.

Congratulations to current College of Letters & Science Dean Eric Wilcots for his appointment as UW–Madison’s interim chancellor effective May 17. 

Read more: www.wisconsin.edu/news/archive...

Women have been mapping the world for centuries – and now they’re speaking up for the people left out of those maps Women have moved from mapmakers using their bodies to depict maps to being leaders shaping the field of cartography.

"Women have been mapping the world for centuries – and now they’re speaking up for the people left OUT of those maps"

theconversation.com/women-have-b... AND
coffeewithclaude.com/post.php?slu...
#GISchat ⚒️ 🧪 🌊

Home Plantations to Pollution: Black Communities, Legacy Pollution, and the Path Forward is a powerful multimedia storytelling series from the Southern Environmental Law Center that traces the often-unbrok...

The Unbroken Line from forced labor to forced exposure: @selc.bsky.social "Plantations to Pollution: Black Communities, Legacy Pollution, and the Path Forward" traces the often-unbroken line from plantation slavery to today’s environmental injustices. plantationstopollution.selc.org?selcsrc

UW–Madison is officially #2 among all public universities in the United States, according to TIME Magazine. When you say Wisconsin, you've said it all!

Read more: news.wisc.edu/uw-ranked-no...

Opinion | America’s Rare-Earth Solution Is Hiding in Plain Sight

"The real threat to a secure and sustainable supply of rare earths and other critical minerals is not that they are scarce or monopolized by one nation but simply that so much is thrown away". Nelson Institute's Dr. Julie Klinger on the problem of critical minerals. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/o...

Good evening from Union South here @uwmadison.bsky.social , where we at Nelson Institute are kicking off an evening of fantastic environmental short films tonight, partnering with the WUD, @riveralliancewi.bsky.social , and Hoofers!

How AI Is and Isn't Revolutionizing Science with Kyle Cranmer YouTube video by Aspen Physics

Last week I gave a public lecture at the @AspenPhysics Center titled "How AI Is and Isn't Revolutionizing Science". It was well attended, and I was happy with how it went. Here it is on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/live/dIsxqh0...

He Built a Server to Protect Indigenous Health Data

Joe Yrecheta and the Native Biodata Consortium are revolutionary creators of the first Native controlled and Indigenous bio sample repository in North America. They have provided us with priceless advice & changed biostorage forever. Their funding also got torpedoed.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/s...

I can't help but see the strange family resemblance between BDR and "Marty Supreme"

Biobased Materials Research Symposium Join us on February 13 at the Wisconsin Energy Institute for the Biobased Materials Research Symposium—a gathering of UW–Madison researchers driving the next wave of sustainable materials. Explore the current state of biobased materials research and what’s on the horizon for translating groundbreaking discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. The morning features rapid-fire flash talks, an inspiring keynote, and a thought-provoking panel on circular bioproduct development.

How do we turn living systems into the next generation of sustainable materials? Join @uwenergy.bsky.social for the Biobased Materials Research Symposium, a morning dedicated to circular bioproducts and green design, on Friday, February 13.

Meet UW-Madison’s Tony Goldberg “Tony develops methods for understanding which pathogens are present in complex mixtures and communities. His work will help us further avoid and fight infections throughout the world.”

"Tony develops methods for understanding which pathogens are present in complex mixtures and communities. His work will help us further avoid and fight infections throughout the world," says Jennifer Gottwald, WARF director of licensing.

Field Notes: The Environmental Sustainability Scholars Program (ESSP) | The Commons Magazine Learn how a group of freshmen are setting the stage for sustainability, community, and connection.

Our Environmental Sustainability Scholars Program (ESSP) is out of the gate; @uwmadison.bsky.social incoming students sign on for scholarship support, comradery, and chance to address the biggest sustainability questions of our time. nelson.wisc.edu/the-commons/...

An all time favorite. Could use a cleaned up re-release, to streamline play a tiny bit, but really a classic, even as is. Rome survive? Did you win?

Preserving Public Lands | On Wisconsin Wade Crowfoot ’96 seeks to protect natural resources for all Americans.

“Public lands are uniquely American. They are our heritage.”

UW alum Wade Crowfoot — now California’s Secretary for Natural Resources — is championing public lands for all and forming groundbreaking tribal partnerships.

Read more from On Wisconsin Magazine: onwisconsin.uwalumni.com/preserving-p...

What Larry Meiller learned connecting with Wisconsin radio listeners The longtime host of WPR’s “The Larry Meiller Show” will retire in June 2026 after almost 60 years on the air.

There can and will never be a substitute for Larry Meiller, whose show covered birdsong, and gardens, and health for 60 years, all in an affirming way that reached a HUGE range of audiences. This is a someone we just can't replace. captimes.com/entertainmen...

Analysis of the fish archive revealed that total bioaccumulative PFASs in predator fish peaked around 2008 and have since been decreasing.

Historical PFAS trends in the Great Lakes using four decades of archived fish.

#GreatLakes 🧪

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

College football is in a state of chaos. The crazy thing is it really can't be solved by universities, at least not by themselves. Which is nuts, since they'll be held accountable for the outcomes. A fascinating lesson in the true power markets have, and the chaotic things they can do.

Amidst all the hubbub about "Abundance" and "Green Materialism" and so on, "Red Plenty" -a book about the shining moment of Soviet Optimism in the era of Kruschev- was as refreshing, mood-warping, funny, and quietly painful as anything I've read in a long time. www.graywolfpress.org/books/red-pl...

The bust files: How NFL teams break young quarterbacks Finding a franchise quarterback remains job No. 1 for anyone in charge of an NFL roster, so why do they keep screwing it up?

Departments fail young faculty before young faculty fail departments. Only rarely does professional sports offer any lessons for academia, but it does here: "organizations fail young quarterbacks before young quarterbacks fail organizations." www.nytimes.com/athletic/658...

Epic work and hugely valuable. Kudos to you, Joe.

Extinction rarely departs with drama, it slips out the back door while we’re still debating the guest list. These records are made official on the Red List. "Conservation failures are often recognised only once they can no longer be reversed."
via @mongabay.com: news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

p.s. One thing we need to do is stop using the term “AI” — which is mainly a marketing term, not a technical one — to describe everything from algorithms that efficiently run your refrigerator, to sharpening photos in your iPhone, all the way to generative LLMs like ChatGPT.

BOTD Elisha Cook Jr!!
MCCT5: 5)Stranger on 3rd Floor (Ingster) 4)Maltese Falcon (Huston) 3)The Killing (Kubrick) 2)Phantom Lady (Siodmak - drumming as sex: youtube.com/watch?v=DMQQ...) 1)Big Sleep (Hawks - key sequence)
More via @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social: www.counterpunch.org/2020/07/31/1...

And of course the brief cameo at the opening of "Rosemary's Baby", right? But "The Killing" for the win.

Assistant Professor of Landscape Ecology

In what could plausibly represent a Christmas miracle* SFU Geography has two (2) new tenure track hires. One is urban/climate, which I will repost below. The other is a Landscape Ecologist. Please share ... #academicsky

*actually just the good decisions of our new Dean
www.sfu.ca/geography/ab...

bsky.app/profile/ejmc...