Dominik Wiedenhofer

Example daily page from Oxford weather logbooks

Hourly pressure data from 3 sites - Oxford, Falmouth and Kew. Oxford transcribed with Gemini3, the others done by humans.

The Google Gemini3 LLM is remarkably excellent at reading weather observations from handwritten logbooks.

Example of recovering hourly pressure observations taken in Oxford in December 1883 and January 1884, compared to human-keyed data from relatively nearby sites.

Climate data rescue solved?

Most important report you will read this decade. At least read the abstract. Forewarned is forearmed.

The 2025 state of the climate report: a planet on the brink We are hurtling toward climate chaos. The planet's vital signs are flashing red. The consequences of human-driven alterations of the climate are no longer

In our Climate Report my coauthors and I say: We are hurtling toward climate chaos. The planet's vital signs are flashing red. Consequences of human-driven alterations of the climate are no longer future threats but are here now. Read report here doi.org/10.1093/bios...

“A downside to the use of metaphors is that it is easy to regard them as real aspects of nature. This occurs via a fallacy known as reification”

I’ve always liked this paper on the unacknowledged use of metaphors in ecology:

eg, niche, competition, tipping points, habitat
doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

Come join us at the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, a great place to do research!

We are hiring: 4 PhD Positions in Ecology / Data Science and one Ecological Data Scientist We are looking for 4 PhD Positions and one Scientific Programmer / Ecological Data Scientist to join the AG Hartig (Theoretical Ecology)

We are hiring: 4 PhD Positions in Ecology / Data Science and one Ecological Data Scientist. For more information, see www.uni-regensburg.de/universitaet...

Land-use change undermines the stability of avian functional diversity - Nature Large-scale analyses of bird species traits reveal that land-use change reduces resilience of key ecological functions more than previously thought.

🧪“…destabilizes ecosystem function because relatively few additional extinctions lead to accelerated losses of functional diversity, particularly in trophic groups that deliver important ecological services such as seed dispersal and insect predation.”
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Why the world must wake up to China’s science leadership The nation’s next generation of scientists and technologists will shape the coming decades.

Don't underestimate where China's science will be in a decade. However, for China to truly be a global leader, Chinese science needs to be less misogynistic and hierarchical, and early-career scientists need to be given the freedom to be creative and not work like robots.

Has birds’ mysterious ‘compass’ organ been found at last? Multiple lines of evidence suggest that pigeons sense magnetic fields by detecting electric currents in their inner ears.

🧪 🧪 Has birds’ mysterious ‘compass’ organ been found at last? -- Multiple lines of evidence suggest that pigeons sense magnetic fields by detecting electric currents in their inner ears.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Severe floods significantly reduce global rice yields Rice-killing floods reduce global rice yield by 4.3%, with losses rising due to increasing extreme floods since 2000.

Devastating floods led to a 4.3% global reduction in annual rice yield from 1980 to 2015, new #ScienceAdvances research finds. https://scim.ag/4iiwfYd

Without US satellites, 'we go dark', climate monitor tells AFP US budget cuts risk creating blind spots in Earth monitoring systems that would imperil weather forecasting and climate research for years to come, the deputy chair of a key UN-backed climate monitori...

Read this interview with @peterthorne.bsky.social to understand how dire the situation is with respect to US science funding. The US has played an outsized role in Earth observations and global coordination, and even if other nations decide to step in, it would take at least a decade to recover.

Why do global environmental institutions multiply and persist even when they seem unable to address biodiversity loss and environmental governance failures effectively?

Our new OA article with @jacquelinebest.bsky.social in @risjnl.bsky.social tries to answer this question. 1/7

cup.org/4hZNlcX

Eine kleine Idee tanzt über die Flure der #COP30, ob sie ein ausgewachsenes Vorhaben werden kann, muss sich noch zeigen: Eine Roadmap zum Ausstieg aus Fossilen Energien.
Hä? Ja, keine Sorge, zurücklehnen, ich erklär das.

Thread

$170,000 a minute: why Saudi Arabia is the biggest blocker of climate action Desert kingdom depends on oil dollars but its people already face a climate ‘at the verge of livability’. What’s going on?

$170,000 a minute: Why Saudi Arabia is the biggest blocker of climate action

The desert kingdom depends on oil dollars but its people already face a climate ‘at the verge of livability’. What’s going on?

#COP30 #climatecrisis
Story by me
1/7
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

To reform universities, first tackle global rankings Universities are in thrall to a rankings system that prioritizes narrow aspects of academic life. Three changes would give institutions the freedom to explore fresh ways of working.

Academia is plagued by not-fit-for-purpose metrics that are then used ranking individuals and institutions
Will we ever move away from these? - there is a lot of talk but not a great deal of action?
The comment ⬇️ is a refreshing look at the problem.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🐳 New study finds‼️7 kg‼️of #plastic items – chiefly polyethylene sheets- in a beaked whale in Rhodes, Mediterranean, which likely caused malnutrition, potentially contributing to the whale's death. PE sheets carried oil/tar increasing the risk for toxic effects.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

My fear is scientists will just sit by & be complicit. Saying you are for 1.5C or net zero is not ambition.

If rich country GHG or CO2 emissions are not dropping at >5% per year, they are not remotely consistent with 1.5C, nor net zero in a reasonable time frame.

Scientists need to point this out.

Das Duell um die Welt: Warum China Trump besiegen wird – Expertise | Newsflix.at Handelskrieg: China triumphiert über Trump. Trotz US-Druck zeigt China Stärke und formt neue globale Handelsnormen. Aktuelle Entwicklungen hier!

USA gegen China, die beiden wichtigsten Wirtschaftsmächte der Welt liefern sich einen brutalen Kampf um die Nummer 1. Der Economist legt sich fest, wer gewinnen wird: China. Xi schlägt Trump mit seinen eigenen Waffen. Und das betrifft auch uns. www.newsflix.at/s/das-duell-...

ChatGPT-Hersteller OpenAI im Umbruch: Die Hypemaschine strauchelt Angesichts abflachender Entwicklung und lauter werdender Warnungen vor einer KI-Blase will das zentrale Start-up der Branche zum neuen Facebook werden – und nicht nur das

Pornos, Slop und Probleme.
Sehr kundige Analyse von @sukahiroaki.bsky.social.

Rosi Schwaiger, gewiss keine Kadersozialistin entlarvt in der Presse die Anti-Babler-Kampagne des Boulevards.

Deregulation - the dark path to poison in your lungs, excrement in your rivers, carcinogens in your food.

A growing movement in Brussels is spreading the message that asking business to follow rules leads to economic death. They're working hard to destroy EU environmental + chemical protections.

Habe heute einem gut 70jährigen ehemaligen Spitzenpolitiker zugehört, der fordert: Die Leute müssen früher aufstehen und mehr arbeiten. Und im Alter länger im Job bleiben. Strengt euch an für mehr Wirtschaftswachstum!
Und ich kann diesen Zynismus nicht mehr hören. (Thread)

Vier BOKU-Forschende zählen zu den weltweit meistzitierten Wissenschaftler*innen in der Analyse Highly Cited Researchers 2025 von Clarivate Analytics. Wir gratulieren @dominikwiedenhofer.bsky.social, @hehaberl.bsky.social, Karlheinz Erb & Erwin Schmid! short.boku.ac.at/p94g8p000000...

The IEA has brought back the Current Policies Scenario (CPS) in the World Energy Outlook (WEO).

I think this will be useful. Fossil CO2 emissions keep rising, when they should be falling. It is time to admit that. So I hope the CPS can help address this issue.

www.iea.org/reports/worl...

1/

Volle Zustimmung! Ich nutze den ENB @enb.iisd.org seitdem ich 1994 bei der CBD COP4 in Bratislava war (ja, das war noch während des Studiums ;-) im Rahmen eines Praktikums bei @bfn-de.bsky.social) und kann ihn nur allen wärmstens empfehlen, die an internationaler Umweltpolitik interessiert sind!

Yes, this is correct. And the reason is because our capitalist classes have decided that it is not sufficiently profitable, so they're not going to do it.

We must understand this reality. Capital *cannot* be relied upon to address the climate crisis.

Ahead of COP 30 I’ve been thinking about the irony that the critics of our 1.5 IPCC report are many of the people now saying it’s too late to act because we’ve going past 1.5 & we must focus on instead on technological fixes to address overshoot - here’s why I think these arguments are distractions

The 2025 state of the climate report: a planet on the brink We are hurtling toward climate chaos. The planet's vital signs are flashing red. The consequences of human-driven alterations of the climate are no longer

Freely available here: academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

Co-authors include @michaelemann.bsky.social, Johan Rockström, and @petergleick.bsky.social

30 Jahre Weltklimagipfel: Was bringen diese Verhandlungen überhaupt? Am Montag startet der zweiwöchige Klimagipfel in Brasilien. Angesichts der rückläufigen Klimabemühungen dürften die Gespräche zäh werden. Doch für das Gastgeberland hat das Ergebnis viel Gewicht

Im Oktober vermeldete die Weltwetterorganisation (WMO), dass die Emissionen im Vorjahr schneller stiegen als je zuvor.

Im brasilianischen Belem beginnt heute die 30. Weltklimakonferenz.

Was bringen die Verhandlungen eigentlich?

www.derstandard.at/story/300000...

Every Reason Why I Hate AI and You Should Too maybe it's anti-innovation, maybe it's just avoiding hype. But one thing is clear, I'm completely done with hearing about AI.

«I suspect many of us have had the experience of not using a skill long enough to completely un-learn it. LLMs enable this, but with every skill.»

This piece by @malwaretech.com a must read! In every possible way!

malwaretech.com/2025/08/ever...