Christopher Lyon

Seems to be a trend these days...I'm on week three.

Glasgow student took his own life after 'tragic' university error Ethan Brown, 23, of Coatbridge, was told he didn't have the grades to graduate in December 2024.

There are no words for this.

My heart goes out to his family and my colleagues at Glasgow. Scottish geography is a small world.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

How vulnerable is the UK’s food system? - Economics Observatory In an age of trade wars, armed conflict, pandemics and climate change, too little attention is being paid to the vulnerability of the global food system. The UK is not immune to the risks, which…

JUST PUBLISHED – How vulnerable is the UK’s food system?
By @aledjonesgsi.bsky.social, @christophlyon.bsky.social, & Elta Smith

When I was a student, I wondered why academics struggled to respond to emails.

Now I understand. The firehose of emails, texts, and other comms can be hard to track. Stuff gets missed.

Humans haven't evolved to constantly divide our attention across a bombardment of info on multiple screens.

Climate breakdown, biodiversity loss and political apathy put humanity at grave risk, threatens human lives, livelihoods globally. In may seem challenging, but a great article outlines six actions for ecologists in times of planetary crisis
@anthropocenebio.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Do not miss the chance to submit a session proposal for the 9th European Conference of Tropical Ecology that takes place at the University of Passau, Germany, from 23-27 February 2026 with the motto “Species – Ecosystems – People”
gtoe2026-passau.de/call-for-ses...

The Future of Scientific Publishing - survey

We are reviewing the current state of scientific publishing, and we want to hear from researchers on their perceptions of publishing in the current context and how it might develop in future. Complete our short survey now:

Bora Laskin One of Canada’s greatest legal scholars, Bora Laskin overcame antisemitism to become the first Jewish Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Historica Canada has just released another Heritage Minute, this one on the first ever Jewish Chief Justice of Canada, Bora Laskin. He's played by Victor Garber. www.historicacanada.ca/productions/...

À quoi ressemble une demande anticipée de décès ? Confier le contrôle du moment et des modalités de votre décès à un médecin ou à un infirmier praticien. Il ne s'agit pas d'autonomie.

Okay, let's do this: AMA about the "dire" wolf study.

Note: I wasn't involved in the project and have no ties to Colossal. I'm a paleoecologist with expertise on Pleistocene extinctions and their impacts, and the role ice age megafauna played in their ecosystems. I also research rewilding.

YouTube video by Africa Research Network The Future of Nigeria’s Forests: Conservation, Community Impact, and Policy

Banki Chunwate Thomas on his work researching Historical #forest changes in Nigeria The Future of #Nigeria’s Forests: #Conservation, Community Impact, and Policy
@yesiuoy.bsky.social @anthropocenebio.bsky.social @uoyenvironment.bsky.social

youtu.be/pSKgJVTU35o

Some things I'm up to....

Many UK #peatlands are degraded due to historical drainage, reduced #biodiversity, #carbon and water storage. New findings show testate amoebae as #bioindicators for tracking habitat peatland and #restoration
@yesiuoy.bsky.social @anthropocenebio.bsky.social
authors.elsevier.com/c/1krTD8g13f...

Modern magic unlocks Merlin's medieval secrets Fragments of a rare Merlin manuscript from the 1200s discovered and digitised in a ground-breaking three-year project at Cambridge University Library.

Magical things here. 👇

www.cam.ac.uk/stories/merl...

If you work on social-ecological systems, resilience, etc. and you *don't* know about SocSES, you do now. Launch even tomorrow.

socses.org

Farmer motivation to participate in cooperative agri‐environmental and climate measures Agri-environmental and climate measures (AECM) have been designed to promote biodiversity and ecosystem services but have thus far been unable to reverse the strong declines of farmland species. To e...

How to motivate farmers to participate in cooperative agrienvironmental schemes?
- Offer adequate financial compensation
- Communicate environmental advances
- Invest in building social relationships
- Create cooperative governance structures
J. Huber et al. #bpbv. doi.org/10.1002/eas2...

2x2 scenario matrix

4 scenarios for Canada’s future in a Trumpian world
theconversation.com/getting-read...

"Canadians ...may be confronted with colossal costs where Canada’s options may be limited to a choosing between Cuban or Belarussian outcomes."

[I'd like more scenarios than these 4]

Wild.

“We are a very research-intensive university—far more research-intensive than most of our size and scale—and achieving a balance to cross-subsidise and support that research intensity has been a challenge for quite a few years,” he said. “We have to address that now.”

Climate change will surprise us, but so-called ‘tipping points’ may lead us astray With the world already experiencing dangerous climate change, decarbonization and climate adaptation are urgent challenges. The potential for even more rapid and irreversible changes augments this ...

New essay from me, @lisgilmore.bsky.social and Rachael Shwom, in the @thebulletin.org's special issue on tipping points: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Accepted manuscript (w/o paywall): www.bobkopp.net/assets/pdf/K...

Canadian metasearch engine platform with no ads, no tracking and no AI. Very clean look with only relevant results. Gear is hosted in Canada.
As well as All, Images, News, etc, it also has a subheading just for social media results. #cdnpoli

Guest Post - Scholarship in the Face of Powerful Opposition: Academia Needs a March of the Ents - The Scholarly Kitchen Like Tolkien's “Ents” marched against deforestation, scholars, scientists, and their supporters must awaken to the widespread risks of these authoritarian trends and unite their efforts in resistance.

That's just some of us attempting to cook dinner.

OTH. scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/03/12/g...

Postdoctoral Research Associate (Textile Archaeology) at University of York Recruiting now: Postdoctoral Research Associate (Textile Archaeology) on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board

PDRA textile archaeology
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DME456/p...

Excited to be working on a new project exploring the entwined nature of landscapes, lakescapes and societies. Iconic landscapes, such as the Lake District, have been shaped, and will be shaped, by interactions between land, people and animals. @anthropocenebio.bsky.social @yesiuoy.bsky.social

Correct link (I am becoming such a typo-poster; if you knew my father it won't surprise you for a minute) for the article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Looking forward to this conversation with @kamalkapadia.bsky.social from @terradotdo.bsky.social tomorrow about how apocalyptic optimism can help us process the current moment and channeling our anxiety and outrage into action. For details and to register: www.terra.do/events/Apoca...

Cascading extreme weather events unleash billions in damages globally Compound weather, when two or more concurrent events that collectively yield a result worse than if each had occurred on its own, are occurring more frequently.

"The South Carolina disaster is the latest high-profile example of compound weather, or two or more concurrent events that collectively yield a result worse than if each had occurred on its own. It’s a global phenomenon ..."
www.japantimes.co.jp/environment/...

The daily news-based Economic Policy Uncertainty Index is based on newspapers in the United States.

Economic Policy Uncertainty Index for United States (USEPUINDXD)
fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1EfVX

The daily news-based Economic Policy Uncertainty Index is based on newspapers in the United States

Economic Policy Uncertainty Index for Europe Economic Policy Uncertainty Index for Europe

Economic Policy Uncertainty Index for Europe (EUEPUINDXM)
fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EUEPU...

News-based index for 5 European economies (Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain).

YouTube video by Toronto Star Mélanie Joly on talks with Marco Rubio, Trump’s executive orders, and world trade

Canada's foreign minister @melaniejoly.bsky.social is a consistently excellent media communicator on our neighbour's actions and Canada's response. #cdnpoli

youtu.be/k68QJaK8lpk?...

A coherent civil defence plan for Canada would be a step in the right direction on several fronts (eg climate impacts, trade disruption), not just a fuzzy but now imaginable US attack.