Tom Clark

Interesting

Again, why critical thinking skills are crucial in education. If people are bombarded with a constant stream of algorithmically selected content that engages them emotionally and we aren't equipping them with critical thinking skills from an early age then things like this are the inevitable outcome

“Water is the messenger that’s delivering the bad news about climate change to your city, to your front door.”

😬

Speaking as a former editor, lost for words on this one.

Heat Is More Dangerous Than You Think Need-to-Know: The impacts of severe heat have been badly underestimated.

Reminder:

Need-to-Know: The impacts of severe heat have been badly underestimated.

open.substack.com/pub/leahy/p/...

This was always the gap between students coming up into first year, where they were just interested in the knowledge necessary to recall as in an exam and the critical thinking we already trying to develop. Seems ‘AI’ is especially tempting as it corresponds to what student know already

Reflecting on the AI in HE issue and the essays I’ve marked that strongly signal being gen ‘AI’ gernerated is how sadly closely aligned they are with the model of education centred on recalling facts. The essays were just lists of relevant facts that were not in connected in a meaningful way.

and AI/ML research is an effort that compresses the world into stereotypes/flattened representations

Generative AI is Not Inevitable w/ Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna Podcast Episode · Tech Won't Save Us · 22/05/2025 · 53m

I enjoyed this podcast about this, that each time AI is being pushed into He is a failure of resourcing. Also, reading clearly ai ‘aided’ essays, there is no thinking at all! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Well well well

A horizontal bar chart titled "Percentage of Global fossil fuel emissions (since 1751) occurring in my lifetime." The chart shows how much of the total historical global fossil fuel emissions have occurred within the lifetime of individuals of different ages, from 5 to 100 years old. The vertical axis on the left lists ages in increments of 5 years, from age 5 at the top to age 100 at the bottom. The horizontal axis represents the percentage of fossil fuel emissions, marked in 10% increments from 10% to 90%. The black bars represent the proportion of fossil fuel emissions that have occurred during each age group's lifetime. The bars increase in length as the age increases, meaning older individuals have lived through a larger percentage of the cumulative emissions since 1751. Three specific age groups are highlighted with red bars and white text annotations: Age 30: "if you are 30 it is more than 50%" Age 50: "if you are 50 it is about 75%" Age 85: "if you are 85 it is about 90%" The source of the data is cited at the bottom: "CDIAC and globalcarbonproject.org." The graphic is credited to "@neilrkaye."

If you think climate change has gotten worse during your lifetime, you're right and there's a good reason.

If you're Gen X like me, more than 3/4 of fossil fuel CO₂ emissions have occurred in your lifetime. Even if you're a Millennial, it's at least half.

📊: @neilrkaye.bsky.social

I lived and worked in London for over 15 years, now in the midlands. I don’t think this quite captures quite how far apart London and its infrastructure and those outside of the capital are. London is important, but it’s light years away.

My strong memory of Geldsdale in the north Pennines is this grey brown. Beginning to be v different now but part of the issue is a strong aesthetic of moorlands made into these dusky, blustery silent places

Silent spring forever

Breakdown

LIVE: The Afterlives of Neoliberalism w/ Quinn Slobodian and Geoff Mann Podcast Episode · Macrodose · 22/05/2025 · 58m

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m...

Takes seriously how seriously the right took climate

I remember seeing one of these with my grandad years and years ago here. The transformation of this place has been amazing to watch. The mindlessness of this is very sad. Driving through here you sometimes have to stop the car multiple times because of the number of grouse on the road

Scientists just found a way to break through climate apathy In a field of muddy results, it's among the clearest findings that one cognitive scientist has seen in his career.

"The findings suggest that if scientists want to increase public urgency around climate change, they should highlight clear, concrete shifts instead of slow-moving trends. That could include the loss of white Christmases or outdoor summer activities..."

grist.org/science/brea...

Walter Crane engraving of workers labeled with the names of the continents joining hands around a globe

Eight hours work, eight hours rest, eight hours for what you will. Happy May Day.

openinframap.org

a model is a formal representation (often mathematical) of a certain phenomena/process. the phenomena being modelled and the model are not interchangeable, this is akin to mistaking the map for the territory. a good model might capture the phenomena well but it is never the phenomena itself

Vision

1/ The view from our bedroom window earlier this week was the eerie sight of a blaze across Garth Hill, South Wales.

The weather conditions preceding the fire were extremely dry leaving the grass & bracken to turn to tinder.

Here's a 🧵putting this fire context...

(Photo credit: Ryan Davies)

John Ruskin would like a word

Against Optimization We are bombarded by messages telling us to worship the gods of efficiency and optimization, life hacking our way to prosperity. It's a trap. Resilience is a smarter, sturdier goal.

So much of our modern world tells you that you’re a failure if you don’t optimise everything. But, as I explain here, that’s not just the pathway to a miserable life; it’s also a surefire way to destroy resilience and create catastrophe, from individual lives to complex social systems.

As in too far up the conditions of possibility?

I've not seen Adolescence but I don't think there's something inherently wrong with saying that we shouldn't be basing public policy decisions on works of fiction.
It's also a damning indictment of politics generally that it responds more to these works of fiction than to acutal research/evidence

First ‘Wistman’s Wood’ trees planted as part of efforts to double size of ancient temperate rainforest

3 years ago, when I wrote The Lost Rainforests of Britain, I talked about the importance of expanding fragments of temperate rainforest like Wistman's Wood

Well now the Duchy of Cornwall is actually doing it. (And through natural regeneration, not just planting!)
duchyofcornwall.org/article/firs...

ROFL