Fredrik Albritton Jonsson

Best readings on historical disasters? Any time period, and though my eventual focus will be the US, glad to hear suggestions about other places, too.

Ryan Moulton @moultano Oil is the most Lovecraftian thing that actually exists. You're telling me that there's a black ichor under the earth, made from the ancient dead, whose burning can realize all the dreams of man but only at the price of slowly returning the earth to its primordial state?

Dawn is breaking

JOB
Assistant Professor in the History of Knowledge Pre-1400,
University of Cambridge

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assista...

Disaster Recovery Is an $8 Trillion Driver of US Growth Investors are on the hunt for companies powering the disaster industrial complex, which are fueling US growth and outpacing the S&P 500

🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨
Many things are changing before our eyes. Others are harder to see

Like the US economy

Americans are spending more 💲 recovering from disasters and preparing for the next one. 36% of US GDP growth since 2000 is related to climate disasters.

Welcome to the Disaster Industrial Complex 🎁🔗

A banner advert for Matt Houlbrook’s new book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London

There's just a day to go until @manchesterup.bsky.social publish my latest book Songs of Seven Dials: An intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London.

I thought I should explain a bit about where the book came from.

1/15

Mule Power Unpacking empires and diaspora in Mexico and the United States.

“what happens if we also reconnect with the mule? What can mules teach us about the black history of land and violence in the United States?”

A terrific piece of #envhist on mules, labor, and how “empire doesn’t always win” from @roguechieftan.bsky.social

www.sciencehistory.org/stories/maga...

Slender-billed Curlew Declared Extinct IUCN confirms the loss of a once-widespread Western Palearctic wader after three decades without a verified record

Gripping video of the last 2 Slender-billed Curlews at www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/S.... I couldn't afford to join some mates who did a trip to Morocco to see them in 1992, 2 years before they disappeared. And last week, we declared the species extinct in our update to the IUCN Red List 😢

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

Hi Michael. Yes, absolutely. That said, Wrigley's Continuity, Chance and Change is probably a little easier to digest for UGs but if you want to talk about energy the later book is much better since it has the benefit of Paul Warde's path-breaking empirical work.

☺️ Thanks Robert!

Hi Jeff,
I have a book on the making of Britain's fossil fuel economy in the works, which should be out next year if all goes well. In the meantime, I warmly recommend Emma Griffin's introduction to the Industrial Revolution and Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson's book on slavery and industry.

I'm on your wife's side, but it goes without saying the trade-off between bikes and pedestrians is a pretty nice problem to have. In Chicago, bicycling is a dangerous business in many places.

I am struck by how narrow the pedestrian lanes are in many places and how quick the traffic lights are compared with Stockholm or Chicago. Bicycles really seem to be the norm, even compared to walking.

Congratulations Thea. Very glad to read and teach your book

Thanks Matthew. Glad to hear our little book was of some use. Moritz and I have not forgotten about your kind invitation.

Excellent! Hope you enjoy it. Especially curious to hear what you make of the chapter about the Collingwood children's magazine Nothing Much.

This is really excellent work. Looking forward to the book!

Excellent article from @jamborg.bsky.social about "genetic" mercantilism. Highly recommended

Image of Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company workshops with smoke escaping from tower. Reference: CO 1069/280 from The National Archives, UK.

The Call for Papers for 'Talking Records: Pollution in the Archive', a symposium at The National Archives in London, 4 December 2025, is now open!

Submission deadline: Friday 19 Sept

See the CFP and details about bursaries for speakers here: orlo.uk/Z8StS

#envhum #envhist

The health risks from plastics almost nobody knows about Researchers have linked phthalates, chemicals found in plastics, to premature birth, infertility and ADHD.

For the last several months, I've been digging through endless scientific literature on what happens when pregnant mothers are exposed to plastic chemicals in their food, water, and everyday household products.

The result is this story.

I hope you'll take the time to read.
wapo.st/4g3ZoFc

Thanks Paul

let's see if others corroborate. There is a high probability of new oil discoveries in the polar regions... the main question is how big they are.

Russia Uncovers 511 Billion Barrels of Oil Beneath Antarctica: A Find That Could End the Continent’s Era of Peaceful Use The 511 billion barrels reported is nearly double Saudi Arabia’s proven reserves and more than ten times the North Sea’s output over the last 50 years.

Nearly double Saudi reserves... God help us.
indiandefencereview.com/russia-uncov...

I don't think we fully grasped yet how important solar will be as an energy source.

Great graph @carbonbrief.org based on @iea.org data.

Please take a moment to join the class action!

A series of maps of emissions across Europe for different livestock

New data paper out: Ammonia doesn't often make the headlines – but it’s one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss and air pollution in Europe, harming ecosystems and our health. > 90% of it in Europe comes from one source: agricultural fertiliser and manure 🧵

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Apropos of nothing, a reminder that German stock markets kept climbing in an almost uninterrupted fashion in the run-up to WW2. Investors are really, really bad at pricing serious institutional and political risks.

Do not trust AI or ChatGPT-5 to do the most basic things like labeling a picture of the hydrologic cycle. Here's what it gave me.
(Evaporation arrow pointing into the ground. Both surface water and the "ocean" labels underground. Transpiration arrow coming from the #water surface, not plants...]