Alice Rizzardo

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

"We’re a naturally social, altruistic, democratic species." An unexpectedly cheerful bit in an article on societal collapse

Metal bottle caps ‘surprising’ source of microplastic contamination, study finds Glass bottles had highest levels of the substance compared with beer, water, wine and soft drinks, researchers found

Which drink would you think contains more microplastics, one that comes in a plastic bottle with a plastic cap or in a glass bottle with a metal cap? Think again!

Thank you so much for your work on this.

Chimps are sticking grass and sticks in their butts, seemingly as a fashion trend | CBC Radio A group of chimpanzees in Zambia have resurrected an old fashion trend with a surprising new twist.

How did this not make my timeline? Bluesky, you disappoint me

Have you forgotten the picture 😊

Here's just one example of how we depend on underappreciated insects: without a compatible species of dung beetle, cattle poo in Australia just... piled up

and on how this particular translation made him reevaluate his whole perception of Mann's Von Aschenbach #booksky

“All novels are translations, even in their original language”. That's the beginning of Michael Cunningham’s introduction to Michael Henry Heim’s translation of Death in Venice. It's a beautiful meditation on the many difficulties of translating a book,

I just misunderstood the lyrics "kein Schwein ruft mich an" (nobody ever calls me) for "ein Schwein ruft mich an" (a pig phones me up) making the song a lot more interesting and also proving my point that German is fiddly

How about pandas, with their extremely inefficient diet? And lots of fiber!

When do girls fall behind in maths? Gigantic study pinpoints the moment Analysis of almost three million children captures when ‘mathematical gender gap’ first emerges and could help focus efforts to stop girls from falling behind.

When do girls fall behind in maths? According to this study, maths abilities of boys and girls are very similar when starting school, but after just a few months of schooling they start diverging sharply with girls lagging behind. I'd love to learn more about what happens in that crucial first year.

I know that was meant as a joke, but I actually find it beautiful and deeply human how people can find humor and truth in AI gibberish. How we can make it ours and assign our own meaning to it.

I like how joy subdivides into joy, sadness and sadness. Maybe a sign of the times

‘Half the tree of life’: ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects A new point in history has been reached, entomologists say, as climate-led species’ collapse moves up the food chain even in supposedly protected regions free of pesticides

Insects are crucial to nature. We are starving our birds, but we are also putting ourselves in danger: insects perform essential tasks to human survival such as pollination, decomposition of organic matter and feces, pest suppression, and so many more that we are just beginning to understand.

The article I linked is by @hannahritchie.bsky.social

By the way, Peru is the biggest supplier of avocados in Europe, and the emissions for transporting them by boat to England are about 240g of CO2eq per kg. Still not as bad as I thought! 7/7

I feel like the 200-260g from Mexico and Kenya do start to become relevant. Of course this is still a LOT better than, say, grabbing a piece of cheese (21kg=21,000g of CO2eq per kg). 6/n

How does this compare to the emissions of growing vegetables locally? The article gives total carbon emissions in the 400-1400g of CO2eq per kg ballpark for most vegetables. Adding 50g of CO2eq per kg to import some veg from Spain does not make a big difference, which is great to know. 5/n

According to the article, transporting food by boat emits 23g of CO2eq per tonne of product per kilometer. I am based in England, so that gives about 50g per kilo of product to transport it from Spain, 207g from Mexico and 264g from Kenya. (source: sea-distances.org) 4/n

It turns out in the UK these are mainly from Spain, where they are grown in unheated greenhouses, but also from the Netherlands, Kenya and Mexico. (source: cbi.eu) 3/n

The article gives the example of beef, which is very carbon intensive to produce, so of course transportation has a tiny effect on the total footprint. But I eat very little beef, so I picked the typical thing I don’t feel great about: eating eggplant in winter, when it’s terribly out of season. 2/n

You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local “Eat local” is a common recommendation to reduce the carbon footprint of your diet. How does the impact of what you eat compare to where it's come from?

This cool article shows how little transportation affects the carbon footprint of (most of) what we eat, so that “eat local” is not as important if shrinking your carbon footprint is your main objective. I was curious to see how this would apply to my own diet: a thread! 1/n

Not In Our Name - Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out - with signatures To co-sign the statement, fill in this form: https://forms.gle/oDYgnobrMiScaMEt5 (Please do not ‘request share’, rather, fill in the form ^ ^.) Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Sp...

Not In Our Name - Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out (signature form linked at top of document)

@gemmaclark.bsky.social @philippaeast.bsky.social @hazelmpinner.bsky.social @debrakidd.bsky.social @busygranof6.bsky.social @girasoles-lady.bsky.social

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Wow! It looks like a pretty dramatic change in just 4 years (assuming it used to be a regular stream)

How long have the beavers been around?

It's still illegal to use it though. It should be possible to report the listing to eBay?

Yes, I think so. I also wonder about the absence of "unimproved" grassland. The report is focused on agriculture though, it is possible that the rest is not as detailed.

I did some quick Googling but I couldn't manage to find a mention of your 20bn claim. Do you have a source?

Source: Defra, National Food Strategy: part two, 15 July 2021, p 90. But I learned of this map from @wanderingdutchman.bsky.social

A map of the UK, subdivided into imaginary regions of size corresponding to the actual amount of land in the UK dedicated to various purposes (such as "Beef and lamb pastures, "Cereals", "Built up"). Additional hexagons to the side indicate the amount of overseas land also used to feed the UK.

Here is a cool map about land use in the UK, and the agricultural land abroad used to feed the UK. Note the huge amount of land we use for beef and lamb pastures. Altogether, the amount of land used to rear these animals + grow their food is slightly bigger than the area of the UK itself.