Barry McMullin
@autofac.bsky.social
1.7K followers 460 following 590 posts
Stranger in a strange land - aren't we all? Engineering academic #Decarbonisation #ComplexSystems. #CarbonAbolitionist #AndACyclist he/his Why "autofac" you say? Well ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autofac And: http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~mcmullin/
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autofac.bsky.social
Update on petition for a dedicated #IE
#GE2024 Leaders' Debate on the Climate & Biodiversity emergency:
www.postcarbonireland.org/GE2024/
postcarbonireland.org: GE2024
www.postcarbonireland.org
Reposted by Barry McMullin
ketanjoshi.co
It is really, really, really stunning to me how the first part in particular has already become so incredibly noticeable.

In the climate space alone I am spending more of my precious remaining life hours convincing ppl that the output of a word generating program is not the default truth......
junlper.beer
i’ve been trying to think of the real actual applications of generative ai in it’s current state and the two things i have so far is it makes everyone more dumb and also every more paranoid
Reposted by Barry McMullin
Reposted by Barry McMullin
umsonst.bsky.social
No shit!

"New research warns that modern agricultural methods are placing the global food supply at increasing risk by weakening the natural resilience of the world’s soils."

#climate #earth #food #uöäü1soils
Agricultural practices can threaten soil resilience through changing feedback loops - npj Sustainable Agriculture
npj Sustainable Agriculture - Agricultural practices can threaten soil resilience through changing feedback loops
www.nature.com
Reposted by Barry McMullin
joenoonan.bsky.social
Ivan’s intervention “teaches the next generation of campaigners that integrity is a liability and that reputational violence is a sign of savvy.
It tells the public that truth is optional, empathy expendable, and that politics is just performance warfare.”

No

www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/colu...
Colin Sheridan: Smear v journalism — One intends to wound, the other to inform
When Ivan Yates went on a widely shared podcast and said he would 'smear the bejaysus out of her', meaning presidential candidate Catherine Connolly, he was injecting the virus, writes Colin Sheridan
www.irishexaminer.com
Reposted by Barry McMullin
georgemonbiot.bsky.social
I wrote about it in 2018, but it's an issue so fiercely defended by social silence that I found it impossible to get any traction. It's one of those occasions on which everyone thinks you've gone mad, as the alternative is to recognise that the system is mad.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Enough of Carillion culture. Make bosses pay for the carnage they cause | George Monbiot
Here’s how to tame corporate power, and prevent ruthless executives from enriching themselves by harming us, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Barry McMullin
petergleick.bsky.social
This was literally the strategy of the Nazi Reichstag fire: use a violent event you've instigated yourself to suspend civil liberties and impose totalitarianism.
heathercherone.bsky.social
Perry: How do you respond to the plaintiffs' contention that any unrest, any violence is the fault of how federal agents are interacting with members of the public? Does it matter if their conduct is why they can't execute federal laws?
Hamilton: No.
autofac.bsky.social
In Ireland we might say "what do you expect from a cow but a kick?". Expecting for-profit corps to behave "honestly" or "ethically" because it is the "right thing to do" is to commit a category error. This is irrespective of what human agents happen to be transiently "in charge" at any given time.
autofac.bsky.social
To be clear: corporations are *agents* - they have agency to act in the world, over and above the agency of their constituent human components. But they are not sentient, and have no *moral* agency beyond what is built in by design. In the case of for-profit corps it is actively *omitted* by design.
Reposted by Barry McMullin
manmademoon.bsky.social
War criminal, subject to ICC arrest warrant, Vladimir Putin, has thoughts on who should receive the Nobel peace prize... 🫠
rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social
Trump thanks Putin for saying he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

This is INSANE
Reposted by Barry McMullin
saoirsemc.bsky.social
MM refusing to do anything on climate shows that he puts disproportionate weight on the opinions of lobbyists for data centers, car manufacturers, dairy, etc cause support for government action on climate change actually unites people across the country..so who is he talking about?
autofac.bsky.social
[To state the obvious: to the extent that the Gaza ceasefire is now attributable to Trump's intervention, then the unforgiveable delay until now is attributable to his previous active support of the genocide...]
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado wins Nobel peace prize
Opponent of Maduro regime receives award and praise for keeping ‘flame of democracy burning’
www.theguardian.com
autofac.bsky.social
Sadly, I think that "will be" is no longer future tense: it seems to me that serious division has already arrived, and is being actively stoked by those polluting industries. Political power (in IE) is variously either captured or sticking its collective head in the sand...
autofac.bsky.social
I'm not being pedantic (or at least, not intentionally!). I think it's a difference that makes a difference. That "real" framing - even with the conditional - gives credibility to the AI hype and deflects from what I'm suggesting as the much more "real" question...
autofac.bsky.social
I know. But the lede is still "The Real AI Question": and I'm suggesting that that speculative "what if" question is not at all the "real" question.
Reposted by Barry McMullin
marcocathasaigh.bsky.social
This is not what leadership looks like. Climate change is having serious impacts in the here and now. The effects for future generations will be devastating.

The challenge is immense. We need leaders who communicate honestly and bring the people with them. This isn't it.
rodericogorman.bsky.social
Micheál Martin raises the white flag on achieving our climate targets 🏳️
A Government with no leadership, no ambition and no ideas.
Reposted by Barry McMullin
rodericogorman.bsky.social
Micheál Martin raises the white flag on achieving our climate targets 🏳️
A Government with no leadership, no ambition and no ideas.
autofac.bsky.social
edzitron.com
Premium: The AI Bubble's promises are impossible. NVIDIA's customers are running out of money, GPUs die in 3-5 years, most 1GW data centers will never get built, and OpenAI's Abilene data center doesn't won't have the power it needs before 2028 - if it ever does.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-bubbl...
The AI Bubble's Impossible Promises
Readers: I’ve done a very generous “free” portion of this newsletter, but I do recommend paying for premium to get the in-depth analysis underpinning the intro. That being said, I want as many people ...
www.wheresyoured.at
autofac.bsky.social
It's only a "real" question *if* it really "does what is promised". So no, IMHO it's absolutely not "the real AI question". Much better, right now, to ask "who benefits from ungrounded AI hype?"
Reposted by Barry McMullin
doctorvive.bsky.social
The attack on @frediotto.bsky.social was seeded years ago by Roger Pielke Jr, who started arguing that this table from a recent @ipcc.bsky.social report proved that climate science cannot attribute extreme weather to climate change.

But Roger is of course lying. And we know this for 2 reasons.

🧵
CLIMATEWIRE
Climate critics try to discredit IPCC author for linking
disasters to global warming
By LESLEY CLARK, SARA SCHONHARDT, CHELSEA HARVEY | 10/09/2025
06:22 AM EDT Roger Pielke Jr. and oil industry supporters are attacking climate scientist Friederike Otto, whose
work has been used in lawsuits against polluters. Table 12.12 | Emergence of CIDs in different time periods, as assessed in this section. The colour contesponds to the confidence of the region with the highest confidence: white cells indicate where evidence is lacking or the signal is not present, leading to overal bu confidence of an emerging signal.
autofac.bsky.social
It is - among other things - an abject dereliction of duty on the part of an entire political generation. Blaming "the people" - when "the people" have never been seriously consulted - is a deflection, and a downright offensive one at that!