James Palmer
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jamesrpalmer.bsky.social
James Palmer
@jamesrpalmer.bsky.social
Environmental Geographer, University of Bristol

See also @peatscapes.bsky.social (http://peatscapes.com), funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk
Reposted by James Palmer
Last week, our very own Roosa Rytkönen was guest speaker at the University of Freiburg's lecture series on ‘Healing, Repair and Ecological Restoration: Interdisciplinary Dialogues on Planetary Health’! Roosa spoke to contestations around forestry-drained peatland restoration in Estonia and Finland.
November 24, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by James Palmer
The schizophrenia of focusing #cop30 on saving forests, while also promoting notoriously forest killing #biofuels

www.desmog.com/2025/11/20/b...
Backed by Industry, Brazilian Hosts Seek COP30’s Blessing for Biofuels
With the clock running down at the COP30 climate talks, the Brazilian hosts are working hand-in-hand with industry groups to secure backing for biofuels in the final text – despite fears that scaling ...
www.desmog.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
Excited to share my first PhD paper which was based on my fieldwork at @thebotanics.bsky.social and just published on @geoopenaccess.bsky.social yesterday! 🌺
November 21, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
November 13, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by James Palmer
‘It is abundantly clear that corporate social responsibility was and is a myth. Even if firms claim to recognise their social and environmental responsibilities, profitability always trumps them when they clash.’

@brettchristophers.bsky.social on where our waste goes.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Brett Christophers · Assume the worst: Where our waste goes
Just as Big Oil has repeatedly failed to deliver on pledges to begin decarbonising, so too the promises of plastics...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Reposted by James Palmer
Excited to be soft-launching a new online essay series for @the-breakdown.bsky.social - (re)reading radical thinkers for the climate crisis.

First up is Casey A. Williams on Stuart Hall and his analytical power for climate strategy today.

www.break-down.org/reading-stua...
Reading Stuart Hall for the Climate Crisis
Stuart Hall’s politics of culture offers the left a blueprint for confronting the climate crisis.
www.break-down.org
November 13, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
Profits from scientific publishing are eye-watering, costing us billions. In ‘The Drain of Scientific Publishing’ (arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820), (building on ‘The Strain of Scientific Publishing’ doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00327) we show how it is harmful – and unnecessary.
The Drain of Scientific Publishing
The domination of scientific publishing in the Global North by major commercial publishers is harmful to science. We need the most powerful members of the research community, funders, governments and ...
arxiv.org
November 12, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by James Palmer
JOB: Assistant Professor in Environmental History, University of Warwick, Coventry campus (UK) www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK289/a...
#envhist
Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125) at University of Warwick
Apply now for the Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125) role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.
www.jobs.ac.uk
November 12, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
Changing phenology, while seemingly innocuous, impacts our lives in many clear and tangible ways.
How Plants Are Responding to a Warming World — And Why It Matters
Changing phenology, while seemingly innocuous, impacts our lives in many clear and tangible ways.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
November 11, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
SAVE GEOGRAPHY at Leicester University (UK) - We call on the University of Leicester to urgently reconsider the proposal to dissolve Geography. This is direct attack on the discipline of Geography at Leicester with likely loss of Geography staff. Please sign + share

www.change.org/p/save-geogr...
November 7, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
This week: Deep Disillusionment with Stewart Lee. Does what it says in the title. And then some. #StrongMessageHere www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Strong Message Here - Deep Disillusionment in This Country (with Stewart Lee) - BBC Sounds
Armando Iannucci and Stewart Lee find the sources of deep disillusionment in this country.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 31, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by James Palmer
Proud to share our first project output in Estonian! 🇪🇪

Our Roosa Rytkönen presents this poster today at the "Habitat restoration and conservation" conference in Saaremaa, Estonia, organized by key national experts and the State Forest Management Centre, RMK. Excited for feedback! @leverhulme.ac.uk
October 30, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
On peat restoration, the govt's new Carbon Budget Delivery Plan states that the "main delivery vehicle" will be ELMs, especially Landscape Recovery.

Unfortunately, the govt has refused to publish maps of existing Landscape Recovery projects; how much peat do they cover?!

www.gov.uk/government/p...
October 29, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
AI is all about stealing
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia contains copied Wikipedia pages
Ironic.
www.theverge.com
October 28, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
I made my students a little “book” (just using Google slides) to show them how you all answered my question about how you take notes for research. Just to show the variety.
How Do Scholars Take Notes?
How do scholars take notes? I like seeing examples of different people’s notetaking, so I asked scholars to show me how they take notes for research.
docs.google.com
October 25, 2025 at 4:14 PM
"In the end, generative AI might be a blip in tech history, over-promising and under-delivering until finally the cash runs out. But it seems it’s arrived just in time to shove universities over a cliff edge they’d already walked themselves up to."

defector.com/higher-eds-r...
Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI | Defector
If you don’t work at a university or have college-age kids, you may have missed the flurry of news stories and social media banter about AI adoption in higher ed, stories which have snowballed into th...
defector.com
October 25, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
It's the official publication day for ETHANOL: A HEMISPHERIC HISTORY FOR THE FUTURE OF BIOFUELS. Want to know why the US turns 40 percent of the corn crop into fuel? How the US and Brazil became the world's two largest ethanol producers? Tom Rogers and I have answers.
www.oupress.com/978080619601...
Ethanol - University of Oklahoma Press
Though ethanol, a liquid fuel made from agricultural byproducts, has generated controversy in recent years—good or bad for the environment? a big-ag boon o...
www.oupress.com
October 7, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
Updating my LEGO White House
October 23, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by James Palmer
I sat in the British Library reading League of Empire Loyalists, BNP & National Front literature for my book and even they claimed to promote *voluntary* repatriation. Forcible deportation was always the ghost behind those ideas, but it’s amazing that UK politicians don’t even bother to hide it.
To be clear: deportations to increase cultural homogeneity is the text book definition of ethnic cleansing. Demands that come even close to this are so far outside any democratic norm and the rule of law. What has happened to a country when this is not condemned in the strongest possible terms?
October 22, 2025 at 8:37 AM
"There’s still time to disenchant AI, provincialize it, make it uncompelling and uncool."

Large Language Muddle

www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
Large Language Muddle | The Editors
The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize any number of dread-inducing transformations. The university is becoming more corporate, more politically oppressive, and all but hostile to the ...
www.nplusonemag.com
October 21, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
It's Electric Wind publication day!💨

Join @dudleymarianna.bsky.social for the launch of her new book, online and at @bookhaus.bsky.social.

Details on the MUP Events page🎟️👇

A cutting-edge history of wind power in Britain from the industrial revolution to the present.

Electric Wind is out now💡
October 14, 2025 at 10:42 AM
A scandal so long-running that it predates Brexit.

‘Little lungs are paying’: 1.6m claimants head to high court as carmakers finally face punishment for Dieselgate
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
‘Little lungs are paying’: 1.6m claimants head to high court as carmakers finally face punishment for Dieselgate
Carmakers accused of cheating air pollution rules have faced little punishment in UK but trial brought by 1.8m motorists is about to begin
www.theguardian.com
October 10, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
In the newest addition to 𝘚𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴, Pollyanna Rhee portrays the perennial wheatgrass Kernza, challenging its promise of endless abundance and environmental responsibility:
seeingthewoods.org/2025/10/08/f...

#perennials #wheat #envhum #envhist #planetaryhealth @parhee.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by James Palmer
Coming soon💨

How has energy shaped a nation?

Electric Wind by @DudleyMarianna.bsky.social is a cutting-edge history of wind power in Britain, from the industrial revolution to the aftermath of war, through energy crises and the changing politics of the late twentieth century💡

Pre-order now!
October 3, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Reposted by James Palmer
Shoreline demos: The contested place of the public in a marine carbon removal trial

New paper in Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space with @a-laurie-waller.bsky.social, Emily Cox and myself

Read one of our major outputs from @co2rehub.bsky.social here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
September 24, 2025 at 12:03 PM