Ruth Mottram
ruthmottram.bsky.social
Ruth Mottram
@ruthmottram.bsky.social
Climate scientist at DMI, Greenland, Antarctica, polar regions in general.
Dipping a toe in yet another social media site. Mostly on mastodon though @[email protected]
Blogging at sternaparadisaea.net
Pinned
The first step in the ~14,500 km journey (as the crow flies) to Wasa was a taxi to the airport. The second is a flight to Oslo*.
It's masks on time.

*Yes, this #fieldwork involves *a lot* of carbon. Let's hope the data is worth it...

sternaparadisaea.net/2025/12/11/h...
Heading South
Tomorrow, I’m heading south, though more correctly, I’m first heading north to head south. Fieldwork in Antarctica starts next week..
sternaparadisaea.net
Super interesting pieceon the race between China and the US and damning on European weakness, but one can't help wondering whither the rest of the world?
I will certainly be reading the book next

danwang.co/2025-letter/...
2025 letter | Dan Wang
Corgis, compute, Cold War; Ecclesiastes; ties; Stendhal; humor; Pascal's Wager; deep infrastructure; Germanic obedience; Texas State Fair
danwang.co
February 13, 2026 at 7:36 AM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
Highly recommend this @lloydalter.bsky.social piece.

#ClimateInfluence
A new book, “It’s on you” challenges just about everything I ever wrote about personal responsibility vs the need for systemic change. I begrudgingly admit that it makes a very strong case. lloydalter.substack.com/p/its-on-you...
It's on you: Did corporations convince us that individual actions matter?
A new book challenges just about everything I have written.
lloydalter.substack.com
February 12, 2026 at 11:53 PM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
In recognition of International Day of Women and Girls in Science (Feb 11), it's a great time to re-share this paper from 2010 - lots of progress and lots more room to grow. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Women in glaciology, a historical perspective | Journal of Glaciology | Cambridge Core
Women in glaciology, a historical perspective - Volume 56 Issue 200
www.cambridge.org
February 11, 2026 at 6:49 PM
Tillykke til Norge, i får et nyt medie på @zetland.dk modellen...
Held og lykke til Demo!

www.zetland.dk/historie/sTK...
Heia, det lykkedes! Zetland får et søstermedie i Norge
Demos crowdfundingkampagne krydsede målstregen på 5.000 stiftende medlemmer her til morgen.
www.zetland.dk
February 12, 2026 at 11:52 PM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
Winds of change, Zeitenwende, etc:
Europe has changed.
Poll finds clear majorities for increasing defence spending and a European nuclear deterrent.

Source ecfr.eu/publication/...
February 12, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
Resurrecting this after a challenging day:
"Here's what happened when I made my college students put away their phones." I find the links to research in this article especially useful.
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/o...
Opinion | Here’s What Happened When I Made My College Students Put Away Their Phones
www.nytimes.com
February 12, 2026 at 10:45 PM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
Can confirm. The warmth is unseasonable here.

Many of us are sorely missing snow for under our skis, and didn’t help that we had a misty rain today…

www.information.dk/udland/2026/...
February 9, 2026 at 10:21 PM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
We are hiring a benthic ecologist at the researcher or senior researcher level 🧪🌍🦑

The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources is an excellent place to work, with friendly colleagues, support, and teaching opportunities.

naalakkersuisut.emply.net/recruitment/...
Researcher/Senior Researcher in Benthic Ecology at the Greenland Climate Research Center at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources
The Greenland Climate Research Centre (GCRC) at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR) invites applications for a position as researcher/senior researcher within the field of marine benth...
naalakkersuisut.emply.net
February 12, 2026 at 10:51 PM
One point this @economist.com piece also misses is that China's impressive high speed trains are mostly built with German technology..

Are liberal values a luxury the West cannot afford?
www.economist.com/internationa...
Are liberal values a luxury the West cannot afford?
Yes, China has impressive high-speed trains. That is no reason for the West to adopt iron-fisted rule
www.economist.com
February 12, 2026 at 5:31 PM
How China wants to create a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through the Arctic - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT
How China wants to create a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through the Arctic
Beijing targets shipping routes and resources in far north
giftarticle.ft.com
February 12, 2026 at 5:31 PM
🙏
February 12, 2026 at 5:04 PM
How China wants to create a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through the Arctic - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT
How China wants to create a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through the Arctic
Beijing targets shipping routes and resources in far north
giftarticle.ft.com
February 12, 2026 at 4:57 PM
"Most importantly, it means countries should do everything they can to retain their best homegrown entrepreneurs"

The exorbitant privilege of the US brain gain is fading - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
February 12, 2026 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
***Our review paper on glacier surging is out!***

Lovell H, Benn DI, Jiskoot H and 12 others (2026) “Glacier surging and surge-related hazards in a changing climate.”
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 7(2). doi.org/10.1038/s430...

@hazlovell.bsky.social #cryosphere #glaciology #science #glaciers
Glacier surging and surge-related hazards in a changing climate - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
Glacier surges are rapid ice flow acceleration and mass transport events, which can threaten nearby communities, infrastructure and habitats. This Review discusses the global distribution, behaviour a...
doi.org
February 12, 2026 at 3:21 AM
Palantir are a very distasteful company and ALL European governments should be keeping the.very far away from sensitive data...

infosec.exchange/@adfichter/1...
Adfichter (@[email protected])
Attached: 1 image The war waged by the tech authoritarian oligarchy against the media has reached a new level: #Palantir is suing us. Us, the Republik Magazin. A small Swiss media company, funded...
infosec.exchange
February 12, 2026 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
Palantir verklagt @republik.ch
🔥🔥🔥It's official: Der Krieg der Tech-Autoritären Oligarchie gegen die Medien hat eine neue Stufe erreicht: Palantir klagt gegen uns. Sie wollen ein Recht auf Gegendarstellung.

Uns, das @republik.ch-Magazin. Ein kleines unabhängiges Schweizer Medienhaus, finanziert von Leser:innen und werbefrei.
February 12, 2026 at 12:56 PM
(I am currently feeling guilty about being on a ski holiday with my very long-suffering family instead of tackling all the work that has piled up while I've been away on fieldwork the last couple of months).
a cartoon character without a face is floating in the water .
Alt: a cartoon character without a face is floating in the water . They are swamped by waves where the word emails is overwritten multiple times
media.tenor.com
February 12, 2026 at 10:31 AM
This doesn't change after your PhD unfortunately. Which might also explain a lot about Academia.
Doing a PhD especially with little support means you have to invent what you do and how to do it, manage yourself, and practically no matter how well you do, you could’ve always done it better, or more of it.

As a corollary, every day off feels like slacking, and every failure feels personal.
February 12, 2026 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
"Switzerland’s military has terminated its contract with Palantir… following a security audit… concluded that U.S. intelligence agencies could potentially access sensitive Swiss defense data… significant reputational warning for the data analytics firm"

www.newscase.com/palantirs-sw...

#R4Today
Palantir's Swiss Exit Highlights Global Data Sovereignty Challenge | NewsCase
Switzerland's military has terminated its contract with Palantir Technologies Inc. following a security audit. The review concluded that U.S. intelligence ag
www.newscase.com
February 11, 2026 at 7:05 AM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
This means we in Stockholm are now vulnerable to Peter the Great's cavalry. Not good news.
Interrupting my regularly scheduled programming to announce the happy news that the Baltic Sea froze over, generating vast surfaces suitable for long-distance skating. My old friend Jens Liljestrand and I took some time off to explore the edge of the archipelago today, and it was glorious ❄️❄️❄️
February 12, 2026 at 9:02 AM
DHH suggests first making sure all new projects are on a eurostack, then migrating the old stuff, and all new implementations of software should be open source. It's a fair prescription. He reckons it will take 10years...
February 12, 2026 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
At last an AI tool I can get behind

“Upload an architectural render. Get back what it'll actually look like on a random Tuesday in November.”

antirender.com
January 31, 2026 at 8:07 AM
DHH is a bit controversial these days, but he's absolutely right about how stupid we in Denmark have been about our tech dependency on the #UStech giants...
www.zetland.dk/historie/sOg...
Afsnit 3: Dansk techmillionær blev kun techmillionær, fordi han flyttede til USA. Sådan tabte Europa tech-krigen
Du læser formentlig denne historie på beviset på Europas (foreløbigt) tabte techkrig.
www.zetland.dk
February 12, 2026 at 7:21 AM
The first death knell for the British coal industry was when Churchill (then First Sea Lord) successfully lobbied British Government to switch from coal to oil to power ships.

In 1913.
Trump demands Pentagon buy dirty coal power in a feeble-minded attempt to help the coal industry, which massively pollutes and yet employs fewer people than Southwest Airlines or the University of Michigan.
Oh, and the military doesn't use coal.

www.tbsnews.net/worldbiz/usa...
February 11, 2026 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
On récapitule : 🚀 Mission VA267 : Ariane 6 est prête ! youtube.com/live/5IiH09mCG5A?feature=share

🗓 Décollage : 12 février 2026
🕐 16h45 – 17h13 (UTC) / 17h45 – 18h13 (heure de Paris) / 13h45 – 14h13 (heure de Kourou)
📍Centre spatial guyanais
#Ariane6 #VA267
@esa.int @transport.esa.int @fr.esa.int
February 11, 2026 at 10:32 PM