danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich
@danielaldrich.bsky.social
3.1K followers 160 following 4.4K posts
Social scientist interested in social capital, social infrastructure, energy and environmental politics. Books at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Daniel-P.-Aldrich/author/B001JSDHPW
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 1d
Australia’s efforts could offer a proof of concept for how a nation with a bustling, modern economy can rapidly shift its electricity from fossil fuels — mostly coal with some gas — to wind, solar, storage, and other renewable sources like hydropower. www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...
As coal fades, Australia looks to realize dream of 100% renewable…
The country’s grid operator says shifting from coal to clean power is not only possible but inevitable. The work there could provide a road map for other…
www.canarymedia.com
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 2d
Japan’s New Leader to Make Nuclear Center of Energy Strategy - Bloomberg share.google/6nLLzt9dW4zh...
Japan’s New Leader to Make Nuclear Center of Energy Strategy
The woman expected to be Japan’s next prime minister is set to keep nuclear power at the core of the nation’s energy strategy, while reducing emphasis on readily available renewables like solar.
share.google
danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 2d
New #article from Laurence: Did Social Capital Protect Mental Health from Social Restrictions and Immobility during COVID-19
TL;DR: increases in distress were significantly smaller among individuals reporting higher individual and contextual social capital
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 2d
China continues to dominate renewable technology
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 2d
With average premiums running more than 3000 dollars, Federal Reserve estimates that seven percent of American homeowners didn’t have insurance last year; 43 percent of that group said they couldn’t afford a policy. komonews.com/news/consume...
Home Insurance Crisis: Soaring Premiums and Inadequate Payouts for Damage Claims
The cost of home insurance is soaring—far exceeding the rate of inflation. As a result, millions of homeowners are cutting back on coverage or going without it,
komonews.com
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 2d
It keeps getting harder to find and extract fossil fuels.
Renewable technology lowers costs far faster than technology improves fossil fuel cost due to Wright’s law.
People don’t like pollution and carbon impact — so they discourage its use. cleantechnica.com/2025/10/05/w...
Why Fossil Fuels Are Having Such A Hard Time Competing With Renewables - CleanTechnica
Fossil fuels struggle to compete with renewables due to: 1) Rising costs from depleting easy reserves; 2) Slower cost declines vs. Wright's Law-fueled renewable tech; 3) Global backlash against pollut...
cleantechnica.com
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 3d
Largest electric utility in Illinois is rolling out a program for a vehicle-to-grid electric school bus-charging pilot, testing the functionality of bidirectional chargers that could make energy cheaper for customers and reduce grid load insideclimatenews.org/news/0310202...
Illinois Utility Pilots Vehicle-to-Grid Program With Electric School Buses - Inside Climate News
The program will test whether the buses can supply energy back to the grid, potentially benefitting both school districts and electric customers.
insideclimatenews.org
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 3d
Japan has built a first of its kind renewable energy source that runs day and night, powered by salt and fresh water www.zmescience.com/ecology/japa...
Japan Just Switched on Asia’s First Osmotic Power Plant, Which Runs 24/7 on Nothing But Fresh Water and Seawater
A renewable energy source that runs day and night, powered by salt and fresh water.
www.zmescience.com
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 3d
Some commentary doesn't age well
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 3d
Trump administration this week tried to make nine elite research universities an offer they can’t refuse www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
A Deal That Would End Universities’ Independence
The free-speech provisions of the so-called compact are an exercise in contradiction.
www.theatlantic.com
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 3d
Japanese government is embracing what mid-20th century economist Joseph Schumpeter called capitalism’s “creative destruction,” the need for innovators to replace weaker rivals www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
Japan Unleashes Capitalism by Letting 'Zombie' Companies Die
In agonizing decisions for owners, a once-protective society lets the market take its course.
www.bloomberg.com
danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 3d
Billionaires driving higher education: conservative ideas behind the Trump administration’s “compact” for universities were developed in part by Marc Rowan, a wealthy financier who has sought to shape higher education www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/u...
The Billionaire Behind Trump’s Deal for Universities
www.nytimes.com
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 3d
Sanae Takaichi, a veteran conservative lawmaker in Japan who cites Margaret Thatcher as an influence, is set to become Japan’s first female prime minister after prevailing Saturday in an important leadership election www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/w...
Sanae Takaichi Is Likely to Be Japan’s Next Leader. Who Is She?
www.nytimes.com
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 3d
New #article from Becvarik et al: Community resilience to the health and wellbeing impacts of environmental and climate change: a review
TL;DR: need for further studies on health impacts and hazards to establish greater consensus on indicators
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 3d
New #article from Chowdhury et al: A Holistic Geospatial Framework for Assessing Disaster Resilience in Coastal Bangladesh
TL;DR: 62% of the coastal region fell into very low (15%) or low (47%) resilience categories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 3d
New #article from Zeno-Gonzalez et al: The Sancocho Recovery following Hurricane Maria: NGOs, weak government, and improvised responses in rural Puerto Rico

TL;DR: role of NGOs and faith-based organizations in accessing resources for disaster recovery

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 3d
New #article from Kamdem Burrows Feldman Daniels Jason and Downey: Social network access and growth: Building relational resilience for street crew-involved men through a community-based intervention
TL;DR: building bridging ties reduced arrests and shootings

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 5d
Our article with Timothy Fraser and Andrew Small: Connecting Social Capital and Vulnerability: Citation Network Analysis of Disaster Studies
TL;DR: most influential works in the field point to strong synergies between social capital and vulnerability research.
ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/...
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 5d
A picture with the label, To all of the haters that said this day would never come, and the image is of a piglet at the controls of a small plane
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 5d
The future is here, but unevenly distributed ht DOcelot1
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 5d
Tenure emerged from academic freedom disputes, but it is industry practice because it recruits and retains skilled knowledge workers. Leaving this out prevents scholars from withstanding attacks that seek to remake how academic labor is performed today. time.com/7320703/acad...
The Real History of Tenure
If academics want to protect the idea of tenure, they need to understand how and why it became the norm.
time.com
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 5d
Blame game: Education Department employees furloughed this week discovered their email accounts had been manipulated while they were out of office to include partisan talking points that blamed the government shutdown on Democrats www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
Education Department employees surprised to find their email automatically changed to blame Democrats for shutdown
Five furloughed employees told NBC News they had put up nonpartisan out-of-office messages, only to see they were changed — without their permission — to partisan ones.
www.nbcnews.com
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 5d
Stopping science: National Institutes of Health (NIH) is implementing a contingency staffing plan that will again roil a research apparatus that has already been heavily disrupted during the second Trump administration. www.fiercebiotech.com/research/nih...
NIH research grinds to a halt as government shuts down
As the U.S. | As the U.S. government shuts down due to a failure of Congress to pass a spending bill, the National Institutes of Health is implementing a contingency staffing plan that will again roil...
www.fiercebiotech.com
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 5d
Whistleblower doctor fired :
Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who was on administrative leave, alleged that the Trump administration had defied court orders and undermined vaccine research
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/h...
Kennedy Fires N.I.H. Scientist Who Filed Whistle-Blower Complaint
www.nytimes.com
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danielaldrich.bsky.social
Daniel Aldrich @danielaldrich.bsky.social · 5d
US coal industry is having a good year. Demand for the dirtiest fossil fuel is increasing, utilities are running their plants harder, and miners are boosting production www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
How Trump, Data Centers and Pricey Gas Are Fueling a US Coal Revival
The US coal industry is having a good year. Demand for the dirtiest fossil fuel is increasing, utilities are running their plants harder, and miners are boosting production.
www.bloomberg.com