John (Jack) Williams
@iceageecologist.bsky.social
790 followers 680 following 28 posts
Climate change ecologist, paleoecologist, biogeographer, open data scientist. Prof. at UW-Madison, co-leader of Neotoma Paleoecology Database www.neotomadb.org Fearless sifter and winnower. All posts my own.
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Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
jamesagillies.bsky.social
No matter what history teaches us about the dire consequences of unconstrained hubris there is always some idiot who comes along and proclaims, “Hey! I’ve had this really neat idea.”
nicrawlencenz.bsky.social
Check out this great article in the US magazine Slate by their Dunedin based reporter about why the moa should not be brought back from extinction. slate.com/technology/2...
Those De-Extinct Dire Wolves Were a Warning. Well, the Next Phase Is Coming.
It involves a giant flightless bird.
slate.com
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
kovanhuissteden.bsky.social
Trump zet steeds meer stappen om onafhankelijke wetenschap de nek om te draaien.
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
ethanwhite.weecology.org
Interested in helping out with one of the most innovative, grassroots, publishing efforts around? The Journal of Open Source Software (@joss-openjournals.bsky.social) is looking for editors. We conduct collaborative checklist-based peer review of research software using GitHub issues.
Call for editors | Journal of Open Source Software Blog
Blog for the Journal of Open Source Software • <a href='https://joss.theoj.org'>https://joss.theoj.org</a>
blog.joss.theoj.org
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
hausfath.bsky.social
2025 has seen the second warmest first half of the year on record after 2024 – and is on track to be the second or third warmest year since records began in 1850. My latest State of the Climate report over at Carbon Brief: www.carbonbrief.org/...
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
thirstygecko.bsky.social
I hope a journalist on the climate beat will report on this - this may be only one piece of the general awfulness that is happening to federal science, but the NOAA Climate and Global Change Fellowship has trained many of the current leaders in weather and climate: cpaess.ucar.edu/cgc/current-...
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
davidho.bsky.social
Good news! Trump sought to eliminate NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), which would have led to the closure of NOAA Research Labs. Among other important climate research, this would have meant eliminating the Keeling Curve.

The Senate Appropriations Committee said no!

bit.ly/3TShZKk
NOAA OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH
The Committee's recommendation provides $657,053,000 for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. OAR programs provide environmental research and technology needed to improve
NOAA weather forecasts, climate predictions, and marine services.
To accomplish these goals, OAR supports a network of scientists in its Federal research laboratories, universities, and joint institutes and partnership programs.
The budget request proposes eliminating OAR, potentially terminating many of its programs and transferring others to operational
NOAA line offices, such as the National Weather Service and NOS While the Committee could be open to realigning some programs to enhance operational outcomes, the absence of detailed plans hinders informed decision-making. Consequently, the Committee maintains funding
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
napaaqtuk.bsky.social
I'm back home with my dad and have thoughts about being an Indigenous scientist and academic. I'm writing this in real time so it might get disrupted and will have typos.

I am fairly successful by academic standards. I have a tenure track job, wrote papers, have grant funding, mentor students.
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
colincarlson.bsky.social
Lately I keep having to choose between open access and paying my staff's salaries. It would be nice... not to have to do that.
carlsonlab.bsky.social
In a few weeks, we'll be publishing the finding that [redacted] people die every year because of climate change, equivalent to a loss of $[redacted]T USD, every year.

Here's what it costs us to open that publication to you. We have no federal grants for that work, and can't apply for them.
$12,690 OA fees for Nature Climate Change
iceageecologist.bsky.social
Two good #AGU2025 sessions about vegetation-climate interactions and past ecosystems... abstracts due July 30!
PP019: Modeling and Reconstructing Vegetation-Climate Interactions in the Past.
PP026: Paleoecological Perspectives on Past Climates
Section: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
iceybethan.bsky.social
Hi folks. I’m doing a panel. Hit me with your best networking tips for your academic career. Conference or meeting networking, professional networking - give me your best tips for ECRs and I’ll pass them forward for my panel!
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
evcurvefuturist.com
Even in oil country, the energy shift is undeniable. In just 6 yrs, Texas (ERCOT) flipped its midday grid from gas-heavy to solar-dominant—with wind & batteries now key players. This isn’t theory. It’s reality. Even in a red state, the sun shines & change wins. Yellow = progress.⚡☀️ #EnergyTransition
electricfelix.bsky.social
@johnarnoldfndtn.bsky.social:
"Good illustration of how much the Texas grid has changed in just 6 years.
yellow = solar; purple = batteries; dark green = wind; blue = gas; brown = coal; light green = nuke"

#alwaysbecharging nitter.net/JohnArnoldFn...
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
sarahweinman.com
Very sorry to learn that Martin Cruz Smith, author of the incomparable Arkady Renko series, has died. My deepest condolences to his family, including @luisacruz.bsky.social.

His final book, HOTEL UKRAINE, was published earlier this month and was a fitting send-off to the series.
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
voosen.me
Senate appropriators showed today they are *not* down with Trump's proposed budget cuts for NASA and NSF. (Likely NOAA too, but can't say for 100% yet.)

Long way to go to a law. But this is rare good news for scientists this year.

www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
greatlakespecktwo.bsky.social
Things are looking DRY out west, especially in the Colorado and Rio Grande river basins. The Missouri too. This is megadrought country, and it's a HOT megadrought (since 1999) thanks to climate change.
droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/S...
iceageecologist.bsky.social
My new favorite conference activity: themed fossil stamps of conference swag! Kudos to @vojtechabraham.bsky.social for this fun activity.
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
asherelbein.bsky.social
From 1939-41, the WPA funded a massive Texas paleontology survey. I wrote about some of my favorite discoveries from its archives. Field crews behaving badly! Landowner nightmares! The creation of a creationist myth! Someone unexpected accidentally joins the Manhattan Project!

It's HEAT DEATH!
🧪🦖
Dug Up Treasures
Fast times and paleontological headaches from the archives of the Texas WPA
heat-death.ghost.io
iceageecologist.bsky.social
Excited to see (and be part of) this conceptual framework now published about the ecoevolutionary acclimation of ecosystems to climate change, across a range of timescales. Really nice press release here: www.ecosystemscience.ca/news/bridgin...
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
bobkopp.net
20. Furlough of @unidata.bsky.social (May 9, 2025)
drjeffmasters.bsky.social
NSF-supported Unidata announced that almost their entire staff will be furloughed as of today. This is a huge threat to weather education and research at universities--Unidata provides crucial realtime data feeds of weather data, including satellite, radar, and observations.
pppapin.bsky.social
This is a seismic gut punch to the weather enterprise.

It is impossible to overstate how important @unidata.bsky.social is in implementing many datasets/libraries (LDM, netCDF, THREDDS, metPy) we currently use in meteorological research & operations.

www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/e...
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
jackdashby.bsky.social
Well this is exciting! Here's an interview I did for @nature.com about #NaturesMemory - talking about how natural history #museums can help save the world, as the best evidence we have for understanding environmental change, plus colonial legacies, male bias, and more:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘Natural history museums can save the world’: anti-colonialism, conservation and climate change
Zoologist Jack Ashby explains why it’s vital to invest in protecting specimens stored in scientific collections.
www.nature.com
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams
greenwoodbritt.bsky.social
Well this is f’in sad #ASMicrobe
An empty booth at ASM that should have housed the NSF
Reposted by John (Jack) Williams