Kyle Copas
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kylecopas.bsky.social
Kyle Copas
@kylecopas.bsky.social
580 followers 1.1K following 220 posts
Head of comms @GBIF.org, writer, poet, communicator, producer, husband, father. 💩posting about literature, music, biodiversity, sustainability, design, #biodiversity. Decolonization begins at home (and abroad), restoring Indigenous roots.
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kylecopas.bsky.social
During a brief pause in the action at #IPBES12 @phylojoe.bsky.social & I had the chance to welcome Ethiopia as @gbif.org's the newest participant! 🇪🇹 🎉

Tesfu Fekensa & his colleagues at #EBI are eager to get the national GBIF delegation and node that they host up and running #ForNature !
Three men standing together in the old Manchester Central train station that now serves as a large meeting space
February 6, 2026 at 10:53 AM
kylecopas.bsky.social
This image…two close associates of Jeffrey Epstein—convicted sex criminal Donald J Trump and disgraced pedophile and former British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson—enjoy a laugh together in the Oval Office in May 2025.

How can only one government will face consequences?
📸 Jim Watson/AFP/Getty
Two close associates of Jeffrey Epstein—on the right, convicted sex criminal Donald J Trump; on the left, a disgraced pedophile and former British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson—enjoy a laugh together in the Oval Office in May 2025. Photograph by Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
February 5, 2026 at 8:33 AM
kylecopas.bsky.social
So much for anyone striving to be fully human to savor and return to in this beautiful essay by @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social in my local paper for the week (thanks @theguardian.com !)
“There is no shortage of human beings. As with most problems with capitalism, there is only a distribution problem. The same industry that has done so much to undermine our relationships to self and others is pushing Al, in part by ignoring the possibility of other solutions, deeper social changes. It is a problem dressed up as a solution.” Rebecca Solnit
February 5, 2026 at 6:40 AM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Jim Harrison, savage sadhu.
After Ikkyū: 3 by Jim Harrison I've wasted too much moonlight. Breast beating. I'll waste no more moonlight, the moon bullied by clouds drifts west in her imponderable arc, snared for a half hour among the wet leaves in the birdbath.
February 1, 2026 at 7:52 AM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Louis MacNeice, Epitaph for Liberal Poets (1942)
If in the latter End-which is fairly soon-our way of life goes west And some shall sav So What and some What Matter, Ready under new names to exploit or be exploited. What, though better unsaid, would we have history say Of w who walked in our sleep and died on our Quest? We who always had, but never admitted, a master, Who were expected-and paid-to be ourselves, Conditioned to think freely, how can we Patch up our broken hearts and modes of thought in plaster And glorify in chromium-plated stories Those who shall supersede us and cannot need us— The tight-lipped technocratic Conquistadores? The Individual has died before; Catullus Went down young, gave place to those who were born old And more adaptable and were not even jealous Of his wild life and lyrics. Though our songs Were not so warm as his, our fate is no less cold. Such silence then before us, pinned against the wall, Why need we whine? There is no way out, the birds Will tell us nothing more; we shall vanish first, Yet leave behind us certain frozen words Which some day, though not certainly, may melt And, for a moment or two, accentuate a thirst.
January 27, 2026 at 6:30 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
In honor of a snowfall that’s sticking…

Louis MacNeice:
Snow The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was Spawning snow and pink roses against it Soundlessly collateral and incompatible: World is suddener than we fancy it. World is crazier and more of it than we think, Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion A tangerine and spit the pips and feel The drunkenness of things being various. And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes— On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one's hands— There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses. —Louis MacNeice
January 26, 2026 at 9:29 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, pearl jam, soundgarden, or Alice In Chains.
Album cover of Midnight Vultures by Beck
December 28, 2025 at 9:54 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Get a load of the new neighbors in Amerika Plads #Copenhell #Copenhagen
Sunset view toward the south in the harbor basin near Amerika Plads, Copenhagen
December 16, 2025 at 3:17 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
And Guantanamo is essential because…why?
www.wsj.com/world/americ...
In America, captured drug lords face a choice: Snitch or suffer. Under pressure from the Trump administration, Mexico turned over 55 imprisoned cartel leaders to U.S. authorities this year in two airlift operations kept secret until the planes crossed the border. The prisoners represent the top echelons of Mexico's biggest criminal organizations. Rival drug lords who had ordered the killing of thousands of each other's men sat side-by-side during the transfer. U.S. officials expect many of the prisoners will share firsthand knowledge about the operations of Mexico's underworld in the hopes of getting reduced sentences and more comfortable prison conditions.
December 4, 2025 at 4:32 AM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Look me in the eye,
then tell me
that I'm satisfied.
Are you satisfied?
Pope Leo at the mic
November 23, 2025 at 6:59 AM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Shot, chaser 😱
Screenshot of toot by Damian Carrington World still on track for catastrophic 2.6C temperature rise, report finds - Fossil fuel emissions to hit a record high in 2025 - Analyses also show worrying weakening of the planet's natural carbon sinks #COP30 #climatecrisis 个 Guardian World still on track for catastrophic 2.6C temperature rise, report finds Screenshot of toot from Business for Nature "Biodiversity is the new CO2" But many companies don't know where to start. Our It's Now for Nature Accelerators, like The Biodiversity Shift by @wwf.eu F and The Shift, guide businesses through developing credible nature strategies.
November 13, 2025 at 10:32 AM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Unexpected surprise last week, seeing a Camões sonnet in the São Paolo metro.
Soneto Quem vê, Senhora, claro e manifesto O lindo ser de vossos olhos belos, Se não perder a vista só em vê-los, Já não paga o que deve a vosso gesto. Este me parecia preço honesto; Mas eu, por de vantagem merecê-los, Dei mais a vida e alma por querê-los, Donde já não me fica mais de resto. Assi que a vida e alma e esperança, E tudo quanto tenho, tudo é vosso, E o proveito disso eu só o levo. Porque é tamanha bem-aventurança O dar-vos quanto tenho e quanto posso, Que, quanto mais vos pago, mais vos devo. —Camões (1524 - 1580) Whoever sees, Lady, clearly and manifestly The beautiful being of your lovely eyes, If they do not lose their sight just by seeing them, They no longer pay what they owe to your gesture. This seemed to me an honest price; But I, to deserve them more, Gave more my life and soul for wanting them, From which nothing more remains to me. Thus, life and soul and hope, And all that I have, all is yours, And the benefit of it I alone take. For it is such great bliss To give you all I have and all I can, That the more I pay you, the more I owe you.
November 9, 2025 at 3:09 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Sadly we HAVE been here before.

Melanie Cervantes, Ya Basta (2017). Now one of many amazing works showing in São Paolo at a #COP30-adjacent exhibit, Histórias da Ecologia (Histories of Ecology), at @maspdobsky.bsky.social .
Art print by Melanie Cervantes from 2017 with the headline that reads Ya Basta That’s Enough, above a mother holding a child and pointing defiantly above a caption that reads The U.S. government is abducting children and locking them in cages, while two figures labeled Border Patrol and Police Ice fall into a dumpster labeled Basura or Trash.
November 8, 2025 at 5:24 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Question for the #HoosierDiaspora of @bginchi.bsky.social @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social @mattseybold.bsky.social et al.: Is it just me, or is this an odd name and logo for a joint that, given its emphasis on “auténtica comida indiana,” must have a menu focused on catfish and pork tenderloins?
Sign for a (Southeast Asian) Indian restaurant in São Paolo, Brazil
November 8, 2025 at 12:01 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
TIL the only way to make this nugget of etymological wisdom from Eleanor Barraclough’s fascinating book, Embers of the Hands, more fitting would have been to read it yesterday, lordag.
…the importance of Saturday for bathing and washing is preserved in its Old Norse name, Laugardagr, which means 'bath day'. It's still there in the word for Saturday in all the languages of the Nordic world: Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, even borrowed into Finnish.
October 5, 2025 at 8:58 AM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Fond of the idea that the first female PM of #Japan shares her first name with a dear friend and teacher, #Sanae Tokizane, literary critic and scholar of #Faulkner and the epistolary form who left this Easter egg of an inscription in my copy of her book, Faulkner and/or Writing: On Absalom, Absalom!
Photo of handwritten note reading next a book by the notewriter: “To Kyle: / With the Compliments / Read it if you like or dont read it if you like. / Absalom, Absalom! / 9/18/89 Sanae”
October 4, 2025 at 9:28 AM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Re: "hot things can look cold": cf. García Márquez G (1967), ch.1:

"Aureliano, on the other hand, took a step forward and put his hand on it, withdrawing it immediately. 'It's boiling,' he exclaimed, startled.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY “‘Thinky think’ before ‘grabby grab’.” Nature has tapped into its global community of readers, writers, friends and colleagues to compile a list of 99 lab tips to help make scientists’ working lives better. One, sent in by a chemist who has been burnt before, is simple: hot things can look cold.
September 25, 2025 at 9:59 AM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Convenient development at @gbif.org as I pack for a flight Lenapehoking and #ClimateWeekNYC.

Not much time left to cram, though, so maybe stick to the highlights:
www.gbif.org/resource/sea...
Screenshot of landing page highlighting the more than 3,000 peer-reviewed research articles that use data from the GBIF network. Text reads: "Biodiversity loss and climate change interact in many ways, reflecting two sides of the same problem: humanity’s unsustainable relationship with the natural world. Explore the research relying on data from the GBIF network to understand and assess the growing impact that changing temperatures, precipitation and other climate-related phenomena are having on biodiversity."
September 20, 2025 at 10:34 AM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Hegseth’s Pentagon continues its stellar work on comms opsec: wapo.st/45Yk0vl
A National Guard official acknowledged the documents are authentic but downplayed their sensitivity, saying the assessments are intended for internal use and were inadvertently emailed to The Post last week. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing an unspecified policy. It is unclear how many people mistakenly received the documents.
September 10, 2025 at 2:43 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Nikolai Yezhov (right) was unavailable for comment.
Two photos of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin beside the Moscow Canal, the first including Nikolai Yezhov, the second with Yezhov erased.
August 1, 2025 at 2:29 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Congratulations, @gaia.eco on establishing a niche as a #reseller of #openData on #biodiversity from @gbif.org.

Why acknowledge the cow (or credit the community that cares for it) when you can charge scale-dependent pricing tiers for the milk?
screenshot of pricing tiers for a startup reselling scale-dependent access to open data on biodiversity without acknowledgement or attribution
July 25, 2025 at 1:39 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
This tracks, given that Marco Rubio himself seems at best a simulation of a human being…
Screenshot of Breaking News alert notification: A Marco Rubio impostor using Al has contacted three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor and a member of Congress
July 8, 2025 at 2:19 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Lawdy, lawd: can you imagine paying for #tradprof “culture” pieces like this from the @wsj.com ?

Should come with a complementary set of pearls to clutch at Hillsdale alumni events…
Mr. Conn's book (complete with 24 color reproductions of Sully's portraits) plays down those aspects of Philadelphia that earned it the nickname "Sin City" long before Las Vegas existed. In contrast to its aristocratic exterior, Philadelphia's street life was bawdy and unruly, with taverns and brothels to match. Even so, Mr. Conn's depiction is a welcome rejoinder to historians' recent habit of debunking America's achievements. Sully's Philadelphia added class and style to the nation's birth. Mr. Conn's book will be a useful guide to anyone hoping to catch a glimpse of the Liberty Bell during the semiquincentennial. -Mr. Hart teaches history at Hillsdale College and is the author of "Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant" (2021).
June 28, 2025 at 4:28 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
Samples from this week’s opportunistic harvests: opium poppy seedhead from Linnaeus’s garden in Uppsala, bread wheat from the margin of a nearby farm, and a raspberry-boysenberry cross from our backyard.

Sorry, I ate all the cherries picked along the way…
opium poppy seedhead, bread wheat, and a hybrid raspberry-boysenberry
June 27, 2025 at 3:48 PM
kylecopas.bsky.social
What species of pastry be these?
Linnaeus cookies
June 22, 2025 at 5:40 PM