Scholar

John W. Williams

H-index: 69
Environmental science 45%
Geology 17%
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
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
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/...
jacquelyngill.bsky.social
Firings are happening right now at the National Science Foundation. Essential staff are being cut.

This isn’t about the budget. If it was, they’d be going after the military (17%) or state appropriations (38%). NSF is 0.7% of the federal budget. All federal employees make up only 4% of the budget.
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
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

Reposted by: John W. 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.
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 W. 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 W. 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 W. Williams

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...
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
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 W. 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.
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 W. 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

Reposted by: John W. 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 W. Williams

malwaretech.com
It’s basically the meme where people replace the audio with squeaky shoe sound effects to mock boring parties
jessedjenkins.com
This IEA graphic shows how global sales of electric vehicles & improved efficiency of combustion vehicles (eg hybrids) is slashing growth in global oil demand. Use in road transport has peaked & likely to soon post annual declines. Aviation & petro-chemical feedstocks only drivers of growth now.🔌💡🔌🚗
IEA data shows global demand growth for oil has been eliminated for road transport and is declining for aviation and shipping and is now negative for other sources. Additional demand growth remains in aviation and as petro-chemical feedstocks.

Reposted by: John W. Williams

drshepherd2013.bsky.social
This is one the most authentic, frustrating, and alarming inside looks at what pressure, cuts and "forced" retirement have done to a critical National Weather Service forecast office. Worth a read to illustrate what many of us have been saying
www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...
Tired in Tornado Alley
A crucial National Weather Service office, battered by cuts, is trying to put on a brave face as tornado season peaks.
www.nbcnews.com

Reposted by: John W. Williams

gfiske.bsky.social
Taking a quick peek at firesmoke.ca/data/ ... things are heating up.
iceageecologist.bsky.social
Science saves lives in a changing world
rob-marchant.bsky.social
Amazing, shocking and powerful insights of what happens when a mountain collapses with a potent mix of ice and rock.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...
It really emphasises the challenges of living in high mountains and the need for mountain research and informed management
@mtnresearchmri.bsky.social
Swiss glacier collapse: How the village of Blatten was wiped off the map - BBC News
Nine million cubic metres of rock and ice came crashing down on Blatten after a landslide.
www.bbc.co.uk

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