Paul Robbins
@earthfutures.bsky.social
Dean, Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
In an introductory geography course I used to teach, I included map quizzes. I was often told these were silly, wrote memory, and a waste of time. 25 years later, I am vindictated. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference
State department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazil
theguardian.com
My old friend and colleague Jo Sharp (Geographer Royal, no less) has co-authored a novel with her partner, novelist Val McDermid. This should be good! www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
‘We’ve always been wary of working together’: Val McDermid and Jo Sharp on writing a novel as a couple
The bestselling crime writer and Scotland’s first female Geographer Royal had long kept their work separate, until a chance discovery about a doomed 17th-century expedition forced them to collaborate
theguardian.com
Madison, Wisconsin, home of the modern spelling of ecology.
Land acknowledgments that reinstitute "ownership" and that disguise inaction do more harm than good. Silence is not an option either, of course. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/o...
Opinion | I’m Native American. Land Acknowledgments Are Infuriating. (Gift Article)
Conservatives who critique land acknowledgments aren’t acting in good faith, but they do have a point.
nytimes.com
Peter Brooks' film adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare's performance of Peter Weiss' "Marat/Sade" is unflaggingly brave and wildly effective. The best "musical" of the 20th century? Probably. youtu.be/Sdeg5j8UMxA?...
Marat Sade Trailer
YouTube video by marquisdesadecensor
youtu.be
An argument for a Parliament of Things. "Biodiversity is far too important an issue to be steered at once by the chaotic whims of Silicon Valley, the legal battles waged by environmental nonprofits, and the old, sclerotic levers of government bureaucracy." www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...
Why the controversy over de-extinction risks missing the point
Efforts to revive the thylacine and woolly mammoth are forcing conservationists to face a long-overdue debate over what kind of natural world we want to build
scientificamerican.com
Visma came ZIPPING by yesterday. Vingegaard picked up 12 seconds or so, partly on the back of a very disciplined team.
The #TourDeFrance is going to have to consider earlier start times (9AM?) next year, no matter the TV revenue questions. Cancellations (and dropping riders) will cost them much more. Its not too bad here in Barcelona, but France is boiling right now. www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
Tour de France braced for historic stage cancellations amid 44C European heatwave
‘It’s something very much on our mind,’ said Thierry Gouvenou, the Tour’s technical director, with extreme weather likely to affect the peloton on Sunday
theguardian.com
Here's a solid primer on the nuclear innovation cycle. The DOE's Reactor Pilot Program is functioning (surprisingy?) well. It will be some time before commercial rollout of next gen, however. www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/from-paper...
From Paper to Real-Life Reactors: The Holistic View of the Reactor Pilot Program
250 years later, the American nuclear experiment continues
breakthroughjournal.org
Ecological restoration in Dehli is urgent and welcome (Neltuma juliflora - formerly Prosopis juliflora has always been impressively stubborn). But, like all such efforts, you can get it wrong. That seems to be the case here. india.mongabay.com/2026/07/delh...
Delhi witnesses a travesty of ecological restoration [Commentary]
Ongoing activities in Delhi's Central Ridge, undertaken in the name of restoration, may ultimately hinder ecological recovery.
india.mongabay.com
KEY: "It is now de rigueur for federal judges to “do history” via originialsm or textualism. But the craft of history involves years of reading and immersing oneself in the secondary and primary literature, which a law degree doesn’t train for and the haste of writing an opinion does not allow."
Anna O. Law@unlawfulentries.bsky.social · last mo.This is my lane. I went through the 194 Trump v Barbara opinion from yesterday section by section, noting what they got right about US migration and citizenship history, and what the dissents get wrong. Please share if you think it is helpful to others.
Today, we officially launch the College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence at #UWMadison. We look forward to responsibly advancing education, research and innovation in ways that benefit the public, expand opportunity and create lasting impact for Wisconsin and beyond. On, Wisconsin!
The future is now: College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence officially launches
UW–Madison’s first new college in more than four decades will explore and inform technological change for societal benefit.
news.wisc.edu
Q&A with Shadrach Kerwillain and Gregg Mitman (@uwmadison.bsky.social) after a screening of thier truly remarkable film"Overburden", here at the exciting @pollenetwork.bsky.social meeting.
Paul Robbins@earthfutures.bsky.social · last mo.Just saw a profoundly beautiful and complex film: "Overburden", followed by Q&A with some of the film-makers. Some of the most spellbinding and thoughtful political ecology I've seen in years. overburdenfilm.com/about-overbu...
This film, "Overburden" is one you might want to actually see, @tednordhaus.bsky.social . A meaningful, critical diologue with ecomodernism wisely lacking villains, but with a few dogged heroes. Modernity, conservation and developmemt are all rife with truly important, and interesting contraditions.
Paul Robbins@earthfutures.bsky.social · last mo.Just saw a profoundly beautiful and complex film: "Overburden", followed by Q&A with some of the film-makers. Some of the most spellbinding and thoughtful political ecology I've seen in years. overburdenfilm.com/about-overbu...
Just saw a profoundly beautiful and complex film: "Overburden", followed by Q&A with some of the film-makers. Some of the most spellbinding and thoughtful political ecology I've seen in years. overburdenfilm.com/about-overbu...
About Overburden - the film- Cast and Crew
OVERBURDEN tells a powerful story of resilience and transformation in a landscape shaped by industry yet alive with possibility. Through vivid cinematography and deeply rooted storytelling, the film f...
overburdenfilm.com
Important if unsurprising. Carbon forestry may advance climate goals, but is neutral or bad for ecological integrity. Reviewing two centuries of plantation forestry would tell you this. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ecological integrity of avoided deforestation projects - Nature Climate Change
The authors assess 133 avoided deforestation projects for their ability to safeguard forest ecological integrity. While some projects maintain integrity, most show variable outcomes, with mixed, negli...
nature.com
Climate Change 🤝 Cycling. (though: really director of the Vuelta?) www.cyclingnews.com/pro-cycling/... #climatechange #cycling #TourdeFrance
What could the future of the Tour de France look like as summer temperatures continue to rise?
The summer cycling season has yet to feel the consequences of rising temperatures, but it seems like it's only a matter of time before races are affected
cyclingnews.com
The strange day has come where I appreciate the moral genius of Peter Drucker (!): "The role of the manager is not to plan what others do, or merely to implement the plans of others, but to exercise human judgment within a moral setting to integrate social activity"
Henry Farrell@himself.bsky.social · 2mo agomy favourite example of this (not mentioned in this piece but a plausible implication of it) are the AI Can Replace Middle Management cultists www.programmablemutter.com/p/ai-isnt-ma...
The amazing @h229.bsky.social's dissertation defense today was an outstanding immersion into the understudied question of collective land conservation in the US. Only a deep understanding of land and people could yield what we learned! As articles from the work emerge, I will post them here.
hilary hh, PhD 🇵🇸@h229.bsky.social · 2mo agoThank you to my co-advisors @earthfutures.bsky.social and Jenna Loyd, my committee members Ken Keefover-Ring and Elisabeth Middleton Manning!
Our latest issue of "The Commons", covers the theme of "fire" this month. We may not have entered the Pyrocene, but fire is having its day, for sure. nelson.wisc.edu/the-commons/
The Commons Magazine | Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
The Commons is the flagship publication for alumni and friends of UW–Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
nelson.wisc.edu
Is correlation causation? In this provocative article, we find that correlation is in fact correlated, and conclude that this means causation.
“You have to understand, when I was coming up in the ’40s, these fires were talked about in an almost entirely negative context, and I was just a dumb cub echoing the conventional thinking of the time,” said Smokey Bear
Smokey Bear Claims Views On Wildfires Have Evolved
WASHINGTON—Admitting that his prior beliefs regarding conflagrations had been formed out of ignorance, longtime U.S. Forest Service icon Smokey Bear issued a statement Monday claiming that his views o...
theonion.com
Celebration capitalism in action: socialize the costs & privatize the benefits. In Canada, Vancouver & Toronto are paying for 13 World Cup matches with more than $1 billion in public money. There was never a public referendum on this. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
Vancouver, Toronto pay for World Cup with public money as U.S. host cities tap private sponsors
It’s expected to cost around $380-million to host six games in Toronto, while hosting costs could top $700-million in Vancouver
theglobeandmail.com
It seems unlikely, indeed insane, that a 58-year old "critical" academic scholar could have lived his entire career without reading Eric Williams' monumental "Capitalism and Slavery", but there you have it. Remediating myself now, with my reading group.
I ranked movie corridors! (and didn't once write the word "liminal") This was a lot of fun.
The 20 best corridors in film – ranked!
Ahead of the release of Backrooms, we invite you to lose yourself in our list of the most terrifying – and most inviting – hallway scenes in cinema
theguardian.com
"The Paris Commune ended in the early afternoon of May 28th 1871, but its legacy lives on." Considerations 155 years later... www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/t...
The Paris Commune remains alive
The Paris Commune ended in the early afternoon of May 28th 1871, but its legacy lives on. In Quentin Deluermoz's newly translated history of the commune, he shows how the Paris Commune reverberated ar...
versobooks.com
