Colombian President Gustavo Petro's full post ordering an increase of import tariffs on U.S. goods, says he doesn't really like traveling to the U.S. because it's “a bit boring” and invokes the ancestors

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 2y ago

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Colombian president orders increase of import tariffs on US goods in retaliation to similar order from President Trump.

I saw @lalamur.bsky.social's 2024 book list and read @alessandronai.bsky.social's Dark Politics before going back to thesis writing. The book was an absolute eye-opener. Even spent a few hours playing around the NEGex dataset he used to write the book. I definitely recommend it! Some cool ideas:

Been using the end of 2024 to read stuff beyond my field and figure out my future academic goals. One of the best things I have read is this ACX article on prisons. Really good introduction into why prisons are not cost-effective. www.astralcodexten.com/p/prison-and...

Prison And Crime: Much More Than You Wanted To Know

...

astralcodexten.com

This is another argument, if any were needed, for even stricter sanctions on the Russian economy and even more support for Ukraine. Only by making Russia pay a high price for its violations of international law can the West dissuade Putin from further aggression. bit.ly/40aUmjN

Opinion | Russia has a history of downing passenger planes — and covering it up

The track record tells you what Moscow’s word is worth on the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243.

bit.ly

Marking papers get exponentially depressing because of those who don’t write an answer good enough but not an answer bad enough. This also so happens to be the peak of the bell curve. Academics truly don’t get paid enough.

This graph from the @iea.org can be slightly misleading. Here's what it broadly shows: 1. Global coal consumption is rising. This is driven by the ASEAN, India and China's increasing use of coal. 2. The West (EU and the United States) are reducing their coal consumption. (1/5)

Shocked by the number of abstentions and some of the countries on the list. Went on to look for the resolution - attached here. Will include any official government statements I can find when I wake up tomorrow documents.un.org/doc/undoc/ge...

Tim White@twmcltd.bsky.social · 2y ago

The UN passed a resolution on human rights violations in the occupied parts of #Ukraine. For the first time during the war, the document accuses #Russia of a "war of aggression." It also calls on Russia to withdraw all its armed forces from Ukrainian territory.

This was my dissertation title two weeks ago. This is what the world looks like today. Maybe I should reevaluate my case study selection strategy

Met a key deadline yesterday and finally had the time to go back to reading fiction. Really enjoyed the short stories series by this year’s Nobel Prize winner Han Kang. Absolutely phenomenal how she comes up with these ideas.

As someone who spent the better half of his Christmas break researching Germany's geopolitical ambitions under Scholz for his dissertation, this is possibly the worst news I could ever receive.

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2y ago

Germany headed for snap election after Olaf Scholz loses confidence vote https://www.ft.com/content/39d8e496-ddd2-486d-9306-da699687ee9a

This feels insane, not just from a climate perspective but a state balance perspective. If states could shelter specific actors from the consequences of lawsuits, it gives certain groups insane amount of power.

Nick Cunningham@nickcunningham.bsky.social · 2y ago

UK gov agrees to compensate BP and Equinor for £8bn gas+CCS plant if environmental groups succeed in getting it blocked in court www.ft.com/content/9273...

Found this excellent video by @dwnewstoday.bsky.social on Chinese companies exploiting weak financial systems in Germany. Goes to show that research on climate finance should sometimes start with: does it even exist? youtu.be/aU_S97Ae1eg?...

How a small Chinese company tricked the German state | DW Investigation

YouTube video by DW Planet A

youtu.be

This shows promising signs that green financing strategies have been effective in becoming the market norm. Coal suppliers would now need protectionist measures to survive in the market, which would be political suicide in many countries (but somehow not the US).

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2y ago

Republican US states sue BlackRock for ‘destructive’ green agenda https://www.ft.com/content/dc34dffe-c92f-4743-8991-f0ec173d083b

Absolute must-read: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... We critically examine ten key hypotheses that form the foundations of mainstream economics. Each fails to satisfy one or more of the basic requirements of scientific practice.

1/ 📢 How Manufacturing Interests Dominated the German Response to the Energy Crisis Check out our new article with Anke Hassel and Martin Höpner, now open access in Politics and Society! 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/0032...

The industrial revolution represented a linearization of material and energy flows with the goal to overcome the low pace and density of biological, anti-entropic, (or more contemporary circular) transformations. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

On the Circular Bioeconomy and Decoupling: Implications for Sustainable Growth

This paper explores the existing confusion around the conceptual definitions and interpretations of the term circular bioeconomy. The co-existence of …

sciencedirect.com

Three takeaways concerning what happened at #COP29 concerning #gender and #climatechange by the Georgetown institute for Women, Peace and Security giwps.georgetown.edu/three-takeaw...

Three Takeaways from COP29

The stakes were high for advancing gender-responsive climate action going into the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) after gender negotiators received pushback on advancing the gender and climate age...

giwps.georgetown.edu

Watched this documentary when commuting today. Thoroughly eye-opening and impressive. While the message of the documentary is about corporations taking more responsibility for their waste, I think an equal argument can be made that we should be more conscious about unnecessary spending.

If Putin manages to make the WiFi in Cambridge slower than it already is I promise I will do everything in my power to end this conflict

Politics UK@politicsuk.com · 2y ago

🚨 NEW: Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden will claim Russia is prepared to launch cyber attacks on Britain that could 'turn out the lights for millions' at a NATO Conference on Monday www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

Procrastinating work to go boulder feels like a rite of passage into academia

I was going to quote it and explain it through a tweet but ended up writing a lot more than expected. I have attached a short opinion piece of my thoughts on this on an old blog of mine. TLDR: reduce the amount of classes but intensify the learning process. (1/n) open.substack.com/pub/yittythe...

The University Hive Mind

And why breaking out of it would require a revolution

open.substack.com

Every time I speak to my dissertation supervisor I get reminded why he has a PhD and why I don’t

Attended an event from one of the authors that inspired my undergraduate dissertation. Was a pleasure to listen to @amirleb.bsky.social speak about his new book. Key takeaway: The Global North are self interested in the green race, and developing countries should find alternatives to survive.

I’m making a similar argument for my research but it is worrying that the narrative around green transition is one of “self-interest”. It has severely affected how we view global climate financing, where we pursue self interested energy strategies instead of seeking regional integration.

The graph from Milanovic says a lot about global inequality. Asia’s growth, specifically China, closed a significant gap between the poorest and the richest. However, our focus on global inequality can no longer be on China, but the new global poor - India, Brazil, Africa

Attended a fantastic event with Clover Hogan, @paulbehrens.bsky.social, @rachgarr.bsky.social, and Dr Belinda Bell on climate activism. The space has a lot of potential to grow with many academics interested to engage, and we should be shifting away from “traditional” methods of activism.