James Bullock
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jmbecologist.bsky.social
James Bullock
@jmbecologist.bsky.social

Applied ecologist working on the ecological emergency

Studying ecosystem restoration, rewilding, dispersal, spatial ecology, ecosystem services, agro-ecology, global change. Views are my own & personal/unofficial

Environmental science 56%
Agriculture 16%
Pinned
PhD opportunity!

Focusing on ecological processes offers an adaptive approach to conservation at a time of rapid environmental change

But how do we measure & conserve these processes?

This PhD will explore the use of species traits to assess ecosystem condition
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
www.findaphd.com

Reposted by James M. Bullock

“80% of [food experts] thought there was likely to be civil unrest due to food crises in the UK in the next 50 years.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Wednesday briefing: What your Christmas cranberries reveal about the climate crisis
In today’s newsletter: Extreme weather and fragile supply chains are pushing up food costs – and raising fears of instability
www.theguardian.com

Yes, colonialism by all & every country was criminal

Colonialism should be recognised as such, & certainly not glorified by its perpetrators

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Algeria's parliament approves law declaring France's colonisation a crime
Lawmakers unanimously approve a law, which demands an apology and reparations from the former colonial power.
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by James M. Bullock

This is worth watching. It reminds me of the claim that DDT was "so safe you could drink it." Yet another example of industry recycling refuted claims. @kaurov.org @michaelscherer.bsky.social @davidho.bsky.social

> www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovKw...
>
Lobbyist Claims Monsanto's Roundup Is Safe To Drink, Freaks Out When Offered A Glass
YouTube video by Panteralandia
www.youtube.com

Reposted by James M. Bullock

Enjoying that holiday poinsettia? They come to our homes thanks to workers like "Ana" who water, fertilize & individually sleeve each plant to ensure they don’t snap or break during transportation. "We cover our hands and arms as the sap is known to cause irritation." #WeFeedYou

Cast your mind back about 150 years when artists worried that photography would ‘kill’ painting

It didn’t of course; it shook things up by creating new ideas and opportunities

Maybe AI will do the same for art & science

Reposted by James M. Bullock

🎄✨ This Christmas Eve, we’re sending love, hope and solidarity from all of us at XR Wimborne.
Let’s unite for the future, for our communities, our planet and generations to come.

Happy Xmas ❤️ Love, XR Wimborne

Reposted by James M. Bullock

I highly recommend the videos on ocean currents by Jonathan Sharples, Professor of Oceanography at the University of Liverpool.

Here he covers the AMOC:
youtu.be/eZzpvLz4yAk
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning
YouTube video by OceanClimateAtUoL
youtu.be

Reposted by James M. Bullock

The Ghost of Christmas Future has a message for Keir Starmer.

Alexei Sayle brings you his alternative Christmas message from the streets where Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol.

“scepticism of climate science has largely disappeared from the media, but criticism of the policies required to tackle climate change is pervasive

net zero risks being reframed – no longer the solution to climate change, but part of a green culture war”

theconversation.com/we-analysed-...
We analysed 73,000 articles and found the UK media is divorcing ‘climate change’ from net zero
Articles on net zero used to always explain the scientific background. But not anymore.
theconversation.com

Here’s wishing that in 2026 the UK public start focusing on climate action as the priority

rather than obsessing distastefully about a few migrants
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
2025 likely to be UK's hottest year on record, says Met Office
The Met Office says that 2025 is likely to be the UK's hottest year since records began.
www.bbc.co.uk

Gotta be Apocalypse Now Redux. Ruins a great film

Nope, it’s not acceptable for dog walkers to allow their dogs to “chase rabbits, hares, deer and foxes”

Farage showing that despite the image he tries to cultivate, he has no idea of what is normal behaviour in the countryside
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Boiling lobsters alive to be banned in UK animal cruelty crackdown
Move is part of a long-awaited Labour strategy including outlawing hen cages and ending puppy farming
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Julie L. Lockwood

Our @bes-cascade.bsky.social survey of ecologists asked which socio-political changes might be most effective in the biodiversity & climate crises

Broad-scale transformative changes were most selected

Biodiversity or carbon credits, use of AI, & de-extinction were each selected in <1% of responses

My concern with AI is not that it might wipe out humankind or that it will reduce our cognitive abilities

I have a more proximate concern

that it is sucking up large chunks of public sector research funding,

driven by the growth agenda

“In the short & long term, more [biodiversity] indicators are deteriorating or not changing than improving, highlighting ongoing pressures”

While some moan about bad news, good news stories about small successes really need to be set against the reality of nature loss
www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...
Biodiversity Indicators 2025 published
Scientists at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) have played a key role in shaping the UK Biodiversity Indicators 2025 through their analyses of trends in animal and plant species.
www.ceh.ac.uk

I do agree!

Reposted by Ricardo Rocha

“Hares are shot… because some landowners believe the countryside is overpopulated with the animals”

Yet “hare populations have declined by 80% over the past century”

Another example of why ‘stakeholder opinion’ should be treated warily by conservation ecologists
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Shooting hares in England to be banned for most of the year
Exclusive: Ministers also expected to announce trail-hunting ban in sweeping changes to animal welfare law
www.theguardian.com

A rare southern location for Sporran-wort I think 🤔

Reposted by James M. Bullock

Last month's cyclone in Sumatra brought such extreme rainfall it caused extensive landslides even in intact forests

Yet another way ecosystems can't cope with the new world imposed on them

www.preprints.org/manuscript/2...
:)

Not inevitable, at all

Apart from a few academics I know
Lovely water shrew. Britain’s only venomous mammal. Having fun in the rain.

They knew I was the author, but still felt they had to explain it to me!

Experienced the joy of having one of my papers mansplained to me this week

Both are low likelihood, and the latter is high impact

Reposted by Wolfgang Crämer

Important study of ‘high-impact low-likelihood’ or ‘worst-case’ climate scenarios

“The impacts of climate change could plausibly be much worse than conventionally assessed”
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
High‐Impact Low‐Likelihood Climate Scenarios for Risk Assessment in the UK
We present two sets of high-impact low-likelihood climate scenarios for the UK, designed for risk assessment and complementing conventional climate scenarios One set describes “worst-case” change...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Not much different from the negative framing I presented, but well collate feedback & report

We’ll collate feedback & report!