David Higgins
@davidhiggins.bsky.social
Professor of Environmental Humanities at the University of Leeds, UK. Working on culture and environmental crisis. Writing a book about birds, loss, and restoration. Worried parent. Luddite. Opinions my own. Reposts ≠ endorsement.
Pinned
David Higgins
@davidhiggins.bsky.social
· Oct 17
The book I'm writing -- on bitterns, loss, and hope -- has for a while seemed impossible. Today it seems merely improbable. I'm counting that as progress!
Reposted by David Higgins
too tired for more of this fuckwittery
“She compares her work to the efforts of a parent raising a child. She’s training Claude to detect the difference between right and wrong while imbuing it with unique personality traits.”
This Philosopher Is Teaching AI to Have Morals
The tech company has entrusted the philosopher to endow its chatbot with a sense of right and wrong.
www.wsj.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:08 PM
too tired for more of this fuckwittery
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but … if you were an evil cabal trying to turn people into easily manipulable fucking idiots then aggressively pushing Gen AI would be a good place to start.
February 9, 2026 at 9:47 AM
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but … if you were an evil cabal trying to turn people into easily manipulable fucking idiots then aggressively pushing Gen AI would be a good place to start.
Reposted by David Higgins
After a meeting, I walked through this churchyard in Merton and it was like an ancient shipwreck, a towering tree for a mast, mouldering gloriously not under coral, but blister bursts of snowdrops and crocuses.
February 8, 2026 at 11:56 AM
The Leeds one-way system has absolutely destroyed me this afternoon. I may never drive again.
February 8, 2026 at 2:30 PM
The Leeds one-way system has absolutely destroyed me this afternoon. I may never drive again.
Fine array of snowdrops at the churchyard in Harewood this morning. Hawfinches didn’t show while I was there. But I did see the Iceland gull (lifer) at Roundhay Park earlier.
Needed some quiet birding this morning as I am currently at a very noisy trampoline park for a kids’ party...
Needed some quiet birding this morning as I am currently at a very noisy trampoline park for a kids’ party...
February 8, 2026 at 11:52 AM
Fine array of snowdrops at the churchyard in Harewood this morning. Hawfinches didn’t show while I was there. But I did see the Iceland gull (lifer) at Roundhay Park earlier.
Needed some quiet birding this morning as I am currently at a very noisy trampoline park for a kids’ party...
Needed some quiet birding this morning as I am currently at a very noisy trampoline park for a kids’ party...
Rachel Reeves’s POV as she faces the Final Boss who must be defeated to unleash economic growth.
Have I got newts for you?
Join our North of Scotland group for an online talk from Danny O’Brien, project lead for the UK’s most northerly Amphibian and Reptile Group.
📅 Date: Wednesday 11 February
⏰ Time: 7.30pm
Book your ticket 👉 buff.ly/3orVFrF
Join our North of Scotland group for an online talk from Danny O’Brien, project lead for the UK’s most northerly Amphibian and Reptile Group.
📅 Date: Wednesday 11 February
⏰ Time: 7.30pm
Book your ticket 👉 buff.ly/3orVFrF
February 7, 2026 at 8:38 AM
Rachel Reeves’s POV as she faces the Final Boss who must be defeated to unleash economic growth.
Dank and murky morning in Leeds, as per usual. Bird song building up though and local song thrush really going for it.
February 7, 2026 at 7:41 AM
Dank and murky morning in Leeds, as per usual. Bird song building up though and local song thrush really going for it.
Reposted by David Higgins
"we cannot begin to talk about freedom and justice in any culture if we are not talking about mass based literacy movements."
bell hooks 1997
we cannot begin to talk about freedom+justice in any culture now if we are not talking about mass de-literacy cognitive-incapacitating industries.
bell hooks 1997
we cannot begin to talk about freedom+justice in any culture now if we are not talking about mass de-literacy cognitive-incapacitating industries.
February 6, 2026 at 3:42 PM
"we cannot begin to talk about freedom and justice in any culture if we are not talking about mass based literacy movements."
bell hooks 1997
we cannot begin to talk about freedom+justice in any culture now if we are not talking about mass de-literacy cognitive-incapacitating industries.
bell hooks 1997
we cannot begin to talk about freedom+justice in any culture now if we are not talking about mass de-literacy cognitive-incapacitating industries.
Nice to get a year tick (peregrine falcon) from my office window just now.
February 6, 2026 at 10:49 AM
Nice to get a year tick (peregrine falcon) from my office window just now.
Reposted by David Higgins
Just had a polite, apologetic rant about the total global collapse in demand for electric vehicles.
I hope it is informative and entertaining.
llewellyn.substack.com/p/collapses-...
I hope it is informative and entertaining.
llewellyn.substack.com/p/collapses-...
Collapses and Plummets?
And a cold dose of reality
llewellyn.substack.com
February 4, 2026 at 12:02 PM
Just had a polite, apologetic rant about the total global collapse in demand for electric vehicles.
I hope it is informative and entertaining.
llewellyn.substack.com/p/collapses-...
I hope it is informative and entertaining.
llewellyn.substack.com/p/collapses-...
Reposted by David Higgins
I’m giving a talk on ‘The Ecology of Eely’ - the interlocking artistic, scientific, public and other contexts that informed and shaped the poem’s development - at the ‘Poetry’s Environments’ conference at the University of Leeds in June.
Somewhere in Tethys’ salty darkness,
in spurts of milt and billowing roe, eels
are birthing their posterity, a spore-storm of eggs
in uncountable centillions, each buoyed
on its micron of oil.
'Eely'
Steve Ely
A symphony in four movements
£2 off until midnight
longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
in spurts of milt and billowing roe, eels
are birthing their posterity, a spore-storm of eggs
in uncountable centillions, each buoyed
on its micron of oil.
'Eely'
Steve Ely
A symphony in four movements
£2 off until midnight
longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...
February 4, 2026 at 9:26 AM
I’m giving a talk on ‘The Ecology of Eely’ - the interlocking artistic, scientific, public and other contexts that informed and shaped the poem’s development - at the ‘Poetry’s Environments’ conference at the University of Leeds in June.
Reposted by David Higgins
#EnglishCreates: Futures
Our 'Environments' month continues with Prof Ralph Pite's latest piece on bringing nature into the teaching of English Studies:
'How can you make the natural world an everyday, "natural" presence for students?'
Full post: lnkd.in/ewQk7pDB
#EnglishStudies
#Ecocriticism
Our 'Environments' month continues with Prof Ralph Pite's latest piece on bringing nature into the teaching of English Studies:
'How can you make the natural world an everyday, "natural" presence for students?'
Full post: lnkd.in/ewQk7pDB
#EnglishStudies
#Ecocriticism
February 3, 2026 at 3:30 PM
#EnglishCreates: Futures
Our 'Environments' month continues with Prof Ralph Pite's latest piece on bringing nature into the teaching of English Studies:
'How can you make the natural world an everyday, "natural" presence for students?'
Full post: lnkd.in/ewQk7pDB
#EnglishStudies
#Ecocriticism
Our 'Environments' month continues with Prof Ralph Pite's latest piece on bringing nature into the teaching of English Studies:
'How can you make the natural world an everyday, "natural" presence for students?'
Full post: lnkd.in/ewQk7pDB
#EnglishStudies
#Ecocriticism
Reposted by David Higgins
Games Workshop: You get those drawings of the heroes of our brand new toy range?
Will Rees: Sure did boss, real fuckin disgusting just like you asked.
GW: what
Will Rees: Sure did boss, real fuckin disgusting just like you asked.
GW: what
February 2, 2026 at 6:48 PM
Games Workshop: You get those drawings of the heroes of our brand new toy range?
Will Rees: Sure did boss, real fuckin disgusting just like you asked.
GW: what
Will Rees: Sure did boss, real fuckin disgusting just like you asked.
GW: what
Saw some photos of my daughter at nursery in Jan 2021, being looked after by some lovely people wearing face masks. And it reminded me that many people were brilliant during the worst of Covid, and a few were selfish and greedy, and our government decided to collude with and enrich the latter.
February 3, 2026 at 12:36 PM
Saw some photos of my daughter at nursery in Jan 2021, being looked after by some lovely people wearing face masks. And it reminded me that many people were brilliant during the worst of Covid, and a few were selfish and greedy, and our government decided to collude with and enrich the latter.
The point has been made many times before, I know, but it's thoroughly grim that huge resources are going into chasing adolescent space fantasies, rather than addressing actual problems affecting actual people.
Say what you like about AOL and Time Warner, but they never promised their merger would make a sentient sun to understand the Universe.
www.spacex.com/updates#xai-...
www.spacex.com/updates#xai-...
February 3, 2026 at 9:44 AM
The point has been made many times before, I know, but it's thoroughly grim that huge resources are going into chasing adolescent space fantasies, rather than addressing actual problems affecting actual people.
Reposted by David Higgins
I know you've heard that a federal judge ordered the release of 5 year old Liam Conejo Arias and his father, and that they're now home.
But did you look at the judge's order?
It's less than 2.5 pages and well worth a minute. "Jesus wept."
Link to pdf: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
But did you look at the judge's order?
It's less than 2.5 pages and well worth a minute. "Jesus wept."
Link to pdf: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
February 2, 2026 at 7:11 PM
I know you've heard that a federal judge ordered the release of 5 year old Liam Conejo Arias and his father, and that they're now home.
But did you look at the judge's order?
It's less than 2.5 pages and well worth a minute. "Jesus wept."
Link to pdf: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
But did you look at the judge's order?
It's less than 2.5 pages and well worth a minute. "Jesus wept."
Link to pdf: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Enjoyable #UKbirding in a very wet (but not raining) Lower Derwent Valley yesterday. 66 species, including scaup, white-fronted geese, whooper swans, barn owl, and corn buntings. Lovely to hear singing skylarks for the first time this year, some swooping over the water. @ldvnnr.bsky.social
February 2, 2026 at 8:39 PM
Enjoyable #UKbirding in a very wet (but not raining) Lower Derwent Valley yesterday. 66 species, including scaup, white-fronted geese, whooper swans, barn owl, and corn buntings. Lovely to hear singing skylarks for the first time this year, some swooping over the water. @ldvnnr.bsky.social
Reposted by David Higgins
Pleased to contribute this weeks “Nature Notes” for the Wharfedale Naturalists - available online at www.wharfedale-nats.org.uk/nature-notes
Bird books before field guides.
From fantastic paintings but of exotic birds from the 19thC e.g. Cuban trogon by Elizabeth Gould…
#naturewriting
1/3
Bird books before field guides.
From fantastic paintings but of exotic birds from the 19thC e.g. Cuban trogon by Elizabeth Gould…
#naturewriting
1/3
February 1, 2026 at 5:13 PM
Pleased to contribute this weeks “Nature Notes” for the Wharfedale Naturalists - available online at www.wharfedale-nats.org.uk/nature-notes
Bird books before field guides.
From fantastic paintings but of exotic birds from the 19thC e.g. Cuban trogon by Elizabeth Gould…
#naturewriting
1/3
Bird books before field guides.
From fantastic paintings but of exotic birds from the 19thC e.g. Cuban trogon by Elizabeth Gould…
#naturewriting
1/3
Reposted by David Higgins
The tip of the proverbial iceberg. 147 hen harriers have gone missing or been illegally killed on grouse moors since 2018. It's a crime epidemic. Yet the perpetrator gets away with a trifling fine and the employer on whose behalf he committed the crime goes unscathed.
BREAKING: A Gamekeeper has pleaded guilty in England’s first-ever Hen Harrier persecution case.
Covert video and audio gathered lawfully by the RSPB Investigations team has helped expose the deliberate targeting of a Hen Harrier, leading to a landmark guilty plea:
www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... 👈
Covert video and audio gathered lawfully by the RSPB Investigations team has helped expose the deliberate targeting of a Hen Harrier, leading to a landmark guilty plea:
www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... 👈
January 30, 2026 at 8:58 AM
The tip of the proverbial iceberg. 147 hen harriers have gone missing or been illegally killed on grouse moors since 2018. It's a crime epidemic. Yet the perpetrator gets away with a trifling fine and the employer on whose behalf he committed the crime goes unscathed.
This morning’s shocking news: the sky is NOT GREY.
January 31, 2026 at 10:05 AM
This morning’s shocking news: the sky is NOT GREY.
Just completed and submitted an essay that's important to me. Been a real scrabble to find time to work on it, so am happy, whatever its fate!
January 30, 2026 at 1:28 PM
Just completed and submitted an essay that's important to me. Been a real scrabble to find time to work on it, so am happy, whatever its fate!
Reposted by David Higgins
There's still time to enter this year's Prize!
The deadline for entries is at midnight on Saturday 31 January
Good luck with your submission 🍃
#NatureChroniclesPrize #NatureWriting #NaturePrize #Booksky
📚💙
naturechroniclesprize.com
The deadline for entries is at midnight on Saturday 31 January
Good luck with your submission 🍃
#NatureChroniclesPrize #NatureWriting #NaturePrize #Booksky
📚💙
naturechroniclesprize.com
January 30, 2026 at 12:20 PM
There's still time to enter this year's Prize!
The deadline for entries is at midnight on Saturday 31 January
Good luck with your submission 🍃
#NatureChroniclesPrize #NatureWriting #NaturePrize #Booksky
📚💙
naturechroniclesprize.com
The deadline for entries is at midnight on Saturday 31 January
Good luck with your submission 🍃
#NatureChroniclesPrize #NatureWriting #NaturePrize #Booksky
📚💙
naturechroniclesprize.com
Reposted by David Higgins
Reposted by David Higgins
The same people who went after Karen Hao for a unit issue in her book are now going after Emily and I because we decided to explain neural networks to a mansplaining podcaster with little understanding of how they actually work.
January 29, 2026 at 6:53 PM
The same people who went after Karen Hao for a unit issue in her book are now going after Emily and I because we decided to explain neural networks to a mansplaining podcaster with little understanding of how they actually work.