Jacek Debiec, MD, PhD, DPhil 🌎 🧠
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drjacekdebiec.bsky.social
Jacek Debiec, MD, PhD, DPhil 🌎 🧠
@drjacekdebiec.bsky.social
Psychiatrist. Researcher of Fear and Memory. Author.

#PlanetaryHealth, #BrainHealth and #MentalHealth

Visit my website: https://www.greatlakespsychiatryandpsychotherapy.com/about
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There was a lot of #AcademicFreedom, good scholarship, and independent thought in German universities before Hitler. After Hitler had risen to power, many academics fled the country. Some resisted the Nazi regime and were persecuted. Most adapted to a new situation. Here are some examples. 1/n
Reposted by Jacek Debiec, MD, PhD, DPhil 🌎 🧠
"When these places are lost it changes us at our core... But if each of us dwells in nihilism and despair then we cannot do anything... If we cannot use anger to fuel us but in a way that is driven by love and compassion, then what are we here for?"

#ClimateSky
In a letter to a friend today - a woman who also feels deeply - I decided to link this brief 2024 #film with me by #MichaelRaimondo.

"We are human if we can love. And we need to keep hold of that love now more than ever. Everything we know and love is at stake."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZny...
The Secret to Emotional Freedom? Feel Everything
YouTube video by Reflections of Life
www.youtube.com
January 3, 2026 at 1:58 PM
"When these places are lost it changes us at our core... But if each of us dwells in nihilism and despair then we cannot do anything... If we cannot use anger to fuel us but in a way that is driven by love and compassion, then what are we here for?"

#ClimateSky
In a letter to a friend today - a woman who also feels deeply - I decided to link this brief 2024 #film with me by #MichaelRaimondo.

"We are human if we can love. And we need to keep hold of that love now more than ever. Everything we know and love is at stake."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZny...
The Secret to Emotional Freedom? Feel Everything
YouTube video by Reflections of Life
www.youtube.com
January 3, 2026 at 1:58 PM
"Epistemia: a structural situation in which linguistic plausibility substitutes for epistemic evaluation, producing the feeling of knowing without the labor of judgment."

osf.io/preprints/ps...
January 3, 2026 at 2:49 AM
"We should admit that widely-mandated climate optimism has been actively harmful to the needful acknowledgement of reality – and to the active collective self-protection that we now desperately need to get serious about making happen."

#ClimateSky

www.resilience.org/stories/2025...
The end of 2025 must be the end of the inane rule of climate ‘optimism’
We should admit that widely-mandated climate optimism has been actively harmful to the needful acknowledgement of reality - and to the active collective self-protection that we now desperately need to...
www.resilience.org
January 3, 2026 at 12:53 AM
Amazon Is Shifting Into a 'Hypertropical' State Unseen For Millions of Years

"If we're just going to emit greenhouse gases as much as we want, without any control, then we're going to create this hypertropical climate sooner."

www.sciencealert.com/amazon-is-sh...
Amazon Is Shifting Into a 'Hypertropical' State Unseen For Millions of Years
A new study of the Amazon rainforest has found the region is shifting toward a 'hypertropical' state as droughts become longer, hotter, and more frequent.
www.sciencealert.com
January 3, 2026 at 12:30 AM
"We’re...living through...the planet’s sixth mass extinction. Unlike earlier events triggered by natural catastrophes, today’s accelerating losses are overwhelmingly driven by human activities... With every extinction, we lose not just a species but a treasure..."
theconversation.com/with-every-e...
With every extinction, we lose not just a species but a treasure trove of knowledge
Every new extinction ripples out beyond the affected species, from ecosystems to human knowledge across culture, spirituality and science.
theconversation.com
January 3, 2026 at 12:27 AM
“My children have no memories of the winter I grew up with.”

“I can handle it being hot. But when you can’t get water, that’s something else completely.”

“We can’t plant in the fall like we used to. The plants dry up and die.”

“I do feel a sense of loss...”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
How the climate crisis showed up in Americans’ lives this year: ‘The shift has been swift and stark’
Guardian US readers share how global heating and biodiversity loss affected their lives in ways that don’t always make the headlines
www.theguardian.com
January 3, 2026 at 12:25 AM
Wildfire smoke is a national crisis, and it’s worse than you think.

"Emissions of greenhouse gases and airborne particles from wildfires globally may be 70% higher than once believed.. Canada’s wildfires in 2023 significantly worsened childhood asthma across the border"

grist.org/health/wildf...
Wildfire smoke is a national crisis, and it's worse than you think
Greenhouse gas and particulate emissions from fires around the world may be 70 percent higher than once believed.
grist.org
January 2, 2026 at 6:08 PM
"French ban on the production and sale of cosmetics and most clothing containing polluting and health-threatening 'forever chemicals' goes into force on Thursday..A handful of US states..implemented a ban on the intentional use of PFAS in cosmetics beginning in 2025"
www.france24.com/en/live-news...
French ban on ‘forever chemicals' in cosmetics and clothes to enter into force
A French ban on the production and sale of PFAS chemicals – known as 'forever chemicals' as it takes them so long to break down – comes into effect on Thursday. The ban targets a wide range of cosmeti...
www.france24.com
December 31, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Avoiding plastic bottles is good for your #health and #planetaryhealth

"People ingest an average of 39,000 to 52,000 microplastic particles per year from food and..water.. Those who use bottled water on a daily basis ingest nearly 90,000 more microplastic particles."
www.wired.com/story/people...
People Who Drink Bottled Water on a Daily Basis Ingest 90,000 More Microplastic Particles Each Year
Drinking water in plastic bottles contains countless particles too small to see. New research finds that people who drink water from them on a daily basis ingest far more microplastics than those who ...
www.wired.com
December 30, 2025 at 10:12 PM
"More than half of the average diet consists of ultra-processed foods.., such as ready meals, fast food and fizzy drinks... Ultra-processed foods filled with preservatives, additives and flavour enhancers have been linked to an increased risk of lung cancer."
www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...
Lung cancer warning for foods which make up ‘half the average diet’
A study linked ultra-processed foods to 32 harmful health effects including a higher risk of heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, adverse mental health and early death
www.independent.co.uk
December 29, 2025 at 5:53 AM
"The US economy is pumped up on tech-bro vanity. The inevitable correction must prompt a global conversation about intelligent machines, regulation, and risk."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
When the AI bubble bursts, humans will finally have their chance to take back control | Rafael Behr
The US economy is pumped up on tech-bro vanity. The inevitable correction should prompt a global conversation, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
www.theguardian.com
December 26, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Can anything or anyone stop humans from collective self-destruction?

#ClimateSky

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Republicans aim to exempt major polluters from Pfas cleanup costs
Water treatment and landfill companies given chance to make case that EPA rules should not apply to them
www.theguardian.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Jacek Debiec, MD, PhD, DPhil 🌎 🧠
Philosophy has abandoned staying focused on asking critical questions.

"It is clear now to everyone that the suicide of civilization is in progress ... How did this come about?... The decisive element in the production of this result was philosophy’s renunciation of her duty." - Albert Schweitzer
December 1, 2023 at 1:44 PM
"The right cardiac vagus nerve emerges as a true guardian of cardiomyocyte health, helping to preserve the longevity of the heart independently of heart rate... preserving bilateral cardiac vagal innervation [in cardiac surgeries] is an anti-aging factor."

#MedSky
medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12...
Heart-brain connection: International study reveals role of vagus nerve in keeping the heart young
The secret to a healthier and "younger" heart lies in the vagus nerve. A recent study coordinated by the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa and published in Science Translational Medicine ha...
medicalxpress.com
December 24, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by Jacek Debiec, MD, PhD, DPhil 🌎 🧠
The neurobiology of #dehumanisation:

"Interpersonal dehumanization might act as a proactive empathy regulation strategy... Brain networks associated with mental state inference...might be used as an indicator of interpersonal dehumanization..."

#NeuroSky
#PsychSky

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
April 17, 2025 at 10:48 PM
"Serial (8 twice-weekly) adjunctive #ketamine infusions were not more effective than serial midazolam infusions in reducing depressive symptoms in inpatients receiving usual psychiatric care."

And midazolam is not even an antidepressant.. or will it be rebranded now?
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Serial Ketamine Infusions for Depression
This randomized clinical trial evaluates outcomes following adjunctive ketamine infusions vs midazolam for depression.
jamanetwork.com
December 23, 2025 at 4:15 AM
"The biggest danger..is the growing perception, fueled by the ubiquity of large language models, that knowledge is cheap..easy.. The most useful lesson the humanities have to offer..is a profoundly countercultural one: Difficulty is good, an end in its own right."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Stop Trying to Make the Humanities ‘Relevant’
For humanities departments to continue to matter, they must challenge the modern world rather than accommodate it.
www.theatlantic.com
December 20, 2025 at 10:12 PM
"New reporting ...on data centers’ effects on the Great Lakes — the largest freshwater reserves in the world — spotlights concerns that new data center buildouts are leading to lower-than-average water levels throughout the region."

#ClimateSky

futurism.com/science-ener...
Furious Residents Say AI Data Centers Are Sucking Up the Great Lakes
The rise in data center buildouts coincides with below-average water levels in the great lakes, highlighting the need for more transparency.
futurism.com
December 20, 2025 at 4:18 PM
You cannot stop it, America, really?

"White House official Russ Vought said the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is a source of 'climate alarmism' and will be broken up..Closure of US institute will do immense harm to climate research"
#ClimateSky
www.newscientist.com/article/2509...
Closure of US institute will do immense harm to climate research
The National Center for Atmospheric Research has played a leading role in providing data, modelling and supercomputing to researchers around the world – but the Trump administration is set to shut it ...
www.newscientist.com
December 20, 2025 at 4:30 AM
"The uncritical and naive adoption of #AI has made us more credulous and sapped our critical thinking at the precise moment we should be on guard against its evolving harms. In fact, someone may be toiling away on a (real) study of that phenomenon right now."

#AcademicSky
December 19, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Where are those who said #AI would solve the #climatecrisis?

"AI created as much carbon pollution this year as New York City and guzzled up as much water as people consume globally in water bottles, according to new estimates."

#ClimateSky

www.theverge.com/news/845831/...
AI’s water and electricity use soars in 2025
It’s guzzling up even more water than expected.
www.theverge.com
December 19, 2025 at 2:53 AM
"The life instinct...strives to preserve life and create, but is ultimately intertwined with and even subservient to the powerful, underlying drive toward cessation..."

- Sigmund Freud
Czechia’s new interim environment minister, Petr Macinka, scrapped the ministry's climate protection section, saying the department needs to be “de-ideologized."
Czech climate policy gutted by minister who vowed ‘green blood will run’
The new government plans to rewrite Czechia’s green rules.
www.politico.eu
December 18, 2025 at 9:38 PM