Kate Littler
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palaeoclimate.bsky.social
Kate Littler
@palaeoclimate.bsky.social
2.9K followers 1.7K following 600 posts
Senior Lecturer in Palaeoclimate | Department of Earth & Environmental Science, University of Exeter (Cornwall) | Marine geology | Micropalaeontology | Geochemistry | IODP | Birding | Parenting small humans
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Reposted by Kate Littler
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
Ah yes, now I remember why I don’t go up north very often.

The crosscountry train from Durham to Cornwall takes 9 hours at the best of times, and today it’s over an hour late… the toilet door is broken… and the rainwater is literally coming in from the ceiling and dripping onto my seat.

👍👍👍
The empty biscuit packet I am currently using to catch the rainwater that is coming is from the ceiling of this train onto my seat. Classy.
November 11, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Kate Littler
guyshrubsole.bsky.social
China’s emissions have peaked, five years ahead of schedule. A moment of epochal importance.

bsky.app/profile/carb...
carbonbrief.org Carbon Brief @carbonbrief.org · 4d
NEW – Analysis: China’s CO2 emissions have now been flat or falling for 18 months | @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social

Read here: buff.ly/ONGzk3a
China’s CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and cement, million tonnes of CO2, rolling 12-month totals until September 2025. Source: Emissions are estimated from National Bureau of Statistics data on production of different fuels and cement, China Customs data on imports and exports and WIND Information data on changes in inventories, applying emissions factors from China’s latest national greenhouse gas emissions inventory and annual emissions factors per tonne of cement production until 2024. Sector breakdown of coal consumption is estimated using coal consumption data from WIND Information and electricity data from the National Energy Administration. The consumption of petrol, diesel and jet fuel is adjusted to match quarterly totals estimated by Sinopec.
November 11, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Reposted by Kate Littler
chadbourn.bsky.social
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage urging them to condemn Trump’s attack on the BBC.

“The BBC belongs to Britain, not Trump. We must defend it together.”
Rt Hon Sir Edward Davey MP HOUSE OF COMMONS LONDON SWIA OAA Rt. Hon. Keir Starmer MP Prime Minister Sent by email Monday 10 November 2025 Dear Prime Minister, President Trump's assault on the BBC is a serious threat to our national interest, and ! urge you to join me in standing up against it. The BBC belongs to everyone here in the United Kingdom. We should be incredibly proud that the UK is home to the world's number one source of trusted news - something that strengthens our democracy while also enhancing our power to uphold our values around the globe. As a public service broadcaster, the BBC has an important, distinctive and vibrant role to play in the UK's cultural and media landscape - helping to boost growth and create jobs. We cannot afford to let it be destroyed by Donald Trump and his allies. It should be extremely concerning to us all to see the President of the United States pressuring the BBC over its leadership and attacking its journalists as "corrupt", and his Press Secretary telling everyone to "watch GB News". It should not be up to foreign powers to dictate where the British people get their news from. We must stand united to defend our democracy from foreign interference like this - even when it comes from a crucial ally. The BBC's strength lies in its independence and impartiality. That has been eroded, and it is essential that, together, we urgently work to ensure that it is properly independent and strong enough to stand up to political pressure, whether foreign or domestic. The BBC must stay true to its original mission - to inform, educate and entertain - and not be bullied into giving undue prominence to the loudest, most divisive voices. We have watched with alarm as Trump and his allies have undermined the free press in the United States, and all the damage that has done to American democracy. We cannot let that happen here. Will you join me in condemning Donald Trump's attack on the BBC? As political leaders, we have a responsibility to protect one of our nation's most treasured institutions from becoming subservient to Donald Trump and his cronies, especially when their values are so far removed from the values of the British people. The BBC belongs to Britain, not Trump. We must defend it together. Yours sincerely, Suad Na Ed Davey Leader of the Liberal Democrats
November 10, 2025 at 3:15 PM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
Rounding off my ‘Northern Tour’ with a seminar in beautiful Durham.

Thanks for the joint hosting in Earth Sciences/Geography by @erinmcclimate.bsky.social and @grockesibl.bsky.social.

Lots of interesting discussions were had - I won’t leave it another decade next time!
Looking down the river wear from kingsgate bridge. Trees on either side. A beautiful yellow leaved tulip tree near the main library at Durham university. Blue sky behind. The frankly quite awe inspiring Durham cathedral. If there truly is a god, they must surely have been impressed with this one. A fancy brass door knocker on the front of Durham cathedral.
November 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
When people ask my favourite UK bird, I invariably say red kite.

Not only are they beautiful and impressive, their UK conservation success story is a rare example of hope in a world that can sometimes feel a bit hopeless.

I will never tire of seeing them soaring overhead upcountry.
November 9, 2025 at 1:35 PM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
“The team determined that 53% of zooplankton and 60% of micronekton, which feed on zooplankton, would be affected by mining waste discharge.”
November 9, 2025 at 1:14 PM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
Had a great visit to St Andrews this week to give a seminar on our Pliocene monsoon work. 🧪⚒️

So nice to sample #fifelife again!

Thanks to @mudwaterclimate.bsky.social @oceanicandrea.bsky.social
Sami Mikhail and Claire Cousins for hosting 😊

(Totally failed to get any photos together 🤦‍♀️).
Me on the Fife coastline near St Andrews. Smiley woman wearing a striped top and grey rucksack, and sporting borrowed binoculars, with a rocky and grassy coastline behind and blue skies.
November 7, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Kate Littler
profjacob.bsky.social
🚨🚨 The UK has become too dependent on #Musk and his Space X company for the success of its space programme, and must urgently seek greater independence from it in order to stop the “politicisation” of these services , a new Parliamentary report has warned. bylinetimes.com/2025/11/04/t...
The UK Must Urgently Distance Itself From Elon Musk and Space X, Warns Parliamentary Report
The UK's infrastructure has become far too reliant on the far-right billionaire, who could 'politicise' our reliance upon his companies, the report warns
bylinetimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:29 AM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
Having a very interesting time at the ECORD (scientific ocean drilling) week in Edinburgh.

Great to get updates on what’s going on with the programme and all the exciting developments with planned expeditions.

Lots of great stuff including open calls for exp participants!

iodp3.org

🧪⚒️
A view from the old town of Edinburgh up to castle rock with Edinburgh castle brooding on top. Houses in the foreground. Blue sky with clouds in the background.
November 4, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Kate Littler
geotraces.bsky.social
🌊 Postdoc Opportunity: Ocean Biogeochemical Modelling

Alessandro Tagliabue at the University of Liverpool is hiring a 3-year Postdoctoral Research Associate @altagliabue.bsky.social

🔗Details & apply www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPG117/p...

#Postdoc #Oceanography #Biogeochemistry #AcademicJobs #ScienceJobs
November 3, 2025 at 2:38 PM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
Crikey, this is a damming exposé of Chinese state interference in UK universities.

This is what happens when you make universities’ entire bottom line rest on recruitment of international students 😬

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
Sheffield Hallam University apologises to Professor Laura Murphy for restricting her academic freedom.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Reposted by Kate Littler
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
ERC starter grant applications from US researchers nearly triple in 2025 compared to 2024 as Trump restricts funding. Good for "Choose Europe" initiatives, but dire for global and national science, given the limited volume of non-US funding available.
Trump’s university backlash drives US researchers towards Europe
EU grant applications hit record in 2025 amid surge in interest from American academics
www.ft.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Reposted by Kate Littler
thierryaaron.bsky.social
I've finally got around to curating a selection of films about the #climate crisis 🎥

There's lot of mediocre climate films out there, but for me these stand out head & shoulders above the rest 🎞️

They make excellent resources for classrooms, lecture halls, or community cinema's 🎬

Thread:🧵Plz RT
November 1, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Kate Littler
drtels.bsky.social
Here's a map of UK fire activity in 2025.
2025 was a record year for both number of fires and burnt area in the UK, according to the satellite record.
Data from EFFIS, based on MODIS and Sentinel observations.
🔥#ukwildfires #wildfires
October 29, 2025 at 4:14 PM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
This is sad but doesn’t surprise me.

Yes it’s urbanisation but also household wealth.

If you live in the city/ town and don’t have much disposable income and a car, how are you supposed to access ‘nature’?

Urban parks, nature reserves, school grounds, and gardens are so important.

🌱 🌳
jmbecologist.bsky.social James Bullock @jmbecologist.bsky.social · 12d
“Although Britain is believed to have one of the highest levels of membership of environmental organisations in the world,

this apparently pro-nature indicator was found to have little impact on closeness to nature”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Britain one of least ‘nature-connected’ nations in world – with Nepal the most
Others languishing near bottom of 61-country study include Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan and Spain
www.theguardian.com
November 2, 2025 at 11:33 AM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
This is pretty cool science 😎❄️
icy-pete.bsky.social Dr. Peter Neff @icy-pete.bsky.social · 17d
PNAS: Six-million-year-old ice discovered in Antarctica offers unprecedented window into a warmer Earth via our NSF COLDEX & US Antarctic Program. ❄️ www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
November 1, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Kate Littler
weatherwest.bsky.social
I wanted to offer some thoughts on the Gates climate memo that has been circulating this week. While I can't directly speak for others, I can say that my own response is one of dismay & deep frustration (and that this view is shared by many climate/Earth scientists). [1/n]
October 30, 2025 at 5:02 PM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
Cornwall has a few small but precious patches of ancient woodlands, in what is otherwise a very low tree cover county.

Clearly a mast year for the oaks with acorns everywhere!

Some really interesting galls on the oak leaves too, made by various species of gall wasp.
Oak apple galls on a brown oak leaf. Gall is round, smooth and speckled pink with a slightly spongy texture. About the size of my thumbnail. Tons of brown acorns on the forest floor. I think this is a mixture of two types of oak galls on a brown oak leaf. The flatter ones look like spangle galls and the donut shaped ones are silk button galls, both made by different species of gall wasp as part of their complex life cycle. A stream running through this patch of ancient woods. A fragment of Atlantic rainforest preserved in a coastal ravine that was evidently too steep to farm. Saved by geography, and latterly the Woodland Trust.
October 28, 2025 at 8:31 AM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
Thoroughly enjoying checking out the spectacular folded and overturned Carboniferous-aged turbidities near Millook Haven on the NE Cornish coast.

Lovely sedimentary structures - graded bedding, slumps, load casts, flutes, all subsequently squeezed into tight chevron folds ::chef’s kiss::

⚒️🧪🌍
Tight chevron folding in the cliffs near Millook Haven. Lighter beds are more competent sandstones while darker strata are mudstones. Pale sandstones and darker mudstones in alternating turbidite sequence. Beds are overturned with younging to the right. Lumpy texture on right-hand sandstone bed are load casts where the denser sand sunk down into the less dense mudstone underneath. Eroded flame structures visible. Red rucksack for scale. View from the cliff looking down onto the foreshore. Clear bedding is visible with a tight plunging synform on the left and a tight plunging antiform on the right. Grey skies and sea behind. Evidence of soft sediment deformation, with contorted slumped bedding. Darker discontinuous mudstone strata within the paler sandstone in the centre, and vice versa to the right.
October 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Kate Littler
carlschleussner.bsky.social
Really important paper led by my @iiasa.ac.at colleague Alex Nauels www.nature.com/articles/s41...
“The difference between decisive climate action today and continued high emissions is not just measured in degrees of warming but also in meters of sea-level rise” 👏👏👏
Multi-century global and regional sea-level rise commitments from cumulative greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades - Nature Climate Change
It is important to understand how much long-term sea-level rise is already committed due to historical and near-term emissions. Here the authors use a modelling framework to show how decisions on glob...
www.nature.com
October 24, 2025 at 10:40 AM
palaeoclimate.bsky.social
Lord help us (cos this government sure as hell aren’t going to).

UK HE needs root and branch reform (with a small ‘R’), and all we got was sticking-plaster-tuition-fee rises, and empty words.

Further significant job loses and department closures are inevitable.
gsoh31.bsky.social Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 21d
So I've been reading the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper. There's some good things in there. But when it comes to universities there's very little to cheer. The situation is very tough and will get worse. The last chance to preserve what we've got has passed. Let me explain why. (1/?)
October 24, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Kate Littler
stephencollins.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Another tough interview for Nigel Farage: the Stephen Collins cartoon
There are lots of parties that aren’t Reform UK operating ‘under the radar’
www.theguardian.com
October 24, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Kate Littler
ruthmottram.bsky.social
The incredible tragedy for #ArcticScience of NOAA shutting down their #methane monitoring data. 5th May 2025 is the last data we'll ever get.
#NCKF25
October 24, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by Kate Littler
alisonstenning.bsky.social
“persisting with an inadequate fees-led model of higher education, in which universities are run as competing businesses funded by student consumers, is producing a dystopian academic landscape”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on campus discontent: listen to those on the frontline | Editorial
Editorial: The government’s funding plans, announced in this week’s white paper, won’t do much to alleviate a deepening crisis of morale among university staff
www.theguardian.com
October 23, 2025 at 10:56 AM