Prof Phoebe Barnard
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phoebebarnard.bsky.social
Prof Phoebe Barnard
@phoebebarnard.bsky.social
The world doesn't have to be this way. Climate & biodiversity science, risk &resilience, societal/planetary futures. Prof Univ Washington; research assoc African Climate & Development Initiative/ Fitztitute, UCapeTown, building global futures collaborative
Pinned
Nature is still by far the only real #CDR game in town. If we want a future, science & our documentary series #TheClimateRestorers all confirm we must invest labor& funds massively in Nature conservation, restoration, & education. Why? A five-part 🧵

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Africa’s forests transformed from carbon sink to carbon source, study finds
Alarming shift since 2010 means planet’s three main rainforest regions now contribute to climate breakdown
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Prof Phoebe Barnard
Hard hitting piece by @rupertread.bsky.social on the dangers of “climate optimism” - at least 30 years of failure to take the threat seriously has led to multiplying risks and locked-in harm and suffering @climatemajority.bsky.social
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
December 30, 2025 at 8:03 PM
At this rate, the future for these babies when they’re my age is somewhere between a pretty significant risk of 3.6-4.4•C hotter and increasing risk of a turbulent arrival of increasing cold conditions and perilous food security with the weakening of the AMOC.

Thanks @andyscollick.bsky.social 🫤
When these babies are 60 years' old, on 1st Jan 2086, the world will on average likely be at least 1.6-1.8°C hotter, possibly 3.6-4.4°C hotter, and probably 2.1-3.2°C hotter than the pre-industrial baseline (1850-1900) compared to 1.4°C now. Higher across much of Europe.

A much more extreme world.
As the clock struck midnight last night, Ireland's first babies of the New Year were making their way into the world.
January 1, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Prof Phoebe Barnard
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
December 31, 2025 at 12:34 PM
“The ocean breathes carbon into the atmosphere.

The atmosphere weeps rain onto the land.

Plants drink light, exhale oxygen.

…We’re in church, not a science classroom.”

Beautiful, powerful, lyrical speech by @lgraumlich.bsky.social
Pass it on. Respond together.

open.substack.com/pub/lisagrau...
THIN PLACES: CLIMATE CHANGE AND SEEING EARTH WHOLE
Published on the winter solstice, 2025 - a thin time for reflection and turning.
open.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 1:08 AM
In my teens I was a wannabe Keith Jarrett or Chick Corea, if without talent. So like almost everyone whose parents had a TV set in the 1970s, I grew up loving Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas. Great version below!
Tx @georgewachsmuth.bsky.social
December 26, 2025 at 9:32 PM
substack.com/@damiani/not...

This couldn’t be more true or more important. Build trust. Build community. Make friends. Look out for each other. Discuss, debate, be humans. The simplest, best act of resistance in a world where autocrats want us at each other’s throats. Tx @jessedamiani.bsky.social
Jesse Damiani (@damiani)
This is the simplest action you can take as a form of resistance. And it really, really matters. 🎥 @/themacadamien on Instagram
substack.com
December 23, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Seriously? Well, it works. But really ….
#sciencecomms 🧪

www.facebook.com/share/v/1HFz...
December 23, 2025 at 8:30 PM
How much more clearly can we state this?
December 23, 2025 at 11:31 AM
As a planetary/biodiversity scientist and longtime strategist against hyperconsumption I always find the consumerist nature of holidays discouraging. Helping countries like #UK with climate adaptation helps everyone focus on preparing positively for the challenges we face ahead. Please sign & share.
This time of year, we tend to consume more than usual. Help us begin to offset holiday overconsumption by signing our petition and helping us get to 10k by January 1st! Every signature counts, so please share the link around.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...
December 23, 2025 at 6:37 AM
“To understand the impact this is having, our team of science editors in the U.S. reached out to their authors to reflect on how 2025 has affected their work. ‘This year nearly broke me as a scientist,’ one explained.”
- @theconversation.com

theconversationglobal.cmail20.com/t/r-e-tkddhu...
Wars real and metaphorical dominated 2025
theconversationglobal.cmail20.com
December 21, 2025 at 3:19 PM
My hometown of Mount Vernon, Washington - although I’ve left there for a while - is an outstanding example of local leadership, community collaboration and preparedness. open.substack.com/pub/revkin/p...

Thank you Andy @revkin.bsky.social
In Yet Another Atmospheric River Assault, What "Broke the Pacific Northwest's Plumbing"?
I propose it was broken a long time ago and, sure, climate change is likely contributing to epic rains there now.
open.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Remember that we take important decisions for the viability of our future every time we choose to disparage or encourage.

Thank you to the always incisive and wonderful #RebeccaSolnit and Elise Buckle ✨

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Paris climate treaty changed the world. Here’s how | Rebecca Solnit
There’s much more to do, but we should be encouraged by the progress we have made
www.theguardian.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Prof Phoebe Barnard
I came here to post this as I can't believe it doesn't already have 10,000 signatures - please sign and share! So vital and so utterly crazy that this has to be petitioned for. #climatesky
December 16, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Yes, we need to stop our lazy practice of dismissing progress as not enough and focus on what we are doing and can do, faster, more comprehensively. These are everything-everywhere-all-at-once moments. See for example Emmanuel Macron in France: a paragon. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/f...
December 15, 2025 at 5:35 AM
“A very public rupture in a long running alliance is of course, a major geopolitical moment. Still, EU institutions dig their own graves when it comes to (new) policies (on food, climate+environment) that would ensure EU’s ability to survive+thrive in the long run.”
open.substack.com/pub/thinink/...
Are you there, a coherent EU policy?
It’s me, a conscientious consumer.
open.substack.com
December 13, 2025 at 12:27 PM
This arises from one of the most remarkable national social change movements. And such movements must be near-universal if humanity is to run the gauntlet of the next centuries. Please sign if you’re a UK citizen or resident.
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Thanks @clonalantibody.bsky.social
Petition: Fund a National Climate Resilience Plan: protect communities from climate impact
From floods to extreme temperatures, climate impacts risk damaging homes, health, businesses, services, and the economy. We want Government to prioritise adaptation; fund a new Resilience Plan that wo...
petition.parliament.uk
December 11, 2025 at 8:22 AM
I was about to post about this, but already see a scattering of posts in the last 3 hours. Fantastiskt initiativ, låt det sprida sig vidare. Fantastic initiative. Let it spread far and wide. www.climatenobelprize.org
December 11, 2025 at 8:13 AM
My small garden in the former old-growth forests of Washington, felled 70-150 years ago to clear land for (colonial) human settlements, had eight giant stumps of trees like these. I kept them there, of course, to honor these "forest ghosts." Beautiful, tragic oases. #STOP
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Why was 'incredible' giant cedar cut down, despite B.C.'s big-tree protection law? | CBC News
Conservationists are questioning why an old-growth yellow cedar tree with a diameter that should have ensured its protection and a buffer area around it under provincial law was logged.
www.cbc.ca
December 9, 2025 at 3:26 PM
It's astonishing to me still that govts and media so willfully allow lobbyists to erode their responsibilities to people, planet and future.

@nebriefing.bsky.social
Olivia Williams's powerful reading of an open letter to Sir Keir Starmer and the national broadcasters calling for a televised emergency briefing. Full version here: www.youtube.com/@nebriefing

Please add your name: www.nebriefing.org/open-letter-...
#NEB2025 #TimeToStepUp
December 7, 2025 at 9:57 PM
1. When we first started talking about 'critical national infrastructure' while working at S African National Biodiversity Institute, I thought 'how ugly a term.' But when you think about Nature in all her connections, interdependencies, webs & corridors, she really is a gossamer infrastructure.🧵
Prof Nathalie Seddon, Director of @naturebasedsols.bsky.social, spoke at the UK’s first @nebriefing.bsky.social on the climate and nature crises. Addressing over a thousand leaders, she pushed for nature to be treated as core to policy - essential for resilience and a safe, thriving society ⬇️
December 7, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Oh, how our hearts ache for this kind of news.

Thanks @badgeristbj.bsky.social
December 7, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Trump et al turn on everyone they don't like, without any knowledge, insight, or even economic data - like Somali Americans (kstp.com/kstp-news/to...).

And, being Trump et al, also without reservation, respect for the law or human decency. See donation orgs under @zaynabmmohamed.bsky.social 's post
December 6, 2025 at 1:31 PM