Neil Pederson
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yellowbuckeye.bsky.social
Neil Pederson
@yellowbuckeye.bsky.social

I study old-growth forests and climate change from trees to regions and seasons to centuries. A colleague termed it RetroEcology - https://broadleafpapers.wordpress.com/

Love music in 3/4, 6/8, 5/4, 11, & other offbeat signatures (no real pun intended) .. more

Environmental science 60%
Geography 19%
I‘ve mentioned that thanks to the Epstein tranche I learned that one of my PhD advisors, Lee Smolin, continued to have contact with Epstein after 2007, which is not the impression I had

It’s weird to say the least for my professional past to become a public story that demands feminist analysis
Lee Smolin pauses working relationship with Perimeter Institute after being named in Epstein files
Lee Smolin has been asked to “pause” his work by the Perimeter Institute as they review ties to Jeffrey Epstein
www.therecord.com

Reposted by Neil Pederson

Taken last October. I remember it was blistering hot. Last summer was miserable.

#birds
#bluejay
#photography
#birdsofbluesky

Reposted by Neil Pederson

This is why electrification means more energy security:

In 2024, ~81% of EU electricity came from locally sourced fuels (57% excluding nuclear). Just 19% relied on imported fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels are mostly imported.

Source @ember-energy.org
“I’ve never protested before - but I just watched 4th & 5th grade kids run away from our own government.” 😕🇺🇸💔

(From @crindivisible.bsky.social )

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There are non US citizens influencing our elections, they’re called corporations.

The establishment wants us to not focus on this.
CCTV footage appears to show DHS agents posing as people having car trouble in order to lure a target out of his house before arresting them. The target comes out and starts helping them before 3 vehicles surround the scene. The car "experiencing" trouble then drives off with them.

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Kristi Noem: "When it gets to Election Day, we've been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country."
Today, the Trump administration repealed the endangerment finding: the ruling that served as the basis for limits on tailpipe emissions and power plant rules. Without it, we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change—all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.
WATCH: Trump, EPA's Zeldin announce end of scientific basis for U.S. action on climate change
The Trump administration on Thursday revoked a scientific finding that long has been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the most aggressiv...
www.pbs.org

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We now have a CDC grant tracker and are collecting information on CDC terminations. If your CDC grant was terminated, we need your help to gather data and documents! Please report!

grant-witness.us/submit-cdc.h...
Our new paper presents a framework for analysing the processes that generate novel ecosystems, discussing different conceptual and practical approaches across ecological disciplines. You can read it, open access, in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The making of novel ecosystems: A process‐based framework for measurement, analysis and application
Ecological novelty is emerging rapidly due to global change drivers such as climate shifts, species introductions, defaunation, and land-use transformation. These changes challenge how we assess, ...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Throwback to Pam Bondi’s campaign ad for Florida AG:

“I’ll fight to put human trafficking monsters where they belong. Behind bars.”

The ad aged. The internet remembers.
Epstein survivors raise their hands to signal they've been ignored by Trump's DOJ as AG Pam Bondi refuses to look at them

(Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty)
Patagonian wildfires show how denying climate change & pushing environmental destruction make the reality of climate change much worse. Threatening the destruction of trees that have been alive when the bronze age collapsed. @wwattribution.bsky.social www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-chan...

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A massive shout-out to all women and girls in science, you make science and the world better! www.unesco.org/en/articles/...
2026 International Day of Women and Girls in Science
Join UNESCO on 11 February 2026 for a global event celebrating women in science and shaping a future where science and gender equality advance together
www.unesco.org

We also contrasted the more southerly Sweet Birch with the more northerly Paper Birch. Other than growth rates, timing and other growth behaviors did not differ too much

Personally, I was excited to be a part of one of the first microcoring collections of Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata).

Their growth phenology is quite different than the other species, growing far later into the year than other species.

Begun before COVID, we had to cut our colllections to only one growing season and the start of a second season, so results are limited.

However, we collected across not only multiple species, we collected across a range of canopy positions and tree sizes. We found that influence stem phenology
An abbreviated microcore study of 6 contrasting tree species in the middle of a regional ecotone indicated that spring temps seem to control radial growth onset & southern tree species grew more than northern tree species

kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...
It was transforming the biggest NFL stage in the world into a sugar cane plantation that did it for me.

Like, the multiple layers of turning an American icon into a plantation and highlighting the history of exploitation of Black and Brown bodies by the NFL and American colonialism simultaneously?

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A federal judge ruled the Energy Department violated the law when Secretary Chris Wright handpicked five researchers who reject the scientific consensus on climate change to work in secret on a sweeping government report on global warming.
A Secret Panel to Question Climate Science Was Unlawful, Judge Rules
www.nytimes.com

Mirrors the grand conclusion of Vonnegut's novel, Galapagos

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My friend from HS makes ice cream/recipes for a living and posted for Black History Month about how pecans were first domesticated by an enslaved man and the technique for mass pollination of vanilla was developed by an enslaved man and someone was this mad about it!!!
Sweet Lo’s Homemade Ice Cream 🍦 (@sweetlosicecream) on Threads
Some Bozo hated my Butter Pecan origin story so much, he bought my French Vanilla Bean recipe and sent me a note via the website saying “White Power.” With the email he provided from his purchase, I f...
www.threads.com

Despite it all, our little town of Maynard, MA (Sunday, as you might have heard, it will be Mayenard), is growing our tree canopy. And, our diverse, climate forward downtown tree plantings are officially an arboretum

arbnet.org/morton-regis...
Downtown Arboretum of Maynard, MA - ArbNet
The Downtown Arboretum of Maynard is a community-based and volunteer-managed arboretum adorning the town’s public street scapes, civic spaces, and nearby municipal properties. Supported collaborativel...
arbnet.org
the Epstein files are really devastating because they remind me of how many girls and women miss out on professional opportunities, mentorship and careers because of how many powerful, rich and influential men only view girls and women — and interactions with them — through the lens of sex
wow -- with Trump standing behind him, a man (not sure who he is) offers this prayer: "We pray that he would be mindful of the poor and that he would be invested in the alleviation of suffering happening in the families preparing to bury their loved ones in Minneapolis."

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🧪🔭⚛️ PhD studentships at Newcastle in physics and astronomy. This is a really nice department and the students I met there seemed happy!

www.findaphd.com/phds/program...
FindAPhD : PhD Studentship in Astrophysics at Newcastle University at Newcastle University
Apply for a PhD: PhD Studentship in Astrophysics at Newcastle University at Newcastle University
www.findaphd.com

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Register for the Smithsonian's National Botanical Symposium, “American Botany: 250 years of Discovery” 29 May '26. I'll be speaking on American oaks, w/ several greats: @barbarathiers.bsky.social, Caroline Strömberg, Wes Knapp, & Rose Bear Don't Walk.

Join us!

naturalhistory.si.edu/research/bot...
Heads are going to explode 💥

Cato Institute just nuked the lie. Immigrants have cut U.S. deficits by $14.5 TRILLION since 1994, slashing the national debt by a third.

All that “immigrants are bleeding us dry” noise? Absolute bullshit.
1/3
I’m sharing Aliya’s entire opening statement. We owe it to her, and those who no longer have a voice, to watch. youtu.be/zrcW8SZtYpI?...
WATCH: Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen Aliya Rahman describes being detained by ICE
YouTube video by PBS NewsHour
youtu.be