Lisa H. Sideris
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lsideris.bsky.social
Lisa H. Sideris
@lsideris.bsky.social
Professor of Environmental Studies, UC Santa Barbara; bird-lover (not a birder), lifelong wonderer, Midwestern transplant to the Best Coast, curmudgeon.

Environmental ethics, science and religion https://es.ucsb.edu/people/lisa-sideris
If you've not been following the destruction of Indiana University (largely from within), here's the latest. As an alum, three times over, and former faculty member, I'm disgusted and enraged by the current administration's determination to erase every proud IU legacy, including this newspaper.
Indiana University has fired the staff director of the student newspaper, after disputes in which university leadership tried to pressure him to prevent students from publishing news.
October 16, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Is climate change a religion? Here's my latest OpEd in #TheHill on the EPA's pathetic attempt to dodge science and overturn the #EndangermentFinding. #OpEdProject #PublicVoicesFellowship thehill.com/opinion/ener...
thehill.com
August 23, 2025 at 4:09 PM
This special issue Religion in Extractive Zones is now complete with the publication of the editors' lead essay this week (Terra Rowe, Christiana Zenner, myself). All articles OPEN ACCESS w/no contributor publishing fees. Begin with our intro & lead essay. Enjoy & please share! www.mdpi.com/3370286
www.mdpi.com
June 29, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Here's my piece in The Hill this morning about the connection between the weakening of endangered species legislation and the flawed logic of de-extinction. #de-extinction; #direwolf thehill.com/opinion/ener...
thehill.com
June 8, 2025 at 4:18 PM
The most accurate headline to date. Colossal researchers should hang their heads in shame, especially Miss Duplicitous Beth Shapiro. www.newscientist.com/article/2481...
Colossal scientist now admits they haven’t really made dire wolves
Despite a huge media fanfare in which Colossal Biosciences claimed to have resurrected the extinct dire wolf, the company's chief scientist now concedes that the animals are merely modified grey wolve...
www.newscientist.com
May 22, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Lisa H. Sideris
We once hoped planetary challenges like the climate & Covid would unite national leaders to build responsible global governance.

Instead we're seeing nationalists ally with technologists for short-term gain, Boris Shoshitaishvili & @lsideris.bsky.social argue.

#planetary #politics #nationalism
The New Planetary Nationalism | NOEMA
The realization of human embeddedness in Earth’s natural systems does not inevitably create a cosmopolitan politics oriented toward universal well-being.
www.noemamag.com
May 13, 2025 at 7:13 PM
This conversation in response to UVa scholar Willis Jenkins' work will take place this Friday 4/25 at 2 (EST), open to the public. Zoom link and text (to read in advance) posted below. Promises to be great conversation!
April 23, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Offering this as a tribute (in Spanish and English) to Francis on this sad day. Never has this world needed him so much. He saw the divine light of wonder in nature and humans alike. That's why evangelicals hate and fear him.
ojs.uc.cl/index.php/ve...
Vista de La maravilla en un mundo incierto
ojs.uc.cl
April 21, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Brilliant analysis of the endtimes fascism, billionaire prepperism and abject cruelty that currently defines American politics. These insights will surprise you, unless you happen to be a religion scholar. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
The rise of end times fascism | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor
The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them
www.theguardian.com
April 14, 2025 at 4:17 AM
This tweet illustrates precisely the "moral hazard" point that I argued in my recent op-ed on de-extinction. Witness sec of interior Doug ("drill, baby, drill") Burgam's move to weaken endangered species legislation in light of the dire-wolf so-called de-extinction.
April 9, 2025 at 7:29 PM
My first piece as a 2025 Public Voices Fellow

Bringing back the mammoth won’t fix the future
#opedproject #publicvoicesfellowship #deextinction

yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/04/brin...
Bringing back the mammoth won’t fix the future » Yale Climate Connections
De-extinction is a techno-fantasy that distracts from the real work of protecting our planet.
yaleclimateconnections.org
April 2, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Lisa H. Sideris
“There’s an order of operations in which we need to implement climate solutions,” said Daniel Jasper, the policy director for the climate solutions nonprofit Project Drawdown. “Methane is something we call an emergency brake, because we’ve got to do it now.” grist.org/politics/tru...
Trump repeals America's first-ever tax on greenhouse gases before it goes into effect
The methane fee would have had the same impact as taking 8 million gas-powered cars off the road.
grist.org
March 19, 2025 at 3:29 AM
With the absurdity that is "de-extinction" in the news again today, after "woolly mice" were needlessly created (so close to a mammoth! better luck next time, bros ) I am sharing herewith some of my reflections on the ethics of this wasteful practice and the impoverishment of wonder as coolness.
March 4, 2025 at 7:15 PM
UCSB Environmental Studies postdoc extraordinaire Amanda Nichols in the news for her work on nuclear technologies, gender, and health justice
@amanda-m-nichols.bsky.social
@issrnc.bsky.social news.ucsb.edu/2025/021780/...
Girls and women disproportionately harmed by nuclear radiation
Pulling from 60 years of data post-World War II, a report co-authored by environmental studies researcher Amanda Nichols finds that nuclear radiation disproportionately harms girls and women
news.ucsb.edu
March 4, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Proudly flying the maple leaf, chez nous.
February 27, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by Lisa H. Sideris
I truly think people don’t realize how many universities and colleges — especially public ones — may shut down if restrictions on and withholding of federal funding persists for even one presidency

We are facing the demolition of American higher education
February 22, 2025 at 6:36 PM
It's genuinely difficult to feel happy or hopeful about anything in the world right now. But I did feel some of those things when I wrote this essay about superblooms--an amazing natural phenomenon that I have had the pleasure of witnessing firsthand cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/02...
Seedbeds of Creativity: Superblooms and Superorganisms | Center for the Study of World Religions
cswr.hds.harvard.edu
February 19, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by Lisa H. Sideris
Webinar: What Scientists Are Telling Us About Radiation that Nuclear Boosters Won't

Feb. 20 - 12pm EST

Updates in research about public health impacts of ionizing radiation with Dr. Amanda Nichols (UCSB) + Cindy Folkers (Beyond Nuclear). Mary Olson (Gender + Radiation Project) moderating
February 12, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Lisa H. Sideris
Melbourne Uni has curated a collection of Decoloniality, First Nations Thinkers & Thought & Practices from the Global South of 677 items. Two years in the making. Humbled to feature in it; can't believe my luck to share space w/ folks I hold in high esteem.
omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/decolonialit...
Browse Items · Decoloniality, First Nations Thinkers and thought and practices from the Global South
omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au
January 4, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Reposted by Lisa H. Sideris
We got a message from the university to remove any use of the "DEI", "diversity", "equity", or "inclusion" from all public-facing documents. They said that even "biodiversity" is being flagged by the federal government. We live in the dumbest timeline.
February 11, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Lisa H. Sideris
Register now for this episode of ASLE Spotlight on the theme REPRODUCING ANIMALITY
Friday, Feb 21, 1pm EST on Zoom
forms.gle/GZgZ4GFuEMmA...
#envhum #academicsky
February 11, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Every paragraph is alarming but the explanation of the "network state" ambition, to create a sovereign cryptocurrency nation, is especially enlightening. This is not just another hot take. theconversation.com/efficiency-o...
Efficiency − or empire? How Elon Musk’s hostile takeover could end government as we know it
Granting tech leaders direct control over government functions fundamentally alters the relationship between private power and public governance.
theconversation.com
February 10, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Lisa H. Sideris
#santabarbara Hey everyone in Santa Barbara heads up and share the info. ICE is here and going door to door and stopping cars. Know your rights - Do not open your door, do not say anything, for help go to www.805inimigrante.org
#ICEactivity
www.805inimigrante.org
January 26, 2025 at 10:12 PM