Stephen Holness
@stephendh.bsky.social
Conservation scientist, still hanging on to hope that it is not too late. Mostly focused on marine conservation using Systematic Conservation Planning approaches. A geographer at heart.
Great to see countries leapfrogging the fossil fuel based energy phase. Will be a major boost for quality of life and climate. Trend towards electrified two and three wheeler also very promising...
African countries import record #solar panels past year - beginning of a green energy boom on the continent?
www.newscientist.com/article/2493...
www.newscientist.com/article/2493...
Is Africa about to see the solar energy boom it needs?
African countries imported a record number of solar panels in the past year, which could be the beginning of a green energy boom on the continent
www.newscientist.com
August 26, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Great to see countries leapfrogging the fossil fuel based energy phase. Will be a major boost for quality of life and climate. Trend towards electrified two and three wheeler also very promising...
This is awesome! A great insight, not only into the change in power supply, but the way it is happening and changing how people interact with the system!
In only 8 months Pakistan citizens built the equivalent of half the country’s national electric grid, without waiting for government or utilities
Cheap solar panels
TikTok tutorials
Diesel sales -35% in 1 yr, slashed costs, energy independence
tinyurl.com/mwmackr2
www.npr.org/sections/goa...
Cheap solar panels
TikTok tutorials
Diesel sales -35% in 1 yr, slashed costs, energy independence
tinyurl.com/mwmackr2
www.npr.org/sections/goa...
August 22, 2025 at 7:38 AM
This is awesome! A great insight, not only into the change in power supply, but the way it is happening and changing how people interact with the system!
Not to discourage recycling, but worth bearing in mind that just South Africa produces 60 millions tons of pretty toxic coal waste each year. Some perspective on scale!
Ref: A. Eberhard. The future of South African coal: market, investment, and policy challenges
Progr. Energy Sustain. Dev. (2011)
Ref: A. Eberhard. The future of South African coal: market, investment, and policy challenges
Progr. Energy Sustain. Dev. (2011)
April 17, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Not to discourage recycling, but worth bearing in mind that just South Africa produces 60 millions tons of pretty toxic coal waste each year. Some perspective on scale!
Ref: A. Eberhard. The future of South African coal: market, investment, and policy challenges
Progr. Energy Sustain. Dev. (2011)
Ref: A. Eberhard. The future of South African coal: market, investment, and policy challenges
Progr. Energy Sustain. Dev. (2011)
This is the best kind of bad news!
Is solar energy too popular in #Romania? If Easter Sunday is sunny, the country will experience very high production of solar energy and extremely low electricity consumption, which could disrupt the energy grid. #solarenergy www.intellinews.com/romania-brac...
Romania braces for Easter electricity oversupply driven by prosumers and renewables
Romanian energy authorities and power distribution companies are preparing for a significant electricity oversupply during the Easter holiday period, ...
www.intellinews.com
April 17, 2025 at 12:06 PM
This is the best kind of bad news!
And renewables are totally modular and infinitely scalable; which is something that, despite claims, is a total fiction for nuclear.
Nice summary of the nuclear debate in South Africa.
My view is quite simply that new nuclear buildd here are a non-starter. Too expensive and will take at least 10 years to complete. Renewables plus storage achieves the same, cheaper and quicker
www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...
My view is quite simply that new nuclear buildd here are a non-starter. Too expensive and will take at least 10 years to complete. Renewables plus storage achieves the same, cheaper and quicker
www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...
Watt Now? Nuclear power sparks fierce debate over SA’s future energy mix
Despite a pause on nuclear procurement, deep divisions remain over whether it should be part of SA’s energy mix.
www.dailymaverick.co.za
April 14, 2025 at 11:57 AM
And renewables are totally modular and infinitely scalable; which is something that, despite claims, is a total fiction for nuclear.
This is great news. Each kwh produced by an installed renewable is effectively free and will inevitably displace fossil fuel production (which has a fuel cost for each extra kwh) and hence carbon. Further, for our climate system, it does not matter where on earth this displacement takes place.
Because it's been a shit week, here's some good news to cheer you up. A thread with 10 cool stories from around the world:
1. China now has more #wind and #solar than thermal generating capacity and is installing 1 million solar panels EVERY SINGLE DAY.
theprogressplaybook.com/2025/03/25/i...
1. China now has more #wind and #solar than thermal generating capacity and is installing 1 million solar panels EVERY SINGLE DAY.
theprogressplaybook.com/2025/03/25/i...
In numbers: China hits fresh milestones in its energy transition
Wind and solar have overtaken thermal plants (coal, gas, oil, and bioenergy) in terms of generating capacity.
theprogressplaybook.com
April 4, 2025 at 10:53 AM
This is great news. Each kwh produced by an installed renewable is effectively free and will inevitably displace fossil fuel production (which has a fuel cost for each extra kwh) and hence carbon. Further, for our climate system, it does not matter where on earth this displacement takes place.
Reposted by Stephen Holness
Best way to find a typo in a paper is to read the draft carefully 100 times, print it, mark it up, submit it, get it accepted, have copy editors review it, read it again, finalize it, get it published, and then proudly share it will all of your close colleagues
March 26, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Best way to find a typo in a paper is to read the draft carefully 100 times, print it, mark it up, submit it, get it accepted, have copy editors review it, read it again, finalize it, get it published, and then proudly share it will all of your close colleagues
Reposted by Stephen Holness
~600 seeds packs have been distributed throughout Fishtown, Kensington, & Port Richmond. Putting together the next batch, with the PA ecotype seeds for the poster series today.
It's not solving everything, but adding more insect habitat to urban ecosystems while educating? Worthwhile I think.
It's not solving everything, but adding more insect habitat to urban ecosystems while educating? Worthwhile I think.
March 24, 2025 at 6:15 PM
~600 seeds packs have been distributed throughout Fishtown, Kensington, & Port Richmond. Putting together the next batch, with the PA ecotype seeds for the poster series today.
It's not solving everything, but adding more insect habitat to urban ecosystems while educating? Worthwhile I think.
It's not solving everything, but adding more insect habitat to urban ecosystems while educating? Worthwhile I think.
These are great - I really like to ability to see the species as part of ecosystems rather than isolated specimens; and the size comparisons, extincts and interactions are all built in! Very nice.
A while ago I did a short series of illustrations showing extinct species coexisting with still living ones in my home country of Brazil, as would have happened around 15-10k years ago. #paleoart #SciArt #artbyjulio
March 11, 2025 at 2:30 PM
These are great - I really like to ability to see the species as part of ecosystems rather than isolated specimens; and the size comparisons, extincts and interactions are all built in! Very nice.
Reposted by Stephen Holness
A while ago I did a short series of illustrations showing extinct species coexisting with still living ones in my home country of Brazil, as would have happened around 15-10k years ago. #paleoart #SciArt #artbyjulio
October 23, 2024 at 3:59 PM
A while ago I did a short series of illustrations showing extinct species coexisting with still living ones in my home country of Brazil, as would have happened around 15-10k years ago. #paleoart #SciArt #artbyjulio
Reposted by Stephen Holness
This uniquely preserved Late Neolithic flint dagger (2900 BCE) was found in Allensbach at the Lake Constance, southwest #Germany. The blade was made of flint from Monte Baldo, northern #Italy. It was fastened with birch tar in a handle made of elderwood.
📷 @almbawue.bsky.social
🏺 #archaeology
📷 @almbawue.bsky.social
🏺 #archaeology
February 28, 2025 at 11:59 AM
This uniquely preserved Late Neolithic flint dagger (2900 BCE) was found in Allensbach at the Lake Constance, southwest #Germany. The blade was made of flint from Monte Baldo, northern #Italy. It was fastened with birch tar in a handle made of elderwood.
📷 @almbawue.bsky.social
🏺 #archaeology
📷 @almbawue.bsky.social
🏺 #archaeology
Reposted by Stephen Holness
Some good news
World's oldest known wild bird, Wisdom, cares for her newly hatched chick at 74
Wisdom, a 74-year-old Laysan albatross, is the world's oldest known wild bird. She also just became a mother yet again.
eu.usatoday.com
February 19, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Some good news
Reposted by Stephen Holness
Every meal we eat has a cost - not just to our wallets, but to our health, our planet, and our future. Right now, that cost is staggering.
February 18, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Every meal we eat has a cost - not just to our wallets, but to our health, our planet, and our future. Right now, that cost is staggering.
Reposted by Stephen Holness
The viral Czech beaver story is terrific because it’s a perfect distillation of the grand beaver narrative: the world’s most ingenious rodents, acting without our awareness or authorization, engineering wetlands whose ecological value far exceeds anything humans could dream up. We don’t deserve ‘em.
February 13, 2025 at 2:23 PM
The viral Czech beaver story is terrific because it’s a perfect distillation of the grand beaver narrative: the world’s most ingenious rodents, acting without our awareness or authorization, engineering wetlands whose ecological value far exceeds anything humans could dream up. We don’t deserve ‘em.
I guess this will make up for the one we are doing our best to make uninhabitable over the next 20 years??
A potentially habitable planet "only" 20 light years away.
Some perspective:
Traveling at 1 billion miles per hour (an impossibly high speed) it would take 13,000 years to get there.
Fact: We still have only one habitable planet.
Some perspective:
Traveling at 1 billion miles per hour (an impossibly high speed) it would take 13,000 years to get there.
Fact: We still have only one habitable planet.
January 29, 2025 at 8:34 AM
I guess this will make up for the one we are doing our best to make uninhabitable over the next 20 years??
Reposted by Stephen Holness
A potentially habitable planet "only" 20 light years away.
Some perspective:
Traveling at 1 billion miles per hour (an impossibly high speed) it would take 13,000 years to get there.
Fact: We still have only one habitable planet.
Some perspective:
Traveling at 1 billion miles per hour (an impossibly high speed) it would take 13,000 years to get there.
Fact: We still have only one habitable planet.
January 29, 2025 at 7:52 AM
A potentially habitable planet "only" 20 light years away.
Some perspective:
Traveling at 1 billion miles per hour (an impossibly high speed) it would take 13,000 years to get there.
Fact: We still have only one habitable planet.
Some perspective:
Traveling at 1 billion miles per hour (an impossibly high speed) it would take 13,000 years to get there.
Fact: We still have only one habitable planet.
Reposted by Stephen Holness
"The last time a major road was built through a migratory corridor, the effects were immediate and horrific. 'The roads were slick with dead toads because they just kept following the same path.'"
#roadecology
via @biographic.bsky.social
www.biographic.com/toads-on-the...
#roadecology
via @biographic.bsky.social
www.biographic.com/toads-on-the...
Toads on the Roads - bioGraphic
South Africa is the only place in the world where the endangered western leopard toad can be found. Can locals learn to coexist with—and conserve—their vulnerable amphibian neighbors?
www.biographic.com
January 26, 2025 at 3:42 PM
"The last time a major road was built through a migratory corridor, the effects were immediate and horrific. 'The roads were slick with dead toads because they just kept following the same path.'"
#roadecology
via @biographic.bsky.social
www.biographic.com/toads-on-the...
#roadecology
via @biographic.bsky.social
www.biographic.com/toads-on-the...
Reposted by Stephen Holness
I mentioned yesterday in a post about a group of Puffins is known as a Circus, well here is a photo I took of a “Circus of Atlantic Puffins” for you taken in The Farne Islands #birds #thegardenjungle #wildlifephotography #naturephotography #shropshire #UKwildlife #birdphotography #canon #photography
January 24, 2025 at 7:17 AM
I mentioned yesterday in a post about a group of Puffins is known as a Circus, well here is a photo I took of a “Circus of Atlantic Puffins” for you taken in The Farne Islands #birds #thegardenjungle #wildlifephotography #naturephotography #shropshire #UKwildlife #birdphotography #canon #photography
No country does better bridges than Nepal .....
January 24, 2025 at 7:58 AM
No country does better bridges than Nepal .....
No often you see a soft-plume in media!
January 24, 2025 at 7:52 AM
No often you see a soft-plume in media!
Its amazing that the US is happy to permanently hand over any competitiveness in low-cost low-carbon electrified economies forever.
Incredible, but true.
China is installing the wind and solar equivalent of five large nuclear power stations per week.
#renewables #nuclear #china
www.abc.net.au/news/science...
China is installing the wind and solar equivalent of five large nuclear power stations per week.
#renewables #nuclear #china
www.abc.net.au/news/science...
'Winning the race': How China plans to meet its 2030 renewables target by the end of this month
While Australia debates the merits of going nuclear and frustration grows over the slower-than-needed switch to solar and wind power, China's renewables rollout is breaking all the records.
www.abc.net.au
January 22, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Its amazing that the US is happy to permanently hand over any competitiveness in low-cost low-carbon electrified economies forever.
Great to see some ancient art from the south!
January 20, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Great to see some ancient art from the south!
Reposted by Stephen Holness
🤫🫠 By SKURK at Rå Skole in Bergen, Norway: streetartutopia.com/anglerfish-t...
January 18, 2025 at 1:37 PM
🤫🫠 By SKURK at Rå Skole in Bergen, Norway: streetartutopia.com/anglerfish-t...
Reposted by Stephen Holness
This adult kite has returned this its mate for at least the 5th consecutive season at Fairview Park
It’s been a small blessing to be able to witness them hunting, mating, nest building, and fledging kitelings!
White-tailed Kite 📷🪶
It’s been a small blessing to be able to witness them hunting, mating, nest building, and fledging kitelings!
White-tailed Kite 📷🪶
January 17, 2025 at 6:32 AM
This adult kite has returned this its mate for at least the 5th consecutive season at Fairview Park
It’s been a small blessing to be able to witness them hunting, mating, nest building, and fledging kitelings!
White-tailed Kite 📷🪶
It’s been a small blessing to be able to witness them hunting, mating, nest building, and fledging kitelings!
White-tailed Kite 📷🪶