Steve Easterbrook
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steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Steve Easterbrook
@steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
29 followers 1 following 38 posts
Director, School of the Environment, University of Toronto. Professor of Computer Science. I study how climate models are built & tested + systems thinking for […]

[bridged from https://fediscience.org/@steve on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
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steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Nearly at the end of my course Confronting the Climate Crisis. Looks like most of the students liked my weekly quizzes!
#climatechange
March 28, 2025 at 3:09 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Just updated my chart of Canada's various greenhouse gas #emissions reduction targets over the years. I've updated it to show the original (INDC = Initial Nationally Determined Contribution) and Canada's updated NDC announced in 2021, along with the federal […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]
Chart of Canada's annual greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 to 2022, with projections out to 2030. The chart also shows a series of targets promised over the years: a 1988 target to cut to 20% below 1988 levels by 2005; The Kyoto protocol target of 6% below 1990 levels by 2012; the Copenhagen target of 17% below 2005 levels; the Initial Paris target of 30% below 2005 levels, the updated (2021) Paris target of 40-45% below 2005 levels, and finally the path Canada would need to be (have been) on to do it's "fair share" towards the goal of staying below 1.5°C of warming. Every target has been missed by a wide margin. Current policy projections also show us missing the 2023 Paris targets.
February 11, 2025 at 5:50 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Finally had a chance to visit #UofT’s new #geothermal plant. It’s the largest in Canada. Hundreds of pipes running 250m into the ground providing year round heating and cooling to 30 campus buildings. And you can peak in and see (a little bit of) it under Kings College circle
Photo of an underground portion of a geothermal heat exchange. There are many pipes of different colours (red, yellow, green, blue, black). Some are labeled with the temperature of the water in them and the direction of the flow.
January 16, 2025 at 12:46 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Here's the (completely unscientific!) snap poll from my class, courtesy of MentiMeter. Given that the course has the phrase "climate crisis" in the title, and it's purely an elective, this shouldn't be taken to be representative of student attitudes more […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]
Bar graph showing responses to the question "Which best describes how worried you are about climate change". The results are: Dismissive (it's not real) 4; Doubtful (it's no biggie) 0; Disengaged (don't know) 0; Cautious (not yet sure) 4; Concerned (it will matter in the future) 32; Alarmed (It's an urgent threat) 47.
January 8, 2025 at 10:17 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Launched my new course, ENV101: Confronting the Climate Crisis today. I began with a quick poll of attitudes in the class, then showed them these results from Yale's Six Americas study. What jumps out to me in the change when they re-did the study in 2023 is […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]
Chart showing attitudes to climate change in America in 2008 and 2023. For each study, people are grouped into six response types, and the chart shows a bubble scaled to show the number of people in each group. The results shown are, for 2008: Alarmed 18%, Concerned 33%, Cautious 19%, Disengaged 12%, Doubtful 11%, Dismissive 7%. For 2023, the results are: Alarmed 28%, Concerned 29%, Cautious 15%, Disengaged 6%, Doubtful 11%, Dismissive 11%
January 8, 2025 at 10:11 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
What a dumpster fire!
Image of the year already?
January 2, 2025 at 6:59 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Made a whole load more #tiedye this week, but am a bit behind on photographing them, because Oreo wanted in on the action...
#cats #catsofmastodon
Photo of a black and white cat sitting on a tie-dyed shirt. The cat is classic tuxedo pattern, mainly black with white paws, white bib, and a distinct white streak up his face (to one side of his nose). He's looking straight at the camera. The shirt is a brightly coloured long sleeve T-shirt, with graduated rainbow colours, starting with yellow, orange, red, and purple from the bottom, ending with dark and light blue then lime green at the neck.
January 2, 2025 at 5:50 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
I also managed to try my first reverse tie dye this week. Starting with an old black #marillion tour shirt that I haven’t worn for years, I bleached out some of the colour, and ice dyed it with some bright rainbow colours…
Photo of a tie dye T-shirt. The shirt has vivid rainbow stripes, with black veins separating the colours. The logo on the front says “Marillion Marbles” and has a photo of a young person’s face, holding marbles in front of each of their eyes.
December 31, 2024 at 3:33 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
New #tiedye just dropped. For this one, I got to use my new wax sinew to create the white lines, and a new dye called Alchemist from Dharma Dyes, designed to give great colour splits.
Photo of tie dye T-shirt in. “geode” design. The shirt has several concentric but irregular rings, with thin white lines separating the rings of colour. The colours are a mix of blues and browns, with the blues dominating.
December 29, 2024 at 3:33 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Today’s bird is a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron. Not sure why it’s called a night heron though. Identification via the #merlin app, which, if you haven’t discovered it yet, is great fun to play with if you’re curious about identifying birds. #belize #birds #birdsofmastodon
December 20, 2024 at 1:29 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Impact of sea level rise in #belize. This island resort no longer has a beach, and has had to build a sea wall to prevent further loss of land. From what I understand of coastal erosion, that will probably just accelerate the erosion. The entire island is no […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]
Photo of a submerged beach, with two palm thatched umbrellas sticking out of the sea. In the foreground there is part of a concrete sea wall visible, and in the background, a thatched cabana. The sea is a beautiful turquoise and blue, under a clear blue sky.
December 20, 2024 at 1:20 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Today’s bird is a female Magnificent Frigatebird (yes, that’s its official name). There’s a whole flock of them here, who spend their time soaring on the wind, typically holding their position in the sky, waiting for other seabirds to catch fish so they can […]

[Original post on fediscience.org]
Large bird sitting on a tiny tree branch. The birds has a long slender neck, long vicious-looking hooked bead, and an air of superiority. Chest feathers are white, but huge folded wings are black, as is the long forked tail.
December 18, 2024 at 1:54 PM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Gonna need help identifying this little fellow. I think it’s a Warbler. But which one?
#belize
Photo of a small green bird on the beach. It has yellow-green feathers, with distinct black edges on its wing and tail feathers, and some orange colour around its eyes.
December 18, 2024 at 12:28 AM
steve.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Today’s bird is a pelican #belize
Closeup photo of a brown pelican floating on the ocean. The pelican has a white neck, and brown back, and its large beak is folded down by its neck, giving it a rather coy look. The ocean is a mix of dark blues and turquoise
December 17, 2024 at 2:43 PM