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Andrew MacDougall

@ahmacdougall.bsky.social
4.5K followers 558 following 645 posts

Canadian Climate Scientist from Nova Scotia, specializing in Zero Emissions Commitment, carbon budgets, permafrost carbon, and biogeochemical feedbacks to climate change.

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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Cool. There must have been very strict criteria needed for the experiment. Setting up at South Pole station when Greenland, Iceland or Svalbard are options is lunacy.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Ice sheets do have different properties than ice caps so the destination is important. But if Earth had glaciers of all sizes presumably these properties would grade continuously into one another.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Yes. A mountain glacier becomes an ice cap when it is no longer constrained by topographical features. An ice cap becomes an ice sheet when it grows too big. Too big is somewhat arbitrarily set at 50,000km^2. Because there is currently no ice masses between 20,000km^2 and 1.7 million km^2.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Minor glaciology note, an ice cap is a mass of ice that has overwhelmed its local topography but is under 50,000km^2. The detector is in the Antarctica Ice Sheet. If an ice cap was suitable they could have just set it up in Iceland, which probably would have been less expensive.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Electric heavy trucks used to haul coal. The China paradox incarnate. “The roads in this part of Shaanxi province are filled with big rigs ferrying coal from mines to railheads. More and more of them are, like Qu’s, battery-operated” www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
bloomberg.com
China Has an 18-Wheel Answer to Soaring Global Diesel Prices
Around a third of trucks sold in China this year will run on electricity, furthering Beijing’s goal of bolstering energy security.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Super Typhoon is a real classification in the Philippine Tropical Cyclone Intensity Scale
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is sad news. I used to read Climate Progress during my MSc before I switched from Glaciology to Earth System modeling. Maybe our time is the darkness before the dawn. But it makes me sad that the generation that rang the alarm will not live to see the turning of the tide.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
www.youtube.com/watch?v=isLW...
youtube.com
Your Boss Who Has AI Psychosis
YouTube video by Ryan George
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Chinese state oil company announces 2025 was probably peak Chinese oil demand. A glimmer of hope after a hard summer. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
China’s Oil Demand ‘Very Likely’ Peaked Last Year, Sinopec Says
China’s oil demand probably peaked last year, earlier than previous estimates, according to the head of the nation’s top refiner.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Living in NS most of my life I kind of just forget that the bad Churchill deal isn’t common knowledge in the rest of Canada.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Only took a few generations but looks like Labrador energy has finally been figured out. A lot of bad blood to get past but we might finally be there.
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Chris Bataille @chrisbataille.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
This is a big, good deal, building the Labrador Trough to Sept-Isle resource and industrial electrification corridor. I don't see anything in it about FN participation, but I'm guessing this is baked into the deal. www.canada.ca/en/natural-r...
canada.ca
Prime Minister Carney announces the largest clean energy investment in North American history - Canada.ca
On August 17, 2026, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, alongside the Premier of Québec, Christine Fréchette, the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Tony Wakeham, and the CEOs of Hydro-Québec and Newf...
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Justin Ling @justinling.ca · 17/08/2026
We're less than 48 hours before Trump's new 50% tariffs take effect — and Canadian negotiators are still trying to talk the White House out of it. But at a certain point, I argue, we just need to tell Trump to get bent. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
thestar.com
Justin Ling: Carney’s best move in trade negotiations with Trump is so simple it fits on a bumper sticker
Canadians need to accept that we may not strike a genuine deal with the U.S. — but all is not lost.
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Margaret Killjoy @margaret.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
i have lived among mountains older than bones there is a beauty and fire to youth, but I will rest on stone older than trees on hills that watched the rings of saturn as they were born
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 10/08/2026
With all August model runs now in (except for SINTEX-F), we now expect this year's El Niño event to peak sometime between October and December at a stunning 4C in the Niño3.4 region. To see all the latest numbers, check out the Climate Dashboard: dashboard.theclimate...
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
The maximum sunlight a building can take in is proportional to the area of its shadow. A tall building can have a big shadow, but at noon when you get the most sunlight it’s barely bigger than the footprint of the building.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
The economics just doesn’t work for anything except cannabis. Even for cannabis legal growops in Canada have largely converted to greenhouses because it’s cheaper.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
The most efficient way to make electricity is solar power. So for a vertical farm the best case scenario is you are using sunlight to make electricity then using the electricity to make light. So why not just sunlight use directly?
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Time Traveler Causes of Death xkcd.com/2976/
A modified XKCD comic titled "TOP CAUSES OF DEATH FOR TIME TRAVELERS BY GEOLOGIC ERA:" features a tall, vertical rectangle representing Earth's timeline from its formation down to the present day. Along the left axis, tick marks indicate time intervals from "EARTH FORMS" at the top down through "4 BILLION YEARS AGO," "3 BILLION YEARS AGO," "2 BILLION YEARS AGO," "1 BILLION YEARS AGO," "500 MILLION YEARS AGO," and ending at "NOW" at the bottom. The vertical column is divided into stacked sections labeling the leading cause of death for each period: beginning at the top with "LAVA," followed by a section for "ASPHYXIATION," a thin band for "METEORS," a large section for "ASPHYXIATION," an even larger block spanning roughly 2.2 billion to 700 million years ago labeled "SLIGHTLY SLOWER ASPHYXIATION," and then smaller bands near the bottom labeled "FREEZING," "STARVING," "EATEN BY FISH," "TRAMPLED," and "EATEN BY MAMMALS." Next to the very bottom sliver representing the present day, an arrow points to the text "HIT BY SUV."
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Solar only works in summer when you have nearly 24 hours of sunlight in the summer and close to zero in the winter. Wind can work but intermittency is a problem. Might work when we get better ultra cold weather grid batteries.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
A greenhouse would make more sense. Use that near 24 hour sunlight when you have it. That’s what they do in Iceland, though they have geothermal energy to make heating the greenhouses economic. For vertical farms you need to make the light. In the north that’s going to come from burning diesel.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 04/08/2026
And it's happening all over.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
As someone who grew up on a farm vertical farming has always been an idea that bugs me more than almost anything else. Sunlight is free, electricity expensive! Land in cities is expensive, so is building multi-story buildings filled with way or soil! There is no way this could ever make sense!
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Who needs a back door when these people left the front door open: youtu.be/uB0gr7Fh6lY?...
youtu.be
We Hacked Flock Safety Cameras in under 30 Seconds. 🫥
YouTube video by Benn Jordan
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
TLDR: Since warming from non-CO2 GHGs now very likely exceeds cooling from aerosols, all-forcing ZEC is very likely to be negative.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
rdcu.be/fvHdS My News & Views Piece accompanying newly published Nature Climate Change paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
rdcu.be
Less than net zero needed to stabilize climate
Nature Climate Change - Global temperature change over long times after cessation of greenhouse gas emissions is not well constrained. Now, research shows a consistent global cooling, especially if...
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
It’s just showing capital cities for some reason.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
thebeaverton.com/2026/07/nova...
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Well this is getting genuinely alarming.
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 06/07/2026
Types of Tornado Alert xkcd.com/3267/
8-panel Comic. (1) Tornado Warning [tornado in the distance of a house] A tornado has been detected; take shelter (2) Tornado Watch [Person with bun talking to another person pointing at diagrams on screen] Conditions are favorable for tornadoes to form (3) Tornado precaution [person] Tornadoes happen sometimes, so be ready (4) Tornado Inkling [Person with hand on face] No tornadoes yet, but we have a feeling (5) Tornado Suspicion [Person looking up at clouds] Weird clouds have been observed (6) Tornado Premonition [Person looking at birds flying in tornado shape and two birds sitting on scythe-like structure with skull beneath] Tornado portents and omens have been observed (7) Tornado Recollection [Person with thought bubble containing tornado] Tornadoes have occurred in the past (8) Tornado Contemplation [Person sitting and saying, “Wow.”] Tornadoes are very big and powerful
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Well that looks bleak.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
www.wired.com/story/china-...
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Technology Connections @techconnectify.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
OK, so just as I have to yell at my fellow Americans "air conditioners *are* heat pumps!" to combat basic ignorance of what the tech actually is, Europeans need to hear "heat pumps *are* air conditioners" because y'all are making arguments which don't make sense if you see why heat pumps are good.
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Abbey @abbeyarletto.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
When reality surpasses fiction! Top: fictional forecast for August 2050, broadcast by French TV in 2014 to warn about the consequences of global warming. Bottom: Real French forecast for yesterday, June 22, 2026.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Cordilleran ice sheet controls that passablity of the coastal route. Since there people in the interior there were probably people on the coast, given how rich arctic marine environments are.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
tc.copernicus.org/articles/10/...
tc.copernicus.org
TC - Numerical simulations of the Cordilleran ice sheet through the last glacial cycle
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Yukon ice free but was on the west side of the ice sheet, so it gets considered part of Beringia, instead of the Americas proper. The Cordilleran ice sheet was quite small ~40ka, so it would be the best opportunity to make it south until after LGM.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
The interference by Britain and Russia before WWII was also extreme. Reza Shah was a British imposed military dictator of middle class background who declared himself Shah.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Lunacy. I wonder how much of history was negotiations like this. Some old warrior king who took too many hits to the head. With everything later rationalized by historians.
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Norman J. Steinert @njsteinert.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Many climate models omit the permafrost carbon–climate feedback. In this new paper we show that inlcuding it can increase Earth system tipping risks, especially in overshoot scenarios with peak temperatures below 3°C or peak cumulative emissions of below 2000 PgC. iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
iopscience.iop.org
Permafrost carbon–climate feedback amplifies Earth system tipping risks
Permafrost carbon–climate feedback amplifies Earth system tipping risks, Steinert, Norman J, Munday, Gregory, Sandstad, Marit, Sanderson, Benjamin M, Wunderling, Nico
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
That is fortuitous. Onto the reading list!
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
In 2023 the median estimate was -1.16 W/m2 (Forster et al, 2023). An update is needed ASAP.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Did you exclude West Asia, Central Asia and North Asia, from your definition of Asia? 4% seem low for a continent that includes the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea and many Russian oil field?
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
The only way to do an overshoot is through non-CO2 forcings. Aerosol cooling is now probably smaller than non-CO2 GHG warming, and to reduce warming from short and medium lifetime gases you only need to cut emissions. Because aerosols are so short lived cutting both causes an overshoot.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Turns out Canada’s Low Productivity™️ is entirely due to the oil sands industry. Exclude O&G or look at Ontario or Quebec and the rate of productivity growth is the same as the US or Germany. So maybe op-eds can stop harping on Canadians work ethic.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
“Looking at all industries, the researchers found Canada’s TFP grew.08 per cent annually between 2000 and 2018. With the oil industry excluded from the data, the TFP growth ballooned eightfold to .65 per cent.” news.mcmaster.ca/over-a-barre...
news.mcmaster.ca
Over a barrel: Canada's oil industry is a drain on productivity, research shows
Canada's economy is growing at a healthy rate, but heavy investments in the Canadian oil industry in the past two decades have skewed productivity figures typically used as indicators of growth. [...]...
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 10/06/2026
Nostalgia Content xkcd.com/3256/
Comic. [Person in front of images of pogs, a Tamagotchi, and huge fungal tower over mossy ground.] PERSON: Who else remembers pogs? Tamagotchis? Vast forests of prototaxites towering over the mossy landscape as armored fish stir in the deep? [caption] Due to a database error, millennial nostalgia now includes a portion of the Early Devonian.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Where else was one supposed to shelter from the wind when they threw you outside for recess at -20C? We used to be able to fit 3 kids in one of those tires.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
“Everybody who met him, even if they met him briefly, seemed to remember him forever," About sums it up. RIP Andy, you were one of a kind.
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Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Since there is no way to remove seats from a province, Canada is left with a poor, depopulated, bitter, indebted province filled with rotten boroughs. Making trouble in parliament.
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