Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Cool. 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. 130
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Ice 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. 1210
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Yes. 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. 2362
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Minor 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. 31108
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Electric 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.comChina Has an 18-Wheel Answer to Soaring Global Diesel PricesAround a third of trucks sold in China this year will run on electricity, furthering Beijing’s goal of bolstering energy security. 141
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Super Typhoon is a real classification in the Philippine Tropical Cyclone Intensity Scale 130
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 18/09/2026This 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. 183
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 11/09/2026www.youtube.com/watch?v=isLW...youtube.comYour Boss Who Has AI PsychosisYouTube video by Ryan George 000
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Chinese 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.comChina’s Oil Demand ‘Very Likely’ Peaked Last Year, Sinopec SaysChina’s oil demand probably peaked last year, earlier than previous estimates, according to the head of the nation’s top refiner. 1104
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Living 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. 100
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Only 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. 110
Reposted by Andrew MacDougallChris Bataille @chrisbataille.bsky.social · 17/08/2026This 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.caPrime Minister Carney announces the largest clean energy investment in North American history - Canada.caOn 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... 2179
Reposted by Andrew MacDougallJustin Ling @justinling.ca · 17/08/2026We'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.comJustin Ling: Carney’s best move in trade negotiations with Trump is so simple it fits on a bumper stickerCanadians need to accept that we may not strike a genuine deal with the U.S. — but all is not lost. 1525586
Reposted by Andrew MacDougallMargaret Killjoy @margaret.bsky.social · 13/08/2026i 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 20743106
Reposted by Andrew MacDougallZeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 10/08/2026With 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... 512765
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 06/08/2026The 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. 210
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 05/08/2026The 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. 100
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 05/08/2026The 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? 110
Reposted by Andrew MacDougallDavid Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Time Traveler Causes of Death xkcd.com/2976/ 81161326
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Solar 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. 110
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 05/08/2026A 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. 200
Reposted by Andrew MacDougallDavid Roberts @volts.wtf · 04/08/2026And it's happening all over. 1127055
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 04/08/2026As 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! 281
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Who needs a back door when these people left the front door open: youtu.be/uB0gr7Fh6lY?...youtu.beWe Hacked Flock Safety Cameras in under 30 Seconds. 🫥YouTube video by Benn Jordan 030
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 24/07/2026TLDR: Since warming from non-CO2 GHGs now very likely exceeds cooling from aerosols, all-forcing ZEC is very likely to be negative. 130
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 24/07/2026rdcu.be/fvHdS My News & Views Piece accompanying newly published Nature Climate Change paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...rdcu.beLess than net zero needed to stabilize climateNature 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... 192
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 18/07/2026It’s just showing capital cities for some reason. 011
Reposted by Andrew MacDougallRandall Munroe @xkcd.com · 06/07/2026Types of Tornado Alert xkcd.com/3267/ 434770939
Reposted by Andrew MacDougallTechnology Connections @techconnectify.bsky.social · 25/06/2026OK, 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. 1133278377
Reposted by Andrew MacDougallAbbey @abbeyarletto.bsky.social · 23/06/2026When 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. 236168267552
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Cordilleran 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. 000
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 23/06/2026tc.copernicus.org/articles/10/...tc.copernicus.orgTC - Numerical simulations of the Cordilleran ice sheet through the last glacial cycle 000
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Yukon 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. 200
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 16/06/2026The 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. 010
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 15/06/2026Lunacy. 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. 010
Reposted by Andrew MacDougallNorman J. Steinert @njsteinert.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Many 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.orgPermafrost carbon–climate feedback amplifies Earth system tipping risksPermafrost carbon–climate feedback amplifies Earth system tipping risks, Steinert, Norman J, Munday, Gregory, Sandstad, Marit, Sanderson, Benjamin M, Wunderling, Nico 21715
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 11/06/2026That is fortuitous. Onto the reading list! 020
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 11/06/2026In 2023 the median estimate was -1.16 W/m2 (Forster et al, 2023). An update is needed ASAP. 110
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 11/06/2026Did 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? 220
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 11/06/2026The 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. 260
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 10/06/2026Turns 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. 000
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.caOver a barrel: Canada's oil industry is a drain on productivity, research showsCanada'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. [...]... 100
Reposted by Andrew MacDougallRandall Munroe @xkcd.com · 10/06/2026Nostalgia Content xkcd.com/3256/ 6766591228
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 01/06/2026Where 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. 030
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. 010
Andrew MacDougall @ahmacdougall.bsky.social · 24/05/2026Since 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. 020