Sign in

Cat T

@cattownsend.bsky.social
4.1K followers 2.3K following 1.1K posts

Anthropologist, gardener, animal lover, fantasy & sci-fi fan. Climate anxious. She/they.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Cat T
Kasey Gifford @kaseygifford.bsky.social · 16h
To put this in perspective chestnut trees used to be dominant species in the United States. Billions of trees were killed by fungal blight and now fully grown America chestnuts are functionally extinct. There is no getting them back. Ever. All for a data center. www.gadgetreview.com/one-of-ameri...
gadgetreview.com
One of America’s Last Chestnut Groves Is About to Be Destroyed for a Data Center
A rare 200-tree American chestnut grove in West Virginia may be cleared for data-center development, but the project denies the site is on its land.
5926071591
Reposted by Cat T
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 16h
We have published now two full reports both debunking this claim and shining a new light on the climate impacts of companies like NVIDIA and others who insist on this without evidence. Public control won't fix this problem - not at all. ketanjoshi.co/2026/02/17/b... ketanjoshi.co/2026/09/16/n...
a graphic showing the difference bw energy consumption and climate benefit claimsthe rising energy consumption of hyperscalers an increase in greenhouse gas emissions
813654
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 17h
Another stray kitten in our neighborhood! She is so pretty
140
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 20h
It’s lovely! I have heard it before but no idea what it is
100
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 21h
Dragonborn!
0110
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 21h
Beautiful! You are so talented
120
Reposted by Cat T
Jason Wilson @jasonaw.bsky.social · 21h
Rufo's latest is doubling down on opposing Indian immigration. You would think that a movement that subsists on this kind of unmoored fantasy would just hit the wall at some point (i mean it's hard to even know what this means) but here we are
2102
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 21h
High profile racists often include the caveat that “we shouldn’t discriminate by race” while they do exactly that.
000
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 21h
What has he done now?
000
Reposted by Cat T
Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
when @letsgomathias.bsky.social pitched this to me, i knew it would be evergreen. but i didn’t expect it to be relevant already like four times in the less than two months since it was published.
thehandbasket.co
You don’t have to hand it to Richard Hanania
The so-called "former" white supremacist's work doesn't show accountability—or that he's actually moved on from his earlier views, Christopher Mathias writes.
7656104
Reposted by Cat T
Oil Change International @oilchange.org · 05/10/2026
We’re at the U.S Supreme Court today, standing with Boulder communities in their fight for climate accountability. Communities deserve their day in court and fossil fuel companies must be held accountable for the harms they have caused. Follow along: thehill.com/homenews/adm...
032
Reposted by Cat T
HOPE not hate @hopenothate.org.uk · 04/10/2026
Ninety years ago today, Oswald Mosley tried to march his Blackshirts through the Jewish East End. 🧵 He had thousands of uniformed fascists behind him and 6,000 police clearing the way. But the people of the East End got there first.
18892359
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
My Pippin does that too
010
Reposted by Cat T
Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
New: Chris Rufo & his co-host devoted a podcast to "The Indian Question," framing Desi people as a problem to be solved. Their "solution?" Mass expulsion. For those allowed to remain: an “assimilation hazing process” w/ instances of “vulgar, defamatory racism" talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chris-r...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Chris Rufo — Known For ‘DEI’ and ‘CRT’ Panics — Tries to Make ‘the Indian Question’ a Thing
To the degree that a “respectable” or “moderate” right exists today in...
1131339483
Reposted by Cat T
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
According to the International Energy Agency, total global investment in solar energy (including both rooftop solar and utility-scale projects) was less than half of this figure, despite our dire ecological situation
5416138
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Millions of people are already dying from the impacts of climate change and fossil fuel pollution. These costly subsidies should be reallocated to transitioning to renewable energy. lancetcountdown.org/2025-report-...
lancetcountdown.org
2025 Report Visual Summary - Lancet Countdown
020
Reposted by Cat T
Crawford Kilian @crof.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘The toll is huge’: El Niño-driven wildfires overwhelm Indonesia’s orangutan population
The global climate phenomenon has triggered devastating infernos in the ape’s Indonesian heartlands, with long-term effects on the animals still unknown
055
Reposted by Cat T
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
“Unia, Belgium’s independent centre for equal opportunities, plans to file a complaint against Nathan Cofnas, a US researcher at Ghent University, over remarks it believes repeatedly breached the country’s anti-racism law” www.brusselstimes.com/2341250/unia...
brusselstimes.com
Unia to take 'race realist' researcher Nathan Cofnas to court
Unia said the US philosopher was spreading ideas in Belgium that rank people in a hierarchy on the basis of supposed scientific knowledge.
1248
Reposted by Cat T
Alan Elrod @aselrod.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Unsurprisingly, Richard Hanania is doing rape apology coverage of the Cornell case with fellow wretch Michael Tracey
Richard Hanania @RichardHanania
X.com
Watch me discuss the Cornell rape controversy with Michael Tracey.
I think the lesson of this is that women do not want to have casual sex with men they don't know well.
They'll end up hating themselves, being hated by other women, and even seen with contempt by the men involved. This is why these situations turn bad.
Maybe she was assaulted, maybe not, either way it was a terrible decision to make.
Women need to be told the truth.
110976178
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Meanwhile, attorney for defendant Scott Kretzshmar described the lawsuit as “a money grab”. 🤢 These vile comments were made by Jeremy Saland 2/2
020
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The more I read about Cornell, the angrier I get with the ongoing victim blaming. The DA who failed to prosecute, Mathew Van Houten, is now claiming that he never saw the transcript of Jane Doe’s interview with campus police, & he never saw the Snapchat screenshot 🙄 1/2
140
Reposted by Cat T
Gregory Norminton @gregorynorminton.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is good news. So much money raised, yet still over two million quid to go.
0105
Reposted by Cat T
Charles C Roseman @evoroseman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you are in the greater Washington DC area on Friday 6 November and have an afternoon to spare, I’m giving a talk at George Mason University. I’d love to see you there. (baboon skull diagram from Theibault et al. 2026) 1/7
Poster for a talk by Charles Roseman entitled "Spencer's Long Shadow: Why we should abandon the extended evolutionary synthesis" featuring a diagram of baboon skulls from Thiebault et al. 2026, some clipart mice, and a picture of the speaker whose father came in second in an uglyman contest.
1148
Reposted by Cat T
Crawford Kilian @crof.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Second the motion! Declare the climate crisis a Public Health Emergency of International Concern - The Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
thelancet.com
Declare the climate crisis a Public Health Emergency of International Concern
Climate change is shaping health in the 21st century. In the past few weeks alone, Nepal has faced unprecedented flash floods, and multiple countries have experienced deadly heatwaves and catastrophic...
043
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Worth a read. It may be that the Cornell 7 escape legal accountability for their sadistic behavior. But that doesn’t mean they should be spared social shaming for what they did. slate.com/life/2026/09...
would be a less resistant one. None of us were in the room when the alleged rapes occurred, but the tone of the Snapchat messages offers a sense of the atmosphere, which seemed to be one of male bonding over a woman rendered person-less, nothing more than a "free pussy"-something the men enjoyed not simply because sex is a fundamental human pleasure and it feels good, but because they felt powerful and bonded by communally degrading the young woman in question. Her degradation, and the power they felt they derived from that, was the turn-on, not the sex itself. And "free pussy" also implies, although of course does not prove, that at least some of the men believed Jane Doe to be unable to consent-that this was a bunch of men having their way with an incapacitated girl-rendered-object, not a fun consensual group
041
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
What a perfect boy!
111
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Not a good idea. Better to find a way of helping the most vulnerable that is not a fossil fuel subsidy.
040
Reposted by Cat T
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Since we’re talking about the politicisation of science, another laughably bad “national IQ” paper has just been published in Evolutionary Psychological Science. This paper barely even pretends to be science yet is published by a mainstream publisher, with prominent academics on the editorial board
Screenshot of new paper 

Evolutionary Psychological Science > Article
Democratic Peace, Intelligent Belligerence: Evolutionary Psychological Foundations of Interstate Wars
Research | Published: 12 September 2026Section of text from new paper
54610
Reposted by Cat T
Gregory Norminton @gregorynorminton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Three days to go for @northwildlife.bsky.social to raise £30M to buy the Rothbury Estate. Impressively, they've secured over £27M in donations & pledges. But that still leaves a shortfall. I can only hope they're given more time by the seller. Or that he waives the difference. You can chip in here:
wildlifetrusts.org
Donate to Secure The Rothbury Estate | The Wildlife Trusts
Stretching over 3,800 hectares, the Rothbury Estate in Northumberland is abundant with opportunity. It’s the largest continuous area of land to appear on the market in 50 years. Its sale creates a uni...
02829
Reposted by Cat T
Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is certainly a different opinion to the Vanderbilt report: “corporate libertarian donor networks, fossil-fuel companies & conservative think tanks intensified campaigns targeting university governance…embedding donor-aligned scholars, building research centers insulated from faculty oversight…”
15026
Reposted by Cat T
BonnieHuval @bonniehuval.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It is no longer safe to ask people like me at a party, “What do you think of this El Niño?” It is not the boy child we know. This is the devil boy. El Niño Diablo is going far beyond what we have ever seen before. bonniehuval.substack.com/p/el-nino-di...
bonniehuval.substack.com
El Niño Diablo
Main audience: everyone
18416181
Reposted by Cat T
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 26/09/2026
Please sign if you can! OPEN LETTER: PAUSE THE NATIONAL ROLLOUT OF AI-MEDIATED TUTORING IN ENGLAND'S SCHOOLS > Children should not be exposed to a technology whose future, effectiveness, and safety we cannot predict, and for which the evidence is mostly negative.
docs.google.com
OPEN LETTER: PAUSE THE NATIONAL ROLLOUT OF AI-MEDIATED TUTORING IN ENGLAND'S SCHOOLS
OPEN LETTER To the Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP, Prime Minister, and the Rt Hon Lucy Powell MP, Secretary of State for Education The Department for Education has announced plans to develop, what it calls, “...
39567
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Lurking monster
010
Reposted by Cat T
Jon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I know the burning question on everyone's mind right now is "How did magnetohydrodynamics develop over the course of the 20th century?" Well, you can all breathe a sigh of relief. In this week's History Weekly Edition, I discuss Alex Blum and Arnab Chaudhuri's article explaining just that.
XKCD one-panel comic with a ponytailed stick figure talking to a pair of other stick figures saying "The sun's atmosphere is a superhot plasma governed by magnetohydrodynamic forces..." to which one of the others replies "Ah, yes, of course." The caption reads "Whenever I hear the word 'magnetohydrodynamic' my brain just replaces it with 'magic.'
2286
Reposted by Cat T
The Skeptic @skeptic.org.uk · 25/09/2026
skeptic.org.uk
Why it is reasonable to label Nathan Cofnas’s race realism as pseudoscientific - The Skeptic
"Race realist" Nathan Cofnas claims his "hereditarianist" viewpoint is scientifically accurate - by citing pseudoscientific research and misleading rhetoric.
1144
Reposted by Cat T
Dr Paul Dorfman @drpauldorfman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Why is the UK’s suppressed #climate national security report significant? Report warns of food shortages, conflicts, mass migration and other threats to the UK’s national security, including going as far as the risk of nuclear war or the breakdown of society. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Why is the UK’s suppressed climate national security report significant?
Warnings about the catastrophic effects of vital ecosystems collapsing were not published under previous prime minister
10205138
Reposted by Cat T
Dr Charlie Gardner @charliejgardner.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This year has been brutal, and like most people you probably want to do more about climate change. But what, and how? Great news – I’ve written just the book for you! It’s called What One Person Can Do and it’s a clear and simple how-to guide, a roadmap to help you make influential changes...
22561262
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Amazing how calm George managed to stay.
010
Reposted by Cat T
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
With big thanks to @doctorofmusic.bsky.social, here's my discussion today with Lord Jackson about North Sea oil and gas. Tape your jaw to your face before watching. Really.
77713250
Reposted by Cat T
Prof. Eliot Jacobson @climatecasino.net · 22/09/2026
Your 'bonus moment of doom' for today: "The latest science confirms that we have breached, that we've transgressed seven of the nine planetary boundaries that regulate the health of the entire planet." www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnpE...
youtube.com
Official Planetary Health Check 2026 with Johan Rockström
YouTube video by Planetary Boundaries Science
9296149
Reposted by Cat T
Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 21/09/2026
The “jaw-dropping” El Niño currently heating up the planet has burst through the highest temperature ever recorded for the phenomenon, several months before its expected peak.
A line chart showing temperature anomalies in the Niño 3.4 region of the Pacific Ocean, compared to a 30-year rolling base period since 1982.

A gold line shows temperatures in 1997, a teal line in 2025, and a red line in 2026. The red line surpasses all others reaching 3.07ºC, and at an earlier point (September) than the previous El Niño that reached a comparable range in November 2015.
431657922
Reposted by Cat T
Katie Hodges-Kluck, PhD @klhkhistorian.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
**Lights Out Alert Sunday & Monday Nights** Birdcast is estimating 300-400 million birds will be in flight.
From meteorologist Eric Snitil

**Lights Out Alert Sunday & Monday Nights**

"Heads up birders, I would not be surprised if the biggest bird migration night of the year happens over the next 2 nights. Birdcast is estimating 300-400 million birds will be in flight. That is a lot, but the pattern could not be better for migratory birds. A massive area of high pressure will turn the low level winds from the northeast to the southwest across most of the US. The last time we had anything similar to this in the fall was early October last year when a record 1.25 billion birds were in flight. I doubt we get to that level, but I suspect the number will top 500 million especially Monday night which looks to be the bigger of the two nights. You can help by turning off those outdoor lights on big migration nights, and the next 2 nights is about as big as it gets."
291672887
Reposted by Cat T
Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
There’s more to be said about the relationship between Pinker-style stardom and the state of academia. Not because academia is Woke, but because star systems loosen rigor at the top while solid scholarship becomes a dead end lower down. Shoddy celebrities and broke PhDs proceed from the same machine
838988
Reposted by Cat T
D. Hicks @danhicks.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Good Caturday, is hello
Very wide-angle photo from my breakfast chair on the patio. A black cat is sitting on a small table next to a full mug of tea and bowl of oatmeal. In the background an adolescent tabby is looking at through an my open screen door. My laptop is off to the right, with a Nature story about CRISPR crops visible.
0161
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Thanks. I will say that it’s uncanny that two images feature shoes dangling from something that is out of shot. And both images make little sense for a shoe ad.
100
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Idk, I haven’t seen the image, only the description of it in the article you linked
120
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
They don’t feature the other image but in the text it explains that the Malaysian arm shared an image of shoes hanging from a tree that also caused outrage
110
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
From a tree.
1100
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Apparently there was another abhorrent KKK-themed image in the shoot: wwd.com/footwear-new...
wwd.com
EXCLUSIVE: Converse Responds After Campaign Ad Draws KKK and Lynching Comparisons Online: ‘We’re Sorry’
FN reached out to Converse for a statement and the brand released an apology after campaign ad receives KKK comparisons.
100
Cat T @cattownsend.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This says there was another KKK image too 🤢
1140