iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Luckily I don't think it was someone from my dept (it was anon on a padlet), but yeah didn't make me feel too appreciated in general...

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Not quite sure how they thought firing postdocs & replacing them would work in any way, or how taking my job for a few months before guaranteed redundancy anyway would be much of an improvement!

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Was in a meeting recently where someone permanent commented to complain that we FTC staff weren't put at redundancy risk here (because either on soft money or like myself now marked for non-renewal this year anyway) & proposed that any perm. staff made redundant should be given our jobs instead...

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I have been amused to discover after the fact that in two separate cities/countries I had been living next to and regularly traversing & hanging out in declared no go zones...

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

What if we took all we've learned from pedagogy, and built edtech ostensibly encoding that but in fact incentivises the opposite? Perfect!

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Yeah, in isolation it's just one of those of things, but I tend to agree that it feels like it's getting rather more commonplace, and more draining

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Pretty minor compared to some things on this thread, but I recently walked past someone pottering in their front garden, and just as I passed they jumped up & screamed HELLO, and when I was too surprised to answer with more than a nod called me a wanker as I walked off. Minor, but found it very odd!

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Pleased to have contributed an article giving a primer on climate tipping points to this issue of environmental SCIENTIST from @the-ies.bsky.social, alongside lots of other interesting pieces too, which is now open access: www.the-ies.org/resources/en... #Climate #ClimateChange #TippingPoints

the-ies.org

Degrees of Disorder: Climate Tipping Points

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Reposted by David A. McKay

David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

1.5 degrees is coming – does that mean we’ll soon cross a *physical* limit? New post from me, on a perspective piece @smconstantino.bsky.social & I had out recently in Environmental Research Letters, arguing what it says on the tin: that 'Tipping points do not make 1.5 °C a physical climate limit'

gaiaexmachina.wordpress.com

Welcome to the limit

1.5 degrees is coming – does that mean we’ll soon cross a physical climate limit?

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

gaiaexmachina.wordpress.com

Welcome to the limit

1.5 degrees is coming – does that mean we’ll soon cross a physical climate limit?

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Oof... I'd wonder how claiming old contracts aren't binding is legal, but presumably it may well not be, and as you say they're just hoping people will have to settle for it... Grim times.

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

How do some of these even work? I'm guessing some revert to statutory, but cancelling grades or contract types??

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Also boggled by reading this from BBC back in December, which reads like it's pretty much just a copy-pasted press release from them, and not mentioning any of the quite voluminous criticism of Drax's operations and subsidies... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Drax unveils plan for data centre at Selby power station

The firm aims to expand its power station near Selby with a 100MW data centre by 2027.

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

How on Earth has Drax managed to find a way to make itself even worse?? £2m taxpayer cash a day to burn old-growth forest timber, but now to power AI! www.theguardian.com/business/202...

theguardian.com

Drax still burning 250-year-old trees sourced from forests in Canada, experts say

Exclusive: report by Stand.earth says subsidiary of power plant received truckloads of whole logs at biomass pellet sites

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Ha yes, the "... or is it a social construct?" has been getting me - emblematic of the pseudo-constructivist fallacy where the arguer believes simply by showing something is a social construct that proves it's not real (with bonus points for slipping in their preferred unexamined construct instead)

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Reposted by David A. McKay

David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Claims have circulated that UK actuaries have predicted that billions will die beyond 2C of warming, forming the basis for a new campaign. But did they really say that? New post by me at climatetippingpoints.info checking it out (tl;dr: no): climatetippingpoints.info/2026/08/11/f... #ClimateChange

climatetippingpoints.info

Fact-check: have actuaries predicted that billions will die beyond 2 degrees?

Some campaigners are claiming that UK actuaries (who measure risk for insurers) have predicted billions of deaths due to climate change beyond 2C of warming, partly due to tipping points & feed…

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Have to spell out the whole phrase using the keypad alphabet instead

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I enjoyed it robotically reading out "by calling nine hundred and ninety nine"

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

climatetippingpoints.info

Fact-check: have actuaries predicted that billions will die beyond 2 degrees?

Some campaigners are claiming that UK actuaries (who measure risk for insurers) have predicted billions of deaths due to climate change beyond 2C of warming, partly due to tipping points & feed…

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Meanwhile, some quick back-of-envelope calcs (based on www.nature.com/articles/s41... & scope 3 emissions reported in www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...) would suggest the 'mortality cost' of Jackdaw over rest of century would be in the thousands...

nature.com

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Ahh, glad I'm not the only one then! 25 and counting now...

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I've used a video & quotes from one of his previous projects (vimeo.com/942154144 & www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/l...) in my teaching on geoengineering/CDR, but to encourage reflection on "is the scale of this vision even feasible" rather than the "this is the inevitable future" way it was intended

vimeo.com

THE GREAT ENDEAVOR 3 MIN EXCERPT

We have always built the impossible. We dug canals between continents, joined coasts with rail lines, landed on distant planets and built cities that reach into the clouds. Now, on the precipice of cl...

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Societies are not adapted even to current warming of c. 1.4C. Adaptation has not been optional for a while and will require serious effort, even in the Global North, and even if the Paris Agreement was met. It's not either Mitigation/emission cuts or Adaptation, it has to be both, and much more.

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

"Our analysis here shows that intense heat is increasing rapidly even in living memory, with such events tens to hundreds of times more likely since only 2003 and virtually impossible just 50 years ago." www.worldweatherattribution.org/fossil-fuel-...

worldweatherattribution.org

Fossil fuel emissions have rapidly worsened European heatwaves in just a few decades – World Weather Attribution

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Some nice Euro-flavoured schismogenesis

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I'd never even heard of some supposed euro-anti-AC points (like on "bad air") before last year's round of this discourse, just a bit of worry about increasing energy usage / grid load (which has been a fair point, but grid decarb means gradually less so, & will need for adapt even to warming so far)

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Reposted by David A. McKay

David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

I reviewed 'Tipping Out of Trouble' (for @nature.com), a new book by Marten Scheffer on what we can learn from past societal transformations to ensure a good rather than dystopian Anthropocene. Free sharing link: rdcu.be/fnmEA #ClimateChange #NatureLoss #Sustainability #TippingPoints #BookReview

rdcu.be

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

It was an interesting read, & I agree a dark future is plausible but not inevitable. But I wasn't left convinced that tipping was behind most past transformations, or that we face a binary tipping future. More in the review ☝️ - plus further reflections 👉: gaiaexmachina.wordpress.com/2026/06/09/t...

gaiaexmachina.wordpress.com

Tips for the sustainability transformation

I recently reviewed ‘Tipping Out of Trouble’ by esteemed ecologist & complex systems scientist Marten Scheffer, which came out in Nature earlier this week. I managed to make most of…

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

rdcu.be

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Indeed, and at this point we have to assume that on climate (at very least) they're acting in bad faith

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

The lack of correction on the last instance made it clear it was either intentional or not unwelcome, and this repeat only underlines that. It's a neat outsourcing of the bailey of the motte&bailey fallacy, getting others to surmise & broadcast wanted message, while piece itself is more defendable

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Indeed, especially combined with increasing climate-driven ecological novelty (e.g. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....). A big Q though is how this can be approached outside of a landscape-scale rewilding project, with many SSSIs & land parcels quite small for a full process-based approach

royalsocietypublishing.org

Towards a novel biosphere in 2300: rapid and extensive global and biome-wide climatic novelty in the Anthropocene

Abstract. Recent climate change has effectively rewound the climate clock by approximately 120 000 years and is expected to reverse this clock a further 50

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Reposted by David A. McKay

David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

New at climatetippingpoints.info: 'News Explainer: Is the AMOC closer to collapse than thought?' There was lots of coverage a few weeks ago of a new study constraining AMOC decline, but some confusion too - here's what the study said, & how it was covered: climatetippingpoints.info/2026/05/06/n...

climatetippingpoints.info

News Explainer: Is the AMOC closer to collapse than thought?

The first of a new occassional ‘News Explainer’ series, briefly summarising recent news on climate tipping points (and checking how well the media reported it). First up, a paper by Por…

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

climatetippingpoints.info

News Explainer: Is the AMOC closer to collapse than thought?

The first of a new occassional ‘News Explainer’ series, briefly summarising recent news on climate tipping points (and checking how well the media reported it). First up, a paper by Por…

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Tangentially reminds me of Russell Brockbank's take on differences between UK/US/USSR Antarctic missions during the International Geophysical Year:

Cartoon showing UK, US, and Soviet bases in Antarctica, with the UK base consisting of a tent and someone from the British Council lecturing bored penguins on English Literature, the US base consisting of a bar and penguins playing baseball, and the Soviet base consisting of a barbed wire-fenced camp and penguins doing military drills

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

That's definitely not to say that public information campaigns & sci-comm aren't needed, but to me this event (& a few other things I can think of recently) implies more heavily that lacking the right information is the key issue, rather than confronting power.

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Climate orgs ofc don't really do this, but I think scientists are a bit more prone, e.g. the 'national emergency briefing' in the UK last week & campaign now for an emergency broadcast arguably leaning on idea of MPs/public not knowing enough. (still wrapped in wider narrative of emergency though!)

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

For my last lecture I had to log in to 5 different things (one of which didn't even work) before I could get started... Thankfully not yet needing to authenticate before starting a lecture yet, but I wouldn't be surprised!

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Yeah, I also struggle to see this (or the common logic that it *must* be feasible because it's in IAM scenarios, or otherwise TPs will happen). More sympathetic to moderate expansion of 'NBS' + ⬇️deforest = ⬆️sink, but social & economic constraints make it modest, and w/o mitigation that fails too...

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Considering a Masters? To celebrate the new Sussex School for Progressive Futures, Sussex Uni. has announced 10 £10k scholarships for selected courses, including our Climate Change, Development & Policy MSc! Details here 👇 + a Virtual Masters Open Day on 29/11/25: www.sussex.ac.uk/study/fees-f...

sussex.ac.uk

Sussex School for Progressive Futures Scholarships : University of Sussex

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

I remember being shocked back in 2004 when someone brought a BNP leaflet in to school headlined "Asylum is making Britain explode" (which I believe was widely denounced). Now, two decades on, official Labour government policy is only a whisker less inflammatory...

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Paper on sink dynamics here: rdcu.be/ePDDS And some reporting here: www.theguardian.com/environment/... (also, typo on *its - oh, for an edit button here, like on masto!)

theguardian.com

World still on track for catastrophic 2.6C temperature rise, report finds

Fossil fuel emissions have hit a record high while many nations have done too little to avert deadly global heating

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

The new Global Carbon Budget is out, updating preliminary results reported above, & suggesting that while 2023-24 was bad for land sink it seems to be bouncing back this year. As Zeke notes 👇, the bigger story is it's emerging decline, not a sudden & total collapse. I'll update explainer on it soon!

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David A. McKay @davidamckay.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Wild Roundhead spotted out in Lewes on #TheFifth

A man in Roundhead costume in the Lewes Cliffe Bonfire Society prpcession carrying a sign saying "Trust in God & Keep your Powder Dry" with flaming torch as attached, surrounded by others carrying flaming torches dressed as Roundheads and Suffragettes.

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