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Roderick Bale

@dendrorodbale.bsky.social
365 followers 89 following 45 posts

Dendrochronology of living trees/ buildings/archaeological wood/ tree-ring stable isotopes. Based in Wales

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Reposted by Roderick Bale
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
It's a point I've been trying to make for a long time: there is no good way to meet even 10% of current demand for animal products. They trash the living world, whichever way you do it. If you want to reduce your impact, switch to a plant-based diet. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Organic eggs have worse impact on climate than eggs from caged chickens
Adopting organic free-range model in UK could lead to greenhouse emissions equivalent to 2,316,000 tonnes of CO2, study suggests
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Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Projected changes in both mean climate and climate variability drive substantial increases in extreme fire weather in the western United States journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...
journals.ametsoc.org
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Mira Rojanasakul @rjnskl.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Record heat is colliding with a snow drought across the Western United States, where snowpack accounts for much of the water supply 🎁 www.nytimes.com/interactive/... w/ @byscottdance.com & @sachimulkey.bsky.social
A map of the snowpack across the western United States compared to average snowpack for this time of the year. In nearly all, large swaths of the mountain ranges have less than a third of the normal snowpack for the year. Nearly all of the Colorado River Basin has below-average snow. Snowpack is below average in every western state except for parts of Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Washington.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Fossil fuels push the world towards autocracy. Were we less dependent on them, there might have been no President Trump, no President Putin, no ayatollahs, no Netanyahu, no perpetual Middle East wars. Democracy depends on unhooking ourselves. This week's column. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
We need to be honest about Iran – and how our rampant greed for oil is causing mayhem | George Monbiot
Oil has empowered capitalism, and some of the world’s most exploitative regimes. Move away from it and we can solve some of the key issues we face, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Jan Dutkiewicz @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
agricultural exceptionalism is everywhere
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
If we made the green energy transition this war would be unthinkable and these authoritarians wouldn’t be in power — not in the US, not in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia, not in Russia. Hydrocarbons are killing our freedom and just plain killing us.
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James Wright @jpwarchaeology.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
There is a popular assumption that if a building is listed then we know everything about it. Modern archaeology has shown that most listed buildings have never been meaningfully researched. I'll be looking at why this is during an online event on 26 Feb... www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/reinterpre...
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Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
A new paper by @anaigmendez.bsky.social vin Geophysical Research Letters shows that the oxygen isotope ratio of the annual rings of tropical conifers in Central America records rainfall amount and tracks large-scale tropical atmosphere ocean dynamics! agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Oxygen Isotopes in Tree Rings Track Neotropical Climate Dynamics
Tree-ring δ18O from Abies guatemalensis in Central America captures interannual variations in boreal summer rainfall Lighter δ18O years are associated with a weakening of the Caribbean Low-Level ...
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Lots of mentions in the Parliamentary debate today of former MP and DCMS member Ian Lucas’ book on information warfare ‘Digital Gangsters’ — three years old but ever more relevant subscribe.bylinetimes.com/product/digi...
subscribe.bylinetimes.com
Digital Gangsters – Byline Times Shop
Digital Gangsters The inside story of how greed, lies and technology broke democracy Online campaigning has transformed politics worldwide in the last 5 years. Electoral earthquakes such as Brexit and...
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Roderick Bale @dendrorodbale.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Shipping marks on a basement ceiling conifer joist at Cambrian place Swansea 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿. Dated to first quarter of the 19th century
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Roderick Bale @dendrorodbale.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Dendro samples from Gloucester Chambers, maritime quarter Swansea 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
Conifer dendrochronology samples
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Kevin Schofield @kevinschofied.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Amazingly, Zahawi only got round to deleting the below after the press conference announcing his defection to Reform.
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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 10/01/2026
A Black man was killed by ICE (off duty) in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve. And like Renée Good, he was an American citizen. But most people have not heard about Keith Porter. I need y’all to realize this. Black people experience this lack of visibility all the time when it comes to being victims.
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Roderick Bale @dendrorodbale.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Happy new year (s)
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Thick as mince and thick as thieves. A column about the absolute idiots European legislators have made of themselves over the naming of food, at the behest of meat lobbyists. You laugh and then you weep. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
When is a sausage not really a sausage? Ask the meat lobby | George Monbiot
European legislators may ban plant-based products from using the name to prevent ‘confusion’. Just don’t mention beef tomatoes or buffalo wings, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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D.Moore @d-moore.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Dugin's 1997 description of the UK as a 'strategic floating base' of the USA that needs to be cut off from the EU keeps popping in my mind. The fact that his wildest dreams have come to pass since then, and the USA is now a Russian ally, is really starting to make this island feel unsafe.
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Marina Bolotnikova @mbolotnikova.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
"Interventions in the sex lives of animals are so intrusive and ubiquitous that..bestiality laws had to be rewritten to include explicit exceptions for farmers." love this piece by @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social & Gabe newrepublic.com/article/2036...
newrepublic.com
The Internet Loves These “Gay Sheep.” The Real Story Is Much Darker.
A much-hyped fashion show with wool from “gay rams” obscures the brutal reality of an industry that exploits sheep sexuality at every turn.
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Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Very cool work by Bryan Black here at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research establishing the exact date of the Electron Mudflow in the Puget Sound metropolitan area: 'Forest-floor burial in 1507 by the largest Mount Rainier lahar of the past millennium' doi.org/10.1130/G537...
doi.org
Forest-floor burial in 1507 by the largest Mount Rainier lahar of the past millennium | Geology | GeoScienceWorld
New dating of lahar-killed trees underscores volcano hazards in the Puget Sound metropolitan area. Beginning as a landslide from the west flank of Mount
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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
I've signed. Have you? Petition: Call a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...
petition.parliament.uk
Petition: Call a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy
We are concerned about reported efforts from Russia to influence democracy in the US, UK, Europe and elsewhere. We believe we must establish the depth and breadth of possible Russian influence campaig...
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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Yay!! I couldn’t be there but Sergei & the Westminster Spy Ring just won gold at the APA podcast awards!! Whole thing was crowdfunded by @the-citizens.bsky.social to highlight 5-year legal case to get an investigation into Russian interference in UK politics. Power to the people!
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
There are some people who seem to see the recovery of ecosystems in a deforested waste as a personal affront. It's about power, and different landscapes reflect the different ways in which power is distributed - or concentrated. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Willow trees on Prince William’s land in Devon poisoned with herbicide
Exclusive: Unknown culprit suspected of spraying glyphosate on protected trees hoped to stop peat erosion and flooding
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Jan Dutkiewicz @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
"as negotiations with EU governments begin, the amendment that everyone assumed would die in the first round is still standing — not because it has a powerful constituency behind it, but because almost no one is expending political capital to bury it." [facepalm] www.politico.eu/article/vegg...
politico.eu
How a ‘veggie burger’ ban nobody wanted became one Brussels might actually pass
A fringe amendment to protect meaty vocabulary has become a test of Europe’s loyalty to tradition and its waning appetite for food innovation.
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Oz Katerji @ozkaterji.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
This is Zelenskyy's "if necessary for years, if necessary alone" moment. A chapter in history that will be remembered both for the shame of Washington's betrayal, and for the dignity, bravery, defiance and resolve of the Ukrainian people in the face of it all.
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Cold War Steve @coldwarsteve.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
2025! The traditional end-of-year collage! Available as a 1000 piece jigsaw, limited edition art prints and tea towels! 👇👇👇👇👇 www.coldwarsteve.com/2025/11/18/u...
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Jan Dutkiewicz @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
It's the cow, not the how. Always has been. Always will be. newrepublic.com/article/1775...
newrepublic.com
The Comforting Lie of Climate-Friendly Meat
The industry insists that meat’s problems can be solved with technical fixes. We’ve seen this before.
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D.Moore @d-moore.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
2017 tweet from Leave.EU thanking Putin for carpet bombing Syria which displaced 14 million & led directly to the refugee/boat crisis.
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The Archaeological Conservancy @thearchcons.org · 25/10/2025
CAHOKIA, ILLINOIS — Using tree-ring radiocarbon from an A.D. 994 solar event, researchers precisely dated the Mitchell Log—Greater Cahokia’s largest known marker post—to about A.D. 1124, and strontium isotopes show the bald cypress wasn’t local, likely hauled ≥112 miles. Read more:
buff.ly
Age and origin of a Cahokian wooden monument at the Mitchell site, Illinois, USA
Cahokia was the first and largest precolonial city outside of Mesoamerica in what is now the United States. Monuments and exotic goods were central to public life at Cahokia, but no high-resolution…
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Neil Pederson @yellowbuckeye.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Two new key papers on climate change and forests in the Northeastern US led by Jaclyn Hatala Matthes. First, a review on the Impacts and Legacies of Extreme Precipitation on Temperate Forests During Critical Ecological Windows www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
annualreviews.org
Impacts and Legacies of Extreme Precipitation on Temperate Forests During Critical Ecological Windows
Within seasonal temperate forests, changes in precipitation structure—its form, duration, and seasonal timing—is a dominant characteristic of climate change. While past research has focused primarily ...
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
For years, there's been a massive over-emphasis on food miles, and a massive under-emphasis on food type. By far and away the best dietary decision you can make, for environmental, humanitarian and public health purposes, is to cut out animal products.
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Andrew Hacket-Pain @andrewhacket-pain.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Why are there so many acorns in the UK this year? Oaks everywhere seem to have been laden with acorns. Nice to quoted when the BBC investigated! There are lots of chestnuts too, and beech seeds in some places but not others. Happy squirrels and jays this year! 🐿🌰🌳 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
The National Trust explains why there are so many acorns this year
A National Trust gardener said the volume of acorns was
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Jan Dutkiewicz @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
I wrote this article because so much media coverage of the soy trade drama focuses on farmers and not the political economy of ag. If a story covers rare earth it will explain its uses. Why is the same not standard for soy or alfalfa? Need to make the connection for readers. bsky.app/profile/jand...
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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
Can't resist. How do you approach an angry Reform UK leader in Wales? Caerphilly! bylinetimes.com/2025/10/11/s...
bylinetimes.com
'Stunned?' Farage's Admission He Knew Nathan Gill but Not His Kremlin Associates Does Not Stand Up to Scrutiny
Insiders have told Byline Times it is 'inconceivable' the Reform Leader did not know about his close aide's pro Russian statements
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Laiken Jordahl @laikenjordahl.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
“We’re already seeing drought stress, with half the mature oaks in the valley dead,” Palma said. “The wall will only accelerate the collapse. You lose the trees, you lose the shade. The creek dries, the habitat dies. It’s a cascade of ecological devastation.” azluminaria.org/2025/10/07/a...
azluminaria.org
A jaguar, a wall, a sacred valley: What's at stake in San Rafael - AZ Luminaria
In late summer, a jaguar padded somewhere near the San Rafael Valley, a pristine grassland nestled between the Patagonia and Huachuca Mountains southeast of Tucson. Trail cameras monitored by Sky Isla...
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Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Very cool work (with a very sobering result) led by Andy Jones (a paleoCAMP alumnus!) in Science Advances: 'Glaciers in California’s Sierra Nevada are likely disappearing for the first time in the Holocene' www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Glaciers in California’s Sierra Nevada are likely disappearing for the first time in the Holocene
The projected loss of glaciers in California’s Sierra Nevada is likely unprecedented in at least the past 30,000 years.
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Brandon Keim @brandonkeim.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
"I stopped eating meat some 50 years ago," wrote Jane Goodall, "when I looked at the pork chop on my plate and thought: this represents fear, pain, death." Best as I can tell, not one obituary or article on her passing mentions this fact. It's worth knowing. news.janegoodall.org/2017/04/28/w...
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Ponderosa pine smells like butterscotch. Go ahead, sniff one the next time you're in the western US. Some say "vanilla", some say "oh no, my nose is covered in sap." Let's talk about birds, butterscotch, forest fires, blue wood, & boring beetles. But mostly this thread is about terpenes.
From a blog called "CreationsDawn", a photo of the author smelling a ponderosa pine.  The author wears a green cap, light blue-green shirt and red camel pack.  They are sniffing a tree with pine bark, with a sort of red-orange color.  More trees in the background.
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Melaine Le Roy @subfossilguy.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
14,000 yr-old in situ stumps sampled today! 🥰 Wood that old cannot be found in the Alps, but in the Prealps! In Southern Alps, some torrential systems feature Lateglacial Pinus sylvestris outcrops! So BEAUTIFUL! (Rooted stumps+paleosol+alluvial sediments) 📷 L. Francon PI: C. Miramont (both IMBE)
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Roderick Bale @dendrorodbale.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Interesting site we sampled some years ago and has recently been published #dendrochronology #intertidal #archaeology historicengland.org.uk/research/res...
historicengland.org.uk
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Why is is so hard for people to say these words?: Lough Neagh, the UK's biggest lake, is being killed by *livestock farms*.
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Red Hot World @redhotworld.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
When speaking to Tommy Robinson at the far right demonstration in London today, Elon Musk wore a t-shirt saying "What would Orwell think?" So let's dive in - what would George Orwell think about Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk? 🧵
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Lara Band @laraband.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Maritime Archaeology! Built Heritage! Trees! All together = perfect! Nice work here from @dendrorodbale.bsky.social
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Roderick Bale @dendrorodbale.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Ship’s floor (oak) reused as lintel. Removed during construction work from Cambrian Place Swansea. Dendro dated to spring summer 1778 and sourced from a locally grown Welsh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 tree! #dendrochronology #wales #archaeology
Sampling timber for tree-ring datingDendrochronology sample Ship’s floor reused as lintel
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Roderick Bale @dendrorodbale.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Ship’s floor (oak) reused as lintel. Removed during construction work from Cambrian Place Swansea. Dendro dated to spring summer 1778 and sourced from a locally grown Welsh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 tree! #dendrochronology #wales #archaeology
Sampling timber for tree-ring datingDendrochronology sample Ship’s floor reused as lintel
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Jan Dutkiewicz @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
This has always been clear: plant-based meat alternatives are better for the planet and, at least compared to red meat, better for your health. That this is not widely accepted is the product of meat industry disinfo, science illiteracy, and some very stupid journalists. www.cnn.com/2025/07/21/h...
cnn.com
Eating this ultraprocessed food may be good for you and the planet, experts say | CNN
Plant-based meats have been viewed at times as ultraprocessed and possibly unhealthy. But some experts believe they deserve a second look.
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Roderick Bale @dendrorodbale.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Pith hit! 🍾
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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Here's the alternative global warming plan. Draw up the drawbridge. Let the global south burn. Suck out the last fossil fuel profits. Get the population down to 1 billion (as per Peter Thiel) and let the oligarchs enjoy their vineyards in Siberia and feudal estates in other cool places
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Roderick Bale @dendrorodbale.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
🐈
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Kenny Torrella @kennytorrella.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
The list of terrible things done to farmed animals is so long, and meat/dairy/egg companies don't have to disclose them. That'll soon change in Switzerland — at least for one set of really awful practices. New story today in our Processing Meat newsletter:
A screenshot of a news story with the headline: Would this food label change how you eat? The picture for the story is of a shrink-wrapped meat package that has a sticker that reads "Warning: The cattle raised for this meat were castrated without pain relief."
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
In 3 months, bluefin tuna will be migrating back into our waters, where they'll be met with a fleet of commercial and recreational* fishers. It's a horrible way to welcome these magnificent, charismatic creatures. Let's try to get this to 250,000 before they arrive. www.change.org/p/protect-bl...
change.org
Sign the Petition
Protect bluefin tuna in UK waters
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 13/05/2025
This Spring (March-April-May) may end up being the driest on record for the UK. This would also make it the driest of any season in a dataset that goes back to 1836. Spring in 1852 currently holds the record for driest season at 100.7 mm averaged across the UK. www.bbc.co.uk/weather/arti...
bbc.co.uk
UK weather: Spring may become driest on record with no rain in sight
There has been a lack of rainfall in many parts of the UK so far this spring and there is little or no rain in the immediate forecast.
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