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Seth Wynes

@sethwynes.bsky.social
774 followers 139 following 22 posts

Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo. Climate, policy, housing, AI risks.

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Reposted by Seth Wynes
Phil @philmarfisi.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
I was in Victoria for a wedding in February two years ago and spent 65% of the time trying to convince everyone in my family to move there so I'd have an excuse to
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Reposted by Seth Wynes
Lisa Roberts @lisarobehfx.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
“I had many conversations with people who arrived in Victoria, saw the mountains and the ocean and the sunshine and then concluded that the city’s best feature was the comparative ease of finding a parking space.” 🤣
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Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
YIMBYs and urbanists often make the point that you should let people live where they want: near jobs, schools and amenities. I'd like to make a special case for Canada: we should let people live where the weather is good! open.substack.com/pub/carboncr...
open.substack.com
Canada has exactly one city with good weather and it’s too tiny
Or how to cure thousands of Canadians of Seasonal Affective Disorder
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Reposted by Seth Wynes
neil21 @neil21.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
carboncreatures.substack.com/p/canada-has... Some wonderful turns of phrase in this Victoria #yimby piece by @sethwynes.bsky.social #bcpoli #yyjpoli
carboncreatures.substack.com
Canada has exactly one city with good weather and it’s too tiny
Or how to cure thousands of Canadians of Seasonal Affective Disorder
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Reposted by Seth Wynes
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
I wrote a post comparing climate and AI timelines. I'm curious as to whether other people see these risks as interacting? Or perhaps one coming well before the other? Would love to hear people's thoughts! carboncreatures.substack.com/p/will-we-ge...
carboncreatures.substack.com
Will we get robots before the Amazon collapses?
Grappling with AI timelines as a climate researcher
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Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
I wrote a post comparing climate and AI timelines. I'm curious as to whether other people see these risks as interacting? Or perhaps one coming well before the other? Would love to hear people's thoughts! carboncreatures.substack.com/p/will-we-ge...
carboncreatures.substack.com
Will we get robots before the Amazon collapses?
Grappling with AI timelines as a climate researcher
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Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Hi folks, I'm starting a Substack newsletter! I'm mostly going to focus on my research on climate change, AI safety, and my thoughts on wild animal welfare. The first post is up and I'd love if you took a look: open.substack.com/pub/carboncr...
open.substack.com
Why Aldo Leopold founded environmentalism instead of wild animal welfare
On warm dogs and cold chickadees
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Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
New preprint: Climate Research Agendas Should Account for Anticipated AI Risks. I argue that AI timelines are shorter than climate timelines and since climate research is unique in focusing on such long horizons, this requires some adjustments from climate folks.
Global surface temperature change relative to pre-industrial times (A), and task duration that state-of-the-art AI systems can complete with 50% reliability (B). Note the logarithmic y-axis in Panel B. Task duration estimates are from METR (Kwa et al., 2025). Forecasted artificial general intelligence (AGI) range includes lower 25%, median, and upper 75% estimates from forecasting platform Metaculus as of December 2025. Climate data from IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report SPM.4 (a) and Figure 3.3(a)(IPCC, 2024).
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Kimberly Nicholas @kimberlynicholas.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Our new study* finds wildlife support 2/3 of nature's contributions to people, from hunting and fishing to art and music to birds eating crop pests. #Biodiversity & #conservation must include animals! Read more: wecanfixit.substack.com/p/localize * @beckyck.bsky.social, @natrevbiodiv.bsky.social
Our new study (Chaplin-Kramer et al., 2025) found wildlife play critical roles in nature’s benefits to people. Wildlife’s contributions to people (WCP) support nature’s contributions to people (NCP) through actions like predation, herbivory, scavenging, and ecosystem engineering. Wild animals directly and indirectly support services such as habitat creation, climate regulation, pollination, food production, and cultural identity. Graphic designed by Sylvia Heredia.
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Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Great resource for those tracking EV uptake
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Reposted by Seth Wynes
Heatmap News @heatmap.news · 03/01/2025
"The timing is brutal for a potentially climate-friendly new industry that had hoped to start competing with conventional meat in 2025." What happens when the cultivated meat industry meets Trump 2.0? @mikegrunwald.bsky.social tackles that question below, feat. @chefsuzigerber.bsky.social:
heatmap.news
Will RFK Ban Lab-Grown Meat?
Trump’s first administration supported it. But now there’s a new crowd coming into town.
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Reposted by Seth Wynes
Eva Vivalt @evavivalt.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
To test this, we ran a survey experiment on a nationally representative sample of 6,000 people in the U.S. We elicited ethical beliefs, provided info about either a new conventional, cultured or veg substitute, showed a video clip about factory farming, & re-elicited beliefs. 6/
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Eva Vivalt @evavivalt.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Does technology affect ethical beliefs? Some have argued that ethical beliefs are nested in culture, and culture can be affected by one's economic environment. 1/
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Trevor Tombe @trevortombe.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
How do carbon taxes affect food prices? In our latest paper, @dr_jen_winter and I analyze both direct and indirect impacts across the entire food supply chain: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abs… It's the most detailed exploration of CTaxes and food yet! 🤓 #cdnecon #cdnpoli
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Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 12/09/2024
Check out our new open-access paper! We surveyed 211 IPCC authors, finding most authors are doubtful that warming will be limited to the Paris targets of well below 2°C www.nature.com/articles/s43...
nature.com
Perceptions of carbon dioxide emission reductions and future warming among climate experts - Communications Earth & Environment
The authors of the IPCC Assessment Report are skeptical that warming can be limited below 2 degrees Celsius according to the survey of 211 experts and statistical analysis.
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Simon Donner @simondonner.bsky.social · 21/06/2024
Postdoc opening! We're looking for someone with a marine ecology or from climate backgrounds to work with us on research related to marine heatwaves and other climate extremes. It's a chance to work in a very interdisciplinary setting: simondonner.com/post-doctora...
simondonner.com
Postdoc Opportunity: Climate Extremes and Coastal Ecosystems · Simon Donner
My research group at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada is searching for a postdoctoral researcher to participate in interdisciplinary research on ocean extreme events and their e...
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