Sign in

Seth Wynes

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

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

PostsRepliesMedia
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
I would also love to see more cities take on sidewalk clearing in Ontario. While writing this piece I watched a woman with a walker going along the middle lane of the road because the sidewalks are impassable. It's very frustrating.
110
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
051
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
I share your concern on the ferry front. I'm curious though what makes the BC Transit to BC Ferries relationship especially important? Wouldn't it just be a case of BC Transit increasing frequency to match additional ferry departures? Is there something more complicated going on?
100
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
I like that you checked!
010
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.” 🤣
092
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Forgive me for tagging a few people who might enjoy: @dtkmelissa.bsky.social @jmcelroy.bsky.social @philmarfisi.bsky.social @amoralorealis.bsky.social
210
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
83310
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
031
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
001
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
001
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
000
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
One such adjustment: we should no longer refer to climate change as the central challenge of our time. More here: osf.io/preprints/so...
osf.io
OSF
020
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).
100
Reposted by Seth Wynes
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.
24819
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
It's not more upsetting than the trade war, but it was more surprising
020
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Great resource for those tracking EV uptake
010
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.
103418
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/
121
Reposted by Seth Wynes
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/
152
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
I think this probably plays some role. Might also be that residents are more supportive of speed cameras than voters and especially moreso than those who vote in local elections.
120
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Ontario's grid is pretty clean. It would be more meaningful if you lived in Alberta. Still helpful though and like you said, pretty smart choice except for the rare load where you're worried about pests.
010
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Would like to see numbers for this. I've always thought that setting your washing machine to cold is pretty good bang for your buck considering it's zero effort. But it does depend on where your energy comes from.
100
Reposted by Seth Wynes
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
34429213
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Any thoughts on whether this will create conflicts with Denmark's progress on farmed animal welfare (e.g. more incentive to increase stocking rates etc.)? agricultureandfood.dk/danish-agric...
agricultureandfood.dk
Animal welfare
The achievement of high welfare standards is paramount throughout the whole production chain, on the farm, during transport and finally at the abattoir.
000
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Alright I may give it a try!
110
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 10/11/2024
Does it add a lot of value over an old-fashioned game of Mafia?
110
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 12/09/2024
We hope that this study will give climate researchers a better understanding of the range of beliefs held by the greater community and allow for more informed discussion about where our climate is headed.
000
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 12/09/2024
We also asked these climate experts to estimate the beliefs of their peers. There were strong correlations on all questions, suggesting that participants with very high or low estimates perceive their own beliefs as closer to the community average than they actually are.
100
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 12/09/2024
We expected that researchers who worked on solutions (WG3) might be more optimistic than those working on adaptation (WG2), but found limited support for this hypothesis (differences were only significant between WG2 and WG3 for estimates of the likelihood of reaching 3°C)
100
Seth Wynes @sethwynes.bsky.social · 12/09/2024
Instead, the median estimate of maximum warming by 2100 was 2.7°C, which is consistent with modeling of the climate response to current national climate policies.
100
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.
240
Reposted by Seth Wynes
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...
01213