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Sarah Boon

@snowhydro.bsky.social
11K followers 2K following 2.5K posts

Writer and editor. "Meltdown: The Making and Breaking of a Field Scientist" now available-see melt-down.ca Bylines in LARB, Science, Nature, Orion, Longreads, Terrain.org, and others. snowhydro1 (at) gmail (dot) com linktr.ee/snowhydro

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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Yikes
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Canada can build major projects faster without weakening environmental protections, science, transparency or accountability. I just wrote to my MP asking them to strengthen Bill C-39. You can too 👉 actionnetwork.org/letters/have...
actionnetwork.org
Tell your MP: Canada can build faster without weakening science and environmental safeguards
I just wrote to my MP about Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act. Canada can absolutely make major-project reviews faster and more efficient — but speed shouldn’t come at the expense of environm...
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
When Alberta separatists come up on the BBC, you know it's serious...
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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
From my notebook. My philosophy, while writing books, for the last ten years.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Great pics, sounds like an idyllic place to hang out.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I can imagine!
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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
this is fucking insane. fuck this country. jesus.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
See also Water, Carbon, Time by Jennifer deMooy www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Save the bogs, for peat’s sake
Peatlands are rich ecosystems and critical carbon sinks—thanks to climate change, they are drying up
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
This week's blog is about autumn and all it brings us. What's your favourite part of the season? watershednotes.ca/2026/10/07/a...
watershednotes.ca
Autumn
The desiccated leaves on the maple tree clatter together like plates in the dishwasher, each daring the other to fall off first. The sun slants at a lower angle
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This week's blog post is about book awards - the anticipation of being a finalist and the disappointment in not winning. But there are still silver linings! watershednotes.ca/2026/09/23/a...
watershednotes.ca
Always the Bridesmaid, Never the Bride
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks since my last post. I was feeling pretty good about my book being shortlisted for the BC/Yukon Book Prizes Hubert Eva
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Happy equinox! We were behind on our planning so didn't even have a homemade apple pie to celebrate. For winter solstice we'll be more prepared!
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Two defeats in a week! Glad to have been shortlisted for the @bcyukonbookprizes.bsky.social Hubert Evans Non-fiction Award, but congratulations to Julian Brave NoiseCat on his win. Thanks to the jury for selecting my book as a finalist. @ualbertapress.bsky.social
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Pleased to have been shortlisted for the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Book Award. Unfortunately I didn't win, but congratulations to the winner! (I don't know who that is yet). Also thanks to the jury for reading all those books.. www.linkedin.com/posts/swccbo...
linkedin.com
#swccbookawards #sciencebooks #canadianbooks #sciencewriting | Science Writers and Communicators of Canada
We're celebrating the 2025 SWCC Book Awards 📚 🏆 shortlist! Meltdown: The Making and Breaking of a Field Scientist by Sarah Boon, PhD, FRCGS, published by the The University of Alberta Press is reco...
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NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The Fifth World Congress of Environmental History is Coming to Toronto in 2030! We are excited to welcome @iceho.bsky.social and environmental historians from around the world to Canada! niche-canada.org/2026/09/18/t... #envhist #envhum
niche-canada.org
The Fifth World Congress of Environmental History is Coming to Toronto in 2030!
York University in Toronto will host the 2030 Fifth World Congress of Environmental History, marking its North American debut.
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NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
"Before 'Lake America,' There Was 'Lake Frontenac'" by Scott Berthelette is part of our Tracking the Effects: Environmental History and the Current United States Federal Administration series, published in collaboration with @activehist.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2026/09/14/b... #envhist
niche-canada.org
Before “Lake America,” There Was “Lake Frontenac”
Lake Ontario's history shows political renaming attempts often fail, as Indigenous-derived names endure despite official decrees or vanity.
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Ryan J Hollister @phaneritic.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Look what Trump and Russel Vought have done to our Yosemite. The Tioga Pass entrance gate and sign are literally being held together with ratcheting trailer straps. Meanwhile at NW entrance on 120, the visitor station bathrooms are closed and row of horrendously full porta potties await guests.
The wooden entrance gate at Yosemite has its stone pillar made of granite Boulder been stacked like masonry wrapped in neon, orange and yellow ratcheting tiedown straps to prevent the rocks from presumably falling off the center post. There is a orange caution cone in front of the gate as well.Yosemite’s Northwest entrance public bathrooms with two bathroom clothes, signs in front of the door, preventing people from going in and also have directions pointing folks to the left which leads to stinky nasty porta pottiesA row of 12 Porta potties lining the sidewalk of the parking lot in Yosemite that is apparently good enough to take care of the needs of the thousands of visitors that come through this entrance gate every single day.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Geography at work.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I miss you, too! Our walks were so great. We are doing okay out here- hope you're well, too.
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Seth Masket @smotus.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
My hot take: We are not arguing about SSRIs. Some of us are using them as prescribed by our doctors to treat mental health difficulties. This administration has decided that's a problem based on no actual research.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Ugh.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"At the heart of AI therapy is a paradox: We embrace it out of our longing for exactly what it cannot ultimately give."
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Finally, some exciting news.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Goodbye Annie Dillard www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/b... (gift link)
nytimes.com
Annie Dillard, Meditative Author of ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,’ Dies at 81 (Gift Article)
Her Thoreau-like account of journeys in the woods, published when she was 28, was the first of many ruminations on life and nature, good and evil.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Cool - thanks!
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Evan Walker @ecologicalev.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
“Strategically placed greenbelts in the suburbs could cool some of the world’s biggest cities by almost half a degree across at least half their area” 🌎 www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2026/08/urba...
anthropocenemagazine.org
Urban heat's overlooked fix: Greening the land upwind of cities
A study published in Nature Cities suggests that forests placed strategically outside urban cores can lower temperatures across much of a city.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Thank you!
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Yesss!
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Hopefully!
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Thanks Laurie! That's what I like to hear.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Hurrah! :)
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
OK I'll bite. My book is MELTDOWN: THE MAKING AND BREAKING OF A FIELD SCIENTIST. It follows me on my fieldwork adventures on Arctic glaciers, scaring away grizzlies and gauging large rivers. It also shines a light on academia and how I left the university due to mental illness. melt-down.ca
melt-down.ca
MELTDOWN – The making and breaking of a field scientist
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
This week's blog post is about memories of landscapes past (with dogs). watershednotes.ca/2026/09/09/r...
watershednotes.ca
Recollections
When I left Lethbridge I didn’t have any good memories of the place. All I could see were the bad ones, that went along with the landscape and the people. But
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Very true. Just look at Alberta.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
What kind of science center is it without a science staff?
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
WTF?
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This week's blog is about how past landscapes remind us of the past and ground us in the present. watershednotes.ca/2026/09/09/r...
watershednotes.ca
Recollections
When I left Lethbridge I didn’t have any good memories of the place. All I could see were the bad ones, that went along with the landscape and the people. But
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
For those of you interested in the impacts of Canada funding 64 new US (22 Canadian) research chairs, here's a post from 2013, about the CERC program in Canada which did the same thing (lots of money, few people funded). labandfield.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/t...
labandfield.wordpress.com
The value of the Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) program
The CERC program currently hosts 19 chairs across Canada, bringing “big-name talent” with a $10 million research grant for 7 years.  Researchers have argued that the CERC program is bad…
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Christiaan Triebert @trbrtc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Meanwhile on X, from Evan Hubinger, who leads the Alignment Science team at Anthropic.
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Eric Doherty @ericdoherty.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"Global demand for oil is forecast to... peak... in the early 2030s" Math: 2030 - 2026 = 4 years Canada's (expensive to extract) Oilsands oil "is unlikely to be economically viable once demand starts to fall sharply.” Subsidizing increased extraction makes no sense. #cdnpoli #bcpoli
theguardian.com
Global move away from oil could lead to conflict and migration, experts say
Researchers urge governments to help worst afflicted countries, such as Nigeria and Algeria, which rely on oil revenues for public services
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
What a great story
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Remarkable
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
It's like The Borg.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
"the motives on display in this incident were significantly more concerning and significantly closer to AI takeover, or just much more harmful actions, than what we’ve seen even six months ago." This is a creepy read about AI "independence." (read the transcript) www.dwarkesh.com/p/ajeya-cotra
dwarkesh.com
Ajeya Cotra – Inside the OpenAI agent swarm that hacked Hugging Face
"This might be the clearest warning shot we ever get."
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
An undercover agent attended an anti-ICE meeting at the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in suburban Minneapolis, recorded the license plates of attendees and then matched the plates to their owners, creating dossiers that included photos, addresses, and info about their families and employment.
reason.com
This federal case against Minnesota protesters is worth watching if you care about your civil liberties
A discovery motion could reveal how far DHS went in surveilling Minnesota activists and other administration critics.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Smith just goes from bad to worse to even worse.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
So have many others. But it's difficult to set up monitoring systems in the region. Which glaciers do you monitor? The ones closest to towns? How far upstream do you have to go? What size of town will benefit most from monitoring?
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
What the disaster in Nepal tells us about climate change. www.cbc.ca/news/climate...
cbc.ca
Why scientists fear Nepal's disaster is just a glimpse of the carnage climate change could cause | CBC
Some climate scientists are cautious about prematurely attributing human caused-climate change as the sole cause of the disaster that resulted in the violent flooding of Himalayan villages in Nepal th...
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Here we go.
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Sarah Boon @snowhydro.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
"Graduate students aren't abandoning academia. They're asking whether the academy, as...currently structured, deserves their trust. That is not a political question; it is an institutional one. And it is one that universities cannot afford to leave unanswered." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...
insidehighered.com
Grad Students Wonder if Academia Is Worth Saving (opinion)
It’s not just the federal government that’s telling grad students their work doesn’t matter.
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