Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 3h

The @greenhouseuis.net - Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities invites applicants to attend a week-long PhD course on Energy Humanities, at the University of Stavanger, 1-5 Dec 2025

The course is open to applicants from both within and outside of Norway.

niche-canada.org/2025/10/15/a...

Apply for PhD Course on Energy Humanities - University of Stavanger

The Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities invites applicants to attend a week-long PhD course on Energy Humanities, held at the University of Stavanger from 1-5 December 2025.

niche-canada.org

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Joshua Kirshner @joshkirshner.bsky.social · 20h

It may once have been true, but not anymore...

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

Ryan Katz-Rosene, PhD @ryankatzrosene.bsky.social · 22h

“When crops are burned for fuel, new land can be needed to grow new crops for food or fuel. This can lead to indirect land clearance and deforestation. Staggeringly, biofuels globally therefore today emit 16% more CO₂ emissions than the fossil fuels they replace.”

From: https://www.transportenvironment.org/articles/crop30-why-burning-food-for-land-hungry-biofuels-is-fueling-the-climate-crisis

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

NPR @npr.org · 1d

Tom Bowman has held his Pentagon press pass for 28 years. He says the Pentagon's new media policy makes it impossible to be a journalist, which means finding out what's really going on behind the scenes and not accepting wholesale what any government or administration says.

Opinion: Why I'm handing in my Pentagon press pass

Tom Bowman has held his Pentagon press pass for 28 years. He says the Pentagon's new media policy makes it impossible to be a journalist, which means finding out what's really going on behind the scenes and not accepting wholesale what any government or administration says.

n.pr

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 2d

On 27 October @adamtooze.bsky.social will give the inaugural 𝘓𝘙𝘉 Autumn Lecture in New York on the subject of Electrostates, Petrostates & the New Cold War.

Book now:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nyc-lectur...

NYC Lecture: Adam Tooze on Electrostates, Petrostates & the New Cold War

The 2025 LRB Autumn Lecture: a new annual lecture in New York

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

Aarne Granlund @aarnegranlund.bsky.social · 2d

"Hamburg voters have backed a citizen-led referendum that obliges Germany’s second largest city to step up climate action and reach climate neutrality by 2040, five years earlier than previously planned."

#ClimateAction

www.cleanenergywire.org/news/hamburg...

Hamburg referendum backs more ambitious climate action, 2040 net-zero target

www.cleanenergywire.org

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 2d

Russia's war against Ukraine has brought Russia's coal industry to its knees.

Another instance of how nostalgic 'greatness' projects accelerate the death of the material foundations of past 'greatness.'

www.ft.com/content/7c62...

Russia’s coal miners buckle under sanctions, weak prices and war

Sector’s worst crisis in 30 years underscores how some industries risk lasting damage from Ukraine invasion

www.ft.com

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · 2d

Accept our king, our god − or else:

What colonizers presented to #IndigenousPeoples as a choice was no choice at all. The Requerimiento, a 16th-century document, sheds light on deeper ideas and laws the Spanish used to take over the New World.

buff.ly/tJvdf93
#IndigenousPeoplesDay #history

Accept our king, our god − or else: The senseless ‘requirement’ Spanish colonizers used to justify their bloodshed in the Americas

The Requerimiento, a 16th-century document, sheds light on the deeper ideas and laws that the Spanish used to take over the New World.

buff.ly

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

Gil (Guillermo) Penalosa @penalosag.bsky.social · 3d

This Tuesday FREE presentation on:
RETROFITTING SUBURBIA
Transforming shopping malls, schools, arterials... into thriving neighborhoods.
Solutions to housing crisis.
Presents Ellen Dunham-Jones

Tues. Oct. 14 at 11am EST
FREE register & share:
bit.ly/4gupstf

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Joshua Kirshner @joshkirshner.bsky.social · 3d

a celebration to appreciate a (threatened) oak tree that overhangs our garden

Joshua Kirshner @joshkirshner.bsky.social · 3d

theconversation.com/samora-mache...

Samora Machel’s vision for Mozambique didn’t survive: what has taken its place?

What remains of Machel today is, above all, his ethical teaching. He died poor, committed to the cause of his nation.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

AAUP @aaup.org · 7d

“If we aren't free to pursue research and teaching based on wherever the knowledge leads us, we are not truly working in the service of the public.”

— Rana Jaleel, associate professor at UC Davis & Chair of the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom & Tenure

How Academic Freedom in Universities Generates the Greatest Value for Society

Academic freedom is at the foundation of one of the most powerful and fundamental ideas about universities. Learn about how academic freedom has contributed to broad benefits in society and UC Davis f...

lettersandsciencemag.ucdavis.edu

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

Psycho Pete @psychopete.bsky.social · 4d

The opposite of Kid Rock is Neil Young. Boycott Amazon. For the love of God.
psychopete1.substack.com/p/step-1-adm...

Step 1: Admit We Were Powerless Over Amazon

Notes from the Apocalypse — broadcast by me from 25 years in the future.

psychopete1.substack.com

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 4d

Everyday now there is new information detailing just how economically unviable AI is. Data centers will be the new abandoned Walmarts, but on an even larger scale.

futurism.com/future-socie...

AI Data Centers Are an Even Bigger Disaster Than Previously Thought

An investment manager realized he made a crucial mistake — and that his grim prediction about AI investments may not have been cynical enough.

futurism.com

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Joshua Kirshner @joshkirshner.bsky.social · 6d

Lovely photo!

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

Jeff Manuel @jeffmanuel.bsky.social · 8d

It's the official publication day for ETHANOL: A HEMISPHERIC HISTORY FOR THE FUTURE OF BIOFUELS. Want to know why the US turns 40 percent of the corn crop into fuel? How the US and Brazil became the world's two largest ethanol producers? Tom Rogers and I have answers.
www.oupress.com/978080619601...

Ethanol - University of Oklahoma Press

Though ethanol, a liquid fuel made from agricultural byproducts, has generated controversy in recent years—good or bad for the environment? a big-ag boon o...

www.oupress.com

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 6d

In autumn 2000, fuel protests brought Britain to a standstill - just as record floods swept the country.

David Tomory and Timothy Cooper explore what ordinary people made of oil, climate, and crisis at the dawn of the new millennium.

Of Flood Plains and Fuel Protests

How did ordinary people in 2000 make sense of oil, floods, and climate change? David Tomory and Timothy Cooper explore the link between fuel protests and flood waters.

www.historyworkshop.org.uk

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Joshua Kirshner @joshkirshner.bsky.social · 6d

Brill, that's great! And I'm interested in these as well...

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Joshua Kirshner @joshkirshner.bsky.social · 6d

Hi Charlotte, do you have weblinks for any of these CFPs? (makes it easier to share, e.g. with PhD students...) Good stuff!

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Joshua Kirshner @joshkirshner.bsky.social · 7d

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Talking About Race - Episode 7: Are Summer Riots the “New Normal”?

Podcast Episode · ROTA Podcast: Talking About Race · 05/09/2025 · 58m

podcasts.apple.com

Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

Environment and Climate Politics Working Group @bisa-ecpwg.bsky.social · 7d

Call for Papers for #BISA2026!

Exploring the relationship between imperialism, coloniality and environmental degradation.

This is a joint call with Colonial, Postcolonial & Decolonial WG, recognising that important work is being done at the intersection of our groups.

Deadline Friday 24 October.

Exploring the relationship between imperialism, coloniality and environmental degradation
Joint Call for Papers from the Colonial, Postcolonial, and Decolonial Working Group and Environment and Climate Politics Working Group
We are putting out this joint call in recognition that many researchers are working at the intersection of our two working groups - and during a time when the realities of this intersection between colonialism, empire, and the environment have never been more clear. This moment makes evident the interconnections between militarism and settler colonialism and genocide and ecocide, and therefore the need to situate our knowledge and approaches within anticolonial, indigenous and translocal perspectives.
Recognising the importance of scholarship that addresses these issues, we are calling for papers for BISA2026 that are related to the topics of how imperialism / colonialism / extraction / capitalism are in relationship with environmental degradation. This can be on a material level, where the functions of occupation and extraction lead to environmental destruction, or on a more discursive level, where hierarchies of life are used to justify and naturalise ongoing violence against people and places.
Whilst we are keeping this Call quite broad to encourage wide-ranging submissions, some paper topics or research areas might include:
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Genocide and its links to environmental destruction, for example in Palestine, DR Congo, and Sudan, to name a few.
•
Ecological imperialism – theoretical contributions or case studies
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Reparative justice and climate change
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The construction of new ‘frontiers’ – how imperialism and extraction is moving to new areas such as the deep sea or space
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Anticolonial and anti-extractive organising and decarbonization and fossil fuel phase outs
•
Indigenous approaches on relationality, connectedness and climate justice
•
The role of academics in perpetuating or resisting these forms of harm
Please send your 200-250 word abstrac…

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Joshua Kirshner @joshkirshner.bsky.social · 8d

I needed an infusion of tiger's blood www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps1f...

Waxahatchee: Tiny Desk Concert

YouTube video by NPR Music

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Joshua Kirshner

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 9d

New feature up on @latitudemedia.bsky.social on how Poland's polarized politics are stymying potential for geothermal at a moment when the country needs all the clean, domestic power it can get.

www.latitudemedia.com/news/in-coal...