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Michael Tobis (mt)

@mtobis.bsky.social

3.2K followers 2.2K following 1.9K posts

PhD atmospheric/oceanic sciences 1996 but a bit rusty. Opinionated. Main topics: climate, sustainability, Canada, AI and ML, journalism. Also: roots music, art, healthy plant-based food. Please think like a planet! https://initforthegold.blogspot.com

initforthegold.blogspot.com

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · May 24

Climate change summarized.

"Carbon is Forever"

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 12h

I really did not expect things to get this bad.

Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)

James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 13h

20 years on from Lord Stern correctly diagnosing climate change as the worst market failure in history, we're still failing to get a grip on the underlying drivers of a crisis that keeps getting worse. www.businessgreen.com/blog-post/45...

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 13h

Which others do you know of? Thanks!

Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)

Tim Ellis 🍁 @djdynamic.ca · 22h

Another Canadian federal department has joined Bluesky!

Natural Resources @natural-resources.canada.ca · 2d

Hello Bluesky! We’re excited to be here. Join us for updates on:

🔋 energy sources and distribution
🌲 forests and forestry
⛏️ minerals and mining
🛰️ earth sciences
🔌 energy efficiency
🔬 science and data

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t think that sustainably grazed animals can produce the amount of meat that feedlot animals can. So people would have to eat less meat.

It might be better meat and surely more ethical meat but it would have to replace more plentiful, less expensive meat.

Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)

Joe Auerbach @joeauerbach.bsky.social · 2d

They're treating it like an iPhone feature instead of what it actually is, which is a computer that makes things up at the cost of all of our energy, all of our intellectual property and our entire environment.

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Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)

Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 2d

Everyone agrees that we're currently in a dotcom era-like AI bubble. People disagree what sort of bubble it is.

There are 3 stories one can tell about the dotcom crash: a startup story, a telecom story, and an accounting fraud story.

My take: it's giving Enron
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...

It's Giving Enron

On the AI bubble, and the various echoes of the dotcom crash

open.substack.com

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 2d

We’re definitely going to hell in a bucket now. Enjoy the ride.

euobserver — EU news that matters @euobserver.com · 2d

MEPs vote in favour of major rollback of corporate sustainability laws

The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee backs a major rollback of the EU's corporate due diligence and sustainability reporting laws, in what activists called "a clear win for Big Oil."

euobserver.com

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 2d

Tulips. A long history.

But there’s this superstitious aspect to it which puts me in mind of Easter Island.

“We are constructing our gods who will surely save us from ourselves somehow.”

Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 3d

I don't fear that a super-intelligence that will put humanity to shame is anywhere near. I just think the way we're shoveling so many resources at so-called AI is starting to look like a frantic and misplaced superstition.

The analogy that comes to my mind is Easter Island. I just can't shake it.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 3d

Literally sixty-one years later it suddenly occurs to me that “forebearance is the hallmark of your creed” is a very odd lyric for a children’s movie.

I had the record; listened to it over and over. I even had the lyrics. But I had absolutely no idea what Mary Poppins was going on about.

Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 3d

I’m not an ornithologist but I guess getting rid of the feed corn farms might help them?

Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)

Anneke @littleann4ever.bsky.social · 3d

A few weeks ago there was a #Covid19 outbreak on my Mom’s memory care wing. The whole section was quarantined. Family could still visit but before entering a resident’s room, they were req’d to put on full gowns & gloves. They were even told to remove their shoes. But masks were optional.😡

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 3d

A very large fraction of agricultural land is used for animal feed. This is inefficient because a calorie of mass produced meat is produced using many calories of feed.

Also because feed is a low margin product, producers can’t afford labour intensive practices and rely on chemicals and machines.

Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 3d

Free up land

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 3d

Fewer people and/or people eating less meat. I think this is obvious.

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Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)

Ryan @ryanwright.bsky.social · Jun 11

Bagels vs Not Bagels.

Pictures of a NY “bagel style substitute” and a Montreal bagel.

Text:

New York Dough Thing

Not a bagel.
Seriously, it's not a bagel.
It's... fine.

Montreal Bagel

Fantastic bagel.
Seriously, it's delicious.
Don't accept pretenders.

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Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 6d

To be candid, I want the bubble to burst. Because it will eventually and inevitably, but the longer the current charade goes on the more our planet and communities are decimated— and the more dependent we become on the few powerful people left who control those resources.

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 7d

Energy requirements for AI mean that the only way for the bubble not to burst would require companies to multiply their carbon footprint to an unimaginable degree. Right now, while AI is barely functional and mostly a novelty for the lazy, it requires so much energy that data centers rival cities.

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Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 6d

So when I hear of students being encouraged to use GPT in college I don’t hear innovation. I hear cognitive atrophy, the inability to think critically for oneself, and total dependence on vulnerable centralized repositories of data for knowledge without ever understanding how knowledge is generated.

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Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 6d

One curious thing on this site about speaking out against the encroachment of LLMs is that inevitably you get accused of being anti-tech. I don’t hate technology. I’ve used machine learning in my own code before. But I also recognize that oligarchs are so hellbent on pushing this tech for a reason.

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 6d

Not my point really, but thanks.

Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 6d

“Taioseach” is Irish for Prime Minister.

Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 7d

“I don’t think we can mitigate for climate change.”

- Mícheál Martin, Taoiseach.

www.independent.ie/business/tec...

Taoiseach says some climate projects will not be fulfilled because they risk polarising society

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has rowed back on climate change commitments, saying Ireland may not be able fulfil all current initiatives due to the polarising effect it could have on society.

www.independent.ie

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Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)

Aleksandra Urman @aurman21.bsky.social · 6d

Yeah Slack I totally wanted to have the threads between me and colleagues discussing research ideas summarised by some crappy AI. Because I can't read 5 messages myself or something.(No, absolutely not, I didn't click anything, how do I turn this off forever?!)

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Reposted by Michael Tobis (mt)

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 7d

Please enjoy this executive at one of America's biggest gas companies openly admitting that expanding supply leads to increased demand for fossil fuels

He is not wrong: frantic expansion of fossil fuel supply worsens climate change. Tax it, cut subsidies, wind it down

www.ft.com/content/5ba8...

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https://www.ft.com/content/5ba8caec-61d3-4aa9-a877-9b200ef4b5b0

Will Jordan, chief legal and policy officer at EQT, a leading US gas producer, also thought that any glut would be temporary, and said US demand was also rising on the boom in power-hungry artificial intelligence data centres.

Recommended

Oil & Gas industry
BP’s new chair signals more asset sales and demands faster restructuring

“Supply leads demand — you put the supply on the market and demand gets created.,” he said. “Over the long term we’re very bullish.”

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Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 7d

46 mm according to our rain gauge!