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Hamish van der Ven

@profhvdv.bsky.social

1.9K followers 220 following 42 posts

Assistant Professor of Sustainable Business Mgmt @forestry.ubc.ca. Interested in tech/business/environment. Here rarely. Outside often.

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Hamish van der Ven @profhvdv.bsky.social · Dec 9

❗New OA paper❗Does artificial intelligence bias perceptions of environmental challenges?

We find systematic biases in chatbot responses to questions about the causes, consequences, and solutions to environmental challenges.

doi.org/10.1088/1748...

Does artificial intelligence bias perceptions of environmental challenges? - IOPscienceSearch

Does artificial intelligence bias perceptions of environmental challenges?, Hamish van der Ven, Diego Corry, Rawie Elnur, Viola Jasmine Provost, Muh Syukron, Niklas Tappauf

doi.org

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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 7h

Proposals to build data centers are facing growing opposition across the country.

Local leaders are weighing concerns about data centers’ water and electricity use with the hefty community investments that developers often offer to sweeten their deals.

Towns are saying no to AI data centers. One got sued over it.

A developer sued a Michigan township after it voted against a data center proposal. Cities in Ohio and Missouri have explored data center bans.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Hamish van der Ven @profhvdv.bsky.social · 1d

Nice to be interviewed by CBC's The House. Catch me talking about the environmental impacts of AI around minute 30 here:

podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

Will AI make or break Canada?

Podcast Episode · The House · 2025-10-11 · 49m

podcasts.apple.com

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The Pleasure Vice Principle (he/him/his) @hannibaltabu.bsky.social · 2d

I saw the dot coms crash from a front row seat. AI is running out of money way faster.

The evangelism is insecurity from people who made the wrong bet. I’ve seen it before. 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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Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 4d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Andrew Jorgenson @akjorgenson.bsky.social · 4d

🚨🚨Conference Alert! Abstract Submissions Due Soon!🚨🚨 “Globalizing Political Economy: Launching the Global Political Economy Network", Happening July 2026, University of British Columbia. Open to all Topics Within a GPE Framework. Lots of Travel Funding Available. Details: tinyurl.com/2nv8st73

Climate & Society Lab - Call for Papers: Globalizing Political Economy

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada July 21 – July 23, 2026 With financial support from the World Society Foundation (Zurich, Switzerland) and the Climate & Society Lab at the Universi...

tinyurl.com

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Virginia Gewin @virginiagewin.bsky.social · 4d

—>the report estimated that emerging technologies "could destroy nearly 100 million U.S. jobs in a decade," replacing 47 percent of truck drivers, 64 percent of accountants and 89 percent of fast food and counter workers.

AI could ‘destroy nearly 100 million jobs,’ Senate report finds

The report identified 20 jobs at significant risk from AI, 15 of which could see more than half of their positions replaced.

www.newsweek.com

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 13d

Newsletter: This is The Case Against Generative AI, a comprehensive analysis of a financial collapse built on myths I’ll dispel, the markets’ unhealthy obsession with NVIDIA's growth, and the fact that there is not enough money in the world to fund OpenAI.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga...

The Case Against Generative AI

Soundtrack: Queens of the Stone Age - First It Giveth Before we go any further: This is, for the third time this year, the longest newsletter I've ever written, weighing in somewhere around 18,500 wo...

www.wheresyoured.at

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Hamish van der Ven @profhvdv.bsky.social · 14d

For those looking for ways to push back against the blind adoption of AI in universities, I recommend this piece: zenodo.org/records/1706...

Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia

Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these col...

zenodo.org

Reposted by Hamish van der Ven

Jean-Frédéric Morin @jfmorin.bsky.social · 17d

🚨 New paper: Will global environmental governance survive Trump?
@rakhyunkim.bsky.social and I argue that its high complexity makes it more resilient than other governance systems. We give hegemonic stability theory a complexity science twist.

📖 Open Access: doi.org/10.1111/1758...

Too Complex to Fail: The Stability of Global Environmental Governance Beyond Hegemony

The recent US disengagement from global governance has revived concerns—first theorized in the 1970s and 1980s—about the vulnerability of international institutions to hegemonic decline. While these ...

doi.org

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Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 19d

Lmaooooooo

Education report calling for ethical AI use contains over 15 fake sources

Experts find fake sources in Canadian government report that took 18 months to complete.

arstechnica.com

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 18d

This is very generous and a nice writeup of some of the tech critical media crowd, including yours truly

Katie Clark Gray @katiecgray.bsky.social · 18d

Got a new piece in @goodtape.com on some of the best journos & podcasters covering AI right now: like @bcmerchant.bsky.social @parismarx.com @404media.co @edzitron.com & more. Check it ouuuut....

Nobody Wants the Future Anymore

As AI comes for podcasting (and everything else), humans are equipping listeners with research, nuance, and ways to fight back.

share.google

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Reposted by Hamish van der Ven

Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 23d

Social media was once positioned as the great connecting force that would improve our world. If it ever did that, it certainly isn’t now.

We must rein in these platforms, and deceptive narratives aimed at stopped regulation isn’t helping. Age restrictions are an experiment worth trying.

Social media causes more harm than good

We need to stop falling for anti-regulation hysteria if we’re to get control of digital harms

disconnect.blog

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Simon Donner @simondonner.bsky.social · 23d

This article from @bryancurtis.bsky.social is bang on. Institutions bowing to Trump doesn't work. It only stokes a positive feedback loop based largely on a false perception of strength and inevitability.
www.theringer.com/2025/09/19/p...

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Hamish van der Ven @profhvdv.bsky.social · Sep 11

Oh snap. Any chance you can email me the syllabus? I’ve been thinking of developing a grad course on the same theme.

Hamish van der Ven @profhvdv.bsky.social · Aug 20

❗Now recruiting MSc and PhD students for September 2026❗

Come work @forestry.ubc.ca on indirect impacts of the internet on the environment. These are funded, thesis-based positions.

Details on the positions and how to apply here: bst.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2025/0...

bst.sites.olt.ubc.ca

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Patrick Daugherty @rotopat.bsky.social · Aug 6

Draining the nation's groundwater and skyrocketing electricity prices so cheating high school and college students only need to work on their paper two hours instead of four

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Hamish van der Ven @profhvdv.bsky.social · Jul 29

🌲Excellent opportunity for a senior colleague to come work with me @forestry.ubc.ca. DM me if you have questions.🌲

UBC Forestry🌲🇨🇦 @forestry.ubc.ca · Jul 15

#UBCForestry is hiring a researcher in Natural Resources Governance who is eligible for nomination for a Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC).

Learn more about the position and apply here: forestry.ubc.ca/career-oppor...

Job post: CERC in Natural Resources Governance

Job Post: UBC Forestry is recruiting a leading researcher in Natural Resources Governance for a Canada Excellence Research Chair nomination.

forestry.ubc.ca

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Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · Jun 8

“the new material is as strong as petroleum-based plastics but breaks down into its original components when exposed to salt. Those components can then be further processed by naturally occurring bacteria,thereby avoiding generating microplastics that can harm aquatic life and enter the food chain.”

Scientists in Japan develop plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours

Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, offering up a potential solution for a modern-day scourge polluting oceans and harming wildlife.

www.reuters.com

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Hamish van der Ven @profhvdv.bsky.social · Jun 7

Dystopian nightmare

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · Jun 7

“‘Our vision is that, over time, A.I. would become part of the core infrastructure of higher education,’ Leah Belsky, OpenAI’s vice president of education, said in an interview.” 🫠

Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT.

www.nytimes.com

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Adam Sternbergh @sternbergh.bsky.social · Jun 5

must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away

Best of Dying Twitter @bestofdyingtwit.bsky.social · Jun 5

“In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately”

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Hamish van der Ven @profhvdv.bsky.social · Jun 4

This piece hits so hard: www.404media.co/teachers-are...

"GenAI can...summarize readings, pull out key concepts, draft text, and even generate ideas for discussion. But that would be like going to the gym and asking a robot to lift weights for you."

Teachers Are Not OK

AI, ChatGPT, and LLMs "have absolutely blown up what I try to accomplish with my teaching."

www.404media.co

Reposted by Hamish van der Ven

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · Jun 2

Is that good

Karl Kuchel, head of a group at the Australian bank Macquarie that invests in data centers, said it was “an unanswered question” as to whether there would be buyers for these enormous data centers once the private equity firms looked to sell out.

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Canadian Climate Institute @climateinstitute.bsky.social · May 30

We're looking for a Research Lead for our Mitigation team!

The Research Lead will work remotely and lead major Institute research projects including overseeing the work of research associates. Apply before June 15 👇
canadianclimateinstitute.bamboohr.com/careers/39?s...

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · May 26

hey lovelies, I finally got around to publicly sharing my compilation of big tech energy and emissions data. I'll be using it in articles, posts etc but it's yours too, free to use (w/ attribution is nice)

ketanjoshi.co/2025/05/23/d...

a chart showing power consumption of big tech companies

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Diamond Hands: Master Bag Holder @birdrespecter.bsky.social · May 28

I thought it was neat for about 15 mins but then realized it just answers questions you previously could Google, is often wrong, it is destroying the planet, costs billions of dollars while using stolen training data, and is further isolating us as a species. It is not miraculous or amazing.

Grace @gracekind.net · May 28

Wow, a comment on HN I actually agree with!

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