📺 Can TikTok Save Antarctica? Can Delhi's Bird Rescuers Survive Fame? Can Climate Models Matter?
Busy times on Sustain What. Join the Wild Rumpus!
After nearly three years and 375 shows, my Columbia Climate School Sustain What webcast is still in overdrive. Here’s what’s happening starting live at 4 pm U.S. Eastern time TODAY!
Can TikTok Save Antarctica? No, But “@Icy_Pete” Shows What it CAN do
March 1, 4 p.m. ET - a pop-up Sustain What “Thriving Online” chat with @Icy_Pete - Peter Neff, a University of Minnesota glaciologist and climate scientist who has braved both Antarctic blizzards and the infodemic on TikTok. [We talked about how much polar science communication has changed since 2003, when I did a sort-of-live Q&A from a camp set up temporarily on sea ice drifting near the North Pole - dictated back and forth with a web editor by satphone.]
Other Viewing Options:
Meet the Delhi Bird Rescuers Profiled in the Oscar-Nominated Film "All That Breathes"
March 2, 8 a.m. U.S. ET - a special pop-up Sustain What chat with the self-taught bird medics profiled in Shaunak Sen’s extraordinary Oscar-nominated HBO film “All That Breathes.” If you haven’t seen this mesmerizing portrait of life for people and “wild” life in Delhi’s pall of particulate smoke and deeply divided society, you really must fiind a way. It’s playing right now on HBO Max. Explore the bird rescue project at RaptorRescue.org.
Other Viewing Options:
Where Models Matter and Mislead, and How to Make the Most of Them
March 3, 12 p.m. ET - All mathematical models are wrong, some are useful and they’re everywhere. In this webcast, I explore model myths, merits and frontiers with Erica Thompson, who studies model ethics and impact (for better and worse) at the London School of Economic and has written the provocative and essential book “Escape from Model Land.”
Also joining the chat is Maria Molina, a University of Maryland scientist focused on climate extremes and pursuing A.I. model applications (who moved into research from a career in broadcast meteorology!).
Other Viewing Options:
Your turn
If you’ve read this far, let me know if you want me to keep generating AUDIO podcast versions of these discussions either in the feedback form here or a comment!
I’m trying to decide if it’s worth the extra work to do that!
Here are some examples:
For what it's worth, this geezer never listens to anybody's podcasts. I'm not bashing the medium, just reporting that I haven't gotten there yet. I have no idea what the market wants in general. Podcasts do seem to be a "thing".
I do listen to a lot of NPR on radio headphones. If I knew of a convenient way to get podcasts in to my portable headphones (used beyond the range of a computer) that could make a difference. I guess I'd need wifi capable headphones.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I rarely watch long videos either. So part of it for me might be I like scrollable content where I can be more in control of what I consume.
What I _do_ like quite a bit are discussion forums where one can participate in ongoing in depth intelligent conversations. But, the net has moved on from that format, so I content myself with blog comments.
Social media is over for me. I post links to my articles on Twitter and Facebook only because substack allows me to do so with zero effort. It doesn't seem to accomplish much.
Also, I never eat brussels sprouts or get haircuts. I knew you'd want to know that right away.