Rob Ralston

The Lord of the Rings is essentially a series of faculty meetings broken up by several long walks in the countryside.

an actually half-decent piece on the spatial and cultural politics of skateboarding, including the self-defeating efforts of the Southbank Centre to wreck its own cultural legacy

The Guardian's homepage right now... 1. "UK approves Jackdaw gasfield in North Sea" 2. World must cut emissions by 18% in four years ‘to find our way back’, UN says

hard to think of anything more corrosive for public trust than reneging on manifesto commitments and obligations that lots of people care deeply about

No joke. I think this is the most important video I have ever seen about mobile games. This guy breaks down how this game psychologically profiles you, and makes the game harder or easier in order to show you ads

a revolving door update for the corporate lobbying-heads out there: the lead U.S. delegate engaged in UN plastic treaty negotiations has just moved to a senior role at ExxonMobil advising - surprisingly enough - on 'global plastic issues'

Documents obtained by Freedom of Information requests show that parts of the 'simplification drive' have ended up closely reflecting the demands of fertiliser & chemical companies to roll back environmental & health safeguards Insects in EU have declined 75% in 3 decades www.ft.com/content/3c86...

There is no reason for Garfield to hate Mondays, as cats don't observe a schedule. The only possible answer is that Garfield deeply loves Jon and is saddened when he has to work.

one perspective I feel is missing here, is simply that going to a decent secondhand record shop for a couple of hours is a nice way to spend a saturday morning an algorithm can't substitute for the serendipity / randomness of looking through record bins not knowing what you'll find

The climate crisis we face today wasn't inevitable, and we have the receipts.

The reduction of politics to voting is part of the 50 year neoliberal project whose foremost goal is to make you think of yourself as an atomized individual and not as a member of a polity.

great to see a communicado official with such prolific use of the term ‘sham’

Alito’s recusal follows a recent investigation by @consumerwatchdog.bsky.social into his financial ties to the fossil fuel industry — and the warnings he received from ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 that climate deception lawsuits could adversely affect his investments.

Was happy to speak with Swissinfo about the important topic of corporate power in food systems! Featuring new data too from @etcgroup.bsky.social and insights from Taarini Chopra! www.swissinfo.ch/eng/agribusi...

Elite athletes, musicians, actors & more often use cultural importance as an excuse for why they're exempt from cutting their emissions. In this new analysis led by @manuelsuter.bsky.social, we argue the opposite: visibility and influence should raise the bar, not lower it! Read more:

People with cultural influence have a special responsibility to act on climate change. This is the central argument of a new Comment we published, together with Pascal Stegmann and @katharinehayhoe.com. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

some staggering quotes in this piece, including the claim by one IPCC scientist that sinply declaring funding from Saudi Aramco resolves any conflict of interest

‘Palantir was willing to spend more on securing political access than almost all of its British and Continental competitors. It made donations to London think tanks and hosted parties at Davos.’ @petergeoghegan.bsky.social and @lucasamin.bsky.social, from July: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

spoke to @criticaltakes.bsky.social about plastic waste, corporate power and the upcoming round of UN treaty talks to address the enormous global challenge of plastic pollution podcast available via the link below criticaltakes.org/society-and-...

It’s not normal in a health & climate crisis to actively promote highly polluting products that make things worse. Congrats to Bristol - the latest city to end ads for things like fossil fuels, flights and SUVs. @badvertising.bsky.social @adfreecities.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

one of the clearest cases of corporate capture you’ll find

all this depoliticization strategy is going to do, is tacitly legitimize the far-right and erode political engagement from citizens

In our new essay for the @financialtimes.com (you read that right), @astra.bsky.social and I link the extreme weather events we have all been living through to the rise of a new iteration of futureless fascism, wherein the rich and powerful plan for their bunkered survival behind fortressed borders.

Its some kind of alchemy that Pablo Torre Finds Out is both incredibly entertaining and serious public interest journalism

Nearly 5000 researchers applied for an ERC starting grand in the last round. Just over 400 (less than 9%) were successful. Many people applying are spending up to 12 months working seriously on their application. This is absolutely crazy. erc.europa.eu/news-events/...

How does assetization and assetmanagement inform social conflict? Join us for an online launch event for our NPE special issue "Asset Struggles" on Sept 17th 2PM (German time), featuring: @melindacooper.bsky.social, @jenmcarthur.bsky.social, @benbraun.eurosky.social ⬇️ Signup in post below ⬇️

A geologist and a systems engineer walk in to a bar... ...and start arguing about whether we can actually pump enough CO2 underground to hit net zero. That's more or less how this paper got started with @hdaigle.bsky.social. Read on to find more: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

this is a very insightful thread that I think identifies the core issue with AI use in teaching: students have to be taught traditional research skills before they can assess how to use AI (if at all) in a way that is valuable

The Library is devastated to learn of the passing of Dolly Parton, a music legend and titan of children's literacy. Her Imagination Library program has earned multiple Library Literacy Awards and, in 2018, she visited us to donate its 100 millionth book to our collection and host a story time. 🦋❤️

interesting to note the gradual ramping up petrochemical / oil industry campaigns in the run up to another round of UN plastic treaty negotiations

Time once again for one of the canonical soccer Twitter post

Never let a writer help you move

This is what the billionaire press and many politicians were campaigning so hard to destroy. Their freedom to drive took precedence over our children's freedom to thrive. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

good piece on the status of the UN plastic treaty, with insights from colleagues from the @scientistscoa.bsky.social an agreement based on the current negotiating text will be little more than a waste management treaty

Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world.

got some new PBT keycaps for my mechanical keyboard 😍

I worked in bars for several years before (unexpectedly) doing a PhD, and I definitely think doing a different job gives you a sense of perspective being able to research / teach as a profession is a privilege, but there are lots of things I miss about working behind a bar with my mates

“It’s time to make oil giants pay up to repair the climate breakdown they’re driving. Think how many fire and flood defences we could build, or how many solar panels we could install, if big oil paid their fair share in taxes.” www.theguardian.com/business/ng-...

LSE are advertising a tenure track position on IPE with a specialism in global environmental politics - rare to see these positions come up, particularly those in GEP link to application form below

1/6 🚨 NEW REPORT by @amnesty.org & partners, Nigeria: Lifting the Lid, exposes how Shell knew its pipelines were unsafe & allowed environmental damage to continue. Then it sold up to avoid $10.9bn in costs to decommission and clean up assets.