Deirdre O’Connell
Historian, writer, teacher, dog walker, gardener and politics tragic
Forthcoming: The World of Crickett Smith, OUP
Living on Dharug land
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connellbrass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis
- Well, who saw that one coming? MAHA Moms Are Angry at the E.P.A. Lee Zeldin Is Trying to Win Them Back. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/c...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell"Would any other country knowingly destroy its most precious cultural treasures to save a gas company money?" "And for what? Woodside's North-West shelf project is an export project. It undermines our energy security." Add your name to the petition to #savemurujuga ✍️ theaus.in/saveMurujuga...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellThis one hurts. RIP Robert Redford. Here's a fun story from yesterday.
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellThe final approval of the 45-year expansion of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas export terminal is equivalent to building 12 new coal power stations. It will undermine the nation's energy security, drive up energy prices & is the greatest giveaway of Australian natural resources ever. Media release
- I had the pleasure of reviewing The Last Tour, Ann Curthoys’s fascinating account of Paul and Eslanda Robeson’s Australian and NZ tour www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/c...
- Read the September issue of Australian Book Review, available now. www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/c...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellQueensland’s deputy premier is now repealing laws in order to kill wind projects and prevent new ones, with the latest victim being the 1.2GW Forest Wind project.
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellNYTimes: Trump Administration Orders Work Halted on Wind Farm That Is Nearly Built - www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/c...
- Remembering the great David Stratton, who did so much to liberalise Australia's draconian censorship laws in the late 60s and early 70s. Here's a link to a Flashback I made for the #SFF where he recalls the battle over the Swedish film, I Love, You Love. youtu.be/6otcpod1Ah8?...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell"Real Zero has one definition. You commit to phasing out fossil fuels and you do it without relying on offsets, carbon capture and storage, and any other technology that does not exist yet.” - Dr @shantabarley.bsky.social, Fortescue Chief Climate Scientist #auspol
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connelllove this new york times clip. they recently did a story about how sesame street's set has changed over the years, along with our urban politics. IG nytimes
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell1. This is something I've been saying for 25 years, but it's hard to get many people to listen. What counts is not the new energy sources you add, but the old ones you retire. Unfortunately it's politically easier to build renewables than to shutter fossil fuels.🧵 www.forbes.com/sites/rrapie...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellNew podcast: why rivers need rights A discussion of the river Test being granted 'personhood' by the local council, the wider nature rights movement and how our waterways got into such a mess open.spotify.com/episode/7eKN...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellCrazy that @abrahm.bsky.social has so few followers here. The guy is an oracle at a time when we could really use oracles. www.propublica.org/article/texa...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellGot damn
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellResearchers in Darwin added First Nations seasonal calendars to solar irradiance forecasting and came up with some vastly improved results.
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell🩸 No one is immune to PFAS contamination Ministers & EU Commissioner @jessikaroswall.ec.europa.eu had their blood tested for #PFAS found in nearly every European Led by Denmark’s Environment Ministry @heunicke.bsky.social, @eeb.org & @chemsec.bsky.social to expose this growing pollution crisis
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellThe science behind Texas’ catastrophic floods | Grist grist.org/climate/the-...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell“My felt ranger hat hangs on the wall in my university faculty office to this day as a reminder of that period in my life,” writes Ryan W. Booth (Upper Skagit Tribe) in #AHAPerspectives. 🗃️
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellRaskin: "If you can opt out of mandatory classroom readings bc it offends your religious objections, you can do it bc it offends your philosophical beliefs... you're gonna have a lot of cases where ppl say 'Our family doesn't believe in evolution. We don't want our kid in class when it's taught'"
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellHonored to be giving the first public reading from my new book, The Second Emancipation (out 8/26), at the Schomburg Library's Centennial Festival today at 1. www.publishersweekly.com/9781324092452
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellThe scientists warning the world about ocean #acidification – ‘evil twin’ of the climate crisis - www.theguardian.com/environment/... "until the buildup of CO2 is addressed, the consequences for marine life will be devastating"
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellWatt’s North West Shelf approval exposes the deeper dysfunction at the heart of Australian environmental governance: where the laws are weak, the incentives perverse, and real power lies with the fossil fuel lobby
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellThe Fortress Dwellers at Scarborough Faire. youtu.be/R7i6B1v7xYU?...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell"Approval of the North West Shelf extension would be easily one of the worst decisions ever made by an Environment Minister in Australia's history," said @grogsgamut.bsky.social.
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellThey say it can’t be done, but here we are, California is generated 106% of California’s entire state electricity demand from renewables. California has a population bigger that 154 other countries around the world. It’s the 4th largest economy, in the world. Let that sink in. #energysky #greensky
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellIn ‘Cancer Alley,’ a Battle Over Who Gets to Measure Air Pollution - The New York Times www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/c...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellGen A.I. is designed to erode your critical thinking skills. Its sole purpose is to make you offload anything worth doing so you become reliant on it.
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell"If this was somewhere else in the world, there would be a national outcry. "The pollutants that are coming out of those Woodside stacks are actively degrading the rock art surfaces. "It's incontestable." 🎙️Professor of Archaeology Benjamin Smith #savemurujuga #auspol
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellGideon's Chariots invasion is wiping Gaza inch by inch. No arrests, no injuries—just mass executions of youth aged 14-50. Air, land, and sea attacks to erase every tunnel, every soul. We are human too. Save Gaza. Mercy for Gaza. #ProtectUs #Humanity 🇵🇸
- The insanity of it all. It's like up is down. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/u...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell🧵 on Mississippi's HB1193: This last week of the semester, in my seminar on race and racism, we're reading Linda Martin Alcoff's The Future of Whiteness. But also, this week marks the 'legal birth' of Mississippi's HB1193.
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellI'm not a lawyer and I'm very tired, so excuse me if this is a stupid question: But if the principles of birthright citizenship *were* ever dismantled ... what's the theory for how citizenship would be determined?
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellIn Vietnam, the war is called "the American War." The Verge's package commemorating the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon is now fully live: www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellParis said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solu...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellYou can find the impressive (and free) BBC sound effects archive here: sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellBREAKING: The Interior Dept just used a fake “energy emergency” to greenlight gas and mining projects on public lands. It’s a lie. There is no energy emergency. This is a giveaway to big oil.
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell❤️🩹Poignant poem from Serge Bakor Lambey, our water and sanitation supervisor in a transit camp in eastern Chad. His inspiration for writing? His humanitarian work. Serge and his team provide clean drinking water & maintain sanitation facilities for refugees. #NationalPoetryMonth #TalkAboutSudan
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell"Attorney General shall initiate appropriate action to repeal or amend the implementing regulations for Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for all agencies" What's Title VI? "prohibits discrimination against or otherwise excluding individuals on the basis of race, color, or national origin"
My god. He’s gone after the Civil Rights Act!!!! www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellPossibly the best interview of all-time
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellThis is a great article from @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social that he should not have needed to write. I long for the day when race scholars don’t have to respond to people who have no clue what they are talking about, but nonetheless feel free to pontificate. stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellSome of you have never seen all the angry panda commercials (actually a brilliant campaign for Egypt's Panda Cheese) and honestly especially these days there's no downside in getting you better educated on this particular matter
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellThis is high art
- Love this collection of Irish folklore gathered by school children in the 1930s. My grandfather is in there. He was a teacher at a village school. And so much rich detail about my mother’s hamlet in Co Mayo. www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/volu...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell"History department power couple Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore and philosophy professor Jason Stanley will begin teaching at the University of Toronto’s renowned Munk School in fall 2025."
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell'There are now fears that US university libraries might soon be targeted if they are seen to be buying new titles related to politically sensitive areas.' Will academic publishers, in line with so many big businesses in their annual reports, abandon "DEI"? 1/2
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellIf direct air capture (DAC), a CO₂ removal (CDR) technique, costs $500 per tonne, removing just US emissions would cost ~$3 trillion annually (that's ~4x US military spending). It would also require twice the total power generation capacity of the US today (and it has to be 100% carbon-free).
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellSanders: I will tell you what I think the worst addiction in this country is, the most dangerous, and that is the greed of the oligarchs. Everybody wants to do well. These guys already have billions, tens of billions, hundreds of billions. How much money do you need?
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell1. What you see here is clearest illustration why things are so messed up and why it cannot get any better until this asymmetry is addressed. Put simply: the right-wing has narrative dominance. My org @mmfa.bsky.social did this study and has been sounding this alarm for years. Some thoughts...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellThe Trump regime will arrest you in the middle of the night because you spoke your mind. And federal agents in plain clothes who refuse to identify themselves will be the ones to do it. If you think I'm being hyperbolic, watch this clip.
- Reposted by Deirdre O’Connell‘Rhythm’ has two h’s and no vowels. Just remember: Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move Rhythm is also a dancer and a soul’s companion.
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellA professor of environmental sciences gives a quick punchy take on the "eye-popping" numbers re. how clean air promotes economic growth. An EPA analysis of 20 years of the Clean Air Act (1970-90) found the economic benefits of the regulations were about 42X greater than the costs. No pay wall.
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellSoaring global demand for 'renewable' timber biomass will require a 13-fold increase in tropical monoculture plantations, mostly at the expense of REAL, natural forest ecosystems. Ponder the depths of madness required to think this could be a solution to anything. news.mongabay.com/2025/03/fore...
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellThe bottom 90% have got just 7% of economic growth from 2009 to 2019. The top 10% got 93%. Our research shows inequality has been supercharged in the last 20 years, and it will only get worse unless we fix it. A super profits tax is a good start, and cracking down on tax rorts. #auspol
- Reposted by Deirdre O’ConnellBP is literally this... #bbcqt www.insidehook.com/culture/stor...
