James Palmer
Environmental Geographer, University of Bristol
Author of "Power Plants", out in 2026 (https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526192127/)
See also @peatscapes.bsky.social (http://peatscapes.com), funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk
🚫ChatGPT 🚫Copilot 🚫AI
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- Reposted by James PalmerThis is a must-read, but I can't help thinking that more emphasis needs to be placed on the resonance between the pursuit of scientific scale for AI and the underlying and explicit pursuit of business scale at all costs for platforms and investors www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
- Reposted by James PalmerThis is a post about animal excrement and the English language. bull$#!% = nonsense/lies chicken$#!% = petty or cowardly horse$#!% = nonsense/lies dog$#!%= low quality ape$#!% = wild bat$#!%= crazy Ordered above from oldest to newest: bull$#!% (1914), bat$#!% (1971).
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- Reposted by James Palmerwhat do we talk about when we talk about energy? my answer features (among many others) adorno, bogdanov, and the austrian communist wilhelm frank, who experimented with national exergy balances in the 1950s. out april 2026.
- A moment many years in the making – it's time to check proofs of my forthcoming book, Power Plants, due out in June with @manchesterup.bsky.social! Somehow, this has snuck on to the AAG's Winter 2025 books list – which looks great (www.aag.org/new-books-fo...). Preorder by end of Jan for 40% off 🌿🌲🌳
- Reposted by James PalmerThree short paragraphs, and you've got the whole mind-bending mess that is #UKHE finance & governance neatly laid out. This is why it's all so exhausting: our managers declare there's only one static frame, while we know their framing is part of the issue. 💡 www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/01/10/w...
- Reposted by James PalmerNew research presents the most compelling evidence yet that generative AI directly stores and reproduces material used to train it—a finding that could have massive legal consequences for the tech industry, Alex Reisner reports.
- Reposted by James PalmerDIGITAL ECOLOGIES is available for just £15 in paperback until the end of January; discount applied automatically unless you're in North America, where you need to type "JAN40" at payment this also applies to ALL @manchesterup.bsky.social books!!! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526188601/
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- Reposted by James PalmerI’m sorry, but it is disgraceful to be an academic who uses this technology to conduct research. It should be prohibited in all of our scholarly institutions, including universities and journals.
- Reposted by James PalmerIf we are banning cell phones for kids we need to be talking about banning chatbots for boomers www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt...
- If Carlsberg did "out-of-office" emails for the Christmas break
- An unexpected advent surprise - my book is available to pre-order with @manchesterup.bsky.social For those interested in biofuels & the bioeconomy, vegetal geographies, climate politics, or relationships between energy & "human progress" more broadly! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526192127/
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- Reposted by James PalmerWe need a critique of AI in academic publishing. Following my decision not to sign an AI addendum to my contract with Cambridge University Press, I wrote this short essay which is now out in the Dublin Review of Books. 👇 drb.ie/move-over-fo...
- Reposted by James Palmerthe most anticipated book of 2026: bravo @ueberdruss.bsky.social !! www.versobooks.com/products/334...
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- Reposted by James PalmerAn issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.
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- Reposted by James PalmerThe schizophrenia of focusing #cop30 on saving forests, while also promoting notoriously forest killing #biofuels www.desmog.com/2025/11/20/b...
- Reposted by James PalmerExcited to share my first PhD paper which was based on my fieldwork at @thebotanics.bsky.social and just published on @geoopenaccess.bsky.social yesterday! 🌺
- PhD work by @mingcan-rong.bsky.social on the colonial legacy of cultivating scientific authority through the lens of Rhododendron @thebotanics.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
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- Reposted by James PalmerExcited to be soft-launching a new online essay series for @the-breakdown.bsky.social - (re)reading radical thinkers for the climate crisis. First up is Casey A. Williams on Stuart Hall and his analytical power for climate strategy today. www.break-down.org/reading-stua...
- Reposted by James PalmerProfits from scientific publishing are eye-watering, costing us billions. In ‘The Drain of Scientific Publishing’ (arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820), (building on ‘The Strain of Scientific Publishing’ doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00327) we show how it is harmful – and unnecessary.
- Reposted by James PalmerJOB: Assistant Professor in Environmental History, University of Warwick, Coventry campus (UK) www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK289/a... #envhist
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- Reposted by James PalmerSAVE GEOGRAPHY at Leicester University (UK) - We call on the University of Leicester to urgently reconsider the proposal to dissolve Geography. This is direct attack on the discipline of Geography at Leicester with likely loss of Geography staff. Please sign + share www.change.org/p/save-geogr...
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- Reposted by James PalmerI made my students a little “book” (just using Google slides) to show them how you all answered my question about how you take notes for research. Just to show the variety.
- "In the end, generative AI might be a blip in tech history, over-promising and under-delivering until finally the cash runs out. But it seems it’s arrived just in time to shove universities over a cliff edge they’d already walked themselves up to." defector.com/higher-eds-r...
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- Reposted by James PalmerUpdating my LEGO White House
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- "There’s still time to disenchant AI, provincialize it, make it uncompelling and uncool." Large Language Muddle www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
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- A scandal so long-running that it predates Brexit. ‘Little lungs are paying’: 1.6m claimants head to high court as carmakers finally face punishment for Dieselgate www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
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- Reposted by James PalmerComing soon💨 How has energy shaped a nation? Electric Wind by @DudleyMarianna.bsky.social is a cutting-edge history of wind power in Britain, from the industrial revolution to the aftermath of war, through energy crises and the changing politics of the late twentieth century💡 Pre-order now!
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- Reposted by James PalmerPat Brodie and I have a book coming out in October. Really hoping it can be useful for analysing the imperialist political ecology of big tech and the energy transition. Big thanks to @kaiheron.bsky.social, @triofrancos.bsky.social, Anne Pasek (and others) for their generous words and engagement.
- Reposted by James PalmerWords are magic
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- We have a great line-up for these two @rgsibg.bsky.social sessions this afternoon, on the politics of carbon in land management and restoration! Please join @kargkama.bsky.social, @annakspeaking.bsky.social and me over in the Alan Walters Building, Room 111, from 14.40 until the end of the day!
- Reposted by James PalmerLook what they did to Notepad. Shut the fuck up. This is Notepad. You are not welcome here. Oh yeah "Let me use Copilot for Notepad". "I'm going to sign into my account for Notepad". What the fuck are you talking about. It's Notepad.
- Reposted by James PalmerPls sign and share this open letter to the Bristol VC, against the School of Humanities's decision to withdraw the BA in English Literature and Community Engagement (ELCE): the only part-time, flexible undergraduate degree programme available at the University forms.gle/SbyhXPSJgQTc...
