Last week at #agu2024, I saw so many booths and so much science that was built on drones that are being used for remote sensing. Now, everyone is buzzing about drones over New Jersey. Sure, some of those drones are (checks notes) the stars in the constellation Orion... but some are actually drones being used by people doing science, improving their farming, and just checking roofs for damage.

Yes, drones can be used by spies, but I'm pretty sure there are a lot more realtors leveraging them for the perfect listing. New Jersey (and most of us) just failed to notice them before.

https://open.substack.com/pub/starstryder/p/instead-of-jetpacks-we-got-drones

lol, nerds

(image from my wife at #AGU2024)

I'm at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (#AGU2024) and.getting recharged by some exciting science. Today I saw talks about temperature reconstructions from very warm periods in our geologic history, slowdown of the #AMOC, ice fire interpretations and calibrations, heat wave frequency and magnitude, and other great topics, and I spoke with a NYTimes writer. Students are excited, the research is top notch, and there is a great energy.

But I'm a bit dismayed.

It feels like we have been talking about these topics for decades. Yet, society heeds no warnings, throws caution to the wind, and doubles down on consumption. On top of that, we scientists are generating a ton of waste and not taking time to sort our recycling on top of the huge carbon footprint that is involved simply in getting here. The conference organizers closed the entrance of the conference hall accessible from the metro station called "Convention Center," making public transport users walk 180 degrees around the center to enter through one entrance (and de-incentivizing public transport use).

We are not walking the walk, and society is not listening to what we are saying about the future of our environment. What are 20,000+ of us doing here then?

#ClimateEmergency
#ClimateCrisis
#DontLookUp