Matthew Ponsford

Last year I had the chance to visit Vacaresti, one of the strangest “natural” environments on planet Earth. It’s a place that forces us to ask how we care for the new ecosystems we are making www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

The Nature-Inspired Technology Database is here Over 68,000 technologies that will help us adapt to the #ClimateCrisis by supporting, enhancing, or replacing natural ecosystem services This work is done reluctantly meco.manufacturedecosystems.com @sshrc-crsh.canada.ca -New Frontiers Exploration

Seabird guano and native trees keep islands above rising seas: Study - @ruthkamnitzer.bsky.social @mongabay.com news.mongabay.com/2026/10/seab...

"The report, led by @kevinclimate.bsky.social from the @tyndallcentre.bsky.social, found that wealthy countries such as the #UK, #US and #Australia had until 2034 *to stop all oil and gas production* to give the world a 50% chance of preventing devastating climate breakdown"

Likely the most important thing I've ever written — if you're an academic and the AI mania unsettles you, here's my best shot at presenting some intellectual tools that might help you articulate why. arxiv.org/abs/2610.27251

Tired: Bees as pollinators Wired: Bees as soil engineers

Drained peatlands emit 5% of global greenhouse gases. Rewetting them helps. But what happens to the birds when you also put solar panels on top? eos.org/articles/for... Read more in our October issue: eos.org/themes/secre...

Insects’ contributions to people: ecosystem services and functions provided by insects academic.oup.com/aesa/article...

Scientists found evidence for wildfires that burned only around 560 miles from the South Pole 90 million years ago, making them the southernmost fires ever documented. eos.org/articles/wil... Read more in our October issue: eos.org/themes/secre...

Thank you so much @interspecies.agency for these incredibly kind words! It is a labour of love, and I think about to get even better thanks to our new reporter James Dinneen. (Here's the sign-up page should anyone wish to take Matthew's excellent advice 😉 www.nature.com/briefing/ant...)

It is rare to find anything in the world of science writing that is so lovingly conceived and executed every week as @floragraham.bsky.social's Anthropocene briefing for Nature. Not sure how best to share a newsletter but here's trying mailchi.mp/nature/anthr... Sign up!

My latest in @nature.com “This incredible new result — that fast and full recovery is possible in bleached coral — can inspire solutions that eventually may be scalable,” says Fiorenza Micheli, a marine ecologist at Stanford University’s Center for Ocean Solutions. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

www.technologyreview.com/2026/10/12/1...

"The prevailing climate wisdom has been pretty clear: Trees are good, and planting them is virtuous — the more the better. But actually, Obermeyer said, grasslands can be a more secure carbon sink than forests." grist.org/science/grea...

Thought the sewage scandal was bad? Think again. Sewage works are also a major industrial waste disposal route. Power stations, airports, hospitals, landfills: ~608bn litres last year. No independent regulator. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Anne Carson in her boxing gloves

Hong Kong hosts, 200 yellow-crested cockatoos, roughly 10% of the critically endangered species' global population. To overcome a shortage of natural nesting spaces, researchers are installing camera-equipped artificial nest boxes to protect and study the birds. @yennikwok.bsky.social reports.

Corals rely on symbiotic algae for up to 90% of their nutrition, but heat stress causes these algae to leave, slowly starving the coral. Shading corals from the Sun could help. ☀️⛱️ eos.org/articles/und...

Remember 30x30? The global target to effectively conserve at least 30% of the Earth's land, freshwater, and oceans by 2030 We’re slightly over 3 yrs away from 2030 & by the Government’s calculation, England is only at 7.1% for land Feeling this is another conservation target that will be missed

'Gothic Anthropocene' workshop series at UCL, free to attend, running throughout October. Organised by Yichun Zhang and Qin Wu (both UCL)

Tree vaccines and gene-edited butterflies among biotechnology projects funded by UK invention agency - The ARIA tax-funded research aims to protect British wildlife from the human-caused #climatecrisis Story by @interspecies.agency www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Vaccines for ash trees, skin treatments for newts and gene-edited swallowtail butterflies are among 14 tax-funded projects from the UK’s “invention agency” aiming to accelerate nature’s ability to adapt to the climate crisis www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I read the article about this 🐈 in Nat Geo - found by a man who thought it was a domestic kitten. After living with it for a year, he realized it was a wildcat 😲 🧪 Phylogenomics and museomics reveal five distinct species of tiger cats in South America: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Link to the related Nat Geo story. www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

What is tiny but has a PLANET-sized influence? Sphagnum of course. A 🧵 on why this moss matters more than ever. Holding more than 20× its dry weight in water, halting decay, shaping entire ecosystems, thwarting fire. Never underestimate a moss. 1/

Can you air-condition a whole city? As climate change brings deadly summers, the rush for outdoor cooling solutions is on.

Move over, pumpkin spice: September belongs to the BOG HARVEST. While many flock to apple orchards, the world’s peatlands are hitting their peak. Far from muddy swamps; bogs are the secret agricultural powerhouses you didn't know you needed. Join me in protecting these undervalued landscapes! 🧵 1/

Modern farming may contribute to drug-resistant infections which kill up to 4.7 million people per year worldwide High-intensity farming Soil microbiomes more likely to transmit antibiotic-resistant pathogens to humans compared to low intensity farming www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2026/09/inte...

Really enjoyed writing this on mist-makers backyard “Katabatic Towers” and more controversial ways to cool a city. Thanks to everyone who talked to me www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

‘Honest Bob’ Jenrick says he wants to “abolish” Natural England, and at the very least stop funding it, in the first 100 days of a putative Reform government. Reform may appear to be on the rocks currently but their plans are terrifying, mad & must be stopped. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

2026. On the importance of shelter availability for reptiles provided by burrow‐digging ecosystem engineers: a systematic review and a case study. via @jzoology.bsky.social zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Ecocide in Iran The U.S.–Israeli war has caused massive environmental devastation, adding to the long history of American wars with toxic legacies. A new must-read @tomdispatch.bsky.social by Ashley Gate. theintercept.com/2026/08/31/i...

1 ghostpond + 1 digger for 2 days + 2 years = 41 wetland plants + 2 national rarities. #ghostpond

Every crime scene contains hidden microbial clues. Now, after decades of promise, researchers are establishing what those bacterial traces can reliably reveal – and whether the evidence will ever stand up in court. www.newscientist.com/article/2580...

“A tweak via CRISPR gene-editing can enable microbes to capture water in soils by transforming surrounding moisture into a trail of hyaluronic acid, a type of naturally occurring chemical goo used by the cosmetics industry.” — @interspecies.agency www.noemamag.com/inside-the-l...

Too many holes! Why badgers are digging up Britain’s lovingly maintained golf courses

Every crime scene contains hidden microbial clues. Now, after decades of promise, researchers are establishing what those bacterial traces can reliably reveal – and whether the evidence will ever stand up in court

Water Buffalo Commons, Istanbul, Turkey: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_os0...

The way to go 👉🏻 Inside The Lab Growing Mutant Bacteria To Terraform Earth www.noemamag.com/inside-the-l...

Increasing desertification now means large parts of Earth are becoming inhospitable. Can gene-edited bacteria save our planet from drying out? @interspecies.agency explores. #climate #desertification #syntheticbiology

@jeffvandermeer.bsky.social I hope you might like this

"On the high-altitude plains of Tibet, ringed by snowy mountains and buffeted by harsh winds, scientists are hard at work creating horned, fluffy clones. These are Tibetan yaks, designed and cloned in secretive labs more than 4,000 meters above sea level..." 🇨🇳🧪 edition.cnn.com/2026/07/25/c...

New piece about a recent paper available from the Conversation: theconversation.com/unhoused-peo... @theconversation.com

New story from @kevinrennie.bsky.social about the Brewarrina fish traps #Australia: "It has been suggested that these fish traps may be the oldest human construction in the world, dating back thousands of years." globalvoices.org/2026/07/14/a...

The movie holds up. As does this great anecdote courtesy of Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum.