Florian Busch

Uh...not an e-bike

Definitely not an e-bike

And this isn't an e-bike

But this is not an e-bike

Can anyone tell me what the bike industry and/or People For Bikes are doing about the way e-bikes are being blamed for havoc caused by people riding electric motorcycles?!!?

WAY MORE THAN HALF THE STORIES ABOUT DEATHS CAUSED BY E-BIKES DO NOT INVOLVE E-BIKES. THIS IS KIND OF IMPORTANT.

US domestic corn use from 1980 to 2022. See if you can spot when the Renewable Fuels Standard was established in 2005. Source: USDA NASS.

US transportation energy sources, 2022. Gasoline more than half. Biofuels 6%. Source: EIA.

Today the US uses about 30-40% of our corn supply and 40-50% of our soybean oil supply to produce biofuels that account for…

…about 6% of our total transportation fuel.

Lots of land & food/feed, small amount of energy.

Solar is 100x more efficient per acre at producing energy.

End of 🧵 for now.

The School of Biosciences at University of Birmingham is recruiting FIVE Assistant/Associate Profs in areas including fungal biology, plant science and bioengineering. Full details below 🍄🌾🧬🧫

Yes we can no we didn’t Those who cannot learn from past failures are condemned to repeat them (apologies to Santayana)

We failed to avert dangerous climate change. That has consequences. Here I discuss three that, alas, no government seems to want to publicly acknowledge. My latest for Technosphere Earth
www.technosphere.earth/yes-we-can-n...

Quietly, calmly and forensically, BBC just dismantled the Trump communications shitshow on Iran.

No hyperbole, just laying out an unprecedented military, diplomatic and reputational shambles.

Worth a watch.

(🎥 BBC News/BBC Verify)

Local authorities who won't contract towing companies to remove private property blocking public space like this are making an announcement that they are happy to see this continue.

In many cities, this car would be gone within a few minutes, and its owner could then pay to get it back.

Deutschlands Energiepolitik zerschellt im Iran Der Irankrieg zeigt: Wer wie die Bundesregierung wieder auf Gas und Öl als Energieträger setzt, gefährdet die Zukunft des Landes.

Der Irankrieg zeigt: Wer wie die Bundesregierung wieder auf Gas und Öl als Energieträger setzt, gefährdet die Zukunft des Landes.

www.stern.de/capital/iran...

Just last week the German government gutted the heating law which was supposed to drive a transition away from gas.

The timing could not have been worse: Gas prices are up 50% today and this crisis could worsen significantly. This will happen again and again and the consumer pays the price.

One of my favourite sides of politics/media.

a lion on grass with a person saluting in camo gear Toronto Zoo removes costly fences for lion enclosure, opts to hand out camouflage clothing to patrons - inspired by city cycling infrastructure. Be Safe Be Unseen is their new slogan.

Toronto Zoo removes costly fences for lion enclosure, opts to hand out camouflage clothing to patrons - inspired by city cycling infrastructure. Be Safe Be Unseen is their new slogan.

I ❤️ traffic Said no one ever More people biking, walking and using transit

benefits.

Via @thebikinglawyer.bsky.social

NOW confirmed: A catastrophic shift in German heat policy. Fossil heating systems are getting a comeback.

While the heat transition is finally gaining real momentum, the government is sending a signal of uncertainty.

This is how structural problems get postponed - until the next energy crisis.

🧵

🚨Two fully funded PhD opportunities in Australia!

Improving C4 photosynthesis in vegetation models.
Supervised by Dani Way (ANU, Canberra) and myself (UTS, Sydney).

1. Lab- and field-based project at ANU – see flyer below

2. Modelling project at UTS – www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Einstein - AI Homework Agent Einstein logs into Canvas and does your homework automatically. He has his own computer — he can watch lectures, read essays, write papers, and participate in discussions.

Is this bad

The solar panels and batteries for the equivalent of Hinkley point would have cost no more than £2 billion and would have been finished within 2 years of approval.

The mass deaths resulting from this delay and waste of money is mass murder.

The decision makers DO have agency and they were warned.

Two PhD opportunities at the Australian National University and the University of Technology Sydney, working on thermal responses and thermal acclimation of C4 photosynthesis. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Postdoctoral Researcher / Research Assistant - Kamoun Lab Biology and Applications of Plant Immune Receptors

📣 VACANCY: Postdoc/Research Assistant in the Kamoun group @kamounlab.bsky.social

Join the team to work on the biology and applications of plant immune receptors 🌱

Apply online by 16 March 2026

www.tsl.ac.uk/working-at-t...

#PlantSciJobs #PlantScience #STEMJobs

This cartoon of his lives rent free in my brain.

📘 Most cited PlantEcophys paper in 2025📈

by @dmarquez.bsky.social, @annaagardner.bsky.social, and @florianabusch.bsky.social

#plantstress | #cuticularconductance | #stomatalpatchiness | #unsaturation | #abaxial | #adaxial | #leafgasexchange

Next time someone asks you about energy and land use, maybe remind them that the ~35 million acres that currently grow corn for ethanol in the US could produce ~15 PWh per year of electricity from solar photovoltaics. That's ~3.5 times more than *total annual generation from all US power plants*.

If journalism becomes a crime, fascism isn’t coming. It’s already here.

The UK government didn't want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I'm not surprised | George Monbiot It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindication, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Please spread this far and wide, as stories don't get much bigger than this. When the government blocks even the intelligence services from telling us we're heading for environmental catastrophe, you know we have a problem. A very big problem.
Thank you.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

They're lying!

Every social theory undergirding Trumpism has been broken on the steel of Minnesotan resolve. The multiracial community in Minneapolis was supposed to shatter. It did not. It held until Bovino was forced out of the Twin Cities with his long coat between his legs. The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Help us make hope normal again.

Join the Green Party now.

A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.

We are hiring a postdoctoral researcher!🌲 🌳 🌍

📍Interested in boreal and temperate forest productivity and respiration?
💻 Like to work with large datasets, remote sensing and models?
🏔️ Love an alpine setting in a small town?

Come and join us at KIT!

Application details: t1p.de/qctj7