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Nature’s Gift in Motion

Nature’s Gift in Motion

Degrowth, Reciprocity, and the Climate Crisis as a Circulation Problem Both Timothée Parrique and Robin Wall Kimmerer invite us to fundamentally rethink our relationship with growth, nature, and each other. In their respective podcast conversations – Parrique’s “Slow Down or Die” on Upstream (hosted by Della Z. Duncan and Robert

Climate Change as a Circulation Problem

Module Reflections

Climate Change as a Circulation Problem

Evidence, Risk, Attribution, Models, and Justice Climate change is best understood not as a single environmental problem, but as a disruption of interconnected circulatory systems of energy, carbon, water, nutrients, organisms, and people. Evidence from multiple independent observations demonstrates that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have created a persistent Earth energy

Climate Models, Energy Balance, and the Math of Inevitability

History of Science

Climate Models, Energy Balance, and the Math of Inevitability

A short attempt to rescue climate modeling from both mystique and dismissal (and to name why it hurts to understand it) This week I’ve been reading a 2016 paper by Thomas Anderson, Ed Hawkins, and Phil Jones that traces the evolution of climate models from early, hand-calculated energy budgets

A Parallelogram of Crisis and Connection: Oceans, Climate, AI, and Human Nature

Planetary Boundaries

A Parallelogram of Crisis and Connection: Oceans, Climate, AI, and Human Nature

We are living through a convergence of crises and revelations that at first glance seem unrelated: the plundering of our oceans by hidden fleets, the undermining of climate science institutions, the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, and reminders of our fundamental human nature. It feels as if these threads are

How Weather Becomes Memory

Attribution & Evidence

How Weather Becomes Memory

For a university assignment, I spoke with people from different regions and generations about their perceptions of extreme weather events. These were the guiding questions — and I invite you to reflect on your own experiences for a little climate-literacy exercise: * What do you remember about past extreme weather events or

Holding the River

Ecological Literacy

Holding the River

On Steelhead, Ritual, and Reckoning I didn’t grow up fishing or living by the river, yet spending time on and near Idaho’s Clearwater River taught me something about reverence and reckoning. This essay isn’t about optimism or pessimism; it’s about presence, about staying with beauty and

Storm Lines and Story Lines: Learning Relational Resilience from Haida Gwaii

Storm Lines and Story Lines: Learning Relational Resilience from Haida Gwaii

A reflection on Indigenous governance, COP30, relational knowledge, and teaching school kids in the Bergisches Land Resilience comes from relationship. This week I kept circling back to three moments that, strangely, spoke to each other, even though they happened in completely different contexts. • Haida Gwaii preparing for storm surge and

Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

Module Reflections

Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

Summary of SPM.A, SPM.B, and SPM.C from the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate as part of our Topic 3 module assignment The Summary for Policymakers of the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate presents

Translating Vulnerability

Module Reflections

Translating Vulnerability

What Language Teaches Us About Resilience open - wound - open - wound - open wound - open - wound- open - wound Reading Resilience and Vulnerability: Complementary or Conflicting Concepts? (Miller et al., 2010) was both fascinating and, honestly, difficult for me. Not because the article was too complex,

At the Speed of the Earth

Module Reflections

At the Speed of the Earth

Our topic this fortnight in the Climate change and environmental hazards module has been vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation in relation to climate change. (And yes, I’ve just begun hearing the word fortnight all the time, one of those charming reminders that I’m back in the world of British

Climate Change at a Glance

Attribution & Evidence

Climate Change at a Glance

Two slides, one story of a warming planet. This short project was part of my MSc module Climate Change and Environmental Hazards. The task: explain the causes and global impacts of climate change in just two slides. When I started, I approached it like any science assignment, with facts and

Row of wooden houses on stilts above the exposed shoreline in Homer, Alaska.

Crossing Thresholds

Investigating Climate Change in the News and on Social Media – October 2025 This week I explored three recent pieces that reflect different facets of our changing planet, from the chemistry of the ocean to bird migration patterns and the rising force of storms. 1. Ocean Acidification - Crossing the Boundary

Module Reflections

Welcome to Snowline Rising

Snowline Rising is a reflective space created for my module Climate Change and Environmental Hazards at the University of London. This blog gathers my observations, connections, and moments of learning along the way. The title refers to one of the clearest signs of a warming world: the rising snowline. When

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This is Snowline Rising, a brand new site by Caroline Shankel that's just getting started. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content is published!