Matthew MacLeod

The course discusses the different answers that practical philosophy has to offer to the question of what makes a human life good for the one who lives it. The course thus seeks answers to questions such as: What is happiness, and is happiness the only thing important to living a good life? What role, if any, does morality play in the good life? What role does excellence or success play? By considering philosophical theories about the good life, the course seeks to provide answers to questions such as these. The theories covered during the course are discussed and problematized, among other things by examining the implications they have for our individual life choices and the question of how we should live.

Our popular summer course Happiness and the Good Life is open for applications. The course is fully remote and taught in English. Deadline March 16. Sign up today! www.su.se/utbildning/u... CC: @stockholm-uni.bsky.social

The Electric Vehicle Tariff Boomerang If we want more EVs in the US, all we need to do is allow the world’s most popular EVs, which are made by Chinese brands, to compete directly in the US market. This is why I think a recent landmark…

Jim Sallee's EI blog today on how trump's misguided tariffs will bring inexpensive and impressive Chinese EV's to our neighbors. US auto policy only makes sense if climate change isn't real and EV tech progress will slow drastically. Pretty stupid bet.
energyathaas.wordpress.com/2026/03/02/t...

1/ I'm starting to see more and more parallels between MOOCs and AI.

MOOCs worked in computer science because the end result of problems are either right or wrong. But they really ONLY worked in CS. They didn't work in any other field because there was no way to make assessment work at scale.

Line chart titled: 'AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points' It depicts US real GDP per capita on a logarithmic vertical axis under three scenarios. In the first scenario, AI ends scarcity and real GDP per person increases 10x in a matter of years. In the second scenario, AI results in human extinction and real GDP shrinks to effectively zero in about a decade or so. In the third scenario, real GDP grows slightly faster than its current rate.

Fun chart from the FT. Come for the log scale, stay for the, um, wide range of scenarios being modelled.

'AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points'

🔗: www.ft.com/content/60df...

The annual call for the Tarfala Research Station MasterStudent Grant @stockholm-uni.bsky.social @bolincentre.bsky.social is now out, so please check this out and apply (no later than 27 february): www.su.se/english/divi...

Graphic showing changes in CO₂, global temperatures and global sea levels over the last 2025 years. Steep increases are visible after the industrial revolution.

Updated climate indicators graphics, now including 2025

ed-hawkins.github.io/climate-visu...

Canada 🇨🇦 cheating at curling was not on my bingo card 😳

Interrupting my regularly scheduled programming to announce the happy news that the Baltic Sea froze over, generating vast surfaces suitable for long-distance skating. My old friend Jens Liljestrand and I took some time off to explore the edge of the archipelago today, and it was glorious ❄️❄️❄️

How Canada and Sweden are redefining northern security and co-operation As global tensions rise, Canada and Sweden are shifting from defence procurement to long-term strategic alignment across security, industry and Arctic governance.

For many years, co-operation between Canada and Sweden was often viewed through a narrow lens — defence procurement. But there is a deeper shift under way. Article in @theconversation.com by Christophe Premat @premat.bsky.social professor in Canadian studies.
theconversation.com/how-canada-a...

The global plastics treaty can be saved — here’s how to break the deadlock The stalled multinational effort to protect environmental and human health from plastic pollution is salvageable, with a revamped negotiation process.

New piece in @nature.com by @melaniebergma18.bsky.social & Annika Jahnke calls for breaking plastic treaty deadlock by majority vote.

Seems right to me! The options for an international treaty now are 1) vote within the UN process, or 2) an agreement outside the UN.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Så kan Kanada trotsa Trump genom att köpa JAS Gripen - Gräns Det pågår en duell mellan Sverige och USA om att få sälja stridsflygplan till Kanada. Det självklara valet borde vara USA – men inte längre.

Det pågår en duell mellan Sverige & USA om att sälja stridsflygplan till Kanada. Det självklara valet borde vara USA – men inte längre. Lyssna till Gräns med bl a Christophe Premat, föreståndare för Centrum för Kanadastudier, Stockholms univ @premat.bsky.social
www.sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/sa-k...

Geovetenskaps hus at Stockholm University on a sunny January morning.

Geovetenskapenshus at Stockholm University on a sunny January morning. @stockholmuni.bsky.social

Geohus last spring. Across the field from your library...

Day 1 12/02 - Peer Review of the Draft Risk Evaluation for Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) YouTube video by uvideoonline

At EPA’s D4 meeting today:
- Most reviewers industry affiliated
- Most EPA scientists in sync with industry
- EU, UK, Canada: “D4 very persistent and very bioaccumulatative”
- EPA: “maybe persistent but not bioaccumulative”
This is what corporate capture looks like
www.youtube.com/live/eTZ9rjV...

The Empty Chair On mass extinction and what it means.

Alasdair Skelton @alasdair-skelton.bsky.social ruined my morning with his excellent writing...

takingontheclimatecrisis.substack.com/p/the-empty-...

Screenshot of the Washington Post AI bot refusing to answer a question about whether "personal liberties and free markets" could sometime lead to collective harms.

Fun with the @washingtonpost.com 's new AI...

Palace intrigues The plastics treaty talks in Geneva ended without a deal. As negotiators weigh their options about the way forward, troubling questions are…

a month on, @magnuslovold.bsky.social comments on the final day of UN global plastic treaty negotiations in Geneva

there were rumours circulating in whatsapp groups about UNEP engaging in what might best be termed 'discretionary governance' - this blog details some of the chaos that unfolded

When science meets politics: Inside the stalled plastics treaty negotiations - Department of Environmental Science This August, delegates from 183 nations gathered in a spacious UN hall in Geneva with a daunting task: to negotiate the world’s first legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution. More than 2,600 p...

For the first time since Stockholm Univ. was awarded UN observer status, a researcher (Prado Domercq) attended negotiations on a global treaty to end plastic pollution as part of the Scientists' Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty. @marleneagerstrand.bsky.social
www.su.se/department-o...

Plastishere: “the ecosystem composed of airborne plastic and its inhabiting microbiome.”

Is a nice, concise definition... ;)

See Prof. Nina Kirchner, director of @tarfalaresstation.bsky.social, in @svtnyheter.bsky.social earlier today on how the southern peak of #Kebenekaise continues to melt. 1,5 meters since last year... 🌡️⛰️🥵

(In Swedish)

Why is CO2 not escaping to space? Answer (1 of 8): It is escaping to space, just not very fast. Thermal escape involves temperature, molecular mass, and gravity. CO2 has more molecular mass than water, hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen. ...

Hm. CO2 can escape to space...

www.quora.com/Why-is-CO2-n...

... just very slowly.

But it seems very likely to me that at least some CO2 that was once part of a plastic toothbrush has left the planet by now...

I had to think for a while about how this statement could possibly be true.

The only way is if you count CO2 from plastic that has been burned or mineralized as "in existence in some form".

Which is fair enough, I guess...

Tarfala's 80 Year Anniversary Conference @stockholm-uni.bsky.social @bolincentre.bsky.social has just started! Thank your our international speakers from Switzerland, Norway, Germany and UK making the first sessions really exciting! Artwork in the conference logo by @dominoajones.bsky.social

New ‘forever chemicals’ found in whale blubber challenge our understanding of PFAS - Stockholm University Scientists from Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural history, in collaboration with partners in Greenland and Canada, have identified a previously undocumented class of PFAS* in the ...

Scientists from Stockholm University + Swedish Museum of Natural history, in collaboration with partners in Greenland and Canada, have identified a previously undocumented class of #PFAS in blubber of killer whales. New study in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
www.su.se/english/news...

Den stora kyrkflytten – Första dagen I direktsändning följer vi den världsunika flytten av Kiruna kyrka, från gamla stadskärnan till dess nya plats, fem kilometer bort. Den stora kyrkflytten tar två dagar och är en del av den omfattande ...

Fans of "slow television" are in for a treat, as Swedish TV is live-streaming the effort to move an entire church in Kiruna from one place to another over the course of two days: www.svtplay.se/video/KnDgQ9... Enjoy!

We Grant Personhood to Companies. Why Not to Nature? Giving legal rights to rivers, forests and mountains is a useful way to elevate consideration of the ecosystem.

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

July was warm. Here are #warmingstripes @edhawkins.org showing average july temperature at #TarfalaResearchStation @stockholmuni.bsky.social @bolincentre.bsky.social. One definition of the Arctic is that July temps stay below 10 C - according to this, we are not in the Arctic...But we are...

This is figure 2, which shows the horizontal and vertical distribution of nanoplastics in the water column of the North Atlantic.

High concentrations of nanoplastic particles were found in locations across the North Atlantic Ocean, particularly in the top 10 metres of water and near coastlines, according to an analysis in Nature. go.nature.com/44ohIok 🌊 🧪

Today we made history.

Countries have come together & agreed the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution that will provide the 🌍 with robust, independent science.

Environmental multilateralism delivering again, #ForPeopleForPlanet.

www.unep.org/news-and-sto...