2022 Recap: 68 Podcasts, 44 Speaking Engagements, 52 Articles, 96 Videos, Launched Substack, Smeared by McKibben, And Had An Almost-Illegal Amount Of Fun (Bird of the Year: Red-shouldered Hawk)

"News" letter #128

My father, Walter Bryce, was not much of a reader. He was a people person. He was an insurance salesman who never met a stranger and was always ready with a joke or a quip. When he got philosophical, he would often say “tempus fugit.” That’s certainly been the case for 2022. The year flew by. Lorin and I started the year with her working full time, teaching art at a small prep school. She was doing a great job but it was not what she wanted to do. She quit that gig over the summer and is now teaching ceramics at The Art School at Laguna Gloria, which is one of the best art schools in Central Texas. Lorin is a born teacher and a master potter. I’m incredibly proud of her. She loves her new gig and the opportunity to teach adults who are motivated and want to practice the art and craft of ceramics. That change is just one of many that have happened this year, which has been extremely busy. As you can tell from the headline above, I’ve been productive. I cranked out more content in 2022 – podcasts, speeches, articles, and videos – than I have at any other time in my career. And here’s the best part: although I’m working my tail off, I’m having more fun than ever.

My goals for my work are simple: I want it to be fun, interesting, and profitable. Luckily, I’m getting all three. I’ve been particularly pleased with the traction I’ve had with my speaking business, which is how I pay my bills. In 2022, I presented to dozens of groups including the leaders and members of the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation in Jonesboro and the top engineers at Sargent & Lundy in Chicago. My calendar is filling up for next year and I expect to do another 40 or more engagements in 2023. Further, thanks to solid support from my friends, and my ongoing collaboration with my talented and hard-working colleague, Tyson Culver, we will be releasing a new documentary in 2023. (More details on that are forthcoming.)

I say none of this to brag, but merely to mark the end of the year and to express my gratitude for my great good fortune. I’m lucky to have an audience that is interested in my work and to have so many loyal and supportive friends. Loyalty is a rare commodity in this world. Three items today:

• Smeared by McKibben in the New Yorker

• Curry talks about “toy models” and why Twitter is an “indispensable tool”

• The Red-shouldered Hawk is my bird of the year

The image of the Red-shouldered Hawk just above is a detail from Audubon’s Birds of America.)

Throughout my career, my stance toward my critics has been simple: Ignore, mute, and ignore some more. I don’t give my critics any oxygen. If they don’t like what I am doing, fine. I don’t give a damn. But I made an exception for the article that was published this week by Bill McKibben in the New Yorker because it was so dishonest. McKibben purposedly smeared me and my work. I won’t reprise it here because I sent it out on this Substack channel yesterday. But I was gobsmacked by McKibben’s lack of integrity. Further, I was stunned that the New Yorker’s fact-checking was so weak. If you didn’t read it yesterday, here’s a link.

Two more points: I am very thankful that my friend, Roger Pielke Jr. was so supportive of me. He advised me to hit back, hard, at McKibben for his rank mendacity. He also reminded me that Substack is the perfect place for me to ply my trade and the right place to rebut the New Yorker’s silliness. If you aren’t a subscriber to The Honest Broker by Roger Pielke Jr., I highly recommend it. I may also take Roger’s advice and launch a paid feature on Substack in 2023.

Judith Curry on “toy models” and “how insane academia has become”

Judith A. Curry is a climatologist and former academic who is “appalled at the state of both the scientific and policy debates surrounding climate change.” In her second appearance on the podcast (the first was on October 20, 2020) Curry, the president and founder of Climate Forecast Applications Network, talks about her recent essay, “The climate ‘crisis’ isn’t what it used to be,” why we have to get better at understanding risk, the “propaganda machine” that promotes climate catastrophism, the “toy models” used by academics to justify all-renewable schemes, and why Twitter is an “indispensable tool for wicked scientists.” I particularly liked what she said about what gives her hope. She said “there’s a lot of collective intelligence out there in the world. And I’m a techno-optimist, you know, I think we can we can fix these issues, we can make exciting things happen. So I’m a techno-optimist. The environment is not as fragile as people think.” This episode was recorded on December 12, 2022. The audio and transcript are on my website. The video is on YouTube.

Buteo lineatus is my favorite bird of 2022

If you’ve been getting this “news” letter, you know that I’m enthusiastic about birds and birdwatching. And since it’s the end of 2022, I have dubbed the Red-shouldered Hawk as my bird of the year. To be sure, I’ve seen many other birds this year. And I’ve written about Buteo lineatus several times in my epistles, including here and here. But on Tuesday afternoon, while hiking on Barton Creek near the Gus Fruh access, I stopped short when I saw two other hikers who were standing motionless beneath a branch that extended over the trail. Both were looking upward. Upon seeing them, I stopped and began moving slowly forward to see what had caused them to stop. A Red-shouldered Hawk was perched on a limb maybe eight feet from where they were standing. The expression on their faces was one I’ve seen many times on new birders and experienced birders alike. It was one of joy and wonder at seeing such a magnificent animal so close. I never get tired of Red-shouldered Hawks. I see them frequently both in our yard and while out walking on the creek. I love their fierceness and their agility in the air. (I took the photo above this summer in our backyard.) Animaldiversity.org says this:

• Red-shouldered Hawks usually inhabit mature deciduous or mixed deciduous-conifer forests and swamps. They build their nests 6 to 15 meters (20 to 60 feet) above the ground in the branches of deciduous trees in wet woodland areas. They prefer to have dead trees nearby, where they can perch and enjoy an unobstructed view of the forest floor...large, broad-winged hawks with relatively long tails and heavy bodies. They show reverse sexual size dimorphism, meaning that females are larger than males. Female red-shouldered hawks average 700 g and 48 to 61 cm in length whereas males average 550 g and 43 to 58 cm in length. Adults have a wingspan of 92 to 107 cm (average 100 cm). Adult red-shouldered hawks have a brown head, a dark brown back and reddish underparts with dark brown streaks. Juveniles appear similar to adults, but have creamy underparts with dark brown spots and streaks. Both adults and juveniles have reddish lesser secondary upper wing coverts, which give the impression of red shoulders, giving this species its name. The tail...is dark brown with white bands. Five subspecies of Buteo lineatus are recognized. These subspecies are separated based on geography and physical characteristics. The head and breast markings of the Florida subspecies, Buteo lineatus extimus and Buteo lineatus alleni, are slightly paler than other Red-shouldered Hawks. The California subspecies, Buteo lineatus elegans, and the Texas subspecies, Buteo lineatus texanus, however, have vibrant, deep red markings on the lesser secondary upperwing coverts, underwing coverts, and breast.

Thanks again for reading. Happy New Year y’all.

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