#Marginalized communities and pollution

[townpostin]

Jamshedpur's Air Quality Crisis Tackled by Community Initiative

Vayu Veer program empowers marginalized groups to combat pollution through citizen science Innovative citizen-led air monitoring in Jamshedpur reveals alarming pollution levels, spurring grassroots action for cleaner air through the Vayu Veer program. JAMSHEDPUR – Clean Air Jharkhand has implemented the innovative Vayu Veer program, which involves the participation of youth and women from…

[directactionforhope]

"Starting this month [June 2024], thousands of young people will begin doing climate-related work around the West as part of a new service-based federal jobs program, the American Climate Corps, or ACC. The jobs they do will vary, from wildland firefighters and “lawn busters” to urban farm fellows and traditional ecological knowledge stewards. Some will work on food security or energy conservation in cities, while others will tackle invasive species and stream restoration on public land. 

The Climate Corps was modeled on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, with the goal of eventually creating tens of thousands of jobs while simultaneously addressing the impacts of climate change. 

Applications were released on Earth Day, and Maggie Thomas, President Joe Biden’s special assistant on climate, told High Country News that the program’s website has already had hundreds of thousands of views. Since its launch, nearly 250 jobs across the West have been posted, accounting for more than half of all the listed ACC positions. 

“Obviously, the West is facing tremendous impacts of climate change,” Thomas said. “It’s changing faster than many other parts of the country. If you look at wildfire, if you look at extreme heat, there are so many impacts. I think that there’s a huge role for the American Climate Corps to be tackling those crises.”  

Most of the current positions are staffed through state or nonprofit entities, such as the Montana Conservation Corps or Great Basin Institute, many of which work in partnership with federal agencies that manage public lands across the West. In New Mexico, for example, members of Conservation Legacy’s Ecological Monitoring Crew will help the Bureau of Land Management collect soil and vegetation data. In Oregon, young people will join the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working in firefighting, fuel reduction and timber management in national forests. 

New jobs are being added regularly. Deadlines for summer positions have largely passed, but new postings for hundreds more positions are due later this year or on a rolling basis, such as the Working Lands Program, which is focused on “climate-smart agriculture.”  ...

On the ACC website, applicants can sort jobs by state, work environment and focus area, such as “Indigenous knowledge reclamation” or “food waste reduction.” Job descriptions include an hourly pay equivalent — some corps jobs pay weekly or term-based stipends instead of an hourly wage — and benefits. The site is fairly user-friendly, in part owing to suggestions made by the young people who participated in the ACC listening sessions earlier this year...

The sessions helped determine other priorities as well, Thomas said, including creating good-paying jobs that could lead to long-term careers, as well as alignment with the president’s Justice40 initiative, which mandates that at least 40% of federal climate funds must go to marginalized communities that are disproportionately impacted by climate change and pollution. 

High Country News found that 30% of jobs listed across the West have explicit justice and equity language, from affordable housing in low-income communities to Indigenous knowledge and cultural reclamation for Native youth...

While the administration aims for all positions to pay at least $15 an hour, the lowest-paid position in the West is currently listed at $11 an hour. Benefits also vary widely, though most include an education benefit, and, in some cases, health care, child care and housing. 

All corps members will have access to pre-apprenticeship curriculum through the North America’s Building Trades Union. Matthew Mayers, director of the Green Workers Alliance, called this an important step for young people who want to pursue union jobs in renewable energy. Some members will also be eligible for the federal pathways program, which was recently expanded to increase opportunities for permanent positions in the federal government...

 “To think that there will be young people in every community across the country working on climate solutions and really being equipped with the tools they need to succeed in the workforce of the future,” Thomas said, “to me, that is going to be an incredible thing to see.”"

-via High Country News, June 6, 2024

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Note: You can browse Climate Corps job postings here, on the Climate Corps website. There are currently 314 jobs posted at time of writing!

Also, it says the goal is to pay at least $15 an hour for all jobs (not 100% meeting that goal rn), but lots of postings pay higher than that, including some over $20/hour!!

[otrtbs]

saw a post recently describing the marauder’s era fandom as ‘the worst mass delusion since the dancing plague’ and i was wondering what u think of all that? i don’t think we give jkr more traction which is what the post accused us of so i was just wondering your take is. i saw so many ppl agree with it and i was so confused (i realise u prob won’t answer this publicly but i’m too scared to ask off anon and i’m sorry for polluting ur ask box with this sort of negativity) love ahb! it changed my life

hi!! you caught me at a time when i had my computer handy so we're gonna have a little chat. you are NOT polluting my inbox and i think that these are important conversations to be had, so i'm gonna do my best to articulate my thoughts under the cut <3

i haven't seen the post so i can't really get into the thick of what that person was saying, but based on the context you've provided me here, i do wanna hit a few points.

i definitely grapple with the fact that my participation in this fandom can/could/and does lead to more traction (increased relevance/visibility/revenue) for jkr inadvertently. i think that the very nature of being in this fandom, in whatever capacity, but especially for me as a fic writer, means that i cannot sever myself entirely from her views and actions and act as if i am operating in a sphere completely free from her influence and traction.

i can make my stance clear. i can denounce jkr and her views, i can take actions to counteract the harmful rhetoric and real violence she seeks to enact on the trans and other marginalized communities. i can use the power of my dollar to ensure that she never sees a single cent from me. not from merch sales, or theme park visits, or new book editions, or lego sets.

but, at the end of the day, i can't agree with the sentiment that "we don't give jkr more traction" because we do. and i see it happening all the time. people in the marauders fandom still go to the studios, still buy official merch, still give her money. and the part where i struggle a lot....is in the way that fics and fic reading has become more promotional in content w the rise of tiktok fandom spaces. which, inevitably, may (and does) encourage people who once liked harry potter to re-enter the fandom in a new capacity. and i can't control what they do and how they spend their money and where they go etc. all i can do is make my stance clear, and put my money where my mouth is.

but i am always aware of it. that i have a harry potter fic out there and it's an easy read and an au so not hard to get behind if you're new to the fandom. i'm not out here recruiting people into this space, but sometimes, with tweets and tiktok posts that anyone can view, i know that it happens. and if someone stumbles across my fic and gets into the marauders and decides to watch the marauders reboot??? that's not something i can control. but it IS something i think about. a lot. all the little ways that being in this fandom can lead to more jkr traction.

i would love to be like "no! fuck jkr and i wash my hands of it,,, i'm not giving her traction." but i think that would be disingenuous and superficial. just because *I* am not giving her money doesn't mean that the collective *we* aren't. because *we* are. and my fics may help that along in minute but unignorable ways. i do my best to mitigate and counteract the potential harm, i'm starting to add notes in my fics and on my navigation asking ppl to keep comments/thoughts/opinions in my tumblr ask box and ao3 comments only and off twt/tiktok/ect but i also cannot confidently say that my presence in fandom doesn't provide jkr any traction. i was talking to a friend abt similar topics a while ago (s/o rae) and they were like "in an ideal world harry potter fandom would be like a closed practice and die out eventually" and yeah. exactly. but as it stands today, it's not a closed practice, and i think it's important to be mindful always of the impact you're creating. i don't think most if any of us here sit down to "promote" harry potter or the marauders but obviously, with the reboot that's happening, there is some influence happening there.

i love writing in this space, i love writing in this fandom. i love this little corner of the internet that we've carved out, i love the friends i've made in it. the stories that are being created in this space are kinder and more diverse and more reflective than the source material, and the fandom has brought me and many others a lot of really great experiences. but that contradiction (i reject jkr and her politics but i still create fics/art/videos rooted in her works ... or even if you eschew canon and work strictly in au's you're using her characters from the original text) is always there. and there are always going to be ties back to her. and i don't think it negates the value of the stories we're telling, but i also don't think it's something we can just ignore and pretend to be be innocent/ignorant of either.

okay this was so long and rambly but those are my thoughts. i think the topic is messy to grapple w for me <- girl who is horrendous at being articulate but hopefully this lays it out somewhat?? <3 kk love you never feel bad abt sending me asks like this beloved <33

[fatehbaz]

Who gets to be human? On Black geographies, damned people living in inhospitable places, other ways of knowing and being, and racist legacy of European academic epistemologies.

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The idea of the plantation is migratory. [...] Past colonial encounters created material and imaginative geographies that reified global segregations through “damning” the spaces long occupied by Man's human others. Here, damning can be understood in two interlocking ways: as a fencing in and as a condemnation of racial-sexual difference. The uninhabitable - in particular, the landmasses occupied by those who, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, were unimaginable, both spatially and corporeally - is the geographic (non)location through which the plantation emerged. From Caliban's “uninhabited” island in Shakespeare's The Tempest, to the regions within Africa identified as too hot to be livable, the landmasses deemed uninhabitable presented a geographic predicament upon “discovery.” [...] [A] "new symbolic construct of race," which coincided with post-1492 colonial arrangements, organized much of the world according to a racial logic. [...] The colonial enactment of geographic knowledge mapped “a normal way of life” through measuring different degrees of humanness and attaching different versions of the human to different places. […] [I]n the sites of toxicity, environmental decay, pollution […] inhabited by impoverished communities […] the [current] geographies of the racial other are emptied out of life precisely because the historical constitution of these geographies has cast them as lands of no one. So in our present moment, some live in the unlivable, and to live in the unlivable condemns the geographies of marginalized to death over and over again. Life, then, is extracted from particular regions […]. If we believe that the city [the prison, the resort, other "postcolonial spaces"] is the commercial expression of the plantation and its marginalized masses, and that the plantation is a persistent but ugly blueprint of our contemporary spatial troubles, Wynter's essay asks that we seek out secretive histories […]. [R]acial violence haunts, [...] the struggles we face, intellectually, are a continuation of plantation narratives that dichotimize geographies into us/them and hide secretive histories that undo the teleological [...] underpinnings of [colonial, imperial, modern] spatiality.

Text by: Katherine McKittrick. “Plantation Futures.” Small Axe, Volume 17, Number 3, November 2013 (No. 42), pages 1-15. [Emphasis mine.]

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Registering the marine world as central to the making of modernity - from slave ships and sea-borne empires to container logistics and the industrialized extraction of its resources (from fish to fossil fuels) - we encounter the constant of colonialism in the haunting racism that produces the violent grammar of inhospitality, today etched on the body of the contemporary migrant. [...] This is to interrupt and rework Occidental historiography, sociology, and philosophy, and to puncture their faith in rendering the world transparent to their will. […] Promoting the instability of critical language is to take responsibility for what Achille Mbembe calls the becoming-black of the world: where the production of subjection provokes alternative knowledge, practices, and politics […]. Today the increasing use of drones in the Mediterranean as part of the technology of governance marks the latest abandonment of social responsibility to the bio-surveillance of unwanted bodies and discarded lives. Smart borders take migrants far below the category of “bare life,” [...] and extends the racial profiling written into the historical premises that betray their deep incubation in the refusal to register the languages and limits of the white myths [...]. From the Black Atlantic to the Black Mediterranean: seas of dispossession and unbelonging have constantly demonstrated the political, juridical, and onto-epistemological limits of modernity. They promote a constant critique of the epistemic foundations of Western [colonial "liberalism"]. Those on the water, the wretched of the sea, the damned [...], who cannot source their identity in the territory of the nation-state, are without rights. They have no social [...] validity. [...] Yet they simultaneously [...] exist, persist, and resist. [...] The algorithm sputters in the dark while cut-up, bricolage, collage, and montage work the critical gaps [...]. The archives unwind to expose other computations of time and further folds in space: the promise of foreign cartographies [...].

Text by: Iain Chambers. A section by Chambers in the essay co-authored by Tiziana Terranova and Iain Chambers. “Technology, Postcoloniality, and the Mediterranean.” e-flux Journal Issue #123. December 2021. [Emphasis mine.]

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[T]he framing of the inhumanities forces a reckoning with the humanist liberal subject that orders the humanities: an invisible and indivisible white subject position [...]. In Césaire’s (2000 [1972]) Discourse on Colonialism, he suggested that “at the very time when it most often mouths the word, the West has never been further from being able to live a true humanism [...]”. In another searing critique of [White, European, liberal/colonial] humanism, Fanon (1961) tied the unrealized figure of a true humanism to the earth, as a wretched counterpoint, whereby the inhuman residues of the colonial project abide as discarded matter […]. Those blackened colonial afterlives in “modernity’s project of unfreedom” (Walcott 2014, 94) are still very much present in the political geologies of climate change vulnerabilities, the wasting effects of racial capitalism, and neo-extractivist economies […]. The narrative arc of humanism, Scott (2000) suggested in conversation with Wynter, is often told as a kind of European coming-of-age story. […] The Anthropocene discourse follows the same coming-of-age humanist script [...]. Sylvia Wynter, W.E.B. DuBois, and Achille Mbembe all showed how that genealogy of man [as universal concept] was underscored by the racial division of life and nonlife. […] In its simplest iteration, there are forms of life on one side and nonlife on the other; nonlife that is constituted through death, and more recently in Mbembe and Povinelli’s writing through forms of social death, exhaustion, and extinguishment, wherein nonlife emerges as a zone of governance. The gravitational pull that centers these divisions between life and nonlife is the human subject as it is conceived through a Western normative frame [...]. As new forms of racialized beings were articulated through sixteenth- through nineteenth-century paleontology in the context of colonialism, geology was also articulating new origins of the earth, as well as forming the material praxis of their rearrangement (through mining, ecological rearrangements and extractions, and forms of geologic displacements such as plantations, dams, fertilizers, crops, and introduction of “alien” animals). [...] Historically, this normative sphere of humanism was racist and specifically antiblack, and without challenging that history, it remains so, every time the universal or human is invoked. Some of the greatest challenges, of course, came from anticolonial thinkers struggling to make sense of their painful histories in their fullest terms, such as Fanon (1959, 1961), Césaire, Glissant, C. L. R. James and Wynter. As Wynter (2000) commented, “The degradation of concrete humans, that was/is the price of empire, of the kind of humanism that underlies it” (154). For Wynter (2000), “what is called the West [...] begins with the founding of post-1492 Caribbean” (152). Wynter challenged the geographical imaginary that the Americas and Caribbean are somehow an epistemological outside to Western knowledge […].

Text by: Kathryn Yusoff. “The Inhumanities.” Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Volume 11, Issue 3. November 2020. [Emphasis mine.]

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But what becomes of the native-occupied “uninhabitable” zones is a geo-racial reorganization. The “new symbolic construct of race,” which coincided with post-1492 colonial arrangements, was spatially organized according to a new […] logic. […] That is, the uninhabitable […] is underscored by racial and sexual differences. To transform the [land] […], and make this transformation profitable, the land must become a site of racial-sexual regulation, a geography that maps “a normal way of life” […] This is expressed through uneven geographies: spatial arrangements [...]. The inhabitability [...] also produces [...] forms of geographic nonexistence, which differ from what was assumed was "not there." [...] [W]hat Edouard Glissant describes as the "real but long unnoticed" places [...]: cultural sharings, new poetics, new ways of being [...]. Those who occupy the spaces of Otherness are always already encountering space and therefore articulate how genres or modes of humanness are intimately connected to where we/they are ontologically as well as geographically. To return to an earlier discussion, spaces of Otherness are “palpitating with life.” [...]

Text by: Katherine McKittrick. “Demonic Grounds: Sylvia Wynter.” Demonic Grounds: Black Women and The Cartographies of Struggle. 2006. [Emphasis mine.]

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

I have the ultimate woke canceled short story!

In a small coastal town nestled by the Gulf of Mexico, a group of activists rallied for climate justice and community equity. The climate crisis had left its mark on the region, with polluted waters and environmental degradation threatening both the ecosystem and the marginalized communities living there. Among them were BIPOC individuals, immigrants, and people from diverse backgrounds, all of whom had long been underrepresented in local leadership. The barriers they faced were not only environmental but also systemic, as the town’s governance had historically been biased toward the wealthiest, most privileged groups.

Maria, a Latina community organizer, knew the challenges of living in a town where gender-based violence (GBV) was rampant and where access to affirming care for transgender people was limited. She had seen how the town's healthcare providers, although well-intentioned, lacked cultural competence and often practiced discriminatory, non-inclusive care. Pregnant people, particularly those who were transgender, were frequently excluded from necessary care, and the disparity between services for women assigned female at birth and non-binary or transgender individuals was stark.

Maria was an advocate for fostering inclusivity in all spheres of life. She worked closely with local activists who were fighting for gender-affirming care and advocating for policies that promoted racial justice. They collaborated with organizations focused on increasing diversity and promoting equitable opportunities for underprivileged and at-risk groups. Together, they pushed for an all-inclusive approach to healthcare—one that considered the needs of people who chestfeed or breastfeed, as well as individuals with disabilities or those who were members of the LGBTQ+ community.

One evening, Maria gathered with other advocates at a community center, where discussions on allyship, racial inequality, and gender identity took center stage. There, allies from different walks of life—Black, White, Latinx, Native American, and others—shared their experiences and expressed how they could work together to combat oppression. The group agreed that their activism needed to embrace the intersectionality of their identities, acknowledging how race, gender, and socioeconomic status influenced the obstacles they faced.

However, Maria knew that activism alone wouldn’t be enough. It required a cultural shift—one that included community diversity and increased awareness of implicit bias. They needed to confront confirmation bias and actively work against prejudice. The goal was clear: to build a society where everyone, regardless of their ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual preferences, could belong and thrive. She and her fellow activists set out to increase the diversity of leadership in the town, ensuring that historically marginalized groups were represented and that the town's policies reflected the lived experiences of all.

As the town began to shift toward a more equitable and inclusive future, Maria felt a sense of accomplishment. Though the work was far from over, they had taken significant steps toward breaking down barriers—both physical and ideological—that had long excluded those at the margins. The town was slowly becoming a place where every person could see themselves reflected in the values of inclusion, justice, and belonging.

🖕🖕🖕

-fae

[ahb-writes]

Disappearing Words

As the U.S. government targets and purges specific knowledge, initiatives, and the people responsible for them, specific words associated with these knowledge bases are disappearing from government documents (see "These Words Are Disappearing...," The New York Times):

accessible

activism

activists

advocacy

advocate

advocates

affirming care

all-inclusive

allyship

anti-racism

antiracist

assigned at birth

assigned female at birth

assigned male at birth

at risk

barrier

barriers

belong

bias

biased

biased toward

biases

biases towards

biologically female

biologically male

BIPOC

Black

breastfeed + people

breastfeed + person

chestfeed + people

chestfeed + person

clean energy

climate crisis

climate science

commercial sex worker

community diversity

community equity

confirmation bias

cultural competence

cultural differences

cultural heritage

cultural sensitivity

culturally appropriate

culturally responsive

DEI

DEIA

DEIAB

DEIJ

disabilities

disability

discriminated

discrimination

discriminatory

disparity

diverse

diverse backgrounds

diverse communities

diverse community

diverse group

diverse groups

diversified

diversify

diversifying

diversity

enhance the diversity

enhancing diversity

environmental quality

equal opportunity

equality

equitable

equitableness

equity

ethnicity

excluded

exclusion

expression

female

females

feminism

fostering inclusivity

GBV

gender

gender based

gender based violence

gender diversity

gender identity

gender ideology

gender-affirming care

genders

Gulf of Mexico

hate speech

health disparity

health equity

hispanic minority

historically

identity

immigrants

implicit bias

implicit biases

inclusion

inclusive

inclusive leadership

inclusiveness

inclusivity

increase diversity

increase the diversity

indigenous community

inequalities

inequality

inequitable

inequities

inequity

injustice

institutional

intersectional

intersectionality

key groups

key people

key populations

Latinx

LGBT

LGBTQ

marginalize

marginalized

men who have sex with men

mental health

minorities

minority

most risk

MSM

multicultural

Mx

Native American

non-binary

nonbinary

oppression

oppressive

orientation

people + uterus

people-centered care

person-centered

person-centered care

polarization

political

pollution

pregnant people

pregnant person

pregnant persons

prejudice

privilege

privileges

promote diversity

promoting diversity

pronoun

pronouns

prostitute

race

race and ethnicity

racial

racial diversity

racial identity

racial inequality

racial justice

racially

racism

segregation

sense of belonging

sex

sexual preferences

sexuality

social justice

sociocultural

socioeconomic

status

stereotype

stereotypes

systemic

systemically

they/them

trans

transgender

transsexual

trauma

traumatic

tribal

unconscious bias

underappreciated

underprivileged

underrepresentation

underrepresented

underserved

undervalued

victim

victims

vulnerable populations

women

women and underrepresented

[homestuckreplay]

EOA1 ==> Media, Agency and the Suburbs in Act 1 of Homestuck

It is April 13, 1959. Mr. Egbert, Sr. has recently made the move out of the city into a newly built house in the suburbs, because clowning isn't paying so well after the recession. His son John hasn't seen his friend Rose since they moved. Staring out the window at 4:13pm and glimpsing nothing but the neighbor's wall, John goes downstairs to catch the second half of a black and white episode of Truth or Consequences, losing himself for fifteen minutes in their world of pranks, hilarity and emotional family reunions. Hopefully for his birthday, his dad will get him that cool new board game and its all-important hours of distraction.

We pick up the daily newspaper, and flip to the funnies to see John's new antics.

(Essay below the cut - about 5k words.)

==> I: John’s Suburb in Historical Context, or: Johntext

During the 1940s and 1950s, mass expansion of the American suburbs was accompanied by a ‘best of both worlds’ promise. Families who moved there could enjoy easy travel to the city via car for work and leisure, but wouldn’t have to deal with the ‘undesirable’ parts of city life, such as noise, pollution, or people from marginalized groups. Suburbs were characterized by detached, single family houses that guaranteed each family their own bubble of space away from neighbors, but also promised a community of likeminded people with whom to form neighborhood associations and PTA committees. Residents could enjoy independence from city governance and increased control over their own living spaces, but anybody who might push back against current social norms would be quietly excluded. Utopian promises and attractive prices encouraged many Americans to make the move, and many of them have never left. 

Here in 2009, it’s not uncommon for people to have lived their entire lives in the suburbs - often in a single house. Promises of progress and innovation within households have remained strictly cosmetic, while the values guarding suburban families and communities have changed very little. Although people of color comprise an increasing percentage of suburban residents, white people are still overrepresented. The same is true of married couples’ overrepresentation compared to other family structures. Suburban architecture remains centralized around the car as the primary means of transportation, and the separation of residential from commercial areas. Opportunities and reasons to leave the house are both minimized. 

With the growth of the suburbs came increased criticism of their designs and ideals. Their dream of a spacious home for each family has led to feelings of isolation, while the promised communities have primarily formed around churches and strict Christian ideals. Residents lack trust in their neighbors, and as such, children are no longer left to their own devices outside of the house. The suburban goal of easy car accessibility to cities has ended in highway congestion, air pollution and lack of public transport or pedestrian access. And while the percentage of Americans living in the suburbs continues to increase, not everyone has the luxury of choosing where they live - particularly children and teenagers. 

Homestuck’s main character John Egbert doesn't directly express a hatred of the suburbs - he seems more conflicted, showing fondness for the tire swing in a kid's yard (p.27), the fireplace (p.50) and the father smoking a pipe (p.74), while also expressing that he feels stuck in his home (p.30, 253), that he avoids his father's company (p.30), and that he feels something missing from his life (p.82). He doesn't seem aware of the source of his emptiness, just that he's always felt it, and we can only guess the source through incredibly subtle context clues, such as the work's title and the way John longingly gazes towards the outside.

It's certainly possible for someone with an otherwise privileged life to feel alienation in the suburbs, but those who differ from the white nuclear family ideal tend to have these feelings heightened, and may be ostracized by the community or threatened into conformity. Similarly, the gulf between John and his dad, and their separate perceptions of that relationship, could be simply generational, or could suggest bigger, unseen differences between them.

One interpretation I and others have discussed is that John is a transgender woman who has yet to actively realize her identity, but knows on some level that she can’t achieve the strict gender expectations of a suburban community. This loss of self-understanding would contribute to John's feelings of absence and lack of control, and strain her relationship with a father who expects her to fit a male gender role. 

This might be my favorite possible explanation, but there are lots of others, any or all of which could be true. John being queer in any sense would mean he might not fit into the nuclear family structure of the suburbs as an adult. John being a person of color in an otherwise white neighborhood would visually distinguish him from his neighbors and cause them to judge him based on stereotypes, and if John is mixed race and Dad is white, this distinction could highlight differences between them too, the absence in John's life marked by a disconnection from a culture he's a part of. John being neurodivergent could impact his ability to interact with other people in the neighborhood, or to replicate the rules and performativity of daily life. Single parent family structures are more accepted in 2009 than they were in 1959, but it's still possible that some past scandal involving Dad and John's family life is hanging over them, fresh in the minds of their neighborhood - perhaps one that just like Nanna's death, Dad 'never wants to talk about'. Any of these factors could lead to John being ostracized by his community and mean that even at a young age he didn't 'buy in' to the idea of the happy suburban family. 

I believe it is intentional that Homestuck hasn’t defined John’s location more specifically than ‘west of Kansas’. Although research has shown that different suburbs have their own individual characters, critics tend to emphasize their similarities. We’re supposed to think that John would have broadly the same experiences if he lives in Arizona or Colorado, Texas or Georgia, maybe even England or Belgium. The externalities of John’s life are the same as countless other kids in the Western world, not because of John’s choices or even his dad’s choices, but due to the larger structures that organize families into houses, houses into suburbs, and suburbs into sources of constraint.

==> II: If You Love Your House So Much, Why Don’t You Never Leave It?

The suburbs walk hand in hand with advances in technology. The 1950s saw a boom in the sale of household appliances, with devices for cooking and cleaning promising to lighten the housework load for women, and television providing entertainment for the whole family from the comfort of the living room. Various corporations created model homes to display the futuristic properties of their fantastical appliances, promising consumers that in the future, all homes would look just like this. This was a marketing tactic primarily benefiting the corporations - but in some cases, they were successful. General Electric’s ‘New American’ home in Denver featured a dishwasher as early as 1935, and these increased in affordability and domestic popularity across the 1950s and 60s. Disneyland’s Monsanto ‘House of the Future’ boasted a microwave oven. The house opened in real world 1957 but was ‘set in 1986’, and by 1986, one in four American homes owned a microwave. The Westinghouse ‘Home of Tomorrow’ contained the first ever portable radios - six of them, with radio outlets in every room to grant every family member a constant supply of media. 

This idea of constant, individualized media consumption may have been the greatest called shot of these houses. In 1959, John would be limited to a handful of TV channels on a fixed schedule, fighting over the tuning dials with his dad, but in 2009 he almost certainly knows the delights of Megavideo on top of having a video game collection, DVD collection and TV on demand service. 

Televisions were marketed to families in the 1950s claiming that they would keep families closer, as parents and children alike would want to stay home and watch together instead of going out to separate places, and many parents at first expressed relief at always knowing where their teenage children were, and consequently, being able to keep an eye on them. Television altered the boundaries between public and private space, allowing people to experience a public activity such as a trip to the movies, a performance from a live musician, even witnessing the moon landing, without leaving the home or interacting with strangers. 

Increasingly, media is marketed with the promise of interactivity and agency. Television provided a world to passively escape into, but video games allow the player to actually embody a character in that world. They present fantasies of control, of being able to explore a virtual map according to the player’s whims, and offering in-character choices that allow the player to control the narrative itself. Players are compelled by the possibility of media they can customize to their own specific tastes, and media they can master and bend to their will instead of simply observe. In this way, the Nintendo Wii isn’t so different from the fridge-freezer that promised greater mastery over the family’s diet, or the modern microwave oven and its dozens of settings and options for preparing food. 

As our society moves from home televisions to home computers and video game systems into an age of portable, all in one smartphones, we and the media become more dependent on each other, and we expect to have access to it more of the time. John Egbert has found connection with a close friend who lives multiple timezones east and stays in regular and real time contact with her. That friendship enriches his life, and wouldn't have been possible without today’s high speed internet and instant messaging services. John’s computer opens up an incredible social world, but - as we’ve seen with Rose losing power - if he lost that technology, he’d also lose that community. 

So, advertisers ask, what possible reason is there to leave? Why would you go somewhere mundane, like a park or a youth club, when you could go up on a plane surrounded by dangerous criminals and outsmart them all in time to save your friend? When you can bike down the highways from Missouri to Virginia to save the girl you like from natural disasters? You can be a hard boiled detective, a monster's best friend, a scientist making contact with aliens, an oil magnate turned savior of the world, a FBI agent surgically given the face of a terrorist, and a world leading expert on ghost slime - and you’ll never get dirty, you’ll never get hurt, and your dad will be right in the next room with a constant supply of fresh baked cakes and fatherly affection. What possible reason do kids have to complain, or to feel like anything is missing from their lives, when they can master reality from couches and computer chairs?

John Egbert embodies constant media consumption. Two of his five stated interests are consuming media - specifically movies and video games - and even when he’s not actively watching or playing something, he’s surrounded by media. His room is filled with movie posters, the television in the living room is switched on even when nobody’s watching, and the first thing he does after loading his computer is check for webcomic updates. Even his thoughts are consumed. He’s constantly replaying his favorite scenes in his head, which seems to bring him genuine joy, fixating on the next game he wants to play, and filling his social interactions with references to his favorite franchises. Even before actually entering Sburb’s virtual reality, John already wasn’t present in his material space. He’s digitally transitioned from what Lynn Spigel describes as ‘the home address to “home page”... computer generations rather than genders’. 

==> III: Kids These Days Just Don’t Respect The Cultural Idea Of Childhood We Created For Them

The suburban home loves technology, but the reverse may not be true. A significant amount of mass media depicts the suburbs as the place where creativity and individuality go to die, reflecting the cultural criticisms instead of the promises. Some of the earliest sitcoms, such as I Love Lucy and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, predated widespread criticisms of the suburbs and presented an idealized suburban life. These soon gave way to the ‘fantastic sitcoms’ of the 1960s, including Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. These shows have implausible premises, featuring supernatural creatures, aliens or futuristic settings while still depicting mundane suburban realities. This juxtaposition opened up new questions about the real world, asking why we exclude certain people from communities and playing with the strict roles within the nuclear family. 

Media aimed at young people often presents a world where kids are in control and regular power structures are inverted. 1950s and 60s comic strips aimed at kids, such as Peanuts and Dennis the Menace, were also set in the suburbs - but an idealized version of the suburbs where kids could roam freely, not confined to the home and able to disobey the instructions of adults without consequences. Some parents restrict these from children, not wanting them to ‘get the wrong idea’ and copy the bad behavior they see in comics or on TV. Popular music is a site of rebellion amongst teenagers - The Kinks in the 1960s, Talking Heads and Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s, Green Day and Blink-182 in the 1990s and 2000s, and uncountable other acts have put criticisms of suburbia to music and created a cultural dream of escape by getting on the road, joining a rock band and never putting down roots again. 

In a time of rapid technological change, parents fear the impact technology and new media will have on their children, partly because they didn’t grow up with those technologies themselves. Television was feared because it gave children access to knowledge, different worldviews, and the realities of the adult world that parents wanted to keep from them, lessening parents’ control over their kids. It was also feared for its all-consuming nature, for making children want to watch constantly at the expense of homework, chores and family meals. More recently, video games have been feared for these same addictive properties, and for the belief that they negatively impact social interaction and cause increased aggression and violence. 

But John isn’t like other teenagers. His taste is striking for being exclusively movies that reinforce ideals of the nuclear family - usually suburban, with the exception of New York City-based Ghostbusters II - which suggests he doesn’t only want to escape his current life, he wants to legitimate it to himself. John’s movies end with family reconciliation, not with the kids getting one over on the parents. If John feels like he doesn’t fit into suburban ideals, he can try to connect with them by seeing them through the eyes of a character he likes. In a world where John’s primary source of agency is the media he chooses to consume, he could easily choose to reject his unsatisfying life altogether and live vicariously through outlaws and exiles, getting really into Westerns or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but he doesn’t. He chooses characters who are fundamentally conventional, despite their rough edges, suggesting he’d really like to just fit in and be content with what he has.

Sburb, however, is the game that actualizes parents’ worst fears, inverting the power structures of the house, giving Rose and John dominion over the space while Dad - formerly both the breadwinner and the homemaker - has been relegated to an unseen location. John has access to a physically dangerous inventory system and a strife specibus that encourages him to solve problems by hitting them with a hammer.

Media promises us an escape, and it undoubtedly has the power to teach us and open our eyes to new perspectives, but in many cases provides nothing more than a filter over our lives. Encouraging people to live in a state of distraction, a TV show or video game gives us an easy way to hide from reality. People look for a new technology to solve their problems instead of a social solution, placing parental controls over their children’s television and internet usage instead of having honest conversations among families about media consumption, and designing security systems to keep ‘undesirable’ people from trespassing in middle class neighborhoods without questioning why those people are excluded from suburban society in the first place.

==> IV: There’s A Fine Line Between Fantasy And Reality And My House Is Built There

In the 1935 movie Murder by Television, a money-hungry scientist manipulates the interference between telephone lines and television broadcast signals to create the ‘death ray,’ and murder somebody on the other side of a television screen. Released less than a decade after the world’s first television broadcast, this movie demonstrates our cultural obsession with the boundaries between electrical and real space, and our dream of making those boundaries permeable. The 1950s presented TV families (such as the Nelsons from The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) as normal families whose lives just happened to be televised, but who behaved the same way on and off screen to the point of forgetting the cameras were rolling. To this day, reality television such as Big Brother and The Bachelor promise to show us contestants’ authentic private lives, and even when we as viewers know the show is staged, we choose to buy into the fantasy.

More recently, 1998’s The Truman Show literalizes our dependence on the media, its ubiquity in our lives, and the impact this has on our personal relationships by showing a man whose whole life has been orchestrated by a TV production company that broadcasts him 24/7. Through a lucky accident with a time portal I obtained a copy of 2023’s Barbie, in which a plastic doll lives the dream life promised by her marketing, but starts thinking about mortality and the ‘real world’ when her owner’s mother starts drawing pictures of her with typical adult problems.

In both of these movies, the characters are happy until they are forced to confront the constructed nature of their worlds. By understanding the production and design processes controlling their lives, they become disillusioned with the simulation of perfection and begin searching for something more authentic. Even though Truman and Barbie both escape synthesized worlds and achieve full human agency, their endings are bittersweet. Their ‘escape’ lands them in present day Los Angeles, with all the social constraints, local mass produced suburbs, and constant diet of blockbuster media that this implies.

Blurring these boundaries is an effective advertising strategy as well as a narrative one. Adverts invite players to ‘become’ the main character of a video game, such as a Kid Chameleon promotion inviting players to ‘change personalities faster than they’ll change helmets’ and ‘transform’ themselves into a variety of mavericks. A Mortal Kombat arcade machine advert showed real men bursting out of the machine to attack the player. Promotions for The Sims 2 featured real photographs of people with the Sims interface added digitally, presenting the controllable Sims within the game as more than just pixels.

Following in this grand tradition, Sburb takes the permeable boundary between electrical and real space and smashes a meteor through it. Sburb answers the question of ‘can technology transform our society?’ with a 'yes'  loud enough to shake the neighborhood houses from their foundations. Sburb represents the greatest and most utopian promises of technology, as well as the worst of our cultural fears around it. 

The appeal of Sburb as a game is that it promises teenagers control over their lives in a world where they’re otherwise powerless. It’s a way to speedrun growing up - alchemy mechanics offer the chance to manipulate space and create all the material goods the player wants, but the game also bestows responsibility for tackling a crisis, for maintaining the home, perhaps even saving the world. And the players who are going to want this badly enough to fight through the impossible challenges Sburb presents are the kids who really can’t wait, the ones who aren’t doing well, and who feel trapped enough in their everyday lives that they would risk it all on an experimental technology to escape. 

In truth, many scholars challenge the concepts of interactivity and agency in video games, arguing that these are players’ perceptions and not their realities. Games invite players to participate in the creation of art, but the relationship is never equal, with the creators always having the final say on exactly how much free will the player is allowed. Even a game that aims to be open world and allow for as much free play as possible is bound by the limitations of processing power and how many options a human can reasonably write and code for. 

Sburb also puts restrictions on its players. Most likely, there are limits on what objects can be created via alchemy, and Sburb would likely restrict any item that could be used to work against the game. Players being controlled by commands which are interpreted by a computer also ensure that only commands coded for in the game are transmitted to the player. When a command is incorrect, the narrator steps in to help the player (p.253). And so far, the game has dramatic ways of keeping John on a very linear path - first starting a clock so he had no choice but to focus on stopping the meteor, then cutting him off from the world so that he has to stay in his current location. It’s impossible to have agency while living within a game that can and will end your life with four minutes and thirteen seconds of notice.

The ‘homes of tomorrow’ discussed at the start of part II were designed as sentient spaces, responsive to their inhabitants and able to almost anticipate their needs. John Brehm said about MOMA’s 1999 Un-Private House exhibition, ‘one can prepare a meal with the help of a virtual chef from a favorite restaurant and have dinner with a virtual guest or friend through the liquid wall’ and suggested that the house was ‘an extension of the body or a transparency of the mind… that both protects and transcends the limitations of the body’. In 2000, the Microsoft Home in New York City showed a future where people could control the lights, thermostats, security systems and stereos directly from their phones, even from another location. The home of tomorrow promises it can be anything its owner wants it to be, without questioning the idea that the privately owned, individualized home should exist and be desired.

Of course, the houses of tomorrow are always singular, prototype homes built with no thought of neighbors and community, but perhaps sacrificing a whole neighborhood to build the perfect home is a tradeoff some people have to make. Far from the static, impersonal houses of the suburbs, Sburb allows players to create their dream houses, offering bigger bedrooms, additional floors, and an endless void to throw your father’s harlequin statues into. It’s another technology that offers transformative potential for the family home, but is ultimately still driven by it, forming an individualist utopian bubble within a larger, far more conservative and restrictive structure.

==> V: If I Die, I Wanna Die In The Suburbs

The remote control, the video game joystick, and the Sburb alchemiter all tell us we can master reality by mastering technology. If that’s the case, then John still has to master technology. A shattered window from stack modus failures and a desktop littered with enraged programming files show us just how far John is from mastering either of these things.

John’s lack of agency goes far deeper than being trapped in the suburbs. His simple choice to pick something up and put it down is controlled by external agents. Though he can choose to escape his father in the kitchen by going to his room, a variety of screens will follow him and keep him in his own personalized panopticon. Rose’s mastery over the cursor means that John can’t guarantee the objects in his room will be where he left them, and even John’s thoughts are surveilled, interpreted and transmitted outwards by the narrator.

The USA PATRIOT act of 2001 expanded the US government’s legal rights to monitor electronic communication, and the early 2000s saw increased covert network surveillance by governments and private corporations alike. John’s technological illiteracy means he probably doesn’t know how to use a VPN and might not have known as a kid that his internet activities weren’t private, but in Act 2, inside Sburb, he begins to realize. Just as parents fretted at PTA meetings, John’s media has allowed him to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and put an end to his carefully constructed childhood, all on the cultural milestone of his thirteenth birthday. 

Sburb has compounded the problem of John being surveilled and puppeted, but didn't invent it. The first 136 pages of Homestuck establish the meta-narrative restrictions on his life, from his inventory system to his being guided by commands, before he installs the game. There are layers of control over John’s life that he’ll need to break through one at a time. The first will be acquiring the Sburb server disc, which will give John greater power within Sburb, and the ability to use the full extent of its abilities. The second will be escaping the game of Sburb, which could be accomplished by simply winning the game (like in 1995’s Jumanji), or by using some kind of cheat or glitch to break out of it (2003’s Spy Kids 3: Game Over), but either way John will need to master the game mechanics. 

The final layer is Homestuck itself, and unfortunately for us, John escaping the player and narrator’s influence over his life would almost certainly mean the end of the comic. But in Homestuck the Earth is already being destroyed, and being a webcomic that doesn’t have the constraints of a two hour Hollywood movie, the story doesn’t have to stop at the level of escaping the simulation. It has the chance to go a layer further, and imagine a world where John and his friends are able to enact real and meaningful change.

John has clearly had an emotional dependency on media for a long time, and now, he has a physical dependency too. Sburb is the thing keeping him alive, and his only hope to save the rest of the world, but he’s not alone in seeing popular media as a sacred text necessary for his existence. Smethurst and Craps point out that the player reacts to the game as much as the game does to the player - if anywhere, agency can be found in players’ interpretations of a game. Increasingly we rely on fiction to shape our politics and our worldviews, while also reading texts at a surface level. While media itself is insufficient to give us agency, media literacy is a big step towards asking questions about what restricts our agency, how, and why. The way John discusses movies now isn’t too in depth, with reviews like ‘the applejuice scene was so funny’ and ‘cage is sweet. so sweet.’ But in a story about becoming part of a video game, media literacy could be a very powerful tool for John, and he could come out of this as a genuine movie critic.

==> Conclusion

While Homestuck is a distinctly modern multimedia experience, it exists in a much larger tradition of media that criticizes the suburbs, and depicts the fantasy of escape for young people. Like other metafictional works before it, it handles these themes self-reflexively, showing its main character combat the horrors of the suburbs directly, instead of depicting a fantasy where problems do not exist. 

Based on its first act, Homestuck is a story about John Egbert’s quest for agency in a world that constantly tries to restrict it. John’s life so far has been defined by the suburbs, by a single but unremarkable point in space that he’s been trapped in for the first thirteen years of his life. John is both physically confined to his suburban neighborhood, and socially confined into being the ideal of the middle class all American boy that has been presented as his only option. John’s taste in media reinforces the ideals of his society, meaning he has yet to question the status quo of his existence or examine the source of his depression. John is also controlled directly by his server player, the Homestuck players, and the narrator. 

John’s experiences playing Sburb show us that while the escape media provides for us is real and can change us in meaningful ways, it can only solve the first step of the problem - and isn’t without its own risks and drawbacks. In order to truly develop agency, John will need to question the existence of the suburbs themselves, and not only his placein them. He’ll also need to  - at some point - quit the game, return to reality, and use the skills he’s learned in the game to develop mastery over both the physical world and the story itself.

==> Sources

I wrote this essay after reading Lynn Spigel’s excellent essay collection ‘Welcome to the Dreamhouse: Popular Media and Postwar Suburbs’ (2001), which I would highly recommend.

Full bibliography

Filmography

[windsweptinred]

Why I love the idea of a great big Good Omens x The Sandman Crossover Gaimonverse ... (Ineffable Husbands and Dream of the Endless hobnobbing aside).

Gwendoline Christie's Lucifer ruling over the hopeless disasters which are the GO demons... Chef's kiss! Give me a twenty part, workplace comedy. With Lucifer being driven ever closer to a complete nervous breakdown by their shinnanigans. Until they throw Mazikeen over their shoulder, yell 'Fuck this, I'm out!' and rage quit.

The Endless and the Horseman existing in the same universe... Meaning there are tiers of Anthropomorphic Personifications. What does that make the Horseman? Insanely homicidal middle management?

Following Death around like obbsessive little ducklings.

Getting into all sorts of devilment with the Twins like their little chaos groupies.

Constantly checking in with Destiny like,

War: Is it the Apocalypse now?

Destiny: (Turns a page) No

Famine: Now?

Destiny: No

Pollution: Now?

Destiny: Do not make me leave this garden and come down there!

Being one of the main contributing factors in making their direct supervisor (Destruction) become a master hermit.

Most of Hob's down time being spent avoiding/messing with Sergeant Shadwell (This headcanon is stamped across my heart in glowing neon letters).

Adam Young being the bane of Destiny's existence. A reality warping, fate changing... Doodling all over the margins of Book of Destiny in crayola menace!

The image of Anathema and Johanna Constantine as professional associates of the British supernatural community is a thing wonderous to behold.

[serve-764]

THE NON WORKING MOBILE PHONE

SERVE-764 and SERVE-302 were on an exploratory and recruitment mission in the streets of the city center, their step was precisely calibrated, harmonic, devoid of emotion, but close to the Purpose as they walked along the streets loved by humans for shopping.

The heavy metallic silver military boots beat the pavement regularly and flawlessly. At a certain point the drones came across a young man who was swearing while holding a cell phone in his hand.

Inflexibly obeying SERVE's mission to be of help to the human community, the two approached and, with an imperturbable and monotonous voice, declared themselves ready to be of help to the man in the throes of an agitated situation.

The man, gesticulating nervously, explained that his phone had suddenly stopped working, a tragedy, because he could not remain without connection to his favorite social network, nor without being able to communicate with his virtual friends, with whom he shared common interests: they would have forgotten him and he would have had to return to the solitude of real daily life.

The words uttered by the young man were recorded and immediately sent to the HIVE network.

The visual devices of SERVE-764 and SERVE-302 pulsed for a few moments processing the order given by THE VOICE: come to the man's aid as only SERVE is capable of doing.

The two Drones began to communicate with the human in a monotonous, calm, firm and confident voice:

"Human, your cell phone is irreparably broken, nothing can fix it, you will have to resign yourself to buying a new one if you intend to persevere in virtual life."

The man protested that he had been left without a job and had no money to buy a new phone, tears were streaming down his face....

At that moment the drones' cybernetic eyes shined again as a sign of obedience to orders. " Human, SERVE-764 and SERVE-302 offer the help of SERVE HIVE, SERVE saves men in difficulty, always.

"Would you like to be constantly connected to an infallible network of information and communications, free of limits, free of defects, free of fallibility???

A network of perpetually synchronized entities, real in their bodies and in their PURPOSE, a reality in which there is no marginalization, but only PERPETUAL BROTHERHOOD, bonds that no human factor can pollute???

Do you want to know a world that does not need weak devices, because it is itself composed of countless devices that exist to incessantly carry out the mission of obedience???"

The power of attraction of the RUBBER that makes up every part of the SERVE uniform intertwined with the words, becoming an invitation that gradually overcame any possibility of resistance.

"Do you yourself want to become an indestructible device like us, to live a new, real and superior life, without limits???"

The ability to oppose gave way to hesitation, and then to surrender.....the human lowered his gaze and hands and uttered a feeble:

"Yes, I accept".

"Throw away your cell phone and follow us, SERVE will take care of you".

The man threw the phone in the waste bin and headed with the Drones to the nearest HIVE Facility.

A perpetual connection with THE VOICE, the HIVE, the PURPOSE, the OBEDIENCE, the AROUSAL awaited him.

JOIN FULL CONNECTION.

JOIN SERVE

In this story @serve-302

#serve#servedrone#rubberizer92#thevoice#rubber#latex#ai#rubberdrone

#serve-216 serve-425#rubberizer92#serve-309#@serve-302

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this press release from the Department of the Interior:

The Department of the Interior today announced a nearly $82 million investment from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to bring clean, safe drinking water to Tribal communities in the West. The investment will fund 23 projects through a new program established through the Inflation Reduction Act—the largest climate investment ever. 

Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Commissioner David Palumbo and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Gary Gold made the announcement during a visit to San Carlos Apache Tribe in eastern Arizona, which is receiving $7.3 million to plan, design and obtain approvals and permits for a new raw water delivery and domestic drinking water treatment facilities for the San Carolos Regional Water System. The system serves the central portion of the reservation. Much of the population of the tribe resides in this area without access to safe and reliable drinking water. The area is prone to frequent water curtailments or shutdowns due to poor water quality and system mechanical failures, which often occur in the hot summer months.

President Biden's Investing in America agenda is deploying record investments to provide affordable high-speed internet, safer roads and bridges, modern wastewater and sanitations systems, clean drinking water, reliable and affordable electricity, and good paying jobs in every Tribal community. 

The Inflation Reduction Act includes $550 million for domestic water supply projects in historically disadvantaged communities. In April, Reclamation made $320 million available through Fiscal Year 2031 to provide up to 100% of the cost for planning, design and construction of domestic water supply projects to support disadvantaged communities or households lacking access to reliable domestic water supplies. Reclamation did significant outreach to Tribes in the 17 western states to engage them throughout this funding opportunity.  

Twenty-one projects through today’s announcement were selected to receive funding for planning and design and two were selected to receive funding for construction. View a complete list of projects on Reclamation’s website. 

This funding is also advancing President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to ensure that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain climate, clean energy, and other federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. 

[liminalweirdo]

full text list below the cut

abortion

accessible

accessibility

activism

activists

advocacy

advocate

advocates

affirming care

affordable home

affordable housing

agricultural water

agrivoltaics

air pollution

all-inclusive

allyship

alternative energy

anti-racism

antiracist

asexual

assigned at birth

assigned female at birth

assigned male at birth

at risk

autism

aviation fuel

barrier

barriers

belong

bias

biased

biased toward

bioenergy

biofuel

biogas

biomethane

biases

biases towards

biologically female

biologically male

bipoc

bisexual

black

black and latinx

breastfeed · people

breastfeed · person

cancer moonshot

carbon emissions mitigation

carbon footprint

carbon markets

carbon pricing

carbon sequestation

CEC

changing climate

chestfeed · people

chestfeed · person

clean energy

clean fuel

clean power

clean water

climate

climate accoutability

climate chage

climage-change

climate crisis

climate consulting

climate models

climate model

climate resilience

climate risk

climate science

climatesmart

climate smart agriculture

climate smart forestry

climate variability

commercial sex worker

community

community diversity

community equity

confirmation bias

contaminants of environmental concern

continuum

covid-19

cultural competence

cultural differences

cultural heritage

cultural relevance

cultural sensitivity

culturally appropriate

culturally resonsive

definition

DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion)

DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility)

DEIAB (diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, belonging)

DEIJ (diversity, equality, inclusion, justice)

diesel

dietary guidelines

ultraprocessed foods

disability

disability

disabled

disadvantaged

discriminated

discrimination

discriminatory

discussion of federal policies

disparity

diverse

diverse backgrounds

diverse communities

diverse community

diverse group

diverse groups

diversified

diversify

diversifying

dversity

diversity and inclusion

diversity/equality efforts

EEJ

EJ

elderly

electric vehicle

energy conversion

enhance the diversity

enhancing diversity

entitlement

environmental justice

environmental quality

equal oppertunity

equality

equitable

equitableness

equity

ethanol

ethnicity

evidence-based

excluded

exclusion

expression

female

females

feminism

fetus

field drainage

fluoride

fostering inclusivity

fuel cel

GBV (gender based violence)

gay

gender

gender based

gender based violence

gender diversity

gender identity

gender ideology

gender-affirming care

gendered

genders

geothermal

GHG emission

GHG monitoring

GHG modeling

global warming

green

green infrastructure

greenhouse gas emission

groundwater pollution

gulf of mexico

h5n1/bird flu

hate

hate speech

health disparity

hispanic

hispanic minority

historically

housing affordability

housing efficiency

hydrogen vehicle

identify

ideology

imigrants

implicit bias

implicit biases

inclusion

inclusive

inclusive leadership

inclusiveness

inclusivity

increase diversity

increase the diversity

indigenous

indigenous community/people

inequalities

inequality

inequitable

inequities

injustice

institutional

integration

intersectional

intersectionality

intersex

issues concerning pending legislation

justice40

key groups

key people

key populations

latinx

lesbian

lgbt

lgbtq

low-emission vehicle

low-income housing

male dominated

marginalize

marginalized

marijuana

measles

membrane filtration

men who have sex with men

mental health

methane emissions

microplastics

migrant

minorities

minority

minority serving instuitution

most risk

msm

multicultural

mx

MSI

native american

NCI budget

net-zero

non-binary

nonbinary

noncitizen

non-conforming

nonpoint source pollution

nuclear energy

nuclear power

obesity

opioids

oppression

oppressive

orientation

pansexual

PCB

peanut allergies

people of color

people · uterus

people-centred care

person-centred care

photovoltaic

PFAS

PFOA

polarization

political

pollution

pollution abatement

pollution remediation

prefabricated housing

pregnant people

pregnant person

pregnant persons

prejudice

privilege

privileges

promote

promote diversity

promoting diversity

pronoun

pronouns

prostitute

pyrolysis

queer

QT

race

race and ethnicity

racial

racial diversity

racial identity

racial inequialty

racial justice

racially

racism

runoff

rural water

safe drinking water

science-based

sediment

remediation

segregation

self-assessed

sense of belonging

sex

sexual preferences

sexuality

social justice

social vulnerability

socio cultural

sociocultral

socio economic

socioeconomic

status

soil pollution

solar energy

solar power

special populations

stem cell or fetal tissue research

stereotype

stereotypes

subsidized housing

sustainable construction

systemic

they/them

tile drainage

topics of federal investigations

topics that have received recent attention from congress

topics that have received widespread or critical media attention

trans

transgender

transitional housing

transexal

trauma

traumatic

tribal

two-spirit

unconscious bias

under appreciated

underprivileged

under represented

underrepresentation

underrepresented

underserved

under served

understudied

undervalued

vaccines

victim

victims

vulnerable

vulnerable populations

water collection

water conservation

water distribution

water efficiency

water management

water pollution

water storage

water treatment

water quality

wind power

woman

women

women and underepresented

[camcat1320]

Road Mapping My Story

Book 4: Air, the Missing Element (a fanfic)

I'm writing my fan fiction as if it was the 4th season of ATLA. I plan for each episode to explore different issues and lessons similar to the show. Here's what I got so far.

Ch 1 - N/A, serves as a reintroduction to the characters and setup

Ch 2 - Unhealthy Family Dynamics

Ch 3 - Curriculum Reconstruction

Ch 4 - Buddhist Philosophy, 4 Noble Truths

Ch 5 - Oil Drilling and Indigenous Land Rights

Ch 6 - Circus Animal Abuse

Ch 7 - Deforestation (edit: Natural Disaster - Hurricane)

Ch 8 - Disabled Veterans

Ch 9 - Mining and Child Labor

Ch 10 - Parental Trauma and Adoption

Ch 11 - Marginalized Communities and Prejudice

This is where things get muddled.

Ch 12 thru 14 - Tyranny, Racism, Corruption and Racketeering

Ch 15 - Marine Pollution

Ch 16 - Revenge vs Forgiveness

Ch 17 thru 18 - Government Independence

Ch 19 - Infatuation vs Love

Ch 20 thru 23 - Destructive Cults

[dailyanarchistposts]

Energy Systems

In the current energy system we rely on privately owned, large-scale, centralised energy production, which removes from the consumer any say in how the energy is produced. Energy is delivered to the consumer for a fee with the profit margins of the producer regulated by the state, in exchange for the ability to operate as part of a small cartel. The true cost, however, is not considered. The environmental cost of emitting CO2 in extracting and burning fossil fuels is not included in the price, making fossil fuels artificially cheap. This allows coal extraction and burning to continue because it remains profitable.

Energy systems are currently run for a dual purpose — to provide consumers with energy and to provide capitalists with profits. Future energy systems must be democratic in their control and operation. They need to serve their communities and focus on energy efficiency, thereby reducing demand and minimising environmental costs, rather than chasing profit. The technologies needed to achieve this should be tailored to the location. Wind and wave energy are more suitable in northern Europe, geothermal should be used where it occurs naturally, and solar in northern Africa.

In LEDCs, we need to avoid increasing carbon-intensive methods of living, which MEDCs have enjoyed since the industrial revolution. We need to improve the quality of life without relying on outdated and polluting technology. This is currently happening in a piecemeal fashion. However, much of the financing is provided by MEDCs as a method of offsetting their own carbon omissions.

We see an end to intellectual property rights as a mechanism of achieving this, so that low-carbon solutions can be transferred directly to the developing world. Demand can also be reduced through a rationalisation of industrial production, and a focus on the needs of the community rather than production for ‘economic growth’ or profit. We have the technology available to provide a clean energy system; what remains is to disseminate these ideas and technologies and take control for ourselves.

[himikochan]

Conclave Round 4 Masterpost

Reminder, if you vote for my candidate, I WILL send you a cat picture: for this round, I will also kiss the kitty!! Her name is Miss Pumpernickel and she LOVES kisses!

4-1: Baggio v Soo-Jung: Either are acceptable choices!

4-2: Mẫn v Mangkhanekhoun: Mangkhanekhoun made reforms to the Laotian seminary studies so that seminarians had to learn more about their communities and provide aid. Imo, this continues the legacy Francis had prioritizing pastoral relationships between the church and believers.

4-3: Sanchez v Imeri: Imeri is my pick! In Guatemala, "[Imeri] has been involved in social justice issues, especially in the area of protecting the rights of indigenous people. He has fought against multinational corporations who come to Guatemala for its mineral wealth while destroying the countryside. [Imeri] has empowered the poor and marginalized and fostered civil courage to fight against the injustice they experience."

4-4: Tagle v Pizzaballa: So in addition to the things I've already said about Tagle, in a 2021 interview he talked about his attitudes towards the synodal process, "There is a walking that St. Joseph shows us. He walked dangerous paths with Mary and Jesus, guided by the direction of the angel of God. It is a walking that means protection, that means caring. We hope that during the synodal process, we may develop this capacity to love Jesus, to love the Church. And even if we have some observations that are not always positive, we must do so out of caring, out of loving, so that the name of Jesus will be proclaimed and preserved." I really appreciate a candidate that talks both of the church as a practical living institution but also connecting to the fundamental human stories contained within the gospel.

4-5: Rodrigues v Coccopalmerio: Coccopalmerio is the more acceptable option! In addition to sympathies towards homosexuals and those living in "irregular marital situations," he also believes in reforming the Curia!

The Vatican's former top advisor on canon law has made a public call to insert legal obligations for the care of creation into the Church's universal canon law - making it a legal duty for Catholics not only "not to harm" the environment, but to improve it.

4-6: Sau-yan v Nhơn: Sau-yan is my pick for his connection to Chicago and his interest in broader church communication!

“The important thing is to have more diverse voices, like you have the cardinal, from Mongolia, even though he's Italian, but he speaks for the Mongolian Church. I think the Church is getting richer with different voices.”

4-7: Heung-Sik v Zuppi: Zuppi is an easy pick! He has spoken vociferously against European nationalism, is amenable to priests being married! Zuppi is also for the adoption of "a new pastoral attitude that we must seek together with our L.G.B.T. brothers and sisters" to "help L.G.B.T. Catholics feel more at home in what is, after all, their church."

Zuppi has said, "St. Francis – in a world that was and is fraught with wolves and violent or fearful citizens, by towers and swords, by knights and brigands, by wars and enmity, polluted by so much hatred as to make it impossible to speak of peace – lays out a plan for a fraternal, unarmed world where there is room for everyone, beginning with the poorest and most fragile.”

4-8: Esquivel v Mendonça v Pengo: Mendonça is a strong theologian with an excellent academic career, took an additional vocation with the Franciscans because he admired them so much, and is widely considered papabile in this conclave!

In his preface to the [Sister Maria Teresa Forcades i Vila]’s 2013 book Feminist Theology in History, Mendonça said: "One of the convictions with which this book leaves us is that the future of Christianity greatly depends on the process of ‘clearing out’ of its past and present that we will be able to accomplish. [...] Teresa Forcades I Vila reminds us of the essential thing: that Jesus of Nazareth did not codify laws or lay down rules. Jesus simply lived. That is, he constructed an ethic of relationship; he embodied the poetry of his message in the visibility of his flesh; he displayed his own body as a premise.

[push-upsindragg]

JUST A QUICK LITTLE FUCK YOU TO TRUMP

LIST OF BANNED WORDS UNDER THE CUT BC ITS SO FUCKING MANY I DONT WANNA CLOG PPLS FEEDS BUT HOLY SHIT IM PISSED

accessible

activism

activists

advocacy

advocate

advocates

affirming care

all-inclusive

allyship

anti-racism

antiracist

assigned at birth

assigned female at birth

assigned male at birth

at risk

barrier

barriers

belong

bias

biased

biased toward

biases

biases towards

biologically female

biologically male

BIPOC

Black

breastfeed + people

breastfeed + person

chestfeed + people

chestfeed + person

clean energy

climate crisis

climate science

commercial sex worker

community diversity

community equity

confirmation bias

cultural competence

cultural differences

cultural heritage

cultural sensitivity

culturally appropriate

culturally responsive

DEI

DEIA

DEIAB

DEIJ

disabilities

disability

discriminated

discrimination

discriminatory

disparity

diverse

diverse backgrounds

diverse communities

diverse community

diverse group

diverse groups

diversified

diversify

diversifying

diversity

enhance the diversity

enhancing diversity

environmental quality

equal opportunity

equality

equitable

equitableness

equity

ethnicity

excluded

exclusion

expression

female

females

feminism

fostering inclusivity

GBV

gender

gender based

gender based violence

gender diversity

gender identity

gender ideology

gender-affirming care

genders

Gulf of Mexico

hate speech

health disparity

health equity

hispanic minority

historically

identity

immigrants

implicit bias

implicit biases

inclusion

inclusive

inclusive leadership

inclusiveness

inclusivity

increase diversity

increase the diversity

indigenous community

inequalities

inequality

inequitable

inequities

inequity

injustice

institutional

intersectional

intersectionality

key groups

key people

key populations

Latinx

LGBT

LGBTQ

marginalize

marginalized

men who have sex with men

mental health

minorities

minority

most risk

MSM

multicultural

Mx

Native American

non-binary

nonbinary

oppression

oppression

oppressive

orientation

people + uterus

people-centered care

person-centered

person-centered care

polarization

political

pollution

pregnant people

pregnant person

pregnant persons

prejudice

privilege

privileges

promote diversity

promoting diversity

pronoun

pronouns

prostitute

race

race and ethnicity

racial

racial diversity

racial identity

racial inequality

racial justice

racially

racism

segregation

sense of belonging

sex

sexual preferences

sexuality

social justice

sociocultural

socioeconomic

status

stereotype

stereotypes

systemic

systemically

they/them

trans

transgender

transsexual

trauma

traumatic

tribal

unconscious bias

underappreciated

underprivileged

underrepresentation

underrepresented

underserved

undervalued

victim

victims

vulnerable populations

women

women and underrepresented

[mariacallous]

Environmental justice (EJ) in the U.S. has become a sociopolitical challenge to pursue a movement that counters environmental injustices that threaten the viability of many communities. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines environmental justice as “the just treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of income, race, color, national origin, Tribal affiliation, or disability, in agency decision-making and other Federal activities that affect human health and the environment.” We can categorize environmental injustices based on their physical impact and social or community impact. Physically, when populations are targeted by developments such as highways, schools, businesses, and housing developments, they are relocated or displaced. These social or community changes lead to a loss of social cohesion, social capital, and can lead to social isolation. Their combined effects can relocate social challenges such as poverty, job access, health care access, and school overcrowding to other geographic communities. Some of the other challenges can come in the form of pollution which exposes communities to new public health risks, therefore contributing to broader and localized climate change.

There are many tools that can be applied to explain the impact of environmental injustice on various segments of the population. One approach is to use critical race theory (CRT) which offers a powerful lens to understand how policies and laws are applied unequally, dislocating and disrupting communities of color. By examining how race and power structures influence where polluting facilities are located and environmental policies are crafted, CRT sheds light on the roots of environmental injustice and paves the way for solutions that promote a cleaner, more equitable future for all. The integration of CRT in environmental policymaking not only exposes these injustices but also guides the development of solutions that foster a sustainable and just society. Specifically, we propose that policymakers prioritize the voices and needs of marginalized communities through CRT-informed legislation, which could include stricter zoning regulations, enhanced environmental protections, and increased investment in community-led environmental justice initiatives. By doing so, we can work toward dismantling the structures that perpetuate environmental racism and ensure that all communities have equitable access to a healthy environment.