#example of biodiversity

[jantanow]

इग्नू को नेचर पॉजिटिव यूनिवर्सिटी बनाने में योगदान देने पर अमन हुए सम्मानित

बड़ौत (Badaut), 01 सितंबर 2024 (September 1, 2024) — जब बात पर्यावरण संरक्षण (environmental conservation) की होती है, तो अक्सर हमें बड़े नामों और संगठनों (organizations) का ध्यान आकर्षित करना पड़ता है। लेकिन, बागपत (Baghpat) के एक युवा (youth) ने यह साबित कर दिया है कि छोटे कदम (small steps) भी बड़े बदलाव (big changes) ला सकते हैं। इंदिरा गांधी राष्ट्रीय मुक्त विश्वविद्यालय (Indira Gandhi…

[maturiin]

if you haven't voted yet and you still have the chance to do it please vote for nature!! in the replies of this post is a link to a birdlife study that shows how each country's parties have voted re: nature, in case you're undecided, or in case you don't think it makes a difference

blackbird. please vote to help protect birds in the upcoming EU elections!!!!!

[amnhnyc]

Gone, but not forgotten. 🦤 Today’s Exhibit of the Day is one of the most famous birds in history: the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus). This iconic species is a lesson in extinction. Around the year 1600, Dutch soldiers found the Dodo on Mauritius Island, east of Madagascar. Less than 80 years later, it was gone. Deforestation, hunting, and the introduction of invasive species contributed to the downfall of this flightless bird.

Though it died out before photography, the Dodo’s skeleton offers clues about what this species was like. For example, this bird couldn’t fly—its wings were small for its size, its sternum had no keel (the support birds need for flight muscles), and it had thick leg bones made for walking. You can see a Dodo skeleton in the Museum’s Hall of Biodiversity.

Photo: D. Finnin/ © AMNH

[sunshine-tattoo]

To increase biodiversity in urban communities, i think that there should be a social rule that the only places that can have cut lawns are places specifically for children or pets to play.

A few common examples are playgrounds and dog parks.

This way they can run around and have a good time without trampling the wildflowers or worrying about ticks.

There also would be a minimum size limit to these spaces because kids and animals cannot play in a space that is super small.

So backyards that are tiny would be expected to have wildflowers and tall grass instead.

Or full on gardens with flowers and/or veggies.

"But what if I'm not good at gardening?!"

You don't have to be.

Most lawn care stores sell big bags of seeds that are native to your local ecosystem.

All you have to do is sprinkle em all over the yard, wait for some rain, and in no time you will have a mini meadow! Perfect for bees and other pollinators!

Lawns as big monocultures for walking around were never meant to be the norm in urban centers or anywhere.

They were created by European nobility and other rich people as a way to say "Hey look at me! I have all this land but don't have to grow anything useful on it!"

Don't be like the European nobility.

Make green spaces useful again.

[reasonsforhope]

"In a historic step toward the first-ever restoration of the tiger population to a nation where they were once extinct, two captive Siberian tigers have been translocated from Anna Paulowna Sanctuary, Netherlands, to the Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve in Kazakhstan.

This remarkable event is part of an ambitious program led by the Government of Kazakhstan with support from WWF and the UN Development Program to restore the Ile-Balkhash delta ecosystem and reintroduce tigers to the country and region, where the species has been extinct for over 70 years.

“It is a high priority for Kazakhstan to work on the restoration of rare species. For ecological value it is important that our biodiversity chain is restored. And that the tiger that once lived in this area is reintroduced here,” said Daniyar Turgambayev, Vice-minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan.

In the early 21st century, genetic studies were carried out on bones and furs held in national collections which revealed that the population of tigers living between Iran, southern Russia, Central Asia, and the areas around the Caspian Sea was extremely similar to Siberian tigers.

This led scientists to conclude that Felis vigrata, the former name of the Caspian tiger, was simply the Siberian tiger that developed into a distinct population, but not a new subspecies, over generations of being separated by habitat fragmentation.

Bodhana and Kuma, the male and female tigers, will be housed in a spacious semi-natural enclosure of three hectares [7.4 acres] within the Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve. Any of their offspring will be released into the wild and will become the first tigers to roam Kazakhstan in decades, and potentially the first-ever international tiger reintroduction.

They will play an important role in the establishment of a new tiger population in the region where they had previously been wiped out as a result of excessive hunting.

“Today marks a monumental conservation milestone to bring tigers back to Kazakhstan and Central Asia,” said Stuart Chapman Leader of WWF Tigers Alive. “This tiger translocation is a critical step to not only bring back the big cat to its historic homeland but also to rewild an entire ecosystem.”

Progress towards restoration of the area is already well underway with recovering and reintroduction of critical tiger prey species like the Kulan (Asiatic wild ass), and reforestation of over 120 acres with native trees. Being the apex predator, tigers will play a significant role in sustaining the structure and function of the ecosystem on which both humans and wildlife rely...

“With the launch of the tiger reintroduction program, we have witnessed a significant change—the revival of nature and our village of Karoi,” said Adilbaev Zhasar, the head of the local community group Auyldastar.

“This project not only restores lost ecosystems, but also fills us with pride in participating in a historic process. Because of small grants from WWF, we have the opportunity to do what we love, develop small businesses, and create jobs in the village, which brings joy and confidence in the future.”

From the very beginning, the local community around Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve has been closely involved in the project. This includes support for improved agricultural techniques and the future development of nature tourism in the area.

The translocation of these tigers is the first of several planned in the coming years, with a goal to build a healthy population of about 50 wild tigers by 2035, starting with this pioneering pair for breeding. This initiative is not only a testament to the resilience of the species but also a powerful example of governments, conservation organizations, and local communities cooperating in wildlife and nature conservation."

-via Good News Network, November 27, 2024

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

The new law aims to restore at least 20% of the EU's land and seas, with specific targets including reversing the decline of pollinators and restoring 25,000 kilometres of rivers to free-flowing conditions. This target is instrumental to align EU policy with global commitments made by almost 200 countries to restore and protect at least 30% of our planet’s degraded ecosystems by 2030. The legislation solidifies Europe's leadership in global biodiversity restoration and protection efforts, setting a powerful example for the rest of the world.

This law is in many ways the first of its kind and creates legally binding restoration targets for various ecosystems throughout the EU.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

So this is a really creative solution to a pernicious ecological problem! The short version is that arid ecosystems like deserts are quite fragile. For example, many have soil that is covered in a thin biocrust that can be damaged just by walking or driving on it. And because life needs water to grow and recover, these super-dry ecosystems may not be able to repair a footprint or tire track for over a century.

However, arid ecosystems are often some of the least understood because they can be difficult to access. And they suffer from P.R. issues because deserts are often seen as "bad" ecosystems full of death and nothingness, and because we do legitimately want to avoid the desertification of other native habitats.

In order to raise awareness and appreciation of these landscapes, biological surveys that tally the living beings found there help show how biodiverse they can be. And when we know more about how abundant or scarce a given species there is, it gives us more impetus to protect them, especially those that are at risk of extinction.

These paramotorists were able to fly across Peru's lomas (coastal fog deserts), which primarily receive scant amounts of moisture from mist. They collected plant samples to take back to scientists, carefully recording where they were found. And because they were able to fly long distances, they could minimize the amount of time their feet were on the ground and therefore minimize their impact on the local ecology.

At a time where it seems every interaction between motorized technology and nature is a negative one, this is a pleasant departure. yes, of course we wish we weren't in a place where we have to be worried about increasing extinction and other ecological woes. But let's take the wins where we can; the morale boost is crucial to being able to keep looking toward a better future.

[wachinyeya]

A major review of over 67,000 animal species has found that while the natural world continues to face a biodiversity crisis, targeted conservation efforts are helping bring many species back from the brink of extinction.

The study draws on data from the IUCN Red List, the world's largest database of species conservation status. The researchers say their results, reported in the journal PLOS Biology, highlight both the successes and the need for urgent action.

The world is facing a global biodiversity crisis, with 28% of more than 160,000 assessed species threatened with extinction, and an estimated one million species facing this fate due to human activities. However, conservation measures can be successful if there is concrete evidence about what works.

The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge with the IUCN, BirdLife International, and Oxford and Durham Universities, used Red List data to assess whether conservation measures had been put in place, and whether those actions had a positive impact on a given species' conservation status.

"We found that almost all the species that have moved from a more threatened category to a less threatened category have benefited from some sort of conservation measures," said lead author Ashley Simkins, a Ph.D. candidate in Cambridge's Department of Zoology. "It's a strong signal that conservation works."

While there is no 'one size fits all' solution, the researchers observed some connections between conservation success stories. Many of these species live in isolated areas, such as islands, where intensive conservation efforts—such as habitat protection, captive breeding and reintroductions—can be fully implemented.

"While biodiversity loss is a genuine crisis, it's vital that we celebrate the success stories wherever and whenever we can," said Simkins. "It's so hard for a species to improve its conservation status, but with the right effort, we can turn things around."

The Iberian lynx, once the world's most endangered cat, has rebounded from just a few hundred individuals to a few thousand. Likewise, the kākāpō, a flightless parrot from New Zealand, has benefited from dedicated recovery programs. And the European bison, which was hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 20th century, now roams parts of Eastern Europe thanks to sustained conservation efforts over decades.

Marine species have also seen dramatic recoveries. Humpback and blue whales, once driven to the brink of extinction by commercial whaling, have made a comeback after an international moratorium on whaling. However, despite these success stories, the study found that six times more species are declining than improving.

The researchers say that, like human health care, preventative measures in conservation are preferable and more cost-effective to emergency interventions.

"Humans have gotten pretty good at what could be considered 'A&E' conservation—focusing on species at very high risk of extinction," said Simkins. "What we're less good at is preventing species from becoming threatened in the first place. We need to move beyond treating the symptoms of biodiversity loss and start addressing the root causes."

The researchers also emphasize the need for collaborative, locally driven conservation. In Papua New Guinea, for example, conservationists worked with local communities to replace tree kangaroo hunting with sustainable forms of animal protein, including farming of chickens and fishing—an approach that benefitted both people and wildlife.

"It's vital that we as conservationists are working with stakeholders, rather than dictating to them, whether that's an Indigenous community in Papua New Guinea or a farmer in Somerset," said Simkins.

"Conservation doesn't have to be a zero-sum game—there are compromises that can benefit both the natural world and human society."

"In this climate of constant stories about wildlife declines and insufficient political action to protect nature, it's important to realize that there are also many success stories and that conservation efforts are making a real, demonstrable impact on the world," said co-senior author Dr. Silviu Petrovan, also from the Department of Zoology. "Conservation works if given the chance."

"This research sheds light on which actions to save species have been effective, and what interventions are needed," said co-author Dr. Stuart Butchart, Chief Scientist at BirdLife International. "Governments need to turn their words into actions, and rapidly scale up efforts to save species from extinction and help populations to recover. Safeguarding our natural heritage for future generations depends upon this."

"The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species informs and guides on-the-ground conservation decisions; actions which are further guided by the research presented in this publication," said co-author Craig Hilton-Taylor, Head of the IUCN Red List.

"Almost everyone will have their own favorite example of a conservation success story, whether it's the bald eagle in North America, or the red kite in the UK," said Simkins. We need joint action to ensure these positive stories aren't the exception—they're the norm."

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

even more tlm references

Part 1 (Episodes 1 + 2) / Part 2 (Episode 3) / This post covers Episodes 4 + 5, as well as references from the event boys' voice lines and vignettes (since those have also been unlocked now)!

OH MY GOD. Rook says he enjoyed a bath in the hotel's bathhouse. He and Malleus comment on the beautiful interior of it, mentioning a shell-themed bathtub and a carving of a fish. THEY'RE LITERALLY DESCRIBING THE BATHHOUSE THAT ARIEL WASHED IN???

While at an outdoor market, we spot a lady in a white dress secured with a rope. Jade explains that it is a fashion style unique to the Sunshine Lands. By simply changing the way you wrap the cloth and rope, you can make many different looks! This fashion originated from repurposing the cloth used to make sails and rope.

This might just be me buggin’ but 😳 Jade says the Coral Sea has high biodiversity, meaning when those animals and plants decay, they add a lot of minerals and nutrients that enrich the water. This makes rich, imami sea salt. I wonder if this is a reference to??? How the sea Ariel comes from is also very colorful and biodiverse, as we see in Under the Sea.

At the outdoor market, Malleus spots forks of a strange shape. These, Jade explains, are actually combs in the shape of forks. There is a legend about a mermaid that combed her hair with a fork because she had recently come to land, and at a time when her people and humans knew little of each other. She would go on to have a happy marriage. This is of course a reference to Ariel using a fork to comb her hair at dinner🍴(Jade also mentions the Atlantics Memorial Museum from book 3!! They have a replica of the fork the mermaid used on display.)

The market also has stuff salvaged from sunken ships! There’s precious antiques and things of value, but also tons of junk that can be refurbished or polished back up and made reusable again. This has to be a reference to Ariel’s grotto full of items collected from sunken ships!!! She has many things here, some useful, some not, but all interesting to her.

The people of the Sunshine Lands love song and music! An example, Jade gives is playing the flute on ships and the coast. You know who plays a flute??? ERIC. We see him playing one when Ariel sees him for the first time, as well as right before he spots Vanessa on the beach.

There are lots of clothes hung up to dry in the strong sun. There’s a scene in TLM where the maids of Eric’s castle are doing laundry!! Sebastian gets caught up in it.

The groom apparently works on ships and is quite familiar with the sea… LIKE ERIC.

The cove is the same as the one Eric and Ariel went in for Kiss the Girl!! Look at this neat new background and how they’ve nicely decorated it!!

The Eternity Float starts off with the groom gushing about the “first time [he] heard [the bride’s] name”. Definitely a callback to Eric guessing Ariel’s name on the rowboat 😭

Rook makes a thick fog by firing fire at water. Fog??? Like… THE FOG ON THE BEACH WHEN VANESSA APPEARS AND ENCHANTS ERIC?!!!!!?!?!

Riddle thinks to launch barrels at the bride and groom! This makes me think of when Ariel used a barrel to help herself catch up with the wedding ship departing with Eric on it.

Jade and Riddle get into a magic fight that produces fireworks. The couple reminiscence on the time they saw fireworks together. Fireworks appear over Eric’s ship on the night Ariel sees Eric for the first time!!

Malleus creates a mighty tornado with his wind magic. Is this maybe a reference to the powerful storm Ursula summons when she has all the powers of the sea at her disposal?!

THE BRiDE AND GRoOM ARE LITERALLY ArIEL AND ERiCCCCC (Side note: Jade leaping in his merform fr reminds me of that fucking leaping dolphin meme 🐬 which is funny because his fandom emoji IS the dolphin!)

The bride saves the groom by swimming with him to safety…! Like how Ariel rescued Eric after the storm at the start of the film!

Jade successfully capsizes their rowboat!! Similar shot to what appears in the film.

The event ends on a similar shot as the film too!!! 😭 The sea… the ship drifting out on it… the rainbow appearing… Even the font they use to write “The End” is similar to the font used for TLM title. This is setting off all kinds of nostalgia alarms for meeeeeeee 🌈

In Rook’s vignette, he and Malleus go fishing but catch nothing. Right as they’re about to leave, something snags on the line—and they fish up a fragment of a statue. They hear from a local that there is a sunken ship nearby, so it’s common to catch stuff from it. Rook is amused and wonders if the fragment once used to be part of a man with a strong will. This has GOTTA be talking about the statue of Eric that got busted up.

In Malleus’s vignettes, he practices maintaining balance while rowing. I don't think this refers to anything specific in TLM, but I'm thinking maybe it could refer to the scene where Eric's men are in those lifeboats during the storm and trying to keep afloat in the rough waves??

He has a voice line saying he would like to play violin at a wedding (and in the Sunshine Lands, they often take place on boats). We can see one of Eric's crewmates playing a fiddle on the night Ariel sees him for the first time!

Malleus also has a voice line about how they are many sunken ships at the bottom of the sea. This is pretty non-specific, but I'm sure all of us remember the film opening scene with Ariel exploring a sunken ship.

In Riddle’s vignettes, he mentions that a horse's demeanor can change depending on the handler. Then an incident occurs in which a horse gets spooked and runs off without anyone in its carriage; Riddle and Rook chase after it and are able to get in the carriage. With Riddle at the helm, they're able to get the horse to leap over a valley. THIS A NOD TO HOW WHEN ARIEL TOOK THE REINS TO THE CARRIAGE... and then she and Eric bolted off... AND THEN SHE GOT THE HORSE TO LEAP OVER A GAP.

In one of Jade's voice lines, he talks about how he used to look at the city longingly from the waters. JUST LIKE ARIEL... JUST LIKE ARIEL AS SHE SINGS PART OF YOUR WORLD REPRISE ON THAT ROCK AND THE WATER GOES SPLASH!!!!!!!

Finally!! In Jade’s vignettes, a storefront sells items imported from merfolk. Items include seaweed for fortune telling, musical instruments, and accessory cases made from shells, and seahorses with anemones on their heads. This calls to mind the general seashell accessories of the merfolk, musical instruments used in Under the Sea and the concert scenes, and Ursula's little potion ingredients cabinet + skrungly clients/prisoners.

He tells a tale of how he got caught in a whirlpool while chasing after something shiny that had fallen into the sea. Could this be a reference to Eric using glowing under the water to try and attack Ursula?? asjdhasdsalid I MIGHT BE OVERTHINKING THIS ONE AND IT'S NOTHING

Jade ends his vignettes by mentioning there may come a day where he “returns to the sea”… THE LITTLE MERMAID 2: RETURN TO THE SEA?!?!!

[probablyasocialecologist]

“I loathe that word ‘pristine.’ There have been no pristine systems on this planet for thousands of years,” says Kawika Winter, an Indigenous biocultural ecologist at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. “Humans and nature can co-exist, and both can thrive.” For example, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in April, a team of researchers from over a dozen institutions reported that humans have been reshaping at least three-quarters of the planet’s land for as long as 12,000 years. In fact, they found, many landscapes with high biodiversity considered to be “wild” today are more strongly linked to past human land use than to contemporary practices that emphasize leaving land untouched. This insight contradicts the idea that humans can only have a neutral or negative effect on the landscape. Anthropologists and other scholars have critiqued the idea of pristine wilderness for over half a century. Today new findings are driving a second wave of research into how humans have shaped the planet, propelled by increasingly powerful scientific techniques, as well as the compounding crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. The conclusions have added to ongoing debates in the conservation world—though not without controversy. In particular, many discussions hinge on whether Indigenous and preindustrial approaches to the natural world could contribute to a more sustainable future, if applied more widely.

[amnhnyc]

Today’s Exhibit of the Day? The lion’s mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata). Jelly-ve it or not, this critter is one of the world’s longest animals. This jumbo-sized jelly trails a “mane” of more than 800 stinging tentacles that are covered in cells with venom that stun prey, including other jellyfish, small crustaceans, and zooplankton. Just how long is the lion’s mane jellyfish? Well, its tentacles can grow more than 100 feet (30 meters) long! In fact, the longest examples of this species—which inhabit the Arctic Ocean—are even longer than the longest known blue whale. Come see a life-size model of one at the Museum’s Hall of Biodiversity.

Photo: R. Mickens/ © AMNH

[genderkoolaid]

in what way, if any, do you think that indulging kinks is different than making jokes as far as emplanting/reinforcing ideas in the mind? do you think that being a sexual sadist makes you more permissive of nonconsensual violence?genuine question, feel free to ignore or answer privately if this is too thorny.

OKAY I have tried to write this 4 times now here we go!!!! This time it will NOT get deleted!!!!!!!!

This is a really good + important question so I am glad you asked! To me, it comes down to context and critical self-reflection.

Kink, done properly, occurs in a very specific and frank context. You discuss what a scene will look like beforehand, and then you discuss what happened and each person's experiences afterward. Proper kink requires blatant discussions of what is wanted and what is to be avoided, and the consent of all parties is what helps create this context.

Humor, on the other hand, tends to live in a hazy grey area between truth and lies. We like to think that because jokes are jokes, this means they are completely detached from our world. But humor has a social function. It helps bring people together, as well as delineate divisions. And it also helps us dip a toe into a certain feeling without having to discuss the feeling itself.

To give an example, let's talk about bees and wasps.

Say there is a person named A. A generally thinks of themself as liking animals and the natural world. They are against climate change and pro-biodiversity, although they don't really know a ton about these topics. They see people making jokes about wasps vs. bees: bees are sweet pollinators just trying to enjoy the summer, while wasps are angry assholes who will fuck your wife. A finds these jokes funny, especially having learned about how important bees are but having always been afraid of wasps. A also begins making jokes about how wasps have no purpose, they just exist to ruin your day, and should be killed. A finds themself joking about how we should really just kill off all wasps, since they are evil and worthless creatures. When A sees a wasp, they feel nothing but fear and the desire to kill it painfully. If they hear about something is causing mass death amongst wasps, they think its probably a net positive for everyone.

A was clearly biased against wasps from the beginning, which isn't really their fault; wasps can be scary and hurtful! The jokes seem to reaffirm their feelings as natural, socially valid, and even funny. But as I'm sure many of my followers know, wasps ARE pollinators and are quite important to the environment, as well as having the inherent worth that all creatures do. It's rather contradictory for A to both say they value biodiversity, while also devaluing an entire group of creatures and being okay with, or even advocating for, their extinction.

It is fully possible for A to dislike wasps, AND value biodiversity. The problem is that A does not really know how to apply their values to the world and their actions. They generally have beliefs, but those beliefs do not form a bedrock they can reference. Their values and their actions are not in conversation.

To take it back to what you were discussing: properly done kink always involves conversation between values and actions. The values are consent, risk-aware safety, and mutual pleasure/satisfaction/positive experiences. Knowing these values and what they mean, the people involved can talk about what they want to do and how those actions will relate to those values. When a sadist is hitting someone in a scene, they know that this is happening because they have created a context in which that action aligns with their values. And if someone does find that they are being shaped negatively by kink experiences, they can recognize that and choose to stop.

I believe there is a problem with people not truly knowing what they believe or value, and/or not truly knowing how their beliefs/values interact with the world and their actions. And when you combine that with the ambiguity of jokes, the way we are encouraged to see jokes as something separated from the "real world," and the way they can encourage people to follow their gut feelings and reaffirm them as socially valid and true, you get. well. bad times! radicalization! Oops All Assholes!

I just made a post that was kind of an example of this. I watched Megan Thee Stallion's documentary and joked about how she should be allowed to kill indiscriminately. When I think about making those kinds of jokes, I am keeping in mind:

Killing individuals doesn't solve systemic issues

I value transformative justice over punitive justice

I generally avoid making these- humourously communicating my anger at injustice into calls for violence- because I am conscious that jokes aren't "just jokes." This doesn't mean I NEVER do it. It's not, like, radioactive. Making a joke won't corrupt me a la the One Ring. But I make a choice to steer myself away from that kind of humor. Because I don't want to create that kind of thought pattern; because I am being conscious of the distinction between feeling and value, of catharsis and justice; because I don't want to connect with others on the basis of a belief I don't actually hold and am just putting on to express frustration; and because, in the case of other jokes, regardless of their impact on ME, they can still hurt other people. Even if you feel like you can make small dick jokes and still genuinely believe body-shaming is bad… if your jokes still have the impact of body-shaming people, then your values aren't really having an impact on your actions, at which point they are meaningless.

[hope-for-the-planet]

Perhaps it's just me. But right now, with the rapid global transition towards green energy, reforestation and conservation efforts, laws, genuinely crazy and huge innovations that can help us adapt to the changing world... it feels like we're on the right track.

Perhaps it's just me. But the geopolitical insanity that I see and learn from my peers all over the world, doesn't feel like the end. No, it... it feels like change. The last horrible and panicked gasps of the dying old, because it refuses to accept that it is not sustainable anymore, and the world is moving towards the better, through protests and unity and human goodness. I've seen this before - in stories from the older generation, and in history books.

But I also feel terribly guilty whenever I start thinking like that, for some odd reason? I feel guilty whenever I try and rationalize that despite it all, the world will continue existing, and even in the worst case scenario (which we already have avoided), there would be forests and oceans and species and biodiversity and ecosystems and people and cities and countries to see and love, because after all, nature is resilient and adaptable - just like our species are.

I feel guilty for feeling this cautious curiosity about what the future might hold for us, the bad and the good. Because I feel like I am obligated to be grieving and panicking and angry, like many people are - but that's just... so tiring.

Hi Anon,

This is going to be a long one because I think your ask gets at something difficult that I have a lot of thoughts about.

Your phrase “cautious curiosity” made me think of psychology researcher Jamil Zaki’s idea of “hopeful skepticism”. Which is not assuming that everything will inevitably get better, but open to the possibility that it could and curious to see the paths it might take to get us there.

Our society tends to view a cynical outlook as more intelligent or even more moral, but research shows that a cynical outlook actually makes people worse at predicting outcomes, worse at cognitive and problem-solving tasks, less likely to vote or protest, and even measurably harms their physical and mental wellbeing.

I think the guilt you describe is likely coming from the feeling that while we have been significantly improving conditions for humanity on this Earth and will likely continue to do so in the long run, in the present there are many real humans suffering--it can be hard and uncomfortable to hold these two truths together.

Even if this last dying breath is temporary and brief, it is destroying real people’s lives and many more live in fear that they will be next. The fact that child mortality has absolutely plummeted even just in my own lifetime is both a miracle of humanity and means little to the parent who has lost their child to a preventable death. To quote the philosopher Max Roser, “The world is much better; the world is still awful; the world can be much better.”.

You don't need to feel guilty for having hope for the future. Carrying feelings like hopelessness, grief, and fear all the time is entirely valid, but like you said it is also exhausting—and there is nothing inherently moral about emotionally suffering particularly if it’s harming your ability to live your life or take positive action.  

You are right that we are still making progress in the correct direction in many ways. You are right that history is rife with examples of forward momentum provoking a reactionary backtracking but that the forward momentum usually ultimately prevails.

The key here, is to understand that the future path you describe is possible—even likely more probable than a lot of people think—but it is not inevitable. We still have to take action to make it happen. The arc of history bends towards progress only because so many millions of mostly unnamed unknown people have put the work in to bend it in big and little ways.

I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes from Rebecca Solnit: “Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth's treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal... To hope is to give yourself to the future - and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.”

Reminding others that progress is still happening and that there is hope for a brighter future is important work in getting members of your community to pick up their own axe and make that future happen. Hope in dark times is not just ok or reasonable--it is a precious, vital tool.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

This is a salient argument for returning land stolen from indigenous people, written by a Caddo/Delaware writer who has spent over a decade as a ranger for the U.S. Forest Service. Our current situation with public lands at risk is yet another example where "we the people" have shown that we cannot be responsible for something so precious, and so the status quo cannot continue. The Landback movement--returning land to indigenous ownership--is one viable solution that has multiple potential benefits.

It's not just the land that has been grossly mishandled, but the rights and lives of indigenous people, too. The article states "It’s been argued that the United States violated every Indian treaty it signed. When a treaty is broken, much like when a home is repossessed, the property exchanged should be returned to its original owner for breach of contract." Landback is one way in which indigenous people are trying to get back at least a little of what has been violently stolen from them over the past few centuries.

Does it mean giving up control? Of course. But with current trends, we don't exactly have a lot of control when state or federal governments decide to allow clearcutting or strip mining on public lands. Will some places be closed off to the public if they end up back in indigenous hands? Perhaps, but at least they wouldn't be forcing the rest of us onto reservations, from which we were not allowed to stray. That's a more merciful treatment than they received.

Even if the general public were no longer allowed on a given piece of land, we would still benefit from its restoration and sustainable stewardship, through cleaner air and water, better biodiversity, and ecosystems allowed to return to more complex states over time. Moreover, indigenous communities would stand to benefit financially from the substantial tourism and other recreational activities on current public lands. Responsible management could balance access to popular sites with minimizing wear and tear, while ecologically fragile or culturally sensitive places could be off-limits.

Why not let something old become something new again, and see if we all fare better for it?

[elbiotipo]

Ocassionally you see articles that are like "scientists are trying to hide how bad things are" and I'm the opposite of that. I've done my work on ecological restoration (actually grabbed a shovel and planted trees) and I'm amazed at how fast nature can restore itself. Ecologists used to think restoring tropical rainforests, to give an example of a complex ecosystem, would take centuries to go back if it was even possible -this is why you see all the dystopian fiction of rainforests going extinct- when in fact, it has been proven that without human pressure, ecological succession takes place and rainforests grow back nearly to its original physionomy in a few years, even if diversity does take a time to bounce back. Reintroducing animals might sound harder and it is, but we must remember that animals have faster cycles than humans. Just letting breeding pairs in protected areas is often enough for populations to grow back, as in the reintroduction of jaguars to Iberá in Corrientes Argentina, and many other cases. What is even more interesting and encouraging is how cheap, both in the monetary and the general effort sense, these works are. If a bunch of underpaid biologists, rural people and park rangers can do it, imagine if they had the full support and backing from states and international institutions.

We are at a stage where, besides climate change, we are facing tremendous biodiversity loss and this mostly comes to our methods of land use and food production. But these can be changed. We must assume the fact that nature is not a pristine untouched thing, but humans, in every continent they have lived in, have long managed its resources. The Amazon Rainforest is full of useful plants that hint at silviculture which is still done by its native peoples, the deserts and tundra that seem uninhabited have been home to pastoral and hunter-gatherer peoples. Humans have shaped all habitats on Earth, even the most 'untouched' ones. Just as they have managed their environments and natural resources, other civilizations have managed or mismanaged them. Now that industrial civilization has spread across the globe, we need to find a way to balance our need for food and other products with the need to preserve and take care of Earth. This can be done, we can ensure both a good quality of life and a protected biosphere. We can stop the dichotomy of humans separate from nature, assume our historical role as managers and stewards of natural resources, and do it with our modern understanding of ecology and science.

This does mean that it will take a lot of popular mobilization and change to uproot current interests and create states that uphold these principles. But I'm a marxist. I don't 'believe' in class struggle, I think it's a fact based on observations about society, and I also think that this current form of capitalism will eventually be replaced by socialism, and I believe the future socialist societies will not do the same mistakes as the past. We not only can create new societies that can take care of nature and the general welfare of people, but I also think that as history proceeds, it will be inevitable.