probablyasocialecologist

[probablyasocialecologist]

Our food system is hooked on fossil fuels. From fossil-fuelled fertilizers and pesticides to plastic packaging, ultra-processed foods, and long-haul cold chains, fossil fuels are entwined at every link in the food chain. Food systems now consume 40% of all petrochemicals and 15% of fossil fuels globally – making them a key growth frontier for Big Oil. Yet food remains glaringly absent from the climate conversation.

This dependency is deepening climate risks and threatening food access. As geopolitical shocks drive oil price volatility, food prices follow – worsening hunger. Meanwhile, as other sectors begin to decarbonize, food the fossil fuel industry is doubling down on fertilizers and plastics to sustain its growth – locking in pollution and keeping food systems on an industrial, fossil-fuelled path.

This report sets out what it will take to break that addiction – and why it must start now. It exposes the false solutions being peddled by powerful corporations – from ‘blue’ ammonia to high-tech digital farming – and maps out real pathways forward: phasing out chemical inputs, investing in agroecology, building resilient local food systems, and reining in corporate power.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Jardim Botânico Tropical de Belém, Lisboa, Portugal, 02-06-23

[probablyasocialecologist]

A new site, FuckLAPD.com, is using public records and facial recognition technology to allow anyone to identify police officers in Los Angeles they have a picture of. The tool, made by artist Kyle McDonald, is designed to help people identify cops who may otherwise try to conceal their identity, such as covering their badge or serial number. “We deserve to know who is shooting us in the face even when they have their badge covered up,” McDonald told me when I asked if the site was made in response to police violence during the LA protests against ICE that started earlier this month. “fucklapd.com is a response to the violence of the LAPD during the recent protests against the horrific ICE raids. And more broadly—the failure of the LAPD to accomplish anything useful with over $2B in funding each year.”

24 June 2025

[probablyasocialecologist]

The raised floor and lowered ceiling of a breakfast nook create a cozy space.

The Kitchen Idea Book, 1999

[probablyasocialecologist]

Most unserious country in the world

[probablyasocialecologist]

really underrated wigan kebab line: "so it's called a babby's yed because it looks like a baby's head? If you... if you crack it open?" "Yeah but uh... but don't do it! ☝️"

[probablyasocialecologist]

‘Green capitalism’ is conceivable as a component of a passive revolution in Gramsci’s sense – that is, of a transformation guided by the ruling powers of society. But this revolution would not stop the formative forces that produced the socio-ecological crisis. Instead, it would, at best, modernize them in a highly selective and ecologically improved manner and at the expense of other world regions. The varied problems related to a mode of production dominated by exchange value and competition would only be made bearable for a portion of the world – and even these effects would be mediated through class, gender and race. Meanwhile, the social and ecological costs of a green capitalism would be externalized spatially and socially.

The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism

[probablyasocialecologist]

LMAOO

[probablyasocialecologist]

[probablyasocialecologist]

^ I think it's time to reintroduce this fella back into the online ecosystem

[probablyasocialecologist]

[probablyasocialecologist]

“The immediate, default media framing is to give credence to the allegation that speech critical of Israel or critical of Zionism is antisemitism,” said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. “This has everybody on the defensive. Nobody wants to be accused of supporting or enabling antisemitism.” DA offices have received significant pressure from local pro-Israel groups to apply hate crime charges to protest-related incidents—and police and prosecutors have expended significant resources on such cases, even when they involve relatively minor allegations. Despite this, DAs have had trouble actually securing hate crimes convictions: Judges and grand juries have mostly tossed out charges, or juries have voted to acquit defendants. But by that point, those facing charges have already been significantly impacted. They have been identified as perpetrators of hate across multiple media sources—including, at times, in official DA or Department of Justice press releases—and have lost jobs, been suspended from school, or used significant resources to pay bail or legal fees. “Part of the lawfare repression strategy is that the legal process itself is the punishment,” said Jackson. “A criminal defendant who’s totally innocent can still be dragged through a terrifying, miserable process that can ruin their life.” To be sure, hate crime charges since October 7th have not been reserved for pro-Palestine protesters. A Chicago man who stabbed a six-year-old Palestinian American boy the week after the Hamas-led attacks was convicted of murder as a hate crime in February. And, as in the past, defendants continue to be charged with clearly antisemitic hate crimes unrelated to Palestine, like sending Nazi-coded threats to Jewish clergy or attacking congregants outside of synagogues. But the ease with which the laws have been mobilized to menace those associated with a popular anti-war movement raises questions about the value of hate crime statutes as a tool for justice.

[...]

“There is a pre-concerted movement to criminalize activism for Palestinian rights, and in that context hate crime charges are often a way of intensifying and escalating punishment,” said Shirin Sinnar, a law professor at Stanford University who has extensively studied hate crimes. With the Trump administration pledging in February to pursue more federal hate crime charges against pro-Palestine activists, and more states adopting a definition of antisemitism that equates anti-Zionism with anti-Jewish animus, these recent prosecutions may mark the beginning of a chilling new legal paradigm.

17 June 2025

[probablyasocialecologist]

Before the US’s attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, amid a quickening drumroll for American entry into the war, critics of military adventurism from the left and the right frequently drew a comparison to the post–September 11 bloodlust for the Iraq War. While there are strong rhetorical resonances with that moment—a manufactured panic over nuclear weapons, delusional fantasies about being greeted as liberators—a more apt comparison is the 2011 NATO military intervention into Libya. Unlike Iraq, Libya did not see a major ground invasion; instead, the US-led NATO coalition used a combination of overwhelming air power and special ops missions to destroy the country’s national forces. The campaign lasted just over seven months, and the Americans didn’t bother sticking around to steer the direction of the state after the dust settled. Within three years, the country was engulfed in a civil war. That recipe—rain hell from the skies to annihilate the governing authority along with its national infrastructure, ensuring the state’s indefensibility and instability for the foreseeable future—is what Israel is openly calling for the US to operationalize.

23 June 2025

[probablyasocialecologist]

AI data centers are being approved at a breakneck pace across the country, particularly in poorer regions where they are pitched as economic development projects to boost property tax receipts, bring in jobs and where they’re offered sizable tax breaks. Data centers typically don’t hire many people, though, with most jobs in security and janitorial work, along with temporary construction work. And the costs to the utility’s other customers can remain hidden because of a lack of scrutiny and the limited power of state energy regulators. Many data centers—like the one Meta is building in Holly Ridge—are being powered by fossil fuels. This has led to respiratory illness and other health risks and emitting greenhouse gasses that fuel climate change. In Memphis, a massive data center built to launch a chatbot for Elon Musks’ AI company is powered by smog-spewing methane turbines, in a region that leads the state for asthma rates.

[...]

A research paper by Ari Peskoe and Eliza Martin published in March looked at 50 regulatory cases involving data centers, and found that tech companies were pushing some of the costs onto utility customers through secret contracts with the utilities. The paper found that utilities were often parroting rhetoric from AI boosting politicians—including President Biden—to suggest that pushing through permitting for AI data center infrastructure is a matter of national importance.

23 June 2025

[probablyasocialecologist]

Have a big girl Phillias in shorts inspired by @the-great-zalmoxis

[probablyasocialecologist]

i kind of feel like if you take "don't bomb iran" as an endorsement of the iranian government, you're not intellectually ready to engage in conversations about real-world politics. Go talk about steven's universe instead