#environmental rights

[awesomecooperlove]

👿🤡👿

[alwaysbewoke]

Congo💔🕊️

We really cannot be free until we all are free.

[environmentalwatch]

Student Activists Win in Montana

Student activists prevail in a climate change trial that’s been pending in Montana for years. In Montana, the state constitution was revised in 1972 to protect the environment of the state. “The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations,” reads Article IX, Part IX. And it goes on to require that “the…

[kp777]

Montana’s landmark climate ruling: three key takeaways

[inkskinned]

the thing is there's like, a point of oversaturation for everything, and it's why so many things get dropped after a few minutes. and we act like millennials or gen z kids "have short attention spans" but... that's not quite it. it's more like - we did like it. you just ruined it.

capitalism sees product A having moderate success, and then everything has to come out with their "own version" of product A (which is often exactly the same). and they dump extreme amounts of money and environmental waste into each horrible simulacrum they trot out each season.

now it's not just tiktokkers making videos; it's that instagram and even fucking tumblr both think you want live feeds and video-first programming. and it helps them, because videos are easier to sneak native ads into. the books coming out all have to have 78 buzzwords in them for SEO, or otherwise they don't get published. they are making a live-action remake of moana. i haven't googled it, but there's probably another marvel or starwars something coming out, no matter when you're reading this post.

and we are like "hi, this clone of project A completely misses the point of the original. it is soulless and colorless and miserable." and the company nods and says "yes totally. here is a different clone, but special." and we look at clone 2 and we say "nope, this one is still flat and bad, y'all" and they're like "no, totally, we hear you," and then they make another clone but this time it's, like, a joyless prequel. and by the time they've successfully rolled out "clone 89", the market is incredibly oversaturated, and the consumer is blamed because the company isn't turning a profit.

and like - take even something digital like the tumblr "live streaming" function i just mentioned. that has to take up server space and some amount of carbon footprint; just so this brokenass blue hellsite can roll out a feature that literally none of its userbase actually wants. the thing that's the kicker here: even something that doesn't have a physical production plant still impacts the environment.

and it all just feels like it's rolling out of control because like, you watch companies pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into a remake of a remake of something nobody wants anymore and you're like, not able to afford eggs anymore. and you tell the company that really what you want is a good story about survival and they say "okay so you mean a YA white protagonist has some kind of 'spicy' love triangle" and you're like - hey man i think you're misunderstanding the point of storytelling but they've already printed 76 versions of "city of blood and magic" and "queen of diamond rule" and spent literally millions of dollars on the movie "Candy Crush Killer: Coming to Eat You".

it's like being stuck in a room with a clown that keeps telling the same joke over and over but it's worse every time. and that would be fine but he keeps fucking charging you 6.99. and you keep being like "no, i know it made me laugh the first time, but that's because it was different and new" and the clown is just aggressively sitting there saying "well! plenty of people like my jokes! the reason you're bored of this is because maybe there's something wrong with you!"

[lyarigirlscafe]

Only one earth

Environment day

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Collagen craze drives deforestation and rights abuses

For the first time an investigation has linked collagen powder to violence against Indigenous peoples in Brazilian forests

The stench arrives before the lorries do. They are carrying skins that were stripped from cattle carcasses days ago. Flies are everywhere.

The lorries’ destination is Amparo, a small industrial town in São Paulo state, southeastern Brazil. Here, Rousselot, a company owned by the Texan business Darling Ingredients, extracts collagen – the active ingredient in health supplements at the centre of a global wellness craze.

But while collagen’s most evangelical users claim the protein can improve hair, skin, nails and joints, slowing the ageing process, it has a dubious effect on the health of the planet. Collagen can be extracted from fish, pig and cattle skin, but behind the wildly popular “bovine” variety in particular lies an opaque industry driving the destruction of tropical forests and fuelling violence and human rights abuses in the Brazilian Amazon.

An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the Guardian, ITV and O Joio e O Trigo has found that tens of thousands of cattle raised on farms damaging tropical forests were processed at abattoirs connected to international collagen supply chains.

Some of this collagen can be traced all the way to Nestlé-owned Vital Proteins, a major producer of collagen supplements championed by the actress Jennifer Aniston. Vital Proteins is sold globally – including online on Amazon, in Walmart stores in the US, in Holland & Barrett and Boots in the UK and in Costco in both countries.

The investigation – the first to connect bovine collagen with tropical forest loss and violence against Indigenous peoples – found at least 2,600 sq km of deforestation linked to the supply chains of two Brazil-based collagen operations with connections to Darling: Rousselot and Gelnex, which is in the process of being acquired by Darling for $1.2bn. It is unclear how much of this deforestation, which was calculated by the Center for Climate Crime Analysis, is linked to Vital Proteins.

Continue reading.

[prokopetz]

I’ve seen so many threads debating the merits of rayon and whether it’s a plastic or a “natural fibre” going around, and y’all, the problem with rayon is not whether or not it satisfies some technical definition of synthetic fibre.

The problem is that the most common method of manufacturing rayon is so ridiculously toxic that it’s literally killing the people who work in the facilities where it’s produced, and is illegal to carry out in much of the world as a result – but instead of using better (more expensive) methods, everybody just imports the stuff from places where killing your workers for the sake of a buck isn’t effectively regulated.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

This morning I went to a repair cafe and one of my uni tutors helped me sew up my frayed trousers. There were people on sewing machines, mending radios and plugs. There was tea and cake, people chatting, all ages and a bunch of different accents. It felt radical and cool as hell, and now my trousers are fixed! Wins all round

[luxaofhesperides]

Ghostlights where Phantom saves Duke or the Signal, and a week later (at a Wayne gala or some other place) Duke recognizes the light/aura coming from Danny

Putting off gala prep was perhaps not the best plan. Duke spent the past month insisting that everything is fine and he has it under control. Duke is also a lying liar who lies, and now he’s frantically trying to pick up his suit in time to get it dry cleaned and altered as necessary. 

Alfred would be disappointed in him, but in Duke’s defense, he had to go out of town on a mission to bust a growing drug cartel, and then spent half a week visiting a shelter for metas on the run (unofficial and hidden away) to help everyone find new homes and learn to control their powers. These things take time!

Unfortunately, gala prep also takes time, and since it’s a charity gala for funding the education of every Gothamite student, it’s not one he can slip out of. The entire family is being strong-armed into attending and not making a scene until the donation period in the first half is over. 

Duke knows he’s not the only one who’s scrambling to get ready for a gala that’s taking place in three days, but they’re not helping him, so it feels like he’s the only one messing up. 

“Sorry!” he calls behind him as he sprints through a group of people. 

He could have asked someone to drive him, but he knows they’re all busy and doesn’t want his own poor time management to cause problems for anyone else. Even though he’s sure Bruce is looking for an excuse to get out of a mandatory Wayne Enterprises board meeting that both Lucius and Tim dragged him to.

RIP Bruce. He will be missed.

The Diamond District is full of people walking the streets, sprinting between parked cars and waiting for their rides. They’re all dressed nicely, making him feel out of place. It’s a feeling that’s never left him since he joined the Waynes but it’s particularly bad when he’s left to navigate these spaces alone. Rich people and socialites are a different kind of human, one that Duke doesn’t care to understand; there’s greed in all of them, turning them heartless, and they can give as much as they want to charity but it won’t change the fact that all they do is a performance to make people like them, rather than a desire to do anything good. 

The sooner this is over, the better. He keeps going, hoping that he can still make it to his appointment with the tailor. Alfred recommended the store, then set up the appointment, so all Duke has to do is trust their judgment as they get him fitted. He’s still got twenty minutes until the scheduled time, but some unspoken rule makes it so he has to show up fifteen minutes early for better service or risk being turned away and told to reschedule. 

Duke slows to a walk when he catches sight of the store, the trying to catch his breath and look more composed before he reaches the door. He takes a moment to straighten his clothes a bit, then opens the door and steps in.

The bell jingles pleasantly above his head. The store is empty of any other customers, and the employee at the front counter looks up with a plastered on smile. 

“I’ll be with you in a moment!” she says, then looks down at her phone and types something out before placing it under the counter. A tablet comes out instead and she swipes through a few screens, then sets it down and look at Duke again. “How can I help you, sir?”

“I have an appointment? For a suit fitting. Under the name Thomas.”

She taps on the screen for a minute, then nods and gives him another customer service smile. “Alright, I’ll go ahead and grab the tailor. They’ll be out with your suit soon. Please, feel free to take a seat or browse some of our suits. We just recently got a new collection in from Italy.”

“Sure, thanks. I’ll just… be here, I guess.”

The employee takes her tablet and disappears through a door, leaving him alone in the store. He doesn’t want to sit down, not while his heart is still trying to settle from his sprint through half of Diamond District, so Duke wanders around the neat stacks of dress shirts and vests, pants and belts and shoes lined up neatly against the walls. 

He takes a moment to shoot Alfred a text that he’s at the tailor for his fitting appointment. Steph’s sent him a long string of videos online, and he’s just about to go through them when the bell rings again. 

Duke glances up and watches a guy walk into the store. He looks around, makes eye contact with Duke, then quickly looks down, taking a seat by the door.

Probably another upper class citizen uncomfortable with the fact that someone in jeans and a hoodie is shopping for suits. Shaking his head lightly, Duke wanders deeper into the store to get some distance between them so they could ignore each other more easily. It’s only until the tailor comes out, and then he can go to a fitting room and be done with this whole thing, so Duke resigns himself to suffering through the tense silence. 

How long is he even supposed to wait? He can only look at clothes in one of three colors before he gets bored. 

He goes to another rack, trying to see if he can notice anything different about these shirts. 

And then he hears a shoe scuff against the floor behind him. He tenses up, but before he can turn around, a belt is wound around his throat, pulling him back and choking him. 

Duke drops his weight, tucking his chin and gets a hand against the inside of the belt to try to push it away. His back hits someone’s chest and he’s trapped, focused on trying not to be choked to death while also keeping his vigilante abilities and meta powers secret. 

More footsteps come from behind, and a soaked cloth is pressed against his nose and mouth.

Chloroform, he realizes, familiar with the smell from Bruce’s training. But training isn’t enough to keep him from being knocked out, and he quickly slips away from the waking world, falling to the ground. 

Just before he passes out completely, he hears the employee who greeted him say, “I’m not sure how much Wayne would be willing to pay for him, but let’s start high and negotiate lower. New kid can’t possibly be worth that much…”

Duke wakes up groggily, memories of what happened quickly snapping into place. He’s too out of it still to get up, but he’s awake enough to be offended. Sure he’s the new kid, and barely even a Wayne, but he’s still worth a lot!

Kidnappers these days. So rude.

He doesn’t hear anyone around him, and it feels like he’s lying on a cold concrete floor. Basement, maybe? Warehouse? Storage unit tucked away somewhere? There’s nothing much to see when Duke is able to open his eyes, squinting bareilly at his surroundings. His arms are tied behind him, wrists bound, but they left his legs alone. 

If he could just hit the panic button on his bracelet…

Duke wiggles around, fighting through the lingering effects of Chloroform, and manages to sit up. If he strains his hearing, he thinks he can hear voices outside of the empty room he’s been left in. There’s a window high up, too high for a normal person to reach without help, but if he can use the shadows to travel through it, then he may be able to escape on his own. 

First things first: he needs to free his hands before anyone comes in to check on him.

They used zip ties on him, which is inconvenient. He’s learned how to get out of them, but it’s difficult enough without being drugged and having to do it behind his back. 

He’s feeling the zip ties bite into his wrists just as there’s a crash from outside the room. His kidnappers yell, alarmed, and are quickly silenced. That’s rarely ever a good sign. Duke renews his efforts to escape, ignore the pain in pushing against his binds like this. 

The door opens. Duke hears the small click of a lock disengaging and freezes. Then he gets to his feet, still unsteady, and prepares to ram his head into anyone who comes near him like some sort of deranged battering ram, or a drunk raging bull. 

Duke is ready for the worst: a gang hoping to steal away a Wayne hostage, a Rogue, Gnomon popping in to cause trouble for the sole purpose of getting on Duke’s nerve. 

He’s not expecting another teenage boy, who is literally glowing, to poke his head in and zero in on Duke. He blinks, then smiles; it’s friendly and sincere, nothing like the employee who helped kidnap him. 

“Hey!” he says, coming into the room properly. He’s floating a good foot off the ground, eyes a bright neon green, with white hair that sways as if he’s underwater. “Are you okay? I saw them drag you out of the back of the store and followed them, but I got a bit lost. Sorry for taking so long to get here.”

“...It’s fine?” Duke offers, trying to wrap his head around what’s happening. “I wasn’t expecting a rescue so soon, anyways. Think you can help me out here?”

“Yeah, of course!” he flies closer, then drops down to the ground behind Duke. He hums lightly under his breath, and then Duke feels a cold touch on his wrist and the zip ties are suddenly gone. 

Duke blinks, then brings his arms in front of him. He moves around a bit to make sure he’s not hallucination, and sure enough, he’s free and unbound because a random meta teenager vanished the zip ties into the ether, or something. 

“Thanks, man. Any idea where we are?”

“Not a clue. I got lost coming here, and I was following them. I don’t think you should trust any directions I give.”

“Fair enough,” Duke laughs. “I’m Duke, by the way.”

“Phantom.”

“Well, thanks for the save, Phantom. Can I treat you to something?”

“Like, coffee?”

“Sure. Or brunch, or ice cream. Whatever you want, really.”

Phantom considers it for a moment, then shakes his head. “Sorry, I would love to but going out in public looking like this,” he gestures to himself, “Is not a great idea. Thanks for the offer though. You got a ride?”

Duke pats his pockets, then sighs. “My phone’s gone. I still have my wallet, though.”

“I fly you to someplace you can call someone, if you’d like.”

“You sure? I could probably just walk out of here and call a taxi.”

“I don’t think walking around by yourself after being kidnapped is a great idea,” Phantom says, doubtfully. “Seriously, let me fly you.”

He should just hit the panic button and wait for someone to show up to get him. He shouldn’t go to some unknown location with a meta he literally just met. 

But, you know what? No one else can say they got kidnapped twice in one day, so Duke nods and says, “Sure, sweep me off my feet, Phantom. You gotta commit to this rescue.”

Phantom laughs. And then he does sweep Duke off his feet into a princess carry with a cheeky grin and flies them out the building, which turns out to be an abandoned apartment building slated for demolition. 

“Keep this up and you’ll be replacing Superman in no time,” Duke jokes.

“I think I could manage it,” Phantom replies thoughtfully. “I mean, I’m already prettier than him, don’t you think?”

“Oh, definitely. The glow really brings out your eyes.”

Phantom gets him a few blocks away when Duke recognizes where they are, and quickly directs him into Crime Alley. They land on top of one of Jason’s safe houses, and while he’s sure there’s enough security to take out a SWAT Team, that’s absolutely not going to stop him from breaking in to use one of Jason’s burner phones and eat his leftovers. 

He’s set down on his feet gently, and as soon as Phantom sees that he’s fine, able to walk and everything, he floats back up, just out of reach.

“Be careful, okay?” he says, getting ready to leave.

“I’ll do my best. Hey, are you gonna be in Gotham for a while, or…?”

Phantom gives him a tired smile. “Nah. I’m just passing through. As long as my luck doesn’t get even worse, then I should be out of here in a few days.”

“Shame,” Duke says, giving Phantom a very visible once over. He’s pretty tall, and Duke can see some muscle on him, and the tight black outfit really adds to his look. The glow that comes out of his chest makes him look ethereal and Duke is beyond glad that he got such a charming rescuer.

Phantom doesn’t blush like a normal person. He glows brighter instead, curling into himself a bit as he looks away, unable to stop the smile from growing on his face. 

“I guess,” he shrugs. “Are you really going to be alright from here?”

“Yeah, man, I have a friend who lives here. I’ll just bother him until he agrees to give me a ride.”

“Alright.” Phantom drifts away, glancing behind him before turning back to Duke. “I’ll get going then. Take care, Duke!”

Duke waves and watches as Phantom begins to fly away. Then Phantom… disappears? Or rather, his body does but Duke can see an orb of light making its way across Gotham, almost like a star fallen from the sky.

He stays on the roof until the light is long gone. When he’s finally ready to go in and steal from Jason, the sun has completely set. 

And he still doesn’t have his suit.

Duke sighs, and mentally prepares himself to other day of stressing out about the gala.

Three days of stress and last minute scrambling leave Duke in the Gotham Museum of Modern Art with Steph, Tim, Cass, and Damian. They’re hiding in the photography gallery to avoid other guests, taking a break from being polite and letting thinly veiled, passive aggressive insults slide over them.

.

.

.

“How much longer must we suffer this before we can go?” Damian grumbles, looking like he’s do anything to get his hands on a blade. Which, considering how many people tried to either pinch his cheeks are say some racist remark about him and his mother, is totally fair. Duke would just punch them, but sometimes a little drama helped get the message across. 

“At least two more hours,” Tim says, not bothering to look up from his phone. From what few glimpses of the screen Duke caught, he’s leading a Titans missions through text and clever hacking. Though it may be more accurate to call is a Young Justice mission since there’s no way any of this was authorized by a Justice League member. 

Also Anita, suited up as Empress, is there. If they aren’t on the news for property destruction and absolutely batshit wild shenanigans, Duke will have to check on Tim to make sure he’s not a pod person sent to infiltrate the family. 

“Think we can sneak out without anyone noticing?” Steph asks, looking at the emergency exit longingly.

Cass shakes her head and points to the door leading to the ballroom. When they look over, Dick makes very deliberate eye contact with them and give them a smile that looks stretched across his face.

Tim winces and pushes Duke. “Oh, something went down. Go take over for him and let Dick rest in here for a bit.”

“Man, why does it have to be me?” he grumbles even as he stands. Dick lets out a heavy breath and gives Duke a grateful smile, patting on the shoulder before shoving him out the door. 

As soon as he’s back into the main hallway, the music and chatter swell, no longer muffled by the thick walls of the photography wing. A few people come and go from the ballroom, no doubt looking for the restroom. 

Or more private places for… other things. Things they definitely shouldn’t be doing in an art museum.

He really can’t wait for this night to be over.

Duke joins the rest of the guests, fake smile on his face, and quickly makes his way to the snack table. He might as well make the most of his time stuck out here. Maybe he could even cause another relationship scandal by implying that Bruce is sleeping with one of partners when in hearing distance of a couple. Maybe even both of them. 

Bruce would go with it. It’s hilarious and he also needs something to make these events bearable.

Sadly, he doesn’t see any good targets as he scans the ballroom. A few people are dancing, while others are talking in small circles, closed off from outsiders. There’s an entire table of old ladies with glasses of wine in front of them; Duke considers hanging around them, since they confess to a lot of crimes after a few glasses. It’s fascinating. 

Also, he does kind of miss hanging out with the one old lady who’s declared herself his high society grandmother and told him stories of how she used to go to bars to find racist people or Klan members during the Jim Crow era, seduce them, then poison them and get their addresses so a few gangs she was friends with would fuck them up.

Granny Kaliasto is the coolest person ever. 

Just as he’s about to finish his last mini rolled crepe, Duke catches sight of one of the few teenagers still in the ballroom. The others, mostly stuck up rich kids no one actually likes, have already left to take over some other part of the museum to gossip until their parents decide it’s time to go home. These two are clearly not part of that crew, what with the girl being very goth and in a poofy, ripped dress, and the boy having already taken his jacket off to keep over his forearm, the top button of his shirt popped open.

They might be cool. He’s hoping they’re cool because he desperately needs some company to keep from dying of boredom while the gala continues on.

Duke walks over to them, going around the side of the ballroom, until he’s close enough to hear them talking.

The boy has his back to Duke, but the girl sees him. She immediately scowls and slaps the boys shoulder, eyes locked on Duke.

“Got another comment about my dress?” she says, voice sharp and acidic.

“Another?” Duke repeats. “I was just bored and wanted to talk to people who were my age. Sorry?”

The boy smacks the girl’s arm, then turns to face Duke. “Sorry about her! Sam is just naturally rude and aggressive. Tonight’s been a bit rough, with this crowd.”

Duke goes to say something, but the words stick in his throat when he sees the boy’s eyes shift from deep blue to an electric green. When he focuses, he can see a faint glow in his chest, the same glow he saw in Phantom.

“Dude? You alright?”

Sam looks him over judgmentally. “I guess it’s nice that I’m not being ogled for once, but don’t do that shit to Danny either.”

“Wait, that’s not what I was doing!” Duke hurries to say, snapped out of his shock. “I just… you look a lot like someone I met recently.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. What was your name? I’m Duke, by the way.”

He holds out a hand, and the boy shakes it with a small smile. “Danny. I don’t think we’ve met. I mean, I’m only here because Sam wouldn’t come to this gala without me, so her parents flew me in.”

“You from out of town?”

“Sam and I are from Illinois. Her parents are traveling around the east coast right now, and they decided to spend a week in Gotham to talk business.”

“I’d ask how it is, but outsiders tend to really hate Gotham, so…”

Sam barks out a sharp laugh. “Oh please, we can handle Gotham. Our town might not be as big and well known as Gotham, but we got our own shit to deal with there.”

“I do get shot at a lot back home,” Danny adds thoughtfully. “And that’s without the ghosts.”

“Woah, what?”

“Up for a bit of a story?” Danny asks, impish grin on his face. By his side, Sam brings a hand up to cover a manic smile, shoulders already shaking with laughter. 

This is already better than the grandma gang. Duke leans against the wall, getting settled in, and says, “Always, man. Hit me with it.”

The next hour an a half passes quickly with Sam and Danny dramatically narrating some of the things that have happened in their town. Duke listens, absolutely enraptured, and doesn’t even notice the Waynes file into the ballroom again. 

Unfortunately, they bring with them the attention of most of the ballroom, including Bruce and Sam’s parents. 

She cuts the current story about Box Ghost short with a heavy sigh. “Hold up, I need to greet the Waynes properly while my parents are watching.” She steps in front of Duke and Danny, holding out a hand with a pained smile.

Tim takes it first, giving a solid shake, and introductions start. 

Free from the rules of high society, if only for the moment, Duke leans closer to Danny and whispers to him, “Phantom. Wanna get out of here?”

Danny flinches and turns to him looking panicked. “How did you know?”

“I kinda got magic eyes. I see a lot of things normal humans can’t. Don’t worry about it. I still owe you, so you wanna get out of here?”

He watches as Danny glances around the ballroom, then back to him, clearly weighing out his options. Then he nods and says, “Know where to get a good milkshake around here?”

“Sure do.”

“I guess you’re the one rescuing me this time.”

“Not a rescue,” Duke corrects, and casually picks Danny up over his shoulder into a fireman’s carry, “A kidnapping.”

Danny laughs and waves Sam and all the others goodbye as Duke marches out of the ballroom.

“Don’t bother me for the next two hours!” he calls to the Waynes, “I’m going on a date!”

There are shocked gasps and murmurs all through the crowd. But as he spins around to wave at his shocked and easily amused family, he also catches sight of Granny Kaliasto raising her half full wine glass towards him.

She really is the coolest.

He’s definitely telling her all about this at the next event they attend together. It’ll be nice to have a few stories of his own to share.

[cfaria108]

12:19 p.m.

I must stay quiet. Grin.

I come into the apartment and straight into the bathroom to wash my hands. Staring in the mirror, grinning, looking at my giggly, funny, shaved face. Something is different. Still grinning. Pain dropped. Thank you, Lord, for these functional white teeth too. Happy, funny, just thoughts. Observable Silliness, really.

Then, there were a few other thoughts, slightly more complex, that suddenly crossed my mind, but I don't want to mention them yet or discuss these yet. Or should I?

I was tempted to ask her the questions, though, which, I know would hurt feelings and start another row or perhaps a heated discussion... with more hurt feelings, even though the subject matter is absolutely right on and true.

Eg. how can I live in this place freely; I don't restrict any other Being in any way; why haven't they paid me out; why are they causing me existential anxiety; why are they allowed to do so much damage and for so long; why do organizations as legal entities take precedence over human lives;)

"Put gear. Oh," (since I was dictating, I tried to speak in Portuguese to record all of this and it didn't work.)

"That did not go through exactly as I intended. " I thought.

Also, because she asked me not to be named, I'll refer to her as Baby. Wink. Grin.

So, back to the story... "as I'm brushing my teeth, making insightful noises of 'oooh' and 'aaah', as insightful thoughts come and go..."

Baby, asks me, "what are you humming about?" (I know Baby asked me because she probably knew I wanted to say something but held back.) I didn't take the bait. I stayed quiet. 'Hmm. Ah... Aha!'

More thoughts: Why are there silly conditions on love; why are there conditions on simply acting freely, or even within and across societies, even internationally; why do I feel ashamed at times, and feel alone and abstract, having to secretively walk behind stores, through those empty parking lots; why is there much negative stigma attached to these medical issues... Well, the choice is Yours, alone. You are the driver of your own Being and conduct)

I finished brushing my teeth. And then, gargling.

I still said nothing, popping my head through the doorway and into the room for a quick glance at Baby with her innocent glare.

Unable to hold back, I ask the question:

Is this all a joke? Why am I... Why are we all being subjected to living like this?

What an incredibly stupid Reality!

Really... Who is inventing and conjuring this kind of insane storyline?

What kind of thought madness is this???

We have a human consciousness, a prerogative, above any and all groups of people, representing society, that supercedes all of these ridiculous stories.

What kind of mental monstrosity creates these scenarios???

There's something deeply wrong in this apparent flow.

This is not the state of Phenomena that I wish to witness. Not what any of us should observe. Or, Be in attachment.

I Am.

Free and autonomous.

I want different. Definitely not this.

Think better thoughts.

Recreate this flow of Phenomena!

Include improved Loving Kindness and Compassionate Resonant Scenarios.

The prime directive is the success and viability of all life on Earth.

We're missing the mark.

This current program simulation is malfunctioning, incorrect. Mentality gone astray.

Implement correction quickly. Fix asap.

Fix, happens now!

I am. now, divergent in Purpose. No longer responsible... for the mess that you insist to continue to create.

This egoic story has stopped today. There is better.

Now, there is no other option, but better.

Finito. I want out. First, I would like my flight down South, please. Back to quietude. Nature. Simplicity.

Leave this ridiculous demeaning existence, here. I can't believe it! Childlike game of pluses and minuses you have created.

I'm appalled so much time has been wasted away as many beautiful souls, unconsciously still asleep, dying for a better dream.

I've outgrown the sandbox guys and gals, and I have to leave you now, heading towards another tomorrow.

We, including me, are at fault, for this, sadly. We allowed this to happen. Turned a blind eye and swept it all under the rug. Don't tell anyone. Though it is still all in our own home. Don't look or you will find it.

These filthy conjured thoughts and ideas, sad manifestations of creations, transparently apparent, are grossly incorrect.

I don't want this incorrect play or scene anymore.

I choose Peace and well-being.

There is a much better scenarios to create.

Allow me back to my hammock and the beach and the purity of the Sun. Allow me my freedom of Being, please.

Here, there are insane manifestations... Craziness. Killing. Restricting. Violating. Fighting. Antagonizing. Unjustly and dishonorably. Under the guise of discharge for the people but really not so. Heavy, Sad.

Let's spur the economy. Let's regulate. Let's control runaway inflation. Let's stand for Ukraine. Evil China and their quest for global dominance. Evil Russian oligarch, gone sick, egoically mad. Let's watch the destruction from the other side of the pond. Ooh, Obliteration. In shock, our scared leaders just continue to watch on! Here, Mr Z, please have another antitank missile with your tea. Show that Disgusting Monster, show the world of your strength! And, Die with Honor and waste this Life. Bon chance, mon ami.

Let's tell women that she has no say in her reproductive, biological role, and, definitely no control of her own body. It must be a tasteless tangential game in illusory form. Autonomy of Being always supercedes Legal buffoonery. With full respect to your office, your Honor Supreme, wake up, 'cause that's not fresh coffee you're sniffing.

Let's control Environmental Protection Agency, of course, always for the people's protection, benefit and wellbeing. Wink, wink. Yes, they all must also be regulated and under control. More to manifest.

Let's endorse big business and it's ties to deforestation, on an unimaginable, an unfathomable scale. Proven via satellite imagery. Hey, Jair, wink, wink. Presidential elections, huh? Boa bicho, vai nessa mesmo, né? However, alternatively, the historic chief thief, Lula, and his cast of masked bandits, lurkingly await another incredulous opportunity to grab at the voiceless, muted citizen's purse strings. (Ooh, apparently another repeat saga brewing.)

Let's support global commercialization. Let's restart the coal plants in Germany too as a counter solution to the off position of Russian gas taps (and don't worry, the carbon footprints either, for will be regulated and so will the effects on environment...)

Let's create more and more plastic layers. So thick, we can use them as new lenses to colorfully obscure our view of the damage to our only home, planet Earth, and its fragile, off balance, environment. While were at it... Let's assimilate plastics into our organic tissues, and hooray, pass it onto our unborn voiceless children. Prick 'em with that vaccine too, while they're small as they come out into the open! They'll never see it coming. It's for their protection anyway and that of this herd. "Aaaahhhh! Meehhhh! Baaaaahh!" they say, unicellularly.

Let's create more economic incentives and development because planet Earth just could not exist without the coordinated economic efforts of central banks. Did I say banks? Oh, I meant humans... Wink wink.

Destroy and abuse our planet.

Our Oceans.

Our Air.

Our Earth.

Reconfigure and change our Homes and Lives.

Destroy and abuse our entire Humanity.

Do you care? Do you really care? Do you? Does any of this matter to you?

This charade is not acceptable any longer.

Not to me, not to many.

Justin, Chrystia, Melanie, Joe, Antonio, Boris, Ursula, Vladimir, Emmanuel, Kristalina, Xi (yes, you too), Narendra, Olaf, Mohammed, Mohammad, Bill, Melinda, Richard, Elon, Jeff, Warren, Christiane, Albert, Jens, Elizabeth, Charles, Will, Harry, Naruhito, Mario and Sergio, Marcelo e Pedro, Graça, Hina, Mary, Gro Harlem, Ricardo, Ernesto, Ban, Ellen, Juan Manuel and Zeid. Many others intended...

Honourable, respected, representatives and leaders of the world,

I call upon you, by legal name, as conscious co-creating human beings, with choice and power in our collective...

The current scenario is very poor.

We need a new Reality.

Happy Canada Day. 🇨🇦🥂👏

(Only 155 years young!)

------///------

Prayer and supplication:

My Lord, Supreme Source Energy, Universal Creator, Infinite Ruler of All, we humbly prostrate and bow at your feet. Please release us all from this suffering, this bondage. Stop this craze. Please allow us clear thoughts, Freedom, Love so pure, and Peace.

In Christ, our Lord and Saviour 🙏💐

Mohammed the Honorable Prophet 🙏💐

YHVH, Supreme Lord Creator 🙏💐

Aum Gum Ganapathaye Namaha! 🙏💐

Aum Nama Shivaya! 🙏💐

Aum Mata Kali! 🙏💐🎆

May All Sentient Beings be free from suffering.

🕉️🕊️🕉️🕊️🕉️🕊️ 🙏🌍🌟😇

Namaste 🙏💐❤️🕊️☮️🕊️

[reasonsforhope]

“Effective Jan. 2, Brazil’s President Lula issued six decrees revoking or altering anti-environment-and-Indigenous measures from his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, acts highly celebrated by environmentalists and activists.

One of the decrees annuls mining in Indigenous lands and protected areas, another resumes plans to combat deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, and a third reinstates the Amazon Fund, a pool of funding provided to Brazil by developed nations to finance a variety of programs aimed at halting deforestation. [The fund] was stalled under Bolsonaro.

Right afterward, Norway announced the immediate release of already available funding for new projects as “President Lula confirmed his ambitions to reduce deforestation and reinstated the governance structure of the Amazon Fund.”

In an unprecedented act in Brazil’s history, Lula also created the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, complying with his promise to native people who supported his candidacy “to combat 500 years of inequality.”’

[Legal advisor Mauricio] Guetta noted that the newly resumed plans to fight deforestation will revive efforts that slashed deforestation rates by 83% between 2004 and 2012 and “social participation will again serve as a guide for the application of public policies.” According to him, changes during Bolsonaro’s administration regarding environmental sanctioning led the number of trials in the environmental agency to drop from an average of 5,300 per year between 2014 and 2018 to only 113 in 2019 and a mere 17 in 2020. “With the improvements made by the new rules of the current administration, these threats have been solved and the regular processing of proceedings on notices of infraction, an important mechanism to discourage the undertaking of environmental crimes, has been reestablished.”

He said he expected new “revocations” and normative revisions to occur in the coming days “considering the depth of abyss” of the last four years under Bolsonaro...

Unprecedented Ministry of Indigenous Peoples

In an unprecedented act in Brazil’s history, Lula also created the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, complying with his promise to Native people who supported his candidacy.

“No one knows our forests better or is better able to defend them than those who have been here since immemorial time. Each demarcated land is a new area of environmental protection,” Lula said in the National Congress. “We will repeal all injustices committed against the Indigenous peoples.”” -via Mongabay, 1/4/23

[alwaysbewoke]

THERE'S ALSO A GENOCIDE HAPPENING IN THE CONGO!!!!! THERE'S ALSO A GENOCIDE HAPPENING IN THE CONGO!!!!! THERE'S ALSO A GENOCIDE HAPPENING IN THE CONGO!!!!!

[hollytanaka]

Breaking news from Panama! 🟢

In a historic vote, the nation’s highest court today ruled the Minera Panamá mining contract for an open-pit mine unconstitutional, marking a WIN for biodiversity, local communities, and our planet. Panama has an opportunity now to be a leader in safeguarding precious ecosystems and protecting biodiversity. This ruling champions the rights, voices, and well-being of local communities over profit-driven interests. This victory is also a beacon of hope for our planet’s future. Safeguarding irreplaceable ecosystems like these is critical to combatting climate change and biodiversity loss. Congratulations to the people of Panama, who overwhelmingly rejected profit over planet. We continue to stand with you! Video credits: Collaboration between @duletvindigena @waguafilms @mullu.tv & Passu Creative Community Indigenous Protester - TV indígena and waguafilms Great Green Macaw - Hans Norelius, CC BY 2.0 Gemini's Dart Frog Jaime Culebras / @photowildlifetours #PanamaTeQuieroVerde #PanamáValeMásSinMinería

[kp777]

By Dharna Noor

The Guardian

July 3, 2023

As Montana awaits a judgment in a historic climate lawsuit, there’s a drive to place environmental provisions in state constitutions

A constitutional legal strategy is gaining traction as a way to potentially help bring about climate justice, boosted by a recent high-profile trial in which 16 young plaintiffs spoke movingly about how the climate crisis has affected their lives.

That case, the first US constitutional climate trial, came to an end in Helena, Montana, earlier this month, with a verdict expected to be delivered by a judge in the coming weeks.

Climate and legal advocates say the Montana case – which made national and international headlines – could inspire more legal action, while also pushing forward similar lawsuits pending against four other states and the federal government.

Some climate advocates are, meanwhile, working to enshrine similarly robust environmental rights in other state constitutions, which they say could become the basis of future climate litigation.

The Montana case was filed in March 2020 by 16 youths who allege the state’s government’s climate-damaging energy policies violate the state’s constitution, including provisions guaranteeing that the “state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations”.

Montana didn’t always guarantee such strong environmental protections. Its first constitution, adopted in 1889, was heavily influenced by mining executives and designed to protect their interests.

“We were very much controlled by a select few corporations, primarily during that time by the hardrock mining industry,” said Derf Johnson, deputy director of the Montana Environmental Information Center advocacy group.

Under its first constitution, Montana was so strongly controlled by extractive industry that historians called the state a “corporate colony”. But in the 1950s and 1960s, Johnson said, the legislature began to recognize the problem.

In 1972, amid rising public concern about the environment, the state convened 100 delegates at a constitutional convention to write a new document. The delegates saw the high levels of pollution the extractive industry had caused, said the retired Montana supreme court justice Jim Nelson, so among their top priorities was shedding this oligarchic control.

“Delegates considered the environment to be very important, and they wanted to preserve that for future generations,” he said.

Green amendments

Montana is one of just three states whose constitutions include what environmental attorney Maya van Rossum calls “green amendments”.

The first state to enshrine a green amendment was Pennsylvania, which did so one year before Montana did in 1971.

In 2021, New York became the third and most recent state to codify such protections when residents overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure amending the state constitution to include the right to “clean air and water, and a healthful environment”.

Other states, including Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, have environmental protections in their constitutions that are not in their respective bills of rights. Still other states provide constitutional protections that relate to the environment, including Alaska, where the public has a right to “navigable and public waters”.

But in order to qualify as truly “green”, said Van Rossum, amendments must meet specific criteria; for instance, they must be placed in the bill of rights section of a state’s constitution to ensure they provide the highest level of protection, and they must be “self-executing”, meaning a legislature does not have to pass laws for the amendments to function.

Other constitutional rights

While Van Rossum and climate advocates push to enshrine new constitutional rights, lawyers are also working to use existing ones to deliver climate action. Our Children’s Trust, the non-profit law firm behind the Montana lawsuit, also has youth-led constitutional climate lawsuits pending against the federal government, as well as four other states: Hawaii, Florida, Utah and Virginia.

“Each of those cases focuses on different attributes of the government’s conduct, but are similar in that those in power continue to take actions that perpetuate dependence on fossil fuels,” said Andrea Rodgers, senior litigation attorney at Our Children’s Trust.

Both the federal suit and the Hawaii suit are expected to go to trial sometime in 2024. Oral arguments – which allow attorneys to clarify and emphasize legal cases – will be held in the Virginia and Utah cases before the end of 2023, Rodgers said.

The firm has not based these lawsuits solely on constitutional environmental protections. In fact, its best-known constitutional climate lawsuit, the federal case Juliana v US, was filed despite the fact that the US constitution does not include any rights to a clean and healthful environment.

Instead, Juliana v US asserts that by enacting pro-fossil fuel policies and exacerbating climate change, the government violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to life, liberty and property; the principle of “equal protection” under the law; and the public trust doctrine – a legal theory which asserts that governments have a responsibility to preserve certain natural resources for public use and enjoyment. (The public trust doctrine has long formed a basis for youth climate litigation, even playing a role in the first instance of young people suing a federal agency over greenhouse gas emissions, 2011’s Alec L v Jackson.)

Read more.

[defleftist]

One of my maybe unpopular opinions: I think golfing involves an unethical use of land and I don’t like people who golf.