#the environment

[tomorrowusa]

🦉 🌎 🌍 Happy Earth Day 2024! 🌏 🌻 🐝

Earth Day originated in 1970 when pollution was the biggest environmental concern. Air and waterways are undoubtedly cleaner 50+ years later. It demonstrates that progress can be made when there's a concerted effort.

A current problem which gets overlooked is the amount of environmental damage which the Russian invasion has caused in Ukraine. Environmental activist Greta Thunberg has called Putin's environmental destruction "ecocide".

Greta Thunberg denounces 'ecocide' in Ukraine

Just about every aspect of the environment has been worsened by Putin's illegal military action.

After Two Years of War, Ukraine Sees Deepening Environmental Wound

A consortium of agencies called EcoDozor has put together a map graphic showing the environmental consequences of the invasion.

Ecodozor

I feel strongly that Russian state assets should be impounded to pay for the damage. Contact your representative at your national parliament and insist that Russian assets be seized to be used to repair environmental damage done in Ukraine by Putin's Russia.

On a historical note, here's a cartoon done by American-Australian underground artist Ron Cobb. It gave rise to the use of the Greek letter Theta 𝚹 to symbolize environmental protection.

In turn, high school students in Springfield, Illinois were inspired to turn that into into a flag for the first Earth Day.

This Homemade Flag From the ‘70s Signals the Beginning of the Environmental Movement

Being mindful of the power of semiotics, it might be useful to revive Theta as a symbol of environmental action. It already exists as an emoji and most of us have devices which can access a Greek font. And at Tumblr we can make stuff green. 𝚹 Θ

[h0neyfreak]

helping “The Environment” as an individual is such a nebulous and ever changing concept and seems to be very much in the Discourse™️ at the moment so I just want to take a minute to shout into the void with some reminders I gave my enviro students when they got to the “oh dear god we’re all gonna die” phase of the class:

“Individual choices don’t matter” is like. true(?) for climate change (unless you’re a kardashian or CEO or something) but that just means you can’t reusable tote bag your way out of a private jet society. NOT that you can’t have any impact through community initiatives and activism. Advocate for municipal composting and public transit!! Get involved locally!!!!! Write weekly to your representatives! Do whatever you can to get unstuck and scrape together some modicum of hope.

Also on individual choices. There are some that “matter” but be very wary of outsized benefits promised for seemingly small choices (e.g. the straw debacle). An app is not the thing to save us from a hundred years of industry. Going out and collecting litter DOES have an impact even if that impact is just “this area of the world no longer has trash in it.” It’s not solving the issue of microplastics or whatever but it is helping local birds. And it’s helping YOU feel more connected to your local environment and getting you involved with the world and your community.

Finally, the best thing you can be is well informed, persistent, and kind. Be willing and able to help if you bump into someone who is open to the idea of not letting Shell and SHEIN pour toxic sludge directly into every river. It’s more people than you think. But most people only know how to buy things that are “better.” (Electric cars, reusable bags, expensive neutral clothing made of flax). They want to do SOMETHING but we’re all just kind of vibrating balls of anxiety all the time. Know what sort of things are going on around you and invite them! My go to’s are composting initiatives, textile recycling programs, and pollinator friendly/grass free gardens.

Again, it would be great if we were all willing to drag the Shell and Nestle CEOs out to account for their crimes but being paralyzed by fear is not gonna help. Neither is another ethical clothing brand selling $400 linen underwear (probably). I’ve found time and time again that people who have any amount of tangible connection to the world outside have a much more visceral reaction to billionaire super yachts than defeatist suburbanites who drive EVs and have a kitchen full of dubious organic snacks.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[goshyesvintageads]

Gulf Oil Corp, 1981

[conkreetmonkey]

Broke: "The Lorax is a good representation of how big business destroys the environment in its own self interest. The Onceler's corporation required truffula trees, and thus they were wiped out."

Woke: "The Lorax is not a good representation of how big business operates since it made no logical sense for The Onceler to destroy all truffula trees despite them being necessary to manufacture his product. He should have farmed them, or harvested them without cutting them down. This oversimplification is good for explaining environmentalism to children, but it doesn't hold up as an adult."

Bespoke: "The Lorax is a great representation of how big business ruins both the world around them and themselves out of short-sighted profit maximization and pride. Of course The Onceler should have replanted the trees, or sustainably harvested the trees, or any other non-stupid thing, but those processes are slower and more expensive. He chose a fast harvest over a sustainable one, got his massive short-term profit, and realized he'd shot himself in the foot once the truffulas had been driven to extinction. This happens irl all the time. It happened with the dodo, the galapagos tortoise, the passenger pigeon, the great auk, and every commercial fishery on the planet. Greed and pride make a person stupid, and most corporations would rather make a lot of money fast while dooming themselves in the process than focus on slow but sustainable growth, and they either choose this knowingly or assume they're invincible and will figure it out later. The Onceler is Elon Musk. The Onceler is Enron. The Onceler is Wall Street. We are surrounded by Oncelers."

[garthnadermemestash]

15 days over 110

[wingedalpacacupcake]

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A post shared by Dr. Yosra☘️🍁Soulve Nutrition (@dr.yosra.azcool)

ISNOTREAL IS CAUSING AN ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS AND NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT IT!!!!!!

WHERE ARE ALL THESE SUPPOSED ENVIRONMENTAL WARRIORS NOW HUHHH?????

[fyeah-olivia-colman]

Olivia Colman has dressed as a latex-wearing oil executive called Oblivia Coalmine in a new campaign video highlighting the role of pension funds in fossil fuel projects.

The Academy Award-winning actress’s character thanks pension savers for allowing oil and gas companies to “dig, drill and destroy more of the planet than ever before” and spills an oily black liquid over her face while toasting with a champagne glass.

Created on behalf of the group Make My Money Matter, the advert encourages people to tell their pension schemes to remove their investments in fossil fuel projects.

Research from the campaign group found £88 billion of UK pension savers’ money goes to fossil fuel companies, £20 billion of which is to Shell alone.

Ms Colman said: “Fracking hell, Oblivia Coalmine really is a nasty piece of work. But the scariest thing about her is that she represents something very real.

“That’s why this is such an important campaign. I hope everyone who sees this ad realises the shocking, but unintended, impacts of our pensions and makes their money matter. It really is one of the most powerful things we can all do to protect the planet.”

The advert, created by Lucky Generals and directed by Raine Allen-Miller, coincides with recent polling that suggests 19 per cent of pension savers support their money going towards oil and gas and 66 per cent want it to go to renewables.

David Hayman, the campaign’s director, said pension funds invest in fossil fuels because it has typically provided a good return, but this is likely to change with the global energy transition, which is putting the money increasingly at risk.

He said: “Pension funds are investing billions each year in companies developing new oil and gas, this is bad for people and bad for the planet.

“If we are to stay below 1.5C of warming, fossil fuel expansion must stop, and our pensions can play a big role in this.

“These companies face the risk of stranded assets, government regulation and customer pushback, so continuing to sink our money into these companies is hugely risky.

“It’s time for pension funds to think beyond the short term and really consider what type of world their members will be retiring into in the future.”

Countries have committed to stop the Earth’s average temperature rising 34.7F (1.5C) above pre-industrial levels, considered the limit of a safe environment, and will gather in Dubai next week at Cop28 to discuss progress on this.

Research from the UN has found there to be only a 14 per cent chance of achieving this goal with current policies, predicting that the Earth will warm by 37.4F (3C) by the end of the century.

Mr Hayman said that not one major UK pension scheme has committed to stopping fossil fuel financing and that those people who want their savings removed should email their pension schemes.

He said: “The most powerful thing any of us can do is contact our pension scheme and tell them to stop using our money to finance new oil and gas.

“Our campaign has shown that consumer power can work in pushing big financial institutions to act on climate change, and the more people show they care, the more the pensions industry will have to listen.” (X)

[daisylovesrumble]

petition: The U.S. Is the Only Country in the World That Has Not Signed This Vital Treaty

While The Convention on the Rights of the Child is considered the most widely ratified treaty in human history, the U.S. is not a signatory. Meanwhile, every single other country in the world has signed it.

[gwydionmisha]

Athleisure: Destroying Fashion & the Environment

[jrmilazzo]

<< Goldfarb also dedicates an entire chapter to the fascinating necrobiome — the complex ecosystem of life associated with decay — created by roads: the ravens, coyotes, vultures, skunks, fire ants, and other insects who rely on roadkill for sustenance. “Roadkill is an unusually salubrious banquet,” writes Goldfarb. “Unlike gut piles, which are often peppered with bullet fragments, car-killed opossums and squirrels come lead-free, Whole Foods for the necrophagous set.” >>

[zurich-snows]

LISTEN • 1:18

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[gothicvalentine]

So someone mentioned this in a reddit post and I found the pdf and read the first few pages and it's terrifying what they intend to turn the U.S. into.

Lest anyone be tempted to take this with a grain of salt, this is literally a whole ass novel they wrote which is on sale on The Heritage Foundation's website. Also, the right wing started working on overturning Roe basically right after it became law. It may have taken them 50 years to do it, but they succeeded; and now they plan to institute a national ban on abortion despite the majority of Americans wanting abortion to remain legal.

Anyway, I wanted to get this info out there and if anyone knows of other people they can tell about this (I mean, it's basically literally the evil villain playbook), please spread the word. I hope all the people in politics on the Democratic side at least read this so they can hopefully mount defenses against some of it. But it remains to the voters to show up and keep the Democrats in power so America can't become a Christofascist state (ok, so it can't become more of a Christofascist state).

Oh, also for those of you who are younger (which is most of you probably), back in the early 2000s during the Bush presidency (Bush II) it was thought by some that he and many of his followers were actively trying to destroy the environment and end the world. Apparently, they believed in the rapture. So I guess it was thought if they actively bring about the end of the world, God will call them all up to heaven? So yeah. That could be a thing.

I did try to verify this (because back in the day I read some very left leaning stuff that had some of the same issues Fox news has with credibility) and I could not find anything about Bush or his presidency as it related to the rapture or anything. But I did find this article about the rapture and religion and how some Christians do want the world to end and are excited about it? It's a pretty long read. I just skimmed it.

[kataravimes-of-the-shire]

[vodam46]

have an essay about the environment, because i dont wanna waste this writing i did in english class

"The Environment" can mean a thousand things, and yet, when we hear it in the current age, all we can think of is the environment of nature, the wilderness, the place where we as a species came from. How is The Environment doing currently? How do we treat our mother nature from which we all came? Do we live in harmony, taking ony as much as we need, and giving back as much, or do we greedily sprint forward grabbing everything we can just so we can have a little more?

Sadly, as we all know , the latter is the case. The rich march on with their bags of money, and we, the normal people are supposed to live where they had stomped. Is this right? Is this justified? Why can't we all just share what we have left and let our planet, the only environment we have access to, heal?

"Oh", you say, "we do let it heal, do you not know? Have you calculated your carbon footprint? Do you use paper straws? Have you considered switching to an EV?" And while these points are passable, they completely ignore the true cause and instead attempt to shift the blame upon the customer, the humble human.

The "carbon footprint", for example , was created by petrol companies to allow them to ignore their mistakes and instead throw it on the rest of humanity.

The paper straws, while hated by many, are a step in the right direction, with the destination being reusable straws, but many ignore the reason why the original was sucha problem, and that being our unsustainable way of getting rid of plastics.

And this all is ignoring the way that EV companies (specifically battery companies) abuse third world countries to mine lithium, and the damage these processes cause.

And so, I ask of you: Do you care for the environment? If no, continue on, if yes, ask yourself what the real problem is.