but have you ever even heard of the fynbos biome ?!!?!?!?!
a biome so unique in south africa that it's earned an entirely new biome classification for itself. so many plants are endemic to this area, and ofc it's under threat of extinction.
It's a wonderful place! I had the privilege of visiting the fynbos last year and it was as amazing as these photos show and more!
@endangeredecosystems See a summary of the structural differences between coastal old-growth temperate forests and the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that they are being replaced with - which are re-logged every 50 to 60 years in BC, never to become old-growth again. Old-growth forests are vital to support unique endangered species, the climate, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and First Nations cultures whose unceded territories these are. Please Send a Message to help protect BC old-growth forests at the link in our profile. #oldgrowthforest #bigtree #endangeredecosystemsalliance
♬ original sound - Endangered Ecosystems Alliance
I urge everybody take part in this! Next weekend, April 25-28, get outside and take photos of whatever organisms you can find. It is mostly a friendly competition among the world’s cities, but there is a category for everyone else too. I especially want to encourage those of you who live in Philadelphia, or in one of the counties that shares a border with Philadelphia. Let’s beat last year’s numbers for species and participants. After you take the photos you’ll have another few days to upload them to iNaturalist.
Let’s go Philly!
This WORLDWIDE citizen science bioblitz is taking place in the next 4 days (April 25-28) and I encourage you all to participate, particularly if you live near Philadelphia, where I will be taking part.
Here is a list of all the participating cities and regions: https://www.citynaturechallenge.org/participating-cities
And if you don’t live in any of those regions, you can still participate by joining the global project group: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2025-global-project
Get out and take photos of any wild organisms you can find!!
The following is literally word for word from their site but it is something you need to know:
"Papahānaumokuākea is one of the largest marine protected areas in the world. The refuge spans over 582,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean waters in Hawaii.
These waters are the cosmogonic home of Native Hawaiians, carrying traditional stories and ancestral wisdom, and remain a vital part of our living heritage.
Papahānaumokuākea has received multiple layers of protection, including as a marine national monument and most recently, a national marine sanctuary. The protections deem the area off-limits to industrial extraction, including commercial fishing. But all of this could be at risk if the Trump administration decides to rollback these protections for short-term gain, releasing commercial interests back into this sacred area.
The refuge is home to more than 7,000 species, including vibrant coral reefs, endangered animals, and creatures found nowhere else on Earth. Protecting Papahānaumokuākea is beyond ocean policy — it’s about the kuleana (responsibility) we carry for future generations.
As an area for replenishment, Papahānaumokuākea supports ecosystems not only within its own boundaries, but across the Hawaiian Islands and the broader Pacific. Strong protections boost ecological resilience, help fish populations thrive, and allow fisheries to benefit from spillover effects.
By standing up for this sanctuary, we protect life above and beneath the waves, honor cultural heritage, and ensure the ocean that connects us all remains healthy and vibrant for future generations."
Go ahead and sign up/reblog this guys!!! Its so easy!! Go to go!! This is important!!
disorganisedautodidact asked:
Difficult to say for certain, because there were a lot of different interpretations of what the hippie movement meant, and there’s still a lot of discussion happening about what it means to be solarpunk.
You’re right that there are some commonalities, though:
A lot of the major beliefs of the solarpunk movement do seem to have been educated by the hippie movement of the past, since many of its proponents are American and so have that history as a point of reference.
Even outside of that context, though, both came out of the pressures and issues of society at large. Unfortunately, many of those pressures and issues haven’t changed, which is where the commonalities are found. The focus is often different, because the way the issue presents is different now, but the underlying principles often remain the same.
I think it would be fair to say that solarpunk is the successor of the hippie movement. Solarpunk is, I like to think, a little less naive, with a steel core due to its roots in and affiliation with punk culture. But it’s always going to be built on the same base as the hippie movement, because in the end they are both counterculture movements, and the culture just hasn’t changed that much.
extremely cool that the removal of wolf protections in europe are being driven by an eu official having one of her horses killed by a wolf. literal cartoon villain shit
if you own horses you should be disqualified from participation in government
and after this happened, they put that specific wolf on a kill list and then proceeded to shoot the wrong wolf. geniuses
For anyone who thought this is too stupid to be real, I'll remind you the year is 2025. The EU official in question is Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. She is the latest in a long line of idiot Germans to think the CDU disguises her evil.
If you are in Europe, for the love of god, please reblog and sign - these are a keystone species
your pets are not more important than the health of the whole fucking biome.
About 31,000 years ago, a skilled prehistoric surgeon cut off the lower leg of a child hunter-gatherer in Borneo. Now, archaeologists have concluded that this ancient surgery is the earliest medical amputation on record.
The skill of the Stone Age surgeon was admirable; the patient went on to live an additional six to nine years after the surgery, a radiocarbon dating performed by researchers of the individual’s tooth enamel revealed, according to a study published online Wednesday (Sept. 7) in the journal Nature.
“It was a huge surprise that this ancient forager survived a very serious and life-threatening childhood operation, that the wound healed to form a stump and that they then lived for years in mountainous terrain with altered mobility,” study co-author Melandri Vlok, a bioarchaeologist and postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sydney,“ said in a statement. ”[This suggests] a high degree of community care.“ Read more.
Image description: illustration of a person in a cave leaving a handprint on the wall. They are a below the knee amputee and are a holding a long stick as a cane in their other hand. End ID.
This is a draft of something I've been writing for a couple months. It is mainly focused on the culture of the USA. Feel free to repost or otherwise share, with or without credit.
Give the gift of relief from being forced to engage in society’s unsustainable ways of life.
You cannot control others’ behaviors, but you can free them from being controlled.
If you think to yourself, “But this would be so difficult to do!” ask yourself WHY? Why does your society coerce you into less sustainable ways of living, forcing you to consume excessively? After thinking about this, consider that it is less simple and easy than you thought to make more sustainable choices, so why would you judge others for not doing it?
Environmentally friendly behaviors that can be done alone, without collaborating with or consulting another person, are the least powerful of all. Whenever an “environmentally friendly” behavior is suggested, figure out “How can I give this as a gift?” or “How can I make this possible on the level of a whole community?”
“Personal choices” do not work because every single person has to make them individually. If you are focused on making your own personal choice, you are not focused on others. If you are not focused on others, you are not helping them. If nobody is helping each other, most people won’t be able to make the “personal choice.”
Start with your neighbors, the people physically close to you. You live on the same patch of land, containing roots from the same plants and trees. You can speak to them face to face without traveling, which means you can easily bring them physical things without using resources to travel.
Always talk to your neighbors and be friendly with them. Offer them favors unprompted and tell them about how your garden is doing. Do not be afraid to be annoying—a slightly annoying neighbor who is helpful, kind, and can be relied upon for a variety of favors or in times of need is a necessary and inevitable part of a good community. If you make the effort to be present in somebody’s life, they will have to put up with you on some occasions, but that is just life. We cannot rely on each other if we do not put up with each other.
Every hour you spend outside with your neighbor is an hour your neighbor doesn’t spend watching Fox News. Every hour you spend talking with someone and interacting with them in the real world, eating real food and enjoying your real surroundings, is an hour you don’t spend only hearing a curated picture of what reality is like from social media.
Isolation makes it easy for people to become indoctrinated into extremist beliefs. When someone spends more time alone, watching TV, Youtube, or scrolling social media, than they do with others, their concept of what other people are like and what the world is like comes more from social media than real life. TV and online media are meant to influence you in a specific way. Simply restricting the access these influences have to yourself and others is helpful.
If you grow a garden, you can give your neighbors and friends the gift of food, plants, and crafted objects. This is one of the foundational ways to form community. When you give food, you provide support to others. When you give plants, you are encouraging and teaching about gardening. It is even better when you give recipes cooked from things you grew, or items crafted from things you grew. You can also give the gift of knowledge of how to grow these plants, cook these recipes, or craft these objects.
Some people are uncomfortable with receiving items or services as gifts. They want to feel like they are giving something back, instead of having obligation to return the favor hanging over them.
It can help to ask a simple favor that can be easily fulfilled. People generally like the feeling of helping someone else.
When you give someone a gift, it can help to say something like “Oh, I have too many of this thing to take care of/store/eat myself! Do you think you could take some?” This makes your neighbor feel like they are helping you.
When allowing others to borrow items, you might not get them back. Don’t worry about that. It just means the item found a place where it was needed the most. You can ask about the item if you think it might have been forgotten, and this can create an opportunity for a second meeting. But don’t press.
If the person you give to insists upon some form of payment, this is a good opportunity to negotiate a trade.
Ask your neighbor to save compostable scraps, biodegradable cardboard and paper products, and any other items that might be put to use. Use them in your own compost pile. Or, start a compost pile at the edge of the yard where you both can add to it. Remember that “wet” compost like vegetable and fruit bits needs to be mixed with twice as much of “dry” and “woody” compost like cardboard, leaves, small twigs, paper and wood bits.
Overcome the cultural norm that the front yard is only decorative. Use the front yard for gardening so you can be seen by others enjoying your garden, and others can witness the demonstration of the possibilities of land. In the front yard, anything you do intentionally with your land can be witnessed. It also makes you a visible presence in your community.
Don’t just grow vegetables that cannot be the core component of a meal themselves. Grow potatoes, dry beans, black eyed peas and other nourishing, calorie-dense foods. Grow the ingredients of meals. You could even build a garden around a recipe.
Be sure to send them home with leftovers.
Containers are one of the fundamental human needs. If we had more containers, we wouldn’t need plastic so much. You can learn to make baskets, and to grow plants that provide the raw materials for baskets.
If you see someone putting leaves in bags, don’t be afraid to ask if you can have the leaves. More likely than not they will be happy to agree.
In the border land between your neighbor’s yard and your yard, it is almost always just mowed grass because no one can plant anything without it affecting their neighbor. But these border lands add up to a lot of space. It would be much better if you talked to your neighbor about what would be nice to plant there, and together created a plan for that space.
Make it clear that you will not get mad if the neighbor’s kids play in your yard or run across it. Invite the neighbors onto your land as much as possible. Tell them they are allowed to spend time in a favored spot whenever they would like.
If there is a yard sale, you always know about it because of the hand-drawn signs placed around. Therefore, a cookout or unwanted item exchange can be announced the same way. In rural areas I have seen hand-made signs that say: FIREWOOD or WE BUY GOATS or EGGS. This is one of the few technologies of community that remain in the USA. If someone who looks to buy and sell can put up a hand-made sign, why shouldn’t you?
Religious people or people with strong political opinions like to put signs everywhere. If they have the confidence and courage to do so, why shouldn’t you?
So if there is a message you would like everyone to see, use the simple power of the hand-made sign. Proclaim “BEE FRIENDLY ZONE!” above your pollinator garden with all the confidence of a religious fundamentalist billboard. Announce to the world, “VEGETABLES FREE TO ALL—JUST ASK!” “WE TAKE LEAVES—NO PESTICIDES.” Instead of YARD SALE, or perhaps in conjunction with YARD SALE, you can write, PLANT EXCHANGE or SEED SWAP or CLOTHING SWAP. Who can stop you?
Some of these ideas might be eccentric, strange, or even socially unacceptable, but there is no way to change what is normal except to move against it. Someone has to be weird. It might as well be you.
@simpson17866 you sometimes do some of these! 😊
planting a drought tolerant pollinator garden is one of the best things I've done! So many people stop to admire the butterflies and I tell them about it and share plants and tips. I try not to proselytize about california native plants but I do say "everything is a california native so it's all drought tolerant and I don't need to water this most of the summer".
was watching Murderbot when i noticed a detail on Gurathin's sweater:
you see that???? THAT'S VISIBLE MENDING!!!!! the attention to detail in this show is so delightful, so in line with their characters backgrounds. OF COURSE Preservation Alliance citizens mend their clothes! now i'm wondering why they used contrasting colors, is it to show that not even thread goes to waste? is it to be whimsical? maybe even to show off the care they put in their clothes by mending patching darning etc?
i was already piqued when the crew appeared in their non-research clothes, many of them seem to be loose, comfortable garments, knit, natural fibers, earth tones that one could get from natural dyes. this is just the cherry on top.
Fuck it this is too interesting to cram into the tags
Possible reason #1: it's pretty. The PresAux survey team painted murals on their habitat right away. Ratthi makes his own jewellery. Preservation is clearly a society that likes to add small touches of colour to their lives. Without the CorpRim bias against less than brand new clothes, this type of look can be appreciated for it's aesthetic value.
Possible reason #2: in-group signalling. Gurathin is relatively new to Preservation, and I think there's some weight behind the possibility that he came there as a refugee. The other team members bring up his CorpRim history several times. He has motivation to visibly signal his adoption of Preservation ideals.
Possible reason #3: have you ever darned something? It's so much easier if to do it in several colours. Having different colours for warp and weft makes you much less likely to mistake a thread going over for a thread going under. Having even more colours means it's easier to maintain the kind of weave that's you're doing without unintentionally going over two threads at once. Started out a mend with multiple colours also means that if you have to do additional mends later and can't find the exact same colours, the whole thing looks more cohesive.
ALT
Tag yourself as this list of “bad art” features, according to a twitter fascist
“Never Forget” until the new target is those that they disagree with.
Edit: please watch this video essay by Jacob Geller. It speaks on really important points as to how “bad art” is a weapon of fascism and how it reflects the Degenerate Art Exhibition(s)
It's worth going a little into why this way of talking about art is fascist.
Fascists have a complicated relationship with freedom. On the one hand, they love to portray themselves as powerful, vigorous, tearing through opposition that seeks to hold them down and asserting themselves above all. On the other hand, they want to be told exactly what to do at all times. They want a cultural tradition enforced by violence that will guide every major decision of their lives down to their personal appearance and spiritual beliefs.
Are these contradictory? Yes, to some extent, though it's worth remembering that fascists always imagine themselves as the ones in charge of the oppressive political violence, not, as they are much more likely to be, the ones subjected to it. With that in mind, they fit together a lot better.
Now, apply that to art. On the one hand, art has to make you feel powerful and free. On the other hand, it can't actually come from a place of freedom. Artists can't be allowed to experiment and disagree. The artistic world must all speak with one aesthetic and one message, so that fascists can be led by it. It has to be their GPS, and it has to be shackled to a simple rhythm so that they are never confused by what it's telling them to do.
The ball here is only ever so slightly hidden, as this person pretends to be okay with any art being produced so long as we reach total agreement on what art is good. But that's also impossible in an actual free world. People not only make different art but value art differently, and fascists can't stand that. It scares and disgusts them, and they have to pretend that there is a universal instinct underneath that difference that's been corrupted somehow. There isn't.
Fascists like freedom as a catchphrase, but they hate it in practice, because freedom leads to variety and richness and exploration, and all of those things are against the fascist love of conformity, for movement in one single, lockstep forward motion. All of that leads them to this awful, sterile view of art, where art has to be always the same, always simple, and always flattering them for their fascism. If it was anything else, it would make them feel uncomfortable and they are too rigid and immature to feel uncomfortable.
