We have 30 days until the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) laws are rescinded. This is the 50-year bedrock of American conservation. Normally, these actions take years but the administration has provided 30 days for public comment gutting clean water and clean air. Drop what you’re doing, before you make any more calls or read any more social media posts, please populate the Federal Register with dissent.

A. Go to https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/25/2025-03014/removal-of-national-environmental-policy-act-implementing-regulations

B. Click on the green rectangle in the upper right corner ("SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT") .

C. Fill in your comment, and info at the bottom, and SUBMIT COMMENT.

I just did that (2/27/2025), and the message on that website said:

The comment period ends March 27, not March 30!!!

I strongly suggest (in your own words) couching your dissent in Trump's (and followers') own rhetoric. Here's what I said:

Removing these regulations will make America sick again, cause neurological and intellectual impairment in children (due to less regulation of lead), and raise the level of preventable cancers in adults (due to less regulation of known carcinogens),thus reducing American productivity and greatness.

Done! It took me two seconds.

I don’t like to comment on Tumblr posts. I’m pretty reclusive and not very good at social media.

However:

This is something that hits very close to home for me. I’m an environmental scientist. I have the pleasure right now with this administration of keeping my job. I have the ability to keep people safe, directly, but I rely on regulations to enforce what I use as my best scientific judgement.

There are things that you don’t realize effect you in your daily life, and this is one of those things. NEPA, CERCLA, RCRA, and OSHA are precious to me in a way that even my fellow scientists don’t always understand. I know regulation, I have the entirety of 49 CFR bookmarked on both my work and personal computer.

Please, Tumblr, go leave comments. Go voice your dissent. It means something, no matter how bleak this may seem. Last I checked there were about 11k comments. That’s more than I’ve seen on many other dockets I’ve been keeping an eye on this last year. Combined.

Say something because it means something to us. To those of us fighting from the inside and out.

Are they like..... Yknow.... [Goes to do a hand gesture but forgets I'm a wizard and I accidentally cast Lv50 lightning bolt]

drop whatever you’re doing right now and climb a tree

its pitch black outside, and freezing cold. I think ill climb a tree tomorrow

you climb that fuckin tree right now

I’ve literally never seen this post on my dash when it is not after dark and cold as balls. I’m beginning to think this is a conspiracy to get us eaten by some nocturnal tree demon.

everybody put in the tags at what time you saw this

I read this kinda thing and really realize I gotta figure out how to treat myself better when it comes to work/life

he had to jump in the ballpit to cool off after getting all airplane ears over a treat puzzle that proved a little too advanced

he's done this a few times now. the ball pit actively soothes him when he gets mad over puzzles. i could learn something from this

a lot of my autism masking is just making myself more palatable for other people and my therapist said "does spock make himself 'more palatable' for others?" and had me promise to keep unmasking like:

"Once thought to be extinct, black-footed ferrets are the only ferret native to North America, and are making a comeback, thanks to the tireless efforts of conservationists.

Captive breeding, habitat restoration, and wildlife reintegration have all played a major role in bringing populations into the hundreds after near total extinction.

But one other key development has been genetic cloning.

In April [2024], the United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced the cloning of two black-footed ferrets from preserved tissue samples, the second and third ferret clones in history, following the birth of the first clone in December 2020. 

Cloning is a tactic to preserve the health of species, as all living black-footed ferrets come from just seven wild-caught descendants.  This means their genetic diversity is extremely limited and opens them up to greater risks of disease and genetic abnormalities. 

Now, a new breakthrough has been made.

Antonia, a black-footed ferret cloned from the DNA of a ferret that lived in the 1980s has successfully birthed two healthy kits of her own: Sibert and Red Cloud.

These babies mark the first successful live births from a cloned endangered species — and is a milestone for the country’s ferret recovery program.

The kits are now three months old, and mother Antonia is helping to raise them — and expand their gene pool.

In fact, Antonia’s offspring have three times the genetic diversity of any other living ferrets that have come from the original seven ancestors.

Researchers believe that expanded genetic diversity could help grow the ferrets’ population and help prime them to recover from ongoing diseases that have been massively detrimental to the species, including sylvatic plague and canine distemper. 

“The successful breeding and subsequent birth of Antonia's kits marks a major milestone in endangered species conservation,” said Paul Marinari, senior curator at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. 

“The many partners in the Black-footed Ferret Recovery Program continue their innovative and inspirational efforts to save this species and be a model for other conservation programs across the globe.”

Antonia actually gave birth to three kits, after mating with Urchin, a 3-year-old male ferret. One of the three kits passed away shortly after birth, but one male and one female are in good health and meeting developmental milestones, according to the Smithsonian.

Mom and babies will remain at the facility for further research, with no plans to release them into the wild.

According to the Colorado Sun, another cloned ferret, Noreen, is also a potential mom in the cloning-breeding program. The original cloned ferret, Elizabeth Ann, is doing well at the recovery program in Colorado, but does not have the capabilities to breed. 

Antonia, who was cloned using the DNA of a black-footed ferret named Willa, has now solidified Willa’s place as the eighth founding ancestor of all current living ferrets.

“By doing this, we’ve actually added an eighth founder,” said Tina Jackson, black-footed ferret recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in an interview with the Colorado Sun. 

“And in some ways that may not sound like a lot, but in this genetic world, that is huge.”

Along with the USFWS and Smithsonian, conservation organization Revive & Restore has also enabled the use of biotechnologies in conservation practice. Co-founder and executive director Ryan Phelan is thrilled to welcome these two new kits to the black-footed ferret family.

“For the first time, we can definitively say that cloning contributed meaningful genetic variation back into a breeding population,” he said in a statement.

“As these kits move forward in the breeding program, the impact of this work will multiply, building a more robust and resilient population over time.”"

-via GoodGoodGood, November 4, 2024

is there a name for this

hey op. i want you to know my boyfriend has been in hysterics, laughing and occasionally wheezing out "bibby" for the past half an hour because of this post. are you proud of what youve done?

Im the bf btw I made fanart

so true

Official Wednesday post

It's Tuesday

Happy "Not Only Is It Not Friday, It's Not Even Thursday, Official Wednesday, It's Tuesday" Monday, everyone

does anyone else remember when michaels (art supply company) accidentally made omegle again

when they What

michaels added a feature for a while in sept. 2020 where shoppers could ask questions that would be answered live by other shoppers anonymously. which led to some good michaels interactions.

saw a girl wearing a shirt that said CAN'T BREATHALYZE METH! and it kind of startled me out of my breakdown for a second