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Environmental Scientist Jessica Hernandez

Jessica Hernandez found her way to conservation science and environmental justice through her grandmother — and her knowledge about the natural world, accumulated over generations.

Maria de Jesus, a member of southern Mexico’s Zapotec community, showed her granddaughter how to tend the family milpa, the plot where they harvested beans, corn, squash, medicinal plants and even grasshoppers. She led Hernandez on hikes through the mountains surrounding her house, explaining how plants and animals interact in the local ecosystem. “She instilled in me the kinships that we carry on as Indigenous peoples,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez grew up in South Central Los Angeles, the daughter of Indigenous immigrants from Mexico. As a child, she frequently visited her mother’s native Oaxaca. “The community that we had that went beyond humans, to include the animals and the plants.” When Hernandez went to graduate school to study ecology, she thought the wisdom passed on from her ancestors would be seen as an asset. But to her surprise, she was humiliated for it. 

“The professor asked me, ‘Is this Jessica’s theory? Where is your citation?” Hernandez recalls in Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science, out this month.

Hernandez, 31, is an environmental scientist at the University of Washington and an outspoken critic of Western conservation movements, which she says often ignore or co-opts Indigenous science and sideline the communities who have produced that knowledge.

“We���re often seen as areas of expertise rather than experts ourselves,” she said. “We’re seen as research subjects rather than researchers.” In writing Fresh Banana Leaves, Hernandez said she hopes to bring attention to the ways Indigenous science has preserved ecosystems for generations.

Western science has always had a narrow lens, said a professor at the University of Washington and one of Hernandez’s PhD advisors. “What [Hernandez] has always been able to do is look past that.”

The scientific method may be built on data points, but Indigenous knowledge is also built on observations.  It’s just packaged differently — not in academic papers, but in stories. “People are drowning in the data,” said the PhD advisor, but that data doesn’t always translate to practical solutions. 

The conservation movement has a long history of sidelining Indigenous peoples and discounting their ecological expertise. When the United States established its national parks system, ultimately setting aside some 85 million acres of territory, it forced Native American tribes from lands they’d stewarded for millennia.

Park monuments still bear the names of men who advocated for the genocide of Indigenous peoples or carried out massacres themselves. Native groups are advocating for the monuments’ removal.

Instead of honoring those responsible for genocide, Hernandez said she’d like to see monuments to those who preserved the lands for millennia. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that Indigenous peoples are the most effective stewards of the Earth. Though they make up just 5 percent of the global population, they protect some 80 percent of its biodiversity, according to the World Bank, and biodiversity on Indigenous-managed lands often exceeds that of protected areas. Indigenous peoples with titles to their land tend to have the most success at preserving lands, research has found.

Western researchers and companies also have a long history of co-opting Indigenous discoveries — like traditional medicines. Some scholars estimate the market value of pharmaceuticals derived from Indigenous medicine to be in the tens of billions.

Permaculture is another field that borrows heavily from Indigenous practices, Hernandez said.

Hernandez wants to see environmental organizations, governments and the descendants of settlers reckon with their anti-Indigenous histories and elevate Indigenous voices. “It’s like peeling onions. There are so many layers that we have to undo,” Hernandez said. “The first layer is the history that has been silenced or hidden for so many years.”

For her part, Hernandez is using her credentials — and her large social media following — to bring Indigenous science and voices into academia. “I look at the knowledge that my parents and grandparents held, and I always say they know more about the environment than any professor I have ever had in my career. Indigenous peoples don’t necessarily need a bachelor or a doctoral degree for their knowledge to be valid.”

Last fall, Hernandez taught an Introduction to Climate Change course that included lessons on Indigenous land stewardship and discussions on the ways that Indigenous women are impacted by climate change.

She hopes she can bring a new generation of Indigenous thinkers into the conservation field — while reminding students to look beyond the ivory tower for climate solutions.

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“I always remember having this fight with a random dude who claimed that ‘straight white men’ were the only true innovators. His prime example for this was the computer… the computer… THE COMPUTER!!! THE COM-PU-TER!!!

Alan Turing - Gay man and ‘father of computing’ Wren operating Bombe - The code cracking computers of the 2nd world war were entirely run by women Katherine Johnson - African American NASA mathematician and ‘Human computer’ Ada Lovelace - arguably the 1st computer programmer”

- Sacha Coward

Also Margaret Hamilton - NASA computer scientist who put the first man on the moon - an as-yet-unmatched feet of software engineering, here pictured beside the full source of that computer programme. #myhero

Grace Hopper - the woman that coined the term “bug”  

- @robinlayfield

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White people: if you want to help long term: get used to being told your opinion is wrong, irrelevant, or unwanted. Tell your friends to get used to it. Work on getting used to it and do this work with other white people. Because white supremacy has all of y’all very used  to being right and being an inherently valued voice and if we’re going to fight white supremacy you’re going to have to be comfortable surrendering that expectation and also white people will need to learn how to handle being rejected or disagreed with. It’s an extension of racism and racial trauma for black people to try and educate or speak up about our issues only to expose ourselves to your white fragility which  makes you defensive– this defensiveness can look like shutting down, silencing us, painting all corrections or disagreements as ‘fighs’ (extending the idea that black people are aggressive) etc.

White resilience is the opposite of white fragility and black people are VERY good at resilience, unfortunately. Listen to us we know how to combat this.

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My emergency box is topped up - cliff bars, instant noodles, peanuts, pads and tampons. I don't want things like being hungry or a period to be a barrier to learning.

Yes, the school's health center does provide food and pads, but I get being a picky eater and not wanting Weetbix or not having 50c for a pad.

The deal is that I expect them to pay it forward in the future, this the post-it and pen to write "Blank owes the world a good deed." I'm hoping kindness breeds kindness.

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Eagle? More like red herring.

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Stop attacking me like this, please.

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ZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST | 2.02

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Did you know Chicagoans can’t elect their representatives for Chicago Public Schools?

Did you know that Chicago residents cannot vote for their school board representatives? Instead, they are appointed by the Mayor of Chicago. 

Being able to vote for your local representatives is an important right, especially for school boards. Schools are a vital part of the community and go miles in improving it. Any service in the community can help improve it and reduce crime. 

Change starts at the local level and it is important that Chicagoans have the right to vote for that change. 

HB 2267 is currently has enough votes to pass in the IL Senate, but it will require Senate President Don Harmon to allow it to happen. However, he is currently siding with Mayor Lightfoot in keeping this power with the Mayor’s office instead of the people. 

It is important that locals are allowed to vote for things that directly impact their communities. They have a direct investment in schools, they send their children there. Not only is it important for them to have a say in their local schools, but they know what’s best for their children and their community. 

One of the things my mother often mentioned to me when she worked for a non-profit doing interaction work is that it is important to listen to the people’s needs instead of bringing what you think is best for them. For example, the non-profit might want to bring English language skills to the community because of the believed help that it would help them connect to the wider world in order to assess the resources there. But my mom found when she talked to the locals, they wanted services that would help teach them skills like how to repair shoes so they could work, make money and put food on the table. We often hear, why are non-profit services not succeeding in their goals to help others? Because they’re making decisions based on their own experiences instead of listening to the people they’re trying to help. By listening to the local community not only should she better help them but the money was better allocated. To improve Chicago Public Schools it is vital to allow the community to vote for their School Board. 

Please contact your local state senator and ask them that they’re doing to ensure EB 2267 is passed. Please contact Senate President Don Harmon and ask for HB 2267 to be called to vote. If you’re an Oak Parker this is extremely important because State Senator Don Harmon is YOUR local state senate representative. Remind him that it is hypocritical of him not to allow this to come to vote as Oak Parkers are allowed to elect their school board and they believe that Chicagoans just across the Austin border should have the same rights as people in his electorate. 

State President Don Harmon number is (217) 782-8176 and (708) 848-2002. You can find your own state senator and their contact information at https://openstates.org/ just search your address in “Find Your Legislators.” 

Local politics are important because it can make the most direct change in your life and community. Correctly, 90% of US schools elect their schools boards. Taking action today helps bring that closer to 100%. 

I’ve made this public so it’s easy to spread the word! Make sure you share this with your IL residents, especially those living in Oak Park! 

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Re: Covid vaccine safety concerns

Re: Covid vaccine safety concerns

As a person with a science background (MSc in pharmacology/toxicology studying viruses plus lots of immunology papers), I think it’s important to share my thought process since I do have extra scientific information that could help people that may be concerned about the coronavirus vaccine safety.  It’s a long post, so please skip to the questions you might have. I did write those in all caps.

 For general details to how vaccines work and why they are safe, here is the lesson material and even a video recording explaining it to my students. I can’t remember if in this video we talked about the coronavirus, but I know we definitely did during that topic I was teaching (microorganisms). I have linked just the vaccine one, but if you search the rest of my Google Site you can get more information related to viruses, and the immune system.

 Here are two good videos that explain how the immune system and vaccines worth. You can watch it in either order. The immune system one isn't necessary to understand how vaccines work, just gives you more context to what a beautiful system it is and why we want to use it instead of creating drugs.

 Vaccine video: https://youtu.be/zBkVCpbNnkU

Immune system: https://youtu.be/zQGOcOUBi6s

 Here are some key points and responses to common concerns.

What is the difference between bacterial and viral infections? Both of these are pathogens (things that make you sick) but the way they make you sick are very different. Bacteria are living and may or may not need a host to reproduce. Viruses are non-living and need a host to reproduce. Both have the potential to survive on surfaces or other animals, it depends what traits they have. We are still learning all of the coronavirus’s traits, which is why instructions from scientists change. One key thing we know about the coronavirus is that it can be transmitted human to human, not something we want because not it’s easier to spread. If it only transmitted from bird to human, then only people that are near birds (like chicken farmers) would need to worry. It’s always a scary step when a pathogen can jump between humans! It is also harder to fight viruses because they hide in our human cells. That means it takes more time for our immune system to notice them and start the attack! 

When drugs go through safety there is a rigorous process within drug companies. Having done a summer internship in a biotech company there was a lesson that I learned through them, “Fail fast = fail cheaply.” Basically, that means that drug companies are quick to stop working on anything that has shown or they think shows to be dangerous. The sooner they do that, the less money and time is wasted.

There is also a rigorous process in the system of drug development and governmental approval by agencies such as the FDA and MedSafe. These are known as phases and you can only move onto the next phase if you pass the previous ones. The first step is testing in cells, which are very cheap and easy to grow. The second step is to move into animals, which are more expensive and often require ethical approval (depending on the country). The third step is to move into humans. The human testing step also has steps of their own called phases. I’ll provide a link at the end if you want to read that but it’s not too important for the context of this post. Just know that it is VERY hard to get to this step and it is VERY expensive. So drug companies must feel confident when they get here.

In most countries, in order to get something approved for us, not only do you need to prove the drug to be safe, but it also needs to be effective. The general guideline of what we judge as effective is not only successful in treating the disease/symptoms but also how it compares against the best current treatment available. The large majority of drugs that go to this step still fail.

RE: BUT THE SPEED THEY PUT THIS VACCINE OUT! DID THEY DO ALL THE STEPS CORRECTLY? Yes, they still have to follow all the same steps. The reason why you see that it was developed a whole lot faster was that there was so much money thrown at the problem, there were WAY more resources to allow for processing of the data, and the bureaucracy was removed. Having money is important to buy things and pay scientists. Having more resources means that we could run programs projecting many more potential forms of the drug and if they would work basically before we even tested it in cells! Remember fail fast, fail cheap? Saves money and time. The bureaucracy being removed was important because it now forces companies to not only share the information with the government but with each other. That’s why not only have we gotten a fast solution, but many different companies putting out their version of a vaccine. That’s why we got stuff in a year. None of these things is normal in science and since there is a high risk of failing safety testing, there is a very low chance of return on investments. That’s why drug companies “spread their eggs” on multiple projects and each project only gets a limited number of resources and money. That’s why on average a new drug would require 10 years of research and development.

RE: I HEAR THEY USED DNA IN THESE VACCINES WHAT IF THAT CHANGES MY DNA? It can’t. Also, it is mRNA in the vaccine, not DNA. Currently, scientists are looking into gene therapy as a possible way of treating genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis. Since it is a genetic disease, the only way you can change it is by changing your DNA. So far it has been largely unsuccessful. Turns out it is really hard not only to change people’s DNA but also the downstream traits the DNA controls. If we can’t do it intentionally, it’s not going to happen with this vaccine accidentally.

The mRNA vaccine works by causing the body to make a coronavirus marker. IT DOES NOT MAKE THE CORONA VIRUS AND THIS MARKER IS HARMLESS. It is important that the body has this marker so our immune system sees it and it will learn ‘not me, remember to kill this the next time I see this.’ Unfortunately, this takes time and possibly multiple exposures for the body to really learn this. Thus why when you get vaccinated it could take two weeks to be officially protected and you might need multiple injections. However, once you have it, when your body comes across it in real life it would be ready. It will fight and kill it before you get sick.

RE: I GOT SICK AFTER GETTING THE VACCINE, DID THE VACCINE MAKE ME SICK? No. See since vaccines are trying to activate the immune system, which might give you some symptoms of being sick. That’s a good sign because it means your body is building a memory of what the coronavirus looks like.

RE: I STILL GOT THE CORONA VIRUS EVEN THOUGH I WAS VACCINATED, DOES THAT MEAN IT DIDN’T WORK? If you got sick with the coronavirus soon after being vaccinated, you just got unlucky. Remember you need a two-week window from most vaccines to be protected. If you got sick with the corona later what that means your body didn’t do a good job learning the marker. It does sometimes happen, but that is rare. It is important you get both doses of the coronavirus vaccine to increase your chances of it working.

RE: WHEN SHOULD I GET THE CORONAVIRUS VACCINE? Literally, as soon as you're eligible! This needs to be rolled out as soon as possible. Not only to protect you and the population but to also prevent the virus from mutating again. See, since a virus is non-living, they require a host to reproduce. During this reproduction process, it makes mistakes, which can lead to a mutation that can cause new traits. We already saw some new traits with the new strains being more infectious. Other scary things that could happen is that it mutates and now it kills young people or children! The other scary thing is if it mutates and changes markers. That means that our current vaccines won’t work and we have to start over. We need to do everything possible to limit transmitting this virus - getting vaccinated, wearing masks, locking down, social distancing, washing hands, keeping a record of where you’ve been for contact tracing. These will limit the number of potential hosts and thus mutations.

RE: I WANT THE CORONAVIRUS VACCINE NOW BUT THEY WON’T GIVE IT TO ME! Since there is currently limited supply (don’t worry, there will be more) and limited resources to distribute them, most countries are starting with people running isolation facilities and healthcare workers to help limit the risk of it spreading, limit the risk of the people most likely to get it and to keep both of those systems running. The next lot will be those that are in a high-risk category - aka the ones that are likely to die/need serious medical attention if they do catch it. Then it will be everyone else.

That’s basically my thought process is how I weighed the pros/cons of the coronavirus vaccine based on science. I hope reading this has convinced you to get the vaccine and/or empowered you to convince others. I know people have genuine concerns, which is often the result of lack of information, so I hope I’ve answered them. Lastly, I hope it also convinces you to follow the various health guidelines as well if you weren’t doing so already.

 TLDR: Get the coronavirus vaccine as soon as you’re eligible and follow the advice of the health care professionals: wearing masks, locking down, social distancing, washing hands, keeping a record of where you’ve been for contact tracing.

 Extra information on human drug trial phases: https://www.nccn.org/patients/resources/clinical_trials/phases.aspx#:~:text=Phase%20II%20trials%20further%20assess,combinations%20of%20drugs%20are%20tested

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i just read a washington post article on romcoms aging poorly due to the pushiness (and oft-stalkery conduct) of the male characters therein, and it got me thinking about pride and prejudice, and specifically darcy saying, “one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.”

because, like, that’s the seldom-portrayed romantic dream in the patriarchal hellscape that is our world, isn’t it?

a dude being willing to say, “i understand if you don’t feel the same way about me, and i’ll leave you alone forever about this if my attention is unwanted.”

so simple, yet so wonderful in its basic human decency

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Charities/organisations to avoid:

PETA: They’d rather spend their money on publicity campaigns than on the animals in their care. PETA killed 73.8% of the animals in their care in 2015 (x)

FCKH8: Is a for-profit company that exploits oppressed groups for money. They’re also wildly uninformed, and spread misogyny, cissexism and bi/panphobia, as well as stealing their posts/designs (x)

Autism Speaks: They spend most of their money on researching a way to eliminate autism, heighten the stigma against autism and don’t have a single autistic person on their board (x)

Please support other, better charities, and feel free to add any others you can think of to this.

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Feel like wildly uninformed men are trying to get into your uterus? The “Mythcrashers” are here to sort fact from fiction

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Things food snobs are wrong about

“Organic” isn’t better for you or for the environment. It actually means nothing of any significance at best and is sometimes even the more wasteful, more hazardous option.

A shitload of “natural” food including a lot of imported produce is grown and harvested through slave labor in inhumane conditions.

Pizza, fried chicken, french fries, fast food, candy bars and chips ARE nutritious. They are loaded with good things. Just because they have an abundance of excess fats and might not be healthy as a staple doesn’t mean they are “nutritionless” or that their calories are “empty.” Those are hokey buzzwords pushed by the people in charge of how much you pay for the alternatives.

Eating healthier costs more. Much more. Looking down on people for their reliance on cheaper food is extremely classist and expecting everyone to be able to live off fresh veggies and cage-free meats is insultingly unrealistic in the modern world.

“Processed” literally only means the food went through some kind of automated process. This can be literally the exact same thing a human being would have done to the food for it to be labeled “unprocessed.” Being processed does not make something less healthy.

Chemicals with long, scary names are part of nature. An apple is full of compounds you probably can’t pronounce. A shorter ingredients label only means they didn’t bother listing all 300 things the product is actually made of and HAS to be made of.

Preservatives, artificial flavors and other additives are not the devil. Most are harmless and in general they are part of the reason you haven’t already starved to death or died of a food borne illness.

MSG is not bad for you at all.

The fact that something might be made of “scrap” meats like pig snouts or chicken necks only means one thing: that we didn’t waste perfectly normal, edible meat.

I DON’T KNOW HOW I FORGOT THIS IN MY FIRST VERSION OF THIS POST BUT GMO’S ARE NOT DANGEROUS TO EAT. GMO’S ARE SAVING LIVES. YOU’VE ALREADY EATEN GMO’S BEFORE YOU EVEN KNEW THE TERM. IT’S FINE. EAT THEM.

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It is pretty amazing that within 192 years of the first photograph being taken we have taken a picture of something 55 million light-years away.