snosassassin

[snosassassin]

I'm committing this entire thing to memory

This is most of all I have ever wanted to say on this.

EDIT: IN THE REALIZATION THAT MAYBE YOU THINK THIS IS ME THIS COMES FROM cloud.bastidas ON TIKTOK!!! THIS ISN'T ME!! I UPLOADED THIS REALLY QUICKLY THINKING IT WOULDN'T DO SO MANY WAVES

[snosassassin]

Having lived in Illinois my entire life, it's most certainly realistic.

Don't let anyone tell you that northern Illinois is just Chicago and a variety of extensions, because I've seen the vast emptiness myself. I've driven through the expanse at 5 PM in January, and felt the feeling of being the sole survivor of a nuclear winter, jumping at every light I see because I can't believe it's there. I've seen the towns small enough to spit across, and wondered if the residents felt like keepers of lighthouses for travelers who happen through the one main road.

Oh, and there actually is an Illinois Mothman. In Chicago.

i love that danny phantom canonically takes place in illinois becasue i find it realistic.

You could tell me that there was an actual real life town in illinois called amity park that was riddled with ghosts and i probably wouldn't even bat an eye. It's illinois.

I've driven through illinois on roadtrips more than a decent handful of times, and i'm still not convinced theres actually anything there. It could be nothing but a 7 hour sink hole of fields nestled between all the other states.

You could tell me Mothman was running a roadside coffee shop in illinois and casually offering omens to anybody who orders the special and i'd believe it.

Illinois is just like that

[snosassassin]

This cycle of elections for state governors will also be more important than ever. Over the next two years, thirty-nine states will have their elections for governor, and more than a few sitting governors will be leaving due to term limits. To think of it like this, people of the federal level will try to stop the threat from getting out of D.C. Meanwhile, people on the state and local levels will stop anything that does get out from getting in.

State's rights and the values of the governors will go a long way in protecting anyone the new administration has in their sights. Check your state to see in what year your election will be, if your governor can run for re-election, and who else may be in the race. This will be a golden opportunity to turn the tide in states like Ohio, Virginia, and Florida, all of whom have Republican governors with term limits keeping them from another round. And if you have a Democratic governor, then fight just as hard to keep them in office or see their successor elected. They have influence, and they're willing to go to bat for their states.

To plug my own governor, JB Pritzker, he's made one thing clear: “You come for my people, you come through me.” He's up for re-election in 2026, and I better see every Illinoisan here backing him. I usually trust a billionaire getting into politics like an electric fence with a FREE HUGS sign, but he's been remarkably, almost surprisingly, progressive.

If it makes any of you feel better, Donald Trump will have an uphill battle to change the constitution. He will need:

-2/3 of Senators (60)

-2/3 of the House of Representatives (290)

-3/4 of the states (38)

In 2026, 33 senate seats will be up for grabs, and we’ll be able to vote for people who are against Trump and his ideals.

Breathe and remain hopeful because it’s not over. We can still fight and make Trump’s last four years hell.

[snosassassin]

I want to know what it would take for Dimitri to hit us with a "Newsflash, buddy."

dimitri would def be the guy to say shit like 'just gonna squeeze right past ya' and 'youre on thin ice pal'

[snosassassin]

I'd also like to add the Citizens' Climate Lobby, which focuses primarily on working closely with legislators and elected representatives to influence climate policy. Having the attention and support of our Congressional leaders will be no small feat in proposing and passing climate legislation, while also protecting us from bills and proposals designed to bring harm. It's effectively having the politicians and suits in Washington do the talking and bureaucracy while we build the local refuge sites for nature to fall back on. And as little trust as I have in any politician, I still believe that it's important that we try to steer them in the right direction.

There are hundreds of chapters across the United States, and even more worldwide. Volunteering can be as simple as taking a few minutes to write letters or op-eds. In no way should this surpass the importance of the desperately needed legwork to directly protect our local environments, but it can't hurt to have someone on our side to deal with the political angle.

Planet's Fucked: What Can You Do To Help? (Long Post)

Since nobody is talking about the existential threat to the climate and the environment a second Trump term/Republican government control will cause, which to me supersedes literally every other issue, I wanted to just say my two cents, and some things you can do to help. I am a conservation biologist, whose field was hit substantially by the first Trump presidency. I study wild bees, birds, and plants.

In case anyone forgot what he did last time, he gagged scientists' ability to talk about climate change, he tried zeroing budgets for agencies like the NOAA, he attempted to gut protections in the Endangered Species Act (mainly by redefining 'take' in a way that would allow corporations to destroy habitat of imperiled species with no ramifications), he tried to do the same for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (the law that offers official protection for native non-game birds), he sought to expand oil and coal extraction from federal protected lands, he shrunk the size of multiple national preserves, HE PULLED US OUT OF THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT, and more.

We are at a crucial tipping point in being able to slow the pace of climate change, where we decide what emissions scenario we will operate at, with existential consequences for both the environment and people. We are also in the middle of the Sixth Mass Extinction, with the rate of species extinctions far surpassing background rates due completely to human actions. What we do now will determine the fate of the environment for hundreds or thousands of years - from our ability to grow key food crops (goodbye corn belt! I hated you anyway but), to the pressure on coastal communities that will face the brunt of sea level rise and intensifying extreme weather events, to desertification, ocean acidification, wildfires, melting permafrost (yay, outbreaks of deadly frozen viruses!), and a breaking down of ecosystems and ecosystem services due to continued habitat loss and species declines, especially insect declines. The fact that the environment is clearly a low priority issue despite the very real existential threat to so many people, is beyond my ability to understand. I do partly blame the public education system for offering no mandatory environmental science curriculum or any at all in most places. What it means is that it will take the support of everyone who does care to make any amount of difference in this steeply uphill battle.

There are not enough environmental scientists to solve these issues, not if public support is not on our side and the majority of the general public is either uninformed or actively hostile towards climate science (or any conservation science).

So what can you, my fellow Americans, do to help mitigate and minimize the inevitable damage that lay ahead?

I'm not going to tell you to recycle more or take shorter showers. I'll be honest, that stuff is a drop in the bucket. What does matter on the individual level is restoring and protecting habitat, reducing threats to at-risk species, reducing pesticide use, improving agricultural practices, and pushing for policy changes. Restoring CONNECTIVITY to our landscape - corridors of contiguous habitat - will make all the difference for wildlife to be able to survive a changing climate and continued human population expansion.

**Caveat that I work in the northeast with pollinators and birds so I cannot provide specific organizations for some topics, including climate change focused NGOs. Scientists on tumblr who specialize in other fields, please add your own recommended resources. **

We need two things: FUNDING and MANPOWER.

You may surprised to find that an insane amount of conservation work is carried out by volunteers. We don't ever have the funds to pay most of the people who want to help. If you really really care, consider going into a conservation-related field as a career. It's rewarding, passionate work.

At the national level, please support:

The Nature Conservancy

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Cornell Lab of Ornithology (including eBird)

National Audubon Society

Federal Duck Stamps (you don't need to be a hunter to buy one!)

These first four work to acquire and restore critical habitat, change environmental policy, and educate the public. There is almost certainly a Nature Conservancy-owned property within driving distance of you. Xerces plays a very large role in pollinator conservation, including sustainable agriculture, native bee monitoring programs, and the Bee City/Bee Campus USA programs. The Lab of O is one of the world's leaders in bird research and conservation. Audubon focuses on bird conservation. You can get annual memberships to these organizations and receive cool swag and/or a subscription to their publications which are well worth it. You can also volunteer your time; we need thousands of volunteers to do everything from conducting wildlife surveys, invasive species removal, providing outreach programming, managing habitat/clearing trails, planting trees, you name it. Federal Duck Stamps are the major revenue for wetland conservation; hunters need to buy them to hunt waterfowl but anyone can get them to collect!

THERE ARE DEFINITELY MORE, but these are a start.

Additionally, any federal or local organizations that seek to provide support and relief to those affected by hurricanes, sea level rise, any form of coastal climate change...

At the regional level:

These are a list of topics that affect major regions of the United States. Since I do not work in most of these areas I don't feel confident recommending specific organizations, but please seek resources relating to these as they are likely major conservation issues near you.

PRAIRIE CONSERVATION & PRAIRIE POTHOLE WETLANDS

DRYING OF THE COLORADO RIVER (good overview video linked)

PROTECTION OF ESTUARIES AND SALTMARSH, ESPECIALLY IN THE DELAWARE BAY AND LONG ISLAND (and mangroves further south, everglades etc; this includes restoring LIVING SHORELINES instead of concrete storm walls; also check out the likely-soon extinction of saltmarsh sparrows)

UNDAMMING MAJOR RIVERS (not just the Colorado; restoring salmon runs, restoring historic floodplains)

NATIVE POLLINATOR DECLINES (NOT honeybees. for fuck's sake. honeybees are non-native domesticated animals. don't you DARE get honeybee hives to 'save the bees')

WILDLIFE ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER (support the Mission Butterfly Center!)

INVASIVE PLANT AND ANIMAL SPECIES (this is everywhere but the specifics will differ regionally, dear lord please help Hawaii)

LOSS OF WETLANDS NATIONWIDE (some states have lost over 90% of their wetlands, I'm looking at you California, Ohio, Illinois)

INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE, esp in the CORN BELT and CALIFORNIA - this is an issue much bigger than each of us, but we can work incrementally to promote sustainable practices and create habitat in farmland-dominated areas. Support small, local farms, especially those that use soil regenerative practices, no-till agriculture, no pesticides/Integrated Pest Management/no neonicotinoids/at least non-persistent pesticides. We need more farmers enrolling in NRCS programs to put farmland in temporary or permanent wetland easements, or to rent the land for a 30-year solar farm cycle. We've lost over 99% of our prairies to corn and soybeans. Let's not make it 100%.

INDIGENOUS LAND-BACK EFFORTS/INDIGENOUS LAND MANAGEMENT/TEK (adding this because there have been increasing efforts not just for reparations but to also allow indigenous communities to steward and manage lands either fully independently or alongside western science, and it would have great benefits for both people and the land; I know others on here could speak much more on this. Please platform indigenous voices)

HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS (get your neighbors to stop dumping fertilizers on their lawn next to lakes, reduce agricultural runoff)

OCEAN PLASTIC (it's not straws, it's mostly commercial fishing line/trawling equipment and microplastics)

A lot of these are interconnected. And of course not a complete list.

At the state and local level:

You probably have the most power to make change at the local level!

Support or volunteer at your local nature centers, local/state land conservancy non-profits (find out who owns&manages the preserves you like to hike at!), state fish & game dept/non-game program, local Audubon chapters (they do a LOT). Participate in a Christmas Bird Count!

Join local garden clubs, which install and maintain town plantings - encourage them to use NATIVE plants. Join a community garden!

Get your college campus or city/town certified in the Bee Campus USA/Bee City USA programs from the Xerces Society

Check out your state's official plant nursery, forest society, natural heritage program, anything that you could become a member of, get plants from, or volunteer at.

Volunteer to be part of your town's conservation commission, which makes decisions about land management and funding

Attend classes or volunteer with your land grant university's cooperative extension (including master gardener programs)

Literally any volunteer effort aimed at improving the local environment, whether that's picking up litter, pulling invasive plants, installing a local garden, planting trees in a city park, ANYTHING. make a positive change in your own sphere. learn the local issues affecting your nearby ecosystems. I guarantee some lake or river nearby is polluted

MAKE HABITAT IN YOUR COMMUNITY. Biggest thing you can do. Use plants native to your area in your yard or garden. Ditch your lawn. Don't use pesticides (including mosquito spraying, tick spraying, Roundup, etc). Don't use fertilizers that will run off into drinking water. Leave the leaves in your yard. Get your school/college to plant native gardens. Plant native trees (most trees planted in yards are not native). Remove invasive plants in your yard.

On this last point, HERE ARE EASY ONLINE RESOURCES TO FIND NATIVE PLANTS and LEARN ABOUT NATIVE GARDENING:

Xerces Society Pollinator Conservation Resource Center

Pollinator Pathway

Audubon Native Plant Finder

Homegrown National Park (and Doug Tallamy's other books)

National Wildlife Federation Native Plant Finder (clunky but somewhat helpful)

Heather Holm (for prairie/midwest/northeast)

MonarchGard w/ Benjamin Vogt (for prairie/midwest)

Native Plant Trust (northeast & mid-atlantic)

Grow Native Massachusetts (northeast)

Habitat Gardening in Central New York (northeast)

There are many more - I'm not familiar with resources for western states. Print books are your biggest friend. Happy to provide a list of those.

Lastly, you can help scientists monitor species using citizen science. Contribute to iNaturalist, eBird, Bumblebee Watch, or any number of more geographically or taxonomically targeted programs (for instance, our state has a butterfly census carried out by citizen volunteers).

In short? Get curious, get educated, get involved. Notice your local nature, find out how it's threatened, and find out who's working to protect it that you can help with. The health of the planet, including our resilience to climate change, is determined by small local efforts to maintain and restore habitat. That is how we survive this. When government funding won't come, when we're beat back at every turn trying to get policy changed, it comes down to each individual person creating a safe refuge for nature.

Thanks for reading this far. Please feel free to add your own credible resources and organizations.

[snosassassin]

🙏Please donate a small amount that may save my father's life, he needs daily medication worth 55€ and will undergo surgery worth 250€💔, please do not ignore my message and do not hesitate to help me🫂❤️‍🩹

I am having difficulty communicating, please donate or share😭

Please support me I am facing this alone🙏

🛑Account No. 10 due to repeated deletion

✅My campaign is verified by: @gaza-evacuation-funds

🙏

Posting awareness for this campaign again. Please do what you can to help.

[snosassassin]

‼️🚨‼️ We are in a tragic situation.

We want to be in a better place ‼️🚨‼️

Plz visit the link and donate or reblog the post 🙏🙏

🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇https://www.tumblr.com/hildanasr1/765802244068327424

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

Snakes 🐍🐍 attack us in the camp 😥🥺.

The insects 🦟🪳🪲🐜 are biting our children, causing their bodies to swell😭🥺.

We want to reach our goal we are still in the beginning 🙏🙏

https://gofund.me/b845968e

verified by

✅gaza-evacuation-funds

✅dlxxv-vetted-donations

✅bilal-salah0

✅khanger

✅a-shade-of-blue

Hello,

Helping your campaign is the least I can do.

[snosassassin]

Hello my friends! 👋💓

The situation in Gaza is worsening day by day, and my family is still struggling in very tough conditions. 😔💔

I only have $200 left to reach the $8500 goal, and I hope to achieve it today. 🇵🇸😢

I sincerely thank everyone who has supported and stood by us during this time. 💗🍉

https://gofund.me/abbc2759

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out. I would be honored to do what I can to help.

[snosassassin]

My name is Tarneem Sami, and I live in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood of Gaza 🇵🇸 with my three children. I lost my husband, Ahmed, while he was trying to get supplies for us. We live in constant fear and face severe shortages of food and medicine.

I need your help to save my children from hunger and disease. Every donation, no matter how small, can make a significant difference in our lives. If you cannot donate, please share my message to reach those who can help us.

Thank you for your support and generosity 🇵🇸.

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out. Anything I can do to help your campaign, I will do gladly.

[snosassassin]

Really fucked up that mental health support group information needs to be skyrocketed after a hateful president in the US is elected. What kind of person do you need to be that if you’re elected to be in charge, ppl need to post suicide hotlines more? I’m not the first to be sharing these after the election. Everyone reading this, much love, show yourself much love in these devastating times <3

988 can apply to anyone in need of help, not just women of colour. some of the woc mental health support groups are actually for all women, though most are for woc specifically

Sources:

@ gaytimes on instagram (for the first image)

@ aakomaproject on instagram (for all the other images)

(flower divider made by me)

please reblog. I will never write in one of my posts to reblog any of my fandom content or my stick figures, but this one, I hope it can reach as many people possible who need it

[snosassassin]

Hello, I hope you are well. I am reaching out to you today with great concern and sadness😞💔, as my family and I in Gaza are facing significant danger due to the ongoing war. I have launched a GoFundMe campaign to save them from hunger and the diseases that are chasing us all and to provide a better future for them. Every reblog of the post on my profile can be a lifeline for my family and help me provide the basic necessities for them and get out of Gaza to a safer and more stable place.🙏 I humbly and gratefully ask you to reblog the post from my profile to support my campaign.

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out. I will absolutely support your campaign in whatever way I can.

[snosassassin]

Man, I hope you're right

Baby turtle, whatever mystical powers you may have, please help let everything be okay. Help us have the strength to make everything okay.

[snosassassin]

Relevant now more than ever, and how I wish it wasn't.

We have two years until the next midterm election, which means we have two years to organize and prepare. Give yourself a day or two in the wake of this. We can't give up hope, even if it's the only thing left.

As a first step, consider looking into the Citizens' Climate Lobby below.

“There are other forces at work in this world besides the will of evil.”

[snosassassin]

Where did you go? 😭

Hi Anon. The last year has seen some big upheavals, both wonderful and really really difficult, in my personal life and it is a huge regret of mine that keeping up with this blog was one of the things that fell off my metaphorical plate as I dealt with those changes.

That being said, I think it's time for me to be back. I wish it was under happier circumstances.

For now, here are some resources on staying grounded and moving forward in the wake of today's news:

•Finding Steady Ground: Strengthening our spirits to resist and thrive in these times

•10 Ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won

And here are some great other blogs to follow that post similar good climate and environmental news if you need more of that on your dashboard.

•@climatecalling

•@reasonsforhope

•@gardening-tea-lesbian

•@thehopefuljournalist

Today we grieve, tomorrow we roll up our sleeves and get to making things better. No one gets to vote on that.

[snosassassin]

Two things to prop up right now:

The ACLU - They’ll do their best to make sure this dumpster fire doesn’t turn into a wildfire.

The Trevor Project - They’ll be fielding a lot of calls, texts, and chats in the next few days and beyond.

[snosassassin]

It's all hands on deck, even if your hands are full of tarot cards

[snosassassin]

There is something distinctly, almost viscerally, Midwest about this, and I love it

brain fog, 2022-2023