#Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World

[msmysticfail]

You put in your Astro observations post that Pluto in Aquarius is going to go crazy for Aquarius placements for the next 20 years. I have Aquarius Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, and MC. Am I doomed? 😭

Gurrllll, look, as an astrologer my job is to be extremely cautious with the things I say, so I'm going to answer you the following: yes and no. When Pluto starts to move "freely" through Aquarius, it will activate your Mars, Uranus, Jupiter and Midheaven. I can already tell you that there are big changes coming to your life, if you already work then maybe you will reconsider your career somewhere in the future. Just as you can gain recognition through what you do (Midheaven, Mars). Pay attention to the degrees in which your planets are, depending on the degree you have, you may only feel these large and intense movements when Pluto is 5 degrees forward and backward from where the degrees of your planets are. 

Now I'll give you an example ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°):

Pluto in Capricorn affected a lot, a huge lot, people who have important placements in Capricorn, these people went through gigantic changes, gained power, lost power, got married, had children, lost things, gained a lot of money.

Greta Thunberg, for example, has her Sun in Capricorn (12 degrees), Pluto went there and passed right over her Sun, making her awaken to structural problems that society ignores. It was by seeing and understanding a series of drastic problems that she used her personal power to bring social awareness to a large number of people and Pluto gave this power to her, giving her strength to face what needs to be faced.

Kylie Jenner, ascendant in Capricorn, Neptune in Capricorn in the 1st house, Kylie underwent gigantic transformations in her 1st house, the ascendant, literally changing the shape of her body through surgeries and aesthetic procedures. Not only that, she needed to mature, go through transformations that required a lot of her, but that also gave her the power she has today. Pluto shone on Kylie Jenner and she, with 8th house energy, knew how to use it.

Pitbull, another Capricorn, he literally gained international fame, Pluto made him gain power over the masses, and elevated him to another world, gave him the chance to put his person and his music in the world in a huge way, his fame was gigantic, during 2008-2014 he was at his peak. Pluto gives power, he takes the person who is fighting to win something and he sees how the person wants something so much, so badly, that he gives the person the opportunity to win what they truly desire.

Timothée Chalamet, had Pluto transit over his 5th house, activating all his stellium in Capricorn, calling him to leave his mark on the world, to be someone of prominence, who stands out for being who he is, creating a renown, a legacy.

Zayn Malik, another example, the singer had his 11th house extremely activated, house of Aquarius, house of the great masses of people. Not only did he become extremely famous doing what he wanted, but he also drastically changed his life, opposite his 5th house, he started a family, had his first child, for example.

See how cool Pluto can be too? With the definitive entry of Pluto into Aquarius, Aquarius themes and people will gain much, much more relevance. There are dramatic things coming too, but that's a topic for another conversation. If you want to know more book a reading with me, I'll be happy to be of your assistance. ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧(´｡• ◡ •｡`) ♡

[yourlocalbadgerscales]

”If I could draw I’d draw fanarts!”

“If I could draw I’d draw my OCs”

“If I could paint I’d paint all the ideas in my head and become rich!”

If I could draw and paint I would completely erase this portrait of J.K Rowling in a book from my childhood, and draw a picture of Imane Khelif there instead.

This is my copy and it’s in Swedish, btw.

The original title of this book is Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls 2. It’s the second book out of two. This is the first one.

These two books were my childhood. Do you have any idea how empowering it is for a young girl like me, feeling alone in a world that seems to become crueller by the day, a girl who feels unheard by adults, to read these kind of books? I have plenty other books like these, too! These were my two favourites.

Two books filled with strong, powerful and cool women who have changed the world in one way or another! Reading these books inspired me so, so much as a little girl. I couldn’t get enough of these two-page stories about women who were brave and stood up for what was right. Women from so many different countries and backgrounds. It was beautiful. These books were how I found out about most of my biggest idols today: Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, Anne Frank, Emma Watson etc.

As I said, these books are my childhood. Another series of books that played a huge part of my childhood are the Harry Potter books.

As a little kid, I had no idea about who Joanne truly was. All I knew was that she was an author, and I dreamed about becoming an author one day. And Joanne had written one of my favourite series of all time. Of course I looked up to her! I especially remember looking at the drawing of her in Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls 2, admiring it very much.

I have grown up. I still love Harry Potter, the series played a massive role in my childhood and it’s been there to comfort me in my hardest times. But I do not support the author, now that I’ve heard about and read the tweets she has made about trans women. It’s disgusting, what she’s said about trans women in the past, what she still says, and what she’s tweeted about Imane Khelif recently… I’ve knows for years now what she’s all about.

It hurts, you know. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, it hurts to know that the series I love so dearly, the series that always makes me feel better, is written by a person who has no respect whatsoever towards half of my friend group and other trans people. None. She is a horrible human being, and it hurts to know that.

Knowing that her face, her name and her story is written in yet another book in my bookshelf, that her presence is constant in my room, makes me sick to my stomach and has done so for a long time now. Ever since I remembered a while back that she’s in this book, this wonderful book about women who have made the world a better place and continue fighting daily, women I look up to so much… I’ve had this sick feeling in my stomach, because she does not belong in this book. She isn’t a feminist. She excludes trans women from womanhood and accuses cis women of being trans or intersex based on their strength and talent in sports. Based on a supposed high level of testosterone? Joanne is cruel, and she’s rude, and she is not a person kids should be taught to look up to. Not after all she’s done.

Earlier today, I was thinking about this again. And as so many times before, I wished that I myself was a talented artist. This is something I’ve thought about before, but for different reasons. I’ve always wished I could draw portraits and pretty paintings. Fanarts for my favourite ships that I can only picture in my head but not transfer to paper. I’ve always loved drawing, but I’ve never been too good at it. Now I desperately wish that I was.

Because if I was a talented artist, I would grab my pens and paint and brushes, and I would cover up the portrait of J. K Rowling in my book. I would make a whole new portrait in its place, a portrait of another woman I look up to, a strong and beautiful and brave woman. A women called Imane Khelif.

And I’d get rid of the page full of facts and stories about Rowling, I’d tear it apart and throw it away and replace it with the story of Imane Khelif, the one woman Rowling cannot tolerate because of her talent for boxing. I can write. I can’t draw, but I can write. I so wish I could do both right now, because if I truly could trust myself with fully remaking two book pages, I would do it without hesitation.

Imane Khelif’s story deserves to be told. J.K Rowling’s story deserves to be told with seriousness, and grief because of what she has become. This woman could have been a successful author and a beloved feminist, and she could have left it at that. Sadly, she chose a path of hatred and cyber bullying. She chose this journey for herself, and I am sorry for everyone who got their childhood ruined because of it. Heck, I’m sorry for her even, but I still know in my heart that she has no excuses for what she has done. I despise her.

Kids need to be warned about TERFs, not trans women.

Collage made by @thingsmk1120sayz (I will delete it immediately if you ask me to, love <3)

I stand by Imane Khelif. I stand by the girls who grew up to be strong and wonderful women, the women who made their childhood dreams reality and won medals in the Olympics, the women who became successful artists, the women who reached their goals and ended up writing bestseller books loved by generations.

I stand by them, and I love them. But I feel nothing but hatred and pity towards J. K Rowling. Fuck her twisted beliefs. Much love to Imane Khelif!

Edit: I would like to clarify, Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls 2 was released 2017. I have no idea when Joanne started spreading her transphobic views on social media. Feel free to educate me on reblogs and comments! Anyways, I don’t think that the authors of this book, Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo, meant to cause any harm by putting Rowling in their book. Either this was before Rowling started tweeting transphobic things, or the authors didn’t know about her being a TERF (I doubt the latter). So please don’t send any hate to these wonderful authors! If you want to send them questions regarding their books, I’m pretty sure you’re free to do so! xx

[reasonsforhope]

"If I wanted to convince you of the reality of human progress, of the fact that we as a species have advanced materially, morally, and politically over our time on this planet, I could quote you chapter and verse from a thick stack of development statistics.

I could tell you that a little more than 200 years ago, nearly half of all children born died before they reached their 15th birthday, and that today it’s less than 5 percent globally. I could tell you that in pre-industrial times, starvation was a constant specter and life expectancy was in the 30s at best. [Note: This is average life expectancy, old people did still exist in olden times] I could tell you that at the dawn of the 19th century, barely more than one person in 10 was literate, while today that ratio has been nearly reversed. I could tell you that today is, on average, the best time to be alive in human history.

But that doesn’t mean you’ll be convinced.

In one 2017 Pew poll, a plurality of Americans — people who, perhaps more than anywhere else, are heirs to the benefits of centuries of material and political progress — reported that life was better 50 years ago than it is today. A 2015 survey of thousands of adults in nine rich countries found that 10 percent or fewer believed that the world was getting better. On the internet, a strange nostalgia persists for the supposedly better times before industrialization, when ordinary people supposedly worked less and life was allegedly simpler and healthier. (They didn’t and it wasn’t.)

Looking backward, we imagine a halcyon past that never was; looking forward, it seems to many as if, in the words of young environmental activist Greta Thunberg, “the world is getting more and more grim every day.”

So it’s boom times for doom times. But the apocalyptic mindset that has gripped so many of us not only understates how far we’ve come, but how much further we can still go. The real story of progress today is its remarkable expansion to the rest of the world in recent decades. In 1950, life expectancy in Africa was just 40; today, it’s past 62. Meanwhile more than 1 billion people have moved out of extreme poverty since 1990 alone.

But there’s more to do — much more. That hundreds of millions of people still go without the benefit of electricity or live in states still racked by violence and injustice isn’t so much an indictment of progress as it is an indication that there is still more low-hanging fruit to harvest.

The world hasn’t become a better place for nearly everyone who lives on it because we wished it so. The astounding economic and technological progress made over the past 200 years has been the result of deliberate policies, a drive to invent and innovate, one advance building upon another. And as our material condition improved, so, for the most part, did our morals and politics — not as a side effect, but as a direct consequence. It’s simply easier to be good when the world isn’t zero-sum.

Which isn’t to say that the record of progress is one of unending wins. For every problem it solved — the lack of usable energy in the pre-fossil fuel days, for instance — it often created a new one, like climate change. But just as a primary way climate change is being addressed is through innovation that has drastically reduced the price of clean energy, so progress tends to be the best route to solving the problems that progress itself can create.

The biggest danger we face today, if we care about actually making the future a more perfect place, isn’t that industrial civilization will choke on its own exhaust or that democracy will crumble or that AI will rise up and overthrow us all. It’s that we will cease believing in the one force that raised humanity out of tens of thousands of years of general misery: the very idea of progress.

Changing Humanity's "Normal" Forever

Progress may be about where we’re going, but it’s impossible to understand without returning to where we’ve been. So let’s take a trip back to the foreign country that was the early years of the 19th century.

In 1820, according to data compiled by the historian Michail Moatsos, about three-quarters of the world’s population earned so little that they could not afford even a tiny living space, some heat and, hopefully, enough food to stave off malnutrition.

It was a state that we would now call “extreme poverty,” except that for most people back then, it wasn’t extreme — it was simply life.

What matters here for the story of progress isn’t the fact that the overwhelming majority of humankind lived in destitution. It’s that this was the norm, and had been the norm since essentially… forever. Poverty, illiteracy, premature death — these weren’t problems, as we would come to define them in our time. They were simply the background reality of being human, as largely unchangeable as birth and death itself...

Between 10,000 BCE and 1700, the average global population growth rate was just 0.04 percent per year. And that wasn’t because human beings weren’t having babies. They were simply dying, in great numbers: at birth, giving birth, in childhood from now-preventable diseases, and in young adulthood from now-preventable wars and violence.

It was only with the progress of industrialization that we broke out of [this long cycle], producing enough food to feed the mounting billions, enough scientific breakthroughs to conquer old killers like smallpox and the measles, and enough political advances to dwindle violent death.

Between 1800 and today, our numbers grew from around 1 billion to 8 billion. And that 8 billion aren’t just healthier, richer, and better educated. On average, they can expect to live more than twice as long. The writer Steven Johnson has called this achievement humanity’s “extra life” — but that extra isn’t just the decades that have been added to our lifespans. It’s the extra people that have been added to our numbers. I’m probably one of them, and you probably are too...

The progress we’ve earned has hardly been uninterrupted or perfectly distributed... [But] once we could prove in practice that the lot of humanity didn’t have to be hand-to-mouth existence, we could see that progress could continue to expand.

Current Progress "Flows Overwhelmingly" to the Developing World

The long twentieth century came late to the Global South, but it did get there. Between 1960 and today, India and China, together home to nearly one in every three people alive today, have seen life expectancy rise from 45 to 70 and 33 to 78, respectively. Per-capita GDP over those years rose some 2,600 percent for India and an astounding 13,400 percent for China, with the latter lifting an estimated 800 million people out of extreme poverty.

In the poorer countries of sub-Saharan Africa, progress has been slower and later, but shouldn’t be underestimated. When we see the drastic decline in child mortality — which has fallen since 1990 from 18.1 percent of all children in that region to 7.4 percent in 2021 — or the more than 20 million measles deaths that have been prevented since 2000 in Africa alone, this is progress continuing to happen now, with the benefits overwhelmingly flowing to the poorest among us.

Vanishing Autocracies

In 1800, according to Our World in Data, zero — none, nada, zip — people lived in what we would now classify as a liberal democracy. Just 22 million people — about 2 percent of the global population — lived in what the site classifies as “electoral autocracies,” meaning that what democracy they had was limited, and limited to a subset of the population.

One hundred years later, things weren’t much better — there were actual liberal democracies, but fewer than 1 percent of the world’s population lived in them...

Today just 2 billion people live in countries that are classified as closed autocracies — relatively few legal rights, no real electoral democracy — and most of them are in China...

Expanding Human Rights

All you have to do is roll the clock back a few decades to see the way that rights, on the whole, have been extended wider and wider: to LGBTQ citizens, to people of color, to women. The fundamental fact is that as much as the technological and economic world of 2023 would be unrecognizable to people in 1800, the same is true of the political world.

Nor can you disentangle that political progress from material progress. Take the gradual but definitive emancipation of women. That has been a hard-fought, ongoing battle, chiefly waged by women who saw the inherent unfairness of a male-dominated society.

But it was aided by the invention of labor-saving technologies in the home like washing machines and refrigerators that primarily gave time back to women and made it easier for them to move into the workforce.

These are all examples of the expansion of the circle of moral concern — the enlargement of who and what is considered worthy of respect and rights, from the foundation of the family or tribe all the way to humans around the world (and increasingly non-human animals as well). And it can’t be separated from the hard fact of material progress.

Leaving a Zero-Sum World Behind

The pre-industrial world was a zero-sum one... In a zero-sum world, you advance only at the expense of others, by taking from a set stock, not by adding, which is why wars of conquest between great powers were so common hundreds of years ago, or why homicide between neighbors was so much more frequent in the pre-industrial era.

We have obviously not eradicated violence, including by the state itself. But a society that can produce more of what it needs and wants is one that will be less inclined to fight over what it has, either with its neighbors or with itself. It’s not that the humans of 2023 are necessarily better, more moral, than their ancestors 200 or more years ago. It’s that war and violence cease to make economic sense...

Doomerism, at its heart, may be that exhaustion made manifest.

But just as we need continued advances in clean tech or biosecurity to protect ourselves from some of the existential threats we’ve inadvertently created, so do we need continued progress to address the problems that have been with us always: of want, of freedom, even of mortality. Nothing can dispel the terminal exhaustion that seems endemic in 2023 better than the idea that there is so much more left to do to lift millions out of poverty and misery while protecting the future — which is possible, thanks to the path of the progress we’ve made.

And we’ll know we’re successful if our descendants can one day look back on the present with the same mix of sympathy and relief with which we should look back on our past. How, they’ll wonder, did they ever live like that?"

-via Vox, 3/20/23

Note: I would seriously recommend reading the whole article--because as long as this post is, this is only about half of it! The article contains a lot more information about the hows and whys of human progress, and it also definitely made me cry the first time I read it.

[cognitivejustice]

“There’s all different roles that are really important in the climate fight. There’s firefighters, world builders and rule changers,” Schwanz said, describing “firefighters” as people like Greta Thunberg who are bringing attention to the dangers of climate change. 

“Solarpunk is a very good example of the world builders.”

 In the Bay Area, where a local solarpunk chapter formed this year and ventures like Solar Punk Farms in Sonoma County are working as a functional model for its lifestyle of ecological sustainability. Bay Area Solarpunks founder Bruce Shigeura said this alternative vision for the future is sorely needed for a youth distraught by climate anxiety.

“There are so many young people out there who are disillusioned, who are feeling really down because the U.S. is going to pull out of the Paris Agreement, cut down on renewable energy and ramp up fossil fuels,” Shigeura said. “There are two paths now: Despair or real optimism. Solarpunk is optimistic.”

“(A) major difference between solarpunk and steampunk is that solarpunk ideas, and solarpunk technologies, need not remain imaginary,”

Solar Punk Farms is a realized image of a solarpunk lifestyle that has implemented many of the movement’s ideas, from utilizing regenerative agriculture that considers each layer of a forest as part of the ecology, to partnering with Zero Waste Sonoma to become a community compost site for residents in west Sonoma County. Next year, they hope to invest in a water capture system that can preserve months of water throughout the year.

Ed's Note: What is missing in their solarpunk farms vision is the social and communal aspect of solarpunk. Where's the community?

[ashmouthbooks]

EARTH IS MISSING! / EVERYONE'S WORLD IS ENDING ALL THE TIME

this spring I entered the Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Competition held by the National Library of Scotland. The theme this year was climate change. I didn't win any of the categories (I certainly didn't think I'd win any of the Craft categories, but I thought I had a decent shot at the Creative categories) but I am very happy with how my binding came out anyway!

under the cut is the details of the binding and the process that went into it, plus a full list of the texts included.

this is a modified 3 piece bradel binding - a 3 piece bradel is usually made with leather spine with the spine attached to the textblock and the front and back covers added on after. there's another variety of a 3 piece bradel case where the spine and boards are assembled with a thin piece of paper to later be covered with a bookcloth. I wanted to use some leftover misprint cardstock I had (the same stuff I'd previously used to make paperbacks) and I wanted to print the titles directly onto the covers and spine (specifically I wanted to overprint the titles to imitate the existing misprint), and in order to fit it through my printer I had to have it in three pieces. so I assembled a bradel case as if it were to be covered with a cloth, only the cardstock I was using to assemble the case would also be the cover material.

everything I used to make this book was recycled or reused, with the exception of the greybeards which were new (I didn't have any rescued book boards from secondhand books at the time). the text paper is recycled eco-craft paper, the endbands are re-used macramé cords wrapped in green wrapping paper that came from a gift bag, and as mentioned, the cover material comes from a misprinted running sheet.

a few process photos of getting the case together:

in terms of content, I took care that not only should the binding fit the theme of climate change - by using recycled and reused materials - but the text inside should also fit the theme. there were a lot of considerations there because I could easily have just bought a copy of something like Greta Thunberg's speeches and rebound them, but I wanted the texts to be something that made sense to me. so I went and looked at the SFF magazines I read for climate fiction and essays, I looked for academic papers, and I looked on Gutenberg for older pulp fiction relating to climate change. once I had a selection of texts I pared them down to two categories, fiction and non-fiction, and decided the most fun way to bind them would be as a tête-bêche with fiction on one side and non-fiction on the other, and this then informed how the binding would physically turn out - the modified 3 piece bradel.

here is the full table of contents for each side of the book:

EVERYONE'S WORLD IS ENDING ALL THE TIME and other writings

A Climate of Competition: Climate Change as Political Economy in Speculative Fiction, 1889–1915 by Steve Asselin Published in Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 45, No. 3, SF and the Climate Crisis (November 2018), pp. 440-453

A Century of Science Fiction That Changed How We Think About the Environment by Sherryl Vint Published in the MIT Press Reader, 20th July 2021

The climate is changing. Science fiction is too. by Eliza Levinson Published in The Story, 30th June 2022

’Not to escape the world but to join it’: responding to climate change with imagination not fantasy by Andrew Davison Published in Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 375, No. 2095, Theme issue: Material demand reduction (13 June 2017), pp. 1-13

Science in Fiction: A Brief Look at Communicating Climate Change through the Novel by Eline D. Tabak Published in RCC Perspectives, No. 4, COMMUNICATING THE CLIMATE: From Knowing Change to Changing Knowledge (2019), pp. 97-104

Everyone’s World Is Ending All the Time: notes on becoming a climate resilience planner at the edge of the anthropocene by Arkady Martine Published in Uncanny Magazine issue 28, May 7, 2019

EARTH IS MISSING! and other stories

Earth Is Missing! by Carl Selwyn in Planet Stories (1947)

Climate—Disordered by Carter Sprague in Startling Stories (1948)

Climate—Incorporated by Wesley Long in Thrilling Wonder Stories (1948)

A Being Together Amongst Strangers by Arkady Martine in Uncanny Magazine (2020)

You’re Not The Only One by Octavia Cade in Clarkesworld Magazine (2022)

Why We Bury Our Dead At Sea by Tehnuka in Reckoning Magazine (2023)

[tayfabe75]

"End of era. I can't make retrospective statements. It's why I've been filming this documentary for 12 years. Every single time a statement ends, the idea to follow that with a retrospective statement, something that looks back, something that is celebratory of a previous thing, blargh, it makes me wanna crawl out of my skin, I hate it. I just wanna go forward. This is the only record where I do look back a little bit. I mean, I think the only time I specifically do it is in 'Guys'. 'The moment that we started a band, was the best thing that ever happened'. It's quite sad. It was also one for the homies, you know. I wanted to write a love song for friends. People don't have that very much. I love that idea. And even if it was the fact that going through the DNA of who we were, to make this record, there's so much reference to old emo core, or house music that we were growing up with. It feels like we went right back. We went and found all the old photos, you know, of where we came from, is almost how it felt to make this record. When I made this record, I was like, '[beep], this is the last 1975 record, for ages'. Not the last 1975 record, but this is definitely us stopping making music for a bit. There's essentially been lots of different album out, for this record. We live in a world of, you know, iTunes uploads six months before the record comes out. Someone's like, 'we needed a piece of artwork,' and I keep going, 'Okay, 'I'll give you our piece of artwork'. The artwork changed every week. The artwork now is basically the most minimal version, example, of what we've had, and it's all been based on texture, and the concept of wabi-sabi. The record's been about deconstruction. The record feels like it should be just in a paper bag. I wanted to steal The Durutti Column idea. The Durutti Column, one of my favorite bands of all time, they made one record, the vinyl cover was sandpaper, so it destroyed any record that it was next to. I mean, oh my God, how [beep] badass is that shit? That is so my vibe. I wish that I had of done it, but the thing is I love that idea so much that I couldn't have passed it off as my own. I grew up in punk and hardcore. The most punk person that I have ever met in my life is Greta Thunberg. She gave me a sense of hope, do you know what I mean? We're all kind of wallowing in nihilism, and what's the point? And when you meet her, she don't give you a pat on the back, I'll tell you that much, but she [beep] means what she's talking about. We were talking about the Sega Mega Drive startup sound of The 1975, and we were talking about how that happens every time, and we were like, 'What is the most modern version of that?' And then the conversation became, 'Well, what is the most modern thing? What is the most modern statement?' And it was Greta Thunberg, we realized, we get Greta Thunberg to sing it. 'We are facing a disaster of unspoken sufferings for enormous amounts of people'. That idea was obviously exciting, immediately. Using that platform is a great thing to do, and it's also creatively exciting. The moment she's deemed, she's one of the most important figures of our generation, but I really like the idea of formally encapsulating that in a piece of music that therefore exists in pop culture, in the way that music does, and goes on a record. You know, no one's gonna find a tweet about Greta Thunberg in the rubble, in a thousand years, do you know what I mean? But if in a thousand years they found that record, that would move somebody in a thousand years, who finds that in the rubble."

May 22, 2020: Matty explains The 1975's Notes on a Conditional Form album. (source)

[aurora-daily]

A Creative Flight: AURORA Interviewed

An interview with AURORA by Susan Hansen for the Clash Magazine (June 24th, 2024)

An emotional meeting with the Norwegian star...

Alternative pop singer AURORA is a creative and political lead, an artist who shines a bright, much needed light on the world. 

A tour de force, Aurora Aksnes’ ambitious new LP is cause to celebrate, even if the state of the world fails to match. The distinguished musician is unafraid to share understanding and insights gained in the past few years, where much time was spent reading, studying and acquiring knowledge.  

The Norwegian singer-songwriter is on a composite journey that involves, but is not limited to, absorbing information, examining creativity and political activism. There is a strong conviction and the commitment shown is unwavering. 

Creativity first, however. A meeting with the singer is arranged, the location is central London, and Clash meets her on a cloudy afternoon in May. “I bought a notebook in the airport,” she tells us. What initially is at risk of seeming like a mundane snippet of information gains in significance, fairly rapidly. 

Her way of observing the clouds is anything but casual, it seems. A painter too, looking at them inspires something else; “I understand why we painted these clouds in the ancient days,” the singer considers. “They were so gorgeous. I was flying through them, looking at them, it was magical. I wrote down what I was seeing, it became a creative flight. It was spiritual.”

One of several core themes, spirituality is a recurring thread in AURORA’s body of work. Then there is a need to make a difference, to help instigate change, have an impact on the outside world, this might explain why she has more to offer than a hit-upon-hit chart artist, which is just how she likes it. Not feeling right about topics such as love, heart aches and revenge is one thing, her agenda is substantial.

“I rant about something that I feel is needed for the world,” she reflects. “It’s hard work to tune in on other things in our daily lives, when there’s so much going wrong outside of us, outside of our families. We’re all brought up to care about our inner circle. All the politics, all these things that we are so scared of outside our inner circle, I write about the outer circles, far away from people in our circles.”

Continuing to discuss, essentially arguing that things in the outer circle are a lot less distant than we think, saying that they actually have a profound effect on us. “I believe that those things far away really affect the things in here, without us being aware of it. I keep that in mind when I write.” 

Unsurprisingly, writing is the backbone, and so much has been achieved, racking up billions of streams, world tours, her book, The Gods We Can Touch published in 2022, selling 14,000 copies, the recent vocal contribution on ‘liMOusIne’ with alt icons Bring Me the Horizon, the list goes on. 

She is the first to admit that things can become too personal and overwhelming, simply be too open to cope with. A decade can go quickly, she knew it was time to do things differently. “It’s very heart on sleeve,” she admits. “It can seem very personal. This album is the first time in my career, where it’s more personal. I was going through something for a long time, something that pulled me so far down that I actually needed music for myself.”

Fair point. But there is AURORA, the activist and environmental campaigner. A Greta Thunberg of music and art, where a dedicated, compassionate approach is demonstrated, an engagement of long-term commitment. What can seem fairly abstract about her work becomes more and more tangible as our conversation progresses. “It’s easier to call it activism. I just always loved nature, I want people to love her too. We need her and indigenous people are connected to that. To me everything comes back to nature, I’ve been very aware of it for years.” 

Honest, direct engagement is priority. Through The Rainforest Alliance contact with some groups was established, including conversations with three female tribe leaders in Colombia, Brazil and Argentina. “They remember a lot of things that we need to remember,” she states with a hint of frustration in her voice. “I cannot believe that we are attacking the very groups, who are protecting what’s left of the world and actually have so much to teach us. That’s a big thing for me.”

She maintains that it makes little sense to “attack the people who are connected to something, it’s like we want the world to forget. Taking the women who are the source of life, taking the children out who are the source of the future, those who are the connection to the past. We are killing everything.”

Viewing herself as a person whose role it is to influence and spread such words, makes arguing the opposite impossible and irrelevant. To her, listening goes beyond anything else, it’s about great listening skills, as is the quality to talk as a friend, as opposed to someone who lectures or patronises. The ability to talk as a friend combined with an urge to learn, educate and let oneself be educated along the way. 

The discovery of a passion for speaking about the environment started early on, even if she didn’t associate it with activism or identify it as such back then, she has been active since the age of sixteen. Her statement “art without politics is boring” is a huge part of who she is. The early realisation that she could use her voice, be someone who expresses ideas, opinions and perspectives was a conscious choice, it made her seek out the political path, which makes more sense now than ever before.   

There are situations where only a friend can help express the most uncomfortable facts, when things have gone too far. So often a friend can help provide what’s needed, and this is the type of voice AURORA aims to be and the voice she shares with others. It’s how she likes to communicate about important topics. 

The connection to nature and earth feeds right into album title ‘What Happened To the Heart?’ If the earth is the basis of everything the world should hold on to, then why is so little care shown, how did we become so far removed from it? “The situation in Palestine shows how willing we are to let unfair things happen, if it’s far away from us. It makes me ask the question now more than ever, what happened to the heart of human kind?” 

The prospect of seeing a colourful world, earth and nature turn into “grey nothingness” is less than favourable. The singer insists that “Mother Earth is the same, she doesn’t scream to us with words that we understand. She speaks to us in her own language, and many of us have forgotten that language completely.” 

What remains immensely positive is seeing how the urgency of this topic is dealt with so skilfully on the record. A concoction of style, a lofty effort, it doesn’t fail to thrill or educate. With its cathartic core it offers a spectrum of emotion, thought and sound palette. From electro-pop song ‘Some Type of Skin’, there are pulsating techno vibes as heard on ‘Starvation’, the more synth led ‘My Body Is Not Mine’ stands out, as does the more instinctive ‘My Name’. It’s an album of unlimited scope and invention. 

It has been an rewarding experience, which according to the singer offered numerous standalone moments. She worked closely with collaborators she knows well (Ane Brun and Matias Tellez), the record also captures fresh openings, new adventures that continue to invigorate. A meeting with a Chinese Pipa player (a string instrument similar to a lute) became the source of an enthralling collaboration. Impressing when she played one of the tracks, the singer just knew the player had to be involved. “I sent her the song. She came back to me the day after, it was amazing. What a woman, I loved the work and kept everything.”

It’s a busy year that continues to get even busier. With festival appearances in the diary, splendid events are in store this summer and include a return to Glastonbury and Roskilde. These are more than just cultural events, they involve engagement with different crowds, they are opportunities to engage with individuals. Each affair is different, people need different things every year, because the world keeps changing. 

“I’m excited to see how the youth inspires me, it makes me hopeful for the future. I want to see them be very much alive and well, which I hope and believe will happen. I’m excited to see the energies amongst people now, you get to see crowds and you realise what the audiences are like right now.”

The prospect of a world tour scheduled to begin later this year is massive, one of unmitigated excitement. “I’m very happy that I’m going out there. It’s beautiful that people accept me all over the place.” 

It’s hard to imagine a place or a country where AURORA isn’t accepted, given the amount of thought and consideration she puts into everything. It’s such a beautiful thing…

[peachfuzz-nygma]

some positive and negative thoughts i have on this last day of pride month:

the positive parts of pride made my heart feel warm. it was so amazing marching with the queers for palestine parade block (greta thunberg was marching with us too!!!). the actual protest part (holding up signs, shouting slogans loudly, showing solidarity) is what i live for. i feel like i’m part of something bigger. i feel like i can truly make a change. my feet hurt and i’m dizzy from the heat but i’ve never felt more powerful. also seeing all the other amazing blocks (dykes on bikes, leather gays, puppies, bears, russian queer immigrants etc etc) made me feel so happy.

but i’m so tired of cis gays during pride (and all year around tbh). i’m so tired of making identities, protests and activism palatable. pride has always been and should be and is still a protest. i don’t really know what the pride parades are like in other countries/cities but here in finland we have the big parade/protest that leads us to a big park where is the “park celebration”. it finally clicked why every year after pride i feel so disappointed/angry/sad. it’s the park celebration that ruins it for me. we have such a big drinking culture here in finland that every chance we get we will drink. the park celebration has just become an excuse for people to come and drink and hang out with friends. and yeahhh ofc this is what we are fighting for!!! for us to celebrate!!! but have you seen the world we are in. of course i would love to celebrate but holy shit i want to fight even more. people even do the whole “i won’t come to the parade but let’s meet up at the park”. I’M SO FUCKING TIRED!!!!!!!! FUCKING DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!!! PUT YOUR DRINKS DOWN AND ACT THE FUCK UP!!!!!! and let me tell you these folks are almost always cis (white) gays. like i said, i’m so tired of cis gays. like i feel like they never get it. they don’t honor pride like pride should be honored (also if you’re gay and cis and you are doing the work this isn’t about you. move along and let me be angry)

on top of this there are these homophobic christians that drive around finland with these big ass homophobic signs. there was a skateboard event on saturday and they absolutely destroyed those signs (hell yeahhhh this is what i want to see). and one of my cis gay friends sent it to me with her basically saying “yeah i’m against them too but violence is never the option”. yeah fuck off. bring back violence at this point. bring back being angry and fighting back. stop being a fucking pussy

anywayyyyy my pride month ended with me sitting on the back of a bus on my way back home and next to me were three other trans people and it made me really happy. i feel like a dog seeing another dog in public everytime i see trans people. it just felt like a good end to this month. we didn’t say anything to each other but it made me feel safe and fuzzy inside (i really wanted to smile at them but i didn’t want to be weird)

[realbeijinger]

A semi-coherent rant on climate change, the value of idealism, and a criticism of TGCF (But also not really because I haven’t finished it yet and also I love MXTX…)

I’m in the middle of Book 3 of Tian Guan Ci Fu, and it is legit making me depressed. Like really, unnecessarily sad. I know I should probably wait until the end to write up my thoughts since I don’t know how things will ultimately turn out, but I feel like I need to process. And so, here we go…

First of all, I am sooo Xie Lian. I feel like this story gets me down so much because it hits too close to home. When I was little, I was super idealistic—I used to go around telling people that love was the most important thing in the world, and that civilization was wrong, because we were destroying the environment, and so we should all go back to living in harmony with nature. I was like a crazy, radical five year old, but also somehow mature-sounding and nauseatingly sweet. Grownups loved me and assumed I would grow up to do something big. But… I haven’t really. Instead I am just a normal person and realized that the world is actually super complicated—like I said, sooo Xie Lian. Except I never became a god or saved even one person…    

Anyways, it’s not like I disagree with MXTX’s criticism of blind idealism. She hit the nail on the head—crushingly well. But I guess, like Xie Lian, I am still clinging to that last bit of hope I haven’t let go of yet.

In TGCF and Mo Dao Zu Shi, things are never black and white, and she criticizes those characters who act with a blind sense of righteousness. She believes in nuance. And yet, in our current moment, we are headed toward a climate catastrophe, and it feels like we are all just sitting back, trying to carefully weigh the ideal course of action—the pros and cons, scared of being too rash, too impulsive—while the world burns.

When I first started watching the Untamed (which is where my MXTX journey started), I was initially drawn in by this extremely beautiful man who was willing to sacrifice so much to do what was right. I loved how he refused to compromise with this screwed up society. Because, I am so frustrated with myself for always compromising. For being part of this system that’s horrible and destroying the world and personally doing very little to stop it. And I wanted to be inspired—and for a minute I was by Wei Wuxian.  

And then, of course, it turns out that the real message was the complete opposite of that, and having dogmatic, uncompromising morals is not something to be applauded. In the eyes of MXTX, it’s very dangerous.

And I mean, she’s not wrong. But I can’t help but think maybe we still need heroes like that. I really admire Greta Thunberg who refuses to fly in planes, buy anything new, doesn’t eat meat. Before anyone joined her protests, she was ditching school every day, literally sitting all by herself in front of Swedish parliament with one pathetic-looking sign. I mean that kind of commitment takes HUGE resolve. It has to come from a total sense of self-righteousness, from a complete unwillingness to compromise or back down—a refusal to listen to her parents, or her teachers, or the large numbers of people around her who were definitely telling her she was nuts. I mean, I try to go veg, and my mother-in-law hands me one homemade meat dish and I instantly fold…

In interviews, Greta often talks about how being on the autism spectrum causes her to view the world in very black and white terms—with good and evil being clearly defined. She often refers to the older generation as “evil” for their role in the climate crisis—a word MXTX would probably not approve of. Normally, I don’t think black and white thinking is good. I also believe in nuance. But when it comes to something like climate, it’s incredibly complicated but also incredibly simple. We have to stop burning fossil fuels. We have to do it now. If we want humanity to survive, we don’t have a choice. We gotta pull out all the stops. We can’t hesitate. And if we do, we’ll lose everything. Any drawbacks that may come from us not using fossil fuels are completely outweighed if the climate goes to shit. There’s no real nuance in that. And to get people to make that sort of change, you need passion. You need motivation. You need feeling. Basically, you need blind idealism. We are soooo screwed, and really, blind idealism is all we have left.     

And I want to have that. Part of me wants to get back to that idealism I lost. But like Xie Lian, I don’t know how…

I dunno. There are always reasons not to do anything. Most of us know life is complicated—our limitations are usually way too obvious. But, I think, sometimes we still should take the single log bridge into darkness. And maybe we need some dumb, cliché hero story to give us the motivation to do it…

Of course, saving the world is not easy. Especially when it comes to large scale national or international politics, the situation in Xianle demonstrates very clearly how easy it is to create unintended consequences. Everything is so complex. There are so many factors, so many competing interests to consider. I do not envy political leaders.

But most of us are not political leaders. Most of us are just ordinary people who want to make the world a little better. We have the capacity to be activists, but that’s it. We don’t have the power to make detailed policy decisions anyway. And so, to some extent, I don’t think we need to worry so much about all that. We just have to push politicians in the right direction.

Even at that high leadership level, though, I do think it’s possible to make better choices—ones that create less harm. And I do think we have an obligation to try and find those. I don’t agree with what the State Preceptor said (and what I think MXTX actually believes), that “Assigning fault is meaningless.” To me, that’s akin to giving up on morality altogether.

A lot of this is a matter of perspective. Yes, if you zoom out far enough, assigning fault is meaningless. But then, if you zoom out far enough, everything is meaningless. Everything we love and care about will one day be gone. Our battles for justice, for equality, for the people we love, will all be entirely pointless once our current society goes the way of the Aztecs, once humanity disappears, once the earth gets swallowed by the sun.

Again, if we zoom far enough out, climate change is not really a problem. According to that wise state preceptor, “In this world, fortune—good or bad—is predetermined.” MXTX believes there is only so much good fortune in the world. If we somehow manage to take too much of it, we will eventually pay the price. Balance will be restored.  

Which is exactly what is happening in this era of climate catastrophe. In the past 200 years since the industrial revolution, humanity has taken a lot of fortune. For the first time in history, we don’t worry every day about finding food. We’ve conquered a whole host of deadly diseases, have greatly reduced our need for manual labor, and can spend our days in mental pursuits, making art, or writing self-indulgent essays about Chinese web novels.

All of this, I would argue, is not really because of human ingenuity, but because we happened to find an incredibly powerful energy source—fossil fuels—which have given us the illusion of “human progress.” Let’s remember that this “progress” has only lasted for about 200 years, a small dot on the graph of human existence (300,000 years), and that for most of that time, people viewed history as a cycle, with inevitable ups and downs, rather than a continuous march upward.

In other words, in the past 200 years, we’ve taken too much fortune. But nature will correct the balance. I don’t think climate change will destroy life on earth. Even if the worst happens and humanity bites the dust, other species will most likely persist, evolving into creatures completely new—a rebirth, of sorts. Looking at it from that far-off, disinterested perspective, it’s not really a problem. It’s just what nature does. New species follow each other, one after the next—like passing seasons.

But, even if all this is true, I don’t think we can be so detached. I don’t think we can live our lives believing that morality is pointless, not trying to do the right thing, or not worrying about how our actions affect others. If we approach life with such indifference, what’s to stop us from completely giving up?

One of my favorite TV shows is this old drama called Dead Like Me, where a wise, older character (a state preceptor, of sorts), says to the main character, “If you stand too close to a painting — all you see are patches of color, if you stand too far back, you can't see any of the detail.” In other words, when it comes to life, you need to stand the right distance away. Personally, I think MXTX is standing too far back. It’s true, there is so much we can’t control. Though we may be able to make things better for a bit, we cannot alter the basic cycle of life. Life is suffering. It was true when Buddha said it, and it’s true now. And if we try to “attempt the impossible,” as the Jiang motto says, and radically change that dynamic, we will fail.

But unlike in MXTX’s universe, fate doesn’t really screw us at every turn. Every day there are small victories. I used to do social work, which really was an exercise in the futility of trying to fix deeply rooted problems with insufficient tools, but I still remember those few times when I did do something right: the old man with dementia I got to take his meds, the guy who found his family on Facebook.

Even just writing a stupid email to Biden telling him to stop the drilling… we have to value those actions. We have to be invested. Sure, the universe doesn’t care. But I think we should still care. We can’t just throw up our hands and say the world is fucked. Because if everyone did that, the world really would be fucked. Even more so than it already is.  

Again, I realize I don’t entirely know where she’s going with all this. It’s very possible there’s going to be more to it than just criticizing idealism. Despite all the depressing stuff, I see crumbs of hope in how Hua Cheng loves Xie Lian, and values his attempts to help others. The line, “Although foolish, it is brave,” just floored me. I loved it so much. Honestly, I’d probably be happy if she leaves open any hope for idealism at all.   

But also, I have to prepare myself for the possibility that I will not totally agree with what she has to say. Which should be fine. I mean, in real life, I’m pretty good at interacting with people I fundamentally disagree with. But… in the hands of an author like MXTX, I feel like my emotions are like putty. I’m completely at her mercy. And partially, I don’t want to fight that. I want to give myself to the story, and lose myself in it completely. That’s a great feeling, but also, kind of… vulnerable? And then, when so emotionally invested, to suddenly realize that what the author’s saying bothers me…

Of course, I’ll get over it. I always do. Usually I write meta or fanfic as a way to process—to get out of someone else’s story, out of their head, and back into my own.

Anyways, we’ll see. Don’t tell me what happens!! I am trusting YOU, strangers on the internet!

If that’s not blind idealism, I don’t know what is…

[womeninfictionandirl]

Greta Thunberg by Allison Adams

“We can't save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change - and it has to start today.”

Greta Thunberg (born 2003) is a climate activist from Sweden. As a school girl with autism, standing at less than 5ft, she started the ‘School Strike for Climate’ protests. Over the past year, she has become a global superstar of the climate change movement, promoting #fridaysforfuture alongside millions of school children (and now adults) across the globe to demand politicians, governments, and corporations take action on climate change.On Friday, August 20th, 2018, Greta began to sit outside the Parliament building in Stockholm every day during school time with a sign that read “Skolstrejk för klimatet’ (School Strike for Climate) demanding the country reduce carbon emissions. She quickly gained media coverage and the support of students and activists all over the world, who joined her voice in their own school strikes, demanding adults and lawmakers to take climate crisis and the future of the planet seriously.

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday, Scottish pop and folk singer-songwriter Donovan.

Born Donovan Philips Leitch, 10th May 1946 in Glasgow, he spent his early years in Maryhill before the family moved to Hatfeild in Hertfordshire when he was 10, the eclectic folk-rock singer-songwriter became an overnight success at 18 after appearing on the ATV Friday night show Ready Steady Go in 1965. He went on to have international hits with Catch the Wind, Colours, Universal Soldier, Sunshine Superman and Hurdy Gurdy Man and was hailed as our answer to Bob Dylan.

Where the thrust of Dylan’s music remains its bleak introspection and bitter realism, Donovan fully embraced the wide-eyed optimism of the flower-power movement, and his recordings perfectly capture the peace-and-love idealism of their time.

By the 70’s the hits began to dry up, but Donovan continued to make music and just this year has released his 26th album, albeit and collection of, as he says “21 Climate Change songs” re-recorded with his wife, as a tribute to Greta Thunberg and the millions of students around the world who call for action by the governments of the world to halt Climate Change.

But Donovan was doing all this well before the current generation, you only have to look at one of the songs he wrote in 1969, Riki Tiki Tavi….

Better get into what you gotta get into Better get into it now, no slacking please United Nations ain't really united And the organisations ain't really organised

[rjzimmerman]

Ending growth won’t save the planet. (Washington Post Op-Ed)

Ever since Thomas Malthus argued just over 200 years ago that population growth would outstrip “the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man,” there has been a continuous parade of Cassandras fretting that humanity is about to exhaust the planet’s carrying capacity.

Neo-Malthusian thinking inspired such 20th-century writings as Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book, “The Population Bomb,” and the Club of Rome’s 1972 “The Limits to Growth,” which predicted civilization would end “sometime within the next one hundred years.” In “Toward a Steady-State Economy,” published in 1973, economist Herman Daly argued that economic growth should be resisted for the sake of the environment.

Climate change is drawing out such sentiments again. Yet the prescription — that economic growth must stop — is as wrong as it was when the grim Rev. Malthus predicted that a growing population would outstrip the Earth’s capacity to produce food, requiring famine, war and pestilence to bring humanity’s numbers back to a sustainable level.

“Degrowth” — the brand name for neo-Malthusianism — ignores how ingenuity and innovation have repeatedly empowered humanity to overcome ecological constraints identified by Malthus, Ehrlich, et al. Degrowthers ignore basic lessons of history: The world experienced no growth for hundreds of years. Getting ahead economically during certain periods of the Middle Ages, for example, required plundering one’s neighbor. Transactions were zero-sum. The outcome was centuries of conquest and subjugation.

Malthus made his predictions just as England and the rest of Europe were about to enter a two-century era of unprecedented economic growth, which liberated much of humanity from misery and drastically improved health and well-being. Ehrlich’s prophecies came just as the Green Revolution in agriculture was saving hundreds of millions from hunger.

Growth built a world in which one person’s gain needn’t require another’s loss. Consensual politics and democracy wouldn’t have been possible without it. We wonder how Daly or his acolytes would be received in the bustling yet poor megalopolis of Lagos, Nigeria, proclaiming the end of growth (or procreation) to save the planet.

And yet degrowth is coming back in fashion. The ranks of degrowthers include progressive journalist Naomi Klein, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and even Pope Francis. At least one European university is now offering a master’s degree in degrowth.

The truth is that degrowth wouldn’t fix climate change even in the unlikely event it could be imposed. Carbon emissions from economic growth can be understood as the product of four factors: population growth, growth in economic output per person, changes in the amount of energy needed for economic production, and the change in how much carbon dioxide is released when energy is consumed.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates these variables up to 2050. One inescapable conclusion: Zeroing out growth in gross domestic product would do little to reduce emissions. Even if output per person remained stuck at 2023 levels all the way to mid-century, humanity would still miss its 2050 target to reach net-zero emissions — by 26 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

Halting growth in rich countries alone — allowing poor countries such as Nigeria to keep growing, hopefully to one day attain the economic well-being that affluent nations enjoy today — would do even less for the climate. Under this scenario, the world would miss its mid-century CO2 target by 38 billion tons.

Cutting emissions to safer levels would require epic degrowth. Getting carbon dioxide emissions below 10 billion tons per year in 2050 would demand inducing recessions that would cut world GDP per capita by about 5 percent per year — more than the loss during the 2008-2009 Great Recession.

[notwiselybuttoowell]

An unprecedented year of elections around the world has underscored a sobering trend – in many countries the commitment to act on the climate crisis has either stalled or is eroding, even as disasters and record temperatures continue to mount.

So far 2024, called the “biggest election year in human history” by the United Nations with around half the world’s population heading to the polls, there have been major wins for Donald Trump, the US president-elect who calls the climate crisis “a big hoax”; the climate-skeptic right in European Union elections; and Vladimir Putin, who won another term and has endured sanctions to maintain Russia’s robust oil and gas exports.

“It’s quite clear that in most advanced economies the big loser of the elections has been climate,” said Catherine Fieschi, an expert in European politics and populism.

“It’s been a bad year for climate and we’ve seen a gradual erosion in the public’s commitment to action for a couple of years now. The paradox is, of course, that major climate events are happening more frequently everywhere, yet people are no longer willing to prioritize this.”

From an apogee about five years ago, with Greta Thunberg’s ubiquitous activism and talk of massive new green investments, climate has slipped down the agenda for many countries after a pandemic, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, unease over inflation and a rise in populist political figures.

“It’s been the perfect storm,” said Fieschi. “Even the vocabulary has changed – not so much green now, but clean. There’s been a shift in the political balance where climate has taken a back seat to inflation and energy prices. Rather than climate being the existential threat, it’s the Green New Deal that is seen as the threat.”

Even though this year is almost certain to be the hottest ever recorded globally, with floods and heatwaves roiling Europe, Asia, the US and Mexico, the climate crisis has mostly been a background electoral issue, apart from in India, where protests by farmers, whose harvests have been wrecked by extreme weather and unpredictable rains, helped shape a backdrop upon which Narendra Modi won a third term as prime minister.

“I think it’s misleading to say that there has been a tsunami of populism; not everyone who voted for Trump is onboard with a far-right agenda,” said Jan-Werner Müller, a political scientist at Princeton University. “But there are worrying signs. If you look at the center-right actors in Europe, some of them think they should make concessions on climate to make people think they are listening and not going too far, too fast.

“They are making pre-emptive concessions to populism and are reading climate as part of the culture war. But if you repeat the talking points and framing of the hard right you are just making them more powerful.”

[gracecpy]

How might activists use social media in the future?

Hello everyone! In today’s blog topic, I will be talking about the use of social media by activists in the future. Let’s get into it!

Social media activism is a contemporary approach to rallying public opinion and driving change. It utilizes platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to raise awareness, gather support, and, in some cases, influence policymakers.

Unlike traditional activism, it enables instant communication and a broader reach, overcoming geographical barriers. Social media has revolutionized activism by transforming online content into impactful tools for advocacy and empowering movements in unprecedented ways (Devin Partida, 2024).

Activism Evolution

Activism has long been a catalyst for societal change. In the past, it relied on physical gatherings, printed materials, and word-of-mouth to unite people and spread messages. Movements such as the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war protests were rooted in traditional forms of activism, including rallies, sit-ins, and marches, where direct community involvement and physical presence were key elements.

The shift to the digital era brought a significant transformation. With the rise of the internet and social media platforms, the ways people connect and share information were revolutionized. This digital advancement has made social media a powerful tool for activism.

It allowed activists to connect with larger audiences, quickly organize events, and disseminate information in real time. Social media eliminated geographical barriers, enabling global issues to gain local attention and local movements to resonate on a global scale (Devin Partida, 2024).

Influencers and Leaders In Social Media Activism 🗣️

Image credit: Global Heroes

Influencers, leaders, and individuals play a crucial role in shaping movements on social media. The digital landscape has given rise to a new generation of activists who can influence public opinion and mobilize large groups through their online presence. These figures leverage their platforms to drive awareness, engage supporters, and push for change, making them key players in modern activism.

One of the most influential figures in recent years is Greta Thunberg, whose solo climate protest sparked a worldwide movement, largely propelled by social media. Her clear and powerful messages on platforms like Twitter and Instagram have inspired millions, especially young people, to take part in climate activism. Thunberg's online presence has been crucial in mobilizing support and raising awareness about climate change globally.

Another notable figure is Malala Yousafzai, who actively uses social media to advocate for girls' education around the world. Her inspiring personal story and unwavering commitment to the cause, shared across platforms, have rallied a global audience and highlighted the issue of educational inequality.

These activists effectively leverage social media by crafting clear, impactful messages that resonate with their audiences. They often interact directly with their followers, fostering a sense of community and collective purpose. This strategy not only spreads awareness but also motivates people to take action, turning them from passive supporters into active advocates.

The success of these tactics is evident in the way they influence public opinion and spur action. Social media-driven movements led by figures like Thunberg and Yousafzai have sparked real-world protests, policy debates, and, in some instances, changes in legislation.

Tools For Social Media Activism 🔧

Social media platforms have become crucial tools for activism due to their wide reach, user-friendly nature, and ability to connect individuals with shared interests (Tenley Jackson, 2023). These platforms create an environment where voices that are often sidelined by mainstream media can be heard and amplified, allowing marginalized groups to advocate for their causes effectively.

Hashtags: Hashtags like #StopAsianHate and #NeverAgain allow activists to unify their messages and create visibility around specific causes. These tags create searchable movements and increase engagement by making it easier for individuals to find and contribute to ongoing conversations.

Viral content: Whether it’s videos, images, or tweets—plays a vital role in raising awareness and engaging the public. When a post goes viral, it can reach far beyond the creator's immediate followers, expanding its impact. This broad sharing boosts visibility, bringing the issue to the forefront of public attention. Content that is emotionally charged or shocking often elicits stronger reactions, motivating viewers to take action. Such viral moments can drive significant social and political change by reaching a wide audience quickly and compelling people to get involved.

Online Communities: Social media platforms help build online communities where activists can exchange resources, strategies, and support. These communities can range from large, public groups to smaller, more private networks. They serve as central hubs for organizing events, spreading information, and offering emotional or logistical support to members. Through these networks, movements can maintain momentum, adjust to new challenges, and stay connected in real time. This collaborative environment allows activism to be more dynamic and adaptable, ensuring that campaigns stay relevant and effective as circumstances change.

More Than Just Social Media 👤

Activism existed long before social media, and it will continue even if these platforms were to disappear. While showing support, like updating your profile picture, is a helpful gesture, there is likely more you can do to contribute (Shelby Brown, 2022). What that looks like will vary based on individual factors such as your schedule, financial resources, mental health, and personal understanding of social issues. Everyone’s involvement may take different forms, but each action can contribute meaningfully to a cause.

The Future 🌏

Social media activism has a profound effect on political decisions and policies by shaping public opinion, enabling direct advocacy, and mobilizing support. The way activists engage with political figures on these platforms has evolved, offering direct communication, increasing scrutiny and accountability, and influencing political discourse (Devin Partida, 2024).

As more people adopt new technologies, it's important to reflect on how the ongoing evolution of these tools will reshape the nature and impact of social media activism in the future. Will it continue to drive significant change, or will its influence diminish as the digital landscape transforms? This question challenges us to consider the lasting power of online activism as technology advances.

References

Devin Partida. (2024, January 4). How Social Media Activism Shapes Movements

https://rehack.com/culture/social-media-activism/

Tenley Jackson. (2023, November 17). Point: social media is necessary for modern activism

https://thedailytexan.com/2023/11/17/point-social-media-is-necessary-for-modern-activism/

Shelby Brown. (2022, April 5). How Activists Use Social Media for Good -- and You Can Too

https://www.cnet.com/news/social-media/features/how-activists-use-social-media-for-good-and-you-can-too/

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

by Don and Joy Veinot | It is odd but in light of where much of Western culture is today, Wild in the Streets seems almost prophetic. For example, at the age of fifteen, Swedish-born Greta Thunberg took her largely ignorant but passionate narrative concerning “climate change” into politics, attempting to sway the Swedish elections. A year later, she publicly scolded world leaders in her 2019…

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

David Horsey, Seattle Times ::  [Scott Horton]

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[Why climate ‘doomers’ are replacing climate ‘deniers’

How U.N. reports and confusing headlines created a generation of people who believe climate change can’t be stopped]

When Sean Youra was 26 years old and working as an engineer, he started watching documentaries about climate change. Youra, who was struggling with depression and the loss of a family member, was horrified by what he learned about melting ice and rising extreme weather. He started spending hours on YouTube, watching videos made by fringe scientists who warned that the world was teetering on the edge of societal collapse — or even near-term human extinction. Youra started telling his friends and family that he was convinced that climate change couldn’t be stopped, and humanity was doomed.

In short, he says, he became a climate “doomer.”“It all compounded and just led me down a very dark path,” he said. “I became very detached and felt like giving up on everything.”

That grim view of the planet’s future is becoming more common. Influenced by a barrage of grim U.N. reports — such as the one published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier this week — and negative headlines, a group of people believe that the climate problem cannot, or will not, be solved in time to prevent all-out societal collapse. They are known, colloquially, as climate “doomers.” And some scientists and experts worry that their defeatism — which could undermine efforts to take action — may be just as dangerous as climate denial.“

It’s fair to say that recently many of us climate scientists have spent more time arguing with the doomers than with the deniers,” said Zeke Hausfather, a contributing author to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and climate research lead at the payments company Stripe.

The origins of doomism stretch back far — McPherson, for example, has been predicting the demise of human civilization for decades — but the mind-set seems to have become markedly more mainstream in the past five years. Jacquelyn Gill, a climate scientist at the University of Maine, says that in 2018 she started hearing different sorts of questions when she spoke at panels or did events online. “I started getting emails from people saying: ‘I’m a young person. Is there even a point in going to college? Will I ever be able to grow up and have kids?’” she said.

Well before the coronavirus pandemic, a few factors combined to make 2018 feel like the year of doom. 2015, 2016 and 2017 had just been the three hottest years on record. Climate protests had begun to spread across the globe, including Greta Thunberg’s School Strike and the U.K.-based protest group known as Extinction Rebellion. In the academic world, British professor of sustainability Jem Bendell wrote a paper called “Deep Adaptation,” which urged readers to prepare for “inevitable near-term societal collapse due to climate change.” (The paper has been widely critiqued by many climate scientists.)And then the United Nations issued a special report on 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, released in October 2018, which kicked many people’s climate anxiety into overdrive.

The report, which focused on how an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius from preindustrial levels might compare to 2 degrees Celsius, included grim predictions like the death of the world’s coral reefs and ice-free summers in the Arctic. But a central message many took from the report — that there were only 12 years left to save the planet — wasn’t even in the report. It came from a Guardian headline.In three of the four pathways the report charted for limiting warming to 1.5C, the world would have to cut carbon dioxide emissions 40 to 60 percent by 2030. “We have 12 years to limit climate catastrophe,” the Guardian reported, and other outlets soon followed. The phrase soon became an activist rallying cry.“‘Twelve years to save the planet’ was actually: We have 12 years to cut global emissions in half to stay consistent with a 1.5C scenario,” Hausfather explained. “Then ‘12 years to save the planet’ becomes interpreted by the public as: If we don’t stop climate change in 12 years, something catastrophic happens.”“It was really a game of telephone,” he added.

Hausfather said part of the problem is that climate targets — say, the goal to limit warming to 1.5C — have become interpreted by the public as climate thresholds, which would drive the planet into a “hothouse” state. In fact, scientists don’t believe there is anything unique about that temperature that will cause runaway tipping points; the landmark IPCC report merely aimed to show the risks of bad impacts are much higher at 2C than at 1.5.“It’s not like 1.9C is not an existential risk and 2.1C is,” Hausfather said. “It’s more that we’re playing Russian roulette with the climate.” Every increase in temperature, that is, makes the risks of bad impacts that much higher.Still, scientists who try to clarify those nuances sometimes encounter hostility, particularly online. “If you try to push back on this in any way, you get accused of minimizing the climate crisis,” Gill said. “I’ve been accused of being a shill for the fossil fuel industry.”The problem with climate “doom” — beyond the toll that it can create on mental health — is that it can cause paralysis. Psychologists have long believed that some amount of hope, combined with a belief that personal actions can make a difference, can keep people engaged on climate change. But, according to a study by researchers at Yale and Colorado State universities, “many Americans who accept that global warming is happening cannot express specific reasons to be hopeful.”

For some, however, doomism isn’t permanent. Youra, the former engineer, still remembers how strongly he felt that humanity was done for. He believed that the IPCC and other scientists were covering up how bad climate change actually was — and no peer-reviewed research could convince him otherwise. “I think it’s kind of similar to what deniers feel,” he said. “I wasn’t being open-minded.”In 2018, he briefly considered quitting his job to travel the world — hoping to see what he could before society and the natural world collapsed. Slowly, though, he started getting involved in local climate groups, and when he attended a meeting in Alameda for the California city’s climate plan, something clicked. “I think that for me was key,” he said. “It made me start realizing the power of good policy.” 

Now 32, he has earned a master’s degree in environmental science and policy and works as the climate action coordinator for the California towns of San Anselmo and Fairfax.Worry — and even occasional despair — about the climate crisis is normal. Most scientists believe that, without deeper cuts, the world is headed for 2 to 3 degrees Celsius of global warming. But higher temperatures are still possible if humans get unlucky with how the planet responds to higher CO2 levels. Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute, has said that while humans probably won’t go extinct due to climate change, “not going extinct” is a low bar.“It’s a question of risk, not known catastrophe,” Hausfather said. 

[This is a well-written and researched report/essay by Shannon Osaka:]