#Tree Planting Campaign

[kampalaedgetimes]

Tororo Rugby Launches Tree Planting Campaign for Environmental Impact

Tororo Rugby has launched a new tree planting campaign as part of its Olympic values. The initiative involves planting trees after rugby clinics in Eastern Uganda and Western Kenya. Given the large number of students and pupils participating in rugby, the Tororo Rugby management felt that tree planting could be a valuable corporate social responsibility activity. The tree planting campaign is…

[townpostin]

Third Gender Community Distributes Plants on Pride Month's Last Day

Community members appeal for planting trees to combat heat The third gender community distributed plants to the public in Bistupur, urging everyone to plant at least one tree. JAMSHEDPUR – On the final day of Pride Month, the third gender community, under the banner of Utthan, distributed plants to people at the Bistupur light signal. They emphasized the importance of planting trees to combat the…

[arabella-strange]

Somebody please make a table-to-screen progression of the Sun Tree McConaughey-ing "heeeeey there kiki" to the beautiful sun-dappled Sun Tree in TLOVM s3e1 sighing "✨ aaaall riiiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhhhhttttttt :) 🍃✨"

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

"“Tree planting campaigns are important, but it’s more important that we do it right, planting the right trees in the right places," says ecologist Jake M. Robinson. In a new interview, Robinson explains what it really takes to grow a forest."

[ur-mag]

Campaigner Saalumarada Thimmakka, 112, who planted 8,000 trees is rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties | In Trend Today

Campaigner Saalumarada Thimmakka, 112, who planted 8,000 trees is rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties Read Full Text or Full Article on MAG NEWS

[heritageposts]

Harris has been a staunch supporter of Israel for years. In 2017 she addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) annual conference and reminded attendees that the first resolution she co-sponsored as a senator was aimed at combating “anti-Israel bias” at the United Nations. “Let me be clear about what I believe. I stand with Israel because of our shared values, which are so fundamental to the founding of both our nations,” she told the crowd. In 2018 she gave an off-the-record speech to the organization, but eventually released her comments. In that speech she claimed that she raised money for the Jewish National Fund as a Girl Scout. “Having grown up in the Bay area, I fondly remember those Jewish National Fund boxes that we would use to collect donations to plant trees for Israel,” she told the audience. “Years later, when I visited Israel for the first time, I saw the fruits of that effort and the Israeli ingenuity that has truly made a desert bloom.”

For those unfamiliar with the Jewish National Fund (JNF), they're a Zionist organization that has been instrumental in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

See Stop the JNF for more information on their history, the way they operate, and their decades-long campaign of greenwashing (i.e. destroying native plants, crops, and agriculture under the banner of 'making the desert bloom').

Continuing, the Mondoweiss article goes:

“The vast majority of people understand the importance of the State of Israel,” she added later. “Both in terms of its history and its present in terms of being a source of inspiration on so many issues, which I hope we will talk about, and also what it means in terms of the values of the United States and those values that are shared values with Israel, and the importance of fighting to make sure that we protect and respect a friend, one of the best friends we could possibly have.” While running for President in 2019, Harris was praised by the lobbying group Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) for running to the right of Obama on the Iran deal. On the campaign trail Harris told Kat Wellman, a voter affiliated with DMFI, that she would reenter the agreement but “strengthen it” by “extending the sunset provisions, including ballistic missile testing, and also increasing oversight.” “I was very impressed with her. I thought she gave an excellent speech, she gave a very detailed, responsive answer to my question,” Wellman told a local paper after the exchange. “I’m pro-Israel, so I was I was very concerned and all about making sure we limit nuclear missiles in any country that could possibly destroy us all. I thought her answer was very good.” Harris has condemned the BDS movement and claimed that is “based on the mistaken assumption that Israel is solely to blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” However, she voted against an anti-BDS bill in 2019 citing First Amendment concerns.

For the full article, which includes Kamala's response to Israel post Al-Aqsa Flood, see Mondoweiss (July 22, 2024)

[alpha-mag-media]

Campaigner Saalumarada Thimmakka, 112, who planted 8,000 trees is rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties | In Trend Today

Campaigner Saalumarada Thimmakka, 112, who planted 8,000 trees is rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties Read Full Text or Full Article on MAG NEWS

[delicatelysublimeforester]

Greening the Future: Richard St. Barbe Baker's Environmental Legacy at the United Nations

[reasonsforhope]

Masterpost: Reasons I firmly believe we will beat climate change

Posts are in reverse chronological order (by post date, not article date), mostly taken from my "climate change" tag, which I went through all the way back to the literal beginning of my blog. Will update periodically.

Especially big deal articles/posts are in bold.

Big picture:

Mature trees offer hope in world of rising emissions (x)

Spying from space: How satellites can help identify and rein in a potent climate pollutant (x)

Good news: Tiny urban green spaces can cool cities and save lives (x)

Conservation and economic development go hand in hand, more often than expected (x)

The exponential growth of solar power will change the world (x)

Sun Machines: Solar, an energy that gets cheaper and cheaper, is going to be huge (x)

Wealthy nations finally deliver promised climate aid, as calls for more equitable funding for poor countries grow (x)

For Earth Day 2024, experts are spreading optimism – not doom. Here's why. (x)

Opinion: I’m a Climate Scientist. I’m Not Screaming Into the Void Anymore. (x)

The World’s Forests Are Doing Much Better Than We Think (x)

‘Staggering’ green growth gives hope for 1.5C, says global energy chief (x)

Beyond Catastrophe: A New Climate Reality Is Coming Into View (x)

Young Forests Capture Carbon Quicker than Previously Thought (x)

Yes, climate change can be beaten by 2050. Here's how. (x)

Soil improvements could keep planet within 1.5C heating target, research shows (x)

The global treaty to save the ozone layer has also slowed Arctic ice melt (x)

The doomers are wrong about humanity’s future — and its past (x)

Scientists Find Methane is Actually Offsetting 30% of its Own Heating Effect on Planet (x)

Are debt-for-climate swaps finally taking off? (x)

High seas treaty: historic deal to protect international waters finally reached at UN (x)

How Could Positive ‘Tipping Points’ Accelerate Climate Action? (x)

Specific examples:

Environmental Campaigners Celebrate As Labour Ends Tory Ban On New Onshore Wind Projects (x)

Private firms are driving a revolution in solar power in Africa (x)

How the small Pacific island nation of Vanuatu drastically cut plastic pollution (x)

Rewilding sites have seen 400% increase in jobs since 2008, research finds [Scotland] (x)

The American Climate Corps take flight, with most jobs based in the West (x)

Waste Heat Generated from Electronics to Warm Finnish City in Winter Thanks to Groundbreaking Thermal Energy Project (x)

Climate protection is now a human right — and lawsuits will follow [European Union] (x)

A new EU ecocide law ‘marks the end of impunity for environmental criminals’ (x)

Solar hits a renewable energy milestone not seen since WWII [United States] (x)

These are the climate grannies. They’ll do whatever it takes to protect their grandchildren. [United States and Native American Nations] (x)

Century of Tree Planting Stalls the Warming Effects in the Eastern United States, Says Study (x)

Chart: Wind and solar are closing in on fossil fuels in the EU (x)

UK use of gas and coal for electricity at lowest since 1957, figures show (x)

Countries That Generate 100% Renewable Energy Electricity (x)

Indigenous advocacy leads to largest dam removal project in US history [United States and Native American Nations] (x)

India’s clean energy transition is rapidly underway, benefiting the entire world (x)

China is set to shatter its wind and solar target five years early, new report finds (x)

‘Game changing’: spate of US lawsuits calls big oil to account for climate crisis (x)

Largest-ever data set collection shows how coral reefs can survive climate change (x)

The Biggest Climate Bill of Your Life - But What Does It DO? [United States] (x)

Good Climate News: Headline Roundup April 1st through April 15th, 2023 (x)

How agroforestry can restore degraded lands and provide income in the Amazon (x) [Brazil]

Loss of Climate-Crucial Mangrove Forests Has Slowed to Near-Negligable Amount Worldwide, Report Hails (x)

Agroecology schools help communities restore degraded land in Guatemala (x)

Climate adaptation:

Solar-powered generators pull clean drinking water 'from thin air,' aiding communities in need: 'It transforms lives' (x)

‘Sponge’ Cities Combat Urban Flooding by Letting Nature Do the Work [China] (x)

Indian Engineers Tackle Water Shortages with Star Wars Tech in Kerala (x)

A green roof or rooftop solar? You can combine them in a biosolar roof — boosting both biodiversity and power output (x)

Global death tolls from natural disasters have actually plummeted over the last century (x)

Los Angeles Just Proved How Spongy a City Can Be (x)

This city turns sewage into drinking water in 24 hours. The concept is catching on [Namibia] (x)

Plants teach their offspring how to adapt to climate change, scientists find (x)

Resurrecting Climate-Resilient Rice in India (x)

Edit 1/12/25: Yes, I know a bunch of the links disappeared. I'll try to fix that when I get the chance. In the meantime, read all the other stuff!!

Other Masterposts:

Going carbon negative and how we're going to fix global heating (x)

[fading-event-608]

A fig tree for pixel dailies.

"Figs are planted in most Palestinian cities. However, it is most common in two districts, Nablus — especially in the village of Tell — and Ramallah — namely in Silwad, which became known as Im-Qutteen (mother of dried figs). Other villages also have names relating to the fig, such as Teeneh (fig). There are also flat areas called masateeh referring to the places where figs are dried to produce qutteen.

The fig has long been linked to Palestinian cultural heritage because it is nutritious and filling, and thus a staple of the Palestinian diet. It was known in Palestine as far back as the Canaanites. Palestinians have their own terms for the fig: while it is forming, the fruit is taqsh, then faj and then ‘ajr. Other used terms are nafal and thbeel.

Old traditional sayings reflect the importance of figs in Palestine. For example: ‘I tasted the first fruit, I hope my life has a long route’; ‘Eat the figs from the early season and the grapes from the late season’;* and ‘If we have qutteen (dried figs), we are safe from hunger.'"

-from The Palestinian Museum which took that info from 'A Garden Among the Hills: The Floral Heritage of Palestine'

Trees, would it be olive trees (which I also have a drawing of) or fig ones are important in Palestine. Just like in other countries, they provide shade, fresh air and produce. But in Palestine, they are also a symbol of resistance - as long as family's tree is growing, they are growing too; as long as the tree is alive, they are alive too.

When Israeli occupiers takes Palestinian's homes that they've built over multiple generations, they take their trees that they groomed too. When IOF drops bombs on civilians, they take trees with them. They uproot the trees, they burn them - because those trees remind them of people they've killed and whose land they have taken.

It seems like the world is slowly growing numb to cries for help; it seems like people are closing their eyes and covering their ears to not see the Palestinian blood on their screens, to not hear them scream. And Israel sees that and continues it's aggression on Lebanon. After all, if they can get away with a year (76 years) of genocide, why not start another one?

Please take any action you can. Protest, boycott, keep your eyes on Palestine and please, please, please donate to Palestinian fundraisers. I have spotlighted one fundraiser, for Falastin's family evacuation funds from Gaza that she organized in late June - it is still very far away from it's goal.

There are 24 family members that depend on that fundraiser. They need not only evacuation funds but also money to buy basic necessities like food and medicine that are very expensive in Gaza right now. Recently Falastin started hearing them talk about waiting for their fate because the funds this campaign gets daily are not enough to ease their suffering and cover evacuation.

Please, do not let it happen. Please, donate and check conversion rates before you do as:

10$ = 103 SEK

25$ = 257 SEK

50$ = 515 SEK

100$ = 1,030 SEK

I've talked about this fundraiser before numerous times, a lot of info can be found on this post [here] or [here].

Vetting info: #282 in El-Shab-Hussein and Nabulsi's spreadsheet [here], #957 in the Butterfly Project spreadsheet [here]

I do semi-regular art updates (last one [here]) and accept commissions for proof of donations, please dm me for info as my art blog was terminated recenty.

[santaeofficial]

Greetings From Santae, Our Kickstarter Is LIVE NOW! Our Kickstarter Campaign will run August 30th - September 30th! With the overwhelming support from our community we were fully funded in 28 minutes! Let's hit these stretch goals and bring so many amazing features to Santae Much Sooner than planned!

Exciting things are underway in the magical world of Santae, and there’s no better time to begin – or continue – your adventure with us.

We’re thrilled to announce that the official Santae Kickstarter campaign launched August 30! Backing the project will grant you exclusive access to the site during our Beta launch, in addition to an incredible variety of rewards.

Tier Rewards range from beautiful Animated Wardrobe items for your avatar, to the companionship of the Kyree, Phasmic, and Seamso pets, and much more. You can even unlock the opportunity to collaborate with our art and design teams to design your very own site content: A Minimal, hairstyle, on-site item or clothing set, NPC, or even pet species!

Visit the Official Santae Kickstarter Today!

Visit this page for a sneak peek of all available Kickstarter tiers and rewards!

The Road So Far…

The beginning of Santae’s Alpha test on May 12th, was the start of an incredible journey. In the weeks since then, we’ve enriched the game with dozens of regular updates and exciting new features.

Here is just a taste of what we’ve added to enhance your experience on Santae:

New pet species

On Santae, mystical pets are your adventuring companions. There are plenty to choose from, and many more species on the way! Over the course of Alpha, we released 5 brand new pet species for Santarians to befriend. We’ve also increased the amount of pet friends you can add to your adventure party to 10 when you start!

The adorable moth-like Nochturn is ready to join any Santarian’s adventuring party as soon as they join the site. Brave adventurers who journey to the Lava Caves of the Flamefall Cascades can find the draconic Harlowin and fearsome Grusim. The elegant Drava can be found at traveling merchant Vespera’s exclusive shop. And finally, the friendly Quibbit evolves from its tadpole-like Minimal form.

Which pet species will become your faithful adventuring companion?

New Pet Colors

No matter your style, you can customize your pet companions on Santae with the help of magical shimmer dust!

We announced FOUR exciting new pet colors over the course of Alpha, with more to come in Beta and beyond. Will your pet let its true colors shine with the beautiful Prismatic shimmer dust? Will it become an adorable Pipsqueak? Will they show class and elegance with a RegalShimmer Dust? Or will you give your pet a taste of retro digital style with the brand-new Synthwave color?

New Minimals

In the world of Santae, your pets can adopt enchanting companions of their own called Minimals! Choose from dozens of types to find your pet’s perfect match.

Santae’s Alpha phase has brought many new exciting types of Minimals to join the herd. Which will your pet adopt?

Exciting New Site Features

The world of Santae is rich with opportunities to explore, gather, and discover. During the site’s Alpha phase, we’ve unlocked engaging on-site mini-games that bring you and your pets all across the vibrant world of Santae.

Send your pets Gathering at locations across Santae and they will bring back exciting items to share with you! Your pet might bring you a magical rune from the mysterious Stormforge Caverns, gather useful plants from the Ancient Grove, or maybe even discover an egg that can hatch into another pet at the volcanic pools of Ember Springs. You can also direct your pet to pluck rare berries from the Great Berry Tree!

When your pets go Fishing at the sunny Solar Sands – or in any gathering location across Santae – there’s no telling what they might find at the other end of the line. You might reel in a delicious fish, an eel that can join your pet as its Minimal companion, a piece of useful equipment that only needs a small repair, and so much more. More discoveries in the depths of the waters around Santae are sure to come.

If you want to tame wild Minimals, go visit Silvershade’s Ranch in the Lani Archipelago! They will send you out into the wild to catch and tame a Minimal through an interactive Herding mini-game. Bring berries, toys, and plushies to tempt and distract the Minimal as you and your pet cooperate to befriend it.

A Dynamic World

Santae’s sunny days and mysterious nights each hold their own mysteries to explore, watch as the clouds move while you play, and every hour on the hour you can watch the transition to day/night. As the world cycles between states every hour, you and your pets have the chance to make exciting new discoveries!

Visiting the Lava Caves in the dark of night will bring you face to face with the opportunity to tame a fearsome Grusim – but during the light of day, the Grusim retreats. While the sun shines over the Lava Caves, you can instead bring your Harlowin egg there to hatch into a new companion.

Exciting Events

The most important ingredient in the world of Santae is you: The community!

Over the course of THREE exciting events, our Alpha Testers have been able to participate in and shape the future of the game’s world. Together, we’ve discovered new Minimals, locations, and even new pet species.

The Goopper Swarm

Mysterious slug-like Minimals swarmed Gathering locations all across Santae, prompting adventurers everywhere to collect them in an attempt to learn more.

By collecting the Gooppers and discovering their source, Santarians discovered a brand-new location: The Goopper Grotto. This tranquil forest clearing holds an amazing secret: When you bring a Goopper there alongside certain powerfully magical items, the Minimal will transform!

The Mourning Grusim

By following the traces of an ancient legend, adventurers learned of a mythical creature lurking deep within the Lava Caves.

Together, Santarians discovered sanDust: A secondary currency earned through site activities. This magical dust proved to be the secret to calming the ferocious ancient beast within the caves. By working together to collect sanDust, the community unlocked the ability to tame and adopt the Grusim for everyone!

The Quibbit Cove

When Santarians began to discover mysterious eggs around the site, they banded together to collect them and learn more about them. Together, we learned how to hatch Quibbspawn eggs into a brand-new Minimal: The Quibblet!

But the Quibblet was no ordinary Minimal. More ancient clues pointed the community towards a newly-discovered location, Quibbit Cove. It was there that the true secret of the Quibblet was revealed: Feeding it in the cove causes it to evolve into a fully-fledged pet, the Quibbit!

Thanks to the community’s efforts of research and discovery, the location of Quibbit Cove and the secret of Quibblet evolution are now unlocked for everyone.

Thank You For Being A Part of the Magic of Santae!

Whether you’re an experienced Alpha Tester or a brand-new applicant to the game, we’re so happy to have you as a part of the community we’re building together.

Alpha has brought so many exciting updates – but we’re even more excited for what will come next as we continue to work together to make Santae the most magical site it can be.

Make sure to sign up for notifications about the official Santae Kickstarter so you don’t miss the start of our next big adventure as a community!

With Love and Gratitude,

~The Santae Team

[hope-for-the-planet]

China Completes It's "Great Green Wall" to Combat Desertification

Image and text from this Reuter's article:

China has finished a 46-year campaign to encircle its largest desert with trees, part of national efforts to end desertification and curb the sandstorms that plague parts of the country during the spring, state media reported on Friday. A "green belt" of about 3,000 km (2,000 miles) around the Taklamakan was completed on Thursday in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, after workers planted the final 100 metres of trees on the desert's southern edge, the Communist Party-run People's Daily said. Efforts to enclose the desert with trees began in 1978 with the launch of China's "Three-North Shelterbelt" project, colloquially known as the Great Green Wall. More than 30 million hectares (116,000 square miles) of trees have been planted. Tree planting in the arid northwest has helped bring China's total forest coverage above 25% by the end of last year, up from around 10% in 1949. Forest coverage in Xinjiang alone has risen from 1% to 5% in the last 40 years, the People's Daily said.

[hungryhungrygremlins]

[flickering-nightfall]

Playing with some ideas mostly regarding gender/reproduction in RW, and slugcat colonies.

Full transcript under the cut!

Creatures in Rain World are typically simultaneous hermaphrodites but require partners to reproduce, with either individual capable of being a genetic donor or carrier. Alongside what we are familiar with, this has lead to interesting reproductive strategies such as rotating donor/carrier roles, or dual/simultaneous genetic swaps.

Rotating donor/carrier roles - A K-selection reproductive strategy. One partner carries the first child, the other partner carries the next child, and so forth. Allows each partner to recover from the demands of childbearing.

Rain Deer aren't quite monogamous, but they tend to choose the same breeding partner whenever mating season rolls around. They serve as a donor one season, then bear and raise a child the next. Calves are raised away from the rain and worm grass, in places that have less food but more safety. Calf wool is softer, not yet gunked up by the dirty rainfall. Their legs are sturdier as children, allowing them to run for cover while the parent wards off threats.

Dual/simultaneous genetic swap - An r-selection reproductive strategy. Parents fulfill the donor and carrier role for each other. The more children you make, the more likely some are to survive!

Multiple batflies lay thousands of eggs in a single "blue fruit." Several eggs congeal and become nutrient paste for the surviving eggs (and for hungry slugcats). Like some plant seeds, batfly eggs that are consumed before pupating can survive passing through the digestive system. Ew.

Ancients also fell under this umbrella. Their genders (and the genders of iterators by extension, who have no sex anyways) could have been determined by a variety of other factors, such as societal role, donor/carrier preference, or simply different categorizations of personal expression.

It's difficult to say how well their common pronouns would translate to ours, but it seems they can translate to an extent, given what Moon and Pebbles use canonically.

Slugcats, like real slugs, can have children with a partner or self-fertilize. Unlike real slugs, they are often known to adopt.

In the case of self-fertilization: children who are born from one parent may display a large amount of genetic diversity despite the circumstances. Maybe slugcats have some sort of... genetic reservoir independent of their own genetic code?

Slugcats live 20-30 years on average... if they manage to reach adulthood. Their mortality rate is sadly rather high, especially in pups. If they were to develop as a civilization, it's likely their lifespan would increase dramatically.

Slugcats in a colony are more likely to have more children, and to successfully rear those children to adulthood, than those who wander alone or in small groups. The safety and stability of a colony cannot be understated.

Colonies either have a set, cycling migration path, or wander continuously. Survivor and Monk's tree home was a nesting site that their colony frequents about once a year. So it's likely that they'll see their family again!

...also, the strength of large colonies are why scavengers are likely to become the dominant species. In the time of Saint's era, continuous migration has become more of a risk, and it has become more difficult to support large populations. Slugcat populations have shrunk back to the more forgiving equatorial zones.

Saint's tongue is pretty unusual and probably unique to them, or to a small population that they hail from. Fur (of varying thickness) is much more common.

Meanwhile, scavengers are bulkier and covered in thicker insulating fur. They:

have seemingly massive populations

have a burgeoning society (the existence of merchants, tolls, bartering, elites and leaders)

are adept at communicating (non-verbally)

manipulate their environment

can build structures (scavenger-made structures were a scrapped idea from Saint's campaign)

can create complex weapons and tools

may have agriculture behind the scenes (unsure if scout parties prioritize exploration or hunting)

I would wager on scavengers developing more quickly than slugcats, but it would be nice if there was a future where both could co-exist.

[ur-mag]

Campaigner Saalumarada Thimmakka, 112, who planted 8,000 trees is rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties | In Trend Today

Campaigner Saalumarada Thimmakka, 112, who planted 8,000 trees is rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties Read Full Text or Full Article on MAG NEWS