#enviromental disaster

[justfinishedreading]

A Bride’s Story, volume 4 by Kaoru Mori

This series was always good from the start but since volume 3 it’s really picked up and moved into ‘addictive reading’ territory. In the beginning of this volume we discover that Amir’s old clan is having trouble after losing land to grace their sheep, this plotline isn’t developed much but the groundwork has been laid down for future volumes. When I picked up this series I thought Mr Smith would be travelling the silk road route and we would meet new characters but ultimately they would be left behind as he moved on, I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s the opposite, characters introduced are going to be with us throughout the series, their story is not just a moment in time, we will see their story evolve as their lives do. So we get a short scene with Amir herself and then with Pariya as she struggles to behave herself during a meeting to discuss her possible marriage. The majority of the rest of this volume centres on Laila and Leily, two trouble-making twins who save Mr Smith from drowning.

As we move on to couples that are more age appropriate for each other, we now see romantic comedies and romantic dramas played out and I’m getting engrossed in these different love stories. I’m also starting to appreciate the variety of female characters that Kaoru Mori has created: Amir is kind and a good listener but also a skilled hunter and resourceful woman, uninhibited in many ways. Pariya is outspoken and brash but self-conscious of this and regretful as she struggles to keep her anger in check. While the twins Laila and Leily are free spirits, hyperactive and with a scary lack of mindfulness when it comes to other people. While Talas in the previous volume was a shy woman struggling to reveal her feelings and take charge of her life, in this volume we find out how many women have secretly done all manner of things to secure a marriage in a time where marriages were decided on by the male heads of each family, it’s an excellent example of how woman are not passive creatures when it comes to their future, even if they have to deal with a highly patriarchal society.

As always these books are also rich in history and culture of the various countries Mr Smith travels through, in this volume what struck me was the importance of the Aral Sea for the community. The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world, located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, it began shrinking in the 1960s due to the rivers that fed it being diverted by Soviet irrigation projects, by the 2010s it had largely dried up. The fishing industry that depended on it, collapsed, the water and surrounding areas became polluted. UNESCO has added historical documents concerning the Aral Sea to its Memory of the World Register as a resource to study the environmental tragedy. For more information check out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea. A Bride’s Story doesn’t go into the recent history of the Aral Sea, it just shows the beauty of what the Aral Sea once was, and this is enough to encourage a reader to find out more for themselves, and once you do the various casual comments made by characters throughout the books about Russian and British presence and interference start to resonate even more.

Review by Book Hamster

[mikeo56]

Eating Our Way to Extinction 

Eating Our Way to Extinction is a cinematic feature documentary, taking audiences on a journey around the world and addressing the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. This powerful documentary sends a simple but impactful message by uncovering hard truths and addressing, on the big screen, the most pressing issue of our generation – ecological collapse. On this channel, you will have access to a variety of different content, including the documentary itself as well as many videos and interviews addressing this pressing issue.

[caffeineandsmokebreaks-blog]

It's pretty fucking insane that snow is mixed with toxic chemicals in some states like Michigan right now.... some of the snow isn't even melting

[sparksinthenight]

Ways People Will be Killed by Climate Change:

-Thirst: Amnesty International says 2 billion people will see their water access severely and incredibly diminished. In the Horn of Africa, people are only finding 1/4 of the water they had before.

-Hunger: Many people will die from malnutrition. Many more people will die from chronic undernutrition. So many sources I have read have stated that food supplies will greatly diminish due to climate change. This will be due to an increase in floods, rising sea levels eating up land and causing salinity in the dry land that remains, increased droughts, dry places getting too dry and wet places getting too wet, overheating, storms, extreme weather, unpredictable weather, a decrease in soil fertility caused by loss in biodiversity, cold snaps coming earlier and earlier into the growing season in northern countries, erosion washing away farmland, increased pests due to the inability of the environment to control pests, the list goes on. 345 million people worldwide already have acute (not moderate, not high, but acute) levels of hunger, in large part due to climate change. 

-Heat Waves: Over 1.5 billion people live in places where they constantly face the upper limits of heat that the human body can tolerate. As the earth warms, heat waves will become far more frequent and many people will die from them. 

-Cold: As the polar vortex becomes looser and looser, many more people in the more northern parts of the world will be subjected to extreme cold and will die due to it, especially poor people.

-Natural Disasters: Storms, floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, landslides, and more will greatly increase in both frequency and severity, killing many people.

-Poverty: More than 100 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030 alone due to climate change. By 2030 alone, and this number will only increase as time goes on. Note here that I said extreme poverty. Not multidimensional poverty, which is also very deadly and torturous, not acute multidimensional poverty, which is incredibly deadly, but extreme poverty, the worst form of poverty of all. Even greater numbers of people will be pushed into multidimensional and acute multidimensional poverty.

-War: As resources dwindle, there will be wars over the little remaining fertile land, the little remaining water, the few remaining pastures. These wars will also get many people killed.

-Far Right Extremism: Increased displacement, climate refugees (due to the crowding of people into areas that are still cool enough to live in, because many places, like Australia, will become too hot to sustain human life), decreased wealth flowing to the middle class, and other factors will increase fascism and far right ideology. This will lead to increased hate crimes, perhaps greatly so, and this will lead to more people dying.

-Epidemics, pandemics, new and old diseases: As the capacity of the environment to do pest control decreases, disease carriers will increase and diseases like malaria, Dengue fever, West Nile virus, and more will increase. As natural spaces get degraded, animals will become less healthy and diseases among animals will increase. This will lead to an increase in new diseases crossing over from animals to humans and to an increase in new diseases being created in animals. 

-Homelessness: As more people lose their homes due to storms, floods, and other natural disasters, there will be an increase in homelessness and more people will die due to the risks of being unhoused. 

-Suicide: The degradation in natural spaces will cause mental health among members of communities that are closely tied to the natural environment to worsen, leading to increased suicides. This will be amplified due to the fact that communities closely tied to the environment such as Indigenous communities and Afro-Latino communities are often already marginalized and already face risks to their mental health. Like for example most members of the religion I am a part of already have at least one mental illness, and we rely on our connection to our Parent, the earth, to help us heal ourselves and build better lives for ourselves and our children. If the earth is dead many of us will be too. And we’re actually really privileged compared to say, Indigenous people (though some of us are Indigenous but not me), so imagine how much worse it would be to be part of an even more marginalized group that is closely tied to the environment.  -Pollution: Increased use of fossil fuels will lead to increased air pollution. 9 million people already die each year due to air pollution. This will only grow worse as the amount of greenhouse gases and other harmful gases builds up in the atmosphere.

-Not Having Enough Nutrients: Calories aren’t the only thing the human body needs, nutrients are incredibly important too. The climate crisis will destroy the health of the ocean, due to acidification, rising water temperatures, and changed weather conditions and water flow. This will kill many fish. 3 billion people rely on fish for their main source of protein, because of how cheap it is compared to other sources of protein. Many of these people will not be able to get the fish they need and will lack the vital nutrients the fish provide them, which will lead to many deaths. 

-Decrease in Social Cohesion: The natural environment teaches so many of us to be good people. Without healthy nature, many of the new generations won’t take into their souls the necessity of helping each other. If less of us help each other, more people will die.  I’m going to get a bit religious now. So look at this paragraph with an open mind. The earth is our Parent, who we all came from and who we all live on. If the earth is unhealthy, the people will be too, and if the people are unhealthy, the earth will be too. Like any healthy parent-child relationship, our well-being is tied into Their well-being and Their well-being is tied into ours. But it’s not just my religion that says that the people need a healthy planet, it’s many religions all over the world. And it’s not just many religions all over the world that say this, but science says this too. So if you care about social justice at all, you have to care about climate change. 

[d1n0m1te]

To cut it short and sweet, this needs everyone immediate attention, and I’m honestly both upset and pissed that I hadn’t heard about it sooner. I’m sure by now a lot of people are just now hearing about it with it now circulating on social media - TikTok especially.

Right now, The Willow Project is being decided on by the Biden Administration which will basically not only be destroying native land in Alaska, wolf life, ecosystems and so on for the sake of oil and material gain, but this could also permanently damage the O-Zone layer as this project is apparently meant to hon for thirty years. THIRTY FUCKING YEARS. That damage will never be able to fixed.

We need to do something, I have two links for which you can send in letters to the Biden administration on as well as a change.org. Regardless, something needs to be done, do what you can, boost the hell out of this because this is a problem that won’t just harm us, but those in the future too. I literally had my own younger sibling come to me because she was so stressed about The Willow Project. They’re twelve. Fucking TWELVE, NO TWELVE YEAR OLD SHOULD BE STRESSED ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE POTENTIAL END OF THE WORLD.

I don’t care how you do it or where, but boost the fuck out of this, let it be known that we are fucking tired of these people I’m power who are SUPPOSED to take care and help us repeatedly keep fucking us over and making things worse solely because they’re all old and it wouldn’t be affecting them in their lifetime. How selfish. Do something, not just for yourselves, but for those in the future that will be impacted by these choices.

[ivo3d]

'we want a hundred more battery factories in Hungary! - just a hundred? - No, a thousand!'

[terrence-silver]

Would Terry ever share what goes on at Dynatox with beloved? Do you think he would ever talk about his day?

Yes.

Deep down, I feel that Terry Silver is someone who always yearned to be accepted and loved in spite of all the bad, horrible, awful things he's done and continuously kept doing more or less throughout his entire life and I figure that is literally why he has never found someone he could have anything more than a passing adventure with. Because that's a huge standard to set. To accept the pitch blackness of Terry's past without him having to leave out something or hide certain aspects of it? It is big. Yet, with him, there's always this want to show the worst, darkest sides to himself alongside the worst, darkest impulses and be cared for in spite of it all., and it verges borderline into the perverse and morbid where he'd almost deliberately itch to gleefully and smugly shock someone and test them alongside their resolve and devotion to him, in effect, by intentionally telling them about things he's seen in Vietnam, done in Vietnam, things Dynatox does, crimes he's covered up, attorneys he's bribed, laws he's broken, lies he's told and gotten away with, people he's hurt and enjoyed hurting, all the corruption, bigotry, coke and malice. The whole package, baby! If he's to be loved, he's to be loved for all of himself or not at all. Man invited Johnny Lawrence to the abandoned dojo to beat him to a pulp as a proof to an onlooking Kreese that he's loyal to Cobra Kai, after all. To Terry, that was a showing of raw devotion. When Kreese didn't approve of Terry's homage to him, he had him framed, because Terry saw that as John not loving him in spite of the bad, horrible and awful.

And of course a snake wants to be a snake.

He's a snake. That's in his nature.

Can a snake be loved and still retain its serpentine nature? Is a cobra evil?

Does it have neuter itself?

Is that still love then?

Or is it defeat? Living in captivity? In a zoo? A cage?

Is a genuine relationship, a true friendship, or any lasting, honest bond even possible if one doesn't know about all these grimy parts of someone's soul? I have this feeling Terry doesn't think so. I think the exact reason why Terry at the start of Season 4 seemed so repressed and weirdly out of touch with his surroundings, outside of his own mental instability, is precisely because he's done bad things and he's seen some even worse things and he couldn't tell anyone about it, wearing this elaborate, watered down facade in cage of his own making, because in telling people about it, he knew that the artificial collective of token friends he acquired would revile him and probably with good reason, because Terry never was the best of people, and even if he doesn't see himself as a bad man (What bad man does? Terry is the hero of his own story too, in his own world), he understand the stigma that comes with certain actions. Like polluting developing countries by dumping toxic waste for profit. But, if he loved someone and expected them to love him back, yes, he'd tell them what Dynatox does. In arduous detail. Why? Because Terry wants to see how far he can go and how far the extent of someone's love for him goes, being used to forming attachments under extreme moments of duress and under some very extreme circumstances; something he brought home from the war and his friendship with John and Ponytail and I don't think Terry has a frame of reference to form attachments of a genuine kind in a commonplace way, due to his own trauma.

Is it unconditional then, this love you have?

How about if he's responsible for a wildfire in the Amazonian rainforest?

Still unconditional?

What if Dynatox was behind the displacement of the native tribes in Borneo?

How about then? Okay, so how about if he's behind an oil spill the size of France in the Pacific Ocean?

Do you still love him?

Would you love him if he paid off corrupt governments to get away with it too?

What if, at one time, he was a scared boy, deep in the jungle, and he was loved enough at his smallest and weakest for someone to stand up and offer to fight for him? If someone could do that, with nothing to gain but a good friend's life, why can't you love him when he does bad things? If you don't, it means you simply aren't on his side enough, he feels.

You're ether with him, or against him; he deals in absolutes like that.

Capitalism is a tool, and if he could know, for a fact, that someone's love for him would persist even if he was the match that singlehandedly burned down the world, then he would gladly utilize it to find out. Ironically, once he's well assured, he might as well turn Dynatox towards green energy purely for his beloved's sake, because everything's his oyster. Extremes, right?

[aloeverawrites]

"Phasing out animal agriculture represents “our best and most immediate chance to reverse the trajectory of climate change,” according to a new model developed by scientists from Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley."

"Based on the model, published in the open-access journal PLoS Climate, phasing out animal agriculture over the next 15 years would have the same effect as a 68 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions through the year 2100. This would provide 52 percent of the net emission reductions necessary to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, which scientists say is the minimum threshold required to avert disastrous climate change.'

"Many will scoff at the idea that billions of people can be convinced to switch to a plant-only diet within 15 years. To these skeptics, Eisen points out that other revolutions have happened in less time. “We went from having no cellphones to cellphones being ubiquitous in less time than that. Electricity, cars, solar panels – all became common in a relatively short period of time,” Eisen said."

[notaboutmarsrock]

Sustainability dilemma: Project into the future and concern ourselves with the wellbeing of future generations, the availability of their resources, and the health of the planet they live on, or live our lives now, as we are, without feeling like a burden just for existing? How do we grapple with this internal moral dilemma, while simultaneously balancing between both realities? How long until these two tectonic plates of worry finally meet in the middle, forming a fortress of stone all their own? What is required to facilitate that union?

[disheveleddiva]

Thanks EPA

[poojagblog-blog]

The global Climate Adaption Market in terms of revenue was estimated to be worth $23.2 billion in 2024 and is poised to reach $40.4 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 9.7% from 2024 to 2030 according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets™. The climate adaptation market is experiencing robust growth due to several new drivers. Firstly, advancements in climate modeling and data analytics are enabling more precise predictions of climate impacts, encouraging investment in adaptation technologies. Secondly, the increasing integration of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) in climate monitoring systems enhances real-time data collection and response capabilities. Thirdly, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are pushing companies to adopt sustainable practices, including climate adaptation strategies, to improve their public image and meet stakeholder expectations. Additionally, there is a growing recognition of the economic benefits of proactive adaptation measures, such as reduced damage costs and enhanced operational efficiency, which is spurring further investment.

[trayzen-the-infinite]

Outside of my usual stuff I’ve come to the attention of an epidemic that no one is discussing. A species of Crayfish that mutated 25 years ago killed every male and rapidly births clones of itself escaped an aquarium and has been conquering Europes Water Ways for the past 5 years. Because of how it reproduces its an invasive species on an apocalyptic scale and getting rid of them is quote “like emptying the ocean with a thimble” not even graveyards are safe as they infested every ounce of water within a Belgium cemetery.

[morebedsidebooks]

Ten EcoLit Titles from Around the World

Fiction with a mind on ecology and environmental themes are one of my favourites. Further topics from animal rights, energy sources, to disasters and dystopian society have only become more and more relevant. So, from across the six continents here are 10 EcoLit titles. (FYI, I try to provide content notes for all titles I review in the links.)

  Children of the Sea by Igarashi Daisuke, translated by JN Productions, lettering Jose Macasocol

Adapted to an animated film in 2019, the award-winning five-volume-comic by Japanese artist Igarashi Daisuke, Children of the Sea is a bit of a mystery, with a somewhat nonlinear timeline. Further a gorgeous and mesmerizing tribute to the ocean and aquatic life as the ocean’s fish begin disappearing worldwide.

 The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun, translated by Lizzie Buehler

This the first translated book by Korean author Yun Ko-eun is the sort of trim ecolit novel that begs the question of just how dark, dark tourism can get. Yona Ko works for Jungle which specializes in travel packages to disaster areas. If that sounds rather problematic it also has a corporate culture that’s unsurprisingly very much the kind with a missing stair. So, the ten-year company veteran ends up on a review trip to one of the least lucrative destinations in Southeast Asia. A tropical island that decades ago was the site of a genocide and giant sink hole, now a lake. Initially coming off more as a paradise, the island however is hiding an all too deadly side.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

From the Noble winning Polish author Olga Tokarczuk, this novel is ostensibly a murder mystery. However, page by page Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead examines climate change, predation, exploitation, diet, and belief. The reality that man is an animal whose attempts to forget or detach one’s relationship and own position in nature is lethal.

  Eclipse Our Sins by Tlotlo Tsamaase

From Motswana author Tlotlo Tsamaase Eclipse Our Sins is an achingly lyrical novelette that appeared in SFF Clarkeswold Magazine, Issue 159 December 2019 (+ audio version). It presents an apocalyptic earth ravaged by climate change with a largely immoral mankind split in increasing class disparity. And abused Mama Earth is angry…

 Fauna by Christiane Vadnais, translated by translated by Pablo Strauss

Speculative fiction holds real life hallmarks of dystopia and apocalypse in this debut work of fiction by Quebecois author Christiane Vadnais. Delivering thought-provoking expressions of 10 interconnected cli-fi vignettes with a real strain of horror, it sometimes comes off as more for shock value. Yet, Fauna is nevertheless a title which can stay with the reader.

Gwen in Green by Hugh Zachary

Gwen in Green is a story beget from the brutal transformation of 1,200 acres due to construction of the Brunswick Nuclear Plant in North Carolina during the early 1970s. This sexy eco-horror pulp by Hugh Zachary, revived in Paperbacks from Hell, personifies not just nature but a decade.

  The Seeds written by Ann Nocenti and art by David Aja

Years in the making, this speculative eco-tech thriller comic by US journalist and writer Ann Nocenti with artist David Aja is an uncanny dystopian and, in many ways, strangely prescient book. There are aliens, misinformation, conspiracy theories and a toxic environment… Words don’t really do credit to the absolute eerie monochromatic colour scheme art either. One comic best to just dive into yourself. (BONUS: Ann Nocenti is also responsible for one of my favourite DC Comics illustrated by John Van Fleet, Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows.)

Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World edited by Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro, translated by Fábio Fernandes

Solarpunk is a genre that has grown, especially over the last decade. From a country that does in the real world have a high majority percentage of its energy from renewable sources, it is valuable that this 2012 Brazilian anthology is available in translation to not be forgotten in the canon.

(BONUS: Looking for something more hopeful and soothing? I highly recommend the Hugo award winning, philosophical, solarpunk Monk & Robot novella duology by US author Becky Chambers)

 The Story Collector by Evie Gaughan

A historical romance from an Irish author weaving local folklore, additionally this is a novel importantly about the human link to nature. How it helps people in some of the darkest times.The verdant wintry setting and time, as the light of the sun starts increasing, acts almost as a living character influencing its characters separated by 100 years, along with the consequences of man’s hubris and disrespect.

The Swan Book by Alexis Wright

Published almost ten years ago this post-apocalyptic novel from a notable Australian Indigenous author remains a vivid and powerful literary saga today. In a world devastated by climate change and subsequent governmental collapse, its Aboriginal main character Oblivia undergoing much suffering tries to achieve self-determination. Heavy, with an eye on history, full of dense metaphors, symbols including swans, and links with folklore, the text is well worth the effort and praise.

[sparksinthenight]

David Suzuki: We have become the #impatient species, too #busy to let #nature #replenish itself and too #puffed up with our #own #sense of #importance to #acknowledge our #utter #dependence on its #generosity.

[arieso226]

The Train Derailment in Ohio

NO. 1

On February 3rd, dozens of cars belonging to Norfolk Southern train went off track in East Palestine, Ohio, spilling gigantic amounts of toxic chemicals into the soil, water, and air, killing over 3500 fish have died; locals of the town affected are experiencing nausea, headaches, burning eye sensations and more. Residents have also reported that foxes, chickens, cows, and house pets are dying as a result of the toxin chemical release. The chemical released from the crash, vinyl chloride, is extremely toxic and can severely affect an individual’s liver, kidney, lung, nervous system, and blood. It is highly dangerous and can lead to cancer.

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NO. 2

The government-controlled burned the hazardous chemicals, since left untouched could cause an even bigger explosion, and residents were asked to leave at first on February 6th. On February 8th, residents were asked to come back, with officials claiming the area was safe to come back to. Except, residents are claiming that this is not only a government and corporation issue but a massive ecological disaster from which we might not return. The derailment has caused massive environmental problems because scientists and scholars fear that the toxin waste will spread throughout the Ohio River, as it is connected to rivers and basins in 14 states, providing drinking water to over 5 million Americans. The smell of chlorine was reportedly lingering in the air days after the controlled burn and when residents were returning. When vinyl chloride burns, it decomposes into hydrogen chloride and phosgene, with the latter highly poisonous, used in WW1 as a choking agent. Hydrogen chloride is irritating and corrosive to any tissue with which it comes to contact. The viral video of a local news reporter quietly talking about the event and being arrested for doing his job has sparked state outrage.

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NO. 3

So, how did this happen, and who is responsible? The horrible disaster is nicknamed Chernobyl 2.0 as residents feel fear and anger over Norfolk Southern and the government’s response to the devastation, which they feel is inadequate. Rail workers tried to strike over unsafe conditions but were forced back to work by the government back in 2011. Norfolk Southern announced a $10 billion stock in March last year while cutting their workforce down to the bones rather than investing in better equipment, more workers, and allowing sick days. Stricter environmental laws and regulations should be at the forefront, instead of the allowance of corporate greed, not to mention the blatant disregard for public safety. More attention should be devoted to this topic, not only for public awareness but to shed light on the role big business plays in increasing pollution and environmental degradation.

[allaroundtheworld55]