#environmental crime

[indizombie]

UNESCO found that Latin America and the Caribbean were the deadliest for journalists in 2022 with 44 killings, over half of all of those killed worldwide. Worldwide, the deadliest individual countries were Mexico, with 19 killings, Ukraine with 10 and Haiti with nine. Asia and the Pacific registered 16 killings, while 11 were killed in Eastern Europe. While the number of journalists killed in countries in conflict rose to 23 in 2022, compared with 20 the previous year, the global increase was primarily driven by killings in non-conflict countries. This number almost doubled from 35 cases in 2021 to 61 in 2022, representing three-quarters of all killings last year. Some of the reasons why the journalists were killed were due to reprisals for their reporting on organized crime, armed conflict or the rise of extremism. Others were killed for covering sensitive topics such as corruption, environmental crime, abuse of power and protests.

‘Killings of journalists up 50 per cent in 2022: UNESCO’, UN News

[sayruq]

[ophidianrhapsody]

They’ve known since the 1970s

[hussyknee]

People seem to think this is fake because it's written in English. Apart from the racism in believing that Arab doctors and nurses aren't fluent in English (a second or official language for half of Asia), Palestinians have deliberately been addressing their audience in English on every social media, from journalists to children, because they know speaking English to Westerners immediately makes people more human in their eyes. Because language is one of the ways the imperial cultural hegemony conditions us (yes, everyone in the world) to see who qualifies as "people" and who are simply a mass of bodies who were always made to suffer and die. Gazans know this deeply, which is why they have been using English to beg and plead through social media, "We're not numbers! We're not numbers! We're people like you, we speak your language, we deserve to live!" all the while they're systematically slaughtered.

Israeli forces also encircled Al Shifa Hospital yesterday and bombed it for several hours while shooting dead anyone trying to flee including medical staff moving between buildings. Not sure whether it's still continuing because WHO lost all communications with its staff there a few hours after. The last new report said that thirty-nine babies had been removed from the incubators before the power went out. It's extremely unlikely they will survive.

Please understand that these atrocities depend on the war of attrition between governments and public attention. The momentum of public outcry is difficult to sustain through repeated stonewalling and bureaucratic intractability. When we're flooded with these reports and a sense of futility and despair replaces the anger, it allows compassion fatigue to set in and the violence to become normalized. Massacring hospitals, killing sick children and openly targeting humanitarian aid workers (Netanyahu just declared the UNRWA is in league with Hamas) will become simply more news articles that fade into the background, and open genocides will soon become part of the "lesser evil".

Take care of yourselves how you can, take distance where needed, but please never tune out and give up on the two million people for whom we are the only witness and hope. Never stop boosting and sharing the news and posts you find, never stop getting out there and joining every protest you can, however small. Anger burns out, which is why activism must depend on an immovable sense of justice and uncompromising value for human life. It's not just about Gaza, it's about the kind of evil our generation will be coerced into accepting as unchangeable and inevitable hereafter.

[booksinpiles]

I am certain that the silly, spreadsheet ins-&-outs of my library are of interest to no one but me, but part of the pleasure of collecting books is sharing them with fellow readers. If you spot any gaps in the collection, please send me titles to check out!

Today’s category: Natural History ➡️ Hunting & Environmental Crime

[alwaysbewoke]

[folklorespring]

russia commits ecocide in Ukraine

[dailysubwaybossemmet]

I'm going to steal my brothers Pokemon white copy just to see the goober I'm being serious he'll probably try to have me executed but I'm doing it <3

What would Emmet go to jail for

day 43

[dontforgetukraine]

The destruction at the Kakhovka HPP dam Photo credit: epravda

The damages caused to the environment by russian aggression since February 2022 are estimated at $65 billion, reports @Kabmin_UA. During this period, 1/3 of Ukrainian forests and 20% of protected areas were severely damaged by shelling. One of the most destructive acts was the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP dam, which destroyed about 10 thousand ha of wetlands. These large-scale #EnvironmentalCrimes pose a significant threat to 35% of Europe’s biodiversity located in Ukraine. —Гюндуз Мамедов/Gyunduz Mamedov

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

26th November 2022: the forest surrounding Bakhmut, Ukraine wiped off the map during the russian invasion.

The city of Bakhmut has also been destroyed.

[ammg-old2]

In the last decade, cacti have exploded in popularity, becoming a mainstay of hipster decor around the world – from the homes of China’s growing middle class and the meticulous cactus gardens in Japan to the fashionable cafes of Europe.

In the US alone, sales of cacti and succulents surged 64% between 2012 and 2017; a market that is now estimated to be worth tens of millions. But rising demand has met a thorny problem: cacti are extremely slow-growing, with some species taking decades to grow from seed to full maturity. Hence, many opt for the shortcut: pulling them right out of the ground.

For land managers and scientists who work with cacti, the problem appears to be on the rise. While the precise scale is difficult to measure, and catching thieves red-handed in remote deserts is nearly impossible, major busts offer clues. In 2014, more than 2,600 stolen cacti were seized at US borders – up from 411 just a year before. But law enforcement officials and field scientists say that data represents only a tiny fraction of cactus actually being stolen.

“When I first started we rarely investigated cactus theft,” said one US Fish and Wildlife Service detective, who asked not to be named due to the undercover nature of his work. He has covered the south-west region for more than a decade and says the problem is increasing. “Now we are prosecuting cases involving thousands of plants at a time. The demand is so high that I fear we can’t stop the illegal trade going on.”

While many plants fall victim to underground cactus cartels, a seemingly more benign form of theft has become part of the problem, too. International visitors who come to the south-west specifically to view rare cactus in the wild sometimes take a souvenir home, and social media is exacerbating the problem.

“We’ve had Austrian, German and Italian collectors express strong interest on social media for these plants and they share GPS coordinates,” said Wendell “Woody” Minnich, the former president of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. “Some of these people come to steal, especially when a new species is identified. They hide the plants in their suitcase and take them back to their greenhouse in Europe.”

Minnich, 71, has been a cactus grower and nursery operator in New Mexico for 50 years. He said the internet had significantly accelerated theft of rare, slow-growing cactus species over the last decade. A case in point: Sclerocactus havasupaiensis, which is native to one drainage at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, was being auctioned on eBay in early January by a seller in Ukraine. It was just one of more than 365 internationally protected plant species that are openly traded on Amazon and eBay.

“Do a Google search on Sclerocactus and you can find people in Russia selling them,” said Minnich. “I have been on public lands in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado where years ago Sclerocactus were everywhere, and recently I found just a bunch of little holes in the ground.”

[synthwavecryptid]

Elfsong Tavern roof, 2AM

Just Halsin and Jacek having a sweet hug on a humid night, nbd 🌿🐻🐺🪻

(full pic up on the bird app as usual)

[notyourtoday]

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A post shared by Abdel hazama (@abdul.eyad)

By @abdul.eyad on Instagram.

[mckitterick]

Russia uses environmental terrorism in war against Ukraine

Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, said, “At 2:50am this morning, Russian troops blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric Station and its dam [which supplies water to Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant], flooding a swathe of the war zone and forcing villagers to flee.

"The explosion came from within. We know that Russian troops had mined the hydroelectric Station in the early days of the full-scale invasion, so the pre-meditated blast is the only plausible explanation.”

Senior advisor Dasha Zarivna said, “The dam bombing is another unprecedented Russian war crime against Ukraine, which will have catastrophic consequences both for its population and other countries. These include environmental and economic consequences, a great risk from radiation, and further serious disruption to food security. Last October, President Zelenskiy said, ‘All the world leaders should let Russia understand that a terrorist attack on the Kakhovka hydroelectric station will be equated to the use of weapons of mass destruction.' Now it has happened. World leaders must recognize the equivalence, and now must act decisively. It is essential to isolate the terrorist state as completely as possible. Any economic ties with Russia outside of humanitarian activities should be regarded as complicity in its war crimes.”

the vast reservoir behind the dam is one of the main geographic features of southern Ukraine, 240 kilometers (150 miles) long and up to 23 km wide, and a huge swathe of countryside lies in the flood plain below

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