#planet wild

[elvencantation]

have some of my recent favorite hopeful nature restoration videos 🍃🥰

i highly recommend the whole mossy earth channel actually. and i’ve got a membership with them donating i think something like three dollars a month to help with their wonderful projects. don’t know as much about planet wild but ive seen some of their videos

[bumblebeeappletree]

The Mediterranean Sea is in crisis. Once a thriving spot for biodiversity, it is now the most overfished sea in the world and, according to the WWF, is "on the verge of burnout."

Why? Bottom trawling—a destructive fishing method where nets are dragged along the seabed, catching or destroying everything in their path.

For our 21st Planet Wild mission, we're supporting a beautiful and effective method to stop bottom trawling and protect marine life: an underwater sculpture museum.

Many thanks to the five selected artists who donated their work to the museum: Nikolas Maniatakos, Maria Grazia Collini, Abdulkadir Hocaoglu, Stefano Corti, and Giacomo Bernardi.

A special thanks to Greenpeace, Camilla Salghetti, Barbara Farnetani and Santiago Burin Des Roziers for providing us with additional footage.

0:00 Art that saves the Mediterranean

1:10 The ecosystem of the Talamone sea

2:33 Meet Paolo, the ocean protector

3:18 What’s destroying the seabed?

4:31 Paolo’s fight for the ocean

5:31 How we’re using art to protect the sea

8:09 The underwater museum

10:11 Our support

[ilikeyoshi]

a zoologist i like a lot just posted a super interesting video that talks about chytrid fungus, which is infecting around 700 amphibian species all over the world and decimating their populations. the mortality rate for chytrid fungus infections is as high as 100% for some species; an example of how dangerous it is is it infests and spreads throughout frog skin until they're unable to breathe and suffocate to death. it spreads through bodies of water and contact.

i really like frogs, salamanders, axolotls and pretty much any amphibian—the video explains both that they are 1) extremely cute, and 2) VERY important to science and ecosystems of all kinds. lindsay talks about both the fungus itself as well as progress towards curing and cleaning up infected amphibians and environs, and she links to an organization, planet wild, you can donate to, whose projects include reintroducing frog species that have been impacted by chytrid fungus (among other things) into ecuador. they're partnered with a frog rescue called ark of the frogs for this endeavor. you can read about it on their mission page.

i wish i could afford $6/month, like desperately, but i figured sharing the video and the link to planet wild's website is the next best thing. please check it out, donate if you can, and share the link for others to get involved!

planet wild's website lindsay nikole's channel

[mimefish]

nevermind everyone winner's symbolism cancelled. we cannot have another scar earth/mercury/comet situation again. I vote we all lay down our weapons and join hands in peace and accept that the one true symbol for Joel is the Car. wherever he goes whatever flavour of symbols you particularly enjoy. Car. Just Car. Because it would be really funny

[fish-cakez]

i can't wait for all the life series planet and space symbolism to include that fuckass car now

[breoasis]

Y era un domingo en la tarde, fui a los coches de choque tiririririririririri 🎺🎺🎺🎺🎺

[chrismcshell]

have a body, feel the groove

[emo-batboy]

A Wild Battinson (Social Media AU)

Part 51 (Masterlist)

(Part 52)

@bruciemilf it’s SNL week

There is so much exposition in this part. Just gimme a sec. (Also? That shirt? Took way too long to edit. But please trust the process.)

If you’re not already aware, I wrote a summary of the Battinson SNL episode forever ago. However, I will only be linking that on Saturday’s update. If you want to spoil yourself, you can find it somewhere on my blog, but I’m not handing it over just yet.

That’s it for now. See you tomorrow <3

[elexuscal]

Imagine, if in two thousand years, everyone was obsessed with Omelas.

Alright, not everyone obviously. But you'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't at least know its name. You were absolutely told the story as a child, might even have watched a movie or played a game about plucky kids rescuing the child of Omelas from their cell and taking down the city's corrupt priesthood. You definitely have vague memories of browsing the holo-channels as a kid on a sick day and watching a documentary about how the city fell, analyzing the texts of the historian Le Guin, and attempting to track down its "true" location.

There are whole societies dedicated to that question. Not just people on the Feed Boards, but like, actual archeologists and historians (that's how they describe themselves, at least) who literally head out to various moons and dwarf planets, doing all sort of complicated scans and digging up rock formations and old habitat ruins that they claim, based on ancient texts, to be a prime candidate for where Omelas was located.

It goes deeper than that, you realise later, if you dig deeper. There are entire belief systems based on Omelas. Many claim that Omelians were not humans at all, but actually advanced aliens or even gods, who granted humanity the first technology for space flight. There are political parties, some quite popular-- and powerful-- who claim descent from the Omelians, and who argue that descent makes them rightfully superior to all other races. These people rarely, if ever, bring up how the moral question at the story's heart about the Omelian's corruption. Omelians were wise and just and powerful, obviously, and that's why they should be in charge now.

This is what happened to Plato's story of Atlantis.

[isaac--r]

The meme ever

[bumblebeeappletree]

Did you know that soil is home to 60% of all species on Earth?

Soil is vital for plant growth, supports biodiversity, filters water, and keeps ecosystems balanced. But in Kenya, worsening droughts have left the soil damaged and dry, threatening both nature and local communities.

In our 20th Planet Wild mission, we're supporting a surprisingly simple method to help transform these barren lands into thriving ecosystems.

A special thanks to Dr. Rob Thompson / University of Reading for providing us with additional footage.

Chapters

0:00 Digging Earth Smiles

0:29 Why we need to save the soil

1:16 Welcome to South Eastern Kenya

1:55 The problem

3:27 The solution

4:40 How to dig a bund

6:21 Our support

7:05 Benefits of the bunds

[crunchy-rocc]

three of them

@anon-lemon

[gardenfractals]

Landscapes from Fantastic Planet (1973)

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: Queer science fiction, part 1

There is a lot of queer sf out there, and I read a lot of sf. When I started working on this list, I quickly realized it was impossible to include all that I've read and enjoyed in one single rec post. Thus, this is the first of so far three queer sci-fi book rec posts.

A note: queer here does not necessarily mean "guarantee of an f/f or m/m ship with a happy ending", but rather simply a significant presence of queerness. Some of the books feature no romance but has a same gender attracted/trans/a-spectrum lead, or features an m/f relationship with bisexual, trans or aro/ace characters, or simply features a world-building which is heavily queer inclusive in ways that don't always compare to our own ideas of sexuality and gender. I have however disqualified works where the only queer presence is along the lines of "gay best friend" or a blink and you'll miss it confirmation that never comes up again.

Previous book rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding, really cool sci-fi worldbuilding, dark sapphic romances, mermaid books, vampire books, many worlds: portal fantasies, many worlds: alternate timelines, robots and artificial intelligences, post- and transhumanism, alien intelligences

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley*

Dietz is a soldier in the war between Earth and Mars - to travel to the battle front, she and her fellow soldiers are broken down into light to be able to quickly travel across space. But something keeps going wrong with Dietz's travels; her memories don't match up with the mission briefs, as she experiences time itself turning in on itself. Is she going mad? Or are the things she's learning skipping through time the truth - and the war that's stealing her life the lie? A mindfuck of a book that's scathing in its critique of fascism and war. Features a sapphic lead but no romance.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot duology) by Becky Chambers

Novella. Long ago, robots, upon gaining sentience, simply laid down their work and walked into the wilderness. Long after, a tea monk looking for purpose follows after them into the wilds, where they come across one of the robots seeking its own sort of answers. While not plotless, this story focuses more on character and vibes over plot. Also has a nonbinary main character and features conversations on gender between human and robot.

Meet Me In Another Life by Catriona Silvey*

Thora and Santi are strangers, brought together by a coincidence and torn apart just as abruptly when tragedy strikes. But this is neither the first nor the last time they meet - again and again they encounter each other, as friends, lovers, enemies, family, every time recognizing in each other a familiarity no one else carries. But with every new life, a mysterious danger grows ever closer, forcing them to find out the truth of their connection. This is a puzzle-box of a story that goes some entirely unexpected places in a very wild ride, featuring a bisexual co-lead.

The Archive Undying (The Downworld Sequence) by Emma Mieko Candon

In a world where AI gods sometimes lose their minds and take entire populations down with them, Sunai was the only survivor when his god went down. In the 17 years since, he has wandered on his own, unable to either die or age, drowning his sorrows in drink and men. But his attempts to flee his past comes to a stop as he is forced back into the struggle between man and machine. Featuring some pretty wild world building and narrative techniques, this book will definitely confuse you, but it is worth the experience.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

January Cole works security at the Paradox Hotel, last stop for tourists heading for the timeport, which allows them to travel to and witness any moment in time. But years of proximity to the timeport has left its damage on January, making her unstuck in time, letting her relive memories of her dead lover even as her sanity slips away bit by bit. As she starts witnessing proof of a horrible crime in the hotel that no one else can see, January must race against her own mind, a killer, and time itself to solve it before it's too late.

A Fractured Infinity by Nathan Tavares

Hayes Figueiredo is a struggling film-maker who wants to finish his documentary, whose life gets turned upside down when handsome physicist Yusuf Hassan enters his life, claiming an alternate version of him is a great inventor who’s sent a mysterious device to their universe. As Hayes gets drawn deeper into the conspiracy - and his feelings for Yusuf intensify - he has to decide just how far he’s prepared to go to win the life and the love he wants. Featuring a very gay and very morally dubious lead, this is a creative and strange read.

Bridge by Lauren Beukes

When she was little, Bridge and her mother Jo used to play a game - one where they traveled to other worlds, inhabiting the bodies of their other selves. Now Jo is dead, and as Bridge is cleaning out her apartment she finds a strange device: a dreamworm, the very thing that supposedly makes inter-dimensional travel possible. Suddenly faced with the possibility that multiverse travel is real, Bridge is struck by a different question: could her mother still be alive? Scifi spiced with a healthy dose of body horror and some absolutely wild twists, Bridge also features a bisexual lead (however this is a blink and you’ll miss it moment) and a nonbinary co-narrator.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper just got a job on the motley crew of the Wayfarer, a spaceship that works with tunneling new wormholes through space. With a past she wants to leave behind, Rosemary is happy to travel the far reaches of the universe with the chaotic crew, but when they land the job of a life time, things suddenly get a lot more dangerous. A bit of a tumblr classic in its day, this is a cozy space opera with an episodic feel and vividly realized characters and cultures. While pretty light on romance and focusing found family, there is a main f/f relationship.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Life on the lower decks of the generation ship HSS Matilda is hard for Aster, an outcast even among outcasts, trying to survive in a system not dissimilar to the old antebellum South. The ship's leaders have imposed harsh restrictions on their darker skinned people, using them as an oppressed work force as they travel toward their supposed Promised Land. But as Aster finds a link between the death of the ship's sovereign and the suicide of her own mother, she realizes there may be a way off the ship.

Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire trilogy) by Yoon Ha Lee*

Military space opera where belief and culture shape the laws of reality, causing all kinds of atrocities as empires do everything in their power to force as many people as possible to conform to their way of life to strengthen their technology and weapons. It’s also very queer, with gay, lesbian and trans major characters, albeit little to no romance.

The Left Hand of Darkness (Hainish Cycle) by Ursula K. Le Guin

1969 classic. Genly Ai is an emissary sent to the planet of Winter, meant to help facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But he's unprepared for Winter's citizens, who spend much of their time genderless or switching between genders, making for a culture wildly different from that Genly is used to.

Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota series) by Ada Palmer*

Centuries in the future, humanity has deliberatly engineered society to be as utopian as possible, politically, socially, sexually, religiously. Written in an enlightenment style and featuring questions of human nature and whether it’s possible to change it, and what price we’re prepared to pay for peace, this book is simultaneously very heavy and very funny, and written in a very unique style. While still human, the society presented often feels starkly alien.

The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley

This book fucked me up when I read it. It’s weird, it’s gross, there’s So Much Viscera, there are literally no men, it has living spaceships and biotech but in the most horrific way imaginable. Had I to categorize it I would call it grimdark military sf. It’s an experience but not necessarily a pleasant one.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling*

Possibly one of the most unsettling books I’ve ever read, and definitely the most claustrophobic. Gyre, a caver on an alien planet, ventures into the dark and dangerous underground, guided only by a woman who has no compunctions on using and manipulating Gyre as she sees fit to obtain her secretive goals down in the caves.

Escaping Exodus (Escaping Exodus series) by Nicky Drayden

While my feelings on Escaping Exodus were mixed, it cannot be denied that the dynamic between the two leads and the way they go from childhood best friends to enemies on different sides of a class and power struggle is very delicious. It also features some really cool worldbuilding of living, alien generation spaceships and the human culture that has developed inside them.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

The Doors of Eden is something of an experiment in speculative biology, featuring versions of Earth in which various different species were the one to rise to sentience, from dinosaurs to neanderthals. Now, something is threatening the existence of all timelines, dragging multiple different people and species into the struggle, among those a pair of cryptid hunting girlfriends and a transgender scientist.

Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

Ascension follows Alana Quick, an expert Sky Surgeon who stows away on a spaceship in hopes of landing herself a job. But the ship and its crew are in deeper waters than she expected, facing threats emerging from a whole other universe, all of them searching for the same person: Alana’s spiritually enlightened sister. Undeniably a bit of an odd read, Ascension is also very creative and features polyamorous lesbian relationship.

Contagion (Contagion duology) by Erin Bowman*

Young adult. After receiving an SOS, a small crew is sent on a standard search-and-rescue mission. But what they find are not survivors awaiting help, but an abandoned site, full of dead bodies and crawling with something... monstrous. No romance, but features one sapphic co-lead and one who can easily be read as demisexual (however this doesn't show up until book two, which has more romance).

A Memory Called Empire (Texicalaan duology) by Arkady Martine

Mahit Dzmare is an ambassador sent to the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire, where she discovers that her predecessor has died. Trying to protect her home, an independent mining station, from being taken over by the empire, Mahit struggles to find out the truth of her predecessor's death while carrying the voice of his ghost in her head, guiding her as best he can. Light on the romance but does feature a sapphic relationship.

The Outside (The Outside trilogy) by Ada Hoffman*

AKA the book the put me in an existenial crisis. Souls are real, and they are used to feed AI gods in this lovecraftian inspired scifi where reality is warped and artifical gods stand against real, unfathomable ones. Autistic scientist Yasira is accused of heresy and, to save her eternal soul, is recruited by post-human cybernetic ‘angels’ to help hunt down her own former mentor, who is threatening to tear reality itself apart. Sapphic main character.

Dawn (Xenogenesis trilogy) by Octavia E. Butler*

After a devestating war leaves humanity on the brink of extinction, survivor Lilith finds herself waking up naked and alone in a strange room. She’s been rescued by the Oankali, who have arrived just in time to save the human race. But there’s a price to survival, and it might be humanity itself. Absolutely fucked up I love it I once had to drop the book mid read to stare at the ceiling and exclaim in horror at what was going on. Queer in the sense that the Oankali doesn't follow human ideas of gender and relationships, which is mirrored in their romantic relationships with humans. It is, however, pretty dark, with examinations of agency and consent, so enter with caution.

Remnant by Kate Genet

One day, Cass wakes up and finds everyone else is gone. Not dead, just gone, leaving her in a world which nature starts taking back with a dangerous, unnatural speed. But as she tries to survive this new normal, Cass realizes she may not be alone after all - but who else is out there, and are they a threat?

The Scorpion Rules (Prisoners of Peace duology) by Erin Bow*

Young Adult. Featuring a dystopian future in which an AI forcibly keeps world peace by holding the children of world leaders hostage. If anyone attempts to start a war, their child will be executed. Greta is one of these children, kept in a school with others like her. But things start to change one day when a new, less obedient hostage arrives. A unique, slowburn take on the YA dystopian craze, also featuring a bisexual love triangle.

Iron Widow (Iron Widow series) by Xiran Jay Zhao

Young adult. Zetian is a citizen of Huaxia, where mecha aliens are constantly trying to breach the Great Wall. To keep them at bay, couples of men and women pilot so called Chrysalises, giant transforming robots. But the pilots are not equal - the women almost always die, sucked dry by their co-pilots. When Zetian sets herself up to become a concubine-pilot, she does so with the plan to assassinate the male pilot who caused her sister's death. Features a polyamorous main relationship.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool:

Survival Instincts by May Dawney

Lynn Tanner has been surviving the post-apocalypse alone with only her dog for a long time, trusting no one. But when she's forced to travel the dangerous remains of New York City alongside another woman, her priorities are challenged. Is staying alone really the best way to stay alive?

These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs

When con-artist Jun Ironway gets her hands on possible proof of the powerful Nightfoot family, controllers of interplanetary travel, committing genocide, she has in her hands a chance of taking them and their monopoly down. But the family and their allies won't go down easily, and sends two brutal clerics to stop her.

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

A neo-victorian alternate history, in which a part of Congo was kept safe from colonisation, becoming Everfair, a safe haven for both the people of Congo and former slaves returning from America. Here they must struggle to keep this home safe for them all.

[iwanttobepersephone]

Dear fans of Joel Smallishbeans. May I please make a humble suggestion. Please listen to Rather Die by Barnes Courtney. I have made art of some of the lyrics to convince you