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boomstab-papa · 7 days ago

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I think people either forgot, or just didn't pay attention to how Trump's policies wrecked shit (including the ability to even TALK about it) during his first term.

It would be a good exercise for everybody to pay attention to it this time around.

That way, the next time a climate denialist candidate with aspirations of fascism is running for office.... you can remember how important it is to do your best to prevent their election. Because this will happen again. And again. And again.

In the meantime, the plan is the same. Damage control. Local repair. Get local and get involved.

Planet's Fucked: What Can You Do To Help? (Long Post)

Since nobody is talking about the existential threat to the climate and the environment a second Trump term/Republican government control will cause, which to me supersedes literally every other issue, I wanted to just say my two cents, and some things you can do to help. I am a conservation biologist, whose field was hit substantially by the first Trump presidency. I study wild bees, birds, and plants.

In case anyone forgot what he did last time, he gagged scientists' ability to talk about climate change, he tried zeroing budgets for agencies like the NOAA, he attempted to gut protections in the Endangered Species Act (mainly by redefining 'take' in a way that would allow corporations to destroy habitat of imperiled species with no ramifications), he tried to do the same for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (the law that offers official protection for native non-game birds), he sought to expand oil and coal extraction from federal protected lands, he shrunk the size of multiple national preserves, HE PULLED US OUT OF THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT, and more.

We are at a crucial tipping point in being able to slow the pace of climate change, where we decide what emissions scenario we will operate at, with existential consequences for both the environment and people. We are also in the middle of the Sixth Mass Extinction, with the rate of species extinctions far surpassing background rates due completely to human actions. What we do now will determine the fate of the environment for hundreds or thousands of years - from our ability to grow key food crops (goodbye corn belt! I hated you anyway but), to the pressure on coastal communities that will face the brunt of sea level rise and intensifying extreme weather events, to desertification, ocean acidification, wildfires, melting permafrost (yay, outbreaks of deadly frozen viruses!), and a breaking down of ecosystems and ecosystem services due to continued habitat loss and species declines, especially insect declines. The fact that the environment is clearly a low priority issue despite the very real existential threat to so many people, is beyond my ability to understand. I do partly blame the public education system for offering no mandatory environmental science curriculum or any at all in most places. What it means is that it will take the support of everyone who does care to make any amount of difference in this steeply uphill battle.

There are not enough environmental scientists to solve these issues, not if public support is not on our side and the majority of the general public is either uninformed or actively hostile towards climate science (or any conservation science).

So what can you, my fellow Americans, do to help mitigate and minimize the inevitable damage that lay ahead?

I'm not going to tell you to recycle more or take shorter showers. I'll be honest, that stuff is a drop in the bucket. What does matter on the individual level is restoring and protecting habitat, reducing threats to at-risk species, reducing pesticide use, improving agricultural practices, and pushing for policy changes. Restoring CONNECTIVITY to our landscape - corridors of contiguous habitat - will make all the difference for wildlife to be able to survive a changing climate and continued human population expansion.

**Caveat that I work in the northeast with pollinators and birds so I cannot provide specific organizations for some topics, including climate change focused NGOs. Scientists on tumblr who specialize in other fields, please add your own recommended resources. **

We need two things: FUNDING and MANPOWER.

You may surprised to find that an insane amount of conservation work is carried out by volunteers. We don't ever have the funds to pay most of the people who want to help. If you really really care, consider going into a conservation-related field as a career. It's rewarding, passionate work.

At the national level, please support:

The Nature Conservancy

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Cornell Lab of Ornithology (including eBird)

National Audubon Society

Federal Duck Stamps (you don't need to be a hunter to buy one!)

These first four work to acquire and restore critical habitat, change environmental policy, and educate the public. There is almost certainly a Nature Conservancy-owned property within driving distance of you. Xerces plays a very large role in pollinator conservation, including sustainable agriculture, native bee monitoring programs, and the Bee City/Bee Campus USA programs. The Lab of O is one of the world's leaders in bird research and conservation. Audubon focuses on bird conservation. You can get annual memberships to these organizations and receive cool swag and/or a subscription to their publications which are well worth it. You can also volunteer your time; we need thousands of volunteers to do everything from conducting wildlife surveys, invasive species removal, providing outreach programming, managing habitat/clearing trails, planting trees, you name it. Federal Duck Stamps are the major revenue for wetland conservation; hunters need to buy them to hunt waterfowl but anyone can get them to collect!

THERE ARE DEFINITELY MORE, but these are a start.

Additionally, any federal or local organizations that seek to provide support and relief to those affected by hurricanes, sea level rise, any form of coastal climate change...

At the regional level:

These are a list of topics that affect major regions of the United States. Since I do not work in most of these areas I don't feel confident recommending specific organizations, but please seek resources relating to these as they are likely major conservation issues near you.

PRAIRIE CONSERVATION & PRAIRIE POTHOLE WETLANDS

DRYING OF THE COLORADO RIVER (good overview video linked)

PROTECTION OF ESTUARIES AND SALTMARSH, ESPECIALLY IN THE DELAWARE BAY AND LONG ISLAND (and mangroves further south, everglades etc; this includes restoring LIVING SHORELINES instead of concrete storm walls; also check out the likely-soon extinction of saltmarsh sparrows)

UNDAMMING MAJOR RIVERS (not just the Colorado; restoring salmon runs, restoring historic floodplains)

NATIVE POLLINATOR DECLINES (NOT honeybees. for fuck's sake. honeybees are non-native domesticated animals. don't you DARE get honeybee hives to 'save the bees')

WILDLIFE ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER (support the Mission Butterfly Center!)

INVASIVE PLANT AND ANIMAL SPECIES (this is everywhere but the specifics will differ regionally, dear lord please help Hawaii)

LOSS OF WETLANDS NATIONWIDE (some states have lost over 90% of their wetlands, I'm looking at you California, Ohio, Illinois)

INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE, esp in the CORN BELT and CALIFORNIA - this is an issue much bigger than each of us, but we can work incrementally to promote sustainable practices and create habitat in farmland-dominated areas. Support small, local farms, especially those that use soil regenerative practices, no-till agriculture, no pesticides/Integrated Pest Management/no neonicotinoids/at least non-persistent pesticides. We need more farmers enrolling in NRCS programs to put farmland in temporary or permanent wetland easements, or to rent the land for a 30-year solar farm cycle. We've lost over 99% of our prairies to corn and soybeans. Let's not make it 100%.

INDIGENOUS LAND-BACK EFFORTS/INDIGENOUS LAND MANAGEMENT/TEK (adding this because there have been increasing efforts not just for reparations but to also allow indigenous communities to steward and manage lands either fully independently or alongside western science, and it would have great benefits for both people and the land; I know others on here could speak much more on this. Please platform indigenous voices)

HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS (get your neighbors to stop dumping fertilizers on their lawn next to lakes, reduce agricultural runoff)

OCEAN PLASTIC (it's not straws, it's mostly commercial fishing line/trawling equipment and microplastics)

A lot of these are interconnected. And of course not a complete list.

At the state and local level:

You probably have the most power to make change at the local level!

Support or volunteer at your local nature centers, local/state land conservancy non-profits (find out who owns&manages the preserves you like to hike at!), state fish & game dept/non-game program, local Audubon chapters (they do a LOT). Participate in a Christmas Bird Count!

Join local garden clubs, which install and maintain town plantings - encourage them to use NATIVE plants. Join a community garden!

Get your college campus or city/town certified in the Bee Campus USA/Bee City USA programs from the Xerces Society

Check out your state's official plant nursery, forest society, natural heritage program, anything that you could become a member of, get plants from, or volunteer at.

Volunteer to be part of your town's conservation commission, which makes decisions about land management and funding

Attend classes or volunteer with your land grant university's cooperative extension (including master gardener programs)

Literally any volunteer effort aimed at improving the local environment, whether that's picking up litter, pulling invasive plants, installing a local garden, planting trees in a city park, ANYTHING. make a positive change in your own sphere. learn the local issues affecting your nearby ecosystems. I guarantee some lake or river nearby is polluted

MAKE HABITAT IN YOUR COMMUNITY. Biggest thing you can do. Use plants native to your area in your yard or garden. Ditch your lawn. Don't use pesticides (including mosquito spraying, tick spraying, Roundup, etc). Don't use fertilizers that will run off into drinking water. Leave the leaves in your yard. Get your school/college to plant native gardens. Plant native trees (most trees planted in yards are not native). Remove invasive plants in your yard.

On this last point, HERE ARE EASY ONLINE RESOURCES TO FIND NATIVE PLANTS and LEARN ABOUT NATIVE GARDENING:

Xerces Society Pollinator Conservation Resource Center

Pollinator Pathway

Audubon Native Plant Finder

Homegrown National Park (and Doug Tallamy's other books)

National Wildlife Federation Native Plant Finder (clunky but somewhat helpful)

Heather Holm (for prairie/midwest/northeast)

MonarchGard w/ Benjamin Vogt (for prairie/midwest)

Native Plant Trust (northeast & mid-atlantic)

Grow Native Massachusetts (northeast)

Habitat Gardening in Central New York (northeast)

There are many more - I'm not familiar with resources for western states. Print books are your biggest friend. Happy to provide a list of those.

Lastly, you can help scientists monitor species using citizen science. Contribute to iNaturalist, eBird, Bumblebee Watch, or any number of more geographically or taxonomically targeted programs (for instance, our state has a butterfly census carried out by citizen volunteers).

In short? Get curious, get educated, get involved. Notice your local nature, find out how it's threatened, and find out who's working to protect it that you can help with. The health of the planet, including our resilience to climate change, is determined by small local efforts to maintain and restore habitat. That is how we survive this. When government funding won't come, when we're beat back at every turn trying to get policy changed, it comes down to each individual person creating a safe refuge for nature.

Thanks for reading this far. Please feel free to add your own credible resources and organizations.

#politics #environment #talking #issues blogging #tronald dump

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rihon-scribe-some-writer-guy · 2 years ago

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Literary Reference and Analysis 324

Today’s Lecture: The Fault in Unsourced References

So, apparently some Pro-Life individuals are looking to make a novel series set in a dystopian totalitarian dictatorship with a 1700 youth character death count as their banner book.

If you’re a sensible blogger who realizes the hypocrisy of such a claim; then just go ahead and like my post for a passing grade in Literary Reference and Analysis 101 and consider yourself exempt from my incoming rant. Anyone who is still left; take out your notepad. You’re now on a crash course in Death of the Author.

Quick Refresher: Citation is important students. Posting a claim in such a manner as Imissedreadingclass did leaves one sounding as Tronald Dump’s Twitter account. (Yes, I have misspelled names. No, I’m not correcting them.)

It should be noted that Hunger Games was written more-so with themes of societal class oppression than it is in anything regarding a fetus. I confidently say so because when I google search “is hunger games pro life,” the first result was an essay review by the Culture of Life Studies Program (a pro-life organization, mind you) stating that “the trilogy evolves into a story that recognizes the need to be free from oppression rather than the need to stop the killing of the innocent.”

The next two google result for that search were articles written by individuals who seemed to have more accreditation that they were Catholic than they were Literary Connoisseurs.

However, if imissedreadingclass wants to take the viewpoint, then let me offer a counter analysis.

Part One: The Major Incident

Alright class, pull out your copy Catching Fire and turn to Chapter 18. Movie viewers: we’re in the interviews, look for Katniss spinning in a fiery dress and play it from there. We see our recent District 12 victors going through the 75th hunger games ordeal. As Katniss and Peeta prepare to try to save the other, the interviews roll around. Peeta now fully plans to milk the star crossed lover strategy. To Katniss’s surprise, he tells Caesar Flickerman that the two of them are already married. Peeta mentions that it’s not official, but there’s a marriage ritual in District 12 that they did, and in their minds they’re as married as they could ever be. Caesar says it’s better that they had some time together before the Quell, but Peeta says if they’d known about the Quell they wouldn’t have done it, because now Katniss is pregnant. The audience bursts into an uproar as people cry and shout, and before they can be calmed, the tributes spontaneously begin reaching for each other.

Attempting to try to reason that the citizens of the capital have adapted a mentality against “the sins of the father” would be futile as multiple generations of children as young as twelve years of age have already been murder in the Hunger Games. Upon hearing that Katniss bares a child, citizens of the capital begin protesting Hunger Games; the same games that have been conducted for the previous seventy-four years that resulted with a median death count of 23 children killed per game. Over one thousand seven hundred children are killed by the hunger games, while generations worth of children grow up in terrible conditions and under fear of the capital. Even with all of this, the citizens only grow a moral backbone when it’s mentioned that a single fetus is now involved in the games. Sorry, did I say mentioned? I meant falsified.

Pro-Choice readers of the series could note the hypocrisy of the capital citizens and tie it to certain actions of Pro-Life individuals IRL. The United States of America made the decision to leave reproductive rights to the decision of the states, with many states moving to ban abortions. Meanwhile, the nation’s pandemic of school shootings continues due to gun right activists unwilling to let gun control policies infringe upon the second amendment.

The notion of this falsified fetus either ignores or damages the argument of personhood. While capital citizens protest against the Hunger Games due to their belief that this fetus should be seen as an individual as rights, the lead characters, readers and viewers know that the argument of personhood is invalid in this instance.

Since we can’t analyze the personhood within a nonexistent character, let us now turn our eyes to our leading lady.

Part Two: Katniss Everdeen and Jennifer Lawrence

Katniss Everdeen might be the most interesting main character with the least amount of agency in a story. Her lack of agency stems more so from the situations that she finds herself in. She’s presented with few choices and many ultimatums.

Now, if the Hunger Games was supposed to be a Pro Life message, then it would make sense for the protagonist to idolize the movement. Yet on a glance, the lead character doesn’t seem to demonstrate such in her character. Katniss Everdeen never wanted to have children. At the start of the series her reasoning was that she fear that they could be reap into the Hunger Games. By the end of her ordeal, her mentality suffered due to the emotional strain of losing her sister that she goes to live in solitude with Peeta. She still never wanted to have children, yet only does so to make Peeta happy. Between her damaged mentality and Peeta’s pestering, it would be hard to say if she had much of a choice in that.

One of the fault of this character is how in the one instance where she could have solved a problem in a peaceful manner, she chose to perform violence with resulted in the death of a character. We’ll get to that one in part four.

Actress Counterpart Jennifer Lawrence self reports that she advocates for the pro choice movement. Unlike irishironclad, I have the link to support this claim.

Part Three: Amandla Stenberg

Amandla Stenberg played the depiction of District 11’s Rue. Her performance of the young girl brought up a controversy of incalculable idiocy when some audience members were baffled that a dark skin girl was portraying a dark skin girl. IQ levels dropped below zero when implications among these quite bias critics expressed that casting the young Amandla Stenberg ruined their perception of Rue’s innocence and made the character’s death less sad for them.

The level of unhealthy bias presented to the young actress should never occur to any teenager in my belief. Nevertheless, Amandla Stenberg took it in stride and used this as a platform to advocate for marginalized communities, she herself sitting at the intersection of blackness and queerness. Her advocation is matched in her bravery in coming out as non-binary and gay.

I can’t help but wonder how many of Stenberg’s haters wear their KKK robes when they shout at women and other child-bearing individuals entering or leaving plan parenthood.

Now obviously not all Pro-Life individuals hold such hypocrisy, yet The Hunger Games Series presents its setting as a dystopia that Pro-Choice individuals fear: a society that is Pro-Control.

Part Four: Antagonist, Villainy, and the Greater of Two Evils, Oh My!

If the antagonists of the series had Pro Choice or Pro Abortion themes displayed in their character, then ifriskminor’snads would have a bar stool to lean on. The fact remains though that the longest standing antagonist can’t be labeled as either term. The ruling government of Panam is a totalitarian dictator by the name of President Snow. In my eyes, he’s practically a more efficient Emperor Palpatine seeing that the span of the Hunger Games outlasted the Star Wars Empire of the original trilogy. I would also say that he could identify as anti choice (considering that he is a dictator) and anti abortion (considering that he has a daughter of his own).

On the flip side of the Coin, District 13 leader President Coin is introduced as Snow political opposition. Yet readers who’ve finished the series are left with the impression that more similarities are found between our presidents than differences. Neither of them are above killing innocent people, as Snow reveals that Coin was responsible for the death of Primrose.

All of this presents Katniss with a situation of the lesser of two evils. Neither Snow or Coin have the moral ethics to take charge of the nation. Yet I can’t help but question Katniss decision. My belief is that a Pro-Life solution would be to introduce a third candidate rather than to assassinate Coin.

Conclusion

In presenting his belief that the Hunger Games series supports the Pro Life movement through its narrative, @irishironclad commits a horrific case of death of the author without justification. In doing so, he leaves an vast opening for counter arguments to cite contradictory instances. All of this leaves the movement that was reference with less credibility than before. With all this in mind, plus the grammatical issues within the post, it is my academic duty to fail this post with a major project grade of 2%.

I can personally understand using the Hunger Games as a banner book rather than the Judeo-Christian Bible, as said Bible puts the death toll of Panam to shame with the flooding in Noah’s time, the tenth plague of Egypt in the time of Moses, and the annihilation oh the city Lot fled from. However the movement from one book to the next didn’t change the lack of source material with the only reference contradicting the movement itself (Exodus 21:22-25).

To anyone attending today’s lecture, the takeaway lesson is to back up any opinion that you plan to make public with more than mysterious here-say, otherwise a stronger counter opinion could sway the masses to see you lacking credit.

#hunger games #literature #literature reference #literature analysis #class dismissed

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