It’s my first-born son’s 17th birthday tomorrow. His name is Lex and right now he’s partying with his friends, and we’re not allowed to go to the party, because we might embarrass him/them. Ha! Enjoy the party boys, you deserve it.
And yes, for those who know us, Lex is 17!!!! Unbelievable.
Anyhoo, I never take ANYTHING for granted and focus on making sure the important moments are celebrated, because if you look at the planetary crisis section below, we are pushing ourselves off the edge of a cliff. We don’t seem capable of understanding that every single one of us needs to stop, shrink our lives significantly, and we need to do it across the 3.8 billion middle class population now, right now.
But we’re not even considering it? Everything that is bad for planetary balance is going up, and everything good and necessary is going down. The only natural planetary events going up are destruction – fires, floods, heat, drought, glacial melt, and on it goes.
If we don’t stop what we’re doing, what future are we offering our children? And why isn’t every parent on the planet up in arms and on the street saying enough? What more proof do we need that our kids are facing a dire future? Not to mention, what we’re witnessing today will soon feel like nothing in comparison to what the climate scientists are telling us is coming…
My boys believe that I am fighting for their future and that I will be successful. They are reassured, which means they can get on and enjoy life – because mum is sorting it out. My fear is as they’re getting older, the light will soon go on that I am not even making a dent in this fight, and then what? Will they hate me? Think I was lying to them?
Please, if you’re reading this, or anything else I’m sharing, join me. We need to recruit one billion imperfect people, who are willing to massively shrink their impact on the planet, and then we need that one billion people to recruit 3-4 more people each, who will join us and embrace a gentler life on our planet, and maybe, just maybe, we have a chance.
We can’t stop what’s coming, but maybe we can reduce the speed of change and the scale of destruction? If we come together and try our hardest, we might not succeed, but at least we’ll go down together, fighting to secure a future for our children. We owe them that, don’t you think?
Anyhoo onto the reads and Happy Happy Birthday Lex! Love you buds.
Friend’s content and mine
Great short speech by the wonderful Kerrie Phipps – Unlock the Power of Better Conversations. Have a listen and be inspired.
Praveen Gupta’s comments on The Girl Child really struck a chord with me. Do we want to continue living in a world where the human girl child remains the most vulnerable of us?
Donation time
If everyone gave #just10percent of their time, talent, money or voice, we’ll change the world. Can you donate? Why not make a regular donation to the World Food Programme. Or donate to the UN Refugee Program, Medicine Sans Frontier, PowerOf, Kiva.org, Red Cross, and so many more, including urgent fundraising and those supporting animals, like the Soi Dog Foundation. A fabulous organisation I support is B1G1 – check it out and set up an account. It’s a time for giving and taking care of each other.
Content to read
And here’s the content I’ve been reading, listening to or watching. Scan the headlines, read the ones that jump out at you, read, listen to or watch them all. It’s time to pay attention to the information that matters.
Planetary emergency
Scientists map loss of groundwater storage around the world (ampproject.org)
The continued rise in CO2 is unacceptable. This insanity cannot continue | Euronews
Plastic Pollution Treaty | WWF (panda.org)
How We Know that Global Warming is Accelerating and that the Goal of the Paris Agreement is Dead
Iceland declares state of emergency over volcanic eruption threat | Iceland | The Guardian
El Niño expected to last at least until April 2024 | World Meteorological Organization (wmo.int)
Political blame game begins as ‘pollution season’ shrouds Delhi | India | The Guardian
James Hansen is back with another dire climate warning – E&E News by POLITICO (eenews.net)
Feeling safe to speak your truth | LinkedIn
Long-lost mammal rediscovered in remote Indonesia mountains | Reuters
Rainforest loss in South-East Asia could extend El Niño and La Niña | New Scientist
Rich buyers running from the climate crisis to the Alps | Fortune (ampproject.org)
The world is doubling down on fossil fuels even as global demand peaks | Grist
Toxic foam coats sacred river near New Delhi as Indian capital battles hazardous pollution | CNN
Massive line of storms marches across eastern NSW (weatherzone.com.au)
Kenya announces public holiday for nationwide tree planting in reforestation drive | CNN
Carl Sagan’s words reverberate today – The Brilliant
Plant City: Matthew Kenney to Bring His Vegan Food Halls to China (ampproject.org)
S. Korea retracts bans on disposable cups at cafes, restaurants (koreaherald.com)
Global wine production falls to 62-year low in 2023 – BBC News
News — climate science breakthrough
This year ‘virtually certain’ to be warmest in 125,000 years, EU scientists say | Reuters
Global heat: Extreme autumn sets up 2023 to break records – BBC News
Five graphics that show some of the biggest threats facing the natural world | CNN
A Major Alarm Is Flashing Under Greenland’s Ice | WIRED
‘Everything is parched’: Amazon struggles with drought amid deforestation | Brazil | The Guardian
Where Should I Move to Avoid Climate Change? | by Climate Survivor | Medium
How to Prepare to Lose Your Home in a Climate Disaster | by Climate Survivor | Nov, 2023 | Medium
A harmful climate debate (tribune.com.pk)
2023 ozone hole ranks 16th largest, NASA and NOAA researchers find (phys.org)
Skin cancer: Why are Australia melanoma rates increasing? (ampproject.org)
Scientists warn Earth warming faster than expected — due to reduction in ship pollution | CBC News
Climate Science Denial Rife at Launch of Jordan Peterson’s ARC Project – DeSmog
Wars are closing down the window for climate action (climatechangenews.com)
Exceptional Asia heat demolishes national records for November (msn.com)
NYT Opinion: I study climate change. The data is telling us something new. – Berkeley Earth
Women are missing from most national climate plans (womensagenda.com.au)
Why Can’t We Just Quit Cows? (gizmodo.com)
Antarctic ice is disappearing, threatening massive sea level rise : NPR
Hansen Vs. Mann – Is Global Warming Linear Or Exponential? – CleanTechnica
modern-slavery-report.pdf (thomsonreuters.com)
These haunting underwater photos portray climate change in a new way (cnn.com)
Global politics
Macron calls on Israel to stop killing Gaza’s women and babies – BBC News
Jadaliyya – Turmoil at the BBC: “Gravest Possible Concerns” at Its Gaza Coverage
‘We walked into a wasteland’ – BBC’s Jeremy Bowen in Gaza with Israeli forces – BBC News
More than 10,000 Palestinians killed since 7 October, say health officials | Euronews
‘No Hamas rule, no blockade.’ Von der Leyen proposes five principles for Gaza’s future | Euronews
Maps: Tracking the Attacks in Israel and Gaza – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
A turning point in Myanmar as army suffers big losses – BBC News
Joe Manchin: West Virginia Democrat says he will not seek re-election – BBC News
Young Voters to Biden: Ceasefire on Gaza — or Lose in 2024 (rollingstone.com)
House censures only Palestinian member over call for Palestinian freedom – Mondoweiss
Rashida Tlaib’s claims of genocide in Gaza draw bipartisan criticism – BBC News
Third Republican debate: Four takeaways from the Miami event – BBC News
Ohio Issue 1: Voters approve adding abortion rights to state constitution – BBC News
Trump Plots Against His Enemies – The Atlantic
Trump 2.0: The climate cannot survive another Trump term | The Hill (ampproject.org)
What a Donald Trump second term would look like – BBC News
Ivanka Trump testimony: Why ‘I don’t recall’ is a common legal strategy – BBC News
Covid inquiry: Ex-minister challenged on plan for disabled people – BBC News
Business and technology
Bullshit Jobs – by Matt Orsagh – Degrowth is the Answer (substack.com)
Self-service: Booths supermarket puts staff back behind its tills – BBC News
Phuket’s massive Bang Tao property surge set to reset destination (thephuketnews.com)
Cindy Gallop Slams Misogynistic Start-Up Boss – B&T (bandt.com.au)
Global fashion factories in Bangladesh resigned to slimmer margins ahead of wage hike | Reuters
Optus outage: Millions affected by Australian network failure – BBC News
Elon Musk and Other AI Doomers Cause Meltdown (gizmodo.com)
Fortnite’s OG season fuels ‘biggest day in game’s history’ – BBC News
Elon Musk, meet the Twitter resistance – Tech Industry (mashable.com)
Biggest global threat since 1930s looms and every CEO talking about it
Social issues
First-ever cancer vaccine simultaneously kills and prevents brain cancer (ampproject.org)
Vatican steps closer to allowing transgender people to be baptized as Catholics | AP News
The Mediterranean diet has stood the test of time for a reason: It works (nationalgeographic.com)
An aspirin a day may do more harm than good (nationalgeographic.com)
Nepal earthquake: More than 150 killed in remote western Nepal – BBC News
Passion/humour/history/celebs
We thought we knew the secrets of Europe’s bog bodies. We didn’t. (nationalgeographic.com)
Ghostbusters Battle Climate-Changing Ghouls in ‘Frozen Empire’ Trailer (rollingstone.com)
Boat tour spots whale off Phuket (thephuketnews.com)
The Nature Conservancy photo contest 2023: Winners announced | CNN
So, what did you read? What jumped out at you? Or share with me what you’re reading? I love that!
Cheers
Andrea
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Environment education
Four environment resources to help you navigate this challenging territory.
- Knowledge, constantly updating
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- Finally, more than 100 mini-videos on many topics regarding the multiple crisis’ we face. Feel free to download and use as your own. No credit necessary.
Uncommon Courage: an invitation
Uncommon Courage is an invitation to be your courageous best self every day. It’s also an antidote to the overwhelm, fear, and rage rolling around the world. But it’s more than a book; it’s an invitation to join an inclusive community that wants to better understand humanities challenges – both global and personal – in order to take courageous action and create a better world for everyone. If Covid19 has given us the time and space to reflect, Uncommon Courage gives us the nudge we need to create lasting change.
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