Link Blog
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The political processes are utterly broken and too little is being done to legislate change.
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The public blames lawmakers and corporations BUT the public also goes about flying, driving, consuming.
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There’s NO PROTESTING and a lot of pretending there is no problem
After Israel’s massacre in Nuseirat … when will the world see us? | Al Jazeera
Around 11am, I was eating breakfast with my children before heading to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital to work on my stories when everything suddenly turned upside down.
I've been thinking that climate fiction that imagines a future where we actually fight the crisis, a future worth fighting for, is super subversive (and it is) but I'm coming around to thinking that encouraging folks (even ones who aren't "writers") to engage in that imaginative act--imagine the future you want and what it would take to get there--is 100% part of how we fight this.
Went to bed disgusted with this nation. Woke up disgusted with this nation. I'll keep saying it over and over because I can't turn away, won't pretend it's not happening. Supporting war criminals makes us war criminals.
The Electronic Intifada reports that hundreds of Palestinians were massacred in "rescue" operation lauded by US.
270+ dead, 400+ wounded. This just 2 days after Israel bombed a UN school in the refugee camp killing at least 33.
As of 5 June, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza had recorded more than 36,500 fatalities and 83,000 injuries since 7 October.
Another day of US/Israel war crimes and protests.
Reportback from massive "We are your red line" protest for Palestine in Washington DC
The 8th of June was a horrific day in Gaza, as an IOF raid that retrieved only four hostages killed at least 210 Palestinians and wounded over 400 more. Many were seen with limbs blown off by Israel’s bombs.
On this same day, tens of thousands (possibly 100,000) furious protesters descended on Washington DC for a protest organized just weeks earlier to pressure Biden’s administration to half the flow of deadly weapons to Netanyahu’s murderous regime in Israel.
The intention is to dismantle what little "democracy" we have but most Americans don't seem to actually want the responsibility of even the most minimal democracy. The white middle class generally passive and comfortable in its supremacy, will take little action.
Rumored to be a possible choice for chief of staff should Trump be elected, Russ Vought has a plan for the second term: 'radical constitutionalism'.
A battle-tested D.C. bureaucrat and self-described Christian nationalist is drawing up detailed plans for a sweeping expansion of presidential power in a second Trump administration.
I have deep sympathy for non-human species and for the humans of the Global South that have contributed so little to the climate emergency.
The specific problem is the hyper consumption of privileged middle class whites in the US and other wealthy, over-developed nations: The 10%.
When we face the consequences we'll cry, complain and blame anyone but us. But we insist on keeping this lifestyle. We're inflicting the damage upon ourselves and upon billions of others.
We REFUSE to change, WE deserve to suffer.
Wildfire smoke prematurely killed over 50,000 Californians in a decade | The Guardian
Our climate reality in 2024 is already starting to look and feel like the beginning minutes of a dystopian climate disaster movie. The footage of the dead howler monkeys laying on the forest floor is heart breaking. It's only a matter of time before we see a human mass death event like the one described in the first chapter of Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future.
As we enter the month of June, scorching temperatures are already making deadly heat waves around the world. Data confirmed last month was the hottest May on record, putting the Earth on a 12-month streak of record-breaking temperatures...
"We're going to see a more chaotic planet as the climate heats up... the heat wave scenario that keeps climate scientists up at night: a major power outage that could cut off air conditioning and cause thousands of deaths from extreme temperatures."
In Mexico, it's already so hot that howler monkeys and parrots are falling dead from the trees. "What we're experiencing right now goes beyond what is normal," says Ruth Cerezo-Mota, climate researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "We have been saying this for many years now."
Today's news: Netanyahu will be addressing Congress in July
Yesterday's news: “Apocalyptic”: 40 Killed in Israeli Airstrike on U.N. School Sheltering Displaced Palestinians in Gaza | Democracy Now!
The US and Israel: Partners in war crimes, genocide and violent settler colonialism.
An Israeli airstrike on a U.N. school in central Gaza has killed at least 40 people, including 14 children, according to local authorities. Nearly 80 Palestinians were also wounded in Thursday’s predawn strike that hit the al-Sardi School run by UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
Finally, more reporting on famine in Northern Gaza. As expected, it's very grim.
Starvation already causing many deaths and lasting harm in Gaza | The Guardian
The US-based famine early warning system network (Fews Net) said it was “possible, if not likely” that famine began in northern Gaza in April. Two UN organisations said more than 1 million people were “expected to face death and starvation” by mid-July...
“...people are dying of hunger-related causes across Gaza. Acute malnutrition among children is extremely high and this will result in irreversible physiological impacts."
UN chief António Guterres urges global fossil-fuel advertising ban. Yes but what's really needed is an uprooting of car culture and dependency along with air-travel. There's no doubt the media is deeply embedded in all of it. Advertising, yes, but the entertainment industry also perpetuates the problem. It all works together.
“Many governments restrict or prohibit advertising for products that harm human health, like tobacco. I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil-fuel companies. And I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil-fuel advertising.”
Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire, Netanyahu and the Israeli government do not. Their goal is the elimination of Hamas. According to a Pew poll conducted March and April, released last week, 76% of Jewish Israeli society believes that Israel will achieve its war aims.
Vox reports on what happens if Gaza ceasefire talks fail:
Israel is continuing its assault on Rafah as well as its ground and air operations in other parts of Gaza.. Unless the war ends soon and humanitarian aid can enter Gaza, many more Palestinians — not just the 3,500 projected in the analysis — will die this summer.
The intensification of the climate emergency by tech, particularly AI, should be front and center in the reporting but it's not. An exception: Nvidia's Computex 2024 keynote terrified TechRadar's John Loeffler.
There was something that Huang said during the keynote that shocked me into a mild panic. Nvidia's Blackwell cluster, which will come with eight GPUs, pulls down 15kW of power. That's 15,000 watts of power. Divided by eight, that's 1,875 watts per GPU.
The current-gen Hopper data center chips draw up to 1,000W, so Nvidia Blackwell is nearly doubling the power consumption of these chips.
Regardless of an accelerating climate emergency the entitled white middle class of the US and the Global North will refuse to act.
The Nation: The Canadian Wildfires Are Once Again Sounding the Alarm About What’s to Come:
Catastrophic climate change is no longer just a future dystopian possibility; it’s a present, inescapable reality.
While fires blaze across Western Canada, spreading smoke, making it harder to breathe, and diminishing air quality for people living as far away as South Dakota and Iowa, millions of people in Brazil are recovering from severe floods in Rio Grande do Sul…
Against a world without Palestinians – Mondoweiss
When I was five, my father told me that I was Palestinian. I don’t know if he understood what he did, but that little piece of knowledge started a chain of consciousness in my then-child’s mind that would continue for a lifetime. Eventually, it led to the bitter realization that I now cannot escape — the awareness that we Palestinians live in an international system that has no place and no wish for us as a people.
Explainer for the middle class white people who are confused about climate activists “defacing” art that is protected behind glass:
Riposte Alimentaire has claimed responsibility for several attacks on art in attempts to draw attention to the climate crisis.
Activists are desperate:
This is a CLIMATE EMERGENCY.
Imagine this being worse because it will be.
Why?
We’re not even trying to change course.
‘Unliveable’: Delhi’s residents struggle to cope in record-breaking heat | The Guardian
As the water tanker drove into a crowded Delhi neighbourhood, a ruckus erupted. Dozens of residents ran frantically behind it, brandishing buckets, bottles and hoses, and jumped on top of it to get even a drip of what was stored inside. Temperatures that day had soared to 49C (120F), the hottest day on record – and in many places across India’s vast capital, home to more than 29 million people, water had run out.
We Need to talk about Zionism | The Listening Post - YouTube
In the coverage of Israel-Palestine in the Western media, an ideology that is central to the story - Zionism - rarely gets discussed. Instead, we hear a debate about whether opposition to it - anti-Zionism - is anti-Semitic. The Listening Post’s Daniel Turi reports on Zionism, the confusion that surrounds it, and what it tells us about the world’s longest-running occupation.
“I would like them to stop gaslighting and speak truthfully about what is happening,” says Smith, who says USAID must do more than acknowledge famine is happening in Gaza. “We need to take the next step of saying it is illegal and who is doing the starvation intentionally.” Smith condemns the Biden administration for silencing U.S. experts while supporting Israel, which claims there is no famine in Gaza.
We are making our planet uninhabitable. How long before we see a mass death event?
Delhi temperature may break record for highest ever in India: 126.1 degrees - CBS News
A temperature reading collected in Delhi, India’s capital territory, may have broken national records as the country grapples with a blistering heat wave. The reading — 52.9 degrees Celsius or 126.1 degrees Fahrenheit — was preliminary and technically an outlier compared with others taken in Delhi on the same day, officials said. But, if confirmed, it would be the highest temperature ever registered anywhere in India.
Biden is Alone Amid Global Demand for Gaza Ceasefire | Democracy Now!
It seems the Biden administration has no “red line” that would force him to halt arms shipments to Israel, nor take any other significant punitive action to align the US government with almost every other nation on earth.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan included in his Gaza war crimes petition that he “will not hesitate to submit further applications for warrants of arrest.” President Biden and his enablers have the power to end Israel’s war on Gaza and the slaughter of civilians there. Their decision not to is criminal.