Florida then: We don’t need no stinkin' climate policy: Florida Gov. DeSantis signs bill that deletes climate change from state law : NPR.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week signed legislation that erases most references to climate change from state law. The new law takes effect July 1.
Florida now: South Florida rains flood Miami, Fort Lauderdale
Torrential downpours in South Florida over the past 24 hours have flooded roads throughout the region, creating life-threatening conditions — and forecasters warned heavy to excessive rainfall was expected to last through Friday.
The big picture: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared an emergency in Broward, Collier, Lee, Miami-Dade and Sarasota counties “due to major flooding” soon after the mayors of Miami and Fort Lauderdale both declared local states of emergency on Wednesday evening.
Texas then: We don't need no stinkin' environmental regulations.
Texas now: In February 2024, Axios reported that Texas air quality was expected to get worse with:
Nearly 70 of Texas' 254 counties are expected, by 2054, to see an increase in days with an average air quality index of 100 or higher under current climate conditions.
This seems to be a trend. From 2022: Texas heat leads to worst summer smog pollution in a decade | The Texas Tribune
Texas has seen more days with unhealthy levels of smog pollution this year than it has in a decade, state data shows, as vehicle and industrial emissions react with record-high temperatures, spiking ozone concentrations.
Since the beginning of the year, Texas air monitors have recorded 43 days as of Tuesday when ozone concentrations were high enough somewhere in the state to be considered unhealthy by the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s double the number of unhealthy ozone days recorded by this time last year, and it’s the most in the period of January to mid-July since 2012, air monitoring data maintained by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shows.
...
But while smog levels spike this summer, Texas politicians and regulatory agencies are fighting the federal government, hoping to block stricter regulations on the pollutant.
Let's talk about Texans being asked not to drive.... - YouTube
Of course, it's not just Texans that don't want to deal with the problems that come with burning fossil fuels. Most of the Global North, especially those in the US, do not want to deal with it. We have refused to deal with it. So now we will reap the whirlwind.
Mac Nerds: It’s time for you to move on
It’s been a couple days since the WWDC24 keynote when Apple offered no hope to the Mac users of the Apple Nerd Herd that they would be getting any of iPad features they’ve been clamoring for. Folks, it’s time for you to move on. Apple isn’t going to let you put macOS on the iPad. You’ve got at least a year to wait for any hope of being able to put your Final Cut Pro export in the background while you do something else. You’ll have to keep using your Mac for your podcast production. Need to format a drive? Yep, you’ll have to use your Mac. And there’s no sign from Apple that you’ll get any of that next year.
But there is some good news for you: You’ve still got your Mac! There’s no need to continue tormenting yourself. Mac users, I implore you, please, move on. Those of us happy to use the iPad will continue to do so. The Mac is your computer and it’s time for you to accept that.
The clever, cynical, self-satisfied snark at 12:38 (in the podcast) 11:50 (in the YT video) of this Vergecast is much of what’s wrong with tech media. It’s almost as if they think they are the only humans that use technology. It’s why hot takes are often so ridiculous. Maybe take a minute and think about other humans and other use cases? Students, kids, my aunt, will LOVE some of this stuff. It’s okay for some aspects of tech to be cute and fun. But no, they just shit on it right out of the gate.
Also, they clearly don’t fully understand what’s happening and are guessing/speculating as to how it works. They’ll offer plenty of opinions on something they’ve not taken the time to research and understand because, you know, clever snarky hot take wins.
I’m watching Origin and in the current scene at 48 minutes in, there is a discussion at a dinner table comparing slavery in the US to the Holocaust in Germany.
Slavery lasted 246 years, that’s 13 generations of people plus another 100 years of Jim Crow segregation and violence and murder. There were so many millions of African Americans who were murdered from the middle passage until the end of legal segregation that it goes beyond the realm of an official number. There is no number.
Those numbers. 246 years of slavery. 13 generations. It’s not the first scene in the movie to hit hard.
The movie tells the story of Isabel Wilkerson as she researches her book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
Recommended.
An excellent 2 part interview with Swiss historian Vincent Gerber on the ongoing work in Rojava to put direct democracy and social ecology into practice. As Gerber states: "The theories of Abdullah Öcalan and Bookchin offer a new model for the future by challenging capitalism."
For a better understanding, can you tell us a bit about the concept of Social ecology, which Murray Bookchin put forward as a theory and later turned into a movement?
Social ecology, as you mentioned, is an ecological movement initiated by Murray Bookchin in the 1960s, which argues that the roots of the ecological problem are based on social problems. Solving the ecological problem is not only a matter of protecting nature, but also a matter of resolving the issues of social domination that exist among us. In other words, the social problem and the ecological problem are of the same nature and, simply put, should be solved together...
Guessing I missed out on all the snarky bullshit the Apple nerds have been cleverly spouting for the past few hours. No, wait, actually, I didn't miss it. I spent the time more wisely, harvesting plums from the fruit tree in my yard. Far sweeter than the sourness I would've been subjected to.
UN: Israel-caused Famine to encompass all Gaza by July, killing as many as 19,800 a Month
A new joint report from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program warns that even as North Gaza is now facing famine, “it is highly likely that the rest of the Gaza Strip would be facing a risk of famine through July 2024, in a worst-case scenario.”
..."the situation in Gaza is alarming: the ongoing conflict has significantly worsened child malnutrition from a Global Acute Malnutrition rate of 0.8% to 16% in northern Gaza and 7% in the rest of Gaza.”
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 don't usually post here about movies I've watched but I'm going to make an exception: Perfect Days on Hulu.
Beautiful and slow, a contemplative depiction of one man's quiet, simple daily life in Japan. A gentle film sprinkled with little moments of sweetness, patience and humor.
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."
For anyone fed up with Adobe and their latest shenanigans the Affinity apps are now on sale, 50% off. It's an absolute steal. Publisher is my most used app on the iPad and it, along with the other two Affinity apps, set the bar for full, desktop class iPad apps.
Affinity V2 Universal License
Get Version 2 of Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher on all operating systems, including iPad, for one low bundle price.
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Was
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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."