little creature enthusiast

Terminally indecisive

[heartnosekid]

rainbow tripod fish larva (bathypterois grallator) | source

[burntlikethesun]

turning into the joker due to the tumblr brainrot that led to some coder colouring the #gay tag like turquoise and lavender to reference a 3 month old flag that no gay person who isn't terminally online will have ever seen before because Gilbert Baker's rainbow flag specifically designed for gay liberation has been around for half a century and weirdly segregating us off is literally the opposite of what we should be doing

[wakingfromthewater]

This deserved not to be hidden in the notes

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Please consider posting this: A petition to the House of Commons to repeal current sex work laws - to be signed by MARCH 30, Canadian residents only

From this Globe and Mail opinion piece:

“If sex workers are as ‘vulnerable’ as the law suggests, where’s their pandemic support?”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/opinion/article-if-sex-workers-are-as-vulnerable-as-the-law-suggests-wheres-their/ Bronwyn McBride and Jennie Pearson are community-based researchers at the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity in Vancouver. They link to an actual House of Commons petition to repeal Bill C-36, that MUST only be signed by Canadian residents - which also means this petition will be delivered and actively used, if it gets enough signatories. It closes MARCH 30. https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Sign/e-3132 Excerpts: …Many workers, supported by the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), ceased work to abide by public health guidelines for physical distancing. Sex workers, as workers, were expected to follow suit. Instead, what happened was just an extension of sex workers’ normal: exclusion from labour rights and protections. …After previous sex work laws were deemed unconstitutional for violating sex workers’ rights, the federal government implemented Bill C-36 in 2014, which took aim at demand for sex work – criminalizing the purchasing of sex but decriminalizing its sale. But that law deemed Canadian sex workers to be victims, not workers. This inaccurate framing has restricted sex workers’ freedoms under the guise of their protection and had severe consequences for sex workers’ occupational conditions; for instance, most sex workers can’t access government income supports created to help workers stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. These precarious workers have had no choice but to continue to work during this crisis, risking their health and safety and highlighting the inherent contradictions of laws that effectively criminalize sex work to “protect vulnerable communities.” These “end-demand” laws were due for federal review by the end of 2019, but they remain in effect to this day. Last July, community organizers called for law enforcement to cease surveillance and ticketing of sex work-related charges during the pandemic; they were largely ignored.

…Sex workers are equal members of society who deserve occupational health and safety protections, income supports, security and self-determination at work. This crisis is an opportunity for Canada to listen to decades of activism and to fully decriminalize sex work.

[entropiccollapse]

This is very important, and I urge you to please consider signing this petition if you are a fellow Canadian who believes in the decriminalization of sex work, and the vital role it will play in the protection, and destigmatization of sex industry workers. Thank you.

[civilizationkills]

maybe its bc i live in a place where forestry is one of the dominant industries but like tree planting rly isnt good. like the majority of the time its done by forestry companies to “offset” what they’ve cut down, and they almost always just plant fir & spruce monocrops and then they prevent the rest of the forest from naturally regenerating by spraying glyphosate, because they want to kill off the hardwoods that grow back since softwoods are worth more to the pulp industry… anything a company does that is supposedly “green” never is.

[daggers-drawn]

They aren’t actually replanting the forest, they’re building lumber farms in the middle of it and trying to pass them off as the same thing to people who think a forest is just trees because they live in a world mediated by images and have never been in an actual forest long enough to be able to tell healthy diverse growth from a struggling monocrop.

[helico-pteras]

Breaking my tumblr silence to post the best thing that’s ever happened to me :’)

She was too soft and magical I could cry

[zanabism-deactivated20200529]

when you support outlawing Indigenous people’s hunting practices you are LITERALLY promoting their starvation. Indigenous communities in the Arctic have to suffer from food deserts and 174963846% increase in food costs that no white vegan will ever have to face. So please. let them eat lmao.

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

Yes!!! This is so important to me as a topic in my field!!! Maintaining, supporting, and especially restoring indigenous peoples’ right to hunting is a topic of the utmost importance.

People want to cry “even the populations of concern??” but the fact is they were almost never of concern until colonizers started overhunting. The decline of the polar bear in North America (and in most of its range) is a perfect example of how in very little time, white colonizers decimated a healthy population of animals that indigenous people had been responsibly surviving on for hundreds and often thousands of years.

It doesn’t just stop at us white people letting indigenous people hunt for subsistence though. It’s extremely important that we ask for and use indigenous knowledge and ideas when we create hunting laws and treaties. We need to hand over the power.

Again, the international agreement on polar bears is a good example of indigenous hunting traditions and knowledge being used to actually make informed decisions on hunting regulations.

I’m not trying to lecture or inform OP, but to make sure white people reading this understand how important it is that moving forward, indigenous communities are included in hunting regulations and treaties, because it is not their fault their survival has been threatened by colonial overhunting, and often they have vital knowledge about species range, migration, populations, and behaviors that non-native biologists haven’t figured out yet.

Here is a read on why the largely held white idea on “saving the animals” (especially seals that advocacy groups love to claim indigenous people club constantly, all the time) is a racist, misinformed, tunnel-vision view of a much larger picture made of way bigger problems:

http://www.ppehlab.org/blogposts/2017/3/18/1y0q4mmk9vzjfe135r5cbdv0pljwox

I say it a lot, but it deserves repeating:

Always always always: wildlife conservation efforts without the consideration and voices of indigenous people is a conservation effort without a soul.

[star-anise]

Honestly the people I know who care the MOST about the wellbeing of animals and the environment are the people who are serious, experienced, non-recreational hunters. 

And not just when it’s hunting for food. The Indigenous fur trappers up here care way the fuck more about the wild species they trap than any of the white vegans who try to ban them from earning a living. Just because it’s a White tradition to disrespect the animals you kill and hunt them to extinction, doesn’t mean that’s how everybody does it.

[systlin]

My sister works with some tribes in the Pacific Northwest because they know MORE about the habits and health of the local wildlife than anyone else, including the researchers (like my sister). 

She’s a big proponent of just staying the hell out of indigenous people’s hunting practices, because “It was just fine until we came along and fucked it all up.” 

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Gidmit’en Clan, whose members are at the second check point, have called any RCMP raid an “act of war.”

The RCMP are setting up exclusion zones and closed roads to the public and media as officers get set to dismantle two camps on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory.

“During the police enforcement operation, temporary exclusion zones and road closures will be established for police and public safety reasons,” said the news release sent out Monday morning that confirmed the RCMP will enforce a court order requested by a pipeline company trying to build a pipeline through Wet’suwet’en territory.

“Those areas will be clearly marked and media/public are welcome to stand at the perimeter, but no one will be allowed to enter the exclusion zones. These zones will only be maintained as long as necessary.”

See full statement here: What to expect during the police enforcement of court ordered injunction in Houston, BC

The raids have been highly anticipated after a B.C. judge granted an interim injunction in December against two check points leading to the construction site for the LNG Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Continue Reading.

[anoctobertale-deactivated202106]

you know, that whole thing when a colonist militaristic police force storms a indigenous encampment, removes it’s people who live there, all for corporate interest, so we can pump more oil out, and accelerate the death of the planet.  Then once the Cops storm the place, they declare an “exclusion zone” deploy a wifi and cell blockage, AND exclude media. All so no news of it gets out. You all need to be fucking outraged.  We live in a police state, and the moment your life gets in the way of making money, you cease to matter. 

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Hey Americans, you know how we Canadians all shared information about Standing Rock as it was happening?

We’re having a very similar situation in Canada right now.

Now would be a good time to reciprocate.

This is happening RIGHT NOW.

Nobody on this site besides me and a few other bloggers are talking about this. 

Like there are only 2 or 3 blogs in total in the #Wet’suwet’en or #Unist’ot’en or Unist’ot’en Camp hashtags from the past week.

[moranion]

yeah, yeah, i know, academia is an evil bourgeois lair of useless elitist white cishet men writing self-congratulatory articles about nothing and groping their brilliant female students’ arses and so on and so forth, but occasionally, it is prudent to let some of those useless academics - plenty of whom are women and/or poc and/or lgbt nowadays, how shocking, and who’ve spent their lives learning EVERYTHING about a certain subject - explain a text or a concept to you, so that you don’t run around after with a wildly inaccurate understanding of smth like what ‘social construct’ means, or what Nietzsche was all about, or what Freud actually wrote or did or said, or inventing already invented strains of feminism, etc etc etc

oh, and while i’m at it - this whole “academia is useless” is a belief that the far-right ideology has been extremely fond of all throughout the last century or so. just saying. 

[fumblebeefae]

Biologists Respond to ‘Science Denialism’ Regarding Outdoor Cat Control

A new open access study by leading scientists rebuts unfounded criticisms and reaffirms the need for effective outdoor cat control.

[moreanimalia]

zoologicallyobsessed‌:

According to researchers, coordinated critics have mounted a “misinformation campaign designed to purposefully fabricate doubt regarding the harmful impacts of outdoor cats and stymie policies that would remove outdoor cats from the landscape.”

The conflict stems from a groundbreaking study published in 2013 by scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That study evaluated the combined impact of the tens of millions of outdoor cats in the United States. The authors found that roaming outdoor cats kill approximately 2.4 billion birds every year and are the leading source of direct, human-caused mortality to birds in the country. Similar results have since been confirmed in Canada and Australia.

READ MORE

To those of you still in denial about how bad outdoor cats are to wildlife not just in your own countries but globally here’s the cold hard scientific facts stating that you are apart of a movement of uneducated critics spreading misinformation. 

Here’s the link to the open-source scientific artificial as well:

Responding to misinformation and criticisms regarding United States cat predation estimates (2018). Loss S, Will T, Longcore T, Marra P. Biological Invasions; 20(12): 3385-2296

[flukeprintphotography-deactivat]

A Plea for Whale Watching

There is much contention these days over whale watching in the Salish Sea. The Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery and Task Force, charged with creating a list of recovery actions to save the southern resident killer whales, decided to make an 11th hour, back-room decision to include a 3-5 year ban on commercial whale watching in the Salish Sea in their recommendation package to Governor Inslee. This was done without public input, without consultation with biologists, and without talking to the Pacific Whale Watch Association. 

Imagine for a movement, all other factors remaining the same, that there was never a whale watching industry in southern resident killer whale territory.

Imagine how this would have impacted how we view these animals and their population status today.

Without whale watching, we would not know the unique personalities of each individual southern resident killer whale. The naturalists that spend years watching the animals know them all by sight and can tell you about their quirks and temperaments. The Whale Museum would have a difficult time offering unique, personalized whale adoption packages that provide adoptees with intricate details about an individual whales’ personality and life history. These adoption packages are extremely popular and are purchased by people all over the world and contribute to conservation. 

Without whale watching, we would not know the spunk and character of J50, the little whale who was photographed by many whale watchers displaying her exuberant and boisterous aerial behaviors: 

One of the most popular photos of J50, taken by Clint Rivers of Eagle Wing Whale Watching Tours. 

Without whale watching, millions of people would not have been exposed to the charismatic southern killer whale population. The majority of companies in the Salish Sea belong to the Pacific Whale Watch Association, a coalition of whale watching companies that adhere to strict federal and voluntary guidelines. The naturalists on these vessels are often scientists and educators and impart a valuable wealth of knowledge on their passengers; even when whales are not seen, they make an effort teach passengers about the natural history and conservation issues of the southern resident killer whales (I can attest to this personally after my whale-less trip in Victoria, BC).  Not only do they expose their paying guests to the world of southern resident killer whales, many of these companies and their employees also actively participate on social media and bring the whales to people who have never laid eyes on them through video and professional photographs (See Tasli Shaw, Gary Sutton, Grace Guiney, and Sara Shimazu for examples)

Without whale watching, biologists would have much less access to the valuable data that daily observations bring. Full-time biologists cannot afford to spend every day surveying the whales due to financial and time constraints. Whale watchers in the Salish Sea are often the first to document a new calf, interesting behaviors, and inform biologists of the whales’ whereabouts. 

Without whale watching, there would be less monitoring of private whale watching in the Salish Sea. Private boaters are the biggest violators of whale watching regulations, and commercial whale watching vessels are often the first to hail a private vessel and inform them of the whales’ presence and the proper vessel conduct. 

Finally, without whale watching, the world would have never known about J35 Tahlequah’s mournful, 17-day long journey carrying her dead calf. Her actions have caused the world to zero in on the southern resident killer whale population and demand action. Whale watching has been critically examined as a result of this newfound attention. Ironically, it was whale watchers who first saw her with her calf, still very much alive at first, and reported it to biologists. Without them, the world may have never known about Tahlequah and her calf. 

Make no mistake, whale watching can have negative impacts on whales. However, whale watching in the Salish Sea is among the most regulated whale watching activities in the world. When done correctly, whale watching has minimal impact on the animals, and any negative effects are usually offset by the huge conservation benefits whale watching brings. That being said, I see no issue with further regulations, such as a permit system for commercial operators. 

But keep this in mind: whale watching is not the cause of the southern residents’ decline, and a ban is not a solution. What these whales need most desperately above all else is SALMON. The actions that need to be done to save them are not easy, they are politically charged, and will take hard work to implement. Banning whale watching is a low hanging fruit that the Task Force has claimed as “bold action,” despite the fact it does not address the main issue of prey availability. 

The whales are starving. Banning boats will not bring them fish. You cannot eat what is not there. 

Please call Washington State Governor Inslee and urge him to reject a whale watching ban and instead favor solutions for salmon habitat restoration and dam removal. 360-902-4111. 

[wildlife-rehabilitator]

Some of you may have seen my reply to a post and the ask I received about outdoor cats, so here is a little infographic about outdoor cats.

[findchaos]

Don’t let your cats outside. Don’t let your cats outside. Don’t let your cast outside.

No exceptions. Nope, I don’t care if Muffles is super-special and adventurous. Nope, still don’t care that it’s different where you live. Please refer to the original bullet points. 

(*gets ready to hit ‘Block’ on a thousand angry cat owners*)

[hotcommunist-deactivated2019032]

this is a mess

[lady-threewhiteleopards]

have you gobshites genuinely never fucking heard of farm cats jesus wept, if i never see another fucking townie animal rights activist it’ll be too fucking soon.

[hotcommunist-deactivated2019032]

the current political system we live under doesn’t give a fuck about nature. wildlife charities have had a huge downward swoop in donations due to the recession caused by the powers that be, fracking is being done on national parks and nature reserves, roads are hastily built through wildlife rich areas and adequate warning signage is not provided…

but no, it’s us ordinary people and our pesky outdoor cats that are the cause of…extinct….species…? really? is this the hill u want to die on OP??? get back 2 me

[wildlife-rehabilitator]

I’m not refuting that humans kill far more animals than cats do, but over a billion animals are killed annually in the US by outdoor cats. That’s also a huge problem. I’m also aware that wildlife rescue organizations are losing donations - I’m the vice president and co-founder of a 501©(3) non-profit organization and not only do we scrape by on small donations while dozens of animals come in a month, many of which are injured by cats. We just had to euthanize a yearling squirrel because it was mauled by a cat and had full hind-end paralysis from the attack. Believe me, I understand.

“An estimated 60 to 88 million cats are owned in the US and an estimated 60 million more are feral… While loss of habitat is the primary cause of extinction, cats are responsible for the extinction of 33 species of birds worldwide. Cats kill an estimated 480 million birds per year (assuming eight birds killed per feral cat per year.)” That is a grossly conservative number, and only accounts for feral cats, not outdoor pets. And that’s just birds. Plus the other wildlife that are killed by cats annually.

Here’s another resource, a smaller scale research program called Kitty Cams: “Hunting cats captured an average of 2 items during seven days of roaming. Carolina anoles (small lizards) were the most common prey species followed by Woodland Voles (small mammals). Only one of the vertebrates captured was a non-native species (a House Mouse).” From the same group: “44% of cats were witnessed stalking or chasing prey; 30% captured wildlife.”

An article from Mental Floss, sources listed at the bottom of the article: 

“84 million House cats in the United States

4 to 18 Birds killed by a typical house cat every year

8 to 21 Small mammals killed by a typical house cat every year

30 million to 80 million Free-roaming, feral cats estimated to be living in the United States. They either survive alone or live in colonies. In Washington, D.C., for example, there are estimated to be some 300 outdoor cat colonies.

23 to 46 Birds killed by each feral cat every year

129 to 338 Small mammals killed by each feral cat every year

1.4 billion to 3.7 billion Total birds killed by America’s cats every year

15 Percentage of all bird deaths estimated to come at the hands — er, paws — of cats

6.9 billion to 20.7 billion Total small mammals killed by cats every year”

From a report on ABC News: “Cats are responsible for the deaths of 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion mammals every year, according to research conducted by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

From the American Bird Conservancy: “If we extrapolate the results of this study across the country and include feral cats, we find that cats are likely killing more than 4 billion animals per year, including at least 500 million birds.”

[fbwzoo]

(Also you’re putting your cat in unnecessary danger from tons of different threats by letting them outside unsupervised. So even if you don’t wanna give a shit about wildlife, maybe try giving a shit about your cat’s health & life.)

(Also farm cats are often not treated well, not provided with proper veterinary care, and there are other options for rodent control that doesn’t put other wildlife in as much danger)

[catsindoors]

Domestic cats are directly linked to the extinction of 63 species, the only greater threat being invasive rodent populations.

The idea that “this is a problem, so this other thing can’t be a problem,” is ludicrous, as is the idea that we can’t care about and address more than one environmental issue at a time. I don’t have to choose between being pissed about invasive cats and being pissed at the 100 corporations responsible for 71% of gas emissions. I can take issue with both, trust me I’ve got enough anger to go around.

It’s hilarious citing wildlife charities as a reason not to care about free-roaming cats when wildlife charities care very much. Here’s the position statement of the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association on free-roaming cats, and the American Bird Conservancy has always been a vocal opponent.

I love when people bring up how much damage humans do to the environment to try and detract from the free-roaming cat issue, as if a widely invasive domestic species isn’t entirely on us. I guess at some point during the domestication process Near Eastern Wildcats developed flight and introduced themselves into non-native habitats.

[catsindoors]

Actually, I’m not done. Since the numbers cited above are based on the United States and people love to delude themselves into thinking this isn’t a problem where they live I’m going to drop some more numbers.

Europe

It’s estimated that British cats killed between 85-100 million animals over the course of 5 months. As this study was performed in the late 90’s and the population of pet cats has only grown, the amount may be larger now. It’s also important to note this was a survey based on prey items brought home, since cats don’t bring home everything they kill the actual toll may be even higher.

The estimated average predation rate if cats in the UK is 18.3 prey items per cat annually.

Even when predation is low the presence of free-roaming cats is associated with sublethal effects which can decrease bird abundance by as much as 95%.

In Italy cats are the primary cause of bats in need of rescue, responsible for 28.7% of adult bat admissions.

Canada

Cats kill between 100 to 350 million birds annually in Canada, keep in mind that is only bird species.

Australia

This one should be obvious, yet here we are.

61 million birds are killed anually in Australia by owned cats, for a total of 377 birds killed anually with the inclusion of feral cat predation.

The majority of birds killed by cats are native species, including 24 species considered threatened by the IUCN and 71 species protected under Australian legislation.

Islands [General]

Feral cats are responsible for at least 14% of island species extinctions and are the predominant threat to the continued existence of at least 8% of critically endangered island species.

[miasimia]

Non natives are a particularly big problem here in NZ because our native species evolved with an absence of these types or predators, meaning they are not well adapted to deal with them. I drive in the evening fairly often and the frequency with which I come *this close* to running over someone’s pet is not funny.

Keep your cats inside.

[feministdeathparty]

The introduction of non-native animal species to regions of the world where they did not exist by settler colonialists and the subsequent decimation of native animal species by these animals is absolutely an important issue to anyone who claims to be anti-imperialist and asking people to keep their cats indoors is not in anyway comparable to telling people to single-handedly stop global warming by recycling or whatever.

[thisblogisinactivesorrey]

You know what matters?? What like, truly matters? Bones and moths and fungi. Nothing else. Fuck calculus

[neurotypical-karen]

Wasps are functionally the same as bees, we just hate them because they’re not as cute n can hurt you more than once without dying

[borderingtrans]

Except they’re not because wasps don’t make honey, they aren’t pollinators, they’re completely different insects and serve a very different function.

[fumblebeefae]

Not sure where you’re getting that information from but it is not correct, as wasps are actually very important pollinators.

There are also 20,000 species of described bees and of those there are only a small handful that produce honey, and of those there are currently even less (off the top of my head I can only think of 4) species we can actually harvest any honey from. 

Wasps are also pollinators, ever heard of fig wasps, there are a superfamily of wasps called Chalcidoidea and each different species of fig often has one or two very specific species of wasp needed to pollinate it. 

There’s still this misconception that wasps aren’t great pollinators compared to bees but this isn’t true, wasps are just as ecologically important in pollination as bees are, and also pollinate flowering plants and trees. For example; thynnine wasps pollinate orchids like this dwarf hammer orchid.

This is super common in Australia where we have about 200 species of orchids (spider orchids, elbow orchids, flying duck orchids) that use male insects (most of which are wasp species) to pollinate. 

[the-awkward-turt]

Also most bee species can hurt you more than once without dying. Yes, honeybees have a barbed stinger and die after they sting, but not all bees are honeybees.

And, as our curator likes to say, evolutionarily speaking bees are basically just vegan wasps.

[zooophagous]

I’m so happy to see this new movement lauding the many virtues of wasps. I’ve had so many people ask me “what are they good for?” Like what the fuck are YOU good for Heather? Do you even know how many different kinds of wasps there are? Yes they’re important, dammit! An animal doesn’t become worthless just because you personally don’t like it! Your opinion means fuckall to the ecosystem! It doesn’t care!

[lines-and-edges]

I’ve seen a very large amount of “the only way to save the world is to BRING ABOUT REVOLUTION” takes lately, and I just.... they never have any way to go about it suggested (and even often say “voting isn’t enough”), and like... these are coming from what I usually think of as reasonable people, assuming that a possibly-violent otherwise-unspecified Revolution is somehow going to save us. It’s kind of worrying.

I mean, I absolutely share the concern that the structure of our society has become totally untenable. But.

Leaving aside the hazards of doing anything that damages our already flagging infrastructure, having a feasible revolution that leaves you with a place to live afterwards has to follow the same principles as electing a feasible third-party candidate.

Your neighbors have to already know and agree with you, or it won’t work.

I would like these people to go out of their front door and look around and talk to these neighbors. See those American flags on porches? Those are people who are often conservative or “politically moderate”, whatever that means any more. They are invested in going about their daily lives and raising their children.

They will likely oppose revolution and support martial law (under the extant regime) over revolution unless and until they are absolutely assured that this new regime these people are talking about will bring them stability and not harm their kids.

Which means that in order to organize a revolution, an actual revolution and not just a bloody and brief conflict in which a bunch of leftist activists are slaughtered to send a message to anyone else who might want to try it:

(a) it has to actually be stable for people’s kids! Keeping everyday people’s lives running has to be a central strategic focus!

(b) talking to your neighbors and bringing them into the loop has to be a central tactical focus for getting started! A majority of people have to agree with or be willing to go along with what you’re doing!

One of the primary objectives of alt-right astroturfing on fake leftist blogs is to keep leftists from thinking realistically or doing any of the things necessary to succeed.

[lizardlicks]

Y'all wanna start a revolution, get involved with your community. We keep saying it. Go talk to people. Go to the town hall meetings, go to your co-ops and your churches, talk to the people who you don’t think matter. Talk to the moms and dads, the grandparents, aunts, uncles, the 9-5s, the graveyard and swing shifts. Find out what they need. Figure out how to get it for them.

When you have the everyday folk behind your back, you have an army.

[necrophilofthefuture]

my cat figured out how to open the cabinets so he made a nest in his favorite one. he’ll only come out if he hears the fridge open.

[the-shortest-story]

oOH MY GOD

[theelvenkingsunderthesky]

I too want to live in the kitchen cabinet and only come out when I hear the fridge open

[cookinguptales]

A lot of people are really scared and angry because of the results of the newest climate change reports — as they should be. But I’m already seeing a lot of posts and news reports like “HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING” and bizarrely enough, the answers are never like “weed out climate change deniers from your government, impose strict new rules for the corporations that are  creating most of the emissions, pour government resources into alternate forms of fuel, etc.” It’s always like “carpool to work!”

Look. Of course you should be working to reduce waste in your own life. But let’s not fucking pretend that consumers are the ones who made this mess. You know what another recent study found? Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. If the rest of us stopped ALL WASTE and fucking ascended to a higher plane of existence that no longer requires consumption of any kind, the world would still be absolutely fucked if those 100 companies keep on as they do.

I hate this personal responsibility model when it comes to conservation. By ignoring the actual source of the problem and focusing on individuals instead, guess who gets targeted? The absolute most vulnerable individuals on the planet. When people advocate personal responsibility, somehow they’re never talking about billionaires and their private jets. They’re creating straw bans that will make life more dangerous for people with disabilities. They’re shaming women for using disposable menstrual products. They’re criticizing the poor and destitute for using “wasteful” products because they’re all they can afford. They’re making vaguely eugenic statements about getting people in “third world countries” to stop ~breeding~ so much. It’s monstrous.

Stop shaming consumers for the sins of corporations and their powerful investors. Stop placing the blame at the feet of the people who already have the hardest time getting through life. Do something, and by “do something” I mean buy a reusable coffee cup on the way to fucking vote. Go to a protest. Call a representative. Demand accountability from the people who got us into this mess.