#solarpunk is for everyone!

"Luminous Beings are we, not this crude matter." Find your light! Look to the Sun, it's gift to this world is all the life growing on Mother Earth!

[str-ngeloop]

how dare you question the amazing method of farming that gives us so much food by simply killing the soil and leaving lands barren without maintaining the resources that make it work in the first place.

last year i got 1800 bushels of corn by killing the soil, as opposed to before when i only got 1200 by not killing the soil. surely i can simply keep killing more soil

[str-ngeloop]

wym there's only so much soil. that's an externality and therefore none of my concern

[triviallytrue]

Only 60 Years of Farming Left If Soil Degradation Continues

Generating three centimeters of top soil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue all of the world's top soil could b

[str-ngeloop]

well here's the thing, under normal circumstances without human intervention soil recovery can take a long long time. with human intervention, such as mulching, cover crops (that you then turn into mulch), seeding with beneficial fungi, etc, soil buildup can be massively boosted. we can be a positive force instead of a negative one. we just have to start doing that

[catgirl-mira]

We literally already pulled off a 10-year turnaround by getting a company to dump a lot of orange peels in an area.

[str-ngeloop]

Good point! here it is:

Orange is the new green: How orange peels revived a Costa Rican forest

Princeton researchers explore how discarded orange peels revived a Costa Rican forest.

[basileater]

people always blast right past the "if we continue with current practices" and go straight to "this is inevitable"

[prismatic-bell]

I recently discovered laundry stripping and y’all, no matter how much of a crock of shit you think fast fashion is, you’re underestimating.

[prismatic-bell]

[image ID: a screenshot of the notes on this post, featuring several people indicating they want to know more. End ID.]

OKAY SO. You know how we talk about how one way fast fashion has made itself “necessary” is that the clothing looks like shit and feels horrible after just a few washes?

Let. Me. Tell. You. Something.

Laundry stripping is a process where you load your laundry into a tub or bin (I’ve been using my bathtub) with warm water, half a cup of borax, half a cup of washing soda, and half a cup of laundry soap (not detergent, SOAP, there’s a chemical difference). Leave it there for at least eight hours. I’ve been going for 12-24.

What you will come back to is a tub full of nearly-opaque black-gray-brown water that absolutely REEKS. This is normal. You are looking at (and smelling) hard water buildup, body sweat and oils that were embedded in the fabric, dead skin, and just regular grime.

Wring out your clothes. Throw them in the washer. (I like to do a spin-only cycle before going any further, because I have one of those washers that determines by weight how much water any given load needs.) Wash as usual.

You will notice I didn’t suggest any further pretreatment, and that’s because 1) you don’t want to layer too many chemicals on top of each other but also 2) you may not even need it.

When your clothes come out, check each one as it goes into the dryer, and if anything else s still stained, set it aside to run again with a regular pretreatment. One of the sweaters I did this with apparently did need a second treatment…to deal with what appears to have possibly been a hot chocolate stain that was previously invisible due to “well, it’s old” dinginess. I was planning to throw this sweater out. It looks almost new now. I need to wash it one more time for the probably-a-hot-chocolate stain, and then it needs to have the hem weighted to block it and bring it back to evenness, but dude. I wear my clothes to rags and I thought this thing was unfixable. “I need to reshape it” is nothing.

Remove clothes from dryer when done. Fucking MARVEL at the colors and how good the fabric feels. Give them a smell. Get righteously and royally angry that you can rejuvenate this stuff so easily, with a process that does take awhile but is 90% hands-off, but we’ve been trained to believe it’s all got to be binned once a year because discoloration and gross fabric is “normal wear and tear” and can’t be fixed.

It’s utterly unreal! I just pulled a seven-year-old work undershirt out of the dryer and this thing looks NEW!! It FEELS almost new!!! One of the shirts I hung up from the last load is older than some of the people on this site and it went from “I keep this to wear on laundry day, for sentimental reasons” to “I could actually wear this out of the house, it looks old but respectable”! The pajama bottoms I’m wearing were from Goodwill and they have BRIGHT YELLOW in them! I thought it was goldenrod!!

I do not know how often you’re supposed to do this (doing it every time can strip the dye out of your clothes, not to mention it’s way too much work to do every time), but once or twice per season seems respectable. I don’t wear white, so I can’t test the “it will make whites look almost-new as well” claim, but I’ve seen a lot of people on the cleaning subreddit attest that it works.

Just remember: WASHING soda. Not baking soda. I tried baking soda and a little bit happened, but not a lot.

Go forth. Rejuvenate your clothing. Strip your laundry.

[headspace-hotel]

Researching herbicide resistance in weeds.

A decade ago, everyone said rotating applications of different herbicides was key to stopping herbicide resistance.

Then, around 2015, evidence from a large study emerged saying that this actually causes weeds to be MORE resistant, so the best thing to do is to spray a combination of multiple herbicides mixed together at once.

Now that is being called into question too. Whoda thunk it...

Herbicide resistance among weeds is only getting stronger. Recently, scientists found an annual bluegrass (Poa annua) on a golf course that was resistant to seven herbicide modes of action at once. Seven. SEVEN. Amaranth plants been found with resistance to six herbicide modes of action at once. Twenty years ago, the narrative was that resistance to glyphosate (Roundup) was unlikely to become widespread; today it's the second-most common type of resistance.

What's more, plants are developing types of herbicide resistance that are effective against multiple herbicides at once and harder to detect. Instead of changing the chemical processes within them that are affected by the herbicides so the herbicides don't work as well, they're changing the way they absorb chemicals in the first place. Resistant plants are producing enzymes that detoxify the herbicides before they even enter the plants' cells.

It took Monsanto ten years to develop crop varieties resistant to Dicamba (after weeds made 'Roundup Ready' crops pointless). Palmer amaranth evolved Dicamba resistance in five years.

So I asked, "Why are all the proposed solutions dependent on using more herbicides, when we know damn well that this is going to do nothing but make the weeds evolve faster?"

The answer is that chemical companies have the world in a death grip. They can't make money off non-chemical solutions, so chemical solutions get all the funding, research, and outreach to farmers.

But why do chemical companies have so much power?

One of the biggest reasons is the U.S. military.

In the Vietnam war, all of Vietnam was sprayed with toxic herbicides like Agent Orange, which was incredibly toxic to humans and affected the Vietnamese population with horrible illnesses and birth defects. Monsanto, the company that made the herbicides, knew that it did this, but didn't tell anyone. The US government didn't admit that they'd poisoned humans on a mass scale until Vietnam veterans started dying and coming down with horrible illnesses, and even then, it took them 40 years. (My Papaw died at 60 because of that stuff.) And the soldiers weren't there for very long. As for the Vietnamese people, the soil and water where they live is contaminated.

Similarly, during the "war on drugs," the US military sprayed Roundup and other chemicals on fields to destroy coca plants and other plants used in the manufacturing of drugs. This killed a lot of crops that farmers needed to live, and caused major health problems in places such as Columbia. The US government said that people getting sick were lying and that Roundup was just as safe as table salt. (A statement that did not age well.)

So chemical companies make money off arming the USA military. The American lawn care industry, and the agricultural system, therefore originates in more than one way from the United States's war-mongering.

The other major way is described in this article (which I highly recommend), which describes how after WW2, chemical plants used for manufacturing explosives were changed into fertilizer producing plants, but chemical companies couldn't market all that fertilizer to farmers, so they invented the lawn care industry. No exaggeration, that's literally what happened.

This really changes my perspective on all the writings about fixing the agricultural system. The resources are biased towards the use of chemicals in agriculture because the companies are so powerful as to make outreach and research for non-chemical methods of agriculture really hard to fund. All the funding is in finding new ways to spray chemicals or spraying slightly different chemicals, because that's what you can actually get ahold of money to look into. It is like the research has to negotiate a truce with the chemical companies, suggesting only solutions that won't cause lower profits.

Meanwhile my respect for Amaranth is skyrocketing.

Who would win: The USA military-industrial complex or one leafy boi

[walkonthelightside]

@headspace-hotel doing the deep work we all need. Keep it up!

I will be using this stuff to explain to people the depth and type of problems we face.

Just to add, the fertilizer industry is also the oil and gas industry. The fertilizer is made from byproducts of refinement. There's more that one power complex involved.

[lilyliveredlittlerichboy]

it's time now. it's time to imagine the brightest future you can, and talk about it.

a future where people only work 8 hours a week and everyone's basic needs are met. a future where we are more connected to nature and eat seasonal, local produce. a future where you look out for your neighbours and they look out for you. a future where you actually know who your neighbours are. a future where everyone is just a lot more relaxed and able to do whatever they want to do - this 8 hour working week has given people their lives back and now they're able to make community events, work in community gardens, sing and dance and spend time with their kids, play whatever sport they want, travel, read, create art and music.

People are interacting with each other in good faith again because money as an ulterior motive has all but disappeared. Cus you see a few decades ago they made profits illegal. All money has to be put back into the company and CEOs can take home a salary only, no bonuses and it can't be more than 3x what the lowest paid employee makes. You can go to jail if your company is found to make profits, advertise on a large scale or pay its high ranking members more than what's allowed.

Jail still exists but mostly people go in for financial crimes (greed still exists); drugs are decriminalised and available to use safely. people are not as desperate now so there's been a massive reduction of violent and petty crime and most of the people who still do this are teenagers who get away with a slap on the wrist. police are not armed anymore and are heavily penalised if they abuse their power or hurt a civilian, and their role is more that of mediator, signposter (to community services, social services, and free and accessible healthcare including for mental health) and security. together with the former military they make up an "emergency task force" which are called upon in times of need and crisis, for floods, fires, other such disasters.

the stock market completely collapsed after profits were made illegal and people had to find other ways to figure out what a company was worth: such as how they treat their staff or how accessible their processes are. as a result of this, as well as more widespread disability thanks to Covid and an ageing population, accessibility is fucking incredible now. most places are accessible to the vast majority of disabled people even without them having to ask for a single thing. If they have to ask, accommodations are made quickly and without fuss and this is completely normal now. disabled people are more visible than ever in public life and this has led to a generally kinder, more tolerant public life.

Everything is slower now. Social media as we know it died decades ago and Internet 4.0 is efficient, will find you accurate answers and the websites you're looking for very easily and fast. there's monopoly laws restricting how large companies operate online. online ads are all but illegal - there's "phone book" esque pages where you can promote your business or service and that's allowed but not anywhere else. Lots of people are still annoying and some of them are still cruel but overall living together as humans has gotten so much more chill. We've tackled climate change and reversed much of it, now it's a global day of mourning whenever a species is found to be extinct through human intervention. these days used to happen much more frequently but it's very rare these days. Most everyone gets the day off and is encouraged to read about the lost species or hold themed funerals. Globally everything has gotten better - there's much more global equality now after a bunch of western/formerly colonising countries almost self destructed and then instead decided to own up for colonialism, pay reparations to a lot of countries in Africa Asia and Latin America, as well as indigenous nations of North America, Oceania, even in Europe. The USA doesn't exist anymore instead its a whole host of separate nations all managed by the native people whose land it is. The UK doesn't exist anymore. England is still sad about it but Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall are called Cymru, Alba, Eire and Kernow again and they've formed a Celtic Union for better collective bargaining power in the EU (which still exists, somehow. Its better now. England may still be out of the EU I'm not sure). Migration is common and foreigners are welcomed into any country with open arms.

I may try to write something about this. I have a vision for a future and it's so lovely. Here, on earth, with the starting point being now. We have a lot to work with and only a few changes could make such a difference. Demilitarisation, UBI and maximum working hours, greedy financial practices made illegal. Conservation and education on local plants and nature and food. Community building on every level. Giving people their lives back.

This is all extremely possible. If it were up to me, very little in society would be left unchanged but it would all be people friendly changes. changes that aim to support the poorest and most marginalised, changes that aim to punish greed and exploitation. It's a work in progress of course. But I have a vision for a better world and dammit if I'm not going to share it with you.

[walkonthelightside]

I really enjoyed this. As a sketch of what's possible, it really does a good job of presenting what the future could feel like.

It doesn't answer every problem to be a good sketch for picturing the world, but here's a issue that jumped out at me.

One of the underlying reasons time spent working has gone up alongside productivity instead of increasing leisure time is that money isn't just access to sustainance. Money is access to relative influence, power and decision making authority.

This is a more complex problem than greed being an underlying vice. Some people's hobby as made possibly by all the free time they have in an 8 hr work week is to work more. This is more like the virtue of the protestant work ethic than the vice of greed. I don't think ambition in this kind of form can be put away.

The deepest problem in economic systems, be they capitalist or communist or something entirely different aren't this kind of person, but a version of this kind of person. Someone who will work flat out to not create more value than other people, but to capture value. This, I think, is greed. Rent Seeking.

Trouble is, it's easier to identify the people who work flat out, and stop them, despite them genuinely being oriented around creating value for other people, something fundamentally good. The Rent Seekers will find ways to make working flat out to capture value, look like not working.

The last piece is that this split in work vs greed plays out through from people who work 100hrs a week down to people who never work. There are people who will refuse to work, but never the less adamantly ensure their actions add value to the world, just as there are people who will find any way to make or take a dollar as long as it isn't, well, work.

I don't have an answer to this out of hand. But greed is often seen as wanting more. I think the problem space is more involved. Their is wanting more in an honorable way. Wanting more in a dishonorable way. This can play out both at the top of society and at the bottom. Freeloading and greed are two ends of the same spectrum, two ends of Rent Seeking. Theft by wiles and slick systems rather than by hand and crook.

The economy of the future will have to deal with this problem space properly. Most solutions only speak to a small slice of it. Ensuring an economy that works for everyone who does work to make value for others is important.

This needs to be done such that everyone in society has the base support they need. But also I'm such a way that people who want to make as much value as humanly possible for others are rewarded justly. This also needs to ensure that people who are Rent Seekers, both high effort and lazy, cannot capture value outside of what they earn from value created as fair to others.

We need to solve a problem deeper deeper than greed, but I definitely see it as possible. I see this whole vision as possible.

[lilyliveredlittlerichboy]

I really appreciate your thoughts on this!

Of course I can't claim to have found all the world's solutions in a tumblr post. I think "freeloading" should be built into the new system as okay and welcome - since there will be more disabled people, there will be more people unable to work, and ability to work should not determine your value in society nor your ability to have your needs met.

I agree that people equate money to power at the moment, and this feeds into greed and exploitation. Maximum incomes and no profits will mean that there will be fewer avenues to hoard money and it will be illegal for politicians to take any money from anyone. I think in this future, politicians will have to be volunteers and it will be a criminal offence for them to earn any money above UBI - they need to feel what it's like to be the worst off in the country, "only" getting UBI which pays their food and bills. I just really want money to be so much less important and I think so many people needing to make silly amounts of money to feel valuable is a symptom of our current obsession with it. Many people will still work lots! But outside of your 8 hours of paid work (which there is a maximum for how much you can get for that) there will be sooooo many opportunities for community and volunteer work. If you work 100 hours a week and a a result the community gardens look top notch and your neighbours compliment you on the vegetables, that's your prerogative. I think shifting the money motive will really make sure that people do meaningful things in their time, which benefits the others.

This vision for me is at least 50 years in the future. 50 years is a long time! Attitudes in society will have shifted and now you get the side eye if you brag about working loads. "Yikes, go play an instrument or read a book on the park" they will say. "Play with your kids or paint something." Working yourself to death is widely recognised as a thing that can and will happen after a bunch of people just outright collapsed in a heatwave in the 2030's and it was found they were all on 80 hour weeks at least.

I don't have all the answers, I just think this attitude shift is coming and it will be long overdue. Some people will want more but it will just be a lot harder to get it because the playing field is more even and resources are by and large communally owned and managed. Money doesn't buy as much as it used to because there are so many things you can get for free now. Housing is free, you just pay for repairs. Basic foods are free courtesy of widespread community gardens. Disability access needs are met for free. Mutual aid is the name of the game.

My ideal is a post-money society, star trek style. This is still a compromise, an in-between stage but I doubt I'll see money abolished completely in my lifetime. So I'm trying to find ways to make it obsolete and reduce the power and influence it can give a single person.

The replies and tags on this post have been amazing I'm kind of surprised at the reception! Please feel free to add more thoughts, constructive criticism like this helps a lot!

[walkonthelightside]

Definitely here for the hope!

You didn't really touch on the political mechanism much, have you heard of Citizen's Assemblies?

Essentially, give the power to the public, not just to vote, but to deliberate on issues. Bring together the whole demographics of the public for a series of informed and facilitated dialogues. Supported by experts while hearing out stakeholders. Citizen driven democracy, of the people.

I believe this is the keystone piece of realizing any hopeful future. A better politics. Anything stable, sustainable, hopeful and real is going to have to include everyone, hear everyone out, care about the concerns of real people and put the power into the hands of all of us. Citizens' Assemblies do this.

My team built a website, we're network with organizations and political movements to make this a reality. It's going to take a lot of momentum to realize, and politics is so dark and broken right now there may not be a lot of time left before something fundamental breaks.

Check out our website, join our mailing list or telegram. http://thepeopleareready.org

I'd be glad to talk more about hope! Just wanted to get the plug in, ya know! Check it out!

[lilyliveredlittlerichboy]

it's time now. it's time to imagine the brightest future you can, and talk about it.

a future where people only work 8 hours a week and everyone's basic needs are met. a future where we are more connected to nature and eat seasonal, local produce. a future where you look out for your neighbours and they look out for you. a future where you actually know who your neighbours are. a future where everyone is just a lot more relaxed and able to do whatever they want to do - this 8 hour working week has given people their lives back and now they're able to make community events, work in community gardens, sing and dance and spend time with their kids, play whatever sport they want, travel, read, create art and music.

People are interacting with each other in good faith again because money as an ulterior motive has all but disappeared. Cus you see a few decades ago they made profits illegal. All money has to be put back into the company and CEOs can take home a salary only, no bonuses and it can't be more than 3x what the lowest paid employee makes. You can go to jail if your company is found to make profits, advertise on a large scale or pay its high ranking members more than what's allowed.

Jail still exists but mostly people go in for financial crimes (greed still exists); drugs are decriminalised and available to use safely. people are not as desperate now so there's been a massive reduction of violent and petty crime and most of the people who still do this are teenagers who get away with a slap on the wrist. police are not armed anymore and are heavily penalised if they abuse their power or hurt a civilian, and their role is more that of mediator, signposter (to community services, social services, and free and accessible healthcare including for mental health) and security. together with the former military they make up an "emergency task force" which are called upon in times of need and crisis, for floods, fires, other such disasters.

the stock market completely collapsed after profits were made illegal and people had to find other ways to figure out what a company was worth: such as how they treat their staff or how accessible their processes are. as a result of this, as well as more widespread disability thanks to Covid and an ageing population, accessibility is fucking incredible now. most places are accessible to the vast majority of disabled people even without them having to ask for a single thing. If they have to ask, accommodations are made quickly and without fuss and this is completely normal now. disabled people are more visible than ever in public life and this has led to a generally kinder, more tolerant public life.

Everything is slower now. Social media as we know it died decades ago and Internet 4.0 is efficient, will find you accurate answers and the websites you're looking for very easily and fast. there's monopoly laws restricting how large companies operate online. online ads are all but illegal - there's "phone book" esque pages where you can promote your business or service and that's allowed but not anywhere else. Lots of people are still annoying and some of them are still cruel but overall living together as humans has gotten so much more chill. We've tackled climate change and reversed much of it, now it's a global day of mourning whenever a species is found to be extinct through human intervention. these days used to happen much more frequently but it's very rare these days. Most everyone gets the day off and is encouraged to read about the lost species or hold themed funerals. Globally everything has gotten better - there's much more global equality now after a bunch of western/formerly colonising countries almost self destructed and then instead decided to own up for colonialism, pay reparations to a lot of countries in Africa Asia and Latin America, as well as indigenous nations of North America, Oceania, even in Europe. The USA doesn't exist anymore instead its a whole host of separate nations all managed by the native people whose land it is. The UK doesn't exist anymore. England is still sad about it but Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall are called Cymru, Alba, Eire and Kernow again and they've formed a Celtic Union for better collective bargaining power in the EU (which still exists, somehow. Its better now. England may still be out of the EU I'm not sure). Migration is common and foreigners are welcomed into any country with open arms.

I may try to write something about this. I have a vision for a future and it's so lovely. Here, on earth, with the starting point being now. We have a lot to work with and only a few changes could make such a difference. Demilitarisation, UBI and maximum working hours, greedy financial practices made illegal. Conservation and education on local plants and nature and food. Community building on every level. Giving people their lives back.

This is all extremely possible. If it were up to me, very little in society would be left unchanged but it would all be people friendly changes. changes that aim to support the poorest and most marginalised, changes that aim to punish greed and exploitation. It's a work in progress of course. But I have a vision for a better world and dammit if I'm not going to share it with you.

[walkonthelightside]

I really enjoyed this. As a sketch of what's possible, it really does a good job of presenting what the future could feel like.

It doesn't answer every problem to be a good sketch for picturing the world, but here's a issue that jumped out at me.

One of the underlying reasons time spent working has gone up alongside productivity instead of increasing leisure time is that money isn't just access to sustainance. Money is access to relative influence, power and decision making authority.

This is a more complex problem than greed being an underlying vice. Some people's hobby as made possibly by all the free time they have in an 8 hr work week is to work more. This is more like the virtue of the protestant work ethic than the vice of greed. I don't think ambition in this kind of form can be put away.

The deepest problem in economic systems, be they capitalist or communist or something entirely different aren't this kind of person, but a version of this kind of person. Someone who will work flat out to not create more value than other people, but to capture value. This, I think, is greed. Rent Seeking.

Trouble is, it's easier to identify the people who work flat out, and stop them, despite them genuinely being oriented around creating value for other people, something fundamentally good. The Rent Seekers will find ways to make working flat out to capture value, look like not working.

The last piece is that this split in work vs greed plays out through from people who work 100hrs a week down to people who never work. There are people who will refuse to work, but never the less adamantly ensure their actions add value to the world, just as there are people who will find any way to make or take a dollar as long as it isn't, well, work.

I don't have an answer to this out of hand. But greed is often seen as wanting more. I think the problem space is more involved. Their is wanting more in an honorable way. Wanting more in a dishonorable way. This can play out both at the top of society and at the bottom. Freeloading and greed are two ends of the same spectrum, two ends of Rent Seeking. Theft by wiles and slick systems rather than by hand and crook.

The economy of the future will have to deal with this problem space properly. Most solutions only speak to a small slice of it. Ensuring an economy that works for everyone who does work to make value for others is important.

This needs to be done such that everyone in society has the base support they need. But also I'm such a way that people who want to make as much value as humanly possible for others are rewarded justly. This also needs to ensure that people who are Rent Seekers, both high effort and lazy, cannot capture value outside of what they earn from value created as fair to others.

We need to solve a problem deeper deeper than greed, but I definitely see it as possible. I see this whole vision as possible.

[lilyliveredlittlerichboy]

it's time now. it's time to imagine the brightest future you can, and talk about it.

a future where people only work 8 hours a week and everyone's basic needs are met. a future where we are more connected to nature and eat seasonal, local produce. a future where you look out for your neighbours and they look out for you. a future where you actually know who your neighbours are. a future where everyone is just a lot more relaxed and able to do whatever they want to do - this 8 hour working week has given people their lives back and now they're able to make community events, work in community gardens, sing and dance and spend time with their kids, play whatever sport they want, travel, read, create art and music.

People are interacting with each other in good faith again because money as an ulterior motive has all but disappeared. Cus you see a few decades ago they made profits illegal. All money has to be put back into the company and CEOs can take home a salary only, no bonuses and it can't be more than 3x what the lowest paid employee makes. You can go to jail if your company is found to make profits, advertise on a large scale or pay its high ranking members more than what's allowed.

Jail still exists but mostly people go in for financial crimes (greed still exists); drugs are decriminalised and available to use safely. people are not as desperate now so there's been a massive reduction of violent and petty crime and most of the people who still do this are teenagers who get away with a slap on the wrist. police are not armed anymore and are heavily penalised if they abuse their power or hurt a civilian, and their role is more that of mediator, signposter (to community services, social services, and free and accessible healthcare including for mental health) and security. together with the former military they make up an "emergency task force" which are called upon in times of need and crisis, for floods, fires, other such disasters.

the stock market completely collapsed after profits were made illegal and people had to find other ways to figure out what a company was worth: such as how they treat their staff or how accessible their processes are. as a result of this, as well as more widespread disability thanks to Covid and an ageing population, accessibility is fucking incredible now. most places are accessible to the vast majority of disabled people even without them having to ask for a single thing. If they have to ask, accommodations are made quickly and without fuss and this is completely normal now. disabled people are more visible than ever in public life and this has led to a generally kinder, more tolerant public life.

Everything is slower now. Social media as we know it died decades ago and Internet 4.0 is efficient, will find you accurate answers and the websites you're looking for very easily and fast. there's monopoly laws restricting how large companies operate online. online ads are all but illegal - there's "phone book" esque pages where you can promote your business or service and that's allowed but not anywhere else. Lots of people are still annoying and some of them are still cruel but overall living together as humans has gotten so much more chill. We've tackled climate change and reversed much of it, now it's a global day of mourning whenever a species is found to be extinct through human intervention. these days used to happen much more frequently but it's very rare these days. Most everyone gets the day off and is encouraged to read about the lost species or hold themed funerals. Globally everything has gotten better - there's much more global equality now after a bunch of western/formerly colonising countries almost self destructed and then instead decided to own up for colonialism, pay reparations to a lot of countries in Africa Asia and Latin America, as well as indigenous nations of North America, Oceania, even in Europe. The USA doesn't exist anymore instead its a whole host of separate nations all managed by the native people whose land it is. The UK doesn't exist anymore. England is still sad about it but Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall are called Cymru, Alba, Eire and Kernow again and they've formed a Celtic Union for better collective bargaining power in the EU (which still exists, somehow. Its better now. England may still be out of the EU I'm not sure). Migration is common and foreigners are welcomed into any country with open arms.

I may try to write something about this. I have a vision for a future and it's so lovely. Here, on earth, with the starting point being now. We have a lot to work with and only a few changes could make such a difference. Demilitarisation, UBI and maximum working hours, greedy financial practices made illegal. Conservation and education on local plants and nature and food. Community building on every level. Giving people their lives back.

This is all extremely possible. If it were up to me, very little in society would be left unchanged but it would all be people friendly changes. changes that aim to support the poorest and most marginalised, changes that aim to punish greed and exploitation. It's a work in progress of course. But I have a vision for a better world and dammit if I'm not going to share it with you.

[soberscientistlife]

[closet-keys]

[ID: Tweet by @MaryHeglar reading "So sick of hearing that government 'inaction' brought about climate change. They acted: they subsidized fossil fuel companies, gave them leases, spouted their misinformation, criminalized protest. Nothing about that is passive."]

[queeranarchism]

Did they know their actions would destabilize the climate? Yes. They acted on that too. They militarized borders and criminalized refugees to make sure that the people they were murdering couldn’t seek shelter among the rich and privileged.

That’s not some conspiracy theory. If you read policy documents from the early 2010s you can find sentences like “An increase in global drinking water shortages in 2020-2030 will destabilize regimes and lead to increased pressure on EU borders, requiring investment and increased cooperation to achieve a more robust border security.”

They know. They’re acting. This is their chosen response.

[guerrillatech]

Help save mature forests in the US

[luesmainblog]

protectouroldgrowth.org

[stimman3000]

https://instagram.com/p/Bkiq_NFlFP9/

[cry-babyx]

I like to think of these videos as they’re retirement. They don’t have to fight anymore and can live peacefully in their new homes 💕

[cognitivejustice]

Introducing the solidarity entrepreneurs of the informal economy

Kenyan urban geographer and feminist development scholar Dr. Mary Njeri Kinyanjui's work introduced me to the phrase "solidarity entrepreneurs" to describe what I had been observing among rural and urban entrepreneurs in Asia and Africa ever since I first began visual ethnography and exploratory user research in 2008.

The above photograph I took from a moving car at the borderlands of Uganda and Kenya in January 2016 captures the concept of solidarity among entrepreneurs operating in economic informality in one momentary snapshot. I did not meet these women specifically but I'll stand by my story as I draw upon 15 years of observations and immersion in this world. Until lately, it was all I ever thought about.

The lady in the purple skirt fries some sort of snack for a living and has this well chosen spot by the side of the road just before the borderpost. Traffic will slow down here, and if you're lucky, it'll back up. People might step out to buy a snack.

The lady in black is a mama mboga - the colloquial name for a jua kali vegetable vendor, mboga means vegetable in Swahili. I'll be starting a parallel series this week on the mama mbogas in Nairobi who embraced radical technologies and collaborative innovation practices during the pandemic going all solarpunk to thrive and grow their trade.

Now, interpreting the photograph based on experiential knowledge and years of observation and analysis - what a visual design ethnographer does, in fact - one moves on to the third lady - extreme right who has clearly purchased some vegetable from mama mboga and is waiting expectantly with her hand out for her change.

Mama Mboga does not happen to have the correct change on her so she asked her neighbour - Mama Fried Snack (I made that up) for some shillings to help her out. She may or may not have handed money over immediately - they work together, these are not random spots that change daily. Believe it or not these ladies pay the city council officers of Busia town, Kenya a daily fee for operating on the side the of the road.

If you're familiar with Kenya, there's one more sweetspot in this photograph - the backdrop to the outstretched hands sharing money and cooperating so that one entrepreneur can better serve their customer is the green wall painting on the shack behind which is the advertisement for MPesa - the world's most famous mobile money transfer app - an innovation that's transformed wide swathes of the Kenyan economy.

But, the mamas doing business still prefer cash - they operate at the micropayment level and the transaction fees involved may often be greater than the price of the tomato or onion being sold.

This may not be evidence enough of cooperation and collaboration and a humane cultural ethos that underpins entrepreneurship in economic informality (Kinyanjui, 2019) so next I'll begin to illustrate each of the social logics and humane values that Kinyanjui describes to make her case in Kenya.

I, myself, first observed cooperative economic activities in my first non-commercial project that looked at household financial management in rural Philippines, India, and Malawi in 2008-2009. But that is a story for another day. This was an introduction.

Some eye candy follows with captions to balance the screed.

They call them informal and criminalize them (entrepreneurs outside the formal economic system aka the modern sector aka capitalism) but they tax them through daily fees for sitting on the side of the road. And give receipts. Is this not taxation by the city council? Why are they not recognized as tax payers just because they don't have a fancy retail outlet?

Taxation without recognition, forget representation. Shops like these pay council fees on a daily basis but what citizen services do they get in return? This is free money to let you sit under a tree without being harassed. On the other hand, location and predictability matter since being able to be found under the same tree helps you build a customer base.

[headspace-hotel]

also apparently the latest thing in landscaping is to sell people small shrubs that have been shaped/trained (???) into a tree-like growth habit, instead of trees

I don't know if this is because people's yards these days are so small there's no room for trees, or because there are so few mature trees in people's day to day lives that no one knows what a tree is anymore, or if people want the novelty of a miniature tree, or what.

I'm constantly distressed by seeing how damn small people expect trees to be. Landscapers plant a tree like 3 feet away from the house and expect it to be fine. I'm always looking at pictures in advertisements like. You know that tree is a baby, right? Are you expecting to cut it down and replace it every 5-10 years??? Mass clearcutting of our forests also clearcut our minds

[yellowgnomeboots]

Apparently when a garden centre lists the height of a tree it means "in 10 years" - I mentioned to one garden centre how existing trees in my garden were taller than the max height I saw cited everywhere, and they pointed out the ridiculous labels on the kauri trees which give the height as 10m even though they grow to 50m, as they're expected to be 10m in 10 years.

So either you ARE supposed to remove it in 10 years, or you're supposed to move and make it Someone Else's Problem. Frequently though, you can tell when someone is about to sell a house in our area because they raze the garden (and plant some inappropriate shrubs and bedding plants that die soon after the house is sold).

[headspace-hotel]

??!?!?!???????!!!!!????????

[headspace-hotel]

oh my fucking god I was looking up what separates "tree" from "shrub" on Wikipedia and found this completely wrong and horrifying statement that "shrubs" only live 5-10 years (what the FUCK) and i followed the citation link

What

Look look, let's look at the lifespans of some "small trees and shrubs"

Cladrastis kentuckea-

If all your trees die within 7-10 years of planting

Then I think the tree ain't the problem

First suggestion, maybe instead of "pruning to keep them from overgrowing other trees and plants" what about you GIVE THE TREE ENOUGH ROOM TO GROW.

but seriously what are you DOING to these trees and shrubs to kill them all after 7-10 years???

[headspace-hotel]

Oh my god. The stupid grass isn't "competing" with your dogwood tree. Dogwoods are UNDERSTORY trees and they need protection from a canopy of other trees. If you put one (1) dogwood in the middle of an empty lawn it'll suffer and die in the heat and sun

[headspace-hotel]

People's brains are so completely rotted by the "nature is all competition brutal murder kill" thing that they think a grass lawn will kill a tree by "competing" with it. as if trees don't grow in. forests

[headspace-hotel]

Y'all ever get so excited about a scientific paper you're reading that you get chills???

So I thought to myself

Huh, a lot of our invasive species come from China and Japan

And then I thought, huh, I should look up what Kudzu is like in its natural habitat

And I found this article by a team of scientists investigating the history of Kudzu in China

And ohhhhh my goddddd. I'm vibrating with excitement over how cool this is.

The first bombshell that turned my brain inside out:

KUDZU IS NOT WILD. IT IS SEMI-DOMESTICATED.

In China, Kudzu has been a fundamentally important plant for food and textiles throughout history. We have Kudzu cloth that is 6,000 years old!

THIS PLANT CLOTHED AND FED ONE OF THE MOST POPULOUS AND MOST ENDURING HUMAN CULTURES ON EARTH

and in turn

HUMANS SHAPED AND SELECTED FOR ITS TRAITS

*AND*

in its natural range, humans are the main "predator" of kudzu

"Harvest by humans appears to be the major control mechanism in its native areas."

Kudzu is like that because it co-evolved with humans.

WHAT

[headspace-hotel]

YALL

This means

That Kudzu is so highly invasive because—just like most plants evolved to be grazed by herbivores and/or eaten by caterpillars, keeping them in balance with everything else—Kudzu basically evolved to be harvested by humans

The other half of the ecological partnership that keeps Kudzu in balance with everything else isn't a caterpillar or a hoofed beast. It's us.

[tereghan]

Wait, you can spin kudzu? Why aren't we harvesting and marketing this as the newest eco friendly fiber for hand spinners in the US? The market may be small, but I guarantee you with the "spin" that you can use your hobby to fight invasive plants and save the earth that people would pay money to have it sent to them.

Someone send me a sample of kudzu bark and I'll do some research on how they got the spinnable fiber out of it.

[tereghan]

Of *course* someone has figured it out already:

http://fiberhousecollective.com/invasive-fiber-study-group/2021/12/5/meeting-1-weaving-with-kudzu-amp-bast-fiber-processing

If you live in areas with kudzu, go get some and spin it!

[headspace-hotel]

Hell yeah

[thepromiscuousfinger]

[disgruntled-foreign-patriarch]

May he plow the Lord’s fields in heaven

[en-shaedn]

Dave Brandt was probably the longest running no-till farmer in the state; he'd been running his land no-till since 1971. He experimented with fertilizers, cover crops, and different irrigation techniques and he'd been doing all of that for a very long time.

The guy was an institution all on his own; look at this.

The “A” profile in his soil is now 47 inches deep compared to less than 6 inches in 1971 and acts like a giant sponge for water infiltration and retention.

From 1971 through 1989 David used an average of 150-250 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer per acre to grow his corn crops. After adding peas and radishes as a cover crop mix, he cut his nitrogen needs in half and was able to get it down to 125 pounds per acre.

When he added multiple species and became more aggressive with his cover crop mixes, he was able to achieve an additional drop in applied fertility. His starter fertilizer is now just 2 lbs of N, 4 lbs of P, and 5 lbs of K. His corn crop now only requires 20-30 lbs of N throughout the entire growing season. He requires no fertility for his soybeans, relying on fertility gained solely through his cover crops. He uses only 40 lbs of 10 N – 10 P – 10 K for his small grains.

Ten years ago (source study published 2019) David stopped using any fungicides and insecticides. This occurred at a time when fungicide and insecticide use has increased significantly with the average commodity farmer.

Four years ago he stopped using any seed treatment, including neonicotinoids.

His cash crop yields have been increasing by an average of 5% annually for the past 5-6 years, with far less fertilizer and no fungicides, insecticides or seed treatment.

What started as a basic heavy clay soils when David purchased the farm in 1971 have been officially re-classified by Ohio State University soil scientists as a highly fertile silty loam soil.

[headspace-hotel]

[cognitivejustice]

Realizing the power of bokashi and microorganisms in farming

Farmers worldwide have shown a preference for bokashi, whose top proponents include Okinawa-based researcher Teruo Higa, over traditional co

From Costa Rica to West Africa, the practice of bokashi — the use of fermented waste as fertilizer — has taken root, especially as the cost of chemical fertilizer has surged due to the war in Ukraine.

Standing behind the popularization of bokashi is Teruo Higa, professor emeritus of horticulture at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa Prefecture. His research, and related Effective Microorganisms product, has spread the approach as an environmentally friendly alternative to chemical fertilizer.

Unlike composting, bokashi ferments organic waste to help break it down into available nutrients and energy for plants. The process of fermentation creates a potent mix of microorganisms that can play a vital role in maintaining the fertility, structure and overall health of soil.

In West Africa, a ‘bokashi revolution’ takes root

A Japanese fermentation-based fertilization method is helping the region’s farmers cope with the effects of the war in Ukraine.

Bokashi’s uptake is multifaceted: It’s cheap at just a tenth of the price of synthetic fertilizer; it’s much quicker to prepare than traditional composting methods, taking 12 days compared with 30; and uses local ingredients such as rice bran and straw, manure, yeast, clay and sugar cane molasses — with these being interchangeable depending on what’s available.

But above all, the results are what sets bokashi apart.

“Last year I grew 625 sacks of potatoes (with synthetic fertilizer),” says Faye. “This year I have 1,200 already, although I did increase the field size slightly.

“The land does not lie,” Faye says.

[anipgarden]

Un-Actions, or Restriction of Activities

This is my first post in a series I’ll be making on how to increase biodiversity on a budget! I’m not an expert--just an enthusiast--but I hope something you find here helps! 

There’s a good handful of ways you can help increase biodiversity in your yard that don’t require buying things--in fact, these may actually help you save money in the long run! They may seem small and simple, but every bit counts! Whether you can do these in totality, or just limit how often you do these actions, it’ll make a difference.

Not Mowing, or Mowing Less Often

Turf grass lawns are considered a monoculture, meaning they don’t provide much opportunity for insects to find habitat--so few other creatures find them enjoyable either. An expanse of turf grass is, in many ways, a barren wasteland in the eyes of wildlife--too exposed to cross, with few to no opportunities for food or shelter, leaving them exposed to blazing hot sun, freezing cold, or any predators that may be lurking nearby. A place to be avoided. The simple act of letting your grass grow unbothered gives a chance for wildflowers to grow, and for your grass to grow taller--providing more habitat for insects, which then provides more habitat to birds and other creatures that feed on said insects. Wildlife want nothing more than to skirt by unnoticed, so even leaving the grass tall along the edges of a fence or yard can help a little. Even restricting mowing to every other week, or at a higher blade setting, can be a huge help. If HOAs or city ordinances are fussy about lawn length in the front yard, you can likely still keep grass higher in the backyard. Or, you can create a ‘feature’ where grass is allowed to grow long in a specific area. If it looks purposeful, people are more likely to accept it. Not mowing under trees or close to shrubs not only leaves space for wildflowers to grow, but also means you don’t have to deal with mowing over bumpy roots and other difficulties. Cutting different areas at different times can be an option for letting grass grow long in some areas while still having available places for play and entertainment. I’ve seen some people plant flower bulbs when pulling up weeds, so in the future they'll bloom in early spring before mowing is usually necessary. This could be another fun way of adding biodiversity to a lawn without--or before you--begin mowing in spring.

Not worrying about mowing, or doing it less often, saves you in time, money, and energy. You won’t have to buy as much gasoline for your mower, and Saturday afternoons can be free to be enjoyed in other ways aside from being sticky and sweaty and covered in grass stains. In addition, you’ll likely be lowering your own carbon emissions!

If you do have to mow your lawn, I’ve got ways you can use your grass clippings to boost biodiversity later in the post series!

Not using pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc.

One of the next-biggest non-actions you can do asides from not mowing is using fewer fewer to no herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides in your yard. This’ll easily allow for more biodiversity. Allowing more insects and a wide array of plants to thrive will feed back into the entire food chain in your area. In addition, these types of chemicals have been tied to algae blooms, death of beneficial insects, harm to birds, fish, and even humans. Soil is supposed to be full of fungi, especially fungal mycelium that essentially acts as a network for plants to communicate, share nutrients, and support each other--fungicide kills that, and typically makes all other lawn problems even worse in a negative feedback loop. It may take awhile to see the benefits of avoiding these chemicals, but once you see it, it really is astounding.

However! I can’t lie and say that there haven’t been points where I needed to use pesticides at some points in my gardening journey. In these cases, try to use products that are organic--like diatomaceous earth, neem oil, etc--and use them accurately, correctly, and sparingly. Follow instructions on how to apply them safely and responsibly--for example, on non-windy days and during times when bees and other pollinators aren’t likely to be out and about. With some pests (read: oleander aphids, in my experience), a simple jetstream of water is enough to force them off the plant where they’ll be too weak to get back. Eventually, you should have a balanced enough ecosystem that no one insect pest causes a major issue with the work you’re doing to boost biodiversity.

If you can bear to, try handling pests manually. Squishing pest bugs in your hand is a pretty foolproof way to get rid of some problems, or spraying them with a mix of soap and water can do the trick on some insects. Alternatively, picking them off your plants and into a bucket of soapy water is also a valid option. You’ve heard of baptism by fire, now get ready for… baptism by soap?

But also! Try reconsidering what you consider a pest! Tomato hornworms are hated by gardeners, for devouring the foliage of beloved tomato, pepper, and potato plants. But killing the tomato and tobacco hornworm means getting rid of sphinx moths, also known as hummingbird or hawk moths! Hawk moths are vital to the survival of many native plants, and are sometimes even the only species that pollinates them. If you can bear to, consider sacrificing a few tomato plants, or growing a few extras, so we can continue having these beautiful moths for years to come. After all, they may not even do significant damage to the plants!

With that in mind, be friendly to your natural pest managers! Lacewings, ladybugs, praying mantises, wasps, birds, bats, and more will help manage pest populations in your environment! Encourage them by planting things they like, providing habitat, and leaving them be to do their work! Avoiding pesticides helps make your garden a livable environment for them, too!

Letting Weeds Grow

Many of the plants we know as 'weeds' are actually secondary succession species and native wildflowers. Milkweed was regarded as a noxious, annoying weed for a long time, and now people are actively trying to plant them after learning about the important role they play in our environments! Weeds are adapted to take over areas that have been cleared out of other plants after a disaster, so they're doing much of the initial work in making a habitat for other creatures. In fact, many of them will simply die back as the environment repairs itself.

An important thing to note is to please make sure that your ‘weeds’ are not invasive species. Work on learning how to identify native and invasive species in your area, and pull out what’s harmful to leave room for what’s good!

Don’t Rake (Or At Least Don’t Bag Your Leaves)

Many insects overwinter in piles of leaves that we often rake away and bag up in the fall and winter. By doing this, we are actively throwing away the biodiversity of our neighborhoods! If you can, leave the leaves where they fall! 

If you do need to rake, put the leaves in places wildlife can still access it instead of bagging it up. Move your leaves into garden beds to serve as mulch, or along the edge of fences to rest while keeping egg cases and hiding bugs intact and free to release come spring.

Leave Snags Where They Are

Snags are dead trees/dead branches on living trees. They provide an important wildlife habitat--many birds nest in them, or use them to seek cover from rain, and many insects will also live in snags (making them an additional food source for birds and other creatures). Tree cavities are used as nests by hundreds of bird species in the US, and many mammals use them as well, such as bats, squirrels, raccoons, and sometimes even bears. Some trees form cavities while they’re still alive, but in conifers they’re more likely to form after death. Crevices between the trunk of a dead tree and its peeling bark provide sun protection for bats and amphibians, and leafless branches make great perching areas for birds of prey to hunt from above. The decaying wood is home to insects and fungi, who then feed birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles.  Do check on the snags regularly to ensure they don’t serve a threat to any nearby structures, but whenever possible, leave them be! 

Keep Your Cat Inside

If you have an outdoor cat, consider making the adjustments to have it be an indoor cat. If you have an indoor cat, keep it as an indoor cat. Free ranging cats impact biodiversity through predation, fear effects, competition for resources, disease, and more. Keeping little Mittens inside does a lot more to help than it may seem from the outside.

That’s the end of this post! My next one’s gonna be on things you can add to your space that aren’t directly related to growing plants. For now, I hope this advice helps! Feel free to reply with any questions, success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in! 

[reasonsforhope]

Brazil's president returns 800 square miles of Indigenous Iand to its original caretakers

The move bars non-Indigenous from any economic activity in the area and prohibits mining and logging without permission.

"Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva legally recognized nearly 800 square miles of Indigenous lands on Friday [April 28, 2023] in an effort to stop illegal logging, mining and land grabbing, reversing policies enacted by his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right leader who encouraged development in the Amazon. Those policies spurred a frenzy of activity, including illegal gold mining and clandestine farming in Indigenous territories, devastating the environment and fueling violence.

“We are going to legalize Indigenous lands,” Lula said in a speech. “I don’t want any Indigenous territory to be left without demarcation during my government.”

Under Lula’s new designation, mining activities are now prohibited, and commercial farming and logging require specific authorization by the Brazilian government. Non-Indigenous people are forbidden from engaging in any economic activity on Indigenous lands. Under Bolsonaro, the Amazon saw a 56 percent increase in deforestation, the destruction of nearly 13,000 square miles of rainforest, and the loss of nearly 965 square miles of Indigenous territories. 

The Amazon rainforest, which is twice the size of India, holds large amounts of carbon which are crucial to fighting climate change. Studies show that protected Indigenous land holds 50 percent more carbon per hectare than unprotected areas in the Brazilian Amazon, and that protecting Indigenous territories in the region could prevent more than 15 million respiratory and cardiovascular-related illnesses. There are more than 3,000 protected areas in Brazil, and 490 recognized Indigenous areas. Those Indigenous areas cover more than 264-million acres – almost 13% of Brazil’s territory.

“Indigenous areas are crucial to preserving the Amazon, the world’s central bank for biological diversity,” said Toerris Jaeger, Director of Rainforest Foundation Norway, in a press release. “Today’s announcement is also an important recognition that indigenous people are the ones best able to guard this wealth.”

Lula’s announcement provides recognition to six territories that are home to nearly 4,000 Indigenous peoples. The largest area is the Nadöb people’s Uneiuxi Territory located in the Amazonas state. With recognition, the area has been expanded by 37 percent to 2,100 square miles of primary rainforest. 

But for some Indigenous communities, the announcement fell short. In January, Lula’s government pledged to create 14 new territories, while another 733 territories await distinction and boundary acknowledgment by the federal government. The lands of the Pataxó people in south western Bahia state is just one of the territories left out of Lula’s announcement. Renato Atxuab, a Pataxó leader, told the AP that Silva’s government must distinguish their land as soon as possible to prevent further invasions by outsiders. Over the past year, Axtuab said, there have been violent conflicts involving agribusiness, land-grabbers and drug traffickers. 

“There are still, currently, hundreds of Indigenous Lands in the country with their recognition processes pending,” said Danicley de Aguiar, a spokesperson for Greenpeace Brazil. “Several territories, despite already being officially recognized, suffer from invasions by illegal gold miners, subjecting the people living on those lands to extreme violence.”

She added that going forward, real protection of Indigenous lands will require monitoring by the Brazilian government."

-via Grist, 5/3/23

[headspace-hotel]

The Horrors of Insecticides You Can Buy at Home Depot

Since saving the bees is something I am passionate about, I did a deep dive into lawn chemicals, specifically: insecticides.

So I spent like 4 hours today on the Home Depot website with several tabs open to various google searches and chemical safety and properties databases, taking notes on the insecticide chemicals that a random American homeowner can buy.

Conclusions, in summary: OH MY GOD. WHY IS THIS STUFF BEING SOLD IN STORES. WHY IS THIS ALLOWED ARE WE A LAWLESS WASTELAND?????

So the first thing I want to draw attention to is how these chemicals are labeled and advertised, and how this is deceptive and misleading.

On the Home Depot's website, I found many products advertised to kill a specific variety of pest. Examples include:

"Terminate" Termite and Carpenter Ant Spray

"Black Flag" Flea and Tick Killer

"Terro" Ant Killer

"Bioadvanced" Termite Killer

"Hot Shot" Spider and Scorpion Killer

"Spectracide" Wasp and Hornet Killer Aerosol Spray

"Ike's" Lawn Grub Control

You will also see many products advertised as effective against a broad variety of pests:

"Bioadvanced" Spray Home Pest Insect Killer

"Cutter" Bug Control Spray

What's wrong with this?

THEY HAVE THE SAME ACTIVE INGREDIENTS

All of these products, including the ones advertised for use against specific pests, are broad-spectrum insecticides that indiscriminately kill or harm almost all invertebrates, not even limited to insects. (We will come back to this in a second.) Often, the exact same chemical is advertised as a "spider killer," "roach killer," "wasp killer" and so on, just in different packaging.

"Black Flag" flea and tick killer, "Terminate" termite and carpenter ant spray, "Terro" ant killer, and "Cutter" bug control spray all have lambda-cyhalothrin as their active ingredient.

There are two other active ingredients in the products in the above list, prallethrin and imidacloprid. (See if you can guess which list items are the same chemical in a different bottle.)

The problem? This packaging makes people think they are buying a pest control with some level of targeted effectiveness against a specific type of pest, when they are actually buying an indiscriminate toxic substance that can kill almost anything alive enough to move.

The following information was mostly compiled from resources on the safety and properties of various chemicals found on pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. I also searched up documents from the EPA and various scientific papers studying the effects on specific organisms.

Lambda-Cyhalothrin

(mentioned above)

The US Environmental Protection Agency says this insecticide is "highly toxic to bees exposed to direct treatment or residues" and advises, "Do not apply this product or allow it to drift to blooming crops or weeds if bees are visiting the treatment area." The EPA website also states, "This pesticide is extremely toxic to fish and aquatic invertebrates. Do not apply directly to water or areas where surface water is present...Do not apply when weather conditions favor drift from treatment areas."

Since "water," "wind," and "bees" aren't exactly uncommon phenomena outside, this leaves me wondering what applications these requirements don't rule out. I'm particularly bemused by the bit about not allowing the product to drift from the treatment area, as if the average person has telekinetic powers that allow them to direct and confine an aerosolized mist.

Carbaryl

(found in some sprays and powders marketed under the label "Sevin")

I know my parents used this stuff on our garden plants when I was a kid, so I read all of the information I am about to relay with absolute horror.

Carbaryl is highly toxic to bees, causing entire hives to perish when the deadly toxin is brought back to the hive by foraging workers. It is incredibly toxic to earthworms even at incredibly low concentrations. In reptiles, it negatively impacts the ability to move and flee from predators. In one study conducted with leopard frog tadpoles, exposure caused deformities in nearly 18% of tadpoles, while only one single tadpole in the control group showed similar deformities.

According to the EPA website, humans exposed chronically to carbaryl (for example agricultural workers) experience symptoms such as headaches, muscle weakness, and memory loss. In experiments done with rats, dietary exposure to carbaryl results in reduced fertility, lower litter sizes, and higher mortality in offspring.

Regarding cancer risk, the EPA states that "No information is available on the carcinogenic effects of carbaryl in humans," which comes off as weirdly ominous in spite of the reassurance that animal studies haven't shown an increase in cancer.

It is banned in the EU.

Its manufacturing was also responsible for the Bhopal disaster.

Bifenthrin

(found in a wide variety of insecticides including Ortho Home Defense, Ortho Bug-B-Gon, and some products sold under the Sevin label)

Bifenthrin is very highly toxic to fish, other aquatic life, and bees. It has been shown to accumulate in the bodies of bluegill sunfish. One of the studies referenced by PubChem involved collecting sediment from creeks in a suburban neighborhood and exposing amphipods (tiny water animals) to the sediment in a lab. In half of the samples, the sediment was so contaminated with bifenthrin (presumably from lawn care applications) that almost all the amphipods died.

Bifenthrin is classified as a possible human carcinogen and may cause a wide variety of other respiratory and neurological symptoms. It also interferes with hormone receptors in humans and is considered to be "of significant concern with respect to maternal-fetal health." It has also been shown to mess with the immune system and potentially is a cause of asthma even at "acceptable" levels of exposure.

Cypermethrin

(found in Raid and many Spectracide products)

Incredibly toxic to bees and aquatic life, with one study showing 75%-95% mortality within 24 hours of exposure in bees. It has been shown to cause deformities and reproductive problems in many fish. It is a possible human carcinogen.

There have been a ton of animal studies where feeding animals doses of it over time, or giving them acute doses, causes a huge array of horrifying results, including incontinence, seizures, convulsions, dehydration, weight loss and unwillingness to eat, writhing spasms, hypersensitivity to stimuli, lowered testosterone, lowered sperm production, developmental delays in offspring, and "dopaminergenic neurodegeneration," whatever that means.

Residues of the stuff have been found to last up to 84 days in homes (hopefully at low concentrations).

Cypermethrin is also particularly highly toxic to cats. This is why you do NOT use flea and tick shampoos meant for dogs on a cat.

Imidacloprid

(sold as "tree and shrub protection" products, which is insidious considering how awful this pesticide is, as well as "Bioadvanced Spray Home Pest Insect Killer," "Ike's Systemic Landscape Care," and other products under the "Bioadvanced" or "Ike's" label)

A neonicotinoid pesticide that causes toxicity effects at 10 parts per billion in bumble bees. It is also ACUTELY toxic to many birds. One study investigates an incident where 26 American goldfinches were found dead on the ground after some elm trees were treated with imidacloprid. A review of studies and reports of toxicity to birds tallies up 734 dead birds reportedly associated with this pesticide.

As a neonicotinoid, imidacloprid works by dissolving in water and being absorbed by a plant, which effectively makes the whole plant including flowers and pollen poisonous to insects. Because of this, neonicotinoids have been suspected to be a major cause of the decline of pollinators.

-----------

This is only some of the most common or popular active ingredients for insecticides, there are many others. You will notice that each one listed is INCREDIBLY toxic to bees!

I wrote this out because I feel it's important to raise awareness, because I think the branding and labeling on these products makes them appear much safer and more precise than they really are.

They're labeled as insecticides, but that's misleading. They're poisons, and insects are only some of many things they harm or kill.

And it really hits me: is this the best we have??? These incredibly broad-spectrum poisons that kill not only "pest" insects but bees, fish, and songbirds too??? Killing pests with imidacloprid or cypermethrin is like trying to scramble an egg by throwing hand grenades at it!

People are spraying this stuff as a matter of course on their lawns. In their homes. Around their children. Even on vegetables in their gardens. Because that's just what you do, because "bugs" make a space dirty, contaminated, and unfit for your children to play in. Yes there are warnings on the bottle, but they are no more compelling or eye-catching than the warnings on a bottle of dish soap. There are a lot of bug sprays with a "clean fresh scent," which is a little troubling for a substance you really should not be inhaling at all.

People don't know their "flea and tick killer" kills monarch butterflies and bumble bees, and they really don't have an inkling of how seriously they should take the warning label.

I glimpsed at the questions buyers had asked for one of the products, I forget which, and I saw a lady asking if she had to remove the dishes from her cabinet before spraying the insecticide in the cabinet.

Yeah.

[headspace-hotel]

@nonposter You have my permission and blessing to do just that