Hurried effort to find news I could tolerate reading at night. Thanks to marsanges’ comment last night, I began looking for news about sardines in Italy and polar bears occupying a town in Siberia. Long day foraging for food (AKA shopping) in Eureka CA. On the drive home, friends told stories about julia ‘butterfly’ hill’s occupation of the redwood tree Luna as we drove past the slope where Luna still stands today. My friend said that julia’s sojourn in Luna began as a temporary action. She said “yes” when asked to climb the tree as part of a protest. Once in the tree, julia was imbued with redwood magic and remained for 738 days. When she finally climbed down, after negotiating “with Pacific Lumber a Deed of Covenant protecting Luna and the surrounding grove in perpetuity, no matter who ‘owns’ the land,” her feet were curled from living on branches and she couldn’t stand on the ground.
Because the Covenant would outlive me, i needed to find an organization that would offer ongoing support for Luna and the grove; Sanctuary Forest stepped up. In the subsequent 20 years, Sanctuary Forest—led by board member Stuart Moskowitz—became angels, stewards and protectors of Luna and the grove. Sanctuary Forest worked diligently to foster trusting relationships—first with Maxxam/Pacific Lumber, and then with Humboldt Redwood Company, who bought them out. This secured the enforcement and intent of the Covenant.
Sanctuary Forest is a land and water trust whose mission is to conserve the Mattole River watershed and surrounding areas for wildlife habitat and aesthetic, spiritual and intrinsic values, in cooperation with our diverse community.
Crammed into the Piazza Duomo, packed tightly like the fish that's given them their name, was a nascent movement gaining ground across the country.
They came with a message: promoting human rights and respect for migrants and halting the rise and rise of one man - Matteo Salvini.
The leader of the far-right League party and Italy's former deputy prime minister abruptly quit the government over the summer, hoping to spark elections, which polls had suggested he would win.
It was an unexpected miscalculation, as an alternative coalition was formed and he was relegated to the opposition. [...]
"Something big is happening," said Alessandra Giordano, a 24-year-old student braving the downpour in Milan - Mr Salvini's hometown. "It's time to let them know we've woken up against racism, hatred, people fighting each other. Populism divides us - for example, trying to make us fear people coming from war and other countries. We don't want this."
Abnormally warm weather in Russia’s easternmost region caused a polar bear ’siege’ with 56 predators gathered at a site near the village of Ryrkaipiy.
‘Nearly all polar bears are skinny. There are adult bears, adolescents and mother bears with cubs of different ages’, said Tatiana Minenko, head of the WWF Polar Bear Patrol in Ryrkaipiy.
The animals are currently feeding on seal carcasses left around Cape Kozhevnkov.
These were left from early autumn when thousands of seals stayed there.
The seals left the rookery in November and there won’t be a top up on food.
South Africa has been hit by massive power cuts as heavy rains flood power stations and disrupt coal-fired electricity generation.
The state-owned utility Eskom said on Monday that it could only meet 80% of the country’s energy demand and called for a “concerted collective effort” after about a quarter of its generation capacity failed.
The failure to provide adequate power for what has long been seen as Africa’s most developed economy will underline the huge challenges faced by the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, as he attempts to turn round flagging growth rates and bring in much-needed reforms.
The Arctic is increasingly at risk as temperatures warm and sea ice melts away, NOAA warns in its annual report card on the state of this crucial ecosystem. At the end of a very dense, very lengthy report loaded with scores of scientific stats, the seemingly abstract science of climate change collides with the sobering humanity of its impacts, with the words: "The world from our childhood is no longer here."
In that one sentence, quoted from an essay titled "Voices from the Front Lines of a Changing Bering Sea," ten indigenous tribe members sum up the central message of the report — the fundamental and systemic change threatening their homeland.
The report documents rapidly rising temperatures, vanishing sea ice and thawing permafrost. Its scientific findings are echoed in the words of these keen observers of nature, who write, "The Bering Sea is undergoing changes that have never been observed in our lifetimes, but were foreseen by our elders decades ago."
al jazeera —
Thousands of students have thronged the streets of the capital, Algiers, to call for authorities to cancel a contentious presidential election scheduled for December 12.
In the last of a series of weekly protests before the vote, the young demonstrators, who want root-and-branch political reforms and the departure of the country's ruling elite, were joined by workers, retired employees, and homemakers accompanied by their children. [...]
Marching through the main streets of the Algerian capital amid a heavy police presence on Tuesday, they chanted "No vote with the mafia", and "Generals into the garbage cans". Many held aloft red banners reading "no election", and "we don't stand against our nation".
Hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated across France on the sixth day of a transport strike against pension reforms that has significantly disrupted travel.
The protests on Tuesday took place a day before President Emmanuel Macron's government unveils its long-awaited details of planned pensions overhaul.
According to interior ministry estimates, some 339,000 people took part in the nationwide demonstrations - markedly down on first day of protests on December 5, when more than 800,000 people took to the streets.
yay for coastal elites scientists
the guardian —
The world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft has taken its inaugural test flight, taking off from the Canadian city of Vancouver and flying for 15 minutes.
“This proves that commercial aviation in all-electric form can work,” said Roei Ganzarski, chief executive of Australian engineering firm magniX. [...]
Battery power is also a challenge. An aircraft like the one flown on Tuesday could fly only about 160km on lithium battery power, said Ganzarski. While that’s not far, it’s sufficient for the majority of short-haul flights run by Harbour Air.
Here is a brief summary of where things stand so far today.
- Emergency authorities are awaiting the all-clear to gain access to Whakaari/White Island, two days after an eruption that has killed at least six people, with a further eight presumed dead.
- The retrieval operation has been hampered by what a “significant increase” in volcanic tremor activity, adding to the frustration of families who have lost relatives.
- Helicopter pilot has described the horrific aftermath of the eruption, seen when he helped fly the injured off the island. He has offered to fly in again to retrieve the eight bodies believed to still be on the volcano.
- Paramedic Rusty Clarke was on a helicopter that flew to White Island. He told RNZ that it looked like a nuclear explosion had taken place. “Looking down on it, I would have to describe it as Chernobyl,” he said. “It was just a complete, absolute whiteout of the area involved.”
- Thirty patients are being cared for in hospitals across New Zealand, of whom 25 are in a critical condition. The burns units of six New Zealand hospitals are at full capacity caring for survivors, and police have said more deaths are likely. The remaining five patients are in a serious but stable condition.
UPDATE: One day later, Slate announces that the NYT article is untrue.
There was a pounding at the door. Strange, the priest thought: He wasn’t expecting anyone. Marcos Figueiredo hurried to the entrance of his home temple and opened it.
Guns. Three of them. All pointing at him.
The “Soldiers of Jesus” had arrived — three members of a gang of extremist evangelical Christians who’d seized control of the impoverished Parque Paulista neighborhood in Duque de Caxias. First, they erected roadblocks to keep away cops and create a narcotics haven an hour’s drive from Rio de Janeiro. Now they were targeting anyone whose faith didn’t align with their own. That meant demanding the closure of temples that practiced African-influenced religions such as Figueiredo’s Candomblé.
“Nobody wants macumba here,” one of them told Figueiredo, using an ethnic slur, according to testimony he provided to authorities. “You have one week to stop all of this.”
New York City lawmakers are poised to adopt legislation requiring “bird-friendly” glass on all new construction in an effort to cut down on the tens of thousands of birds who die flying into the city's buildings every year.
New York will be the largest city in the nation to require glass that is visible to birds if the measure passes. Several California cities including San Francisco and Oakland have adopted similar rules. [...]
New York City Audubon estimates that 90,000 to 230,000 birds from hawks to hummingbirds are killed every year from flying into New York City buildings. [...]
New York City Audubon estimates that 90,000 to 230,000 birds from hawks to hummingbirds are killed every year from flying into New York City buildings.
Ornithologist Susan Elbin, NYC Audubon's director of conservation, said legislation mandating similar glass in other new buildings and major renovations will make a huge difference. “We think of this as the most broad-reaching bird-friendly building policy in the country,” Elbin said.
The Thanksgiving week “bomb cyclone” storm that pounded the U.S. West Coast generated a humongous, record-setting 75-foot-tall wave that might keep some surfers up at night with a mix of FOMO and terror.
Fortunately, this wasn’t exactly a surfable wave, as it was recorded roughly 20 miles off the coast of Cape Mendocino in northern California.
The white-capped beast was registered in the predawn darkness of November 27 by a Scripps Institution of Oceanography Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP) buoy in the Pacific.
22 years ago today, julia butterfly hill began her protective occupation of redwood goddess luna
“Dear Friends and Supporters of Sanctuary Forest,
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Thank you for all you do to protect, restore and respect our sacred forests.
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December 18th marks the 20-year anniversary of my return to terra firma after more than two years living aloft in the branches of our ancient elder, Luna, the 1,000-plus-year-old redwood tree at the top of the ridge above the tiny hamlet of Stafford, overlooking the winding Eel River.
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As i reflect upon those two years and the 20 years since, much has changed in our forests and our world, yet much is, sadly, the same, or even more challenging than ever.
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Today, i write to remind us all of the power of standing together for what we love, even in the face of violence, destruction and separation.
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On December 10th, 1997, i ascended Luna intending to stay two to four weeks (which was considered a long tree-sit at that time!); i did not touch the ground again for 738 days.
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i survived the worst storms in California’s recorded history. i defied Maxxam-controlled Pacific Lumber’s efforts to starve me down, sleep-deprive me down and blow me down with a twin-propeller Chinook helicopter. With help from Luna and the Great Mystery, i found a way to transform my grief, rage and fear into love and commitment.”
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Read the whole letter here.
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Pictured: julia during her treesit (photo by Shaun Walker), julia at the base of Luna (photo by Stuart Moskowitz), Luna today (photo by Anna Rogers.)
Say YES and open to the magic.