collapse of the old society

A water contamination scandal has gripped a leafy corner of southern Belgium, causing anxious residents to queue up for blood tests to confirm potential exposure to so-called forever chemicals.

More than 80 percent of Tuvalu’s population has applied for Australia’s landmark climate visa, official figures showed Wednesday, as rising seas threaten the low-lying Pacific nation. With only 280 spots available this year, thousands are expected to miss out.

(Full disclosure: I disagree with about half this article, but I still found it thought provoking.)

I know this is a little outside the normal scope of this community. However, I think it’s undeniable that a contributing factor to the ideas and behavior of contemporary tech oligarchs is their love of older sci-fi and fantasy literature. Seeing the authoritarian and sometimes even straightforwardly fascist ideals hidden in those works can be helpful in understanding how these people think.

It’s probably the most depressing conspiracy theory there is, not because the impacts are so much graver than some cranks who believe the Earth to be flat, but because vaccination is the most concrete proof of how much we rely on one another’s care and rationality. That’s true beyond disease – we also need each other for democracy, science, culture, civic life and everything – but in no other area can you see that, count it and put it on a graph.

2025 marks 10 years since the adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 goals and 169 targets to ensure human well-being, economic prosperity and environmental protection simultaneously.

The study: Gap between national food production and food-based dietary guidance highlights lack of national self-sufficiency

archived (Wayback Machine)

archived (Wayback Machine)

Observers shocked at scale and speed of deregulation drive they say is watering down European Green Deal and laws

archived (Wayback Machine)

Destruction of habitat—as a result not just of climate change, but industrial agriculture, deforestation, and urbanization as well—is driving native species to the brink. Simply planting trees, if they’re non-native, may not help much and can even make the situation worse. In contrast, native trees and shrubs provide a food forest for birds and insects that would otherwise go hungry. It seems like a small gesture in the face of the cataclysmic trends converging on us, but at least it’s a push in the right direction: it restores ecosystems and makes them more resilient. That way, when civilization goes, it might possibly leave something behind other than a wasteland.

Both native forests and food forests offer a range of benefits and are well worth planting.