"I am an animal" - Nature Notes

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Aubrey McFate said:
A problem, however: even if meat consumption per capita declines marginally, meat consumption overall rises if population growth outpaces the converts to plant-based or "flexitarian" diets. Faunalytics | Global Animal Slaughter Statistics & Charts 2022. And that's just animals slaughtered for their meat. A yen for dairy is rising even faster. IDFA | U.S. Dairy Consumption Hits All-Time High in 2021...
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I wish things were getting better faster. The writer here, for one, moves from sticking with automatic social eating habits to making choices about diet at least partly based on animal welfare - https://aeon.co/essays/if-not-vegan-then-what-an-investigation-of-three-options

Many scientists keep trying to do something to improve things as well e.g. this recent letter petition signed by nearly 400 of them to stop unnecessary animal testing - https://www.commondreams.org/news/harvard-monkey-experiment

Didn't you say somewhere you live by the woods in the Gothic South? How idyllic that sounds. Have you noticed spring growth, or wild beasties creeping or flying about, and would you be able to bring us a picture please?

Meanwhile, try this
https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/healthy-monday-gif-heart-breathing.gif
 
Aubrey McFate

Aubrey McFate

Burn down the disco
goinghome said:
Didn't you say somewhere you live by the woods in the Gothic South? How idyllic that sounds. Have you noticed spring growth, or wild beasties creeping or flying about, and would you be able to bring us a picture please?
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I lived by the woods in a very rural area for six years. Nature walks became a welcome daily routine, and the ghosts that haunt the South became my companions. But my mother suffers from dementia, and two years ago she stopped being able to live independently. So I had to move her down here to live with me, and for that, I had to move to a more populous area (one thing she requires is a Catholic church, and those are decidedly not prevalent in these parts).

There's not much wild animal activity here—apart from a colony of feral cats making their meager living along the railroad tracks that run through an empty field nearby. I'll see what I can get you in terms of a picture. I was out last week at night during the full moon with my cat, and she climbed a small tree. Its branches were silhouetted against the moon. I'm usually not much one for "instagramming" and the like (I prefer to "live in the moment"), but I did wish I had my device to take a picture. Maybe next time.

Popular Science | Stop pretending that all Americans could ever go vegan. The subtitle is, "there are more realistic ways to combat climate change." That's true, Sara Chodosh, there are more realistic ways to do that—if climate change is your sole concern. But for those of us concerned with animal welfare, climate change will essentially function as the merciful (and avenging) angel of death. Logically, I have to hope that Americans won't change any of their other carbon- and methane-emitting habits.
 
Aubrey McFate

Aubrey McFate

Burn down the disco
On the flip side of the Extinction Rebellion/Agenda 2030 people, there's a climate commentator (but not a climatologist) named Guy McPherson who thinks the climate crisis will run away exponentially, and that human extinction will occur by 2026. When 2026 passes and the human race is still here at 8-odd billion, I bet he'll behave like all the millenarian prophets before him: "oops, looks like there was an error in my calculations. Now here's the real date." I love the succession of book titles by the Evangelical rapture loon Edgar Whisenant:
  1. 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988.
  2. The final shout: Rapture report 1989.
  3. 23 reasons why a pre-tribulation rapture looks like it will occur on Rosh-Hashanah 1993.
  4. And now the earth's destruction by fire, nuclear bomb fire.
 
ThePoliticalRevolution

ThePoliticalRevolution

On Timeout
Aubrey McFate said:
On the flip side of the Extinction Rebellion/Agenda 2030 people, there's a climate commentator (but not a climatologist) named Guy McPherson who thinks the climate crisis will run away exponentially, and that human extinction will occur by 2026. When 2026 passes and the human race is still here at 8-odd billion, I bet he'll behave like all the millenarian prophets before him: "oops, looks like there was an error in my calculations. Now here's the real date." I love the succession of book titles by the Evangelical rapture loon Edgar Whisenant:
  1. 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988.
  2. The final shout: Rapture report 1989.
  3. 23 reasons why a pre-tribulation rapture looks like it will occur on Rosh-Hashanah 1993.
  4. And now the earth's destruction by fire, nuclear bomb fire.
Click to expand...
I've known Guy for years - he's wrong. A gentle and thoughtful soul, he is. But the apocalypse won't happen in 2026, although we are certainly on track to reduce the population by upwards of one billion plus. And this process will play out in ways and geographies that will surprise even the smartest among us. The conventional understanding is that a mass extinction event in the modern era could only be brought on by nuclear war which would almost certainly be a human made event, in that it will be humans who make decisions in wars fought over resources. This remains our biggest threat.

Most people in the world simply do not possess the knowledge to comprehend the extent to which fossil fuel companies and defense companies control the narrative agendas for liberal and conservative media. You couple this with political capture and it's a perfect storm.

Let me explain what political capture is. It's when transnational corporations like Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron systematically capture politicians from every country to prevent them from being an essential check on their power. We don't live in a simulation. We live in a shell game reality where the stakes have never been higher.

But I am optimistic about the next 20 years. Won't tell you why though. It might scare you too much.
 
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goinghome

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Aubrey McFate said:
I lived by the woods in a very rural area for six years. Nature walks became a welcome daily routine, and the ghosts that haunt the South became my companions. But my mother suffers from dementia, and two years ago she stopped being able to live independently. So I had to move her down here to live with me, and for that, I had to move to a more populous area (one thing she requires is a Catholic church, and those are decidedly not prevalent in these parts).

There's not much wild animal activity here—apart from a colony of feral cats making their meager living along the railroad tracks that run through an empty field nearby. I'll see what I can get you in terms of a picture. I was out last week at night during the full moon with my cat, and she climbed a small tree. Its branches were silhouetted against the moon. I'm usually not much one for "instagramming" and the like (I prefer to "live in the moment"), but I did wish I had my device to take a picture. Maybe next time.

Popular Science | Stop pretending that all Americans could ever go vegan. The subtitle is, "there are more realistic ways to combat climate change." That's true, Sara Chodosh, there are more realistic ways to do that—if climate change is your sole concern. But for those of us concerned with animal welfare, climate change will essentially function as the merciful (and avenging) angel of death. Logically, I have to hope that Americans won't change any of their other carbon- and methane-emitting habits.
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Being near settlement may make things easier for both in those circumstances. Your mom's lucky to have you. Mind yourself too. I'd say you're fairly self-sufficient and can use time creatively. Louisa May Alcott wrote a letter referring to her own similar circumstances.

The feral cat family sounds entertaining. I had a neighbour who used to walk their cat as well! While we wait to see what draws your eye, here is the grandfather of the frogspawn, who dropped by around the same time last year : )

Gramps frog 22 resized.jpg
 
sea salt

sea salt

Always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe
I just wish they'd decide once and for all when we're gonna be extinct and let us know. That would help my planning immensely. If it's 2026 I'm not going to bother looking for a new job - I'll just live off my savings and do fun things. But what if we're NOT extinct by 2026 and I've blown all my money and my Excel skills aren't up to scratch anymore? What then? :rolleyes:
 
Aubrey McFate

Aubrey McFate

Burn down the disco
ThePoliticalRevolution said:
But I am optimistic about the next 20 years. Won't tell you why though. It might scare you too much.
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Don’t be coy. After witnessing K-pop, nothing can scare me at this point. Make a prediction so we can see if it bears out. On another thread, you said “astrologers, including myself predicted that there would be a large earthquakes this month” but (conveniently) you only told a few people. Tell us what the stars say about civilization in the next twenty years—and be detailed. Apparently the heavens weren’t specific enough about where the earthquakes would occur so that you could’ve warned the Turks and the Syrians. It’s always just too convenient for the seer.
 
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C

cat on a train

take meow tonight
There are four nesting boxes in the garden, which i usually clean out in February. All four had been occupied, and the empty but squashed nests inside were an indicator that the birds had bred there successfully. Sometimes i find mummified chicks inside, or tiny bird skeletons, but not so this year. I had only noticed one box being used by two parent birds last summer. They were flying in and out hectically, and whenever one of them entered the box, the young ones inside would start cheeping noisily. The other boxes looked completely vacant. Shows me again, that it is only the smallest tip of the iceberg of natural activities in the garden that i am aware of.
 
nicky wire's legs

nicky wire's legs

all is vanity
sea salt said:
I just wish they'd decide once and for all when we're gonna be extinct and let us know. That would help my planning immensely. If it's 2026 I'm not going to bother looking for a new job - I'll just live off my savings and do fun things. But what if we're NOT extinct by 2026 and I've blown all my money and my Excel skills aren't up to scratch anymore? What then? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
ive already blown all my money on nicky wire-esque clothes. if armageddon comes and im wandering around amongst the wreckage and corpses NOT dressed like nicky wire it's gonna be a total bust.
 
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"Two artists have been working with residents of five community hospitals in West Cork to unlock their memories of animals and birds...​

...In early 2022, Tess and her regular collaborator, Baltimore-based filmmaker Sharon Whooley, started their latest project, The Museum of Birds and Beasts. They enlisted the help of The Museum of Country Life in Co Mayo, borrowing items from their “handling collection” to help spark memories amongst older residents of West Cork’s community hospitals.

A Duffy’s circus story is just one element of the resulting exhibition. What they found was a treasure-trove of lore that is on the cusp of being forgotten, a world where the connection to animals was a part of everyday life.
“These people are genuinely the last with these memories,” Sharon says. “One woman told me they’d kept a fox toe in a jar to draw out thorns. They were so enmeshed, animals and humans. They were all the one, completely connected. For our generation and the generations that come after, we’re so separate from that world.”...
- https://tripeanddrisheen.substack.c...n_id=263279&post_id=101595972&isFreemail=true

That sentence about being separate isn't true for everyone, and things don't have to be so. Nice idea for an exhibition though imo : )
 
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Bird Leaders Defend Shooting Down Aircraft That Illegally Entered Avian Airspace​

990463f278582de0f0a6aae03260d951.jpg

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NEW YORK—Following a summit in which nearly 10,000 feathered species gathered to determine their response to what they described as hostile incursions into the sky, top bird leaders released an official statement Tuesday defending their choice to shoot down an aircraft that illegally entered avian airspace. “When this airborne vessel crossed into the internationally recognized bird domain and failed to comply with our tweets and squawks, we had no choice but to neutralize the potential threat,” said Avian Republic Ambassador Terrence G. Beakfeathers, who called for a moment of silence to honor the flock of skylarks that gave their lives by flying into the engine of an Airbus A380, bringing down the plane he claimed had trespassed on the sky. “For centuries, we turned the other cheek even as millions of our brethren were felled by your misleadingly transparent windowpanes. But now, with the blatant provocation of 100,000 commercial flights per day entering our rightful territory, we have no choice but to meet these encroachments with immediate and overwhelming force. The intrusion into our airspace of planes, helicopters, missiles, and even balloons will no longer be tolerated.” At press time, strategic talks among the birds had broken down, with disputes erupting among the two traditionally opposed factions represented by hawks and doves. - https://www.theonion.com/bird-leaders-defend-shooting-down-aircraft-that-illegal-1850109469

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ZOOM FROM GLOOM

ZOOM FROM GLOOM

New Membrane
‘Are animals a human invention? What is a lama like? Do plants have sex? Was Amelia Earhart eaten by crabs? These are just some of the questions posed by Shahidha Bari and addressed by her guests Katherine Rundell, Dan Taylor, Helen Cowie and Stella Sandford, as they trace the history of human conceptualisations of animals and the natural world. From the Medieval tendency to draw moral lessons from animals, to Linnaeus' attempts to organise them into taxonomies, via Darwin's abolition of the distinction between humans and animals, to the sense of wonder at the natural world needed to orient us towards tackling ecological crises. Plus, the growing area of plant philosophy and how it overturns the history of western metaphysics.’

www.bbc.co.uk

Arts & Ideas - Bestiaries and Beyond - BBC Sounds

Shahidha Bari investigates the human invention of animals
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
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Stella Sandford's plant philosophy on that bbc discussion was new to me and adds a whole new biodiversity dimension - https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/vegetal-sex-9781350274938/

This is Cróga the rescued loggerhead turtle

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"The survival of a tiny loggerhead turtle in freezing temperatures thousands of miles from home is being described as "an absolute miracle".

The 150mm turtle was found beached on the Belmullet Peninsula in Co Mayo by a local man ten days ago...

The turtle has been named Cróga - the Irish for 'brave' - and is being looked after by staff at Dingle Oceanworld..." -
www.rte.ie

'Miracle' loggerhead turtle washes up on Mayo coast

The survival of a tiny loggerhead turtle in freezing temperatures thousands of miles from home is being described as "an absolute miracle".
www.rte.ie www.rte.ie


Moby has made a documentary film about veganism in punk rock. It features rare footage of quite a few rebels without applause.
The only reference to The Smiths' stance I noticed is 1 hour in, on a t-shirt! Since Morrissey has been so influential for animal rights, pc pressures were surely in force in the making, unless their indie identity isn't quite punk enough for the project?

https://www.punkrockveganmovie.com/
 
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