A little #tbt and a little reminder of how long it takes for clothes to decompose in landfill… think twice before stocking up on extra winter clothes you don’t necessarily need, look in your own wardrobe first or go charity shopping instead of hitting the high street ♻️
Part of a set of illustrations made for @fash_rev
#illustration #slowfashion #liedirkx #recycle #consciousfashion #sustainability #fuckfastfashion (at London, United Kingdom)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqM-VxclpgL/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ft7ba7t9a8ye

Periscope.

“Strong people don’t need strong leaders.” - MS. Ella Baker

“It is said that the Chinese word for “crisis” is a combination of two characters: one representing dangerthe other representing opportunity. The election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States certainly represents danger, especially to African Americans, Hispanics, members of the LGBTQ community, Muslims, Jews, women, and for everyone who is poor.

This is why he was rejected by a majority of the voters who cast ballots in this past presidential election. However, given the Electoral College system, he is president-elect now and it is important that we do not become paralyzed or overwhelmed and sink into despair. There is also great opportunity to organize and take advantage of America’s great diversity, making it a liberated and safer country for all of its people.

Fearwas at the heart of Donald Trump’s campaign. He successfully exploited the fear and anger that many white Americans feel over changes, both demographic and cultural, that seemed threatening to a way of life they expected to last forever. He used fear to fan hysteria that Mexicans, other Hispanics, Black people and nonwhite people in general are subverting American values and undermining the nation’s “greatness.” He coupled fear to his most blatant lie: that he was a man of the people willing and prepared to take on the moneyed interests that sent jobs overseas causing lost jobs and income here at home.

He also used the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and hyperbole about Islamic terrorism to create great fear of Muslims (and now as his administration comes in, discussion of internment camps for Muslims has begun.) Trump also used similar hyperbole about Black communities to create fear in white America about crime and their safety.

Donald Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again” especially sold hope to white male America that people of color would not be political or economic players of any significance; that women would return to the kitchen, gay people would remain in the closet, and that immigrants would come mostly from Europe. He breathed new life into the Ku Klux Klan.

So now what is to be done?

Thousands of people across the country have taken to the streets to display their anger and frustration at the temperament, the policies and the pronouncements of Donald Trump. While all of this is understandable and important, we must now turn our attention to the kind of organizing that will put forward policies and people at the local, state and national levels to make sure that America represents all of its people.

We can do this. Hillary Clinton received 7 million fewer votes than Barack Obama in the 2012 election. Aside from low turnout, Clinton’s poor campaigning and alienation were undoubtedly important parts of the reason for this loss. Now we see media falsely steering post-election analysis into discussion of how to reach the white working class male as if that is where her failure lay. So part of what is needed are efforts to turn the discussion toward the real issues of democracy that have largely been obscured and avoided. Topping this discussion is surely the issue of economic justice, an issue to which Secretary Clinton offered nothing new.

Our main point here, however, is that there is work to be done over the next two years-between now and the mid-term elections-that will shape the Congress, and local and state offices. Indeed, in the final analysis, when we talk about what impacts our lives day-to-day, it is the kind of decision-making at this level that most immediately affects us. Legislators at the state level, for example, drive voter suppression.

Police violence, to give another example, will not be contained until we who are most affected by it gain the levers of power to restrain and end it. And, at a higher level, we have the numbers to end Republican control of the Congress and to put fear into those who do manage to retain their seats. The energy we see on the streets in protest can be most effectively used at the grassroots in the kind of day-to-day organizing that uproots the old order in cities, counties and parishes. This is difficult but necessary work.

Anger is understandable but not sufficient to generate the kinds of changes that are needed; or to mobilize the kind of effort that is needed now. We want to repeat and emphasize what we think is urgently needed: hard, diligent grassroots work; the kind of organizing that will put forward policies and people at the local, state and national levels to make sure that America represents all of its people-the kind of deep community organizing that we of SNCC and the Freedom Movement engaged in to defeat Jim Crow segregation and win voting rights for people of color across the nation.

We can change state legislatures, and city councils, and congressional seats. We acknowledge that this will not resolve every issue confronting us. And the very large question of how best to hold accountable people we put into office through our work, remains. But we can put fear into the minds of those like Trump and his cohorts who think they have been mandated to start this country down a road leading to what amounts to fascism.

November 22, 2016
Washington, DC

SNCC Legacy Project
[email protected]
www.sncclegacyproject.org“

BigPicture photography Competition,

The competition’s winning images and finalists highlight Earth’s biodiversity and illustrate the many threats that our planet faces. Each photo, in its own way, inspires viewers to protect and conserve the remarkable diversity of life on Earth. Below, we present the winners and some of our personal favorites from this year’s competition.

“Hope in a Burned Plantation” (2020), Mallacoota, Australia /  Jo-Anne McArthur Photography,

Iconic Australia is captured in this particular moment as a resilient kangaroo pauses in a burned eucalyptus plantation. Nearly three billion animals perished or were displaced in the cataclysmic Australian bushfires of 2019 and 2020. This eastern grey kangaroo and her joey represent the lucky survivors, escaping from an area that had been transformed by humans for farming and then devastated by fire.

“Treasure on Ice” (2020), Svalbard, Norway /  Marek Jackowski Photography,

A polar bear lies forlornly on a tiny floating chunk of ice, in an image evoking global warming…

“Sign of the Tides” (2020), Monterey, California / Ralph Pace Photography,

In this perfectly composed photograph, a discarded face mask in the shape of a sea turtle attracts a notoriously curious California sea lion. Shot in November 2020, this was the first time the photographer saw a mask underwater, but unfortunately he has seen many since. The effects of the pandemic will likely linger on our oceans for years to come.

All photographs courtesy of BigPicture winners and finalists.

Professor Ed Hawkins’ data visualisation, Warming Stripes!

It started at Hay Literary Festival. Professor Ed Hawkins was trying to find a way to communicate climate change to an audience that might not be able to interpret scientific graphics or data.

Those stripes — shades of red and blue representing hot and cold temperatures — chart temperature changes from 1850 to 2018, running from left to right. They look like a bar code, albeit a vibrant one with a serious message. Hawkins, a professor of climate science at the University of Reading, says that the impact was immediately obvious.

That data visualisation was based on local temperatures for the festival’s location in rural Wales. Since the 2018 festival, Hawkins has worked on a graphic for global temperatures. Most recently, it took centre stage at a very different festival: as the backdrop for Enter Shikari’s set at Reading.

On 21 June 2019, the summer solstice, he launched a website where users can view and download climate stripes for the cities they live in, from Vienna to Verona. So far there have been more than a million downloads.

Warming Stripes from 1850-2020 for GLOBE / Europe / Asia / North America.

Courtesy: https://showyourstripes.info/ & designweek.co.uk/

moodboardmix:

HAPPY WORLD ANIMAL DAY!

World Animal Day is an international day of action for animal rights and welfare celebrated annually on October 4.

It is the 96th World Animal Welfare Day on 4^th October, 2021 with the theme for world animal day 2021 is “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet.”

It’s celebrated in different ways in every country, irrespective of nationality, religion, faith or political ideology.  

Through increased awareness and education we can create a world where animals are always recognised as sentient beings and full regard is always paid to their welfare.

New danger to underwater life!

The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a detrimental toll on the Earth’s oceans: researchers say around 30% more waste has made its way into the seas in the last year, primarily non-recyclable materials like face masks and plastic take-out containers. In Şebnem Coşkun’s underwater photograph taken in the Bosporus Strait, the ethereal, translucent bodies of jellyfish drift vertiginously in a whirlpool of plastic and debris; a diver reaches for a face mask floating ominously in the center.

Coşkun, a Turkish artist and photojournalist, is the third place winner of this year’s Nature Conservancy Photo Contest in the “People and Nature” category. The figure in her stunning image is free diver Şahika Ercümen, Turkey’s multiple world record holder and United Nations environmental advocate, captured collecting trash near the Ortaköy coastline on June 27, 2020.

Abouthalf a million tons of plastic are dumped into the Mediterranean every year — the equivalent of 33,800 plastic bottles entering the sea each minute, Coşkun notes in a statement about the photograph.

“Ever since I started scuba diving in 2014, the things that have impressed me the most underwater have been floating plastic and waste. I thought there was a world underwater that would fascinate me, but this sight shocked me,” she informed Hyperallergic. “Then I started working on marine litter. I was working as a photojournalist at Anadolu Agency and I started taking pictures to show the other side of this world.”

“After I started to see the waste, I stopped buying the water sold in plastic bottles. If my encounter with waste has changed me so much, I think it can change everyone,” Coşkun added.

The use of face coverings and different private protecting tools (PPE) has confirmed important to assist curb the unfold of coronavirus, however these things have to be rigorously discarded to keep away from harming marine wildlife and ecosystems. Encouraging reusable masks and implementing insurance policies to cease littering may help, in line with the conservation group OceansAsia.

Nature Conservancy Photo Contest in the “People and Nature”

© Sebnem Coskun/TNC Photo Contest 2021

Sébastien Dubois-Didcock, ‘Refined’

Refined is a photographic body of work embellishing the issues of petrochemistry in our agriculture in hopes to spark awareness. 

Each image depicts a subject derived of highly polluting crops, that is unveiled by a stream of “petroleum”; the chemical used to create most of our pesticides and insecticides. 

The contrast between the visible petroleum and the invisible food is representative of the dependency these crops have on the petrochemicals used in their production. 

While these images are perhaps aesthetically pleasing, their background should remind us that not all progress is progressive.

Courtesy: PX3

‘TRADITIONAL TORTURE’ at Faroe Islands !

“Grindadráp” (Lattice Killing) for the locals…

The island is so popular that it closed itself to tourists, except those who are willing to help repair and maintain the island. However, there is a darker side.

Almost 1,500 cetaceans (dolphins and whales) were killed last Sunday (with also pregnant whales) 

“This is, we believe, the largest ever single hunt of dolphins or pilot whales in Faroese history — the next largest being 1,200 pilot whales back in 1940 — and is possibly the largest single hunt of cetaceans ever recorded worldwide.  

 Sea Shepherd

The Faroe Islands are formally part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but have significant autonomy.

EU law bans “deliberate capture or killing” of any dolphins or whales, but since the Faroe Islands are not part of the union they do not have to abide by the rules.

The barbaric fishing process involves boats heading out to find pods of whales and dolphins, and rounding them up into shallow waters. They struggled for breath on the beach until they are killed.

The Faroese insist that this meat is not sold, but every part of the whale is used and is shared amongst their community as a valuable source of meat for a region that has very little in terms of natural resources. The whole of that statement is a lie for four reasons:

1. Whale meat from the grinds is sold in supermarkets and restaurants in the Faroe Islands, so it is bringing in money for some of the people involved which makes it a commercial enterprise.
2. Every part of the whale killed is not used, not even every whale killed is used. The hunters have been documented discarding whole whale carcasses into the sea that they did not have time to process before dusk.
3. It is not a valuable source of meat, it is very dangerous due to the amount of toxins (high levels of mercury and PCBs) even Faroese doctors confirm it contains. The poisonous levels would not be legal in any other food approved for human consumption and the fact that children are being given this meat to eat by parents who should know better means that they are being poisoned. There is a high incident of disease on the island related to these pollutants.
4. The Faroe Islands have a thriving fishing industry including farmed salmon. They also have a large amount of sheep. They trade these commodities for all the benefits of a materialisic society and with this and their subsidies they enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world.

Millie Hall of East Yorkshire

Photographs: Sea Shepherd, Richard Smith / Sygma

moodboardmix:

Collecting Water from Driedout Riverbeds…

Around 263 million people globally have access to water sources that are considered safe, but need to spend at least 30 minutes walking or queuing to collect their water. And the task of providing water for households falls disproportionately to women and girls, especially in rural areas.

Sujon Adhikary Photography / Drone Photo Awards 2021

zombilenium:

Lake Urmia, Iran,

The ferries that once shuttled tourists to and from the little islets in Iran’s Lake Urmia sit rusty, unable to move, on what is rapidly becoming a salt plain.

Just two decades ago, Urmia was the Middle East’s biggest lake, its local economy a thriving tourist center of hotels and restaurants.

Lake Urmia’s demise has been fast. It has more than halved in size – from 5,400 square kilometers (2,085 square miles) in the 1990s to just 2,500 square kilometers (965 square miles) today – according to the Department of Environmental Protection of West Azerbaijan, one of the Iranian provinces where the lake is located. 

There are now concerns it will disappear entirely. Such problems are familiar in many parts of the Middle East – where water is simply running out.

The region has witnessed persistent drought and temperatures so high that they are barely fit for human life. Add climate change to water mismanagement and overuse, and projections for the future of water here are grim. Some Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Iraq and Jordan, are pumping huge amounts of water from the ground for irrigation as they seek to improve their food self-sufficiency.

By Frederik Pleitgen, Claudia Otto, Angela Dewan and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN