a sensation of april and dawn

There are now ZERO COAL POWER PLANTS in the UK. Zero! Also zero in Slovakia, which closed its last coal plant a full SIX YEARS ahead of schedule! This is great because coal is like, the dirtiest fuel source ever. It's awful for the planet, it's awful for our lungs, it's just The Worst. Goodbye and good riddance!

Last year, EU CO2 emissions fell by 8%, and the data's not all in for this year yet but they're on track to drop even more. Yeah, you read that right - the EU may have already passed peak carbon emissions. Excuse me while I do a happy dance over here in the corner - this is a BIG FUCKING DEAL!

This may have been a bad year for abortion rights in the US, but we're an outlier - over the past 30 years, we are only one of four countries to tighten abortion restrictions, while 60 countries have made it more available. This year, France became the first country in the whole world to make abortion a constitutional right. Seven US states did so too - Colorado, New York, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, Arizona and Missouri. That's right, Missouri! Shocking, huh?

A drug to prevent HIV infections was 100% effective in trials. That. That's insane. It's not a vaccine, but it is the closest we've ever been to one.

Deaths from tuberculosis, the deadliest infectious disease in the world, hit an all-time global low. Hooray for preventing a truly staggering amount of death!

Egypt and Cabo-Verde both eliminated malaria, and 17 countries started distributing the new malaria vaccine - remember that? Remember how insanely exciting it is that was now have a vaccine for malaria? It is saving lives as we speak.

Deforestation in the Amazon is half what it was two years ago.

The largest dam removal project in history was completed - removing four dams from the Klamath River, thanks to decades of activism by the Karuk and Yurok tribes. A month later, there were salmon spawning in the river basin again - for the first time in a century. Nature's pretty incredible at bouncing back, if we can just give it the chance. I repeat: Largest. Dam removal. In history!

China finished the Great Green Wall

Prewalski's horses returned to their homeland in central Kazakhstan, where they'd been missing for 200 years!

22 species were removed from the endangered list - let's hear it for the Saimaa ringed seal, Scimitar oryx, Red cockaded woodpecker, Siamese crocodile, Narwhal, Arapaima, Chipola slabshell and Fat threeridge mussels, Iberian lynx, Asiatic lions, Australian saltwater crocodile, Asian antelope,  Ulūlu, Southern bluefin tuna, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog, Yellow-footed rock wallabies, Yangtze finless porpoise, Pookila mouse, Orange-bellied parrots, Putitor mahseer (this is a fish), Giant pandas, and Florida golden aster!

I actively try to avoid using guilting tactics in fundraising, but this is weird to me. It's like people are using these posts as an excuse not to do things they already didn't want to do anyway, rather than actually taking their recommendations on board...

*In my experience, these campaigns often support large extended families + their neighbours

i have a big dog. he looks like a deer. he is taller than most young children. while we were on a trail the other day, a boy coming our direction saw us and froze. he took a step back and said: "i'm feeling nervous. your - your dog is kind of big."

goblin and i both stopped walking immediately. "he is kind of a big dog," i admitted. "he's called a greyhound. they are gentle but they are pretty tall, which is kind of scary, you're right. their legs are so long because they are made for running fast. i am sorry we scared you. would you like us to stand still while you move past us, or would you feel more safe in your body if we move and you stay still?'

"oh. i didn't know that about - greyhounds. i think i ... i want to stay still," he said. at this point, his adult had caught up to us. "i'm nervous about the dog," he told her, "so i'm - i'm gonna stay still." she didn't argue. she didn't make fun of him. she just smiled at him and at me and held his hand while goblin and i, with as wide of a berth as we could make, crept our way through.

behind us, i heard him exhale a deep breath and kind of laugh - "he was really big, huh? she said it's because greyhounds have to go fast."

"he was big," she said. "i understand why that could have made you a little scared."

"yeah. next time i - next time do you think i could maybe ask to touch him? when - i mean, next time, maybe, if i'm not nervous."

later, going to a work event, in the big city, i stood outside, trembling. my social anxiety as a caught bird in my chest. i took a deep breath and turned to my coworker. she's not even really my friend yet. i told her: "i feel nervous about this. i am not used to meeting new people, ever since covid."

she laughed, but not in a mean way. she said she was nervous too. she reached her hand out and held mine, and we both took another deep breath and walked in like that, interlinked. a few people asked us - together? - and i told the truth: i feel nervous, and she's helping. over and over i watched people relax too, admitting i feel really kind of shy lately actually, thank you for saying that.

the next time i go to an event, and i feel a little scared, i ask right away: wanna hold hands? this feels a little dangerous. i hesitate less. i don't hide it as much. i watch for other people who are also nervous and say - it's kinda hard, huh?

i know, logically, i'm not good at asking for help. but i am also not good at noticing when i need help. i've trained myself out of asking completely, but i've also trained myself to never accept my own fears or excuses. i have trained myself to tamp down every anxiety and just-push-through. i don't know what i'm protecting myself from - just that i never think to admit it to anyone.

but every person on earth occasionally needs comfort. every person on earth occasionally needs connection. many of us were taught independence is the same thing as never needing anything.

each of us should have had an adult who heard - i feel nervous and held our hand and asked us how we could be helped to feel safe. no judgement, and no chiding. many of us did not. many of us were punished for the ways that we seemed "weak".

In fragile tents and broken shelters, we fight to survive the biting cold and the devastation that surrounds us. The rain seeps through, the wind cuts deep, and yet, somehow, we cling to hope.

You are our last lifeline—don’t leave us to face this nightmare alone. Your kindness can be the light that breaks through this darkness and the warmth that saves us from despair.

Even a small donation—€5 or €10—could mean food for a child, warmth for a family, or a glimpse of safety in this endless fear.

Please, don’t turn away. Help us. Your support is the only thing standing between us and the abyss

when i struggle with obsessions about not being a good enough person, i have two steps i follow. first, i try to envision the kind of person i want to be. maybe i want to be more earnest. maybe i want to be more helpful. maybe i want to be kinder. maybe i want to be more assertive. i try to imagine a self that is calm, gentle, and confident. then i think of the simplest and most constructive steps to get there. i cannot put myself down. i cannot beat myself up. the steps have to be polite and reasonable advice i could give to someone without OCD.

tomorrow i won't ask my family if they love me, i will simply enjoy their company. i won't make that mean joke anymore. the next time i see my friends i'll ask for their opinion on something small and i will share my honest opinion as well. i will pick up a book and read for 20 minutes instead of avoiding what is a fun activity because i feel "dumb."

i repeat one of my favorite simpsons quotes a lot: "you can't keep blaming yourself, blame yourself once and move on." you have to move forward and just take the steps to be the person you want to be and do the things you want to do using advice that you would give to any person other than yourself. part of being obsessive-compulsive is being rigidly self-critical and scrutinizing yourself far more than you would any other person. it's hard to beat these feelings, but the reality is that self punishment doesn't make anything better. things only get better when you move forward. you have to treat yourself like a human being.

other favorites from the notes I didn’t get screenshots of at the time:

learn the names/species of local plants, bugs, and birds where you live (iNaturalist or Merlin the bird app help with this)

learn the rules to 10 new card games

steal the colored paint cards from hardware store paint aisles and use them to make art

try out every different apple variety you can find and rank them

similarly LOTS of people in the notes doing soup quests, and a few cheese quests also

similarly lots of people reading/watching certain amounts of media over the year, and tracking/rating it

track the number of cats/dogs/etc you see over the year

this lets you choose a region (south, central, north) and see which kitchens operate in that area, then donate to as many as you can.

as a reminder, community kitchens try to buy and cook in bulk, which makes ingredients last longer & sustain more people in the conditions of extreme scarcity that Israel is imposing right now. they are also able to serve people on the ground who may not have the means to reach out online.

@lektricfergus @blackgoliath @trans-lunarinjection @tocaora @vilecrocodile @knxfesck

@valiantbarnes @violatine @sumikatt @peachbellini-candle @riotbard

@cagandante-communistoide @meshugenist @rhubarbspring @butchniqabi @lizardbytheriver

@binglam @aeonazo @warmsmilesandhugs @cogbreath @killy @judecomradesquad @official-toriel @chronic-lesbian

@bahrmp3 @fleshdyk3 @emil @anti-democratic-russian-bot @comrademango @kamek

@starsplitter @evillesbianvillain @anissapierce @bakugames @legoyuri @necromancersdoitbetter

@revindicatedbyhistory @pekingopera @vaporize-employers @labyrinthal

@salpal762 @icecream @liliputian-thing @milfstalin @vmlinuz-lts @goomymegpoid @tacticalhimbo @boot-sanford

Rami Kashou, a Palestinian designer (originally made famous on Project Runway) has an ongoing deal on his website right now, where 100% of the proceeds on certain items will go to HEAL Palestine!