🦊zero waste🦊

but I am also super annoyed by the way it's framed as "without light pollution you can see how beautiful the night sky is" way more prominently than it's framed as "hey, did you ever stop to think of how much energy/resources/money are literally wasted by having so much light shine up into the sky?"

Minimizing waste saves money and the environment. With a little creativity, there are many ways you can create opportunities to reduce waste and maximize the supplies you have.

🍄 Keep your jars. If you buy something that comes in a useful container and can be reused - then reuse it. In my experience, the best reuse for plastic containers is to freeze food. Also, small bottles like Advil bottles, are EXCELLENT spell jars. However, for all types, you can use them to store food, organize drawers and closets, store spell ingredients, or even make decorations. The possibilities are nearly endless!

🍄Keep all your fruit, vegetable, and herb scraps. With some scraps and water, you can make a lovely broth. Alternatively, you can use them to make a simmer pot for a spell or simply for the scent.

🍄If you eat meat, keep the bones. Again, a great broth ingredient!

🍄Avoid paper towels whenever possible. These are super wasteful and expensive. Whenever possible, I opt to use a towel or cloth. You can recycle old textiles for rags. However, if you're feeling ambitious you can knit or crochet towels and cloths; this is a great way to use up that scrap yarn you probably have laying around! You may even choose to add a bit of knot magic to these pieces.

🍄Thrift and upcycle. This is a bit of an obvious one; but really. It's a great way to have lovely belongings while reducing waste overall and saving money. With a bit of love, many things can be new.

🍄Almost every dish can be salvaged. It happens. We mess up. But, before you throw it away, do some research on how to salvage it. Odds are, you will be able to do it!

🍄Don't throw away fruits or vegetables that are overripe or wilting. Within reason, of course, many of these fruits and vegetables can be frozen for soups, casseroles, sauces, and smoothies!

🍄Buy a reusable coffee filter and tea basket for loose tea. Really, this is a given if you are a tea or coffee lover. Disposable ones are so wasteful and the reusable ones will pay for themselves in no time.

🍄Compost if you can. Compost dirt is amazing for growing ingredients for dishes and spells. While you're at it, save your eggshells, as well.

🍄Mend your clothes, blankets, and even shoes. A little bit of love can go a long way, including increasing the life of your favorite items. You can also add flair by learning how to darn and apply patches.

🍄Learn how to remove stains from fabric. In the same vein as mending, learning how to remove stains increases the life of your clothes. Different stains require different methods of removal, but usually, it is not impossible. Failing this, learn how to dye your clothes to revamp them.

🍄Use alternative cosmetics. This is a really big topic and I will create a post about this later. But, consider doing research. There are lots of things that can be made or substituted; notably face masks, hair masks, and using coconut oil as a make-up remover.

🍄Localize your practice. Use natural herbs and ingredients found in your local environment. Create your own correspondence if needed.

🍄Collect rainwater. Unfortunately, it is no longer a great idea to drink rainwater - but use it to water plants and clean your floors. Rainwater is also a powerful spell ingredient for spells that don't require drinking or putting on your skin.

🍄Only buy what you need. This time of year more than ever it is VERY tempting to buy up cheap Halloween-themed goods. But, consider an item's long-term usefulness, if it will create clutter and disorder in your home in the future, and if there are alternatives.

🍄Buy a cheap food dehydrator. These are perfect for making tea and drying out herbs, flowers, and other ingredients for spells and cooking.

🍄Consider alternatives in cooking and spells. There is always an alternative, you may not have to buy something new.

Hi people. I hope you’re all doing well.

So tomorrow, the next IPCC climate report (IPCC Assessment Report 6, Working Group I) will come out at around 10am CEST. It is expected to be an incredibly strong warning about the climate crisis, with a lot of alarming language. And most news sites will likely talk about this report in one way or another.

It is, of course, your choice whether or not you read this report, or whether or not you read the summaries that will be on news sites tomorrow. I will be doing so, and I suggest that you do as well, but only if you are in the right frame of mind to engage with what could be a lot of bad climate news.

If you do choose to read the report and/or the summaries in the news, or go on social media to talk about it or read about it, here are a few heads-up.

–

1) The news headlines about this report may be misleading. Do you remember when the last IPCC report came out in 2018? It told us that we had around 12 years (at that point) to halve global emissions if we wanted to limit warming to below 1.5 degrees C.

The media, and especially people on social media, focused so heavily on the ‘12 years’ figure that a lot of people - especially a lot of young people - thought that the IPCC had said that there were only 12 years left until the literal end of the world, or that we would all die if we went over 1.5 degrees. None of which is actually true.

I worry that the media, as well as social media, will do the same with this report. They’ll take one part of the report, and use it as a frightening headline in order to catch people’s eyes and make them panic.

And sometimes this works. Sometimes fear can be used to mobilise people. But don’t forget who these headlines are intended to scare: people who aren’t aware of the climate emergency yet. If you’ve been paying attention to the climate crisis, you know what’s going on, and you’re likely already dealing with climate anxiety. These headlines are not for you.

I read this article about the IPCC report today, and I immediately wanted to share it on here, so there it is. Please read it -  I’m sure some of you will find it useful.

Here are some quotes from the article that stood out to me:

“…there’s going to be an onslaught of downright dystopian headlines in the news this week. They will be designed for maximum terror. And for those of us, like me, who are prone to incapacitating climate grief and anxiety, browsing the internet is going to be a mental health minefield.”

“As you’re exposed to headlines that are crafted to grab the attention of the disengaged, don’t let fear eat you alive.”

Please keep these in mind tomorrow. I certainly will do - they’re good advice. It might be hard, but please take steps to take care of your mental health. Basically, stay safe and stay sane - or at least try to. Don’t ignore or forget about the climate emergency, but take some time to yourself, and try not to let yourself get swallowed by your own (or other people’s) fear and despair.

–

2) Social media will likely be full of misinformation about the report. I’ve talked about ‘climate doomers’ before on here, and if you’ve been following me for a while, you know how I feel about them.

After the release of this report, there is going to be a lot of climate doomism on social media. There will be people on social media - people outside of the scientific community - who insist that this IPCC report means that it’s too late to do anything about the climate crisis, or that any sort of action is futile, or that we just have to accept our fate and go quietly.

Please do not listen to these people. The IPCC reports do not say ‘it’s too late’ - they say the opposite, as do the vast majority of climate scientists. We do not have to ‘give up’ or ‘accept our fate’; what we do still matters, and it will always matter.

Some of these people will tell you that the IPCC is “too conservative” (i.e. underestimates climate change), and therefore cannot be trusted. Therefore, they follow outsider ‘scientists’ (whose predictions are often much more wrong than those of the IPCC), and use their research as ‘evidence’ that we’re doomed. 

(Again, these people are wrong, and this is basically the anti-vaxxer and climate denier level of science.)

While the IPCC has sometimes underestimated some impacts of climate change, i.e. past sea level rise, impacts have still generally been within their expected range, and not wildly outside of it. Also, scientific models and predictions are never 100% accurate - there is always a margin of error.

I will repeat myself: our house is on fire, not burned to ashes. We won’t be able to save everything, but we still have to work to save everything and everyone that we can. What climate doomers want us all to do is to just stand there in the burning house and quietly await the end without even trying to save ourselves and everything else. That doesn’t make sense to me, and in terms of the climate crisis, it’s a massive abdication of responsibility.

Please think critically about what you read on social media about this. If you need to, take a break from social media. Even without the doomism, there will likely be a lot of grief and fear and anger on social media tomorrow - if this will affect your mental health, please step away from it.

Don’t forget that no matter what you read, and no matter what anyone on social media tells you, the vast majority of climate scientists will agree with these things: it’s real, it’s bad, but it’s not over.

–

3) Nothing in this report should be particularly new to us. As I’ve said before: if you’ve been paying attention, what is in tomorrow’s report should not be new to you. The IPCC reports are basically aggregations of thousands of different research papers about different aspects of the climate emergency, including its impacts.

If you follow climate news on a regular basis, you should already know about these impacts, as well as what could be coming if we don’t do the right thing. As scary as all of this together may be, none of this is new to us.

I may be wrong about this. Maybe there will be something in the report that comes as a surprise to some of us, like another ‘deadline’, a tipping point we’ve reached, or some research that didn’t make the news. Be prepared for that possibility. But as it stands right now, most if not all of this stuff should already be known to us.

And again, no matter what comes up in the report, what we have to do remains the same: cut greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible, as quickly as possible.

–

4) The report will probably be extremely worrying and contain a lot of bad news, and that’s a good thing in a way. Back in 2018, when the last report was released, we were warned that we did not have a lot of time left to keep warming below 1.5 degrees C.

After that, what did we see? We saw Extinction Rebellion’s civil disobedience movement. We saw Greta Thunberg’s school strike movement. We saw millions of people, all over the world, waking up to the climate emergency, and making it clear that we wouldn’t go down without a fight. We saw a huge increase in climate activism, both on the streets and online, because people started to realise what was at stake and what we had to do to ensure a safe future for human civilisation. More people were talking about the climate emergency than ever before.

And this next IPCC report is expected to be an even stronger warning than the last. Is it going to be scary? Probably. But as I’ve said before, a healthy level of fear is sometimes useful, especially in a crisis. If people read this report or see it being talked about in the news, become aware of what is happening to this planet, and then are able to channel their fear and anger and grief into action, then that is a very good thing.

In this situation, knowledge is power. We can’t fight the climate crisis if most people do not know about the climate crisis. If this report creates a collective knowledge of the climate crisis within society, then hopefully that knowledge will one day become our power.

And we need kindness as well - we need to be there for each other through all of this, and we need people, especially young people who have just become aware of the climate emergency, to know that their worries are justified, but that they will not be alone through all of this. We can’t just terrify people with bad news and leave them on their own with their fear, we have to provide them with resources and support as well.

–

I will leave you with all of this, and I will pin this post so everyone can see it. If you’re going to read the report tomorrow, please stay safe, stay sane, take care of yourself, and keep all of this in mind.

And always remember: we don’t yet know what is going to happen next, and anyone who tells you that they know the future is lying to you. We know that we can’t save everything, but all isn’t lost either. There is still joy in the world, and there are lots of beautiful things and wonderful people on our planet, and all of them deserve a safe future.

More information:

US EPA overview on nitrogen pollution, EPA overview on acid rain Nitrogen fertilizer impact on soil acidity Nitrous oxide as a greenhouse gas Information on red tides Nitrogen pollution + algae blooms Impacts of nitrogen pollution and the legacy of nitrogen pollution (highly detailed and highly recommended)

Notes:

Most of this post was focused on nitrogen pollution and its effects on aquatic ecosystems and the industries and humans that rely on them. However, nitrogen pollution can take many other forms, and it’s a rather large issue to tackle precisely because of its broad range of effects that range from air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions to soil pollution to water pollution.

In the U.S., most nitrogen pollution that affects aquatic ecosystems is from agriculture and the overuse of fertilizer, and more efficient methods of growing crops are needed to overcome this issue.

However, nitrogen pollution via the air is from burning fossil fuels, which boils down to transportation/driving vehicles, and manufacturing industries.

Edit: someone noted in the comments that nitrogen makes up 78% of our atmosphere and that the pollution is coming from nitrogen compounds like ammonia, nitrates, and nitrous oxides. That is correct and a good clarification to make. 

Earth Day post: 3/?

Other infographics: outdoor cats, ocean acidification, orgs to donate to

Reblogs are greatly appreciated!!! HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Transcript for images below:

Happy #EarthDay! Today is a great day to celebrate our shared home. Every day is the right day to commit to caring for our planet.

happy earth day everyone!!! ive been looking for a easy list of ways to help our environment and lower carbon emissions but i can’t find one so i made one. here

unplug appliances when not in use! they still use energy! it can be big things like a washer/dryer or even just a lamp or phone charger

use an eco friendly web browser! ive mentioned it before but Ecosia and OceanHero are my personal favourites. they use any revenue they get to either plant trees or remove ocean plastic

on that note, delete your emails!! email storage comes from somewhere and those places use energy to store your emails, even junk. so yeah delete emails you don’t need

don’t drive if you can walk, bike, skateboard, or use public transportation. if you can’t, see if you can carpool with someone

start a reusable cutlery set and bring it with you so you don’t need to use plastic cutlery! you can buy these sets or you can just take a spoon, knife, and fork from your kitchen drawer and wrap them in some fabric

turn off lights when you’re not in the room. it’s very simple

if you see a piece of garbage while you’re out, consider picking it up and taking it to a garbage can

reducing meat consumption is a great way to reduce carbon emissions! you don’t have to become a full vegan or vegetarian, even just one meatless day really makes an impact

air dry your clothes! this one is slightly dependent on weather however, you can also air dry clothes in your house (i either place them on our drying rack with a towel under them to catch the water or i hang it over a sink) not using your dryer can save a lot of energy!

use natural light when you can. why turn on a light when the Sun is giving you light right there?

advocate for the environment! tell your government officials you care about the what happens to the environment and that they should support environmental policies! government representatives represent you and should at least a little represent your views in government

don’t ask for a receipt from the ATM. email it or just don’t print one (in my personal experience i never end up doing anything with it anyways it just sits in my wallet)

this is not exhaustive!! just things i could think of off the top of my head! even one of these things will help the environment. it doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be something.

My sister, who I live with, thought she couldn't get the vaccine because she doesn't have insurance.

What’s happening

- 182.41 hectares of our ancestral land in Wairarapa has come up for sale.

- This whenua backs onto our maunga Tararua, our awa, Waiohine and is near our whānau urupā, Te Uru o Tāneroa.

- The tender price is between $1.2-1.5 million.

- Our whānau are trying to raise money to meet the tender price.

- Our iwi has not settled, so we have no collective financial base.

- Our whānau want to buy back our whenua and establish papakāinga and sustainable business to bring our people home to Wairarapa.

If the tender is unsuccessful they will keep all donations for the next bit of land that comes up

(information has been copied from @/amscraig on twitter, who is a member of the iwi attempting to reclaim their land)

it is so disappointing that this is the only option to reclaim illegally stolen land for the iwi, but the government wont work towards settlement with many iwi so we have no other choice

Here’s a link:

https://4ocean.com/pages/octopus 

There’s different colors representing different sea creatures ❤️🌊 

employing local women in Bali for 80% of their workforce

offering a Closed-Loop program for customers to return broken/worn out products (they have stuff other than bracelets too!) to be recycled again

donating $25,000 to Monterey Bay Aquarium for sea otter conservation, another $25,000 to Global Penguin Society, $10,000 to Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project, $25,000 to Captains For Clean Water to support Everglades restoration, $25,000 to The Marine Mammal Center in Hawaii for the care of critically endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals,  $20,000 to BirdLife International for seabird conservation,  $24,528 to Earth Day network to support the Canopy Project - a global campaign to plant 7.8 billion trees by 2020, and more

additionally, “donated $21,325 in 2018 and will donate another $10,000 in 2019 to support the production of powerful media and art that drive crucial conservation wins while giving people hope and inspiring them to act”

if you can’t afford $20 for their fundraising bracelets, they do have other recycled products available, and at the very least please reblog this to boost awareness! here’s the link to their site again:

In good condition and a mall/department store type brand: Sell it!

Poshmark and Depop are the big ones if you want to do it yourself, including photographing, listing, and shipping. You do make more money that way, but if you’re like me…… ya lazy.

I prefer Thredup: have them send you a bag for free or else print out a free shipping label, pack up your clothes, and send it off to be picked through and sold by people paid to do it. (For $9 they’ll send back anything they don’t accept, but otherwise that stuff gets donated or recycled.)

Of course, just because you could sell it doesn’t mean you have to. Donation centers like nice clothes too!

In good condition but probably not worth reselling: Donate it!

I like to give my stuff to my local Out of the Closet, but of course there’s always Goodwill in the US and Oxfam in the UK, as well as any local homeless shelters that are accepting clothing.

If you can’t get to a donation center yourself, send your items to ThredUp as described above, and if they don’t want to sell it, they’ll make the donation for you.

And if you don’t mind holding onto your stuff a while longer, GayCare is an organization that provides free gender-affirming clothing to the LGBTQ community - just fill out the form to let them know what you have, and when someone in need claims it, they’ll send you a free shipping label to send it right over to them.

(Consider also: once you get your vaccines, throw a clothing swap party and invite all your friends over with their old clothes to get tipsy, get naked, and try each other’s stuff on. Can confirm that this is a fantastic time.)

Damaged: Repair it!

You don’t have to give up on a garment you love just because something unfortunate happened to it. Tailors, alteration shops, dry cleaners, and even department stores like Nordstrom are good places to look for professionals who can help you get many more years of wear out of your clothes.

Got stains? Check out this handy at-home removal guide.

As for shoes, cobblers are god damn miracle workers. General rule of thumb is that if the upper (the part that isn’t the sole or the heel) is in decent condition, the shoe can be salvaged.

(Caveat: some pieces are so cheaply made that they simply won’t hold up to repairing. See below.)

Damaged beyond repair: Recycle it!

Please, please, please, if at all possible, don’t throw your clothing out. Fashion is the second most polluting industry on the planet, largely because of all the clothes that end up in landfills.

H&M runs an extremely convenient recycling program: just drop your clothes off in-store and receive a coupon for 15% off a future purchase.

As I mentioned above, ThredUp recycles anything that can’t be donated.

Asics runs a program specifically for shoes called the Give Back Box: get a free shipping label, put on a box, and send them over to be recycled.

I won’t lie to you, it’s extremely difficult to ensure that your clothes will be truly recycled. With certain types of fabric, especially blends like cotton/nylon and poly/cotton, it’s simply not possible to extract the fibers in such a way that they can be reused. Even the stuff that actually can be recycled takes a lot of time, money, energy, and manpower to properly process; and a lot of companies just can’t be bothered. Do what you can to get rid of your clothes responsibly, and when shopping, remember three simple rules:

Buy less stuff (just like, overall)

Buy better stuff (made of natural fabrics and constructed well enough that it won’t fall apart in three to five years)

Buy stuff that already exists (from secondhand, vintage, or thrift stores)