FROM this week’s news ON: society generally, the climate crisis, environmental issues, and nuclear threats/issues [Note: Content Warning - may be links to distressing reports on this topic. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are (when I remember) shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

 

Frrom this week’s news on society generally, the climate crisis, environmental issues, and nuclear threats/issues (please note: this is a cut down and/or combined version of what I used to do):

on society generally:

• “When will hatred stop?”   https://theaimn.com/when-will-hatred-stop/      

• “‘Sliding doors’: the groundbreaking study charting the lives of 167 Australians over 34 years | Australia news | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/06/sliding-doors-the-groundbreaking-study-charting-the-lives-of-167-australians-over-34-years   “...   the erosion of the postwar social contract, and the fraying of public services and the social safety net hit some people harder than others.   ...   “the odds are stacked against those who can’t seem to break free of poverty and disadvantage, no matter how hard they try.”   Many of the policy recommendations the researchers made still remain: fair and adequate income support; accessible and responsive health and support services for parents from non-English speaking backgrounds; reinvestments in safe, secure public housing, accessible public transport infrastructure, and more.”   This has been known by those living it (especially here in Victoria, where Kennett savaged society in the 90s) and advocates ever since it started happening, but this evidence will greatly aid the understanding of many and the efforts to accomplish to change for the better      

• “AI in the health insurance industry: An explainer and research roundup”   https://journalistsresource.org/home/ai-in-the-health-insurance-industry-explainer-and-research-roundup/      

the climate crisis: 

 

• “‘An intergenerational crime against humanity’: what will it take for political leaders to start taking climate change seriously?”   https://theconversation.com/an-intergenerational-crime-against-humanity-what-will-it-take-for-political-leaders-to-start-taking-climate-change-seriously-231383      “Planet warming at 'unprecedented pace', according to new study”   https://www.france24.com/en/environment/20240605-planet-warming-at-unprecedented-pace-according-to-new-study       

• “‘Godfathers of climate chaos’: UN chief urges global fossil-fuel advertising ban”   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/05/antonio-guterres-un-chief-fossil-fuels-advertising   “António Guterres says world faces ‘climate crunch time’ and announces dire new scientific warnings of global heating”     
  

 

• “Groundwater is heating up, threatening life below and above the surface”   https://theconversation.com/groundwater-is-heating-up-threatening-life-below-and-above-the-surface-229177      

environmental issues: 

• “Tonga’s volcanic eruption could cause unusual weather for the rest of the decade, new study shows”   https://theconversation.com/tongas-volcanic-eruption-could-cause-unusual-weather-for-the-rest-of-the-decade-new-study-shows-231074   At the time, it increased atmospheric water by 10%      

• “Australia’s ‘learning by doing’ approach to managing large mines is failing the environment”   https://theconversation.com/australias-learning-by-doing-approach-to-managing-large-mines-is-failing-the-environment-230857     
  

• “By not mining vital minerals, NZ is ‘offshoring its own environmental footprint’ – is that fair?”   https://theconversation.com/by-not-mining-vital-minerals-nz-is-offshoring-its-own-environmental-footprint-is-that-fair-231166      

pandemics and disease risks, including zoonotic: 

• “Huge amounts of bird-flu virus found in raw milk of infected cows”   https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01624-1   “New findings point to the milking process as a possible route of avian-influenza spread between cows — and from cow to human.”      “Mexico man dies from first human case of bird flu strain H5N2”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/06/mexico-man-dies-from-first-human-case-of-bird-flu-strain-h5n2   There is also a COVID wave     
  

• “A new discovery about carbon dioxide is challenging decades-old ventilation doctrine”   https://www.statnews.com/2024/06/04/co2-ventilation-research-virus-airborne-life-haddrell-celebs/   CO₂ helps airborne viruses to survive      
  

nuclear threats/issues: 

• “Guterres warns humanity on ‘knife’s edge’ as AI raises nuclear war threat | Nuclear weapons | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/07/ai-nuclear-war-threat-un-secretary-general      
  

My links for activism post may aid any activism you may decide to do on any/all of these. If you do, don’t get too fixated on specific instances of problems - important though they may well be: take a moment to also consider the broader issues these incidents and groups of incidents may suggest/reveal. Also, consider this poem of mine.

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below. 

Note that, as with my main blog [see here], I am cutting back on aspects of my posts.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/