Masterpost: Reasons I firmly believe we will beat climate change

Posts are in reverse chronological order (by post date, not article date), mostly taken from my "climate change" tag, which I went through all the way back to the literal beginning of my blog. Will update periodically.

Especially big deal articles/posts are in bold.

Big picture:

Specific examples:

Climate adaptation:

Edit 1/12/25: Yes, I know a bunch of the links disappeared. I'll try to fix that when I get the chance. In the meantime, read all the other stuff!!

Other Masterposts:

Going carbon negative and how we're going to fix global heating (x)

<3 <3 <3 I'm so glad I could help and I'm so happy for you - and congrats on having medication that's working now. It really does make such a difference

Btw. To people who have thought about meds, especially psych meds, but are hesitating or embarrassed or put off by the stigma, etc.: I really encourage you to look into it. Even with all the trial and error (and believe me I have experienced both), if you can find and get on the right medication? It's life-changing.

<3 <3 Thank you so much for sending this. It really means a lot to know I've helped in such a powerful way. I'm so glad you're doing better (and better)

No??

Lol being offline for a week was great, actually. Genuinely, it helped nourish and restore my hope.

I was getting caught up in doomscrolling, and sometimes when that happens, you need to take a break to focus on what's in front of you - your friends, your family, your health, your community, the plants in your yard, the neighbors on your street. Which all still reassure me there is good in the world, even in the face of all the horror and bullshit

"Twenty million trees will be planted and 2,500 hectares (6,178 acres) of new woodland created in the west of England as part of a "national forest" drive, the government has announced.

The Western Forest will be made up of new and existing woodlands across Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, the Cotswolds and the Mendips as well as in urban areas such as Bristol, Swindon and Gloucester.

It will be the first of three new national forests promised by the government to help meet a legally-binding target of achieving 16.5% woodland cover in England by 2050.

However, with only 10% cover achieved so far, environmental groups have warned much more needs to be done to meet tree-planting targets.

The most recent research shows the total area of woodland across the whole of the UK is currently estimated to be 3.28m hectares.

That represents 13% of the total land area of the UK but in England just 10% is woodland.

Across the UK, the aim is for 30,000 hectares of woodland to be planted every year.

The latest annual figures show about 21,000 hectares were planted, with the vast majority in Scotland and just 5,500 hectares in England.

Andy Egan, head of conservation policy at the Woodland Trust, said there had been "significant progress" on tree planting but that there was still "much more to do" to meet the UK's targets.

He said maintaining government funding was essential.

"Successful tree planting and ongoing management needs long-term grant support," he said.

Alex Stone, chief executive of the Forest of Avon Trust, which leads the partnership behind the Western Forest project, said there were some areas in the region that currently had only 7% of land covered by trees.

"This is about bringing those areas up so we have trees where we really need them," she said.

"What we are aiming to do with the Western Forest is get to 20% of canopy cover by 2050 and, in five priority areas, we are looking at getting above 30%."

The scheme will particularly target urban areas, including Bristol, Swindon and Gloucester.

The government said it would be putting £7.5m of public money into the forest over the next five years.

It said the project would not only help the UK's drive to net zero but would also promote economic growth and create jobs in the region.

Mary Creagh, minister for nature, said she hoped the Western Forest would also "make a huge difference" to water quality, flood resilience and to wildlife as well as bringing nature "closer to people" in the region.

But she conceded there was much more to do in order to hit England's national tree-planting target.

"I am absolutely confident that we can get to where we need to get to," she said.

"Projects like this give me hope and confidence that, with everybody pulling together, working with the public sector and the private sector, we can do it." ...

The Western Forest is the first new national forest to be designated in England in 30 years, following the creation of the original National Forest across Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, where 9.8m trees have been planted."

-via BBC, March 20, 2025

Taking a one-week Tumblr hiatus for the sake of my own mental health. Thank you for your patience, and wishing you all the best in the meantime. Keep on keeping on.

"In an unprecedented transformation of China’s arid landscapes, large-scale solar installations are turning barren deserts into unexpected havens of biodiversity, according to groundbreaking research from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study reveals that solar farms are not only generating clean energy but also catalyzing remarkable ecological restoration in some of the country’s most inhospitable regions.

The research, examining 40 photovoltaic (PV) plants across northern China’s deserts, found that vegetation cover increased by up to 74% in areas with solar installations, even in locations using only natural restoration measures. This unexpected environmental dividend comes as China cements its position as the global leader in solar energy, having added 106 gigawatts of new installations in 2022 alone.

“Artificial ecological measures in the PV plants can reduce environmental damage and promote the condition of fragile desert ecosystems,” says Dr. Benli Liu, lead researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “This yields both ecological and economic benefits.”

The economic implications are substantial. “We’re witnessing a paradigm shift in how we view desert solar installations,” says Professor Zhang Wei, environmental economist at Beijing Normal University. “Our cost-benefit analysis shows that while initial ecological construction costs average $1.5 million per square kilometer, the long-term environmental benefits outweigh these investments by a factor of six within just a decade.” ...

...Climate data from the study sites reveals significant microclimate modifications:

The scale of China’s desert solar initiative is staggering. As of 2023, the country has installed over 350 gigawatts of solar capacity, with 30% located in desert regions. These installations cover approximately 6,000 square kilometers of desert terrain, an area larger than Delaware.

“The most surprising finding,” notes Dr. Wang Liu of the Desert Research Institute, “is the exponential increase in insect and bird species. We’ve documented a 312% increase in arthropod diversity and identified 27 new bird species nesting within the solar farms between 2020 and 2023.”

Dr. Yimeng Wang, the study’s lead author, emphasizes the broader implications: “This study provides evidence for evaluating the ecological benefit and planning of large-scale PV farms in deserts.”

The solar installations’ positive impact stems from several factors. The panels act as windbreaks, reducing erosion and creating microhabitats with lower evaporation rates. Perhaps most surprisingly, the routine maintenance of these facilities plays a crucial role in the ecosystem’s revival.

“The periodic cleaning of solar panels, occurring 7-8 times annually, creates consistent water drip lines beneath the panels,” explains Wang. “This inadvertent irrigation system promotes vegetation growth and the development of biological soil crusts, essential for soil stability.” ...

Recent economic analysis reveals broader benefits:

Dr. Maya Patel, visiting researcher from the International Renewable Energy Agency, emphasizes the global implications: “China’s desert solar model could be replicated in similar environments worldwide. The Sahara alone could theoretically host enough solar capacity to meet global electricity demand four times over while potentially greening up to 20% of the desert.”

The Chinese government has responded by implementing policies promoting “solar energy + sand control” and “solar energy + ecological restoration” initiatives. These efforts have shown promising results, with over 92% of PV plants constructed since 2017 incorporating at least one ecological construction mode.

Studies at facilities like the Qinghai Gonghe Photovoltaic Park demonstrate that areas under solar panels score significantly better in environmental assessments compared to surrounding regions, indicating positive effects on local microclimates.

As the world grapples with dual climate and biodiversity crises, China’s desert solar experiment offers a compelling model for sustainable development. The findings suggest that renewable energy infrastructure, when thoughtfully implemented, can serve as a catalyst for environmental regeneration, potentially transforming the world’s deserts from barren wastelands into productive, life-supporting ecosystems.

“This is no longer just about energy production,” concludes Dr. Liu. “We’re witnessing the birth of a new approach to ecosystem rehabilitation that could transform how we think about desert landscapes globally. The next decade will be crucial as we scale these solutions to meet both our climate and biodiversity goals.”"

-via Green Fingers, January 13, 2025

"Claire Cao was only a senior in high school when she saw a vital need in her community — and filled it. 

In 2024, the teenager spent her time outside of school volunteering at Blanchet House, a Portland-based nonprofit that serves people experiencing homelessness through food donations, clothing drives, and mental health assistance programs. 

As she logged hours as a Blanchet House student ambassador, Cao soon realized how difficult it was for community members to keep track of shelter openings, rotating food service programs, and available mental health resources. 

“During one afternoon meal service, I met Dano, an unhoused man who shared his struggles with accessing basic services like food and shelter,” Cao said in a recent press release. 

“Left disconnected from essential services, Dano described his struggles of not knowing where to go or which shelters had available beds.”

Combining her love for technology, law, and public policy, Cao pulled available resources into a database and created the ShelterBridge app, which connects users to shelters and services in their area. 

“ShelterBridge wasn’t simply inspired by Dano — it was inspired by the realization that access to resources is a fundamental need that we, as a community, can do a better job of providing,” Cao emphasized. 

“I wanted to use my skills to build something that could bridge that gap, ensuring that no one falls through the cracks simply because they don’t know where to turn for help.”

In addition to linking users to services in their area, the app also has a rating system similar to Yelp. This system allows people to leave star ratings and reviews on shelters, food services, hotlines, and legal aid. 

The ratings not only help users differentiate between services in their area — but they also provide invaluable feedback to the nonprofits, organizations, and government programs that service them. 

“We've been asking for an app like this for a number of years now,” Scott Kerman, executive director of Blanchet House, told Portland news station KGW.

In mid-January, Cao won the 2024 Congressional App Challenge in Oregon’s First District for her work with ShelterBridge — outcompeting 12,682 student submissions. 

Since the app first launched, Cao and her growing ShelterBridge team — which includes enterprising high schoolers and college students from across the nation — have expanded services to California, Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles, and North Carolina. 

“Claire and the team she’s working with deserve all the credit in the world because they're doing something that frankly nobody else has really stepped up to do,” Kerman said. 

“To have the kind of technology that we use every day with hotels and other kinds of reservations [to] help people get into safe, supportive and dignified shelter would be a game changer for our community.”

Although the app started as a class project, Cao said ShelterBridge’s success has far surpassed her expectations. 

“I do hope to keep it up,” she told Oregon outlet KOIN 6 News, as she looked ahead to college and beyond. “I’ve made a lot of efforts to expand it to other cities as well — and it’s something I can mostly do from a computer or my laptop at home.”

-via GoodGoodGood, March 21, 2025

Once on the brink of extinction, rare Mediterranean monk seal populations are rising, thanks to conservation efforts.

The Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal, known as MOm, is a charity dedicated to the care and protection of these rare marine animals.

Nearly half of the world's estimated 800 Mediterranean monk seals live in Greek waters, where the extensive coastline offers an abundance of sea caves that provide shelter for females to rear their young.

The rare seals are the only seal species in the Mediterranean. They have big, round eyes, prominent whiskers and are remarkably fast in the water...

In the twentieth century, habitat deterioration and destruction, as well as deliberate aggression from fisherman has caused a drastic population decline, prompting the International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN) to classify them as 'critically endangered'.

The population had decreased so dramatically that at one point the species faced extinction.

Pictured: Panagis is one of dozens of monk seals nursed back to health by the Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal, known as MOm.

How conservation efforts are changing their fate

Dr Alexandros Dendrinos, a marine biologist and coordinator at MOm, explains that the Mediterranean monk seal is "one of the rarest species of seal and marine mammal in the world."

MOm is the only centre of its kind in the region, and has cared for around 40 seals both on location and at its facilities.

They respond to members of the public who find an animal in distress, aiding adult seals on-site when possible and bringing young seals, like Panagais, to the rehabilitation centre at Attica Zoological Park in Athens.

The young seals receive veterinary care, specialised nutrition, and swimming practice. 

They are often named after those who found them, but human interaction is kept minimal to ensure their successful reintegration into the wild.

Once they have reached a healthy weight and developed natural hunting instincts, they are tagged for tracking and reintroduced to their natural habitat.

"This year, we had a really pleasant surprise," Dr Dendrinos shared.

A female seal they rehabilitated and released four years ago was recently spotted nursing her own pup.

Conservation efforts have yielded significant results as the species moved from critically endangered to endangered on the IUCN Red List and, in 2023, improved even further to vulnerable.

-via ABC Australia, March 12, 2025

"In Australia, a man was kept alive for 100 days on an artificial heart made of titanium while a donor heart was eventually found.

This is the longest-ever period that a man has been kept alive by an artificial heart, giving its developers encouragement that it can play a major role in supporting waiting list patients whose hearts are failing.

5 months ago, a man in his forties received the BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart (TAH) after experiencing heart failure. The TAH has no pumps, valves, or other moving parts susceptible to wear. Instead, magnetic levitation permits a single rotor to pump blood to the body through both ventricles.

He was able to leave the hospital even, before a donor heart was found that was transplanted successfully.

In a statement, BiVACOR, St. Vincent’s Hospital where the surgery was carried out, and Monash University which provided the grant funding for the development of the TAH, said that the result is a sign the artificial heart could potentially offer a long-term option for people suffering from heart failure.

BiVACOR’s founder, Australian bioengineer Daniel Timms, who invented the device, said it was “exhilarating to see decades of work come to fruition.”

“The entire BiVACOR team is deeply grateful to the patient and his family for placing their trust in our Total Artificial Heart,” he said in the statement. “Their bravery will pave the way for countless more patients to receive this lifesaving technology.”

In the United States, there are around 3,500 donor hearts made available every year for more than 4,400 people who join the waiting list.

The TAH has already been tested in an early feasibility study in search of eventual FDA approval. 5 patients received the device, CNN reports, with the first being last July, when a 58-year-old man suffering end-stage heart failure received the implant during surgery at Texas Medical Center.

The four others also received it successfully, and organizers hope to expand it to 15 patients."

-via Good News Network, March 18, 2025

"A small group of activists assembled before dawn on a recent day in a South L.A. parking lot preparing to patrol the neighborhood. The gathering was not unlike what you see when police congregate in a parking lot preparing for a raid.

Only this time, the target was federal immigration agents.

The activists were from the Community Self Defense Coalition, which fights for immigrant rights. They were armed with two-way radios, bullhorns, and were trained to spot undercover vehicles from U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Department of Homeland Security.

The coalition formed in the wake of the second election of President Donald Trump and includes groups from across Los Angeles. They say their aim is to find ICE agents, alert the community to their presence using bullhorns, and drive them out of neighborhoods.

“They’re on our land. This is our territory,” said Ron Gochez of Unión del Barrio, which is part of the coalition. “Whatever they do here, they have to know they are going to meet an organized resistance.

“There is nowhere, there is no alleyway, no little corner of our city anywhere where an ICE raid can happen where we won’t know about it almost immediately,” he said.

An ICE spokesperson confirmed in a statement that agents have aborted at least one enforcement action “due to safety concerns brought on by protesters/bystanders.” The spokesperson declined to give his name “due to a heightened security risk to ICE employees.” ...

Tracking ICE

Last week, a high school history teacher, an ethnic studies instructor and a youth program leader were among the activists in South L.A. Nine people in three cars rolled into the darkened streets looking for ICE agents.

“We drive the streets of our neighborhood looking for anything suspicious,” said Gochez, a 43-year-old father and high school history teacher. "We start early in the morning because we know this is when ICE starts their operations.”

Gochez is a member of Unión del Barrio, one of the members of the coalition.

Unión del Barrio started the patrols in 2020 during a Biden Administration crackdown on unauthorized immigrants. The organization restarted the patrols over the past few weeks in response to the second Trump Administration.

On Wednesday, Gochez’s two-way radio crackled with the sound of a colleague checking in from another car on patrol.

“Copy. We are on Jefferson and Trinity. All clear,” she announced.

They looked for ICE vehicles – typically with heavily tinted windows, usually on an American made sedan or SUV, almost always with a cage in the back seat for detainees. Sometimes, the cars are parked sideways on a street in front of their target or grouped together in a grocery store parking lot.

Gochez said he and the other activists try to catch ICE agents in those lots as they gather before a raid.

“We try to catch them at that stage — that way we’re able to affect their plan and at the same time, we start alerting the community.”

When they find federal agents, they go into publicity mode.

“We go live on social media,” Gochez said. “We use our megaphone to alert the immediate community that ICE is present.”

In a recent Facebook Live post, Gochez can be seen speaking into a bullhorn across the street from where ICE agents appear to be conducting a raid.

“Everybody in this community, if you can hear me please do not come outside if you are undocumented,” he says on the video. “We have terrorists in our community.”

He implores people who are documented to come outside and support the protest.

Enforcing law vs defending community

Later, L.A. police officers confronted Gochez.

“We’re not interfering,” he told them.

“Yes you are,” responded an LAPD officer, who forced Gochez and the other protestors down the street.

The participation of city police officers appeared to violate L.A.’s sanctuary cities law, which prohibits police from cooperating or assisting ICE agents...

ICE backs off

As part of the coalition, Unión del Barrio has trained people from more than 50 other organizations to engage in similar patrols, including The National Lawyers Guild, Jewish Voice for Peace and The Peoples Struggle San Fernando Valley, according to Gochez.

It's unclear how many conduct regular patrols like Unión del Barrio does.

Gochez estimates his and other groups have intercepted ICE on about a dozen occasions. He said in some cases, ICE has backed off of a raid because of Unión del Barrio’s presence.

Cardona said ICE agents called off the raid when they were called out at the Target. “That one day, we knew we prevented several people from being detained and deported, their lives being uprooted.” ...

Union del Barrio urges people to use a text thread or to have some sort of a phone tree to alert each other about the presence of ICE in their neighborhoods. The group also has a hotline people can call if they spot ICE.

“We get calls from Uber drivers. We get calls from street vendors. We get calls from business owners and just everyday normal people who support the work that we do,” said Gochez, who refers to ICE detentions and arrests as the “kidnappings.”

“It is a kidnapping – no different from when they kidnapped Native Americans during the Indian Removal Act,” Gochez declared.

He said many of the calls to the coalition are false alarms, involving local agencies, like LAPD or the county Sheriff’s Department, conducting their own undercover operations. But the coalition is focused on the actions of federal immigration agents.

A new tactic

Experts said the tactic of patrolling for ICE is relatively new.

Mirian Martinez-Aranda, an associate professor of sociology at U.C. Irvine, said it lets members of immigrant communities know they are not alone.

“It's a new form in which immigrant communities and their supporters are finding a way to protect each other and to stand up for what's unfair and cruel,” Martinez-Aranda told LAist.

-via LAist, March 17, 2025