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Showing 38 posts in the Anonymous collection
Anonymous:

Adding on to what that last anon said you really helped me too I have treatment resistant depression and was having trouble finding anything good in the world you and this blog helped me see that there is hope and that we need to keep fighting I'm on medication that's working now after so much trial and error but that you so much for helping me through some of my darkest days you gave me what I couldn't muster up myself. Hope

<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.

Anonymous:

I just really want to thank you for everything you’re doing. You’re the first hope based anything I found, and since I followed you like a year ago my life has been doing nothing but improving. I may have been the one to put in the work, and I’m trying desperately to get better at realizing that, but you were the catalyst. And for that I’ll forever be thankful.

Everything you’re doing matters, and it can and does change lives. You’re amazing for choosing to do this.

<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)

Anonymous:

did being offline convince you that we're in a dystopian society yet?

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

Anonymous:

Do you really believe we can convince governments and corporations to care about the planet? I believe the science and solutions to fixing climate change are real and hopeful and can fix things but I have no hope at all that people in power will implement them in time to stop catastrophic harm to the planet. I've just finished high school, it feels like life's just got started and all life will be is watching the world end because of evil rich men

I don’t believe we can convince corporations to care about environment, or at least I don’t believe we can convince mega-companies and the millionaires and billionaires that run them.

Luckily, we don’t need to convince corporations to care about the planet.

Why not? Because renewables are cheaper and more efficient in pretty much every single way.

Emphasis on cheaper, because that’s really the key, and they absolutely are cheaper. Clean energy prices have plummeted and will continue to plummet further. x, x

Governments, on the other hand, are made up of officials (preferably elected) and civil servants, a great many of whom do care about the planet and climate change. Governments as institutions absolutely have a number of structural, social, cultural, and legal barriers to making change, but a great many of the people in them do care, even when it might not feel like it.

So, whenever possible, we have to elect more of the people who do care, especially at the local level.

Luckily, though, you don’t need to count on governments caring about the much planet either, actually, because renewables really are that much cheaper and more efficient.

(Also, energy is now a global security issue. Also, leadership in renewables is a massive driver of economic success and global economic power. Also fossil fuel prices and supply are incredibly unstable. etc. etc.)

Sources: x, x, x, x, x, x

Anonymous:

Thank you for the information and resources for actions you provide. Do you have any citizen science or other resources on permafrost/arctic preservation and restoration? I have been looking for grassroots or organizations which work with ice and permafrost protection via thermosiphons, Ice Nucleation active bacteria, and Biodiversity restoration, but have mostly been finding research projects or policy advocacy groups rather than science and application focused ones.

I do not, unfortunately - I am very unqualified to answer this, as someone who lives in a giant southern desert. But I am putting this out for my followers in case anyone there knows anything!

I would start by looking into the group that did the Arctic plastic cleanup I posted about when answering an ask a few days ago, and go from there.

Anonymous:

I just want to say thank you for running this blog. I hope you know the good it is doing for everyone who sees any of your posts. I have very bad eco anxiety especially around plastic pollution and while I'm struggling to find hope, you are helping me to realise that there is factual evidence for hope

<3 <3 <3

THERE IS SO MUCH EVIDENCE FOR HOPE!

For real, though - plastic pollution will take a long time to clean up, but I have every confidence we will clean it up. We have hundreds of novel methods of breaking down plastics, including PFAS/forever chemicals, most of which will be scaled up sooner or later, and which are already starting to be deployed.

And in the meantime, we’re collecting plastic the old-fashioned way.

-via Good News Network, February 18, 2025

Anonymous:

it feels like several countries (not just the US) have completely abandoned the idea of less carbon emissions this month. Is there any good news from this month about countries choosing the opposite?

You caught me at a good time, I actually just finished reading a newsletter (from the excellent Fix the News) that mentions a few.

From their newsletter, February 27, 2025 (heads up these might only be in the premium edition, though):

Germany, once a notorious polluter, cracks down on cars and achieves clean air. Germany complies with all EU air pollutant limits for first time since standards were set in 2010, with nitrogen dioxide finally joining particulate matter in meeting thresholds across 600 monitoring stations nationwide. Even Munich’s infamous pollution hotspot dropped below the 40 μg/m³ limit following years of court battles that triggered speed reductions and vehicle modernization.” Heise

Japan raises emissions targets, aims for 60% cut by 2035. Japan has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% from 2013 levels within the next decade, aligning with the 1.5°C global goal and a net zero target by 2050, according to government officials. Japan plans to reduce fossil fuel use by 30-40% by 2040, with renewables like solar and wind expected to provide 40-50% of electricity. The plan marks meaningful progress for the country, which relied on fossil fuels for 70% of its power in 2023.” The Press

And there’s a lot happening in the US too, believe it or not:

US states hit the ground running on renewables. Wind and solar are expected to meet nearly 50% of power demand in Texas this spring, in Minnesota the state’s largest utility just announced plans to reach carbon-free targets by 2035, and 48 days into 2025, fossil gas use for electricity in California is down almost 28%, while battery use is up 78%.”

Anonymous:

Thanks for running this blog. Shit rn sucks but it doesn’t all suck and you make sure all of us remember that. Wishing you the best cause you deserve it 💕

💕Thank you!! Wishing you the best as well.

Even when shit does suck, there is always hope - there is always someone helping, someone doing good, somewhere. You just need to find them.

Anonymous:

My wife recently came out at work - new name, pronouns, gender presentation etc. It's a really scary time but she felt that it was the right thing for her to do, and thankfully the other managers/boss are very supportive.

Less than a week later, one of her employees came out to her as trans, asking to update his info to have his new name and pronouns.

Things are difficult and scary rn but community is out there. And all acts of bravery and resistance let other people know that they're not alone. That there ARE places where they can be safe and accepted. It matters.

That’s awesome!! Congrats to your wife!! And her employee!!

It matters. It so matters.

Anonymous:

hey i get what youre trying to say with the taylor swift post but as of a few days ago shes trying to sue a college student who posts her (publicly available) flight logs. she very much does not give a shit about her carbon emissions and she shouldn’t be celebrated for her mediocre attempts to seem climate-conscious

I get what you’re saying, definitely. I also did actually know about the thing with the college student when I posted that, so I wanted to give some context about why I made that post:

First, I personally didn’t view it as celebrating her so much as celebrating progress. I think that if we never acknowledge wins, we’ll end up dispirited very quickly

Second, recognizing when people decide to be less shitty is, at least I think, an important carrot in the carrot-and-stick dynamic of using public opinion to influence public figures

Lastly - and this may well be an unpopular opinion - but I don’t actually hold her actions re: the college student against her

Why?

Well, for one, it was a cease and desist letter, not an attempted lawsuit. A cease and desist letter isn’t legally binding, nor is it the start of a lawsuit - it’s more like she’s Putting Him On Notice. A cease and desist order can be followed by a lawsuit, if it’s ignored, but it doesn’t initiate one. Likely Taylor Swift will try several other steps of resolution before actually telling her lawyers to sue this guy, if only because the headlines would Not look good (x, x)

But more than that, I don’t hold it against her because when Taylor Swift says that it’s a matter of life and death for her, I believe that’s very true.

Like, don’t get me wrong, I’m not mad about her flight data being up either. And I’m not particularly a fan of Taylor Swift

But I also think that if I had to read through the rape and death threats she gets on an almost-certainly-daily basis, I’d want to vomit.

And I think that was true before Trump and his minions got obsessed with the idea that she’s the keystone in the next Biden-election-stealing Pentagon psyops plot. Now - especially in the days right before the Superbowl, when this alleged conspiracy is supposed to happen - I don’t even want to think about the brutality of the threats she’s receiving

(For anyone going “Uh, wtf?” about the MAGA Superbowl Taylor Swift conspiracy thing, yes, I hate to inform you that it’s A Whole Thing. More info here: x, x, x, x, x, x)

Taylor Swift does have stalkers, and now she has a bunch of MAGA paramilitary conspiracy theorists absolutely furious with her. If I were her, I’d want to do every single thing I could to keep information on my movements and in-the-moment location off the internet, too

tl;dr: I don’t necessarily think she cares about the environment, but I’m not mad at her for sending a cease and desist letter because I think without her extensive security, she would be in real danger now, including possibly danger of being killed by armed MAGA conspiracy theorists

You’re allowed to be mad at her and dislike her (obviously!), you’re allowed to totally disagree with my attitude toward the cease and desist. I just wanted to share my rationale for including the post (and it is something I went back and forth on tbh)