Notices by Pauline von Hellermann (pvonhellermannn@mastodon.green)

#ClimateDiary 'I have nothing to go back to' - LA fires heartbreak

“As a climate reporter, I am used to covering extreme weather events. Just a few weeks ago I was interviewing residents who had fled the Malibu fires. Now I'm on the other side of the story.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0eweel5zg3o

#ClimateDiary
https://med-mastodon.com/@cbarbermd/113794994831756437

#climateDiary I take it back. The fires are catastrophic, for so many people it’s far beyond “almost normal”. My sister just told me about a friend who has lost everything for the second time (her first house burned in another California wildfire). Thinking of everyone going through this now.

https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/113791360261342492

@stigatle And we did, too! So nice to think of all of us in different parts of the worls seeing and enjoying the same moon 🌙

#ClimateDiary Wishing everyone here all the very best for 2025.

2024 has been a terrifying combination of catastrophic climate events on a level somehow not quite anticipated yet (by me at least); more and more science showing that past models may have been too cautious; and what feels political deprioritising of climate action across the world.

Not too optmistic right now that
2025 will be different; NYE itself part of this climate impacted reality! BUT 1/2

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2025/jan/01/wind-and-rain-batters-uk-new-years-day-2025-live-updates?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Yep, I want that, too
https://aus.social/@firstdogonthemoon/113672421436981163

News to share here!

New York state resident finds complete mastodon jaw beneath lawn 😊

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/18/mastodon-jaw-found-new-york?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

#ClimateDiary Just listened to this moving program on French wine making and the challenges of climate change (and falling demand). I knew quite a lot about climate change impacts but it’s something else to listen to a Bordeaux winemaker talk about how she lost everything in a 15min hailstorm.

Right at end in Languedoc:
“Why do you keep going?”
“Because it’s our life”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5mtr?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Death toll from Israel’s war on #Gaza surpasses 45,000

As war approaches 15th month, Palestinians endure ‘unbearable’ loss, with 52 dead taken to hospitals in past day alone

It is UNBEARABLE how the slaughter and devastation goes on and on and on - and how tue genocide has indeed become “ambient” in our lives, as Jonathan Glazer, director of “Zone of Interest”, warned us. Ambient background.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/16/death-toll-from-israels-war-on-gaza-tops-45000

@aral 😄

So nice to be brought back to sanity after being called a “jew hater” in the previous reply for sharing an article that talks about “israel’s war on gaza”. Honestly. You would think at some point these lovely Germans would give up, but they don’t!

#ClimateDiary #ClimateJustice
#CycloneChido #Mayotte

Absolutely awful. The injustice of all this

https://news.sky.com/story/close-to-1-000-people-feared-dead-after-cyclone-in-french-territory-of-mayotte-13274095

#ClimateDiary Cyclone Chido battering French Overseas Territories Comoros Islands, now travelling towards Mozambique.

It is the strongest to hit the area in 90 years, and there is great concern for the many living in makeshift accommodation. The island of Mayotte was hit particularly badly.

Thinking of all those whose lives, houses, livelihoods are destroyed. #ClimateJustice

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/15/africa/cyclone-chido-mayotte-comoros-africa-intl-hnk/index.html

#capitalism 2/n

The poll was not serious! I mean, i meant the question, but not serious, methodologically, as a poll. No poll on here ever is. In that spirit, I thought it would be funny to do a just “yes” and “no” poll. (And i liked how it cuts out all the crap).

Anyway, overall there were 4 types of responses:

1. People pointing out sloppy blurring btw ‘believing in its existence’and ‘believing in it as good system that works for us’. Noted, phrasing was sloppy. To be honest,

#capitalism 3/n it did not occur to me to question its existence. Or to be even more honest, i quite liked the blurring. As one of you pointed out, it’s like wherher you still believe in Father Christmas 😊

2. People telling me that communism failed. Thank you - i appreciated this. I mean, like everyone else I went to sxhool and university and read newspapers where we are all bombarded by this message, day and night. It’s in our blood, our DNA, in our whole system. But good to be told again!

#capitalism 4/n

3. People who believe in regulated capitalism, as in Scandinavia.
Yes, of course, that is nice. I used to believe in this too, I guess. But now, in 2024? When “regulated capitalism”, if it ever existed, is dismantled everywhere? Where we have the most rampant kind - because that’s what it is - eating and destroying everything and everyone? I do like Nancy Fraser’s #CannibalCapitalism.

Was slightly surprised that people still cling onto idea that regulation is possible.

#capitalism 5/n

4. Lastly, people objecting to the “still”, as they never believed in it. Good point. I guess i meant it more collectively, whether as a society believe in it, and in that sense the “still” made sense for me. But also didn’t think it through too much.

Anyway, thank you all for participating, and for all your comments!

I now declare that this poll gives us a clear mandate: 89% of us do not believe in capitalism any more, if we ever did. Time to talk about alternatives!

Ah! The poll has ended! I can report that only 11% of participants (1403 in total) still believe in #capitalism. Which perhaps does say something about the current mood here on Mastodon. And perhaps, who knows, gives us some courage to have more open discussions that we really do need alternatives and should talk about them, whether eco-socialism, eco-communism, or something else in entirely.

For now, some brief reflections on poll itself and responses. 1/n
https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/113610652987592955

#capitalism 6/n

And yes. One alternative is communism. Which i would love to revisit personally. The soviet 1930s version failed - it doesn’t mean that a new 2030s version will! (I loved the passage in Ministry for the Future on this).

But also, there are so many other possibilities. We have had 100,000 years of humans with all sorts of ways of sorting out livelihoods in groups- and we can find new ones! 😊

#ClimateDiary Another surreal moment in these disintegrating times: yesterday’s announcement that Saudi Arabia is to host the men’s World Cup in 2034.

I mean: pretty bad in itself, what this says about FIFA. But also, does anyone here really think that the world will be stable enough in 2034, climate wise and in general - for a world cup in Saudi Arabia? Or that global events like that, with their enormous carbon footprint etc, will go on in perpetuity?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/c7vezrd1rj6t

#ClimateDiary

9% is huge!
https://mastodon.au/@largess/113633479232711549