Handmade Extinction Rebellion Christmas tree decoration from Robin Lyons and Catt Lyons. An intensely personal gift which I love 💚

As the season that marks the high point of our capitalist year comes to an end, have a think about XR and Just Stop Oil. These are not terrorist eco zealots, they are the voice of sanity in a world where most people are consuming airbrushed distorted mainstream media while the billionnaires play.

Here’s hoping many more people rebel in 2024 because we are bearing witness to a mass extinction, interwoven with the climate emergency.

According to an Our World in Data article by Hannah Ritchie from this time last year:

“Livestock make up 62% of the world’s mammal biomass; humans account for 34%; and wild mammals are just 4%.”

“A diverse range of mammals once roamed the planet. This changed quickly and dramatically with the arrival of humans. Since then, wild land mammal biomass has declined by an estimated 85%.”

According to Wikipedia:

“Holocene extinction [the sixth mass extinction] currently ongoing. Extinctions have occurred at over 1,000 times the background extinction rate since 1900, and the rate is increasing. The mass extinction is a result of human activity (an ecocide) driven by population growth and overconsumption of the earth’s natural resources.”

“Generally, it takes millions of years for biodiversity to recover after extinction events. In the most severe mass extinctions it may take 15 to 30 million years.”

They say walking a mile in someone else’s shoes is good for practicing empathy. But since there is a lot of selfishness around, imagine you and your family have been told your remaining time on earth is being paused and restarted 100 years  into the future. Walking in your own shoes in 2123. Hard to do. Will you be thinking ‘wow, I get to go in a flying driverless car and hopefully if I study hard I’ll earn enough to enjoy some space tourism’? Or will you be thinking ‘oh shit, oh my god, I’m terrified about what I’m going to have to live through on an overheated, depleted planet’?

I’m guessing I have plenty of 3rd+ connections who will be inclined to the former. But those who put faith in the science might be inclined to the latter. Are you going to speak up and speak out in 2024 for system change?

#massextinction #fossilfuels #meatindustry