BBC: Millions Attend Global Climate Strike

Ray of Rice hat/lamp by Jittasak Narknisorn

“I respect and admire agriculture, especially the rice farmers who provide us with the food in our everyday lives. They work very long hours under the hot sun during harvesting season. From this observation, I saw how to merge the traditional lifestyle of a rice farmer and today’s technology. Ray of Rice : hat & lamp is comprised of solar cells on the exterior with LED lights on the interior. As the rice farmers work during the day the solar cells collect the sun’s energy. By night, the hat can be hung anywhere and utilized as a wireless lamp.”

(via)

What are your favorite online planty boy shops?

I did a post about generally all places I’d found to buy plants online which folks made some very lovely additions to. Some of those in my original post I wouldn’t necessarily recommend because there are way cheaper/better places to shop, but that was more of a “here’s what’s out there and is most popular” type post that I really need to do an updated version of someday. But anyway here are some of the places I’ve ordered from that I had a good experience with or seen people order from that I would really like to attempt to order from.

Glasshouse Works - this place has a huge selection and some very old stock plants and does not…. necessarily keep up with current trends and price markups so you can find some cool stuff here for relatively low prices (and low resolution lol). Also, their “collections” are very cool and cost effective. I have ordered twice from them, once in the spring and once in the fall and was very happy with my orders. They also regularly throw in a free “extra” if one fits in your box which is my favorite.

Steve’s Leaves - this place is a wee bit pricier than I’d like but in the end, I think it’s worth it because they ship big and healthy plants. they have a huge stock of begonias and tradescantia and peperomia, if you’re into that and their catalog changes frequently. they do a weekly email special which is fun! I’ve only ordered once from them (got my West Texas Blizzard begonia) but I see loads of people consistently having good experiences with them.

Etsy - I don’t really have a favorite specific shop but etsy is a great place to find a lot of different plants, especially cuttings. definitely look into the reviews of the shop before purchasing though.

Logee’s - tbh this place barely makes it on my list of favorites, just because I have only ordered there once and they tend to be… overpriced and overhyped for the plant you get/what they stock. but they also have a cool catalog and frequent email specials that are lots of fun to look through. I ordered my Begonia maculata wightii from them last year and have been pleased with it, though it was definitely overpriced for a plant so easy to propagate.

Arid Lands Greenhouse -disclaimer here that I have placed an order but not received it yet because I asked them to hold if they felt the weather was bad (which it has been), but they have an absolutely huge catalog of less frequently offered succulents and seem very much geared toward serious hobbyists rather than gimmicks and are very knowledgable. they’re located in arizona and grow a lot of their stuff from seed. 

The People’s Plants - is one I am including here only because this is the website where I recently preordered my Thai Constellation Monstera. This is I think their second or third preorder run and I have seen several people very happy with the plants they received, so I feel comfortable linking them. They have some other cool tropicals in and out of stock from time to time it seems but I don’t know how they compare to other shops.

NSE Tropicals - is one I enjoy seeing instagram updates from but probably wouldn’t order from just because giant aroids aren’t my thing. They have some really awesome beautiful stock plants (almost nothing is in stock currently because winter).

Taylor Greenhouses - this one is similar to Glasshouse Works where it’s owned by some older folks who can barely run a web page. But does have some cool plants (especially begonias) hidden in there and free shipping on orders over $85. I’ve watched a few unboxing videos from folks and not been overly impressed by the size of the plants for the price but still a cool place to poke around.

Josh’s Frogs - I’ve never ordered plants from here (maybe ordered water plants I can’t remember) but if you’re looking for terrarium/vivarium plants and supplies, they’re a great website. They sometimes have some pretty cool plants for cheap, though they’re vivarium sized so pretty small.

PA Orchid Exchange - I have not looked too deeply into this one and haven’t seen any unboxing videos but they’re the newest plant place that’s caught me eye, especially if you’re after some Trendy Boys for what looks like relatively affordable prices?

The Human Race Must Abolish Billionaires

Hello, let’s have a talk. A talky talk. A talky talk about how and why Billionaires should not be allowed to exist, why we can, must, and should seize all of their combined wealth, and what we can do with it when we have it.

And maybe some cheeky ideas about what to do with that sorry lot once we’ve plundered all their shinies and wealth, mhm! Oh yes.

Let’s start here:

Oh my oh my oh my! What is this!

It seems that 2,754 human beings on this planet we share have over $1,000,000,000 in wealth! This simply will not do, that’s far too many. But what I’d really like to do is draw your attention to the eye-gouging sum of their total wealth.

$9,200,000,000,000.

Truly a staggering sum. In fact, it’s so staggering, it’s achieved what really big numbers can do where they no longer really contain any conceivable value. It is truly difficult for the human mind to conceive of this kind of largeness, and it can even trick you into thinking, hey, this isn’t that much bigger than 9.2 million! Which isn’t all that much, really.

I’m so sorry but that’s wrong.

So how much is 9.2 Trillion?

A useful way to look at numbers is to use a scale we encounter every day: the second. I refer to this excerpt from a helpful letter to the New York Times written in 1986: 

“I found that 1,000 seconds ago was equal to almost 17 minutes. It would take almost 12 days for a million seconds to elapse and 31.7 years for a billion seconds. Therefore, a trillion seconds would amount to no less than 31,709.8 years.

A trillion seconds ago, there was no written history. The pyramids had not yet been built. It would be 10,000 years before the cave paintings in France were begun, and saber-toothed tigers were still prowling the planet.”

That’s just 1 Trillion seconds. 9.2 Trillion seconds is 291,730.16 years ago! Recorded history doesn’t even go back that far. The lost island in the North Sea Doggerland was still around back then. The land bridge between Russia and Alaska was still around. Starting to get how much money $9.2 Trillion is?

For the sake of argument, let’s say that these 2,754 people are one person (and for the sake of humanity’s scale, they might as well be), and decide to spend their cash. What can they do with $9.2 Trillion dollars?

What about a castle? Castles are cool! I’d like a castle. They gotta be expensive right?

The Devizes Castle, built in the 12th century, was sold for $3.2 million. On our time scale, that’s just about 39 days out of 291,730.16 years. But that’s not even close to the most expensive castle. That’s probably the Asheford Castle, in Ireland, also from the 12th century, valued around $68m. That’s a bit bigger of a chunk, coming around to about 3.2 years out of our budget of 291,730.

Okay, we have a swanky place to live. How about a plane to fly there? Or a boat? Let’s buy the best ones of each.

Luxury jets are easy: you want a Gulfstream IV - clocking in at $38m. There are other, much more expensive planes, but they are more straight up commercial airliners or tactical bombers. For a single person, a Gulfstream is really where it’s at.

Yachts? The choices here are way more varied. Technically, the world’s most expensive yacht is the History Supremee at $4.5 Billion, but this is just a mere 100-foot vessel coated in pure gold and platinum. Let’s go bigger, but slightly cheaper, and get the Eclipse, a 536 foot long, $1.5 Billion dollar vessel that is sure to make all the less rich people envious.

Why not a car? The most expensive car is the Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita, coming in at a mere $4.8 Million.

If we add this all up, it’s $1,042,500,000. This is 33 years.

You can buy the world’s most luxurious castle, jet, yacht, and car, and only use 35 years out of the budget of 291,730.

In FACT: if every single one of the 2,754 billionaires could buy one of the most luxurious castle, jet, yacht, and car each, there would still be $6.3 TRILLION left over between them.

Starting to get the picture?

There is no logical, moral, ethical, or even comedic argument to be made for even 10,000 people to have access to $9.2 Trillion in wealth, much less 2,754. They simply cannot spend this wealth on a meaningful, individual level. It can only be hoarded, and used to create more wealth.

Now, let’s say we forcefully take their money, and liquidate all their assets, and we, the people, now have $9.2Trillion in fungible cash. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the $200 billion that we need to drop to make this an even 9 gets lost in depreciation. That’s almost 2%, so, I feel that’s not a difficult or even unfair argument to make.

So, let’s say after seizing these bastard’s wealth and liquidating it we have $9Trillion left over. What can we do with all of that?

It would only cost about $55 Million to fix Flint. Let’s do that.

The most bloated estimates say it would cost $265 Billion to end world hunger and malnutrition. Let’s do that.

What about education? What if we forgave all the American student loans? That’s a hefty $1.4 Trillion, but, we have it to spare.

Reducing Greenhouse Gasses is a tricky one. Planting trees to offset carbon emissions is a good idea, so, let’s fund some projects to do that.

“The cost to plant a tree varies depending on the location of the project and the type of tree being planted, and ranges between approximately one dollar to three dollars per tree.” - Plant a Billion Trees

So, $3Billion for a billion trees. Nice. That’ll regreen the landscape quite a bit, and this is just one example of a single effort to reforest multiple lost jungles. Let’s fund five such projects, bringing the total to 5 billion trees and $15 Billion dollars.

What about Solar? What if we made a Solar Farm in the Sahara to cover the energy use of the entire planet? The cost of the project will be about five trillion dollars assuming we could figure out the infrastructure to support it.

What’s that got us, totaled up? We’ve spent $6.68 Trillion. We’ve got about $2.3 Trillion left over. We’ve ended world hunger, forgiven all American student loan debt, replanted billions of trees, and the world, in theory, is on 100% solar power now. Seems like a pretty rosy state of existence. And we still have 72,932 years of our time/money left over. That’s almost enough left over to buy every billionaire the most luxurious castle, jet, yacht, and car.

FUCK. THAT.

So, clearly, it is an illogical, immoral act for a billionaire to hoard all this wealth, when we’ve seen what we can do with it. What should we do with them?

This is literally WALL-E lmfao

what if we did large-scale mutual aid. like what if everyone in a community contributed, idk, like, a percentage of their annual income into some kind of a mutual aid fund. they could appoint community leaders to allocate funding for community needs like health and other social services, rental aid, transportation to get to work and other places, maybe even for building community spaces that would be free to use. has anyone thought of this

Giant floating islands that turn atmospheric CO2 into fuel could prevent climate change, scientists say

If rolled out globally, the islands could offset the total global emissions from fossil fuels.

Scientists in Norway and Switzerland have proposed that “Solar Methanol Islands” could use solar energy to recycle atmospheric CO2 into methanol fuel.

The idea arose when scientists were trying to find a way to provide electricity to future off-shore fish farms without access to power grids. Solar energy could power hydrogen production and CO2 extraction from seawater, which would produce gases that could be reacted to form methanol.

The team of scientists wrote:

“Humankind must cease CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning if dangerous climate change is to be avoided. However, liquid carbon-based energy carriers are often without practical alternatives for vital mobility applications. The recycling of atmospheric CO2 into synthetic fuels, using renewable energy, offers an energy concept with no net CO2 emission.”

Currently, the team of scientists is working on prototypes for the floating solar islands.

Thanks to @sabre-fish for sending this in! 

ive said this before but as climate change ramps up faster and faster and we feel the effects more and more in our everyday lives our infrastructure and architecture is going to need radical changes, and i love building science, but its not just going to be stuff like cranking up the r-values on our houses and other passivhaus things, we have to look at resilient infrastructure like earth berming and building underground like in coober pedy to avoid heat, have to look at flood mitigation tunnels like the tokyo flood control system, have to look at stuff like staten islands seawall

no one solution is going to protect us from climate change, and no small ones either

shits gonna have to change, and not every solution is going to pan out perfectly, but we need to be able to try some pretty over the top seeming stuff

even just where i live, the seasons have dramatically changed over the last decade, old ellicott city has been wiped out by floods twice, summers are hot and humid as hell, this cant last

Circus Tree: Six individual sycamore trees were shaped, bent, and braided to form this.

A green beginning

There are tons of benefits to having a community garden: stronger sense of community, promoting healthy eating, learning what it really takes to grow your food. It’s also a great way to make gardening a possibility for those living in urban homes with less yard room, and to create a healthy town center for citizens of all ages.

But where should you start if you’d like a community garden of your own? We chatted with Rodney Spencer, the executive director of City Slicker Farms, which provides community gardens for West Oakland residents, to hear his top tips on how to get started.

Earth is truly healing