Via Solidarity.Zone on Instagram

We want anarchy. We want freedom and autonomy for everyone, without domination. We want the overthrow of the existing order. We want social revolution.

This hasn’t changed since the last ACAT gathering. Among other topics, the following was discussed last year: Whether intermediary/specific struggles are still a valid proposal under current conditions and/or if we would need them now more than ever; faced with dystopian conditions, in what way we can intervene in social struggles (and whether we want to); the recuperation of anti-authoritarian struggles by authoritarians (based on the experience of the Appelist takeover on the ZAD in Nantes, France); the digital enclosure and its discontents (based on the case of the comrade Boris in France and the struggle there against the global expansion of the digital open-air prison); the history of the insurrectionary method; war; and patriarchy in its techno-industrial form.

This year we will come together again, to meet each other face to face without screens. In big and small groups, with new faces and old acquaintances, and friends. With the experience from last year, we have decided to limit discussions to three thematic days, with only two prepared discussions each day. (Spontaneous discussions can be proposed and started again all the time).

The themes will be:

• International Solidarity
• Extractivism
• War

The meeting will take place in the Hambacher Forest. Days of discussion will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Arrival days are Wednesday the 29th and Thursday the 30th and departure day is Monday the 3rd of June.

Bring your distros!

There will be food provided. Tents, sleeping bags, and mats have to be brought. Please write us if you don’t want to sleep in a tent, there will be alternatives (which don’t include climbing), but this options will be provided first and foremost to people who need them to be able to participate in the gathering.

For contacting us or if you have any other questions:

acat [äd] supernormal.net find pgp-key here

A detailed program, as well an explanation for how to get there and other info will be published here at the beginning of May

All anarchists, wild hearts, free spirits, subversives, and rebels who recognize themselves in this invitation are welcome.

Nevertheless – and with the experience from last year – we want to add a small disclaimer, for those who should maybe think about if they really want to come:

• People who expect moderated discussions, talking lists, and other social-cybernetic modalities. You can associate yourself under such conditions for small group discussions if you want to do this, but most discussions won’t be like this.

• People who expect an awareness team for a discussion weekend. There won’t be any.

• People who expect partying and drug consumption. There are many possibilities for this all the time, a discussion gathering in a forest is maybe not the space for this.

• People who, when it comes to the question of war, endorse anarchists joining the ranks of (proto-)state formations or want to (morally) pressure anarchists to take the side of this or that state (or even fight for them), please stay away from this gathering.

https://acat.noblogs.org/

Went to a town called Sutton's Bay in Michigan, USA this last weekend. Definitely solar Punk leaning. Solar: a lot of people drive EVs, bike paths throughout the town and connecting other local towns, rain gardens are interspersed throughout the town, some business stops nearby from the local intercity bus network. Punk: residents are encouraged not to mow their lawns until the end of May, the only gas station in town looked pretty closed, their groceries is a mom and pop shop. Obviously, the town has a long way to go (economy is largely tourist/consumerism based, no public ev chargers, housing does not appear affordable, no light rail nearby), but as far as USA cities in the "middle of nowhere" go, it's a speck of hope.

Pictures taken in local coffee shop.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/13186793

Couroupita guianensis, Penang botanical garden.

Make sure to check out the flowers too! https://mander.xyz/comment/10767031

From ProjectKamp.

The world is on the cusp of an energy transformation that could make the Industrial Revolution look minor. Mike Cannon-Brookes is banking on the Land Down Under to be a major driver of that change.

The billionaire co-founder of software giant Atlassian plans for Australia, where he grew up, to become the hub for the two biggest renewable-energy projects ever. According to Bloomberg, the SunCable project will build a 20-gigawatt solar farm and a 4,300-kilometer undersea transmission cable, called the Australia-Asia PowerLink.

But even he acknowledges this $21 billion undertaking by SunCable is a "completely bats*** insane project." Still, it's the first step in a 10-step outline to move clean energy to Asia from one of the sunniest places on Earth. This cable would run along the bed of the Indian Ocean and feed Singapore's great demand for electricity.

Australia could produce 10,000 times more solar power than it consumes, as reported by Bloomberg, though it is a coal behemoth and exports more than any country besides Indonesia.

It will take governments, companies, the wealthy and powerful, and individuals to fully divest from such dirty energy sources, which are rapidly heating the planet and leading to more severe and frequent storms, wildfires, and other weather events.

Cannon-Brookes compared the energy transition to technology disruption, saying: "Everyone changed to a smartphone over a five-year period."

"Averting catastrophic climate change will require a similar rapid societal shift, including changing how energy is generated and delivered," Brian Kahn wrote. "In BloombergNEF's net-zero scenario, solar will be the world's largest source of clean energy by 2030. To get there will require building the equivalent of the world's largest solar farm every few days by the end of the decade."

Transcript (and errors in it) are mine, as NPR is mainly a broadcast outlet.

Tamara 0:00
The salad chain restaurants Sweetgreen surprised a lot of people when they recently said they would begin serving beef and Los Angeles area vegans got an even bigger shock. The restaurant chain, formerly known as Sage Vegan says they will soon offer meat and dairy these restaurants highlight their sustainable goals. But beef and dairy are huge sources of planet warming pollution. Both restaurants say the beef would come from farms that practice what's known as regenerative farming. But what does this actually mean for the climate? To learn more, we are joined by Julia Simon from NPRs climate desk. Hey, thanks for having me. started at the beginning. What is regenerative farming? What how does it work?

Julia 0:42
So a step back soil has the potential to draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it but many conventional farming practices end up releasing carbon. regenerative agriculture is this umbrella term for a bunch of farming practices different from conventional farming that can in theory be better for the soil and the environment?

Tamara 1:05
So give us an example of how regenerative farming is different from conventional farming.

Julia 1:11
Yeah, so one example is cover crops, which basically means that there's always some kind of plant like grasses or legumes on your fields versus conventional farming, letting fields lie fallow. Emily Oldfield, as soil scientists at the Environmental Defense Fund says that can help lead to more healthy soil,

Emily Oldfield 1:32
you're preventing against soil loss and erosion, you're you're maximizing the presence of living roots. So you're sort of feeding all those microbes that are down in there.

Tamara 1:41
Okay, I get it for plants. But explain these restaurants say that their beef is coming from regenerative farms. How does it work with livestock?

Julia 1:49
There's something called regenerative grazing, where you're managing the way livestock like cattle graze on grasses to improve soil health, among other things. regenerative

Tamara 1:59
agriculture often gets discussed in the context of climate solutions, does it reduce emissions?

Julia 2:07
Yeah, there are ways it could, but some scientists worry about some climate benefits getting overstated. Give us example, their scientists say that keeping soils more intact can increase the amount of carbon stored in them, which is good, right carbon dioxide, it's a planet heating gas, great to have carbon in the soil versus the atmosphere. But there are lots of questions about how much carbon gets stored in the soil by changing these practices. And critically, how long the carbon stays in the soil. Here's Eric Slessor, of professor at Yale University,

Eric Slessor 2:40
organic matter and soil is a lot of material. There are microorganisms living on it, and they're constantly breaking it down and releasing it as co2 goes back to the atmosphere. And so soil is not a sealed off compartment. It's dynamic. Also,

Julia 2:56
Also things like drought, heat can affect the amount of carbon that soil stores. And while a farmer might be doing regenerative farming now, there's no guarantee that they'll be doing these practices into the future. Slessor of says this is a big question mark over climate claims around regenerative agriculture.

Eric Slessor 3:16
In my mind, that is the biggest uncertainty is how long is that carbon going to stay out of the atmosphere if it ends up in the soil in the form of organic matter?

Tamara 3:26
Is a regenerative farming does not sound like an exact science at this point. And the long term climate benefits may be in question. But in terms of beef, the climate impacts are pretty clear. Right?

Julia 3:40
Right. The main reason cattle hit the planet so much is that cattle burp and those burps have a lot of methane, this very potent greenhouse gas. Also in much of the world making room for cattle and food for cattle drives deforestation, which also heats the planet.

Tamara 3:58
I want to ask about these companies Sweetgreen and Sage Vegan which on its website now says it is rebranding as Sage Regenerative. What do they have to say about all of this?

Julia 4:07
Both Sweetgreen and Sage Regenerative did not respond to NPRs Requests for Comments. But again, we should say regenerative agriculture does have lots of environmental benefits. These practices are really good for soils that can reduce erosion water runoff, the questions come with the claimed climate benefits. Ultimately, experts I spoke to say when it comes to climate emissions from food, there might be an impulse to tweak around the edges, but meaningful emissions reductions will have to focus on the big sources of emissions like cattle. Research shows. just swapping out beef in a meal can have a big impact on a person's daily climate emissions.

Tamara 4:50
And our doctors might suggest the same. That's NPR's Julia Simon. Thanks, Julia.

Julia 4:54
Thank you, Tamra.

Kind of curious what tech people own, everything from small to big tech. Assuming solarpanels are a given for a lot of peeps here, or maybe will be in the future. But what other tech do you own that you're happy with?

Canonical YouTube link

Don't let people sell you flashlights unless they're super cheap and super reliable. :) Especially avoid buying rescue or air defense searchlights - if a product contains the word "rescue" or "defense", its price will cause a jumpscare. Optics isn't a secret art, Wikipedia has all the relevant information - and if you happen to have a solar concentrator with a reasonable focal length, you have a searchlight waiting to happen. :)

Photo taken from 968 meters.

P.S. Just remember: LEDs need to be current-limited and cooled. :)

Via ABC Russia

Search all ABC posts for "Yuri Mikheev"

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Hopefully a blow to planned obsolescence

A collision of climate change, urban sprawl and poor infrastructure has pushed Mexico City to the brink of a profound water crisis.

En Español