Seaspiracy

slrpnk.net already has its own XMPP chat option where one’s Lemmy username (e.g. user@slrpnk.net) is one’s XMPP address, and I imagine that other instances could do something similar if they wanted. XMPP is federated, so it doesn’t require any Lemmy-side coding for the federation aspect. For instance-wide chat (visible to all users of the instance), an implementation in XMPP would probably be easier as well, perhaps using some form of the group chat functionality. What does your proposal offer that cannot be done using XMPP?

As poVoq suggested, start a tree nursery and plant trees around. Also grow your own food. These two things can be the same thing.

There has probably never been a better time to not live in Bangladesh.

Some ways that vegans can further reduce their methane emissions:

• Avoid rice. The flooded cultivation results in anaerobic conditions that favour methane production. Switch to other staples like banana or sweet potato.
• Avoid the use of fossil fuels as much as possible. Extraction of both petroleum and natural gas can leak a substantial amount of methane.
• Contribute to reforestation and protection of peatlands and boreal forests. If peatlands were allowed to dry out, or if boreal permafrost were to thaw, the ground in these areas would release an enormous amount of methane.
• Reduce, reuse, recycle. The anaerobic conditions in tightly-packed landfills favour methane production.

I don’t know much about the US, but many places don’t have any of that zoning stuff. Ecuador seems to be famous for the lack of zoning regulations, but I imagine that any tropical rainforest country would probably be similar.

In the US, I remember hearing that some people in Arkansas were able to get away with starting up an intentional community and doing all sorts of permaculture things due to the lax zoning regulations. You might research how Arkansas does things.

Well thank heavens that at least no one was hurt.

It’s Markdown. ~~strike out this text~~ --> strike out this text

Cow pasture accounts for about 80% of Amazon deforestation since 1970, but feedcrops like soya are still a significant contributor. Animal agriculture excluding cow pasture accounts for an additional 12% of deforestation, and part of that is soya monocultures. Perhaps the bigger problem with soya cultivation in the Amazon is the opportunity cost that is not apparent from the deforestation numbers: it is often grown on former pasture lands that could have otherwise reforested themselves.

That said, you’re right that not buying soybeans from Brazil would have little impact, as the vast majority of the soybeans produced in Brazil are fed to “livestock” animals.

To be clear, the vast majority of the soybeans produced in the Amazon (and elsewhere) go towards “livestock” feed, so buying edamame or tofu isn’t really contributing much (if at all) to Amazon destruction, Atlantic Forest destruction, Cerrado destruction, or any other soy-related destruction in Brazil.

Not Bangladesh?

WAAAAAAAAY too much grass.

Ah, of course. If you depend on the government and human-made infrastructure, New Zealand and Finland and the like are definitely more reliable than any countries at the equator. (Except Singapore? Interesting.) Governments don’t grow durian though.

Severe weather events in New Zealand

I know that New Zealand has the ocean to buffer it against temperature extremes, but based on this image:

it seems that the island of New Guinea, which is also east of the Wallace Line, has experienced similarly mild warming in recent decades. Maprik (3.63°S, 143.05°E) at ~200m, for example:

seems to have a much more durian-friendly climate than even areas at sea level on the north island of New Zealand (e.g. Ahipara).

And that’s not even Borneo. What is the advantage of New Zealand? Am I missing something?

Best way to protect yourself is to find some land at a comfortable elevation near the equator and start planting fruit trees.

Not even fair to compare to 2024. This year is on track to be the warmest non-El Niño year on record.

Well done. Thank you for this detailed analysis.

Let us not forget also the role of grass in enabling the herding culture.

For the longest time, when I would see “AMAB” in someone’s profile anywhere online, I thought that it stood for “All Men Are Bastards.”

If Iceland can grow bananas, then oil palms don’t seem like much of a stretch. But whether they are grown outdoors in the lowland tropics or in a greenhouse somewhere else, that’s land that cannot be native forest. At least in the tropics, it’s possible to implement an agroforestry system that includes both oil palms and native trees, but in a greenhouse somewhere cold… nope. Even if the yield would be greater than that of more cold-tolerant oil crops, more energy would be needed for heating in the winter, so intuitively, it doesn’t seem practical except where there would be large amounts of “waste” heat anyway, like near geothermal vents or power plants.

Fortunately, palm oil is not essential for nutrition, and many industrial applications could use (e.g.) hemp oil if palm oil is not available, so it’s not necessary to increase production of palm oil. About half of world production goes to “livestock” feed anyway.

THIS is the actual definition of Veganism, directly from the people who coined the term:

That definition is from 1988, so it’s questionable whether it came “directly from the people who coined the term” in 1944. Here is a re-publication of the 1951 Leslie Cross definition:

“The object of the Society shall be to end the exploitation of animals by man” and “The word veganism shall mean the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals.”

Allegedly someone read The World Peace Diet (by Will Tuttle) to Donald Watson on his deathbed, and Donald Watson said that the book encompassed everything that he intended when he founded the Vegan Society. Make of that what you will.