Month: January 2024

Twofer Tuesday: feathered friends

/ Tracy Abell / 8 Comments

Birds are keeping me going during these dark days. Even more than usual, I’m intentionally watching and listening for them with the knowledge that such interactions ground me and bring a moment of peace. And joy.

Today as Zippy, Emma, and I took a slow walk in the neighborhood, we heard a loud call. A hawk was perched in a tree above the street. I quickly pulled up my Merlin app in hopes it would help me identify whether it was a Cooper’s Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk. Unfortunately, the hawk went silent. But we were gifted with an up-close sighting as the raptor flew directly above our heads (and no, I couldn’t tell whether the tail feathers were rounded or flat) and then circled back around before landing in another tree. A gift to us.

Here’s another bird that brought me joy recently. A White-breasted Nuthatch exploring the tree trunk outside my window. I was thrilled to get a decent photo because these guys are always on the move.

January 13, 2024

And here’s a familiar face: male House Finch, of which we see many every single day. But every sighting brings a smile.

January 13, 2024

Once again, birds for the win.

Climate Movement Monday: good news + quick action

/ Tracy Abell / 7 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays where we focus on climate-related issues. This is going to be very brief as Zippy had a major medical issue over the weekend. He’s home and doing well now (YAY!), but my energy is depleted. However, I really wanted to share some good news on issues discussed here in the past because I want to celebrate the wins when we get them!

Photo by Jill Wellington/ pexels.com

  • Last May I posted about the proposed Uinta Basin Railway which would allow oil trains to travel along 200 miles of the twisty, turny Colorado River.  A stupendously horrible idea! Guess what? The Forest Service withdrew approval for the project! 
  • In November, I posted about 20 proposed Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminals along the Gulf Coast and earlier this month wrote about a planned sit-in for February outside the Energy Department in opposition to CP2 and other proposed LNG terminals. Those terminals are another incredibly horrible idea that would effectively cancel out all U.S. carbon and methane progress made since 2005. Well, Biden put a temporary pause on approval of those projects. I didn’t use an exclamation point because climate activists understand that these pauses can be un-paused. The Energy Department is now updating the process to include climate and economic considerations. This is definitely good news that reflects the impact climate activists are making. (Here are responses from some frontline community organizations). But we’re wise to keep a close watch as we remember that Biden’s poll numbers are in the toilet due to his climate record (see Willow) and his facilitation of genocide in Gaza. He could very easily be dangling this “pause” as a way to earn support and then turn around and un-pause the permits. We need a permanent pause on ALL new fossil fuel infrastructure.

Okay, here’s info from Stop the Money Pipeline and the QUICK ACTION:

After the news [Biden’s LNG pause] broke, the stocks of one of the top owners of oil and gas in the region dramatically dropped! It’s a major blow to the oil and gas industry, which will certainly be banging down the White House doors to get the President to reverse his decision.

Right now is a critical time for banks to consider walking away from these fossil fuel projects, too. Send an email to top Wall Street executives: the White House just pressed pause on LNG in the Gulf South, it’s time you did, too.

In October, the climate case for stopping new LNG was strengthened by a new analysis from Cornell that showed that the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from LNG made it *dirtier* than coal. This new announcement halts nearly 20 LNG terminals representing emissions equivalent to those of 675 coal-fired power plants.

If Wall Street banks were to join the White House and press pause on all financing for toxic projects in the Gulf South, it would be a gamechanger.

Make no mistake, these proposed projects are only possible because of the structural environmental racism baked into the approval of these projects that considers predominantly Black & Latino communities in the Gulf South – as well as Indigenous nations – entirely disposable for corporate profits.

Email the biggest Wall Street banks now to urge them to stop financing LNG!

Me, again. Please remember that it’s fine to send the letter as-is, but it will carry more impact if you take a moment to personalize it.

There is, of course, tremendous satisfaction in such egregious projects losing support, but I’d rather we were celebrating good stuff happening rather than bad stuff not happening.  But, we’ve got to play defense as well as offense. So, HOORAY!!!!!

Take good care of yourselves. Solidarity! ✊🏽

#KidLit4Ceasefire: collecting signatures

/ Tracy Abell / 1 Comment

I write for young readers, otherwise known as children, and am grateful for those in the kidlit community who’ve used their considerable platforms to lead after crafting a powerful letter to Biden and other electeds regarding the ongoing genocide in Gaza where there are one million children. Shout-out to Sandra Proudman, Sara Solara, Agnes Monodaze, Tiffany Liu, Rhonda Roumani, Emma Ilene, NoNieqa Ramos, Beth Phelan, and the team at Books for Palestine!

PLEASE read the letter below (citations in link) and add your voice to the global chorus calling for an end to this genocidal madness. As of an hour ago, the letter has nearly 5,000 signatures! We’re at the halfway point of this campaign which ends at the end of day on January 28 AND halfway to the goal of 10,000 signatures. Add your name to increase the impacts of this effort.

Who can sign? Writers, illustrators, agents, editors, other publishing talent, readers, reviewers, librarians, and teachers. If you’ve ever read and enjoyed a children’s book, you are part of the kidlit community. 🙂  

Here’s the powerful letter:

Dear President Biden, We’ve come together as children’s authors, illustrators, agents, editors, and other publishing professionals across the U.S. and beyond who have witnessed the indiscriminate bombing and ground invasions of Gaza by Israeli forces over the last 100+ days. These attacks have resulted in more than 31,000 Palestinians killed. 12,000 of these victims are children of a median reported age of five years old (1). Thousands more Palestinian children still remain buried in rubble and are unaccounted for. This is an impossible number to comprehend for anyone who honors the sanctity of life.

It is estimated that Israeli forces have destroyed 70% of homes (2) and displaced 85% of the population in Gaza (1). Approximately one million children are without shelter, food, and safety as a result of Israel’s military dropping over 65,000 tons of bombs in Gaza (3), targeting civilian homes, hospitals, holy places, and educational facilities. The U.S. government has provided 15,000 bombs to Israel, along with $3.8 billion a year in military funding paid with our tax dollars (4).

Thousands of Palestinian children have been permanently disfigured, with over 1,000 suffering the amputation of one or more limbs, in an area half the size of Austin (5). It is estimated that 10 more children undergo amputations without anesthesia with every passing day (6). In addition, Israeli forces have used white phosphorus (7), an internationally banned chemical weapon, to inflict burns so severe that doctors have not been able to treat them properly given the scarcity of medicine under the Israeli blockade on Gaza. As a group of Palestinian kids shared in their own press conference held outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Nov. 7, 2023, “The occupation is starving us. We don’t find water, food, and we drink from the unusable water. We come now to shout and invite you to protect us … We want to live as the other children live.” It is likely that at least some of these children pleading for their lives have been killed in the attacks since, as the Israeli military kills a Palestinian child every 10 minutes (8).

At the time of this writing, journalists in Gaza, more than 110 of whom have been killed by targeted sniper attacks and bombings, have risked their lives to report that Gaza’s last functioning hospital is under attack. All in the middle of a telecommunications blackout that has left Palestinians unable to even call for first responders. Social reports have shown that Palestinian children are dying not only from their injuries, but also from cardiac arrest and seizures due to traumatic stress and exhaustion as bombs rain down on them all day and night long. They are dying of hunger, thirst, cold, cancer, and other pre-existing illnesses (9). Furthermore, premature babies relying on incubators and other vulnerable patients are dying because the Israeli government has cut off Gaza’s electricity and fuel supply (10). The children of Gaza are in desperate need of humanitarian and medical aid to survive. So many children have lost their entire families that a horrific new designation “Wounded Child, No Surviving Family (WCNSF)” has officially been coined by the UN as a result of this unprecedented violence in Gaza.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell has clearly stated: “Children at high risk of dying from malnutrition and disease desperately need medical treatment, clean water and sanitation services, but the conditions on the ground do not allow us to safely reach children and families in need . . . Some of the material we desperately need to repair and increase water supply remain restricted from entering Gaza. The lives of children and their families are hanging in the balance. Every minute counts.”

As children’s publishing professionals, we create our work for the sake of all the children in the world–without exception. Our collective conscience compels us to call for our leaders to protect the most vulnerable and precious members of our global society. We oppose Israel’s mass killings, with the vastly documented intent to destroy all Palestinian people (11). These actions clearly constitute acts of genocide, as reported in the irrefutable case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, and must be treated as such. We are deeply alarmed that you’ve blocked a ceasefire that would have stopped these killings at the UN, bypassed Congress twice to send Israel $253.5 million in additional weapons last month (12), and requested another $14.3 billion in weapons to be used in these mass killings.

We are adding our voices to the widespread call from U.S. Congressmembers, UN General Assembly, WHO, UNICEF, Jewish Voice for Peace, Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, The International Committee of the Red Cross, and many other organizations—along with millions of U.S. citizens. As advocates for children, we demand that you, the President of the United States, along with the U.S. Congress, immediately join the leaders worldwide who are calling for a permanent ceasefire in order to safeguard the future of every Palestinian child still living in Gaza and the West Bank, as children in Gaza have grown up trapped under siege all their lives—to give them a chance at the joy and freedom that every child around the world deserves.

There is undoubtedly an immensely long road of healing for the one million children in Gaza and their families who have been reduced to human collateral since the tragedies of October 7th, ones that we also grieve. Our deepest desire now is that the children and all civilians affected are immediately allowed the chance to start healing. Every minute counts.

President Biden, we call for a PERMANENT CEASEFIRE NOW and an end to the siege on Gaza.

Here’s the link to the full document, including the letter, citations, signatures gathered thus far (there is an option to sign without displaying your name), graphics and text to share, plus further actions you can take on behalf of Palestine during this week of the Global Strike. PLEASE share with your networks!

Thank you for speaking out on behalf of Palestinian children and their families! Solidarity! 🇵🇸 ✊🏽

Climate Movement Monday: Costco & Citibank

/ Tracy Abell / 4 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays in which we discuss all things climate and take action on behalf of people and planet. This week’s post will be quick because we’re heading out to rally and march in support of Palestinians as part of the Global Strike for Gaza this week, January 21-28. (Palestinian journalist Bisan has called for a weeklong global strike to disrupt economic movement and stop the genocide in Gaza. You can participate by not spending money all week, staying home from work/school, or protesting and disrupting. PLEASE read this from Bisan, posted yesterday. You can also follow her Instagram).

Okay, this week we’re focusing on Costco and their affiliate credit card provider: Citibank. (Note: I’m including info gathered from Bill McKibben/Third Act and Stop the Money Pipeline). I am a Costco member and have been for many years. There’s a good chance you are, too, as Costco is the third largest retail outlet (after Walmart and Amazon). BUT EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT A MEMBER, YOU CAN STILL TAKE ACTION.  Unlike those two companies, Costco treats employees well by paying above-average wages and providing decent benefits. So, what’s the issue with Costco? The Citibank credit card.

Citibank is the second largest funder of fossil fuel projects . . . in the world. (Here’s a guide to credit cards and fossil fuel involvement.)  The good news is that 40,000 people signed a petition to Costco demanding they put pressure on Citi to stop funding fossil fuel projects and, if they don’t, to cut ties with Citi and find a greener credit card.

The following is from an email from Stop the Money Pipeline (note: Ron Vachris is Costco’s new CEO, but his first job at Costco was as a forklift driver!):

On January 17th, a small delegation of activists visited Costco headquarters outside of Seattle in Issaquah, WA to deliver our petition in person and congratulate Ron on his new role as CEO. We even brought a celebratory card and cake! We were able to successfully deliver the petition to the front desk of Costco’s HQ to be passed along to leadership.

Then, on Thursday January 18th at Costco’s shareholder meeting, a group of shareholders asked Costco to address their relationship with Citi and Costco’s CEO, Ron Vachris, responded:

“Citi is indeed a key partner for Costco Wholesale, and we are aware of those petitions that were signed. We are going to continue moving forward with our climate action plan, and have been in discussions with Citi about their carbon reduction plans in the future. We’re going to focus on our efforts, and we’ll stay close to Citi and their efforts as well.”

Yay for the acknowledgement, but Ron still needs to feel the pressure! Per Stop the Money Pipeline: Help us make sure Ron’s top priority as the new CEO is putting pressure on Citi to stop expanding fossil fuels. 

They’ve drafted a letter for us to send but, as always, our messages make a bigger impact when we personalize the letter. (ACK! It doesn’t seem we’re allowed to personalize the letter. 😦  ) Please go here to send your letter in support of those 40,000 signatures. I’m not thrilled Costco will receive the same letter over and over, BUT it does mean this action can be completed in a matter of seconds. 🙂

Okay, that’s it for this week. Thank you for reading and taking action on behalf of people and planet. I appreciate you and wish you a good week.

Solidarity! ✊🏽

From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine

/ Tracy Abell / 5 Comments

Haymarket Books is offering an additional FREE ebook related to Palestine, a title that is very appropriate in light of today’s declaration of genocidal intent from Netanyahu: “And therefore I clarify that in any other arrangement, in the future, the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea.”

Perhaps you’ve heard about college students losing their housing, scholarships, internships, jobs, and being doxxed for using the phrase “from the river to the sea [Palestine shall be free]”?  That’s because when that phrase is used in relation to Palestinian liberation, people have clutched their pearls and insisted they feel threatened, which has resulted in a whole lot of discriminatory actions leveled at those speaking out for Palestine. (My thoughts on that here.) But when the Israeli Prime Minister announces to the world that Palestinians will be wiped out from the river to the sea, nothing happens to him. He gets more funding, more weaponry, more intel from the U.S.

Anyway, the new FREE ebook (although you’re free to make a donation to Haymarket Books 🙂 ) is From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine edited by Sai Englert, Michal Schatz, et al.

Here’s the info from Haymarket Books:
“From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine collects personal testimonies from within Gaza and the West Bank, along with essays and interviews that collectively provide crucial histories and analyses to help us understand how we got to the nightmarish present. They place Israel’s genocidal campaign within the longer history of settler colonialism in Palestine, and Hamas within the longer histories of Palestinian resistance and the so-called “peace process.” They explore the complex history of Palestine’s relationship to Jordan, Egypt, and the broader Middle East, the eruption of unprecedented anti-Zionist Jewish protest in the US, the alarming escalation in state repression of Palestine solidarity in Britain and Europe, and more. Taken together, the essays comprising this collection provide important grounding for the urgent discussions taking place across the Palestine solidarity movement.”

Also, there are three other free ebooks available (scroll down to the bottom of page). One of them, LIGHT IN GAZA, I’ve highlighted here, here, and here. It’s an incredible collection of essays and poems about life in occupied Gaza, and I highly recommend it.

Thank you for caring enough about Palestinian people to learn about their lives, hopes, and dreams. Please continue making those calls and sending emails demanding a permanent ceasefire and end to all aid to Israel. Solidarity!

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

Climate Movement Monday: MLK and mutuality

/ Tracy Abell / 8 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays as we honor the formidable Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a trailblazer in terms of justice and equality, and clearly articulated the threats of racism, capitalism, materialism, and militarism, so it’s sometimes hard to believe he was only 39 years old when murdered. Fortunately, he left us the legacy of his words and actions.

World Telegram & Sun photo by Dick DeMarsico.    November 6, 1964

Today, I want to focus on this passage from MLK’s final Christmas sermon delivered in 1967: “It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. … We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.”

Those words can be applied to justice and equality, the environment, and the current genocide in Gaza. While it might feel tempting to avert our gaze from the many, many bad things currently being done to people and planet, that’s not a viable path forward because violence against one is violence against all. All life is interrelated.

In that spirit, I’d like to offer some info, starting with a way to help Palestinians communicate (note: yesterday was Day 100 of Israel’s campaign of annihilation). Israel has imposed a blackout on communication and internet access, but eSIMs allow Palestinians to stay connected to friends, family, and the outside world.
The donation process is easy:
1) go to esim.holafly.com
2) select either Israel or Egypt as country (you can buy for 5 days up to 20 days)
3) use promocode HOLACNG for 5% discount
4) Screenshot the QR code (you will receive an email after making purchase)
5) Send that screenshot to gazaesims@gmail.com
6) know that you are helping fellow humans who are enduring terrifying circumstances (here is the full exchange)

And now I’ll share a bit of info about the fight to force the Department of Energy (DOE) to pause the permits for new Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminals. In case you need an LNG refresher, I wrote about them in early November 2023. The next facility up for approval is CP2 on the Gulf Coast in Louisiana. Per Bill McKibben, if approved, CP2 “will produce 20 times more emissions than the controversial Willow oil complex over its lifetime. If the industry gets everything they’ve asked for, US LNG exports will produce more greenhouse gas emissions than…Europe. All of it. This is the biggest fossil fuel expansion project currently underway on planet earth.” (Highly recommend reading his entire piece here.)

A huge coalition of environmental and climate justice groups will stage a sit-in outside the DOE building in Washington, D.C., on February 6-8th. 

Go here to sign a petition that tells Biden and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to Stop New LNG exports AND sign-up for the sit-in AND read the full invitation from the coalition. I’m guessing many of us won’t be able to travel to D.C., but we’re still invited to attend virtual trainings on nonviolent protest because it’s good information to have as we face intensified climate collapse.  Go here for info on trainings (January 18; January 25; February 1). NOTE: There are supposedly other actions around the country in support of the big D.C. sit-in and I will share info on those when I find it. 🙂

There are two bits of good news about these LNG terminals.
One, per Healthy Gulf: “The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR) has announced that it will not grant a Coastal Use Permit to Venture Global for its CP Express pipeline, associated with the proposed Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) methane gas export facility, until the company responds to comments submitted by Healthy Gulf and partners. Read the decision letter from LDNR here.”
Two, per Politico on January 8: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is “reviewing whether it is properly accounting for the climate impacts from a proposed project as well as the national security and the domestic economic consequences.”

And this is precisely why the big February action in D.C. is so important: to keep putting pressure on Biden to live up to his promises to transition off fossil fuels.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for being here! I appreciate your friendship and engagement in these very dark days. I’ll end with one last quote from MLK: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

May we all continue showing up and speaking out. Solidarity! ✊🏽

“Armed conflict…is an idiotic way to spend our shrinking carbon budget”

/ Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

It’s incredibly dystopian that the ongoing genocide of Palestinians hasn’t motivated every single human to call for a permanent end to Israel’s atrocities, but maybe this reminder about the climate consequences of war will push a few more people to join the chorus calling for a ceasefire.

Image by hosny salah from Pixabay NOTE: this photo uploaded in August 2023

Today The Guardian published an article written by Nina Lakhani: “Emissions from Israel’s war in Gaza have ‘immense’ effect on climate catastrophe.” The article begins with this: The planet-warming emissions generated during the first two months of the war in Gaza were greater than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, new research reveals. (Note: emphasis mine).

The article goes on to say: According to the study, which is based on only a handful of carbon-intensive activities and is therefore probably a significant underestimate, the climate cost of the first 60 days of Israel’s military response was equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes of coal. (Note: emphasis mine)

The analysis, which is yet to be peer reviewed, includes CO2 from aircraft missions, tanks and fuel from other vehicles, as well as emissions generated by making and exploding the bombs, artillery and rockets. It does not include other planet-warming gases such as methane. Almost half the total CO2 emissions were down to US cargo planes flying military supplies to Israel. (Note: emphasis mine)

In case you’re wondering, Hamas rockets in those same two months generated the equivalence of 713 tons of CO2 (300 tons of coal). The U.S.’s role, on the other hand? “By 4 December, at least 200 American cargo flights were reported to have delivered 10,000 tonnes of military equipment to Israel. The study found that the flights guzzled around 50m litres of aviation fuel, spewing an estimated 133,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – more than the entire island of Grenada last year.”

I’m tempted to highlight every paragraph from this vital story, but will stop with this: David Boyd, the UN special rapporteur for human rights and the environment, said: “This research helps us understand the immense magnitude of military emissions – from preparing for war, carrying out war and rebuilding after war. Armed conflict pushes humanity even closer to the precipice of climate catastrophe, and is an idiotic way to spend our shrinking carbon budget.” (Note: emphasis mine)

An idiotic way to spend our shrinking carbon budget, indeed. Please read this important story that highlights what we all know to be true: wars and aggression enrich the military industrial complex at the expense of people and planet.

Anything war can do, peace can do better!

Climate Movement Monday: protect mature trees

/ Tracy Abell / 3 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays in which we discuss all things climate. Today I’m returning to an issue I highlighted in March of 2023 when I asked for personalized letters in support of old-growth forests. There’s good news: on December 19, 2023, the Biden administration put out a press release First-of-its Kind National Forest Plan Amendment to Conserve and Steward Old Growth Forests, stating that “the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a proposal to amend all 128 forest land management plans to conserve and steward old-growth forest conditions on national forests and grasslands nationwide.”

That’s a very good start. But we need to keep applying pressure to also protect mature trees and forests. Per Earthjustice: The proposed plan could protect old-growth trees in national forests from most logging. But the Forest Service also needs to issue strong protections for mature trees, which are our future old-growth forests and exist in much greater numbers than old-growth.

Photo by Zetong Li

Protecting mature trees and forests on federal lands should be a no-brainer as we face climate collapse. Big, old trees do so much for us. They store carbon! They provide habitat for wildlife! They help clean the air and water! They stabilize soil during floods! Also? Big, old trees are beautiful and balm for our stressed-out souls.   

Earthjustice has provided a letter template for us to get our comments to the Forest Service. Remember, we don’t have to write a whole lot of words and the most effective letter is one that shows why the issue matters to us. I know there are many tree-loving readers here. 🙂 Please, take a moment in support of mature trees and forests!

Solidarity! ✊🏽

Quick action on behalf of Palestinians!

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

On Thursday, I wrote about courageous South Africa filing genocide charges against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Today, Truthout published this excellent piece that alerted me to a letter-writing campaign in support of South Africa’s efforts. So, I’m back to ask you to PLEASE use this template to write one letter that will be automatically sent to the United Nations Consulates of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Jordan, Turkey, Ireland, Honduras, Bolivia, Belize, Algeria, and Pakistan. Because those countries are parties to the Genocide Convention, they can file a Declaration of Intervention with the IJC in support of South Africa’s efforts.

We in the U.S. are NOT being represented by our government. The majority of people want a permanent ceasefire and do not support the genocide being funded by the U.S. government. Our only hope is to put pressure on other countries to follow through on their declarations of outrage regarding Israel’s campaign of collective punishment. Unless they do so, Israel will continue to act with impunity.

PLEASE, take a few minutes to personalize this letter (I wrote about the frustration of my so-called representatives’ lack of response to my phone calls, emails, protests, etc., and also shortened the template message). It’s also good to personalize the Subject line. Our letters carry more weight when we write in our own words because it shows we really and truly care about what’s happening. RootsAction and World Beyond War created the template and so far, nearly 180,000 letters have been sent. PLEASE, add your voice to the global chorus calling out in support of Palestinians!

Thank you in advance. ❤️ Solidarity! ✊🏽

Thankful Thursday: South Africa charges Israel with genocide

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

It’s very fitting that South Africa, a former apartheid state, is the country that recently filed charges against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

South Africa asserts that Israel is in violation of the Geneva Convention. From the 84-page document‘s Introduction:
The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group, that being the part of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip (‘Palestinians in Gaza’). The acts in question include killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. The acts are all attributable to Israel, which has failed to prevent genocide and is committing genocide in manifest violation of the Genocide Convention, and which has also violated and is continuing to violate its other fundamental obligations under the Genocide Convention, including by failing to prevent or punish the direct and public incitement to genocide by senior Israeli officials and others.

I have not read the entire document (not even close), but here is video of British newspaper columnist, Owen Jones, breaking down the contents. Confession: it was difficult getting through the entire video due to the sheer volume of horrifying details about Israel’s genocidal campaign, but it felt important to bear witness to what’s happening in my name. (Note: the video link also allows you to “show transcript” if you’d rather read or want to read along. OR, you can watch with subtitles via Twitter)

This from the end of Owen Jones’s video (~ 32:00 mark):
This is why South Africa’s case is so important. A ruling by the court could take years but we don’t have years so South Africa has asked for something else as well for the court to order in the meantime: for Israel to cease its operations in Gaza, to desist from the forced displacement of Palestinians, and allow Gazans to get access to humanitarian aid. That would mean foreign States who then facilitate Israel’s current action would find themselves criminally liable.

Predictably, White House National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, referred to the filing as “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.” (Um, the filing contains 574 footnotes, not to mention that the entire world is watching this genocide!)

I haven’t watched it yet, but Owen Jones made another video on South Africa’s filing, this one with human rights lawyer Daniel Machover. (Fun fact: In 1967, after Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Daniel Machover’s father, who was born to a Jewish family in Tel Aviv, plus 11 others, signed this statement:

If only Israel had aligned itself with that statement which saw far into the country’s future.

As for South Africa’s filing, since the U.S. is the bully of the planet, I’m not holding my breath. But I will watch the video with Daniel Machover and see what he thinks could happen. Either way, we should all be grateful to South Africa for stepping up in this moment.  It’s increasingly difficult to maintain my civility when placing calls to Biden and my so-called representatives who continue to insist Israel is merely defending itself (via mass starvation?!), and I would love for all of them to someday be held complicit in this genocide. A woman can dream, right?

No matter what happens, I remain in steadfast support of a Free Palestine.

Climate Movement Monday: highlighting a climate win in 2023

/ Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays in which we discuss all things climate. I had aspirations for writing a round-up of climate wins from 2023, but didn’t summon the energy in time to create such a post.  🙂 However, I do want to shine a light on one issue we haven’t yet discussed here: factory farming.

As a lifelong vegetarian, I’m opposed to factory farming but wasn’t aware of what had happened in Oregon this past year until I did a search for “best climate wins in 2023.” Up popped an article written by Nick Englefried for Waging Nonviolence, a nonprofit media organization: A major win against factory farming points to a powerful new direction for the climate movement. The sub-headline reads Small farmers in Oregon, backed by a coalition of animal rights and climate activists, secured a big legislative victory over industrial factory farms, providing inspiration for wider action.

Here’s an introductory explanation of factory farming: “As animal agriculture became more concentrated and centralized during the last century, huge swaths of the country saw family farmers be displaced by factory farms, often called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. Notorious for their environmental impacts and cruel treatment of animals, CAFOs confine hundreds or thousands of livestock in small spaces where they are fed artificial diets with the goal of maximizing profit. The tons of manure produced by CAFOs are frequently over-applied to agricultural fields, or stored in huge artificial holding ponds called “lagoons.” The facilities are also water-intensive, with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimating 20 percent of freshwater used by humans worldwide is going to animal feed production.”

The article goes on to explain the carbon footprint of CAFOs. Spoiler alert: all that methane is very bad!

But here’s the good news: “In July, Gov. Tina Kotek signed Oregon Senate Bill 85, which places a moratorium on factory farms’ ability to use unlimited amounts of groundwater. While some advocates consider the bill to be a diluted compromise, it has potential to significantly limit the destructive activities of CAFOs in a state where a healthy remnant of the family farming economy still thrives. On a national level, it represents the first major state legislative victory against factory farming in the U.S. in years.”

The long-term goal of the Oregon coalition (animal rights groups, environmental and climate organizations, and small farmers) is to pass a full moratorium on new factory farming in Oregon.

More good news: “Since the bill’s passage, three proposed factory farms — the Easterday mega-dairy in Morrow County and two industrial poultry farms in the Willamette Valley — have been abandoned by their developers. This is good news for the climate and also small farming communities who will not face local competition from these massive projects.” I would add that it’s also very good news for the cows and chickens who now won’t be brutally mistreated in those facilities.

I recommend reading the full article here because it discusses the historical shift in climate advocacy from changing personal habits to forcing systemic change, highlighting the wildly successful campaign to push back against George W. Bush’s plan to build 150 new coal plants. “By 2010, almost every proposed new coal plant in the U.S. was defeated, allowing climate activists to turn their attention to retiring existing plants.” 

I don’t know about you, but it energizes me to learn about successful efforts on behalf of people, animals, and planet! I’d love to hear your thoughts on this (for instance, are there feed lots or factory farms near where you live?) so please share in the comments.

Until next week, solidarity! ✊🏽