Crisis capitalism doing its thing: “It’s a huge addressable market, and one that — unfortunately — is poised to only grow in the coming years as wildfire threats increase.”

Let’s just focus myopically on more tech, rather than, hmm… forest health?!
techcrunch.com/2023/03/15/tor…

Shout out to Bay Area CA, where destruction of what’s left of the natural world is celebrated as progress, the sounds of human development a constant. As if everyone driving Teslas undoes all damage. What bees are left drop dead and dying from sky around here. 🐝💔

“As we stand on the precipice of a climate crisis, it's imperative to underscore that our future should not merely be a shift in the type of resources we exploit, but a shift in our consciousness.”

“Our culture, educational system, and mass media don’t teach ecology and sustainability, they teach capitalism and consumerism.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom finds the protection of other species inconvenient. Biden too. I’m tired of a Democratic Party that gives nothing but lip service to real environmental protection, while greenwashing habitat destruction en masse.

Fight For Nature 🍃💚🍃 I feel like one of most important things within an individual’s control is grow your own food where possible, buy organic when not, and spread the word about the dangerous levels of poisons within commercial food system. In this sadly market-driven world, reducing demand helps.

So many bees live in deserts, along w/plants whose roots extend into an intricate underground realm of life unseen and yet supporting us. If you’ve not questioned the massive profit-driven destruction of nature masquerading as *green energy*… now’s the time to look closely.

Here’s a poem called ‘The Last Bee’ for #WorldBeeDay .

Latest piece in The Conversation about how clever bees are.

Imagine if we knew as much about other invertebrates 😍 Sydney Uni Media Sydney Science @BambiraptorF
theconversation.com/bees-can-do-so… via The Conversation - Australia + New Zealand

Modern apple orchard. In 2022 typical orchard sprayed w/15 insecticides + 6 fungicides. None of these compounds' interactions are studied, yet they're often applied as 'tank mix' to save time/money. Life as we know it is carried on bee wings not💸 #savebeesnotmoney #WorldBeeDay

Despite being prohibited by EU for outdoor agriculture since 2018, EU companies like Syngenta still sell *1000s of tons* of these pesticides to countries w/o bans (most to Brazil). Neonicotinoids are 7000x more toxic to bees than DDT (just 1 tsp kills 1.25 billion honey bees).

Even plants labeled for sale as “bee friendly” may be pretreated with pesticides! Ideally grow your own from seed. Try strolling in your area to see which native plants are flourishing, as these may have adapted further to local conditions (and may be worth gathering seeds from).

It feels all too true, Paul Kingsnorth describing ours as “a world remaking itself at incredible speed, a world racing away from the real towards artifice and a narrow human narcissism.” Like this digger bee, I’d rather race towards the lupins… lose myself in the wildflowers.

“Drop something green from your gallery.”

(Forest floor where once I lived in Oregon… the place that gave me such an appreciation for the many shades of green, from mosses and ferns to lichens and trees… all manner of verdant lifeforms)

'If you take away nothing else from this season’s superbloom [in CA], let it be this: Do not confuse a dry brown hillside or field for a lifeless wasteland. It may be a nursery of wildflowers just waiting for the right time to flourish.' latimes.com/science/story/…

So this is not about bees—tho bee diversity in deserts is *incredible*! That’s also where all sorts of mining, solar farms, and such is happening. How can anyone feel they care about nature, while destroying ever more wildness? If something needs to go, it’s this way of life.

I'm giving an online talk this evening (8pm) about insect declines and pesticides, you can register here:
protectnewarksgreenspaces.com/events/insect-…

Past time… and haven’t we (or at least some of us) always known it? It can be tempting to look away, as though this is just how things are these days. I feel a kind of pain keenly when I see such sights. If this is the price of civilization, it will also be part of its downfall.