Like a glittering tide, light pollution—also known as ALAN, or “artificial light at night”—is spreading across the globe, brightening even the planet’s remaining dark corners.

From space, cities resemble iridescent amoebae, their luminous tendrils pushing outward into rural landscapes. On the ground, that expansion is even more dramatic. Data collected by citizen scientists analyzed by German and American researchers suggest that sky glow has increased by roughly 10% annually between 2011 and 2022, doubling in brightness every eight years. That pace is far faster than what satellites alone have typically captured, and it helps explain why more than 80% of the world’s population, and more than 99% of people in the United States and Europe, now live under light-polluted skies, with the Milky Way hidden from more than a third of humanity.

when the world gets crazy - it can start to feel like we're literally living in a dystopian reality. But what if I told you there was some secret (and somewhat radical) optimism that lowkey working in our favor as we speak? That's Solarpunk - if you haven't heard of it already.

From style, to aesthetic, to values - Solarpunk is pretty much the inverse of Cyberpunk in a number of different categories. Perhaps not as "cool" as the edgy, cyber vibe - but still a unique and refreshing vibe within itself. And has some interesting and promising sustainability developments as well.

It also has some interesting parallels to Frutiger Aero - mostly superficial, but perhaps there's room for a "Neo" Frutiger Aero - to help bridge the gap between our reality/an impending Cyberpunk dystopia - and Solarpunk.

Let's use our imaginations and talk about it.

In this week’s episode of The Nature Of, Willow sits down with Robin Wall Kimmerer, beloved scientist, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. They explore the shift from learning about to learning from nature, understanding that the land loves us back, and her new initiative Plant Baby Plant. Robin invites us to step back into belonging, and to see the natural world not as something separate from us, but as a generous teacher offering guidance every single day. This conversation is full of wonder and clarity, and it just might change the way you walk outside.

Transcript available on the website. Video version is on YouTube.

California nearly triggered a seismic shift in American kitchens this fall.

A bill phasing out the sale of nonstick pans made with polytetrafluoroethylene—a type of PFAS “forever chemical”—cleared the state legislature in September with overwhelming support. Given the well-documented health risks associated with production of PTFE, commonly known as Teflon, advocates fully expected Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign SB 682 into law.

But then the celebrity chefs showed up.

Days before Newsom was set to rule on the bill, a wave of similarly worded letters to the California State Legislature appeared. Celebrity chefs Rachael Ray, David Chang, Thomas Keller, and Marcus Samuelsson all insisted that Teflon was safe when used correctly. Their letters warned that the bill was alarmist, unnecessary, and unfair to home cooks and professional chefs alike. Their message was polished, unified, and amplified across national media.

In the end, Newsom echoed their concerns. “I am deeply concerned about the impact this bill would have on the availability of affordable options in cooking products,” he wrote in his veto message.

But the chefs weren’t acting alone. They were working on behalf of The Cookware Sustainability Alliance, a newly created lobbying group representing some of the world’s largest pan manufacturers, which argued the bill would drive up consumer prices and needlessly restrict a “safe” product.

The reason the chefs’ letters aligned so cleanly with the CSA’s talking points is, in retrospect, unsurprising: They all have financial relationships with companies that produce and sell PTFE-coated pans—the same companies that fund the CSA, a joint investigation by Atmos and Heated found.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/31112565

Miriam talks with Gabe and Kato from the Astoria Food Pantry, a radical food pantry that has food, books, and RPGs, about how the project works, how giving away shit for free is cool, how awesome mutual aid distros are, and how we could sure use more of them, especially ones with RPGs.

Find them at https://www.astoriafoodpantry.com/ or on IG @astoriafoodpantry.

My irl schedule is getting busier so I'm looking to form a team with one or two more mods.

This community is chill. Would be a good opportunity for first timers!

🍴 Must have a slrpnk.net account at least a few months old with a post and/or comment history
🍴 Will enforce instance rules in a cool-headed manner
🍴 Understand that the global food system is a mess
🍴 Bonus if outside the EST (UTC -5) time zone

I'm open to new rules, recurring posts and other ways to bring more life to the community, so be sure to leave a comment if interested. Thanks!

Each week, we’ll share a cooking video on YouTube featuring a complete holiday menu that blends classic, creative, and cultural dishes with a plant-based twist. From gourmet spreads to Caribbean flavors, comforting classics, and clever leftover makeovers — there’s something for every table.

When you register for the free Vegan Holiday Menu Series, you'll automatically receive a complimentary download of our special recipe collection, "The Vegan Holiday Table." This essential PDF guide features 17 beloved recipes plus helpful tips and insights for navigating the holiday season, making your plant-based celebration simple and delicious.

Given the government shutdown, soaring grocery prices, and federal cuts to food-assistance programs, the need for the grassroots initiative is greater than ever.

The inaugural Natural Philosophy Symposium was held in Baltimore on May 29-31, 2025. It was sponsored by the Natural Philosophy Forum at Johns Hopkins (https://www.naturalphilosophyhopkins.org/), covering all aspects of natural philosophy, featuring talks from philosophers and scientists in a variety of disciplines. All the talks from the symposium are available on this channel.

https://www.naturalphilosophyhopkins.org/natural-philosophy-symposium-2025/

Each day concluded with a panel discussion featuring that day's speakers. Day One included David Chalmers, Sandra Mitchell, Nima Arkani-Hamed, Kevin Zollman, Malcolm MacIver, and Nick Lane. The conversation was moderated by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (https://chanda.science/) of the University of New Hampshire.

In this video we dive into a tiny forest that was created in one of the hottest climates in the US (South Texas) using the Miyawaki tiny forest method.

This project emphasizes the importance of plants not as some candy-ass "pretty" bullshit, but as vital pieces of infrastructure that are essential to bettering the human quality of life and reducing the effects of excess heat, drought and flooding.

On land that was once totally barren and next to a large urban road, a tiny forest has been rated using native plants as infrastructure. Pioneer species as well as slower-growing secondary successional species were installed in 2023 to mitigate flooding, mitigate the effects of the urban heat island (created by the surrounding concrete and asphalt), and provide habitat for beneficial insects and birds.

Video is a brief summary of this post: Homegrown Diversity and Infectious Diseases

You might think that a garden full of native plants, thicker on the ground and under the trees, jumbled together in profusion, might be a better habitat for disease-carrying ticks, bugs, and mice than a closely cropped lawn of turfgrass in a neat suburb with lots of "Garden Center" landscaping. Intuitively, the neat and managed neighborhood looks like the sort of place where infectious diseases couldn’t thrive. The experience of the last few decades in southern New England would suggest otherwise!

Lyme Disease, a bacterial infection transmitted by the bite of the black-legged deer tick, has dramatically spread in the region over the last 50 years. The bacteria, the tick vector, and the natural hosts – deer, mice, and birds – were all present before humans arrived in North America. The explosion in human cases, first detected in the 1970s, was fueled by human environmental changes. Development, suburbanization, the introduction of invasive plants, and habitat fragmentation disrupted the native biome.

The inverse relationship between biodiversity and transmission of infectious diseases is an established ecology concept called “The Dilution Effect”. As biodiversity declines the most able species that take advantage of this are those that tend to reproduce rapidly, adapt quickly to denuded habitat, and also tend to be good hosts for infectious organisms.

What would limit this march of infectious diseases into new regions? Biodiversity! Imagine a mouse or a deer or a tick or a mosquito migrating into a new habitat. If a place is already full of a healthy mix of native wildlife (everything from bugs to birds to mammals) it’s harder for an outsider species to take over. There’s just too much competition from the locals. The best way to crowd our neighborhood with abundant neighbors is to create native environments favored by locally adapted species.

One of the most valuable things you can do to support pollinators and other invertebrates is to provide them with the shelter they need to survive the winter. Thankfully, that’s pretty easy; all you need to do is do less yard work.

Leaves, brush piles, fallen logs, plant stems, and flower heads might not be growing anymore, but they aren’t trash — they are natural homes for wildlife! A layer of leaves is vital insulation from the cold for the many animals that hide within (or in the soil beneath), like quite a few butterflies. Others, like many native bees, nest within stems, flower heads, or pieces of wood. Throwing out all of your leaves and other plant material isn’t just taking away options for shelter; there’s a good chance you’re tossing out many animals that have already settled in!

That’s why this year and every year, we are making the case for leaving the leaves. That’s not to say you can’t do any tidying up. We have tips for thoughtful autumn cleanup that still leaves space for nature. You’ll also meet just a few of the many animals you’ll be saving. Read on!