Ralph Felix Pina

@EmpirePodUK I am an avid listener to the Empire podcast. However, I am a little surprised, given your in-depth treatment of the British Empire and slavery, that you have not dealt with the Indian Ocean slave trade, and the Portuguese, Dutch, French, British empires roles & in Africa

Empire Club members get to binge ALL FIVE episodes of our extraordinary -and often shocking- Panama series. From Francis Drake and pirates, to eccentric Frenchmen drumming up support to build the biggest canal in the world, it's a corker! ⭐Join now⭐ empirepod.supportingcast.fm

I could not possibly be filled with more rage after seeing Texas Republicans blame the National Weather Service forecast for the unspeakable tragedy that hit the girls camp. You were warned this would happen if you fired everyone!

Insects are vanishing even in untouched reserves. Nothing is isolated—climate, chemicals, habitat loss, invasive species, even renewables. The web is unraveling everywhere at once. Ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects theguardian.com/environment/20…

As a concerned citizen, @CyrilRamaphosa, your silence on signing the High Seas Treaty (BBNJ) is alarming. Less than 1% of the high seas is protected. Will you act before #UNOC3 or watch our ocean disappear? #ProtectTheOceans

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

Expect a deafening silence from our billionaire-owned governments. They ignored 2024 shattering 1.5C. They ignored January reaching 1.75C. They’re ignoring imminent AMOC collapse. They’ll ignore this. It’s not hyperbole, we are governed by psychopaths on track to kill us all.

the room next door - Donald Trump Plane Crash Fact Check

What kind of fucking werirdo posts himself like this.

“It is not possible to have growth and ecological viability, and because it is not possible to have capitalism without growth, it is also not possible to have ecological viability with capitalism.” — Roy Bhaskar discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1001…

Trump wins the White House. Again. The Democrats blew it. Again. A depressing yet predictable result.

The Extreme Weather Report, Oct 30, 2024. This is your weather on fossil fuels. Happy Halloween.

Don’t listen to the haters Elon, I get it. The government thought you were a student but you identified as a worker 🙌🏽 #transitioning

This is a peek at the ending of our recently published 2024 State of the Climate Report. Here is the full report: doi.org/10.1093/biosci…

Oh well, who’s on Strictly etc etc Young people, just FYI, this is your lives burning up in front of you. Might want to read and repost? theguardian.com/environment/20…

Academic ironies

In years to come, students in university departments around the world will be studying the propaganda embedded in this headline. As someone who regularly lectures in sociology, journalism and media studies, I could teach an entire lesson on the title alone. For example: 1. Treating the 4 Israeli soldiers as more important than the 23 Palestinian children (by leading the story with their deaths and just chucking in the others at the end) implies their lives are of higher value. 2. Infantilizing active duty soldiers as "teenagers" while not emphasizing the age of the schoolkids, despite many of them being demonstrably younger. 3. The classic use of the passive voice: Israelis are "killed" while Palestinians merely "die". 4. Putting scare quotes around "23 die" subtly undermines the credibility of that claim. Maybe no one died, and the Palestinians are just lying? 5. Using the word "attack" for Hezbollah actions, but choosing a more neutral, clinical word like "strike" for Israeli aggression. 6. Allowing Israeli sources to dictate the framing of the story ("Israel names teenage soldiers") etc. 7. Actually naming the Israeli soldiers, but not doing the same for the far greater number of Palestinians, again sends the message to the reader that Palestinian lives don't matter nearly as much, if at all. It's truly incredible how much propaganda has been packed into 16 words. We are swimming in an ocean of propaganda. That's why it is crucial to deconstruct it and critically assess everything you read, see and hear.

Today we published our 2024 State of the Climate Report where we scientists declare that the fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. theguardian.com/environment/20… You can read full report here: doi.org/10.1093/biosci…