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#ecology

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escheche@diasp.org
Sylvia J

Fidel Castro

August13, 1926 ~ November25, 2016

https://invidious.lunar.icu/watch?v=liCEZ0tzJ9s
Fidel Castro in Guadalajara [w/ subtitles] (1991)

On this day in 1926, #Cuban #Revolutionary #Fidel #Castro was born. He would lead a guerilla campaign with other revolutionaries such as Che Guevara to overthrow the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. Before Cuba's revolution, US financial interests owned 90% of Cuba’s mines, 80% of public utilities, 50% of railways, 40% of sugar production & 25% of bank deposits.

In the first 30 months after Fidel Castro and Cuba’s communists came to power, more classrooms were built in those 30 months than had been built in the previous 30 years. Within the first six months of Castro's government, 600 miles of road had been built across the island, while $300 million was spent on water and sanitation schemes. Over 800 houses were constructed every month in the early years of the administration in a measure to cut homelessness, while nurseries and day-care centers were opened for children and other centers opened for the disabled and elderly.

With the arrival of the revolutionary government, Cuban healthcare was nationalised and expanded with heavy investment, bringing free healthcare access to millions. Universal vaccination for childhood diseases was introduced, leading to infant mortality rates plummeting. Cuba's 'army of doctors' is now sent to crisis-hit countries around the world. Since 1963, more than 600,000 Cuban health workers have provided medical services in more than 160 countries.

Fidel Castro's Cuba was also instrumental in many anti-colonial and liberation struggles across the developing world, Cuba provided material support to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Cuban material support was also given to Angola and Palestine.

Despite being under the illegal embargo imposed by the US, Cuba now has a higher life expectancy than the US, has more doctors per capita than the US, and is among the top 35 countries for lowest child mortality rates. Under Fidel Castro's rule, UNICEF declared severe child malnutrition to be eradicated.

#fidelcastro #guadalajara #speech #1991 #subtitles #capitalism #ecology

Fidel Castro on Ecology and Capitalism

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smokeinfog@diasp.org
SmokeInFog

A Third of North America’s Birds Have Vanished

. . .

The computation Smith had just finished that day in May 2019 combined individual population estimates for 529 bird species, from the most common sparrows and robins to rarities hardly ever seen. When Smith pulled these estimates together and adjusted each for its degree of certainty, the findings came down to a single ski slope of a chart. It showed a precipitous drop in nearly all these species in every part of the continent. At the bottom sat four lone digits—2.913. That’s the number of breeding birds in billions that had disappeared since the early 1970s. He had documented an accelerating churn of seasonal losses that slowly took their toll on the abundance of birds. And it translated to an astounding third of the adult birds that not long ago filled North America but now are gone.

The hardest hit were grassland birds, down by more than 50 percent, mostly due to the expansion of farms that turn a varied landscape into acres of neat, plowed rows. That equates to 750 million birds, from bright yellow Eastern and Western Meadowlarks with their incessant morning songs to the stately Horned Lark with black masks across the male’s eyes and tiny hornlike feathers that sometimes stick up from their heads. Forest birds lost a third of their numbers, or 500 million, including the compact, colorful warblers and speckle-breasted Wood Thrushes that sing like flutes. Common backyard birds experienced a seismic decline. That’s where 90 percent of the total loss of abundance occurred, among just twelve families of the best-known birds—including sparrows, blackbirds, starlings, and finches. There’s been relatively little research on these species, and there’s no sense of urgency when resources are already stretched thin for so many other birds in more dire need.

The possibility of such losses was too startling to share with his colleagues until Smith checked every step of his calculations, particularly since he’d never attempted this analysis before. “It always takes a couple of times to get these numbers right,” he said. After a day and a half of painstaking scrutiny, Smith realized there was no mistake. “I was speechless. We’ve lost almost 30 percent of an entire class of organisms in less than the span of a human lifetime, and we didn’t know it.”

#birds #biodiversity #environment #ecology #ornithology #Nautilus

A Third of North America’s Birds Have Vanished

At first Adam Smith couldn’t believe his calculations. Then it sank in.

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psych@diasp.org
Michael

Good post on Mastodon where my reading of the vibe is, “people think Mastodon is too complicated”.
That’s additive to the other #social #media consolidation and weaponization/#disinformation fun.
Like #Twitter #X lawyers v #Meta, #MuskVirus vs. Zuck who Likes it - in a cage match.

Oh, I hear there’s a new Russian troll farm coming to an Internet near you!

But in the real world of man-made global disaster unfolding before our eyes, as other people “those people” issue ‘fake news’.

‘It doesn’t seem real’: Earth’s record-shattering heat stuns scientists

#environment #globalclimate #climate #ecology #ecosystem #disinformation #MediaManipulation

'It doesn’t seem real': Earth’s record-shattering heat stuns scientists

Just days after the "hottest day ever recorded," the major surge in temperatures "has unsettled even those scientists who have been tracking climate change," The New York Times reports. According to The Washington Post, "on Tuesday, the global...

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