Day 14

“Nearly 2m hectares of #forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a #ThreatenedSpecies in 2011, according to analysis for Guardian Australia.

The scale of #habitat #destruction in #Queensland and #NewSouthWales – states in which the koala is formally recognised as being at risk of #extinction – has continued despite political promises it would be protected.

Analysis by the #AustralianConservationFoundation using state and federal government #data found 1,964,200 hectares of #koala habitat were cleared between 2012 and 2021, the latest year for which there was complete data.

The total amount of destroyed forest and bush covered an area larger than greater Sydney, taking in the #BlueMountains, the #Illawarra, the southern highlands and the #Goulburn and #Shoalhaven regions.

It is more than 10 times larger than the area the #NSW government is assessing for a possible “great koala national park”. But most of the cleared area – 81% – was in Queensland.

About three-quarters of the lost forest is estimated to have been cleared for agriculture, to create #cattle pasture and #crop fields. The analysis found 13% was removed by the #forestry industry and 5% for development of infrastructure, including #mining. Just 4% was likely due to natural causes, such as bushfire and drought.”

There’s a reason the Minister for the Environment has been kept quiet.

#Auspol / #Labor / #Straya / #ClimateExtinction <https://theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/12/koala-habitat-destroyed-since-2011-analysis>

"I have never seen an anti-feminist backlash quite like the one we are living through. The embrace of misogyny is thorough and unapologetic. It transcends just about every aspect of this administration, from the president down through his followers.

~ Jill Filipovic

#Musk #Trump #MAGA #destruction #chaos #fascism #suicide #empathy #morality #religion #WhiteChristianNationalism #misogyny #women
/8

https://jill.substack.com/p/boys-will-be-boys-but-women-are-too

'“To me, this disparagement marks a step in the destruction of our multicultural democracy, and provides a path from the verbal dehumanization of others to ope' discrimination and maltreatment.” ...

We are witnessing the construction of the ideological architecture to excuse violence and suffering on a mass scale."

#Musk #Trump #MAGA #destruction #chaos #fascism #suicide #empathy #morality #religion #WhiteChristianNationalism
/7

“'The disparagement of empathy is the flip side, I believe, of a deliberate effort to set up a permission structure to dehumanize others, and to narrow the definition of who should be included in a democratic state, or in a Christian community,' she said."

#Musk #Trump #MAGA #destruction #chaos #fascism #suicide #empathy #morality #religion #WhiteChristianNationalism
/6

"Susan Lanzoni, a historian of psychology and author of Empathy: A History, said by email that through all her research into the intellectual history of empathy, she had 'never seen empathy vilified in the way it has been in these current sources [on the American right]'."

~ Julia Carrie Wong

#Musk #Trump #MAGA #destruction #chaos #fascism #suicide #empathy #morality #religion #WhiteChristianNationalism
/5

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/08/empathy-sin-christian-right-musk-trump

"Our problems are much bigger than Trump, than MAGA, or than a Democratic minority versus majority. Our problem is, in too many ways, us. We have to be better than this. We are better than this, but we have to want that. We have to want to be the best versions of ourselves, and be willing to do the work that requires.

Otherwise, we lose."

#Musk #Trump #MAGA #destruction #chaos #fascism #suicide
/4

"And I believe the only reason he lost to President Biden in 2020 was because the pandemic was an immediate threat that was scaring the hell out of Americans and killed more than a half million of us.

But four years later, we forgot all about that."

#Musk #Trump #MAGA #destruction #chaos #fascism #suicide
/3

"We as a country need to face up to who we really are if we are to have any hope of not sliding over the cliff we’re currently approaching at a rapid pace. ...

it’s still hard for me to get past the fact that, for whatever reason (ignorance, racism, sexism, misinformation, disinformation, laziness), an incredibly large number of Americans voted for Trump. Twice."

~ Keith Owens

#Musk #Trump #MAGA #destruction #chaos #fascism #suicide
/2

https://wearespeaking.substack.com/p/who-are-we-really

"I have nothing but contempt for the investor-class idiots being caught by surprise. Though no one could have predicted precisely how deranged Trump’s tariffs would be, because he is the most erratic man who has ever lived, tariffs were the core of his campaign platform."

#Trump #tariffs #economy #StockMarket #crash #destruction #recession #WallStreet #billionaires
/12

"I hope MAGA investors enjoy the crisis they caused. Right-wing financiers thought Trump would unleash prosperity. Instead, his tariffs are nuking the markets."

~ Ryan Cooper

Germany's business leaders put Hitler into power because they imagined they could contol him and get what they wanted from him. And then….

#Trump #tariffs #economy #StockMarket #crash #destruction #recession #WallStreet #billionaires
/11

https://prospect.org/economy/2025-04-08-hope-maga-investors-enjoy-crisis-they-caused/

"Today the editors of the right-wing National Review urged Congress to take back the power it has ceded to Trump, calling it 'preposterous that a single person could enjoy this much power over…the global economy.'”

#Trump #tariffs #economy #StockMarket #crash #destruction #recession #WallStreet #billionaires
/10

Heather Cox Richardson on the "Wall Street billionaires" who put Trump into office now trying him to back off from the tariff madness:

"With Trump’s extraordinary tariffs now threatening the global economy, some of those who once cheered on his dictatorial impulses are now recalling the checks and balances they were previously willing to undermine."

#Trump #tariffs #economy #StockMarket #crash #destruction #recession #WallStreet #billionaires
/9

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-8-2025

"Trump needs to be stopped because he’s hurting people, yes, but also because he’s acting like a dictator, and we don’t have dictators in America."

#Trump #tariffs #economy #StockMarket #crash #destruction #recession #dictator
/8

"Trump talked a lot about tariffs on the campaign trail (in confused and dishonest ways) but before November 2024 it was never presumed that winning one election by a tiny margin with a mere plurality of the popular vote entitled a president to fabricate pretexts for wrecking the global economy or upend the U.S. system of public finance without passing any legislation."

~ Brian Beutler

#Trump #tariffs #economy #StockMarket #crash #destruction #recession #dictator
/7

https://www.offmessage.net/p/we-dont-have-dictators-in-america