🍄 Merry Amanita Muscaria
🎄 Dear eco-nnecters,
We wish you wonderful days of rest surrounded by love, light and joy. Below a story on the stories behind our merry Christmas traditions. We hope you enjoy. ✨
🗞️ In Climate News
🦈 USA congress passes drift net ban and end shark fin trade.
👏 Nations reach historic deal to protect nature at biodiversity COP in Montreal.
🇵🇪 Peru lawmakers propose bill to strip Indigenous people of protections.
✈️ Belgium cracks down on private jets and short-haul plights with new tax.
.📈 Cool Trends
♾️ eco-stories
🍄 Merry Christmas
In the lead-up to Christmas, I was sent different articles from different friends who encouraged me to write about the supposed psychedelic roots of the holiday. I welcomed their enthusiasm – “Christmas is pagan” – appreciating the growing interest in European folk traditions.
All of the articles explore the relationship between Christmas and the Amanita muscaria, a red and white mushroom that I first encountered while playing Super Mario Brothers as a child. I was unaware then that Mario’s growth, as he consumed these mushrooms, reflected his openness to the psychedelic experience. It was nearly twenty years later, when two friends went searching for these mushrooms in the north of London that I was introduced to these supposed gifts that grow under conifer and birch trees. I’ve never tried them, put off by the dedication required to prepare the Amanita muscaria for consumption, their toxicity requiring multiple rounds in boiling water before ingestion..
💩 WTF? news
🧊 Greenland's glaciers are melting 100 times faster than estimated.
⛽ Big oil is behind conspiracy to deceive public, first climate racketeering lawsuit says.
🌏 The Culture Club
📺 What we’re watching: Fire of Love, doocumentary.
📸 Profile of the week: @thenarwahlca
📚What we’re reading: Article: The Quest to Defuse Guyana’s Carbon Bomb, A former BP lawyer is going up against Exxon.
🤯 Scary fact we learnt this week: cruise ships kill about 20,000 whales each year.