We made the Amazon Rainforest
💭Dear dreamers,
It’s time to change the culture and this system of extraction it’s causing. We are nature. We can make it thrive. We can live in harmony. We are a living ecosystem too. We can dream it, and we can make it happen. Just how we made the Amazon Rainforest what it is today.
This Week in Climate News:
⚖️ Senator Joe Manchin announces surprise deal by Senate Democrats of $369B in climate and tax packages. If passed, it would enable the USA to slash emissions by 40% (pre 2005 levels) by 2030.
🔌 American west faces water and power shortages due to climate crisis.
📈 Cool Trends:
Indigenous land management and forest guardianship gaining respect and funding by Western politicians.
🤯 The Amazon Rainforest we know Today is a man Made Jungle
The Amazon rainforest we know today and its incredible biodiversity flourished thanks to thousands of years of indigenous management. Yes, we are now destroying it, but there’s so much power in knowing that we humans helped build this biodiversity basin too.
Indigenous agroforestry practices have been occurring in the Amazon for over 15,000 years when it was extremely inhabited before the European settlement. Indigenous people burnt dead brush and mixed it with compost teas creating extremely fertile soils called terra preta. Then they planted and domesticated millions of fruiting trees encouraging biodiversity. These years of human interference strengthened the ecosystem and made the forest more abundant for all other living beings too.
This shows that humans are not inherently greedy, selfish and destructive. The current predominant western world view is. The Amazon Rainforest is a living testament of this. We can destroy or we can regenerate nature.
A wonderful story of humans and nature flourishing together.
🇺🇸 What’s in the USA’s Climate & Tax Deal?
The $369B deal announced by Senator Manchin last week includes:
States and utilities get $30bn to help the transition to renewable, zero carbon electricity.
Tax credits for clean energy: solar, wind
Tax credits for nuclear energy and green hydrogen
Consumer tax credit of up to $7,500 for the purchase of electric vehicles
$9 billion in tax rebates for Americans buying and retrofitting their homes with energy efficient and electric appliances and tax credits for heat pumps, solar, water heaters, electric HVAC…
$27bn for a “clean energy technology accelerator” to help advance renewable technologies.
$3bn will be given to the US postal service to electrify its fleet of trucks .
$20bn will be spent to promote climate-friendly agricultural practices.
$5bn to make American forests better prepared for the wildfires-
$60bn dedicated to environmental justice projects across the US.
A fee on excess methane leaking from oil and gas wells, pipelines and other infrastructure.
$10 billion in investment tax credits for manufacturing facilities that make electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels.
$20 billion in loans to build new clean vehicle manufacturing facilities.
THE MANCHIN TRADE OFF: Loosened regulations around drilling, allowed leasing of 2 million acres of public lands and 60 million acres of offshore waters for oil and gas.
Wait what?
Yes Sen. Joe Manchin agreed to the bill by sneaking in big oil demands… does it completely compromise the deal? According to independent analysts the bill might still cut Us emissions by 40%.
💩 WTF? news
🤔 Under the USA Climate new leases will be offered in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.
⛽ Big Oil Sees Record Profits: “Exxon Made More Money Than God This Year” whilst BP reported a profit of $8.5 billion for its second quarter on Tuesday, its biggest in 14 years,
🌏 The Culture Club
📺 What we’re watching:
📚 What we’re reading: The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth
👁 Profile of the week: @manariushigua
🤯 Crazy fact we learnt this wee: Joe Manchin made millions with his family’s coal company.