Chu 朱

Science and Climate Communication

Believer in Energy Reduction
Engineer by trade

Fan of Chinese history and culture - making up for growing up in the cultureless vacuum of my youth.

Cantonese speaker - looking for fellow parents teaching Cantonese.

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npub1wu02wemlr24hhdhfw28cscw5k0eqlgdvnmcutw8v2dsr3y3472jq72036n

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chu_at_climatejustice.social@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2024-06-19 00:20:06

More than half of US adults see #ClimateChange as biggest threat facing humanity.
Yet nothing can be done in this democracy. Why? Because in a democracy, the wish of the majority is supposed to be respected.
This isn't a democracy when the wishes of the majority come second to the wishes of the elite. This is an oligarchy.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/6/16/what-grief-for-a-dying-planet-looks-like-climate-scientists-on-the-edge-2

2024-06-11 02:32:06

Forget the #ClimateBreakdown benefits of reducing meat consumption. It's better for you too.
Even if you don't go to zero... just eat less. We eat way too much in this part of the world. They've been lying to you to get you to eat more so they make more money at the expense of your arteries.
You'll be less likely to die of cancer or heart attacks if you didn't buy into their corporate crap of so much protein.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/planetary-health-diet-mortality-1.7228831

2024-06-10 05:26:03

Twice in ref to Finland's elections I've seen the term "far left" used to describe the left of centre party.
What exactly is far left? People who believe in vaccines, climate science, and like the weekend?

2024-06-08 00:05:38

I often write environmental pieces for my local paper as a community service.
They asked me to write a 300 word piece to help promote the local farmer's market which I'm more than happy to do.
I should add that this market is in Galen Weston's neighbourhood... when the markets first started taking off, he said "farmer's markets are nice until somebody gets killed" (or something to this effect, referring to food poisoning). It's been 12 years and nobody has died yet.
Anyways... this is my second paragraph.
Think they will print it?
******
As the boycott against Loblaw and overall greedflation continues, supporting local farmers’ market is not just a great way to vent your anger at the handful of men controlling 80% of the grocery market, it is one of the few ways to ensure the remaining 20% doesn’t also fall into the hands of colluding billionaires who did not think twice about fixing bread prices. When you shop at a farmers’ market you support farmers and food vendors directly without a middleman taking the bulk of the profits. This is vital especially for small farmers who want to grow using sustainable methods and avoid packaging their produce in ocean bound plastic. Buying local also reduces the fossil fuels used in transporting foods and the incredible variety of vegetables that typically cannot be found in supermarkets makes it easier to take in more fruits and veggies and less climate destroying meat and dairy.

2024-06-06 01:18:34

Pooh, if you live to be a hundred, I want to live to a hundred and a day because I don't want to live a single day without you.
- Piglet
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/jun/06/ben-vautier-dies-french-artist-death-aged-88?utm_source=press.coop

2024-06-05 04:15:42

Just want to point out how completely sociopathic the capitalist class truly is.
Check out how nonchalantly they talk about destroying the earth for literally NOTHING. Nobody needs diamonds. You don't eat them. You don't do anything useful with them except for the small fraction used at tips to cut stuff with.
Look at how they think nothing about manipulating people. "the diamond industry will need to work hard to reignite Chinese consumer demand."
They are talking about using advertising to manipulate people into wanting/buying a thing they DO NOT NEED at great expense to poor people who work these jobs that produce almost no value to anybody except billionaire owners amid a #ClimateCrisis where these operations will pollute surrounding areas and definitely need fossil fueled machinery.
These people are sick. Have absolutely NO conscience. They will not stop until half the population is starving and finally revolts.
It is absolutely disgusting to read a piece like this when you think about it in the context of workers rights and climate breakdown.
#MediaIsComplicit in all this because of the glowing way it writes about these sick sick action. They talk about advertising like it's some glorious Mad Max kind of thing.
These people will not agree to scale back production, stop pursuing infinite growth unless they are stopped. I have lost all hope that we can turn to the current power structures to save humanity and society. I can only hope that when the guillotines come out, these people go first.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/05/diamond-industry-in-trouble-as-lab-grown-gemstones-tank-prices-further.html

2024-06-05 01:10:20

Microsoft has done a great marketing job for Linux and Ubuntu.
I'm sold. Well done.

2024-06-04 12:02:00

35 years ago brave Chinese students sat peacefully protesting for democracy, something people increasingly had around the world.
China had emerged on the world stage and young people wanted what other people around the world had.
Many of these young people would not return home. Their own government, comrads, would slaughter them for daring to want, daring to dream, daring to demand.
Their movement failed. Hong Kong was the last place that continued to commemorate their bravery for at least trying. Hong Kong has now lost many of the very freedoms these students wanted.
These students are being erased from history. As fascism starts to take hold around once flourishing democracies, let us take a moment to remember the incredible price it comes at.
Democracy is not easy. It takes blood to get and as we watch the world's biggest democracy erode, we know it can slip away easily.
Remembering Tiananmen Square isn't just about those students. It is a reminder to us about the blood price of democracy. It can get crushed in its infancy and it can get destroyed in it's maturity.
This anniversary, remember that our freedoms are always paid for in blood. Safeguard what you have.
Be tank man.

2024-06-03 15:39:33

As you read this bone chilling piece from @npub1u94…8xkd
Remember that the only difference between a rebel and a freedom fighter is who wins
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/03/trump-conviction-republicans-maga-richard-nixon?utm_source=press.coop

2024-06-03 14:46:31

Until Western influences and complaints about the inability to translate "she" into Chinese, the Chinese language did not have a gendered pronoun.
他 was used for male, female, and even animals and objects. It was simply a generic 'it'.
Then Westerners came in and insisted that the patriarchy get even more so and eventually the word 她 started to come into use (but with much debate and some resistance).
Today as we celebrate our non binary friends and as the English language struggles with having a non gendered pronoun, there is a movement to ditch the 她 and go back to simply using 他 for everyone.
Another thing Western colonialism ruined
Happy pride month!
https://www.harvard-yenching.org/research/cultural-history-of-the-chinese-character-ta/

2024-06-01 04:19:42

This is the forecast for New Delhi
Not a night below 30c.
The body cannot cool off and "reset".
Many people, even young healthy people will not survive this week because of #ClimateBreakdown
#ClimateCrisis is hitting us already. Not sometime in 2030 or 2040 when we have fresh targets to not hit.
This is genocide.
Indian authorities won't be able to keep an accurate tally of the dead. It is a crisis that #FossilFuel companies gave us. we need to sue them out of existence.
https://climatejustice.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/539/421/860/274/163/original/6cd6b85dc5ff72a1.png

2024-06-01 03:14:19

Today was our annual ice cream in the park birthday for 9. We added in 6's half birthday as a winter birthday is no fun in the park so we skipped celebrating in the winter and did it all now.
Just a reminder that kids don't need organized parties with adult led play. We brought the ice cream. The kids ate the ice cream and do what kids do - play. The entire park got in on the ice cream action.
Parties don't need parents to over organize. Give the kids agency. We said they could invite as many people as they wanted (hey, if we run out, we can go buy more ice cream). They had agency in inviting their friends and deciding what they wanted to do.
Other parents were kind of shocked at how laid back we were about it, but then realized the kids were having an absolute blast. It was almost a revelation. "What? Kids don't need adult led activities?"

2024-05-31 03:08:49

These people have the resources and political will to turn America into a fascist state.
They are not F**king around.
They are absolutely serious when they say their rights are being quashed. What happened to the rights to kick people they feel like? What happened to their right to sexually assault women when they pleased? What happened to their right to enslave people for cheap labour? Their rights! Their rights are being taken away by women who don't want to be chattel. Their rights are being taken away by POC who refuse to be enslaved. Who do they think they are? Equals?
These people have always existed. They are now just dumb enough to put it in a group chat for us to see.
https://newrepublic.com/article/182008/erik-prince-secret-global-group-chat-off-leash

2024-05-29 04:14:22

A former US Presidential candidates signs "Finish them" on an artillery shell, and university administrators have the audacity to tell the anti genocide protestors they are wrong.
What is the point of receiving an education in your hallow halls if your students aren't supposed to know right from wrong?
Your political leadership has openly admitted that this is a genocide.
Every university administrator should think clearly about what side of history they want to be on. Most of you are sitting on enough bags of money. You don't need to go down like Nazi sympathizers in the history books.
What matters more, your legacy or appeasing donors?

2024-05-27 14:44:06

There's a certain sense of futility in hoping that a government that turns a blind eye to the slaughter of their own school children for the sake of gun maker profits will do anything about the slaughter of other people's children for the sake of the same profiteers.
#FreePalestine
#Palestine

2024-05-25 04:41:05

The irony of living car free is that it necessitates me to live close to transit in a dense neighbourhood where other people want to be... or at least drive through and I cannot get away from the toxins of endless cars.
If I want less pollution in my life, I have to move to somewhere where I will be part of the car problem.
I am ready to give up and move to a country that believes in transit. I've had it.

2024-05-24 02:27:37

My partner did his PhD in robotics in the late 90s. At the time, one of the biggest challenges it had was, as he put it "how do you teach a computer how to tell a rock from a shadow" (re: self driving cars).
They overcame that with a crap ton of sensors that take unbelievable processing power and even then sometimes I wonder.
AI is now going through what Robotics went through in the 90s. How do you train a computer to distinguish between expertise and shitposts?
We tell children not to believe everything on the internet yet somehow some genius thought it would be a good idea to pay $60M for decade old teenage shitposts.
https://www.404media.co/google-is-paying-reddit-60-million-for-fucksmith-to-tell-its-users-to-eat-glue/

2024-05-22 16:13:07

We live in a society where scientists discover that mercury in our lakes and rivers makes fish unsafe to eat.
So instead of telling polluters they can't keep polluting, we tell people they can't eat the fish.
#Capitalism

2024-05-14 02:24:08

Israel just declared war on the UN. Perfectly rational non axis of evil country.

2024-05-12 14:06:01

Your mom wants you to smash the patriarchy for mother's Day.
Happy mother's day. Go celebrate it the right way.
Smash. Smash

2024-05-07 02:25:10

If you're worried about millionaires "leaving" because you want to tax them, that just proves they were leaching off your society anyways.
Get rid of them!
Let them go be someone else's problem.

2024-05-03 20:08:52

- reply

But these protests do pose a genuine threat to a very at risk group. Think about the billionaire weapons manufacturers who have a huge say in the nation's foreign policy.
Their interests must be protected at all costs. The lives of thousands of students and the viability of democracy itself is nothing compared to the risk to Q3 profits.

2024-05-03 18:09:31

A friend asked me what I think the point of no return was for the US. When did it get so bad there's no saving it.
After going through a few inflection points - Nixon unpegging the dollar and let's not talk about Watergate; the entirety of Reganomics, Bush II and his made up war in Iraq....
Honestly, I think the turning point was Obama. Nothing being Obama's fault. He was great.
I really think seeing a Black president unearthed what was previously just simmering discontent. Things may have held on a bit longer for the underbelly racists if they didn't see a living, breathing Black president and all the inherent threats that brings to them. They may have tolerated all the social and racial justice stuff just a bit longer since deep down, they didn't think it would actually threaten their status quo.
When that threat became real, they mobilized. They would no longer accept a democratic system because they were getting outnumbered. They were getting outnumbered by the tolerant educated people combined with immigrants (immigrants were fine as cheap labour before, remember?)
It isn't that they were willing to throw away a democratic system to get what they want. The democratic system was the very thing that now threatened them. The demographics of the future did not favour the social order that put them at the top of the food chain.
All this talk about Republicans 'risking' democracy won't do a thing. Democracy isn't collateral damage, it's the target.

2024-05-03 02:12:29

Students getting violence unleashed on them by their president are expected to vote for him out of fear of.... *Checks notes* fascist police unleashing violence on people if they vote for the other guy.

2024-05-02 03:24:35

The difference between how University/College administrators and faculty are treating #StudentProtests should tell you a lot about how the corporatization of the education system has essentially broken it.
Administrators have essentially turned into low level C-suite aspiring bean counters kowtowing to whatever overlord writes cheques. Meanwhile underpaid faculty are desperately trying to protect and support their students as they do their best to uphold the values of education in a liberal democracy.
These protests are as much as indictment on the entire education system as it is on the complete failure of political leadership.

2024-05-01 00:30:13

America is a country that shrugs at school shootings because FREEEEEEEEDOM.
But students protesting in tents??? BRING IN THE SWAT TEAM

2024-04-27 04:03:49

The scary part is we're about to find out how many people are going to vote for a whack job BECAUSE she killed the family dog, not despite it.

2024-04-24 18:04:10

This gets an award for doing journalism and #ClimateBreakdown coverage right.
Great headline - catchy, plays upon a hot topic
Talks a bit about the cloud seeding nonsense, then pivots to the reality of #ClimateCrisis
Great job!
https://theconversation.com/the-weather-experiment-that-really-flooded-dubai-227021?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

2024-04-24 18:04:10

2024-04-23 00:29:33

Can #Toronto city council do anything about a police force that has more or less admitted they weren't as interested in impartial justice as they were in getting a particular result or are we just gonna accept that cops are allowed to swing evidence/testimony?

2024-04-22 14:49:20

Treat #EarthDay like #BlackFriday.
Don't buy anything. That's honestly the best thing you can do right now.
The system is the problem and the system needs your participation and money.
Don't fall for their bullshit. There's no such thing as sustainable fashion. There's no such thing as recyclable plastic.
Don't buy anything！
You can go pick up all the trash in the park you want but if the system doesn't change, you'll just be at it again next year and need bigger bags.

2024-04-22 09:04:47

I hate articles like this. A vegan shopping bag toting, straw refusing person is not going to do jack for the #ClimateCrisis
Instead of writing about actual solutions to #ClimateBreakdown like going after oil producers, pointlessly large car manufacturers, fast fashion, or Amazon, the tail wagging writers doing the billionaires bidding has once again pinned the problem on you, the consumer with no agency except to pick one brand of potato chip over the other in a desperate attempt to reduce your plastic by micro grams while Bezos has bridges removed so he can float his yacht out to sea.
#MediaIsComplicit in #ClimateChange from doing Exxon's climate denial bidding back in the day to obfuscating the real problem now.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/earth-day-how-one-grocery-shopper-takes-steps-to-avoid-pointless-plastic-1.6855883

2024-04-22 04:50:24

Pretty incredible how the Americans are going after Tik Tok as if Zuckerberg, Brin and Page don't just hand data over to Xi whenever he calls.

2024-04-21 02:58:01

If you're pro genocide, just say it as opposed to all this crap you're making us listen to.
Not even the courage to stand up for your twisted convictions.

2024-04-20 03:22:54

Honestly, just scrap the UN and start over again with no VETO power to 5 special countries. What year is this?
This is ridiculous.

2024-04-19 02:56:38

In case anyone else needed a good belly laugh today.
https://climatejustice.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/295/629/498/074/992/original/69a64d60a96046f6.jpg

2024-04-18 23:24:05

This is exactly want Doug Ford wants. Make things so difficult for family doctors, they quit and move to a private system.
Doctors gets $38 per patient visit yet our #corrupt premier gives Galen Weston $75 every time a pharmacist diagnoses a minor ailment, accurate or not.
#Corruption is destroying this province. Doctors like this leaving the system is a feature, not a bug of this corruption.
Vote out this corrupt set of bastards.
https://torontolife.com/city/family-doctor-clinic-closing-burnout-inflation/

2024-04-17 17:56:54

Sigh
#ClimateBreakdown is happening to us. We are suffering floods, fires, and in some parts famine.
Why? Because our leaders can't stand up to big oil. Because our fellow citizens won't give up convenience or big cars and endless fancy clothes.
I am not sure how many people understand that many people will die. This isn't a theoretical possibility anymore. This is already happening. Entire towns, even in rich nations are getting burnt to the ground.
Our billionaire owned media just doesn't attribute it to #ClimateCrisis. Instead they publish endless stories about phantom arsonists so you keep driving your SUV.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-68841141?utm_source=press.coop

2024-04-16 00:35:09

The Toronto star is considered the left leaning paper in this part of the world.
Notice the RW language it has adopted? "Spending spree".
It also questions raising taxes as if this is bad, not normal, and not going back to historical norms.
#MediaBias is real and it's important that we recognize it. This kind of stuff is subtle yet has huge impact on how we think.
Remember, since the era of the mega mergers where only a handful of billionaires own virtually all our information distribution, it is prudent to view news from a billionaire lapdog perspective. That means with every headline, remember that it's less important to inform us than it is to manipulate us into adopting positions that favour billionaires in a western democracy.
https://climatejustice.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/278/072/103/142/788/original/4dc3bd3f343955b8.jpg

2024-04-15 04:22:16

You can't fight #ClimateChange by buying something. That's Greenwashing and just plain stupid. Think about it.
How does buying a thing that takes energy to produce, package, and transport do anything to save the planet? You want to save the planet? Buy nothing!
You don't get the same thrill but that's an actual radical action.
#ClimateBreakdown
#ClimateCrisis

2024-04-13 23:13:51

One thing I'd like to do someday is teach a course to scientists and engineers in public communication and why we shouldn't do what Goodall is doing here.
Absolutely none of what she says is wrong. She's correct on every level. But I still wish there is a lot here she didn't say.
Scientists have this terrible mindset of thinking they are apolitical. As long as they do the science, get the facts out, the world will make the right decisions.
You have entire political parties built on "science is not a thing", "the earth is flat", and "vaccines cause autism".
Sorry. Just being a scientist and standing for facts makes you political now whether you like it or not because you are now morally obligated to say "no. None of those things are true". "Ahhh. You're political. You don't believe in blood letting when my entire political existence is about blood letting".
Whether we like it or not, the climate fight is political because our very monetary system depends on fossil money. Saying the Earth is round IS political.
A lot of what she says here will be used by the right to undermine the #ClimateCrisis movement.
Nothing she says is wrong. She's correct. Just not politically savvy in how she is saying it. Sometimes, the thing to do as a scientist is not to say anything at all.
Please scientists, please think about the political impact of what you say, not just it's scientific accuracy.
If media ever reaches out to you, feel free to ping me before you respond.
One day I will create a course for young scientists on avoiding undermining science in the media. First I need to finish writing this dissertation.
Professors in science, hit me up if you want a guest lecture in one of your classes.
This is too important. We can't keep doing this.
#ClimateBreakdown
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jane-goodall-carbon-tax-electric-vehicles-1.7170992

2024-03-29 17:04:10

My husband is having a hindsight is 20/20 moment and said "we should have known better and masked up sooner. We saw Wuhan. We should have loaded up on stuff and have been better prepared"
If you're having one of these moments, I want you to know as someone writing a dissertation on this period, this is wishful thinking and it's not your fault.
At the time, authorities were actively discouraging mask use. Our media did everything it could to "other" Wuhan, Iran. It wasn't until it hit a white place, Italy, that they had an "oh crap" moment and started reporting like a virus might not give a crap what ethnicity you are.
Many older people in the Chinese Canadian community masked up fast and started social distancing before it was a thing. Then accusations of racism, over reaction started. These were people who lived through SARS and their collective memory got ignored and mocked.
I also put my trust in authorities and didn't mask until the advice changed, which took until APRIL!
We can argue that the science changed. Fine. But we knew this was a SARs type virus and somehow, magically, authorities in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and the rest of Asia knew enough about the precautionary principle to tell people to mask up.
Instead of taking that advice, we used the images of masked Asian in a racist move to other them further, making Asians uncomfortable to mask and take precautions.
I am not an epidemiologist. I trusted the experts who, largely due to political pressures downplayed the risks.
We can't talk about conspiracy theorists in a vacuum outside of the the reality that people did lie. People did have vested interests they put first. Nobody is an expert in everything. I have trust that people are acting in my best interests when they are in positions of power. (Ha. I know, right?)
I know authorities were between a rock and a hard place but a lot of trust was lost. And we have to recognize the role this plays in proliferation of distrust and even more conspiracy theories.
Trust is the issue here. The Chinese Canadian community was pissed at Dr. tam. One of our own because they saw her as someone who is one of us, who should have known better and who should have been doing what her HK counterparts were doing -telling people to mask. In my interviews, there were many harsh words spoken about her.
Trust is easier to lose than to gain. Many of us put trust in the wrong place at the time. It had to do with racism, with othering, with protecting the economy. We didn't mask because they told us not to - despite the calls for masks being well underway in other places.
Will we be more prepared the next time around? Not unless they can convince people that they can be trusted again.