Right wing attacks on body sovereignty and the environment.
News of the world environment
NEWSLETTER | SEPTEMBER 15, 2023
Trans Rights, Climate Rights
ON A WEDNESDAY MORNING in May, Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis stood before a cheering crowd at the evangelical Cambridge Christian School in Tampa to announce the signing of some of the country’s most extreme anti-trans legislation. The proposed laws would ban gender-affirming care for minors, restrict even the discussion of personal pronouns in school, and penalize businesses for hosting drag shows. (Some of these laws have been temporarily blocked by the courts as potentially unconstitutional.)
“It’s kind of sad that we even have some of these discussions,” DeSantis told the crowd, standing at a podium with a sign that read “Let Kids Be Kids.” “We never did this through all of human history until like, what, two weeks ago? Now this is something? They’re having third-graders declare pronouns? We’re not doing the pronoun Olympics in Florida.”
In truth, human history is replete with cultures accepting of fluid gender categories. However, DeSantis, a presidential hopeful, has no use for such facts. In a distant second for the Republican presidential nomination, trailing far behind former president Donald Trump, DeSantis has positioned himself as an anti-“wokeness” candidate: “Florida is where woke goes to die,” he likes to repeat. Under his watch, the state has become increasingly hostile to any form of progressive politics. His agenda, the Florida Blueprint, is rife with conservative, extremist ideas that are reflected in the raft of new laws he has signed, including the Don’t Say Gay bill, abortion bans, anti-immigration policies, relaxed gun legislation, and the “sprawl bill” that is aimed at preventing citizens and organizations from challenging development decisions.
DeSantis is also staunchly dismissive of climate change and most environmental protections, though he won the governorship, in part, on the conservation ticket.… This all puts Florida in company with other states that are hostile to both trans and gay communities and to the environment...
In current US politics, anti-trans laws and anti-environment policies are often correlated. The deeper relationships between these hostilities can be complicated and hard to unravel. However, in his extremism and presidential ambitions, DeSantis and his “Great American Comeback” election campaign help demonstrate the underpinning structures that justice, climate, and environmental activists are all grappling with in today’s complex political arena.
Environmental writer and activist Sage Agee unspools the connections between climate destruction and violence against marginalized groups and explains how these intersecting issues impact the lives of trans people like them in this article in the Journal's Autumn 2023 print issue.
READ MORE
Photo illustration by Karen Kemp
SUGGESTED BROWSING
Rewilding Conundrum
About 50 years ago, conservationists reintroduced white-tailed eagles to Scotland. Now, as their populations have rebounded, so have old grievances that led to their extirpation from the Scottish Isles in the first place. These birds of prey have “not become an unremarkable part of the flora and fauna over time. They are still making everyone mad.” (Hakai Magazine)
Paths to Coexistence
The leading cause of death for cougars in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula is “lethal removal,” the state’s go-to response when a landowner thinks a cougar attacked their livestock or pets. These fatal encounters are likely to increase, as more people move to the temperate Pacific Northwest to escape climate disruption. But, as Mark Elbroch, a member of the Olympic Cougar Project says, “There’s just endless ways we could coexist with these animals.” (Inside Climate News)
Himalayan Viagra
Throughout Asian history, parasitic caterpillar fungus has been celebrated as having medical and aphrodisiacal powers, though there’s no scientific proof backing this belief. As competition for this limited but renewable wild resource escalates, one young scientist in Tibet is trying to figure out alternatives. (Nautilus)
Fighting Fatigue
Federal firefighters have long faced the twin stressors of low pay and a high-pressure environment that takes a heavy mental toll and keeps them away from their families. These issues have pushed scores to leave the service, taking valuable experience and knowledge with them. This fall, those issues are coming to a head. (The Guardian)
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