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Reposted by Jack McGovan

🖤 Sandra’s Evil Twin 🖤 MWAHAHAHAHA 🪓 @sgwong.com · 10h

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“In 2017, Kenyan conservationist Dr Mordecai Ogada published the book The Big Conservation Lie, which criticised ‘white saviours’ like Goodall...Have any African conservationists received a damehood or regular well-paid speaking opportunities across the world for their work?”

Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 16h

With Jane Goodall's death last week and the Nobel Prize announcements this week, I wrote about why it's a big problem that we lionise individuals for achievements that resulted from the work of collective groups of people.

We spend too much time lionising people like Jane Goodall

Idolising people only entrenches the idea that it is spectacular individuals, not collectives, who change the world.

www.sower.world

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 15h

Absolutely – I can accept different opinions on flying, but not actively promoting or glorifying it is something we should all agree on

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 15h

Of course! Disappointed to see Olivia Coleman as well, especially after she did this video against fossil fuels: youtu.be/EeZwnnOkrvw?...

Oblivian starring Olivia Colman

YouTube video by Make My Money Matter

youtu.be

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 15h

I've never thought about it like that before, but I really like your analysis

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Reposted by Jack McGovan

Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 15h

"The economic system we live under has nurtured these Great Man narratives because it’s precisely what keeps it propped up. Our system teaches us that those who work hard will rise to the top on the basis of their merit and contribution to the world."

Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 16h

With Jane Goodall's death last week and the Nobel Prize announcements this week, I wrote about why it's a big problem that we lionise individuals for achievements that resulted from the work of collective groups of people.

We spend too much time lionising people like Jane Goodall

Idolising people only entrenches the idea that it is spectacular individuals, not collectives, who change the world.

www.sower.world

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 15h

Thanks for reading and sharing, I'm happy to hear it resonated with you 🙏

Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 15h

This feels especially bad to me because she was pretty vocal about encouraging people to go vegan on environmental grounds

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 15h

@rmkubinec.bsky.social @pwgtennant.bsky.social @grimalkina.bsky.social maybe interesting for you based on your recent posts about the Nobel Prize!

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 15h

Lionising individuals only promotes this kind of hierarchal thinking, and I think it's holding us back. Until we move beyond the narratives of heroic individuals, we will remain trapped in a world that values the success of the individual over the collective.

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 16h

Goodall's carbon footprint was massive as a result of her advocacy work, and the only conclusion that can be drawn is that she thought her interventions were worth the carbon cost –that she, as an individual, was so valuable that excessive polluting was justified.

Goodall spent 300 days a year travelling to do advocacy work even up until her death, and flying so much undoubtedly made her a human being with one of the largest carbon footprints. However, she encouraged people to go vegan on environmental grounds, so she clearly believed that our consumption choices had an impact on the world. The only conclusion to be drawn from her excessive flying is that she believed her interventions were worth the carbon cost, that her presence at environmental conferences would help save the world from destruction.

That sort of thinking is replicated elsewhere. Climate scientists were found to fly more often for work than other researchers, presumably because they believe their expertise—their individual pearls of wisdom—are necessary to stop global temperatures rising. People who take to the skies more often are more likely to build larger networks that get them more recognition for their work, in turn providing them with more opportunities to be involved at conferences and other international events.

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 16h

African conservationists have long criticised Goodall for being a white saviour, but capitalism sanitises and promotes people like her because narratives of heroic individuals keep the system propped up – it makes us feel like we, too, can reach the exalted status of Goodall and others.

The economic system we live under has nurtured these Great Man narratives because it’s precisely what keeps it propped up. Our system teaches us that those who work hard will rise to the top on the basis of their merit and contribution to the world. When we see people like Jane Goodall, a small part of us believes that we too can achieve as much as she has and rise to exalted status if we put our mind to it. Only by dangling that carrot before us does the neoliberal wheel keep turning.

Yet we don’t live in a meritocracy. In 2017, Kenyan conservationist Dr Mordecai Ogada published the book The Big Conservation Lie, which criticised “white saviours” like Goodall for contributing to the narrative that it is only through Western expertise that charismatic African species can be conserved and saved. Have any African conservationists received a damehood or regular well-paid speaking opportunities across the world for their work?

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 16h

With Jane Goodall's death last week and the Nobel Prize announcements this week, I wrote about why it's a big problem that we lionise individuals for achievements that resulted from the work of collective groups of people.

We spend too much time lionising people like Jane Goodall

Idolising people only entrenches the idea that it is spectacular individuals, not collectives, who change the world.

www.sower.world

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 1d

"No fight against the slaughterhouses will ever be successful if we do not also confront capitalism. Likewise, no fight against capitalism will fully succeed unless we also fight against slaughterhouses."

Can't encourage people enough to read this essay, it's incredibly important writing.

How Industrial Slaughter Became the Blueprint for Modern Capitalism

Henry Ford learned mass production from slaughterhouses. A century later, our modern economy still resembles a meatpacking plant.

www.currentaffairs.org

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Reposted by Jack McGovan

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 3d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 2d

See also: Jane Goodall. We spend way too much time deifying individuals instead of recognising collective contributions to knowledge or other forms of human creation.

Robert (Bob) Kubinec @rmkubinec.bsky.social · 2d

The Nobel Prize is the wrong way to think about science.

My heroes aren't the people with the endowed chairs at the Ivies. They are the people who do the hard work, day in and day out, and who would take a bullet rather than inflate research findings or block others' competing research.

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 5d

Especially because climate researchers were found to fly more often than others, which is a crazy inversion of how things actually should be

www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/24...

Climate scientists fly more than other researchers, first global study suggests

Cardiff University research also suggests climate researchers do more to offset their flying

www.cardiff.ac.uk

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Reposted by Jack McGovan

Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 5d

Until people in the climate movement very publicly stop eating meat and flying, we're not going to seem trustworthy.

I will die on this hill.

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 5d

Meat is a blind spot for people who care about climate. When I used to have dinner with my colleague Wally Broecker, the climate scientist who coined the term “global warming”, he would always order a steak.

The climate movement’s biggest weakness

What the climate movement is getting dead wrong.

www.vox.com

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 7d

Every month for my newsletter, I round up stories I find of people taking action to make the world a better place in the hopes my readers find inspiration.

I also add in music other media recommendations (books, TV, recipes etc) for people looking for something new to enjoy ⬇️

What you missed in September and other recommendations

A round up of relevant writing, as well as other media and music recommendations.

www.sower.world

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Brandon Keim @brandonkeim.bsky.social · 8d

"I stopped eating meat some 50 years ago," wrote Jane Goodall, "when I looked at the pork chop on my plate and thought: this represents fear, pain, death."

Best as I can tell, not one obituary or article on her passing mentions this fact. It's worth knowing. news.janegoodall.org/2017/04/28/w...

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 7d

While I understand your thinking, it feels like it would be more productive to spend the time writing to representatives directly than posting on X for the fleeting chance that they see specific posts under a rigged algorithm

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 9d

The longer the climate movement sweeps meat consumption under the rug, the longer we put off difficult conversations that we need to have as a society to move towards more sustainable food systems.

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Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · 9d

“Governments are reluctant to push hard on dietary change, livestock emissions, or fertilizer dependence because they trigger cultural sensitivities and risk political backlash," said @jessfanzo.bsky.social.

Meat is a leading emissions source – but few outlets report on it, analysis finds

Sentient Media reveals less than 4% of climate news stories mention animal agriculture as source of carbon emissions

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Jack McGovan

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 10d

I may have found my defining quote.

Pair this with my pinned post and you will see what I mean!

From a poster called “just shower thoughts“ reading: when people talk about traveling to the past, they worry about radically, changing the present by doing something small, barely anyone in the present to really thinks that they can radically change the future by doing something small.

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Reposted by Jack McGovan

Emily Atkin @emorwee.bsky.social · 10d

“Year after year, land and environmental defenders—those protecting our forests, rivers, and lands across the world—continue to be met with unspeakable violence.”

146 environmental and land defenders were murdered or disappeared in 2024

The political killings you don’t hear about

Across the globe, standing up for the planet can be a death sentence—and the perpetrators are almost never held accountable.

heated.world

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Reposted by Jack McGovan

Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 14d

One of the unexpected things I've learned from my advocacy for trans people is how malignant parts of the State can be, how it can misuse data for positively evil purposes. It's taught me people can't be safe with a digital ID card and so I've signed this. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Petition: Do not introduce Digital ID cards

We demand that the UK Government immediately commits to not introducing a digital ID cards. There are reports that this is being looked at.

petition.parliament.uk

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