Quickies: Koalas are not “functionally extinct”

No, koalas are not “functionally extinct” but they are in trouble – There’s been reporting that due to the wildfires in Australia, koalas have lost 80% of their habitat, making them functionally extinct. See this twitter thread on the actual losses, as well as the unnecessary hyperbole of the current reporting. Yes, the wildfires are terrible and destructive and climate change is absolutely a huge threat. But there is still hope and still things we can do to fight.

Disabled people cannot be “expected losses” in climate crisis – “If we persist in framing disability and climate change as a problem of physical vulnerability, we miss the underlying realities of structural violence: how ableism, racism, class inequality and other forms of oppression work together to compound and intensify risk.”

Women are disproportionately affected by climate change – And yet there is hope that this added stress will help crumble patriarchal systems. “…while the climate crisis is full-tilt terrible for people in the developing world, it’s also a driver of change. “In South Asia, you find that men who are migrating in order to survive actually give much more responsibility to their wives,” says Rao. “They give them resources, they support them in order to manage the farms.” The patriarchal structure simply can’t withstand the weight of climate change.” Here is a link to the cited Nature Climate Change research article.