Like another commenter said, attracting insects can help, by providing food for pollinators and other bugs which also help feed smaller animals which then feed larger animals etc. Never ever use herbicide/pesticide, or artificial fertilizer. (For example, anything with glyphosate in it will kill anything with permeable skin in the area. Salamanders will die from levels even below EPA standards of safe drinking water.) If you need fertilizer use compost.

Even better: kill your lawn. Let native wildflower species take over. If it all turns to clover, you don’t even have to mow it.

The main problem is our economic system which demands infinite, unsustainable profit and expansion, so at the very least get the conversation going on that. I know it’s impossible for an individual to fight the whole world, but that’s why organizing is important. You must build a large enough group to become a force for change.

In the meantime, since we aren’t ready to kill capitalism, make your own space as much of a sanctuary as it can be.

https://archive.ph/OLGDp paywall

At first I was like wtf is with this author. I’m millenial/gen z and even I remember what we did. TV, books, and calling your friends on your wired phone attached to the wall.

But as I read the article, I kinda get it. There was a ton of down time and boredom. However, I disagree that the nothingness was this horrible thing. I think the “nothing ever happens” is what our brains handle much better than “there’s too much happening.”

Our brains literally can’t process the firehose of information streaming into our eyeballs 24/7 365. It starts to go in your eyes and right out your ears. My memory is shit now. I’m forgetting important stuff because it keeps getting deleted to make room for more garbage data like endless dank memes and posts. I think the nothingness, along with REM sleep (which is also disrupted by screens), is what’s needed to help process and therefore retain new information.

I’m trying to spend less time on screens because it feels like dementia and it’s freaking me out.

Almost sounds like ADHD, which can be misdiagnosed as depression/anxiety OR can lead to those two things due to such cognitive dysfunctions and emotional dysregulation. It’s interesting they mention guanfacine too, as I’ve heard that can be used to help with ADHD.

Joined a RuneScape clan as a kid. They had made their own forum site. I posted only in bright pink by wrapping my text in [color=#f19] [/color] or something. And of course we all had cool signatures lol. They had an IRC channel too that I hung out on all the time. To this day we’re still together, just on Discord now. I like to think of them as my Internet Family.

Thank you for your service