Committed Citizen

Friends, we’ve decided the most effective course forward in these challenging times is to merge w/ our sister initiative, @collapseresilience.bsky.social. Since there's a lot of overlap & since collapse is happening even faster, we can best support you by merging. Please follow CRC! W/ gratitude. ❤️

China rare earths: The BBC visits the world's mining capital for the metals - BBC News The price of the rare earth metals the world buys from China

It’s up to us to rethink how we use electronics, including by

🌍Finding creative ways to go without
🌍Limiting use
🌍Sharing/borrowing when possible
🌍Repairing instead of replacing
🌍Refusing to upgrade until we have to
🌍Buying used

Read about rare earth mining: www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...

Background image shows rare earth mining. Foreground images include an electric car, an iPhone, and a flatscreen TV. Text says: One Thing You Can Do: Rethink How You Use Electronics

We're trained be dependent on our phones, computers, EVs & other electronics. But they all have dire costs for people, animals & the planet—including because of mining rare earth minerals.

Via the BBC: “mining just one tonne of rare earth minerals creates some 2,000 tonnes of toxic waste.”🧵

Background image is of a waterfall in a forest. Text is a quote by David Graeber: The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently.

This world wasn’t built for justice—it was built for profit, power, and control.
But it doesn’t have to stay that way. We can build something else.
🌱 Choose kindness over consumption.
🩵 Fight for justice—for people, animals, and the planet.
🤝 Join mutual aid.
The world is made—and we can remake it.

Image shows a burning $100 bill. Text says: Budgeting is resistance. Every dollar NOT spent on exploitation is fuel for the future we want.

💵 Budgeting Is Resistance.
Every dollar we DON'T give to exploitative corporations is a blow to their power.
Spending carefully & intentionally—on local food, mutual aid, worker-owned co-ops, reused goods—resists extraction & builds resilience. Let’s turn our budgets into tools for justice!💪 🌍

How To Protect Your Immigrant Neighbors From ICE Raids Answering common FAQs on countering ICE raids, and providing 7 meaningful ways to better protect our immigrant and undocumented neighbors

Some useful tips for protecting your immigrant neighbors. 🌍 💚

What would you add to the list?

Image shows a wildfire burning a forest. Text says: Eating animals drives climate change which drives out of control wildfires.

Eating animals drives climate change which drives out of control wildfires.

Another great reason to go vegan.🌱 🌍

Read more: sentientmedia.org/meat-industr...

Will Trump Take Us to War Against Iran? Phone scripts and emails for pushing your members of Congress to resist the rush to war

🔥URGENT! Contact your legislators and urge them to do everything they can to stop this fascist administration from dragging us into an unjust war with Iran.

Rogan's List has sample scripts and more info.

Background image shows people with arms raised holding hands. Text is a quote from Jo Lorenz: Every successful movement in history happened because people talked to each other face-to-face, built trust, created networks of care and resistance that no algorithm could infiltrate.

Building solid relationships—especially outside our bubbles—is some of the most challenging & important work for creating a compassionate, just world.
Finding common ground, leading w/ curiosity, practicing grace & working for mutual understanding are key to cultivating communities of solidarity.🌍

Tonga Poised to Be the First Country to Recognize Rights of Whales - Inside Climate News At the U.N. Ocean Conference, Tonga’s princess called for recognition of whales’ legal rights. The move is one of several rights of nature initiatives happening at the conference.

This would be such an important precedent. Animals and the natural world both deserve rights, including the right to be free from harm and exploitation.🌍 💚

Effective Advocacy: Engage in Effective Communication - Phoenix Zones Initiative Go to: Build Foundation Create Plan Implement Plan Evaluate Plan Resources In your advocacy work, you’re going to spend a lot of time communicating with others, such as allies (and potential allies),…

www.phoenixzonesinitiative.org/effective-ad...

Practices for Cultivating Compassionate Communication Skills by Marsha Rakestraw Sometimes I have a dream in which I run door-to-door in my neighborhood. I bang on the door until someone answers, and then I grab them by the shirt and scream at them to stop…

I’ve written for other organizations about things we can do to cultivate our compassionate and effective communication skills. See:
humaneeducation.org/practices-cu...

and🧵

Background image shows hands forming a heart. Text is a quote by Thich Nhat Hanh: Our communication is not neutral. Every time we communicate, we either produce more compassion, love, and harmony, or we produce more suffering and violence.

Communicating with compassion isn’t just a kind thing to do—it’s an essential strategy for influencing others.

While our anger at cruelty and injustice is justified, people are more open to change if they’re not feeling judged, defensive, or attacked.🧵

Know Your Rights | Protesters’ Rights | ACLU The First Amendment protects your right to assemble and express your views through protest. However, police and other government officials are allowed to place certain narrow restrictions on the…

We have a Constitutional right to protest. Find out the details to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your community.
#KnowYourRights

Background image shows the palms of two hands painted with a world map. Text is a quote from Greta Thunberg: We are doing this because no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying, because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity.

People aboard the Madleen are risking their lives to bring aid to Gaza. Worldwide, governments & corporations are stripping away our rights & destroying the planet.We have a responsibility take action in whatever ways we’re able. No one's coming to save us. We must save ourselves & each other.🌍 💚

Background image shows the US Capitol. Foreground image shows a skill and crossbones. Text says: Take Action: Stop the MAGA Murder Budget: Use this toolkit to fight back!

Republicans are working hard to strip us of healthcare, food, clean air & other protections to give billionaires even more tax breaks.

Rogan’s List has a helpful guide for what we can do to fight back. Choose at least one action & wield your power:
susanrogan.substack.com/p/action-gui...

Image shows a blue background with all caps text in black that says NO KINGS. Foreground image shows a crown with a big read X through it. Text says: No Kings: Nationwide Day of Defiance, June 14, 2025.

Had enough authoritarianism, corruption, kidnapping, cruelty & destruction?

Join the NO KINGS Day of Defiance on June 14 and wield your power to fight for democracy and a more just, compassionate world for all. 🌍 💪

👉 Find out about events in your area at www.nokings.org

#NoKings

Trump has no plan for who will grow US food: ‘There is just flat out nobody to work’ Farms rely on seasonal workers and undocumented immigrants, but the Republican’s plans to fill the gap would ‘legalize oppression’, advocates say

US farms are already full of exploited workers, but under new immigration policies it will be much worse. We can wield our power by advocating for farm worker protections—but we can also grow more of our own food, which enables us to be more secure and ethical in feeding ourselves and each other.

Background image shows a grocery cart in a store. Text is a quote by Nate Bear: To function, capitalism requires us all to be expertly practiced in the art of cognitive dissonance.

Capitalism is killing us, yet the system compels us to contribute to our own exploitation & destruction.

Building community, mutual aid & alternative systems—& increasing our own self-reliance—are key to dismantling these destructive systems & creating a world founded on compassion & justice. 🌍💚

Facebook exposed as top platform for animal cruelty Meta platforms are responsible for the majority of reported online animal abuse.

Here’s one thing you can do to wield your power to change the world: whenever you see online content that shows animal cruelty or abuse, report it to the social media platform. Public pressure is a powerful tool, but only when we consistently speak up.🌍💪

via @animalprotection.bsky.social

Background image shows an Avelo Airlines plane (via Wikimedia Commons). Foreground shows a banner that says: Avelo Airlines = Abduction Airlines. Text says: Take Action: Tell Avelo Airlines to Drop Deportation Flights

Avelo Airlines has put profits before people & is operating deportation flights, aiding ICE and the US government in illegally & inhumanely kidnapping & deporting people w/o due process.

🌍Sign up to pledge to take action and get a toolkit of suggested actions: defendandrecruit.org/stopavelo/

Background image shows people growing food. Text is quote by Michael Shuman: The more you can produce your own goods and services from your own resource base, the less vulnerable you’ll be.

Community free stores, gardens, lending libraries, mutual aid, swaps, cooperatives, and voluntary simplicity can boost personal & community self-reliance amid tariffs, supply chain issues & other challenges.

Explore local initiatives and help yourself and your community thrive.💙🌍

Chop Wood, Carry Water 5/21 Wednesday mini-edition--Medicare emergency!

🔥URGENT: Now Republicans are coming for Medicare. Not only are they trying to strip SNAP, Medicaid, forests, and so much more, now they're planning to cut Medicare by $500 BILLION. See @jesscraven101.bsky.social suggested script and call your legislators ASAP to urge them to OPPOSE this murder bill!

HOW:

🌍 Go to www.congress.gov/members/find... to find your US Rep.

🌍 Use info from ALDF and the Jane Goodall Institute to write your own script.

🌍 Call/email your Rep and urge them to cosponsor the bill.

See from Jane Goodall Institute: janegoodall.org/make-a-diffe...

"Monkeys and apes belong in the wild—not in living rooms. This bill will ban private possession of these animals, ensuring that we are safe and primates are able to live freely." -- Rep. Mike Quigley, IL🧵

Captive Primate Safety Act Reintroduced in the U.S. House to Protect Nonhuman Primates Bill will prohibit the type of private possession of nonhuman primates portrayed in the HBO Max docuseries “Chimp Crazy”

WHY: Nonhuman primates are highly intelligent, social beings with complex needs. Keeping primates as pets causes them to suffer greatly, and it’s a public health and safety hazard for humans. Primates don’t belong in captivity. 🧵

See from @animallegaldefense.bsky.social aldf.org/article/capt...

WHAT: Contact your US Rep. & ask them to cosponsor (or thank them for cosponsoring) HR 3199, the Captive Primate Safety Act, which would prohibit private possession of nonhuman primates, such as chimpanzees, monkeys, gorillas, lemurs, and lorises. 🧵

See more: www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

Image shows a baby chimpanzee. Text says: Take Action: Protect Primates from Being Pets: Urge your US Rep to cosponsor HR 3199, the Captive Primate Safety Act.

Currently, it’s still legal to keep nonhuman primates captive as “pets.”

👉 Urge your US Rep. to cosponsor the Captive Primate Safety Act to prohibit private possession of these highly intelligent, socially complex beings who deserve to live free in their wild homes.

Here's the what/why/how:🧵

Images show a variety of ways to garden (e.g., raised beds, vertical planters).

🌍Nooks & crannies

We try to make the most of little spaces, like this corner where we planted a blueberry bush.

Images show a variety of ways to garden (e.g., raised beds, vertical planters).

🌍Espalied trees

We're lucky to have an espalied apple tree along the side of our home. Our cohousing community has a variety of espalied fruit trees to help maximize space and production.🧵