Andrew Potts🏳️‍🌈

This is what ecocide looks like.

Heritage matters RSA Fellows in Edinburgh and guests are invited to this event on safeguarding cultural and natural heritage.

🏛️ Heritage Matters — Tue 17 March | City Chambers
Join Secretary-General of Europa Nostra, Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic, on the Brussels Manifesto + shared Scotland–Europe heritage priorities.
🎟️ All welcome (ticket required):

ogc.osd.mil/Portals/99/r...

The 1954 Hague Convention prohibits directing acts of hostility against cultural property—including monuments, art, and archives — & mandates avoiding incidental damage except in the case of "imperative military necessity.” The US ratified the Convention in 2009, giving if the force of US law.

Over on the other site, French army’s @TimLeberre reports that Blue Shield emblems have been placed on the roofs of cultural properties in Iran, including the Mausoleum of Baba Taher, in accordance with the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed conflict.

#Standupforscience, the social science edition! It’s no surprise this administration’s assault is hitting hard the social sciences: hobbling work on society & culture stymies everything from green transformation to reversing biodiversity loss to public health. Take back the social sciences today!💪🏼

Women are at the forefront of safeguarding cultural heritage and democracy.

On 3 March in Brussels, @europanostra.bsky.social & @aliph.foundation hosted a panel discussion and inaugurated our exhibition honouring 8 women protecting heritage.

Our full recap 👉 www.europanostra.org/europa-nostr...

🚨Last week @cult.europarl.europa.eu MEPs called for a significant increase to #ErasmusPlus & #AgoraEU in #MFF 2028-2034 due to
➡high demand
➡broadened scope
➡️unique EU added value
of these programmes🇪🇺
➕22 /➖ 5 /🟰 3

🗣️Rapporteur Hélder Sousa Silva (EPP, PT)

👉CULT Opinion: link.europa.eu/TwNdMw

UK slashes climate aid programmes for developing countries Exclusive: Schemes worth hundreds of millions of pounds to protect biodiversity and oceans likely to be substantially reduced

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Artivism is where art meets activism — where creativity becomes a force for justice.

In movements for human rights, social and climate justice, I’ve learned that facts and policies alone are not enough. Real change happens through people’s hearts and imagination.

web.facebook.com/reel/2653990...

USCBS Releases Statement on the Iran Conflict and Cultural Heritage - US Committee of the Blue Shield

The US Defense Secretary boasting of “no stupid rules of engagement” signals a willingness to ignore the laws that protect humanity’s shared heritage in times of war. @uscbs.bsky.social is right: Hegseth is inviting war crimes, making a return to peace even more difficult.
uscbs.org/statement-ir...

DHS is pushing to wall off Big Bend National Park, a crown jewel of America’s natural heritage.

Yet across the 517-mile Big Bend Sector— an area larger than California—DHS apprehended just 151 migrants last month. The park itself is only a tiny slice of that vast, remote border.

States & NGOs are weaponizing conservation, trampling cultural rights, Special Rapporteur Alex Xanthaki tells the UN Human Rights Council today at #HRC61.

Repeatedly “communities complain they have not taken part in decision-making on…projects impacting their cultural life.”

x.com/un_hrc/statu...

UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, Alexandra Xanthaki, highlights that resettlement often focuses on physical loss, but fails to see impacts on one's identity. The impacts of resettlement goes beyond cultural heritage, as existence is connected to their natural environment and surroundings.

*Postponed* Informal meeting of Culture ministers The meeting is postponed.

Following Iran’s drone attack, Thursday’s EU culture ministers meeting in Cyprus has been postponed. Ministers were to discuss cultural rights & illicit trafficking of cultural goods.

🇨🇾 has the rotating 🇪🇺Council presidency for the next 4 months.
cyprus-presidency.consilium.europa.eu/en/events/in...

In 2023, Trump's new nominee for Archivist of the United States, Bradford P. Wilson, authored a chapter in the book Culture Wars: Opposing Viewpoints titled "Multiculturalism Is Harmful."

www.demes.upatras.gr/old/spoudast...

A green card with the text - Vicky Sword-Daniels, Julie's Bicycle. I'm speaking at Climate Resilience in the Cultural Sector. 6th March 2026, British Library Knowledge Centre. Next to the text is a headshot of Vicky smiling.

This Friday our @artscouncilengland.bsky.social Programme Lead Victoria Sword-Daniels will be speaking at the @britishlibrary.bsky.social.

Vicky will outline the role that culture can play in climate adaptation & share creative place-based case studies to show what's possible>> tinyurl.com/b8zbj7y2

AR6 did not foresee 'we'll build renewables while fighting with each other'. But AR7 has an opportunity

Good morning!

Wouldn't it be fun to have a Democrat in NY-03?

Suozzi is an uninspiring centrist. He gives us nothing to believe in, and lately can't even manage "at least I'm not Donald Trump" right.

He failed on the DHS vote.

He's wrong on Iran.

We can and must do better.

www.votewelch.com

Just last week the German government gutted the heating law which was supposed to drive a transition away from gas.

The timing could not have been worse: Gas prices are up 50% today and this crisis could worsen significantly. This will happen again and again and the consumer pays the price.

As the petrostates wage wars that send oil & gas prices spiralling, what a great incentive to go all-in on renewables & stop funding terrorist states and their endless wars into the bargain.

UNESCO expresses concern over the protection of cultural heritage UNESCO expresses concern over the protection of cultural heritage sites

UNESCO statement on damage to Golestan Palace World Heritage site following airstrikes on Tehran. The US belatedly adopted the 1954 Hague Convention as atonement for our failings in safeguarding Iraqi heritage in the 2000s. Let’s see if we now honor our obligations.
www.unesco.org/en/articles/...

A friendly reminder that a virtual event in celebration of our 20th anniversary is taking place this Wed, March 4th at 1:30 pm EDT. Join us for "20 Years of USCBS: Our Beginnings and Our Relevance Today," a discussion with past and current USCBS Board members!

Register here: zoom.us/webinar/regi...

First anti-Iran war ad of the cycle. Nida Allam (@nidaallam.bsky.social, X: @NidaAllam) cites her opponents campaign support from Lockheed and other defense contracts and, ironically, Anthropic, which helped with the Iran attack even as Hegseth hates it

Inspiring session via @preservinglegacies.bsky.social on climate adaptation planning by Miami’s diverse Brownsville community, anchored by Historic Hampton House —one of the USA’s last standing Green Book sites. Now more than ever, climate action in America’s frontline communities needs our support.

They spent billions on regime change in Venezuela and left the Maduro's head of torture in charge.

They are now spending billions on regime change in Iran, knowing the most likely outcome will be harder line leadership.

We do not have serious people running our country.

Relooted: the South African video game where players take back artefacts from western museums Creators say they’re offering Africans a ‘hopeful, utopian feeling’ of retrieving objects looted by colonial armies

Love.
www.theguardian.com/games/2026/f...

“These examples show that effective climate action relies not only on technological solutions but also on social engagement, cultural change, and strong community ties.”
#ClimateHeritage

No War With Iran

We strongly condemn the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. We mourn the lives already lost as a result of these unlawful and reckless attacks – including at least 40 school children killed in Minab.

We hold in the Light all those who now fear what comes next and call for an immediate end to strikes.