Good morning!
Welcome to Issue 54.2 of Digestable, your thrice-weekly mouthful of things happening in the world, minus alarmist pandemic news.
Today’s news, fermented:
There are a couple of things that make me really, non-negotiably mad. Of course, racial/fossil capitalism is at the top of this list. But right up there, possibly tied, is corporations coopting messaging or demands from people’s movements for justice and trying to profit off of them.
One egregious example of this in national headlines lately is how, after mentioning at every (public) turn (for a few months) about How Much We Care about Black Lives Did You Know!?!, corporations like Coca-Cola (which spends millions per year advertising and selling addictive sugary drinks to Black and brown people) still donated money to legislators behind racist voter suppression measures in Georgia.
(After public pressure from some of the same badass organizers who flipped the state blue in November, these corporations have come out against the measures.)
There’s a lot of this stuff. I write about it all the time. Sometimes, particularly egregious and ridiculous examples catch my eye, and boy, I cannot not put them on blast.
One such example is the impending River Ring Development, which to me sounds like a silicone-based birth control advancement, but is actually a continuation of the horrific luxury-towerization of the Brooklyn Waterfront.
This development is brought to us by Two Trees, the real estate firm that has been (almost) single-handedly destroying the central coast of Brooklyn (and much else before that). I don’t have the space in my morning or in my heart to go into the deep history of Two Trees, but it’s a father and son, they’re loaded, they’ve been at it for decades, and talk about real estate like their colonizing forefathers. No two men in the state of New York make my skin crawl like the Walentases.
So what to expect of the River Ring? Enormous glass towers, of course. And—wait for it—an environmentalism-themed mini golf course.
A central qualm about mainstream climate messaging: the muddying of ‘the environment’ vs ‘the climate.’
Let’s review: the environment is the living and non-living stuff on the earth, and the climate is the big-picture set of climatic patterns, which we mostly experience as weather, determined by the conditions in the atmosphere. Atmospheric conditions (greenhouse gases) are largely impacted by how we interact with the environment (deforestation, extraction, burning fossil fuels, etc).
Back to the NuvaRing, sorry, the River Ring. (I did propose to Gabriel that, because the East River is actually an estuary, it should be the Estuaring, which is even worse.)
This golf course is supposed to ‘educate’ the ‘public’ (read: tell rich white people stuff in a way that does not impact their behavior or carbon footprints). How?
“Holes will showcase harmful practices contributing to climate change, such as sea level rise, trash-filled gutters to symbolize waste, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Other sections will be inspired by ways to combat the environmental emergency, like wind energy, hydropower, and energy-efficient buildings.”
Ok, let’s look a little more closely.
Sea level rise is not a harmful practice, it is an environmental phenomenon. It does not contribute to climate change (except for flooded areas leading to anoxic decay of organic matter, which you have to ask Gabriel to explain).
Trash-filled gutters are a lot of things—but first and foremost are the fault of the fossil fuel industry, which produces plastics and incentivizes their purchase by corporations like Coca-Cola.
Greenhouse gas emissions!!!! Finally, a real harmful “practice” that contributes to climate change. But can we really call it a practice when actually, emitting greenhouse gases from fossil fuels can be traced to a handful of corporations that spread misinformation for long enough to get us hooked on this deadly stuff, and is now a thing most people cannot avoid?
Wind energy is great. Love wind energy. But where are the East River turbines, Two Trees?
Hydropower…is complicated, and can be good, but often damming leads to damaging disruption of ecosystems, displacement and murder of Indigenous people, and redistribution of resources to the very places that need it the least.
Energy efficient buildings, also great. But let me guess—the stormwater storage and microgrid and 64-gallon bin for recycling oyster shells is not actually going to offset the carbon cost of building the two 710- and 560-foot tall towers that make up the development.
So it seems this project is sort of about the climate, and sort of about the environment, but not really saying or doing anything meaningful about either.
It’s all good, clean, (energy efficient! lol) fun to take this apart, but if we zoom out (and please, look at this ridiculous thing - that ring is gonna be underwater in 5 years), this is more luxury housing for upper-middle class white people. There’s a little bit of ‘affordable housing’ (a bone to pick another time), but actually, massive new buildings are carbon intensive, as are the rich people who will live in them.
Thank you for coming to this extended rant. Here is a friend who warmed the cold spot in my heart reserved for real estate developers.
*Hot Goss*
Brought to you by the superb Latifah Azlan.
Ramadan Kareem, friends!
Yesterday, I and many other Muslims around the world celebrated the arrival of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar in which we fast from dawn to dusk.
I have observed Ramadan for as long as I can remember and every year, my relationship to this month grows and evolves. Fasting is no longer just about refraining from eating and drinking throughout the day, but rather a practice that allows me to revitalize, rediscover, or repair my connections to the material and spiritual realms of life. Because of how precious Ramadan is, I also treat it as a rare moment in the year that allows me to truly slow down and move through my days with absolute intentionality. Most importantly, as someone who struggles with setting boundaries, Ramadan empowers me to put myself first in lots of different ways.
I am less stressed because I know that controlling my anger is integral to my fasting practice and because it's the only time of year I feel as confident as I do about sticking to a hard stop on my working hours for the week. I experience a greater sense of peace because I build in dedicated time to rest throughout my days and because I am more conscious about not spending too, too much time scrolling through Twitter or Instagram like I mindlessly would otherwise. I feel healthier because I am eating more balanced meals and less junky, sugary foods as well as reevaluating my relationship to consumerism overall, which means relying more on spiritual, introspective, and creative ways to soothe myself in times of despair and feelings of emptiness rather than buying new clothes or more makeup or unnecessary things to fill that void.
All of this is to say that for the next 30 days, the ~*Hot Goss*~ column will be a little erratic in terms of publication schedule. I may wake up some days and feel really moved to write about Chet Hanks' latest stunt or I may choose to ignore all of it completely. I truly cannot predict when or what will compel me to submit a column this month because frankly, my schedule for the days and nights are packed -- figuratively and literally. For example, in terms of religious ritual, Ramadan is often observed and celebrated with night prayers that are typically only held in this month. I also try my best to be in community as much as possible but with the pandemic complicating these plans, I turn to virtual gatherings and increase the frequency with which I call my family and friends back home, 12 hours away, which means very early morning or very late night calls -- the two times during which I write and submit these columns for the newsletter. So my schedule is a little irregular this month and it's hard to find and make the time to be able to do ~*Hot Goss*~ justice when I simply am unable to do so.
So I hope you understand my absence for a little bit. I'll be back because this isn't a goodbye. It's more of a "i'll see you when i see you" type of deal. And I'll definitely see you but it just won't be as often as I have been this past year. The good news is that it's only for a little bit. The even better news is that we could all probably use a break from reading about the Brits and their royal family drama anyway. So I hope you have a wonderful Ramadan ahead, whether you are observing the month or not. Because we could all use a reset right now so why not do it with me, your trusted Interweb neighborhood gossip?
For now, I'll leave you with the thing that has brought me The Most Joy all year: Alan Kim's acceptance speech at the Critics' Choice Award for his role in Minari (which you should definitely go watch if you haven't yet done so already). I will die for this child. I mean it.