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Dave-Inder Comar

@daveindercomar.bsky.social
320 followers 140 following 1.1K posts

Attorney and PhD candidate at the Grotius Centre for Intl Legal Studies at Leiden🌞🌍⚖️ Researching self-determination and climate change👨🏾‍💼 🌳 I also advise smart, principled people and companies that are impacting the world

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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 21h
In my dissertation (almost done) I argue that international law must develop the idea of the "post-Holocene." The Holocene stability which supported the rise of States and a legal order is ending. When I read headlines like this I get quite sad about what we're losing
theguardian.com
‘Explosion of melt rates’: 20% of Swiss glaciers lost in five years
Alpine regions in Europe experiencing extreme glacier collapse due to heat-trapping effects of fossil fuel pollution
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 21h
We are greatly underestimating the impacts of climate in the coming years, at least as a policy matter. Wealthy countries like Switzerland are not prepared. I think for many people in rich countries climate change is a "them" problem. Vulnerable countries like islands face existential risks soon.
theguardian.com
‘Explosion of melt rates’: 20% of Swiss glaciers lost in five years
Alpine regions in Europe experiencing extreme glacier collapse due to heat-trapping effects of fossil fuel pollution
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
These explainers are so good ⭐️
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Genuine climate solutions remain possible in the US Cities and States could become groundbreaking laboratories for economic and political change. Imagine a powerhouse like NY or CA ending fossil fuel subsidies, defossilizing, providing clean energy jobs, and implementing adaptation measures.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It saddens me how much the US has walked away from climate. And how silent both culture and politics have become on addressing global warming. We need a major political program that can connect the dots on cost of living, climate, and endless war. And which can connect to human rights protections
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A just transition to stop warming will require dramatic changes to the way we live in high-emissions societies. This transition is a cultural and political project. We'll probably work much less, eat less meat on average, and have far more free time. More spending on health and education.
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Reposted by Dave-Inder Comar
Le Monde in English @english.lemonde.fr · 25/09/2026
Amnesty International calls for ICE to be abolished
lemonde.fr
Amnesty International calls for ICE to be abolished
In a report titled 'We Had Whistles, They Had Guns,' the NGO documents widespread human rights violations committed by ICE in the United States.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I wish rule-of-law scholars would focus more on the US Supreme Court. Its hyper political nature, lack of accountability mechanisms, and lifetime appointments all reflect a judicial body that sits well outside accepted rule-of-law norms. This is a major component of the democratic crisis in the US
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Small island States have championed the concept that they are entitled to their statehood and resource entitlements even in the face of sea-level rise this century. These efforts have been successful. They do not stop the crisis, but they support their self-determination grist.org/internationa...
grist.org
UN passes first declaration on sea level rise, protecting island nations' sovereignty
The world, including the U.S., agreed that rising seas will not change national borders even as small islands disappear.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
World leaders have approved a declaration on sea-level rise An important document that addresses State continuity and resource rights. Pretty firm consensus I would say now that States facing territory loss are entitled to their Statehood on an ongoing basis. grist.org/internationa...
grist.org
UN passes first declaration on sea level rise, protecting island nations' sovereignty
The world, including the U.S., agreed that rising seas will not change national borders even as small islands disappear.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The UN Special Rapporteur on climate change and human rights is seeking input from scientists and other experts on which technologies should be prioritized in stopping warming/ I encourage experts to supply input, which will then go into a formal UN report. 30 Sept www.ohchr.org/en/calls-for...
ohchr.org
OHCHR | Call for Input – Technologies related to climate change and their impacts on human rights
This request follows the Special Rapporteur on climate change’s decision to postpone the topic ‘Technologies related to climate change and their impacts on human rights’ to next year, along with the c...
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This El Niño will devastate the lives of millions. And it's just the beginning. Like the coronavirus pandemic, few people take the effort to truly think through non-linear impacts. Aggressive measures today are the only way to prevent catastrophe in 10 years. 2°C by mid century is a catastrophe.
theguardian.com
Huge El Niño projected to cause more than 450,000 deaths by February
New report predicts a heavy toll from Nigeria to the US – and comes on top of existing impacts of the climate crisis
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I have mixed feelings about treating climate policy as "national security". National security is the bucket that seems to get the most policy dollars. But climate change is so many other things—a human rights crisis, a cost of living crisis, a health crisis. Also a democracy crisis.
theguardian.com
UK shares findings of damning climate crisis national security report suppressed under Starmer
El Niño poses critical threat to nations’ defences, says Ed Miliband in presentation to global foreign ministers
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Behind closed doors even the climate-denying Trump government knows what's coming. The fact that governments know, but refuse to prepare our societies—much less stop burning fossil fuels—is what is criminal in my view, not to mention repugnant.
theguardian.com
UK shares findings of damning climate crisis national security report suppressed under Starmer
El Niño poses critical threat to nations’ defences, says Ed Miliband in presentation to global foreign ministers
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Interfering with the proper administration of justice is itself a criminal offense under the Rome Statute.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Attacking the International Criminal Court is part of a larger strategy of ending any kind of restraint on the US. For people in climate, take note -- I strongly believe the US will start to sanction anyone who threatens US "energy dominance" and oil and gas capitalism.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The US war on international law is an attack on the Nuremberg judgment itself.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The UNEP report on overshoot is clear-eyed, although the CDR point worries me. For decades, people have promised CDR as a deus ex machina from climate. It is all over the IPCC reports. It is not my area of expertise but CDR has always seemed to me like a perpetual motion device.
unep.org
Limiting Overshoot - Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C remains a cornerstone of the Paris Agreement, yet under current policies and alternative near-term trajectories, exceedance of 1.5°C is now widely assessed as unavoida...
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I'm almost done with my dissertation in international law and climate change. I started in 2020. Over the last 6 years, major successes like the ICJ advisory opinion. But also setbacks, most notably emissions themselves. And the projections get scarier. Things are more grim than when I started.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
2.5°C to 3°C by 2050 says ExxonMobil. We are racing into a dangerous post-Holocene. The planet will look completely different and far less hospitable. There is no precedent for our species. And all the wrong people are in charge. www.reuters.com/business/ene...
reuters.com
Exxon raises 2050 global emissions forecast, sees slower coal decline
The world is at risk of falling behind in efforts to reduce carbon emissions by 2050, ExxonMobil said in its annual energy outlook published on Thursday, as ​the burning of coal could decline at a slo...
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Excellent article from Kevin Anderson from 2011 that I'm citing in my dissertation. Worth a reread. 'Put bluntly ... most policy advice is to accept a high probability of extremely dangerous climate change rather than propose radical and immediate emission reductions'
royalsocietypublishing.org
Beyond ‘dangerous’ climate change: emission scenarios for a new world
Abstract. The Copenhagen Accord reiterates the international community’s commitment to ‘hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius’. Y
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
In a just world there would be criminal trials for the leaders who failed to prevent this, after decades of warnings. The consequences will be grim.
unep.org
Limiting Overshoot - Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C remains a cornerstone of the Paris Agreement, yet under current policies and alternative near-term trajectories, exceedance of 1.5°C is now widely assessed as unavoida...
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I never thought I would see the words 'overshoot' in a UN report and yet here we are. Some days the reality of what is happening is all too much. And yet I feel like it is hard to communicate the gravity of the end of the Holocene.
unep.org
Limiting Overshoot - Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C remains a cornerstone of the Paris Agreement, yet under current policies and alternative near-term trajectories, exceedance of 1.5°C is now widely assessed as unavoida...
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Trump's wars of aggression, outrageous energy policies, and destruction of the domestic economy should be fertile soil for a vision of US economic renewal that is in balance with the environment, that is healthier, that promotes genuine well being. I would love to see this better articulated ⭐
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Part of the reason I support ecocide laws is that I don't think our world will change until there are meaningful consequences, including criminal consequences, associated with environmental destruction. A well-enforced ecocide law in NY or CA could truly change the world in my view.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Decades ago, the non-aligned movement and G77 insisted on a "New International Economic Order" that would create a fairer and more equitable international economic system. This kind of movement united a variety of countries to envision something new. This kind of vision is needed today in climate 🧵
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Truly addressing climate change will require introspection in wealthy countries about 'the good life,' how we define success, and the wealth gaps between rich and poor. There is no magic tech that will stop the crisis. Social and cultural change represent the most effective forms of climate action
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
One of the most important climate levers we have in wealthy, high-emissions countries is social and cultural change. Reducing energy use, meat consumption, ecological restoration, more time off, investments in health and education, wealth/income measures — these are all forms of climate action.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Every day I wake up in the sincere hope that today is the day we truly get off of fossil fuels www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
The clues that hint our planet might be heating faster than we realised
A curious online row over this summer's heatwaves points to a wider - and worrying - shift in climate science.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I'm trying to focus some of my dissertation on the cultural loss associated with glaciers. Many cultures situate gods in the mountains. What happens when the gods lose their home? When it gets too hot? fortune.com/2026/09/09/m...
fortune.com
'It hits us in the gut': Mont Blanc faces defrosting and rock falls from climate change as communities 'weep' for the mountain peak | Fortune
Heat waves have melted some of the permafrost that held the steep rock faces of the Alpine peaks together, leaving collapsing walls.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
My next phone is going to be a fair phone I think! www.fairphone.com/about-us
fairphone.com
We are Fairphone. Our journey so far.
We’re disrupting the industry by changing how our devices are built and produced. It’s only fair.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
A new report from the Canadian government projects 5°C of warming under current emissions scenarios, with 75% glacial loss in Western Canada. Why is the current government still investing in fossil fuels, even while it acknowledges such terrible impacts? This is the definition of irrationality.
cbc.ca
Canadians should prepare for a 5 C hotter future, report warns | CBC News
The federal government's new report summarizing the latest science on climate change warns that under current climate policies, the impact on Canadians will likely be "far from benign."
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Stunning levels of warming being projected in Canada by its own federal government. At a loss for words. Report itself is here: www.canada.ca/en/environme...
cbc.ca
Canadians should prepare for a 5 C hotter future, report warns | CBC News
The federal government's new report summarizing the latest science on climate change warns that under current climate policies, the impact on Canadians will likely be "far from benign."
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
It's stunning that societies are apparently content with an increasing number of vulnerable people dying in their homes every summer. A massive housing program is needed to prepare for a much hotter world. "Are we willing to truly adapt" is the much bigger question
npr.org
'Her body temperature was 106': How heat is killing Americans in their homes
Heat kills thousands of people across the U.S. every year. The risk is especially high for the millions of Americans who live in manufactured housing like mobile homes and trailers.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
There is a massive decay of basic human rights in the U.S. It is an embarrassment that lawyers and judges have no fealty to basic principles of human dignity or even international legal obligations.
motherjones.com
You don't have a right to safe drinking water, US court rules
A Trump-appointed judge also said Americans have no “constitutional right to truthful information” during a public health crisis.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The 'stalemate' in climate action is because our political systems today are designed to resist change, not enable it. Western-style democracies are now status quo incubators—resisting economic reform, insisting on oil and gas use. Only a deep-seated political program can overcome this.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Trying to finalize my dissertation on international law and climate change, focusing on the right of self-determination 🙏 A movement as profound as decolonization, or ending the slave-trade, is now needed in the context of climate. A new economic and political system must be built 🌍
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
No one wants to live in 'exceptional times'. No one wants to confront overuse, particularly with respect to energy resources. It is hard to change ways. But the alternative is an increasingly uninhabitable planet. We need people in charge with the wisdom and courage to chart a different course.
cbc.ca
For the first time, a key UN report says the 1.5 C global warming threshold is lost | CBC News
In a strategic retreat in the fight against climate change, the United Nations has acknowledged that Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst of global warming's harms. Officials say the...
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This conclusion, combined with climate tipping point science, suggests that we have entered a dangerous new climate era that could last for centuries even with rapid action. Of course, rapid action must still implemented to protect as many lives as possible. But the damage is now grave
cbc.ca
For the first time, a key UN report says the 1.5 C global warming threshold is lost | CBC News
In a strategic retreat in the fight against climate change, the United Nations has acknowledged that Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst of global warming's harms. Officials say the...
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
One question is why UNEP waited so long to declare 1.5°C unavoidable. Even AR6 WGI acknowledged that 1.6°C was 'best case' a few years ago, by 2030s. There was little acknowledgment at the time. This is a math and physical problem and the numbers are what they are www.cbc.ca/news/science...
cbc.ca
For the first time, a key UN report says the 1.5 C global warming threshold is lost | CBC News
In a strategic retreat in the fight against climate change, the United Nations has acknowledged that Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst of global warming's harms. Officials say the...
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The US long ago exempted itself from international law with respect to aggression and the use of force. More recently, the US has exempted itself from climate change obligations, withdrawing from the UNFCCC. This is setting the stage for terrifying State violence as climate impacts accelerate.
reuters.com
Denmark sends conscripts to Greenland as Arctic tensions grow
Denmark moves to bolster its presence in the Arctic ​after U.S. demands to acquire the semi-autonomous Danish island.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
People are in denial about the levels of global violence that may be unleashed in the dangerous new post-Holocene era. The same political class that refuses to stop warming may very well decide to 'take advantage' of a hotter world through a new wave of annexation. This is what Greenland is about.
reuters.com
Denmark sends conscripts to Greenland as Arctic tensions grow
Denmark moves to bolster its presence in the Arctic ​after U.S. demands to acquire the semi-autonomous Danish island.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Overshoot carries significant consequences. Overshoot and the trying to lower temperatures is far more damaging than if we had never breached limits in the first place. We have all the tools to stop the crisis, but we are governed by a political class that doesn't understand or doesn't care.
nature.com
UN finally admits global warming will shoot past 1.5 ºC climate limit
Earth will breach a long-standing target before the end of the decade, report says.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
We ought to treat this as a warning about tipping points as well. 1.5°C is the rough threshold for several identified tipping points. This is a true danger zone. I think we should be treating the Holocene as over and creating new social systems that can withstand what is coming.
nature.com
UN finally admits global warming will shoot past 1.5 ºC climate limit
Earth will breach a long-standing target before the end of the decade, report says.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Limiting warming is a political crisis. The failure to stop warming is rooted in the same things that are killing democracy and leading to war and aggression everywhere. Yes, this is of course a technical and science-based challenge but the solutions will be political. We can't hide from that.
apnews.com
Global warming will exceed limit, UN says in a report that maps path to get back below danger zone
In a strategic retreat, the United Nations concedes that Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst impacts of global warming.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Disaster management is a slow grind in an era of climate breakdown. * disaster --> response --> recovery --> normal / build-back-better --> next disaster * now becomes: * disaster --> partial response --> partial recovery --> next disaster --> enhanced damage --> larger shock *
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
All countries are under a binding international legal obligation to prevent significant harm to the climate system. A handful of leaders appear dead set on transforming our planet into something terrifying.
substack.com
Preface to the Post-Holocene
Nepal is on the frontlines of a new chaotic climate era that could last for thousands of years
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The era of fossil fuels must come to a swift end. Our societies must re-do everything: our food systems, the ways we use energy (and why we use energy), our cultural values. Only a civilizational project as profound as ending the slave trade or decolonization will prevent climate breakdown.
theguardian.com
Climate crisis could be destabilising mountain areas like Nepal, experts warn
Unusual heat this year may have melted ice and thawed bonds that hold glaciers in place – leading to catastrophe
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
In the last few years, international scholars and courts have commenced a welcome analysis on the impacts of sea-level rise, including consequences for statehood, for maritime boundaries, and for the rights of displaced peoples. That work is essential. Now it is time to focus on glacial loss.
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Dave-Inder Comar @daveindercomar.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I understand that scientists are wary of attributing any one disaster to climate change, but as a lawyer the proximate causation is clear to me that heating the planet leads to ice melt in places like the Himalayas. Sometimes common sense and basic physics is a good enough legal argument
theguardian.com
‘Their whole village has disappeared’: frantic hunt for survivors in Kathmandu hospital
Family members pin photos of Nepal’s missing to hospital wall as people try not to give up hope on loved ones
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