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Upswept

@upswept.bsky.social
236 followers 285 following 1.4K posts

Science-following, tree-hugging, nature-loving, neurodivergent, indoor-cat snuggler and progressive snowflake. Living on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. 🇬🇧🇦🇺🍁🇰🇪🇵🇭 😷 💜🩷💛🤍🩶🖤

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Reposted by Upswept
Yung En Chee @yungenchee.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Not only will data centres steal our water, cannibalise renewable energy that could be used for decarbonising our economies, & provide a demand lifeline for planet-destroying fossil fuels, they will also comprehensively & eternally poison our air, land, & waters with PFAS
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Trump Action Tracker @trumpactiontracker.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service (NPS) has reportedly blocked more than 130 planned projects at national parks across the country, putting more than $25 million worth of funding on hold. TAT: [Attacking education | Hollowing state]
thehill.com
$25 million in national park project funds blocked by Trump administration: Report
The Trump administration has reportedly blocked more than 130 planned projects at national parks across the country, putting more than $25 million worth of funding on hold. The Interior Department,…
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SANTA CLAUS @santaclausalaska.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
FUN FACT If we switched to all renewable energy, the number of ships crossing the ocean would fall almost in half, slashing global CO2 emissions. Because those ships are JUST carrying coal, oil and gas. ~ Bill McKibben SUPPORT ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES!
Fun Fact: If we switched to all renewable energy, the number of ships crossing the ocean would fall almost in half, slashing global CO2 emissions. Because those ships are just carrying coal, oil and gas.
- Bill McKibben, Climate Activist
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I remember watching that episode. My grandparents, who both served in WWII, were very emotional. I'm so grateful I inherited their compassion.
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Varsha Yajman @varshayajman.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Another terrifying headline and now what? The Labor government approves another gas project? Another coal mine? Another gas project? The only way we can get back to 1.5 degrees is through immediate emissions cuts and removing carbon from the atmosphere - Australia has the resources to do this.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Except, it IS game over for the thousands of people who have already died, and the many thousands (if not millions) more who'll die in the next few decades as a result of climate inaction. Even if we drastically cut back emissions tomorrow. Which industrial interests guarantee won't happen.
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Effin' Birds @effinbirds.com · 02/09/2026
A painting of a bird beside the text "This bullshit has gone on long enough"
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
If I hadn't already lost my last shred of respect for Djokovic when he believed he was exempt from Australia's Covid entry requirements, I absolutely would have done when he met kids unmasked at a tennis event while waiting for the result of a Covid PCR test which came back later as positive.
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 02/09/2026
I am a scientist – and the answer is climate change. Yes, there is nuance. Yes, it could take a long time to identify the precise mechanisms. But there is no question why ice and snow-related disasters are on the rise. Our planet is warming at an unprecedented rate, and humans are responsible.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
At least someone noticed. AI seems to infect people like Covid. Or maybe toxoplasmosis. It's alarming how many people accept it without questioning the harm it causes.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Filing this one away under 'great responses to anti-trans, manosphere and toxic Christianity cult members'. Such a multi-purpose fact!
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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Dehumanization is one of the oldest political tactics there is. When people are portrayed as something other than human, it becomes easier to convince the public to accept policies that would be far harder to justify if people saw immigrants as neighbors, coworkers, parents, and children.
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Humanists UK @humanists.uk · 27/07/2026
Bill Oddie has died aged 85. We'll certainly be thinking of this quote today. #Humanist #Nature #Birdwatching #Humanists #HumanistsUK #BillOddie
My please to people would be... take off those earpieces so you hear nature and, of course, birdsong. you may not realise how precious it is until it's gone. Bill Oddie. Comedian, broadcaster, and naturalist.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Bill Oddie was always my favourite Goodie, and inspired me to buy my first pair of binoculars and take up birding. May be rest in peace, but for the delightful sound of (not too early) morning bird song.
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Dr David Joffe MB BS(Hons), PhD, FRACP @davidjoffe64.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Hold my beer, Australia says‼️ Maaaate..... We are cutting health and science, crushing our disability safety net whilst shrinking our economy and crushing higher education with deep cuts and unaffordable student debt But we give away our gas and oil... No longer the "Lucky Country"
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MsPraxis @mspraxis.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
For those who understand how testing works, if you did not receive the #NationalAlert go to this site and let them know. 94% of mobile towers received it which is excellent, now they need to know individual receipt numbers and issues. #WorkTogether. www.ausalert.gov.au/feedback
ausalert.gov.au
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Harriet Carroll: Long Covid Scientific Consultancy @angryhacademic.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Fun fact: contrary to intuition, comet tails point away from the sun (rather than trailing behind the comet), aligning with solar winds ☀️🌬️ ☄️ esa.int/ESA_Multimed... starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChi... Image: lasp.colorado.edu/outerplanets...
Pathway of a comet around a sun showing the ion tail always pointing away from the sun and the dust tail pointing away from the sun but also drifting in the direction the comet has come from
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
We CAN'T solve this crisis. It's too late. David Suzuki is right. The best we can do is try to limit the scale of the catastrophe, but 40 years of screaming for meaningful action on climate change has shown that the political will isn't there. Our governments serve industrial, not public interests.
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Yung En Chee @yungenchee.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
As people all over the world suffer fossil-fueled deadly heatwaves, raging wildfires, smoke-filled skies, extreme rainfall, devastating floods & landslides, the Victorian Liberals & Nationals want to THROW OPEN THE DOOR TO NEW GAS EXPLORATION🤯 www.jesswilsonkew.com.au/media-releas...
Excerpt of press release from Jess Wilson MP, Member for Kew, Leader of the Liberal Party

Sunday, 12 July 2026

A future Liberal and Nationals Government will ease the pressure on energy prices for households and businesses by throwing open the door to new gas exploration.

After more than a decade of Labor's war on gas, Victoria faces declining local production, rising prices and growing risks to future energy security. Around 80 per cent of Victorian households rely on gas, yet Labor has failed to back the industry that keeps homes warm, manufacturers operating and the electricity system reliable.

For more than a decade, Labor failed to issue a single new onshore conventional gas exploration permit. Even after finally releasing two small exploration areas last year, Labor has failed to attract the new investment and new supply Victoria desperately needs.

A Liberal and Nationals Government will put Victoria back in business.

Within 60 days of coming to government, we will launch a statewide Request for Proposal process, inviting gas producers to tell us where Victoria's best conventional gas opportunities are and how quickly they can responsibly bring them into production.

Instead of governments deciding where exploration should occur, we will let industry put forward the strongest proposals, assess them under Victoria's existing laws and environmental safeguards, and get the best projects moving.

At the same time, we will slash unnecessary red tape by streamlining State environmental approvals, so projects no longer face years of costly and avoidable delays.
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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 21/07/2026
[Commentary] True conservation requires a partnership between science and traditional knowledge. Charudutt Mishra, director of the Snow Leopard Trust, highlights how Indigenous communities co-producing research has transformed regional conservation and created thriving winter economies.
mongabay.cc
Scientific & traditional knowledge are key for effective & community-centered conservation (commentary)
A group of women often climbs steep cliffs to set up camera traps for snow leopards around Kibber in Spiti Valley, India. The senior women know the landscape intimately, like what areas the animals…
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Bushfires are the reason why I already had an air purifier and an FFP2 mask when Covid-19 hit. Now I have half a dozen purifiers (for both home and travel) and elastomeric respirators with replaceable N99 filters.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Except in the US National Park Service, where the rangers and ecologists, etc. were among the first to speak out, and haven't stopped. People working in conservation (and adjacent professions) have to fight everyday to protect things.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Another colleague has gone down with Covid 😒. A fellow union delegate, who's been leading rallies in Melbourne CBD. I feel entirely justified in keeping my mask on despite being outside. So many people aren't even testing anymore "It's just a cold". God help us if bird flu jumps to humans.
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Natacha @natacha.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
PSA on the Victoria Line tube in London. Phillipson and every other GC weirdo needs to take note.
Are you having fanatical thoughts about other people's crotches?
Has hating a minority group become your entire personality?
Do you obsess over other people's toilet use?
If so, you could be a danger to others - it's time to seek help.
Contact our team: youneedhelp@leavetranspeoplealone.com
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Omnigeek @omnigeek.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Terry Pratchett always had an appropriate quote. This one is from Night Watch. "it wasn’t that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people. As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn’t measure up."
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Lilly @lillyull.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
El Nino is coming. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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LyndallTerrier @lyndallterrier.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Just putting this here F.Y.I. NZ "swamp harrier hawk, known locally as a kahu" infected - a species known to hunt live prey and opportunistically scavenge... :-( bsky.app/profile/jhau...
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Johnnie Jae @johnniejae.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
I want people to understand the full impact of the devastation that First Nations in Canada are facing. It's NOT just that people and wildlife are losing their homes...it's the history that is being lost for generations to come.
A photo of the wildfires in canada. Fire rages through forest area with vright orange flame and dark gray smoke.
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Chef Kennedy🐸🏳️‍🌈 @kennedy.northsky.social · 17/07/2026
ass out flower ate this is how i like pollinate
a bee with its fuzzy little butt covered in pollen, hanging over a leaf all assed out, face not visible, just bee butt
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Michael Dowling aka MeckeringBoy @meckeringboy.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Canada announced a deal to acquire up to 12 *new* attack submarines from German shipbuilder TKMS in partnership with Norway. The deal will replace Canada's aging Victoria-class fleet, representing a significant geopolitical pivot toward Europe & NATO … for a tiny fraction of #AUKUS cost. #auspol .
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
This does not apply to experimenting with water and electricity as I discovered to the detriment of myself and my sister at the age of 4 and 2 respectively. Our mother certainly did not think that carefully picking shards of lightbulb glass out of us for an hour was time well spent.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
For a long time, I mistakenly thought that lichen was a kingdom of its own. It was only relatively recently I learned that it's classed as fungi.
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Petter Törnberg @pettertornberg.com · 07/07/2026
‘Polarization’ has become the master concept for diagnosing our current democratic crisis. But this is not polarization. It is the radicalization of the political right. By misdiagnosing it, we risk becoming complicit in the crisis. 🧵 Just out in Perspectives on Politics doi.org/10.1017/S153...
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The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 08/07/2026
Animals that feed on infected carcasses could be accelerating the spread of the H5N1 strain.
theconversation.com
Scavenger animals are the missing link in Australia’s bird flu response. Three experts explain
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Katherine Copsey @katcopseygreens.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
There are already 21 Very Hungry Data Centres proposed in our communities and the government doesn’t even know the full extent of the risks. 🧵 (2/4)
Text reading "On Wednesday he ate 169 hectares of land put aside for thousands of new homes."
Image shows three green flower shapes, with circles out of the middle.Text reading "On Thursday he ate 852 diesel back-up generators. 
The fumes gave his neighbours asthma." 
Images show four brown-black spiky clouds, with circles out of their middles.Text reading "On Friday he spat out one assertive, but professional, email, one picture of what you'd look like with bangs, and one fruit drama with Broc and Strawbellina." 
Image shows five strawberries.Text reading "Now he wasn't a little data centre any more. He was a great, big data centre. 
With ASIO Zone 3 security...for some reason." 
Image shows the data centre character as much bigger and with a tough look on its face. It is behind a fence topped with razor wire, and there is a spotlight.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Dreading what's going to happen as this takes off 🫣🥹. I'm going to have to evict the doves that nest 30cm from my back door and crap over everything.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Let's practise "Engorgio" on chocolate frogs!
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Katherine Copsey @katcopseygreens.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Gather round for the story of the Very Hungry Data Centre... 🧵 (1/4) #datacentre #ai
A parody of the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Text reads "The Very Hungry Data Centre" and the image shows a large black-and-brown shape, like a rounded rectangle with the top divided into three 'towers', with a smiling face reminiscent of the Very Hungry Caterpillar in the middle - red with yellow and green eyes.Text reads "One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and - pop! - out of nowhere came a very hungry data centre."

Image shows the VHDC on brown ground with the orange sun rising.Text reads "On Monday he drank a quarter of the city's annual drinking water." 
Image shows a blue shape, with a circle cut out of the middle, reminiscent of the foods with circles cut out in the Very Hungry Caterpillar.Text reads "On Tuesday he ate so much that he doubled demand on the country's power-grid.
So he opened a new gas plant, just for him."
Image shows two yellow spiky shapes representing electricity, also with circles cut out of them.
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Yung En Chee @yungenchee.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
HEY VICTORIANS, GET ON BOARD THE DATA CENTRE MORATORIUM‼️
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Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Me on the Telstra outage today. I have covered so many in my time as a reporter and it's always hunting to figure out which exact single point of failure is responsible this time. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
The Telstra outage is a stark reminder of the widespread effects of single system failures
The network disruption – which brought trains, traffic lights and Eftpos payments to a halt – raises questions about the resilience of services
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Every so often I see a job back in Blighty that makes me wonder if I should leave Australia and go back to the UK. Usually when it's winter here and summer there. And I do love the South Downs. But, even if my career here has hit a dead end, Australia has so much more to offer in other ways.
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LAFAYETTE @lastudiolafayette.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
On June 21, 2026, the average global sea surface temperature peaked at an astounding 21°C (70°F). According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, this sudden spike completely eclipses the previous record highs set in 2023 and 2024.
On June 21, 2026, the average global sea surface temperature peaked at an astounding 21°C (70°F). According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, this sudden spike completely eclipses the previous record highs set in 2023 and 2024.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
I was planning to join a rally in Melbourne today to support park rangers demands for better pay, but Telstra and VLine had other plans. Apparently there was good support from Friends of the Earth, the VNPA, and other NGOs and unions, so that was good.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Did you know that park rangers in Victoria are the lowest paid in Australia? The starting salary is not much over minimum wage!!! Or that all parks staff are paid less than other state government employees? I didn't until recently. Please support the parkies www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/fa...
megaphone.org.au
Fair Pay for Parks Vic
After a year of negotiating in good faith, union members at Parks Victoria are taking action. They have repeatedly asked to be treated the same as any other public sector workers - but management aren...
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
And in the latest news from The Upside Down...
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
That's the question I should have posted in the chat of today's all staff gaslight- sorry - I mean MEETing! I settled for asking if any of our esteemed leaders genuinely think they could live on the wages of our two lowest grades instead. They did not respond.
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
I worked closely with Muslim students, refugees and community workers in the UK thirty years ago. Every single Muslim woman I knew had experienced genuinely frighteningly behaviour at least once and regular hostility. I've seen it in Australia too. Women who wear hijab etc. are sadly easy targets 😡
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Key findings include - Half of Muslims surveyed experienced prejudice last year (a third did so online) - 6 out of 10 people support action to tackle anti-Muslim hostility - 1 in 6 people hold sweepingly hostile attitudes towards Muslims, while a third have negative views bsky.app/profile/brit...
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Upswept @upswept.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Very timely. I attacked the mould starting to grow in my bathroom last weekend. I might do a wipe down with washing up liquid next before using a UV disinfection lamp. Or maybe the other way around. The UV lamp proved very effective last year.
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Rex Patrick @mrrexpatrick.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
#AUKUS is a textbook example of the sunk cost FALLACY - a cognitive bias that sees people continue to pursue a project when it no longer makes sense, simply because they’ve already invested significant time, money and effort into it. #OnlyYOURMoney #auspol
thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Could Australia still ditch AUKUS?
ANALYSIS: As the US downgrades the nuclear submarines deal to second-hand vessels, Australia’s options to back out have narrowed to one possible shift in domestic politics.
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