Gratitude Gourmet

There are toxic "forever chemicals" in your drinking water because 30,000 factories dump PFAS waste right into the water 🤢😡

‼️TAKE ACTION BY JULY 20‼️
The EPA has a comment period open on its intent to block drinking water testing for PFAS. Take action by July 20 and tell them what you think:
https://orgcns.org/4f5xlX8

Forces of nature: How two Palo Alto women helped save the Bay Enid Pearson and Florence LaRiviere have spent more than sixty years as each other's most reliable co-conspirators, though neither can quite remember how they met.

Did you know?

The iridescent throat patch seen on male hummingbirds is called a gorget.

Female Anna's Hummingbirds have a small gorget but most hummingbird females don't have one.

The Santa Clara County Audubon Society says, "The color patterns of the two sexes are different (called sexual dimorphism). Anna’s female is relatively drab, which gives her a camouflage advantage when incubating eggs. The male is bright green with a brilliant pink-reddish gorget, the colorful patch found on the throats of hummingbirds. The gorget of the male Anna’s is unusual because it extends up and across the forehead. The brilliant iridescence of hummingbirds is due to refracted light coming from minute bubble structures located in their feathers, not from pigments. The gorget appears dark-colored until the angle of sunlight on the feathers and the angle of your eye to the feather surface interact to produce a visual gem."

Want to attract hummingbirds to your yard? Here's a list of some of the flowers that they love:

*Monkey Flower (Mimulus/Diplacus)
*Bee Balm (Mondara)
*Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans)
*Salvias/Sages
*Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia uvaria)
*Honeysuckle
*Penstemon
*Blazing Star (Liatris)
*Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii)
*Columbine
*Bladderpod (Cleomella arborea)
*Ribes sanguineum (Flowering Currant)
*All species of fuchsia
*California fuchsia (Epilobium canum)
*Lupine
*Anise hyssop/Hummingbird Mint(Agastache)
*Cuphea
* Alstroemeria
* Speedwell, also known as Veronica
*Fuchsia-flowered Gooseberry, Ribes speciosum.
* lantana

❤️

This is located at Mfuwe Lodge in Zambia's South Luangwa National Park, where elephants famously walk through the lodge during mango season. Before building the hotel, the management discovered that the land had long been part of an elephant migration route leading to a wild mango tree. Instead of blocking the path, they decided to preserve it. During mango season, guests are asked to safely step aside and watch as elephant herds peacefully walk through the property on their way to the tree. The hotel was even designed with an open lobby, allowing the elephants to pass through the reception area without disturbing their natural route. It is a beautiful example of humans choosing to live in harmony with wildlife. #viral #reels #viralreels #viralvideo #instagramreels

California Fuchsia ❤️

California hummingbirds will fly past a full feeder to reach this plant. It comes back every July and so do they, without fail.

That is the goal 🌱 💚 ✨️ 🌎️

“It just became an obvious extension in the legal language of what Indigenous perspectives have been all about for a long time, which is that nature is alive.” – Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, a Peruvian chemical biologist and founder of Amazon Research International.

🐝In a historic first, legal rights have been granted to an insect! In Peru, 175 species of stingless bees, critical pollinators in the Amazon region, are now recognized as rights holders.

This legal standing reflects their intrinsic rights and entitles the insects to several freedoms, including to lead healthy lives, flourish, and reproduce. The bees also have been granted the right to legal representation, which allows humans to present a case against threats to bee populations and habitats.

This is a breakthrough win for the rapidly growing global Right of Nature movement, which is deeply rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems and stewardship practices. As both a legal framework and a worldview, Rights of Nature is essential in mitigating the climate crisis and addressing interlocking environmental and social crises of our time, including biodiversity loss, violations of Indigenous and human rights, and ecological degradation. This case is now inspiring nations across the globe, from Bolivia to Poland and Zimbabwe, to consider enacting similar Rights of Nature protections.

Read about the Rights of Nature victory for stingless bees here 👉https://tinyurl.com/2r66sw7x

From workshops to policy briefs and engagement with governments in UNFCCC spaces, WECAN advocates for the global Rights of Nature framework and legal system as a pathway to address the root causes of environmental degradation, reject false solutions, and help restore balanced and respectful relationships with the Earth.

Learn more about our Rights of Nature Advocacy 🔗wecaninternational.org/rights-of-nature

I’ll always be the kind of person who slows down for deer, leaves water for thirsty birds, plants flowers for pollinators, and believes that’s a life well lived.