Every Monday on Global Comment, we share the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need but that it’s easy to miss in our busy world. We distil the best of the web and recommend just three links every week that you absolutely must see.
No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads.
Here are this week’s recommendations:
They Saw the Horrific Aftermath of a Mass Shooting. Should We? (Jay Kirk / The New York Times)
Karoline was stopped short by something one of the kids had written on the board where they put their big goals for the year. This kid’s was to tie their own shoes. There were other, grander ambitions. “I want to read chapter books.” “I want to learn to count numbers.” “I want to write stories wenn I can.” A stick figure in green shoes announced, “cat to loo gokig tosgy,” because all motives were not as easily articulated, or even articulable. It struck her as immensely cruel that this kid had learned to die before they had learned how to tie their shoes. It made her think back to when she herself had learned to tie her own shoes, practicing on her father’s work boot. She saw it vividly now, smelling of diesel and leather, almost as if it were sitting on one of the desks, eyelets waiting to be laced. It was so simple, in the purest sense of having straightforward purpose. How beyond it we were as adults, she thought; you just tied your shoes in the morning without thinking. Even if it was the only part of your day that made sense. Maybe the whole problem was that our goals as adults were far more make-believe than any goals most kids had. You tied your shoes so they stayed on your feet when you ran! Unlike the simple purpose of the bootees she put over her shoes to prevent the bloodied ground beneath her feet from seeping in and contaminating her ability to impassively bear witness.
Inside big beef’s climate messaging machine: confuse, defend and downplay (Joe Fassler / The Guardian)
“Since at least 2006 … the industry has been borrowing tactics from the fossil fuel playbook,” Jacquet wrote in a 2021 Washington Post op-ed. “While meat and dairy producers have not claimed that climate change is a liberal hoax, as oil and gas producers did starting in the 1990s, companies have been downplaying the industry’s environmental footprint and undermining climate policy.”
Of the major meat lobbies, the beef industry has arguably done the most to mobilize on the topic of climate. The Guardian’s review of strategy and funding documents from the past decade shows that the cattle business sees itself as perpetually under attack by a variety of hostile forces – with environmental issues of increasing concern.
Have a word (Romesh Ranganathan)
@romeshranga Did a bit about calling out your mates – sometimes one word is all it takes. #HaveAWord #Maaate ♬ original sound – Romesh Ranganathan
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Image: Patrick Federi