General Assembly
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Dispatch → Meta → Gameplay
by 
The Republic of Melenavenia.
.
18 reads.
Office of Culture: Official Dispatch
Introduction
Hi there hello, and welcome to the latest Eco-News in Refugia!
It's been a while since the last one, more accurately, it has been a whopping 19-20 months since the last report! Whoops, silly me :3 (I may be partially responsible for some of those months).
This has got to be some sort of accidental record for longest Eco-report hiatus, like, ever! :P
Aaaaanyways, this also means that this might be the first Eco-report for a decent number of nations, so let me explain what this all even is for you newcomers! <3
As the current councilor of culture i have (among other) the responsibility to make reports on how the region is doing in terms of meting the goals stipulated in RRS 15, as well as figure out how to help/encourage our residents with reaching that goal.
But only including that would be a bit short and boring, so most Eco-reports I've seen include other things as well, and so will this one!
Eco-Challenges
Coming soon!
"Summer Eco-Activity-Bingo"
(Sorry for the delay, I kinda ran out of time, but it wont take long, hang tight!)
Eco-Stats
At the time that the last Eco-Report was written Refugia had a score of 5,409 points in Eco-Friendliness, and 1,624 points in Environmental Beauty, both of which where way above the goals of 3,750 and 1,300 points respectively. So how have we fared since then?
By looking at the rollercoaster shaped graphs we can see that both EF and EB for whatever reason nosedived to a low of 3,560 points in EF and 1,186 points in EB, after which they both went on a bumpy ride that in a resent high ended up with a possible record of 5,570 and 1,668 points respectively, hooray! But unfortunately both have decreased since then.
Eco-Friendliness
As of writing this report Refugia has a regional average of 4,516 points in the "Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index", meaning it's currently hovering a bit over the target minimum stipulated in RRS,15 with a 766 point margin, Hooray! it is, however, also an unfortunate ~17% decrease since the last report. D:
Environmental Beauty
Refugia also have a regional average of 1,464 "Pounds Of Wildlife Per Square Mile", similarly hovering above the target with a 164 point margin, so we are achieving our goals here as well, yay! This is also a ~10% decrease since last time, not great, but it could be worse.
As you can see, both stats are currently trending downwards from the latest peak in late February/early March, nayyy!
This means that if we want to stay above the stipulated target minimum we ought to do something about this ski-slope of a trend, and here's a few suggestions...
What can I do to help?
First of, don't fret if you yourself aren't at the targets. They are as an average of the region, not the individual members. You should obviously strive to increase both stats, but do so at your own pace! Some of the easier sources for improving both stats are: building renewable energy whenever possible, protecting every animal presented to you, and sacrificing the industry sector (It's obviously up to you how much you want to sacrifice). If you want/need help with how to best answer issues to increase these stats you can find issues and there results 
here!
We can do this! I believe in all of you, good luck! :3
What can the Regional Government do to help?
The Councilor of Culture have the obligation to post and update Eco-Reports like this one in order to both keep every one up to date on the progress, and to increase the general engagement with the regions Eco-goals!
The regional government, especially the councilor of culture (I'm fully aware of the irony here), can also momentarily incentivize nations to raise their Eco-stats thru an event like "Green Week", which effectively boosts said stats. (it's been over 2 years since the last Green Week, perhaps that changes within the year ;3)
And lastly, if you think that we as a region should have more ambitious targets, remember that every member has the right/ability to propose amendments/changes to the Refugia Revised Statutes (see RRS 3 and 5), and can thus propose to increase our goals to whatever numbers they specify!
New Eco(?)-Stats
If case you haven't heard, there are a bunch of new stats (currently in beta) that are eventually (i have no idea when) coming to nation states, How exiting! xD , And i personally believe that two of them are potentially relevant to both this and future Eco-Reports (once they are out of beta that is), those being "Waste Production" and "Most Efficient Recycling".
Your nations Waste Production will (to my understanding) vary depending on 3-4 variables:
The size of your industry's (different industry's produce different amounts depending on type),
Your government's environmental efforts (budget spending on the "Environment" category),
Your populations attitude towards waste (basically how much they care, which seems to be a hidden stat),
It's also possible that the size of your population (more people produce more waste in total) has an effect as well, but I'm not certain as it's not explicitly stated.
I also found it to be unclear wether or not this stat will affect Environmental-Beauty, but we should be aiming to reduce our WP regardless.
I was unfortunately not able to find as much information on how "Most Efficient Recycling" is going to work under the hood or interact with other stats (the only info i found was that It's intentionally skewed low,...bruh), so we're going to have to speculate a bit. My theory is that's It's going to work to counter Waste Production, ether by reducing it directly, or by reducing It's effect on other stats. MER is (similarly to WP) probably going to be affected by a combination of government spending and how much the population cares (Eco-apathy, if you will). But this is all just a theory(a game theory!), only time will tell how it truly works. In the meantime y'all are free to speculate as much as you want!
Do you think we should add these two new stats to Refugias environmental goals, or just keep them relevant in future reports, or are they completely Superfluous and should be disregarded? I encourage y'all to discus this in the RMB and/or on Discord, the more view points the better!
Eco-Deep-Dive: Public Transport
Lets talk a bit about public transit, because how we physically get around, as well as how we transport goods, is (in my humble opinion) an important topic as transportation of different kinds currently account for ~16% of global emissions(
source). Knowing the alternatives and to which extent they impact the environment (at least in comparison to each other) is a great first step to making informed decisions, not just about how you yourself travel, but also what to encourage/petition your "local" governing body to build infrastructure-wise! (assuming you have the time/energy/"know-how" to do so)Did you know that the most energy efficient animal on the planet is a human on a bike? It's true!, at least when it comes to traveling. This, plus the fact that bikes take up much less space than, for example, a car, means that getting as many people as possible to cycle to work(etc) should be a no-brainier! And yet, cycling infrastructure is severely lacking in a lot of places, and that problem often extends to pedestrian infrastructure as well.
Making cites walkable/cyclable is one of the best ways for reducing our reliance on cars! (electric cars are less bad than fossil-fuel ones, but they're still not great)
For longer distances there are several options for city-planers to chose from, but you are pretty much limited to whatever they decided to build, if they build any public transit att all that is, but lets discus them anyways! For the same (non-highway) roads that carry cars and people there are Busses, Trolleybuses, and Trams/Trolleys/Street-cars, all of which are great options!
Heres a fun fact, the average buss only needs 3-6 passengers to be both more space and energy efficient than the average car! *(assuming the average of 1-2 occupants per car). At full capacity all three options can/will, for every individual vehicle in service, prevent several dozen cars from getting on the road, which in a whole city-wide system can ad up to several hundred thousand!*(depending on city size and system extensiveness, obviously). I'm personally a big fan of trams, there just smaller trains made to fit and navigate city-streets, and who doesn't love trains!
For faster transport within cites Metros are phenomenal! They can quickly traverse the city unimpeded by silly things like traffic, buildings, or waterways, but construction is a fair bit more expensive. Between cites dedicated high-speed-rail is, in my opinion, the best option as It has the ability to travel much faster than any car or buss.
When it comes to crossing the big oceans/long distances travel there isn't a lot of commercial/"affordable" alternatives to chose from. the current options are: flight/air-liner's (global), and the only ocean-liner in service, Queen Mary 2 (Atlantic ocean only).( the difference between ocean liners and cruse ships, video)
Eco-articles
Finally, lets round of this report on a positive note. I have gathered a few good news regarding the environment on our precious blue marble for you to enjoy! :3
Beginning just a few years ago, the annual forest growth in the European Union has surpassed the harvest rate, meaning an annual net increase of trees! These are tremendous news!
Renewable energy sources have become far more cost effective than fossil-fuel alternatives! With 91% of new renewable-energy-constructions being cheaper on a "per watt" basis globally!
Thanks to extensive conservation efforts/Eco system restorations several species are recovering from near extinction! Among them is the snake specie "Antiguan racer", which has made a recovery from merely 50 individuals to over 1,100!
Thank you so much for reading my (admittedly late) report, i hope you all enjoyed it! I'm honored to have been your Councilor of Culture for the past several months, and I thank you all for believing in me <3
-Yours Truly, Purple gold
! Some reports may be missing due to deletion by the author !
Overview
Hello my fellow Refugis!!!!!
It has been about... *Checks notes* ...what? Nine months since the last Eco-Report??? Casi, that can't be right, check again.
...
Ok, so, I've just been informed it has been about nine months since the last Eco-Report.
As you might've noticed in the links above, things are a little outdated (I had to find a working link for Culture Home)! This is my very first time being a Councilor of Culture, and one of my duties is to write an Eco-Report. You may be asking "Tuluni, what on Earth is an Eco-Report?!", or "It's been 9 months since I've read one of these things. Y'know, back in my day, we would walk TWENTY-FIVE miles, uphill, both ways to get a monthly Eco-Report!" Well worry not, my dear children. Gather around, and I'll explain how things work!
According to RRS 7c...
The Councillor of Culture, whose responsibilities are defined as orchestrating cultural events and developing the identity of the Refugi culture. This Councillor shall:
Develop a Regional Eco Report to fulfill goals stipulated by RRS 14(a) and RRS 14(b) by identifying ways in which Member States of the Region may contributed towards the environmental targets established therein.
Publish regular updates to the Regional Eco Report to maintain its relevance and timely advice.
When additional assistance is necessary to fulfill the duties of office, appoint an assistant.
I'm here to carry out that first bit! In this report, we'll go over Eco-Challenges, regional Eco-Stats, Eco-Advice, and Eco-Articles. (Basically if you can put Eco before it, we've got it)
Eco-Challenges
While looking through past Eco-Reports for ideas, something caught my eye. Lethodus, a former CoC (Councilor of Culture), had included nice little games in their Eco-Reports! Since I thought they looked fun (and I'm a dirty idea theif), I decided to bring them back!
I've put together a Refugia Trivia Crossword! The first person to successfully complete and telegram it to me will receive a Season 3 Shelter Valley card! But don't worry if you're not quick, because everyone else who sends a completed crossword will get put in a raffle to get a Season 3 The Southern Games card! Both of which I find to have very pretty flags, and hope you do too ^^
Winners will be announced on September 18th in the RMB!
I also have a Refugia Spotify playlist anyone can add to! Read more about it here!
Crossword:
Eco-Stats
According to RRS14,
14. The Region defines the goals for both its Members and the Region collectively in the following ways:
Reach an average Environmental Beauty score of 1,300 on or before December 31, 2024, and maintained thereafter.
Reach an average Eco-Friendliness score of 3,750 on or before December 31, 2024, and maintained thereafter.
It's been a long time since that's been updated, so let's see if we reached our goal!
Eco-Friendliness
Due to the Nationstates outage last April, I can't see what happened from the last Eco-Report to April 20th. I can, however, look at the stats from the last Eco-Report!
On December 7th, 2023, we sat at 3648.3 in our Eco-Friendliness stat. That may seem like a lot already, but we've always striven for the best, and that hasn't stopped now! Today, September 9th, 2024, we're at 5409.34. That's about a 48% increase in the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index!!!
Environmental Beauty
According to the last Eco-Report, on December 7th, we sat at 1185.04 for Environmental Beauty. Again, big number, but we have even bigger ambitions! Today, September 9th, 2024, we have, drumroll please...
...
One moment, waiting for the band kids to finish setting up, sorry.
.....
*Cough cough*
Are they done ye-
BADUM BADUM BADUM BADUM BADUM!!!!!
We are currently sitting at 1624.14 Pounds Of Wildlife Per Square Mile! That's a 37% increase from last Eco-Report!
If you want to help raise these stats even higher, you can go here to check how much each issue raises your stats!
I'm really proud of us, and I'll have to look into a goal revision for the RRS. I hope we have to write more revisions to make those goals even higher in the future!!!!!!!!!!
Eco-Advice
I don't know if you've noticed, but it's started getting chillier! Fall is right around the corner. As the bright green leaves slowly fade to their amber colours, the wind blows a little harder, and those damned mosquitoes go away, you should start thinking about how you can make sure climate change doesn't ruin our beautiful autumns!
Something we've been doing is turning off the AC and opening the windows at night! With the cooler temperatures being around 15-20°C (or 60-70°F in Bald Eagle), it's the perfect time to start! Not only will you reduce your AC usage, but you'll also reduce your electricity bill, and get some fresh air in your lungs!
With summer ending, some foods are going out of season. If you have any plants that don't grow back, or just have any produce that's going bad, consider buying a composter! You can buy them online for 30-40 dollars, and it'll save you a lot of room in your trashcan, while also giving you a great way to feed your plants!
Eco-Articles
Before we go, lets get some positive news about the environment!
World Cleanup Day is on Friday, September 20th! Try to go around your beaches, cities, or even just neighborhoods, and pick up some trash you see! Every little bit helps
Children in Coventry have painted a beautiful mural showing what they hope our world could look like with a better environment! Check it out!
Evee electric cars are getting even more popular in Australia, despite not receiving any government funding!
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Thank you all so much for reading! I'm honored to be your new CoC, and I promise to try my best!!!
Overview
Oh wow it's the last Eco Report of the year!
For those new to our region and wondering what this is, Refugia Eco-Reports are a requirement put on the Councillor of Culture by RRS 6(c)(i) to update the region on our progress on reaching the environmental goals outlined in the Refugia Revised Statutes, these being:
14. The Region defines the goals for both its Members and the Region collectively in the following ways:
a. Reach an average Environmental Beauty score of 1,100 on or before December 31, 2022, and maintained thereafter.
b. Reach an average Eco-Friendliness score of 2,500 on or before December 31, 2022, and maintained thereafter.
Here's a report of what we've been doing as a region since October!
News & Updates
New Eco Goals
You may notice that our eco goals say "2022" instead of "2023" and they're kinda out of date. We're in need of someone to write a proposal for new eco goals for 2024. Any Member State can write a proposal to edit the RRS at any time, and it just needs to have a second Member State to agree to it in order for it to go to vote.
Writing an RRS proposal is a really wonderful way to get engaged and involved in the region, to make changes that you want to see without having to be a Councillor, and to contribute to our regional law.
If this sounds like something you'd like to do but you're not sure where to start, please telegram me or ping me on Discord and I'll be more than happy to talk to you about it!
Green Week
We held a Green Week in November where the entire region was challenged to raise their eco-friendliness stats! Congratulations to the winners of that competition: Toothbrush and South frankston! You can read more about what happened in Green Week here: page=dispatch/id=1951978
Eco-Stats
There are two main pieces of data for our eco-report: eco-friendliness, and environmental beauty.
Eco-Friendliness
Okay so, I'll admit, this isn't really what I hoped to see when I fetched the graphs this evening. We started November on 3913.67, rising with the Green Week competition (including a small but visible very sharp rise mid-competition on November 6th). We hit a peak of 4325.29 on November 19th and have unfortunately been sliding down the eco-friendliness slide since then. It does coincide with an increase of 40 new nations arriving in the region since then, which is the main explanation I can see for this, however we are currently sitting at a low for the period of 3648.3. It would be great to see us get out of this current dip by the time I write the next eco report, planned for mid term in January.
Environmental Beauty
Environmental beauty and eco-friendliness stats often go hand in hand, and this report is very much following that trend. We began November with 1234.93, again with a sharp increase on November 6th and a general rise until we began seeing new nations join again, with a high of 1326.69 before dipping down to our current position at 1185.04. While new nations in Refugia are always a good thing, it's important to be aware of and encouraging each other to work on our eco-friendliness so we can maintain both our regional population and our eco stats!
Eco-Advice
Before we get into the advice, here’s a reminder from the last Eco-Report!
It's coming up to that time of year when many people are thinking about making resolutions for the New Year. Could you pledge to do something next year that would make the planet a better place? Small consistent actions add up over time. Here is a list of 52 ideas from Earth Day 2022 that can get you started!
Eco-Articles
Lastly, some positive environmental news from the real world!
In Spain, €1.4 billion has been invested into maintaining areas around the Doñana National Park and protect the wetlands there.
Young people in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil planted the first trees that will create a green corridor between two areas of forest, providing a safe way for wildlife to travel between the two.
And in Kenya, Maasai women have discovered a new way to turn an invasive cactus species into fuel.
Let's get our regional eco-friendliness and environmental beauty stats back up, as well as improving our real world too! Catch y'all soon!
Overview
According to RRS 7(c)(ii), the Councillor of Culture must "Publish regular updates to the Regional Eco Report". Here is the report for May 2023 to August 2023.
Eco-Stats
RRS 14 states that the goal of Refugia is:
a. Reach an average Environmental Beauty score of 1,100 on or before December 31, 2022, and maintained thereafter.
b. Reach an average Eco-Friendliness score of 2,500 on or before December 31, 2022, and maintained thereafter.
While we seem to have failed to reach that goal by the end of 2022, we did succeed in getting it by the time my term started.
Eco-Friendliness
As you can see in the chart, we started June with a score of 3400 and will be ending August with a score of 3720, with a low of 3300 and a high of 4000. We are meeting our target with a comfortable margin. Eco-friendliness if you are unaware is how much money your government gives to support the environment.
Environmental Beauty
As for environmental beauty, it closely tracks eco-friendliness in a more muted fashion. The regional average started at 1120 and will end at 1200, with a low of 1091 and a high of 1250. The goal is being met, but I would like to see more room for error. Environmental beauty is a measure of how much your environment is thriving, and thus is, in the absence of a carbon output stat, the ultimate beneficiary of your nationstate eco-friendliness.
Eco-Advice
The big environmental crises are not the only problems we face. One of the many, many threats to regional environments, especially in the Americas, are invasive species and human activity destroying and displacing local wildlife.
So if you are lucky enough to own some dirt, consider planting some plant species native to your area. By planting native species, you will be supporting local ecosystems by providing homes and food for local wildlife.
With a little care, you can transform some dismal lawn or concrete lot into a small refuge of your own. And if you don't own any space, consider finding a local community garden, or even an abandoned lot (tho make sure to keep yourself safe from the law). Here are some links I found to help you get started with your own research:
Native Plant FinderWhat are local ecotype plants and why do they matter to pollinators?Native, or Not So Much?PlantnetWhy More Gardeners Are Growing Native Plants
Editorial
I don't read the news, so here are some idle musings instead.
A few months ago I read a forum thread on nuclear power that made me reflect on how my stance on nuclear energy differs from most environmentalist groups. I believed in saving the planet with nuclear power since I was a small child, while most activists seem to prefer natural gas to the atom. While it is tempting to call myself an enlightened rationalist, superior to all those fossil fuel shills, my 12-year-old self was probably not thinking rationally about his beliefs. So what was the emotional reason for my nuclear fever?
Ruminating on it for a while, I think I found it. You see, I was also a big fan of cities and public transportation. And sure, there's good reason to believe that that stuff is good for the environment. But combined with the fact that my childhood self was a socialist who unironically believed that "socialism is when the government does stuff", one can't help but feel that I had a type. All these things - nuclear power, urban areas, public transit, big government - all these things are examples of big centralized systems. Nuclear power requires a huge expensive reactor, while solar panels for example are affordable enough for the average homeowner to install. Cities are massive concentrations of people and, regardless of being less polluting per person, they are incredibly destructive to the local environment.
It's making me consider more liberatory alternatives. Like, instead of nuclear plants, why not renewable energy owned by the masses? Instead of bus lines, have everyone use electric bikes. Instead of megacities, why not... actually I'm not sure what other alternative there is except sticking your head in the sand and pretending that 8 billion people living in villages is good for the environment. And instead of state socialism, why not, uh, eco-anarchism, I guess? Solarpunk basically.
And that's the report. Before you go, I just like to mention this cute little game I found called Green New Deal Simulator where you try to create a carbon-neutral America. Peace out.
Overview
Hello folks! This was originally intended to be an Earth Day Special, but between Cat (Tiralta) getting a new job and Argo (Lethodus) losing their wifi and then being hit with finals week, we’ve missed that by a couple weeks. However, the information contained within this report is still relevant and hopefully fun!
For those new to our region and wondering what this is, Refugia Eco-Reports are a requirement put on the Councillor of Culture by RRS 6(c)(i) to update the region on our progress on reaching the environmental goals outlined in the RRS, these being:
14. The Region defines the goals for both its Members and the Region collectively in the following ways:
a. Reach an average Environmental Beauty score of 1,100 on or before December 31, 2022, and maintained thereafter.
b. Reach an average Eco-Friendliness score of 2,500 on or before December 31, 2022, and maintained thereafter.
Here’s everything you’ve missed since the last eco-report in October!
Competition
As part of this Almost Earth Day Special, we’ve prepared a regional competition! First one to return a completed word search and answer our trivia questions correctly will win the entirety of this Eco Friendly Refugia collection, which features some seriously beautiful environments on S3 cards of our fellow Refugi! The next ten will all get a Thicc Horse, for luck.
Telegram Tiralta with your responses!
Word search:
Trivia:
How many species of big cats are there?
What species of amphibians is serpentine and lives in South America, Asia, and Africa?
Election Season
Congratulations to Minskievian refugees and Falafelandia who are our new Councillor of Foreign Affairs and Councillor of Operations!
Don’t forget to vote for the Councillor of Culture by 26th May!
Eco-Stats
There are two main pieces of data for our eco-report: eco-friendliness, and environmental beauty.
Eco-Friendliness
I’m so pleased to see this graph! We took a pretty big dip in early October as a result of the Tiktok Wave 2.0 nations CTEing (RIP in peace), dropping from 2087.75 to 1652, however we've gone from strength to strength since. We didn't quite meet our goal of 2,500 by 31 December 2022, but we did bring the regional eco-friendliness up to a respectable 2198.25 at that point. What is really fantastic though is that in the early months of 2023 we have now smashed right through that goal and are currently sitting at 2837.95. This is our highest score for eco-friendliness since September 2021, so to pull it back from 1652 which was the lowest score we've had since 2020 is a brilliant achievement! Thanks to everyone in the region for prioritising eco-friendliness so much in the past 6 months. And of course, if anyone wants to try their hand at writing a new goal for the end of 2023, all Member States are welcome to propose an amendment to the RRS! You can draft it as a dispatch and seek feedback and somebody to second it on the RMB, then once you're happy it can go to vote. I look forward to finding out what our next goal will be!
Environmental Beauty
Holy hell I get to talk about an upward trend in Environmental Beauty in an eco-report?? What a blessing! Looking back since the last eco-report in October, we definitely saw a bit of a dip, as Cat also mentioned for Eco Friendliness, but Environmental Beauty has been fairly consistently rising since, getting up to 1,004.62 in April when we meant to release this. This is the highest we’ve seen since…checks watch 2019, when Refugia had 16 nations.
We have lost a considerable number of nations since October, which definitely affected our stats at the time, but we’re managing to maintain a massive number of nations alongside this increase in our eco-stats. Spectacular job everyone!
Shout outs
While we’ve all contributed to meeting those eco goals, there are a couple of people we’d like to shout out!
Tidelia has improved their eco-friendliness and environmental beauty stats by a huge amount over the past couple of months, shooting into the regional top 10% and the global top 2% for both stats, and they are well on their way to joining the 17 Refugi who have a 1% badge in eco-friendliness! Well done, that’s such a great achievement!
Blanka monte, despite having only been founded a little over a month ago, has done an amazing job at raising their eco-stats. Over the course of a month, they've managed to raise their eco-friendliness from 358.12 to 1,723.34, and have earned a top 10% badge for environmental beauty. Awesome job!
Eco-Advice
Before we get into the new advice, here’s a reminder from the last Eco-Report.
Now, to your regularly scheduled programming…
I’ve been noticing more recently the sheer amount of plastic used in packaging and the like, literally everywhere. We try our best to recycle and try to get some more use out of it, but since plastic breaks down into microplastics, it makes it more and more difficult to actually recycle them into new products. Because of this, the actual recycling rate of plastics is only around 5%, and they end up in landfills or bodies of water, fragmenting into more microplastics from the water and sun exposure.
I’m sure we’ve all heard about microplastics excessively before, but it is a massive concern for our environment. Despite the severity of this issue, plastic continues to be prevalent everywhere, making it difficult to avoid. However, try your best to avoid single use plastics like plastic water bottles, plastic grocery bags, plastic lids, cups, and straws, and lesser known things that contain plastics such as receipts and cigarettes. Even plastics labeled as “biodegradable” aren’t necessarily better as they won’t break down as normal biodegradable items typically would, and they will absolutely remain in bodies of water and environments for ridiculous amounts of time.
On a different note, things are getting a little expensive, aren’t they! Here’s a couple of recipes to maybe save you a little bit of money.
It’s pretty important, but kinda gets up there in price sometimes. Additionally, excess laundry detergent can make its way into soil and waterways, affecting things like salinity and pH, and by extension, the plants and animals that rely on those things!
Once upon a time, there was a recipe I’d use for laundry soap before I went to college, that I can’t find anymore alas, but here’s one that’s very similar, and even a little more environmentally friendly than the one I would use!
It’s occurred to me now who my audience is here…Refugia..yes. This recipe might be useful to a good few of you…
I hope some of this was helpful or informative for some of y’all! Remember, it’s important to do our part, it really does add up, but it’s never just on individuals to fix the environment. Help how you can, and if you’re unable to right now, that’s perfectly fine!
Consider planting some seeds, picking up some litter, and have a great and safe summer!
Eco-Articles
Lastly, some positive environmental news from the real world!
India's tiger population is on the rise - great news for these endangered animals!
A court in Ecuador has revoked mining permissions in one of the most biodiverse forests on earth, which is fantastic news for the indigenous communities who live on this land, the wildlife and of course our planet overall.
In the USA, Illinois passed a bill that will ban single use styrofoam from 2025 - the first part of reduce, reuse recycle is the all-important reduce and this bill should have a great impact on reducing the use of this plastic.
And finally, 1 in 3 homes in Australia now have rooftop solar panels which is a fantastic move towards more green energy being produced there!
It's really heartening to see nations of all ages contributing to Refugia's goals, and we’re so happy to see that we’ve hit our regional goals!
That's it from us! We’re really excited to see where our eco-goals, our planet and the new Councillor of Culture go next!
Overview
Since the weather outside is frightful,
not starting any fires is vital.
“It’s a new season, Argo.”
So here’s an eco, ecooo, ecooo
…..report.
Howdy Refugi and assorted friendos.
As I just sang in my absolutely angelic singing voice, it's winter now so it's time for another Eco-Report! If you happen to be a first time reader, you might be wondering what this is. Refugia Eco-Reports are a requirement put on the Councillor of Culture by RRS 6(c)(i) to update folks on the region’s progress on reaching the environmental goals outlined in the RRS.
So let's get right into it!
Eco-Stats
First up we’ll look at Eco-Friendliness.
Since our last Eco-Report, we’ve seen an interesting and dynamic shift in the eco-friendliness of the region. This is likely a result of our recent success in recruitment, and surge of new nations during this time affecting the regional average. Across the past few months, we’ve seen some ups and downs with our Eco-Friendliness, jumping up to 2,269.6 in November, followed by a dip, again followed by a raise up to 2,362.81 in January. Following suit, another dip followed, (however, we are raising it once again after that screenshot was taken!)
Next we’ll take a look at Environmental Beauty.
Mirroring the Eco-Friendliness changes, we see a lot of ups and downs since October. In November, we saw it raise to 865.45, and back up to 877.75 again in January, surpassing the initial raise in November. Ending up at 771.51 at the time of that screenshot, again followed by a raise after February 1.
So really what this means is we’ve been making great progress despite this being an uphill battle what with our population growth as a region. Individual nations new and old contributing to raise these stats are all making a greater difference in our region and I’m extremely proud of that progress and effort.
There are so many nations who have improved that are worthy of receiving praise for their efforts, too many to count in fact, but here are a couple who have done an extraordinary job that I’d love to give shoutouts to.
First up, Anational and multispecial has risen their Environmental Beauty by 143.62 points since October 1, ending up with a stellar 1702.09 points.
Next, The land named bob has raised their Environmental Beauty by 269.56 points to a total of 804.86 points.
Next up, Remnants of the pacific has raised their Eco-Friendliness by an impressive 1174.46 points ending up with 1876.92 points.
Lastly, Metrax has raised their Eco-Friendliness by 1094.04 points, ending with a total of 1094.04 points this month.
Each of these nations have done amazing at raising their Eco-Stats, impressive work everyone!
Our progress is made possible by contributions to Refugia’s eco-stats from viewers like you. Thank you.
And here’s a reminder that progress on raising these stats can take time and dedication. Sometimes we’ll answer an issue and it’ll have effects on our stats that we didn’t expect. Setbacks are natural and you’ll have a chance to correct things with your next issue.
To those interested, here’s a resource to help make answering issues easier:
http://www.mwq.dds.nl/ns/results/
This is a tool that takes past issue effects to predict what effects each option will have on your nation.
Green Week
A couple of months ago, Refugia celebrated our second annual Green Week, a regional event with the goal of raising individual and our collective Eco-Stats through a competition. Through this, we saw immense growth, especially from individuals. Some of the remaining nations who found the most success in raising their eco-friendliness during the event are Dilwyn, Monaka chi and First kaumara who were all some of the highest climbers during the competition.
This was really fun to run and see y’all participate in! Thanks again to everyone who joined in and improved their stats.
Eco-Challenges
About two weeks ago, I put out a dispatch with a couple of questions for y’all. The first two had a correct answer that you were able to research, while the third was just a fun one that depended on your nation. The first to send in the correct answers were to receive a legendary trading card, as well as another random respondent. Here are the winners.
The first question was:
“What nocturnal large cat was named after a river?”
The winner was Narwhal with the Amur Leopard named after the Amur River.
Second question was:
“Who was Refugia’s first Op’s Councilor?”
Chacapoya was the first to answer this one right with “Merzbach” being the correct answer.
The last question was:
“What’s your national animal and what’s its significance to your country?”
Here are the answers I received for this one:
“Flits! They're our national animal, our currency, a large portion of our armed forces, and they may run the country!” -Chacapoya
“a fox is a smart animal in a war a trained fox brought food, water and medical supplies to soldiers and the original leader's middle name was fox” -Vandermeer
“The polar bear which is the national animal of my country is significant to the citizens because (lore-wise) while Melenavenia isn't the only country with polar bears it has the largest number and highest per capita amount of polar bears living naturally within its borders, despite not being the largest country that has them. Polar bears were viewed with deep respect by the Melenavenians for ages and to the present day--they admire their physical strength and abilities both on land and in the water, and Melenavenians always found this strength to be deeply captivating. Back when Melenavenians were hunter-gatherers they had the ability to hunt polar bears, but due to this respect, they only did so when absolutely necessary to survive. Also, a popular legend is that the first time the area now known as Melenavenia was attacked by invaders, during a battle a polar bear attacked the invading army and sent them retreating. This led to the belief that polar bears are the protectors of Melenavenia, and thus the polar bear is not only the national animal but it is on a shield on the flag.” -Melenavenia
“The Greater Phoenix Cat is the only flying cat species. They get their name from their flame coloured fur. It was once believed that they were the messengers of the Sun God, Griya, and their migration back to Tiralta every year marks the start of traditional festivals celebrating the return of summer and harvest.” -Tiralta
“National animal is Narwhal, since they are the dwellers of the nation of Narwhal. Should you expect something else?” -Narwhal
“My national animal is a red fox because red foxes are cute and their sly, just like my nation! (You didn't even notice that heavy dose a vitamin c sufficient tangerines I slipped into your salad) Also mainly because my nation thought boomerang throwing platinum foxes wasn't generic enough 🙄” -Floofybit
As mentioned, a random respondent was drawn to receive a legendary card. That nation is Tiralta. Congrats!
All the cards have been sent, and thanks to everyone who participated!
Eco-Advice
Spring is just around the corner (thankfully), but that doesn’t mean that we should slack on helping out the environment during the final stretch of winter.
Before we get into the new advice, here’s a quick tidbit from the last Eco-Report that is still relevant and very important to remember while staying safe.
And on to the new advice!
If you happen to get more snow and ice before things start to warm up again, try using an alternative to rock salt to melt the ice. Pickle juice, beet juice, and sand are good options that will help make walkways safer without harming aquatic environments. If you drive a car, consider carpooling or using public transportation to release less carbon emissions while getting where you need to go comfortably. You also might leave your oven open after cooking while it cools down to make use of the heat and energy to stay warm.
Spring is coming up though and there are even more ways to make a positive impact on the environment during the season change. As the temperature starts to warm back up, consider walking more if you’re able as an alternative to driving, (and maybe even pick up litter if you come across it.) You might also plant some flowers or other plants to improve the biodiversity in your area or help out pollinators like bees. And while doing your spring cleaning, consider recycling what you can and donating items you’re looking to get rid of to a resale store.
Stay safe and stay warm everyone!
Eco-Articles
Lastly, here’s a highlight on some real world environmental news to finish off this Eco-Report.
In the past year, several species have made a comeback from the brink of extinction, including China’s iconic giant panda which was taken off the endangered species list last year as a result of conservation efforts and habitat expansion. The Australian bandicoot has found success in recovering from borderline extinction, having been extinct in the wild to now only being endangered. The population went from around only 150 known bandicoots to around 1,500 over the course of 30 years.
Also in the past year, we’ve seen a number of newly discovered species, as well as incredibly rare species.Tiny copepods were discovered lighting up the snow on the shores of the White Sea recently, and the Australian “masked bee” was rediscovered for the first time in a century.
Although it doesn’t seem to be anyone's favorite color, there’s been a couple of rare yellow animals found including the yellow king penguin and this yellow lobster.
Here’s an article about an offshore wind farm outside of England being built promising around 750 new jobs for the area, and here’s a massive forest area that’s seen astonishing progress after efforts to have it regrown in the past 20 years.
Lastly, here’s a little portfolio of landscape photography from photographer Ted Gore that I thought were pretty neat and shows a range of beauty our planet has to offer.
If you looked at those articles, you might’ve noticed that a few mentioned the progress made being good, but we’re far from where we want to be environmentally, and I’m sure that most of y’all have caught onto that with constant news and events about the topic that aren’t nearly as positive. There has been a lot of progress, but I think its still very important to stay mindful of this. Its not solely on just anyone to save the environment, but every little bit helps and ultimately adds up.
We’ve only got one Earth so let's do our best to take care of it!
That’s all for this report. I hope y’all enjoyed!
Lethodus signing out o7
Overview
Howdy, Refugi and other friendos.
The trees have recently begun to shift their hues to pretty shades of reds, oranges, and yellows as the temperatures start dropping to a more enjoyable, not-dangerously hot temperature. Following the new seasonal eco-report system, its due time to check where we are at on our tree-hugging statistics.
Some of you might be looking at this dispatch and thinking “this looks cool and all, but what exactly is this?” If you find yourself wondering this, you’re likely a first time reader of the epic ongoing series of Refugia Eco-Reports. These legendary Eco-Reports are a requirement put on the Councilor of Culture by RRS 6(c)(i) to update folks on the region’s progress on reaching the environmental goals outlined in the RRS. These have also evolved over time to include extra goodies on nerdy environment stuff for those interested.
Eco-Stat Fun
I’ll note that this has been posted later than I had planned, so some of these stats have changed since the times specified. The timespan we’ll be going over is from June 1 to October 1.
Our first stat we’ll be covering is Eco-Friendliness
Since June, we see that our eco-friendliness initially rose significantly, even passing our goal in the RRS at an amazing 3792.58. However, since then, we’ve seen that dip down to 2498.2, with our recent surge of new nations.
Next up we’ll look at Environmental Beauty
Mirroring the trends demonstrated by the eco-friendliness stat, by July, we reached a high of 1162.15, once again meeting the goal outlined in the RRS. Once again, however, we’ve seen a dip to go alongside the recent population growth down to 920.95.
Despite these setbacks, I would like to point out that for each of these stats, if our trends continued, we would have been very far above our goals, and practically would have shattered them several months early. I’m proud of us for accomplishing that.
I’d like to encourage everyone, however, friends new and old, to answer a couple of issues here and there to boost that stat. I know I will too, especially since I’ve been slacking.
To help boost those environmental stats, here’s a couple of quick tips:
Several issues tend to pit environmental options against economical ones. Opting for the environmental ones will often raise the stats significantly, and you’ll even get a banner for it.
Don’t worry about setbacks! Issue effects vary with every nation with their unique stats, so unpredictable stat changes or mistakes are natural, and you’ll have the ability to fix them in the future, regardless.
There’s so many nations that’ve done an amazing job in raising their stats, and I’d like to highlight a few of them.
The first nation I’d like to shout out for their progress in Eco-Friendliness is Nekhuser-Ra who, between June 1 and October 1, rose by 1264.84 points, from 4554.2 to 5819.07!
Next up is Northern endo who, since joining in August, has raised their Eco-Friendliness by a considerable amount. By October, it’s raised from 297.84 to 1558.97, by 1261.13 points.
Our progress is made possible by contributions to Refugia’s eco-stats from viewers like you. Thank you.
Eco-Challenge Results
I BET Y’ALL THOUGHT I FORGOT! Of course, I would never forget anything ever, and it is now time to announce the winners of Argo’s Amazing Eco-Challenges, and give out some card prizes.
The first question asked what common North American bird’s wings whistle when it takes flight, and the first one to send me the correct answer, the mourning dove was Araine. Your card has been sent. Congrats!
The second question was a callback to a past eco-report from December 2019 asking what the eco-advice for that issue was. Chatula was the first to answer this one correctly with “taking public transportation”. Your card has been sent. Congrats!
The last question asked what your nation’s relationship with the environment was. Here are the answers I received:
“Evidently, with insufficient environmentalism, the aquatic habitat will be less suitable for trout. This would not only be morally incomprehensible, but would bring the wrath of Trout God (fishy be their name). Our society is dedicated to the service of Trout God (scaled be their visage) and with every step we strive to bring more trout into the world. However, while trout fishing and eco-friendliness are strongly correlated, they are not inextricably linked. Should an advance in trout farming come at the cost of environmental beauty, any Chatulan citizen would not hesitate to think 'what would Trout God do?' (plentiful be their zooplankton).” -Chatula
“Very good, our nation has worked to reduce the amount of animals that can be hunted/fished as well as the amount of trees that could be cut down.” The texas constantium
“Starnian religion and culture is deeply connected to the land. They traditionally believe that they must care for the land so that the land can care for them. However rapid urbanization is causing most of the Star Enpire's citizens to feel disconnected from the land. Urbanization was a deliberate policy of the Starnian government, which decided that the solution to population growth was to concentrate the population into extremely dense cities, leaving the rest of the country open for nature. Today the government helps improve the environment by funding ecological research, monitoring the various nature reserves and parks, and creating new environmental regulations; while the Starnian people work to make their supply chains more eco-friendly and their cities more hospitable to wildlife. Planting community gardens are a popular measure.” -The Star Enpire
“My nation is incredibly close with the environment. Not only is every citizen required to hug a tree every day so that the forest knows it's loved, but the ritual sacrifices provide blood and sweet, nurturing sustenance for the nature around us. Now, you may be thinking, Emily, come on, surely all that blood has corrupted the trees. Surprisingly no! We're pretty sure the leaves were always bright red, and that they turned to watch us as we walked by them even before the sacrifices started. Oh also they generally ask for the hugs, so it's nice that they're getting more confident.” -Sylh alanor
“‘The Environment' is a 2021 Stoletov Film production that stars Anatoly Rostov and his respected business partners being harassed and attacked by a mythical, supernatural creature known as 'The Environment'. 'The Environment' was the highest grossing film thus far of 2021 and is brought to you by Stoletov Aerospace, I am contractually obliged to remind you, 'Stoletov, is it a bird, is it a plane? Not, it's a CPD 211SA Justicar Class Airfortress with optional anti-personal drone bay!'.
The Corporate Dominion would like to remind everyone that once again please don't outside of Metropolis city boundaries as the air has begun to walk again, we don't know why, we don't how and we don't know how to stop it!” -The corporate dominion
“We survive in an alternate dimension of Fanciful Tales and Wild Stories of the Refuge! A digital plane of magical existence! If there is such a thing as an environment, it can probably be cleaned up by maintenance scripts. Or by nuking and paving the server. Per usual.’ -Refuge isle
Those winners are Minskievian refugees and The Star Enpire! Congrats, your cards have been sent!
Eco-Advice
Maintaining good eco-friendly habits can become more difficult in the winter months, so here’s a few tips to keep in mind as the temperatures continue to drop.
If you are able, consider using less heat in the colder months if you can wear more layers or if your house has good insulation. However, remember that safety comes first, so be sure to stay warm and avoid starting a fire.
Here’s a few things to consider while using heaters to limit the chance of starting a fire:
Make sure any wires are working and aren’t frayed.
Make sure to plug space heaters directly into any power outlets, rather than extension cords.
Make sure to keep only one heater per electrical circuit to avoid overloading it.
Keep any flammable items away from heaters or open flames.
Try not to leave running heaters or active fireplaces unattended.
While we’re on the topic of staying safe, happy late Don’t Die In A Carbon Monoxide Attack Day! It truly is a wonderful habit to upkeep, so make sure to have working carbon monoxide detectors in your house, and if you drive a car, do not leave it running in your garage even if it’s warming up. This is a common cause of death during the winter months.
Now if you’re not able to lower your heating usage, that’s alright! Safety should come first and there are other easy ways to help the environment. Try just using a little less water in your daily life. Keep the water off while you brush your teeth, take shorter showers, do laundry when you have a full load, and making sure to fix any leaks all help to conserve water.
Eco-Articles
Here’s an article on eco-friendly firecracker substitutes made to be planted rather than burning to lower pollution during Diwali and other celebrations. The plants that grow from the lookalikes are chosen to have a similar look to the firecracker counterparts while lit up, and many of which are also edible as well.
National Geographic has a gallery highlighting a few endangered species with information about them here.
That’s all for this episode of Argo posts a thing but way later than they wanted.
Hope y’all enjoyed!
-Lethodus
Overview
An'eth'ara, na lethall’en!
Welcome back, Refugi! You may be wondering, hey Emily, why haven't we gotten any eco-reports since March? It's been longer since your last one than it was between that one and the one before it! Look, you're right. But here's the thing, while we were having our regularly-scheduled downtime, I was planning and scheming and potentially coming up with excuses but honestly I think this might be a more manageable system going forward. I have decided that it might be a good idea to do these seasonally! That way we can see how the region improved over a three-month span instead of just 30 days. Sure, it might mean you experience less of my entirely mediocre writing skills, but also it might mean we don't run out of cool ideas for things to talk about too soon. Just up front, I'll make mention that, since the format is changing to span between March 1 and June 1, we're going to be retreading a couple weeks of space from the last eco-report.
To those first-time readers, the Refugia Eco-Report is a requirement put on the Councillor of Culture by RRS 6(c)(i) to be released periodically. It contains information on the regional progress toward our stated environmental goals, while also possibly presenting advice and environmental news to those people who are interested. Given that we're advertised as a region made up heavily of eco-socialist hippy types, I imagine that's all of us. So, without further ado, let's dive right in.
First up, we have Eco-Friendliness (click the graph to the right for a larger image). Much like the results we received from the last eco-report, we can see that, between March 1st and June 1st, our average Eco-Friendliness score rose significantly, 300 points exactly this month. I would be extremely surprised at this point if we didn't reach our voted-upon goal of 3200 average Eco-Friendliness by the end of the year. To summarise the data provided in the image, on March 1, 2021, Refugia’s average Eco-Friendliness score was 2,725.78, approximately 475 points away from our goal. Though there were some rises and dips throughout the summer due to the continuing recruitment drive, we ultimately ended the spring at an average score of 3,025.35, just under 175 points from the goal. Given that the continued influx of new nations through recruitment hasn't hindered our growth, it's highly likely that we will beat our goal by the end of the summer! In fact, given that we had a 300-point growth in three months, and we're less than 200 away from our goal, I imagine we'll shatter it.
Next, we will address Environmental Beauty (again, click the image to the right for a larger graph), for which our regional goal was 1100. Much like what we saw with the Eco-Friendliness score, Environmental Beauty has been progressing rapidly throughout the spring. Aside from a few small dips (aligning with large recruitment spikes), our region has been experiencing consistent growth, increasing a total of 99 points. On March 1st, we had an average regional Environmental Beauty score of 940.75, approximately 159 points away from our goal. And as of June 1st, we were sitting at an average of 1039.59, approximately 60 points from our goal. This means that, in six months, we've improved our regional score by 190 points, more than three times what's left between us and our goal. At this rate, we should, again, shatter expectations by the end of the summer.
There are dozens (hundreds!) of people who could be pointed to as people who deserve the thanks for this monumental growth, but as with the last report, I would like to highlight two in particular. I actually quite like this format, specifically highlighting some Refugi who have had some really cool growth arcs during the span of this eco-report.
First off, Araine, our incumbent Councillor of the Interior and all around wonderful person, has shown a fantastic amount of growth in their Environmental Beauty score. Between March 1, 2021 and June 1, their Environmental Beauty score rose from 1,277.22 to 1,769.89, a growth of 492 points! I'm eternally grateful for Araine's presence in the community, they're extremely welcoming to new people and friendly, all while continuing to help us achieve our goals!
Another commendable Refugi is Lethodus, who has taken on the challenge of potentially being my replacement in this position. I promise I gathered this information before they announced their candidacy, and still want to share it because it's extremely impressive. Since the beginning of the spring, Dax has raised their Eco-Friendliness score by almost 1400 points!
Eco-Advice for Eco-Dorks
You know, there are probably still a lot of things that I could cover here as advice for people on how to lower their carbon footprint or generally be more environmentally-friendly. I imagine the most impactful advice I could give, given that we've covered cutting out single-use plastic, using Ecosia as your primary search engine, taking public transport if possible, and cutting down on meat eating, is probably using less of your air conditioner over the summer. That being said, I know a lot of people live in places where it gets to ungodly temperatures, and it's a bit rich of me to say don't use your a/c when it doesn't get over 30 degrees here and some of you live in the actual pits of hell, speaking purely in terms of temperature. And besides, aren't we forgetting something?
I know the original point of the 'Suggestions for Improvement' section wasn't to put all of the burden of climate change on individuals. I should know that, as I wrote and outlined the original eco-report. Here's the thing, we make suggestions for individual improvements because, collectively, those little changes do add up. Composting your leftovers and recycling plastics, paper, cardboard, tin cans, and glass, and cutting down on your own emissions as much as possible does make a difference. And while it's true that 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions, there isn't a lot that we can do about that.
We're only just now coming out of a worldwide pandemic. Things have been hectic and stressful for a year and a half, and we've all done our best to just survive. And while we should be conscious of the things we're doing as we enter the next stage of whatever we'll be doing, whether it be returning to work or school, or maybe continuing to do things at distance as companies realise the money they save by allowing for that, we should go a bit easy on ourselves. The last time I did a 'Suggestions for Improvement', way back in May of 2020, was to take care of yourselves. At that time I specifically aimed that at "especially those of you who have been shut in for six or seven weeks at this point". Little did I know we'd have more than another year left of that.
So do what you can. Read back over some of those rants I wrote in the old dispatch archive. Try to make some improvements and tell us about them in the RMB or in the Discord server. Share your victories with us so we can all lift each other up. Maybe hold off on the air conditioning except for the worst days if possible. But don't push yourselves too hard. As then, and still now, self-care takes priority.
Environmental News
First, an article on something new in Canada. A hybrid-electricity turbine has been built in Alberta that is stated to lower the run-time of the turbine by 80%, saving approximately 45,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions ever year. Not to show my BC bias, but this is may be the only good thing that's ever come out of Alberta. After all, they're also currently being blocked by the federal government from continuing to mine and burn coal.
This article talks about new creation out of Cambridge in the U.K., a plant-based and sustainable 'vegan spider silk' material that could replace single-use plastics in products. This would be a massive deal, of course, because there are some plastics that are going to be difficult to convince people to stop using. This would make it to where maybe they don't!
Here's another article, this time about a new and distinct ocean! National Geographic, for the first time since they began making maps more than a century ago, has declared a new and distinct ocean as the waters around Antarctica.
Finally, a couple of short, fun articles. First, vegetables aren't real, apparently. And then, to get the G-7 leaders to pay attention to the rising issue of e-waste, two artists have sculpted their faces out of trash. They've named the piece 'Mount Recyclemore'.
As always, if you have interesting environmental stories, news, tips you’d like to see an article centred around, or any questions, feel free to message me at any time! Thanks so much for reading.
Sule tael tasalal, dar'eth shiral,
Sylh alanor
Overview
An'eth'ara, na lethall’en!
Well here we are! Sorry about taking so long in making a new Eco-Report, the last one was way back on January 5th, while I’ve been holding this office for over a month now. As stated in Refuge Isle’s previous report, we’re still in the process of rebuilding our staff of surveyists and carbon enthusiasts, and that’s taken a lot of time and distinct effort, but things are progressing well enough. We’re starting to get full reports back on a regular basis, which means those reports should be passed along to you in good time.
To those first-time readers, the Refugia Eco-Report is a requirement put on the Councillor of Culture by RRS 6(c)(i) to be released periodically. It contains information on the regional progress toward our stated environmental goals, while also possibly presenting advice and environmental news to those people who are interested. Given that we're advertised as a region made up heavily of eco-socialist hippy types, I imagine that's all of us. So, without further ado, let's dive right in.
First up, we have Eco-Friendliness (click the graph to the right for a larger image). As you can see, Refugi have made incredible progress in the area of Eco-Friendliness since the beginning of the year, and it seems highly likely we’ll be passing our year goal of 3200 average Eco-Friendliness in extremely short time. To summarise the data provided in the image, on January 1, 2021, Refugia’s average Eco-Friendliness score was 2,213.71, approximately 987 points away from our goal. After only the first quarter of the year, we have reached an average score of 2,902.98, just under 297 points away from the goal. It is important to keep in mind that this has grown and developed alongside a rapid boost in regional population. As that growth has not overly affected our progress, expect this goal to be shattered before the end of summer!
Next, we will address Environmental Beauty (again, click the image to the right for a larger graph), for which our regional goal was 1100. Much like what we saw with the Eco-Friendliness score, Environmental Beauty has been progressing rapidly throughout the beginning of 2021. Aside from a few small dips (aligning with large recruitment spikes), our region has been experiencing constant growth. At the beginning of the year, we had an average regional Environmental Beauty score of 848.83, approximately 252 points away from our goal. And as of writing this report, we are sitting at an average of 971.01, just under 129 points from our goal. This means that in three months, Refugia’s average Environmental Beauty score has risen 122 points, almost halving the distance in just a quarter of the time allotted. With steady progress like we’ve been experiencing, expect this goal to also be met by the end of summer.
There are, as you might imagine, many people in the community who can be thanked for the extreme growth in both of these stats. But for the moment, I want to point out two in particular who have shown incredible growth over short periods of time.
First off, Nerdy tangent, a Refugi who joined our community last autumn, has shown a 10-day period of fantastic growth in his Eco-Friendliness score. Between March 8, 2021 and March 18, his Eco-Friendliness score skyrocketed from 1,132.8 to 1,790.43, a growth of 657 points! Putting his tireless involvement in our community activities and extremely sunny and positive presence, his contribution to our regional goals couldn’t be overlooked.
Another Refugi worthy of pointing out is Lower french gregballs who moved into the region last autumn. On top of being an active and involved member of the gameside community, Gregballs boasts the 15th-highest Eco-Friendliness score in the region. One issue in particular in February boosted their Eco-Friendliness score by 1300 points!. This goes to show the benefits of regularly and constantly answering issues.
Environmental News
I fear I don’t have any long and winding monologues for you all to read this month. I’m still getting some of those together, but they will be in supply soon enough. Instead, I will leave you with some recent environmentally-based articles.
First, an article on the Canadian carbon tax being ruled constitutional by our Supreme Court. In 2018, the Liberal (then) majority in Parliament enacted a carbon tax to charge our top polluters. There was no end to political pushback (by the Conservative Party) and various big businesses. Even an entire province which will remain unnamed. It could be better, but at least we can be content that this step won’t be taken away.
This article on the impact of different modes of transportation on the environment comes out of the EU. It addresses the Transport and Environment Report from 2020, and makes a compelling case for taking public transportation over your own single-user vehicle whenever possible. While that might not be the most groundbreaking, the information they report on comparing train and air travel is interesting.
Finally, an article about an Icelandic climate activist speaking on his book. The postscript of the book, added for the latest round of translations, ends- alongside my last Eco-Report- in May of 2020, looking hopefully at the climate upsides to Covid-related lockdowns. He reflects on those findings for the interview.
As always, if you have interesting environmental stories, news, tips you’d like to see an article centred around, or any questions, feel free to message me at any time! Thanks so much for reading.
Sule tael tasalal, dar'eth shiral,
Sylh alanor
- Overview
Greetings treasured readers,
Refugia's environmental scores have seen pointed periods of determined growth, but the regional average remains below the goals.
It has been a terribly long amount of time since this office last released its legally required Eco-Report. This is because our team of surveyists and carbon enthusiasts were revealed to be tragically over dedicated to their work, and whilst studying various types of trees in Refugia, they decided to leave Refuge Isle and join the tree society. It has been since last May, but indeed, they literally remain out in the field, standing in place, and attempting to photosynthesise. We naturalistically wish them tremendous success in these endeavours.
As you may know, there is no legally mandated levels of environmental beauty or eco-friendliness which is required to be a resident of Refugia. However, the blessed Refugia Revised Statutes do take a keen interest in these two metrics, as they are considered to be closely aligned to our self-expression. In the most updated declaration, Councillor Sylh alanor established the goals for 2020 to be 1,900 pounds of wildlife per square mile, and 5,000 planets per capita on environmentally-related funding targets.
Looking back on the stats which have run their course over the last year, we can see that this was not achieved. As is the bane of this project's existence, it was inhibited by too much region growth. Where only thirty nations resided in Refugia at the time of the region's reboot, things certainly looked on the up and up, with environmental beauty soaring to over 1,150. But as the population of Refugia would ultimately multiply by nearly six times, new nations' much lower starting averages cause long term environmental pursuits to be held back. For the moment, however, we will end the year at 850 pounds and zero pence.
Eco-Friendliness is occasionally confused to be one in the same with environmental beauty, however it is truly a representation of how much a particular nation's government is spending on the topic of environmental issues. While we are aware that some governments may take this opportunity to buy unreasonably large ice cubes to drop in the oceans and develop fans to assist their nation's wind movements, we should like to think of our neighbours with the optimistic assumption that this spending is put to productive use. For example Karen matheson uses the opportunity to fund ejection systems for cows, by relocating them from the planet Earth to the sun by an unconscionably large slingshot. Methane levels have seen marked improvement as a result.
Despite the difference in metrics, the effect of the region growth remains largely the same, and Refugia fell short in this category as well. Average eco-friendliness peaked in May at 3,500 planets per capita and ended the year at 2,200 - less than half of the goal set.
Such things are unavoidable and, despite missing these goals, the Culture office appreciates everyone in Refugia that is working constantly to improve their nations none the less. The office wishes to highlight Nottinghaven in particular for, although being a new arrival to the region, blasting away in their pursuit of Eco-Friendliness over the last seven months, adding nearly 2,000 Nottings to their score in that time. Flohovistan also ought to be highlighted for their long-term dedication to environmental beauty, with (while not always successful) near-constant attempts to improve their environment for the entirety of the time the nation has existed.
- Green Week
Members may remember the conclusion of the Green Week's eco-friendliness competition, one which proved to be a successful collaborative effort for all Refugi to spend some extra time focusing on their environmental areas and attempting to go about improving them. As a side benefit, their name and likeness would be applied to various official government institutions. For instance, we now all have cats. We also build admin towers to be excessively high. We appreciate these policy changes, even if we do not understand why at this juncture.
For large improvements to not only their nation, but the eco regional average, the most successful players of the Green Week competition were Junitaki-cho (+1494.80), Laisou (+1909.29), New antinios (+2167.79), and Chatula (+2631.18). Often sacrificing greatly in other areas of their government for this one singular cause, may such wonders as their dedication never cease. The most transformative nation in this competition was Feu de glace (+4406.73), who in a daring display of unbridled dedication to the cause, elected to undo the industrial revolution. This decision led to the loss of one hundred trillion chips of economic output in exchange for an impossibly vast boost to their already incredible statistics.
Samudera was, regrettably the largest environmental regression during the competition, ending up 800 points down from where they began. The consequence for such a blunder is a conveniently delivered and delicately arranged tire fire, the ultimate utility of which has yet to be determined.
The Office of Culture would like to remind the region to be conscious of their environmental choices. You may also find success if you are able to invest time towards interpreting what has happened in the past.
In closing this report I leave you with some questions to consider: What is the environmental situation in your nation? Have does your government interact with other nations and does the environment factor into your negotiations with them? Are there political factions within your nation that champion these causes? If you would like to create more content for your nation, consider writing about the subject and how it affects you.
Until next time,
Refuge isle
Councillor of Culture
Refugia
The Councillor of Culture, being nominally in charge of events and developing regional identity, has a wide and vague swath of responsibilities. How do they accomplish these things? The list below will grow as new types of events are added. Refugi Game Nights: While members on the Regional Message Board and in the regional Discord server can suggest games at any time, the Councillor of Culture will schedule regular official times for games, so that the most people can show up. Games so far have included Tetris, Skribbl.io, and Uno! Do you have a suggestion for a game? Send it to the Councillor of Culture and get it added to the list! (obs, the game should to be free of charge, and available to all NS users) Creative Competitions: Refugi have historically proven ready to show off their creative talents. Whether it be worldbuilding, vexillology, or creating conlangs, the people of our region have always risen to the occasion when presented with challenges. The Councillor of Culture may call for contests that reward Refugi by featuring their creations on the official region page. World Assembly Development Program (WADP): Historically, Refugia has run WADP competitions to give member states the chance to win valuable and rare cards by endorsing the delegate and each other. Because of these programs, Refugia has maintained a place as the second-most endorsement happy region on NationStates! Interregional Events: The Councillor may, via the Councillor of Foreign Affairs, get in touch with culture staff in our embassy regions to collaboratively work on events. These will be the perfect opportunity for Refugi to get to know and become friends with our neighbours in other regions!
Melenavenia, is in charge of orchestrating cultural events and developing the identity of the Refugi culture. They are responsible for keeping people feeling happy and safe, coordinating events, and hosting games. The Councillor of Culture is always available to answer questions, or to put a resident/Member State in contact with another Councillor who can better assist them with their issue. Finally, as of Statute Referendum #3: Guidelines for Environmental Participation and Implication, the Councillor of Culture is in charge of tracking regional environmental stats, and providing regular Eco-Reports informing the region of its progress.
Sinvald May 2019 September 2019 |
Sylh Alanor September 2019 February 2020 |
Refuge Isle October 2020 February 2021 |
Sylh Alanor February 2021 June 2021 |
Lethodus June 2021 February 2022 |
Djorner February 2022 April 2022 |
Tiralta April 2022 October 2022 |
Chacapoya October 2022 February 2023 |
Lethodus February 2023 May 2023 |
Tiralta February 2023 December 2023 |
Sylh Alanor February 2024 May 2024 |
Chacapoya June 2024 September 2024 |
Tuluni September 2024 November 2024 |
Refuge Isle December 2024 February 2025 |
Purple Gold February 2025 May 2025 |
Tuluni May 2025 Aug 2025 |
Fadnesia August 2025 November 2025 |
-Eunomia November 2025 December 2025 |
Purple Gold December 2025 May 2026 |
Lethodus May 2026 August 2026 |
Melenavenia August 2026 present |
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