Link About It: This Week’s Picks
Climate reparations, repatriated artifacts, a decommissioned hydroelectric power plant and more
Elevated Access Provides Private Planes for People Seeking Abortions
Founded before the fall of Roe v Wade, Elevated Access is a non-profit network of pilots who donate their time, resources, planes and skills to transport people seeking abortions or gender-affirming care to states where it is legal to do so. In many cases, people do not have the money or time to make it to their medical appointments, making the service Elevated Access provides crucial. While the idea of flying people privately to access abortions sounds complex and costly, many pilots have their own four-seater hobby planes which are small and off the radar. Further, as founder Mike (whose last name is withheld for protection) notes, there are airports in nearly all counties in the US so that makes getting to clinics by plane swift. Mike thoroughly vets all the pilots, from their licenses to flight-training hours and references that prove their views on reproductive rights. His operation attests to the power and necessity of collective, community organizing. Learn more about it at The Cut.
Documentary “1946” Alleges The Word Homosexual Is in the Bible by Mistake
1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture, a new journalistic documentary by director Sharon “Rocky” Roggio, premieres this week at the DOC NYC festival. Within the film, a series of experts explain that the first inclusion of the word “homosexual” in the Bible—which happened in a 1946 update—was actually a mistranslation and the committee of translators behind the update not only recognized it, but attempted to correct it. From this mistranslation, more than 75 years of bigotry and hate have risen. It was, as the movie makes clear, “the misuse of a single word that changed the course of history.” Read an interview with Roggio, see the correct translation and its explanation, and learn more about the intense attacks the film is facing, at The Daily Beast.
Visitors Can Now Tour the 2,198-Foot Tunnel Below Niagara Falls
Built more than a century ago, a 2,198-foot tunnel on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls is now open to the public. More than a new vantage point for the legendary waterfall, it’s an impressive piece of the decommissioned Niagara Parks Power Station, which ran from 1905 to 2006 and happens to be the only fully intact hydroelectric power plant from the time period anywhere in the world. It’s an aesthetic time capsule and an engineering marvel—all accessible by a new glass elevator. Read more about the touring recently opened attraction at CNN.
UN Climate Summit to Discuss Climate Reparations for the First Time
A long overdue motion, the UN Climate Summit will discuss climate reparations for the first time ever. This comes after decades of wealthy nations barring the topic from the agenda. Over the next two weeks, negotiators will address how high-income and predominately white nations—including the US and much of Western Europe—are the most responsible for climate change but face a minority of its consequence. Despite this injustice, countries being impacted—like India, Pakistan and Nigeria—are provided little to no financial help. The summit’s agenda seeks to rectify this, noting that decisions on which countries will contribute money must be made by the deadline of 2024. While the extent of the reparations still remains to be seen, the discussions are an overdue milestone toward climate justice. Learn more at Scientific American.
Link About It is our filtered look at the web, shared daily in Link and on social media, and rounded up every Saturday morning. Hero image courtesy of Niagara Parks
COOL HUNTING always gets permission to use the images we publish; however, as an independent publication, we cannot afford to continue fighting unfair claims of copyright infringement, so the images have been removed from this post.
