JD Vance ignited uproar from a particularly vocal fanbase on the internet this week, as some Taylor Swift fans say the Republican VP nominee might “need to calm down” after a video resurfaced of him slamming childless women who own cats.
Resurrected footage, shared Monday by the editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch Network, shows Vance on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in 2021, criticizing multiple Democratic figures as “childless cat ladies” and saying people without children don’t have a “direct stake” in America’s future. Vance made the TV appearance while he was running for the Ohio senate seat he eventually won.
The video had more than 25 million views on X as of Wednesday and Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comments had sparked an uproar from Swiftie fans and beyond.
“When it hits you that Taylor Swift is childless and has cats… The armageddon is coming for him,” one X user posted Tuesday night.
Another user posted: “Vance attacked childless women who love cats. Taylor Swift would probably like a word. Release the kraken (meowww).”
One fan suggested she use his comments “right back at him” if she were to endorse Harris, while another lobbied for Swift-inspired “Democratic fundraising merch.”
Time Person of the Year photoshoot: ‘Can I bring my cat?’
Internet users drew the connection between Vance’s comments and Swift because she has three cats and proudly posts about them on social media.
Swift, 34, is not married and does not have children.
Considered one of the most famous people on the planet, Swift is dating Kansas City Chief’s player Travis Kelce. The pop superstar and NFL player took their romance public in October 2023.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – Farmers bringing dairy cattle to the Minnesota State Fair will have to take extra precautionary steps ahead of time before officials allow them into the Great Minnesota Get-Together.
Minnesota State Fair officials announced that an outbreak of H5N1, the same virus that causes avian influenza in poultry, also known as bird flu, is leading to new protocols for lactating dairy cattle.
Lactating dairy cows that are participating in dairy shows are now required to have a negative test for H5N1 within seven days before arriving, as well as a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) that lists the Minnesota State Fair as a destination. Any lactating cows that will not return home within 10 days after testing must get another test at the fairgrounds.
All other livestock and horse shows are expected to proceed as normal.
The State Fair announced that there would be no pregnant cows at the Miracle of Birth Center and no live dairy calf births would take place. However, calves and other cows will be on display.
Fairgoers will still be able to witness the births of sheep, pigs and poultry at the Miracle of Birth Center.
Minnesota State Fair officials say the exhibit is making biosecurity a top priority and will follow strict protocols, including hand-washing and keeping food and drink away from animals. A licensed Minnesota State Fair veterinarian will be on-site 24 hours a day, which is standard practice.
No changes are planned yet for the poultry exhibit, but fairgoers and exhibitors are asked to stay informed on any possible developments.
The recent news hit me like a heat wave: Climate experts have no doubt that we are on our way to overshooting the 1.5°C increase in global heating the UN leaders agreed on in the Paris Agreement of 2015 by at least 1°C before the end of this century. This would have devastating consequences for the Earth and everybody who lives on it.
Guardian reporters reached out to the most knowledgeable people on the planet, all senior authors of climate reports for the Intergovernmental Planet on Climate Change, and the responses were shocking: Almost 80 percent of the respondents expect global temperature to rise at least 2.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100, and almost half predict at least 3°C, a catastrophic level of heating. Just 6 percent think we can still limit global heating to a 1.5°C increase.
I was worried when I read their predictions but even more worried by the lack of public response to them. Are we so used to horrifying climate predictions that we simply ignore them?
Drought has dried up Barcelona’s Sau Reservoir. Credit: Alberto Gonzalez / Shutterstock
A global increase of 3°C means deadly heat waves, massive wildfires, the disappearance of the Amazon rainforest, the death of the last coral reefs and the drowning of large populated areas, including Charleston, all of Rhode Island and the Space Center in Houston. It’s impossible to distance ourselves from this. It will affect us, no matter where we live.
Some of my friends and colleagues are motivated by the bad news to intensify their climate-friendly actions, while I’ve heard from others, “It’s too late now anyways,” or, “What difference does it make if I recycle my trash or drive a diesel?”
I don’t intend to shame anybody, but I do hope we can agree we need to take this issue seriously and do more to reduce emissions. If anything, the survey results are an urgent call to action.
Luckily, the same experts also tell us what we can do to have the most significant impact on climate change.
Flooding in Houston following Hurricane Beryl. Credit: Mathew Risley / Shutterstock
“I am convinced that we have all the solutions needed for a 1.5°C path and that we will implement them in the coming 20 years,” said Henry Neufeldt, the Head of Impact Assessment and Adaptation at the UN’s Copenhagen Climate Centre. “But I fear that our actions might come too late and we cross one or several tipping points.”
The position we’re in could hardly be clearer: We do have solutions, but we need to implement them. Now.
“Every 10th of a degree matters a lot,” one scientist said to The Guardian, which means: Everything we do matters.
EVERY action matters. EVERY flight, EVERY steak I eat, EVERY unnecessary mile I drive matters. Here are some of the biggest things we can do to help:
Vote
The scientists have identified prime actors who are responsible for failing to tackle the climate crisis: “A lack of political will was cited by almost three-quarters of the respondents, while 60 percent also blamed vested corporate interests, such as the fossil fuel industry.”
This means that we can and need to use our vote to make ourselves heard. Just look at Brazil: Under Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency, the deforestation of the rainforest reached a 15-year high. In the first six months after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took over as president in 2023, deforestation dropped by 33.6 percent.
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I’m a single-issue voter. If a politician doesn’t care about climate change, I won’t vote for him or her. We are almost 10 years past the Paris Agreement and still, many leaders of the world are climate deniers. We can still fix this, but we don’t have time to waste on political expediency, profit margins and apathy. It doesn’t matter if they fight for all the other issues I care about, because if our communities become too hot to live in, if our oceans and planet become uninhabitable, then the other issues will no longer seem as important.
So, let’s use our power at the ballot box and at the gas pump. This recommendation is particularly powerful this year when half the world votes, including in the US, the UK, India, Mexico and South Africa. Politicians need to know that we care and that we demand action.
Take the bicycle, bus or train whenever possible
The second most powerful action we can take is to reduce flying and fossil-fuel powered transport.
I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but a scientific review study on climate change mitigation in Nature Climate Change analyzed thousands of pages of research to calculate the effects of our individual actions. You can look up exactly how much CO2 you save with each bicycle or train ride.
My yoga teacher lectures convincingly about love and compassion for all, including the planet, but flies to Bali every year with 50 of his students for a yoga retreat. Sure, Bali is beautiful, but he lives in coastal California and most of his students are local, so couldn’t he find a gorgeous location closer to home? Or at least not at the other end of the planet?
The Schuylkill River Trail in Philadelphia. Credit: East Coast Greenway Alliance
Each 36-hour-round trip is responsible for 6.7 tons of CO2 emissions, more than the average person produces in an entire year. Multiply that by 51, and you would generate the same emissions by driving 855,000 miles or 35 times around the entire globe with an average gas-powered vehicle.
“Flying is the largest single activity you can omit for the planet,” Will Stedden told me when I interviewed him and his wife Claire about their initiative to inspire “regenerative travel” — travel that gives back to the planet and communities. Have you taken the Flight Free Pledge, vowing to “fly less and save more”? Take the Jump is another website that details dozens of actions everybody can take to lessen their carbon footprint, with reducing consumption, changing our diets and flying less as the top three.
“Where does the bigger change come from?” Claire Stedden asks. “People have to start demanding, or corporations won’t change. If everybody decides to fly less, eventually you’ll find fewer planes in the air. We have to start living the change for that to happen.”
Eat less meat
The production of meat leads to significantly more carbon emissions than vegetarian and vegan goods. “In the context of food, the highest carbon savings come from dietary changes, particularly the adoption of a vegan diet,” researchers found.
I pivoted to a plant-based diet last year and happily experiment with homemade chickpea falafel and spinach smoothies, much to the joy and health of my family.
Eating less meat is one thing individuals can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Credit: Stacy Spensley / Flickr
And beyond
Other ways individuals can have a measurable impact include participating in climate protests, opting for more sustainable construction (including investing in heat pumps) and commuting less (remote working). The Solutions Project recently detailed the measurable effect grassroots climate groups — especially those led by women and people of color — have on securing climate policy wins and pushing for clean energy projects to reduce emissions.
A recent poll in Germany, where I’m from, showed that 20 percent of youths between ages six and 19 didn’t know anything about climate change; even among the 18- and 19-year olds, one in six had either never heard of climate change or didn’t know what it meant.
We often assume that everybody is aware of climate change by now, but this is clearly not the reality. We need to learn to talk about this pressing issue in a way that people around us can relate to.
Experts have also weighed in on the best ways to inform and motivate more people, including through rebates and climate information in eateries. German universities, for instance in Munich and Dresden, are now publishing climate info alongside each dish in their cafeterias. The results show that providing an information nudge reduces the likelihood of choosing meat by 12 percentage points. Somewhat surprisingly, peer pressure didn’t work nearly as well.
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A marine biologist I follow and author of the forthcoming book What If We Get It Right?, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, talks about the power of reframing climate-friendly action. “People don’t like sacrifice. People don’t like bans. But I think there’s a way to frame that as: This is an opportunity to live a different and better life,” she recently told the New York Times. “Often we think about the changes that are needed, and we don’t look at both sides of the coin. We think about, This is going to be expensive, or, This is going to be inconvenient, without thinking about, Do you know how inconvenient and expensive climate change is? It is so much worse.”
Maybe most importantly, there is a “positive and robust” link between pro-environmental action and subjective wellbeing. I’m not saying this to make you feel good but that, too, has been scientifically proven in the above-mentioned review: “Individuals who engage in pro-environmental behaviors tend to experience higher levels of subjective wellbeing.”
In other words, among all its other benefits, caring for the environment will make you happier. The more we care for our planet, the greater our wellbeing. And that of the earth.
It was a familiar refrain in a different setting Friday. 20 members and supporters of the group “Save the Deer” set up across from a fundraiser at Fellows Riverside Gardens, looking to get the attention of wealthy donors. Two years into their protests of deer culling to control population throughout Mill Creek Park, they’re not giving up ahead of the next hunt the park board scheduled for October.
“Back at their last meeting, they released their plan for how many more deer they want to kill this year, and just like last year, we don’t believe it’s right, we don’t believe the numbers, we don’t believe deer should be killed in our metro parks and we do believe that there’s a significant safety aspect that they’re just ignoring,” said rally organizer Chris Flak.
The group argues that by continuing these hunts without looking at any other options, the park board is not serving the best interests of the citizens, the wildlife or the environment. In may – we told you about lots of complaints that the save the deer group filed against the park board – even calling for some members to be removed. The board responded by denying all the group’s claims, including that they failed their duties by refusing accountability to taxpayers.
Nonetheless, the group is pushing forward with efforts to have the park board and director Aaron Young removed.
“We do have our appeals process on now, that’s in Youngstown (municipal) court, and we also have a complaint that’s being heard by probate court,” said Flak.
Which means only time will tell whether this group’s two year rally cry will be heard.
