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A long-awaited report from the Environmental Protection Agency has found that formaldehyde presents an unreasonable risk to human health. But the report, released Thursday, downplayed the threat the chemical poses to people living near industrial plants that release large quantities of the carcinogen into the air.
The health risk assessment was published weeks after a ProPublica investigation found that formaldehyde, one of the most widely used chemicals in commerce, causes more cases of cancer than any other chemical in the air and triggers asthma, miscarriages and fertility problems.
Our analysis of the EPA’s own data showed that in every census block in the U.S., the risk of getting cancer from a lifetime of exposure to formaldehyde in outdoor air is higher than the goal the agency has set for air pollutants. The risk is even greater indoors, where formaldehyde leaks from furniture and other products long after they enter our homes.
In its report, the EPA evaluated 63 situations in which consumers and workers encounter formaldehyde and found that 58 of them contribute to the chemical’s unreasonable risk to health — a designation that requires the agency to mitigate it. Among the products that can emit dangerous levels of formaldehyde in these scenarios, according to the report, are automotive-care products like car waxes, along with crafting supplies, ink and toner, photographic supplies and fabrics, building materials, textiles and leather goods.
While a note accompanying the EPA’s report stated that workers have the greatest exposure to the chemical, the agency’s risk assessment adopted weaker standards for protecting workers from formaldehyde than had been proposed in a previous draft. The move was decried by some environmentalists, including one who said it would affect hundreds of thousands of people whose jobs require them to come into contact with the chemical.
By law, the EPA should now begin the next stage of regulation: drafting restrictions to mitigate the risks it identified. But even before the agency released the report, House Republicans urged the administration to invalidate it. And a chemical industry group immediately attacked the report as flawed, accusing the EPA of “pursuing unaccountable lame duck actions that threaten the U.S. economy and key sectors that support health, safety and national security.”
How — and whether — to rein in the risks of formaldehyde promises to be one of the first tests of the EPA under a second Trump administration. The relatively inexpensive chemical is ubiquitous, used for everything from preserving dead bodies to making plastics and semiconductors. On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly said he supports clean air. But he has also vowed to roll back regulations he views as anti-business — and industry has rallied around formaldehyde for decades.
When Trump first assumed office in 2017, the agency was preparing to publish a report on the toxicity of the chemical. But one of his EPA appointees, who was given a high-ranking role in the agency’s Office of Research and Development, was a chemical engineer who had worked to fend off the regulation of formaldehyde as an employee of Koch Industries, whose subsidiary made formaldehyde and many products that emit it. The report was not released until August 2024, long after Trump’s appointee left the agency.
According to ProPublica’s analysis of the EPA’s 2020 AirToxScreen data, some 320 million people live in areas of the U.S. where the lifetime cancer risk from outdoor exposure to formaldehyde is 10 times higher than the agency’s ideal. ProPublica released a lookup tool that allows anyone in the country to understand their outdoor risk from formaldehyde.
Still, the EPA decided in its finalized assessment that those health risks are not unreasonable, echoing a draft the agency released in March. Back then, to determine whether formaldehyde posed an unreasonable risk of harm, the EPA compared levels in outdoor air to the highest concentrations measured by monitors in a six-year period. The ProPublica investigation found that the measurement the draft report used as a reference point was a fluke and had not met the quality control standards of the local air monitoring body that registered it.
That explanation was absent from the final version released this week. Instead, it offered several new rationales, including that some formaldehyde degrades in the air and that levels vary over people’s lifetimes, but it came to the same conclusion as the draft had: that formaldehyde in outdoor air isn’t a threat that needs to be addressed.
That decision leaves people living near industrial plants — known as fence line areas — with little hope of protection, according to Katherine O’Brien, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, who has closely followed the EPA’s efforts to regulate formaldehyde.
“Despite calculating very high cancer risks for people in their homes and also fence line community residents, EPA has completely written off those risks, and set the stage for no regulation to address those risks,” said O’Brien. “That’s deeply disappointing and very hard to comprehend.”
Compared to the draft published in March, which was heavily criticized by industry, the final version contained weaker standards for protecting workers. The acceptable levels of workplace formaldehyde exposure set in the final version of the assessment were significantly higher than the levels in the earlier draft of the report.
Maria Doa, senior director of chemicals policy at the Environmental Defense Fund, expressed alarm over the decision. “This is a less protective standard that would leave workers at risk,” said Doa, a chemist who worked at the EPA for 30 years. She noted that the report’s figures show an estimated 450,000 workers could be left vulnerable to the effects of formaldehyde as a result.
The EPA press office did not immediately respond to questions about its determination for outdoor air or the change it made to the value set to protect workers.
It’s unclear what parts, if any, of the new report will be allowed to stand.
Last month, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, urged the incoming administration to make revisiting the Biden EPA’s work on formaldehyde “a top priority for 2025.” In a letter to Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to run the agency, Sessions derided this week’s report as “based upon unscientific data that was utilized by unaccountable officials at the EPA to tie the hands of the new Administration and hamper economic growth.” (The letter was first reported by InsideEPA.)
Sessions, who is a co-chair of the new Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency caucus and a staunch ally of Trump, recommended scrapping the EPA’s assessments of formaldehyde and reversing course on “broader Biden policies” on chemicals.
Electric Peak, Yellowstone National Park. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
While millions around the world tuned in to watch Kevin Costner’s sensationalized depiction of western history in the mini-series ‘Yellowstone,’ the real story of Yellowstone goes way beyond the dramatized miniseries.
The story of Yellowstone isn’t about cowboys or ranchers. Yellowstone National Park was founded in 1872 through an act of Congress, signed into law by President Ulysses S Grant, a former general of Civil War fame. But there were no cowboys involved – the West was still controlled by its original inhabitants. Four years later the Seventh Cavalry, led by General George Armstrong Custer, wend down in a decisive defeat when the Lakota and Cheyenne peoples avenged Custer’s incursion into their sacred Paha Sapa – the Black Hills. Custer’s actions had opened the region to gold mining, culminating in the massive Homestake Mine that built the fortune of magnate George Hearst, forming the backstory for another popular miniseries, ‘Deadwood.’
While there were a handful of ranches in Montana back then, there were no cattle and no ranches in Yellowstone– it was too high and cold. Indigenous tribes lived there – Shoshones known as the Sheepeaters inhabited the high peaks, pursuing a subsistence lifestyle of hunting and gathering that stretched back not just five or six generations, but a thousand at least.
It was a place where humans lived in balance with the natural world. There were elk and bison, wolves and grizzly bears, lakes teeming with native cutthroat trout and birds beyond number. It was high and cold in the winter, and most inhabitants – wild and human alike – migrated downvalley to milder climes, or did their best to hibernate through it. The Park held only summer range and wild herbivores grazed in the lush subalpine meadows. The ecologically critical winter habitats were left out of the Park, unprotected in the surrounding low country. Pronghorns traced a dozen migration routes down from the high country. All but one of these migrations was wiped out by ranching development and overhunting in the valleys surrounding the Park.
When Yellowstone was established as the world’s first National Park, there was no Park Service to manage it. The tourists of that day drove down in buckboards from the train depot in Bozeman, Montana to see the steaming fumaroles and geysers that erupted periodically, marking thin spots in the Earth’s crust above a massive plume of magma marking what would eventually come to be understood as a supervolcano hidden underground. The tourists back then weren’t any brighter than the visitors of today who heedlessly approach wild bison – they threw chairs and barrels and other debris into the geysers to watch them get blown into the sky. They hacked off hunks of travertine from the thermal features to carry home as souvenirs. The chronic vandalism compelled Congress to step in, to rein in the worst of the stupidity and destruction. They put the U.S. Army in charge of Yellowstone, chiefly to regulate the tourists.
As the original locals were wiped out by foreign diseases and chronic warfare, and the survivors were swindled of their lands by a disingenuous federal government doing the bidding of greedy locals, the native wildlife was wiped out, too. Bison were killed off first to deprive the Tribes of the sustenance they needed to keep resisting the expansion of EuroAmerican empire. The elk and mule deer were overhunted to the point of extirpation by market gunners to keep the mining camps fed. Pronghorns, once numbering in the millions, were shot for target practice and left to rot out on the plains. At one point, an elk migration thirty thousand strong once coursed down from the Yellowstone high country to winter ranges in the Red Desert. In 1897, the League of American Sportsmen proposed to expand Yellowstone National Park to protect the migration, but Congress unwisely ignored the campaign. Instead, the elk migration was severed by the development of cattle and sheep ranches, and 30,000 wintering elk were bottled up in Jackson Hole to starve. The ecological crisis precipitated the formation of the National Elk Refuge in 1911, and the elk deprived of their winter ranges had to be fed with hay hauled in at taxpayer expense to keep them alive.
Wolves, mountain lions, and grizzly bears found a price on their heads, bounties that the bloodthirsty newcomers justified as the price of what they called “progress.” Driven by the livestock industry’s ambition not only to take over every inch of land that could be grazed by a cow or a sheep, but also to wipe out any wildlife that competed for grass, inconvenienced ranching operations, or had the temerity to dine occasionally on beef or lamb. That privilege was to be reserved for paying customers.
Wolves, grizzly bears, and mountain lions fared little better within the “protected” confines of Yellowstone National Park, where Army detachments hunted and trapped wolves to extinction and depleted grizzlies and mountain lions to a scattered remnant. All of this in a misguided effort to prop up remaining populations of elk and bison inside the Park. The founding of Wildlife Management as a topic of study was still fifty years in the future.
The surrounding landowners – and Yellowstone was besieged by them – were often the adventure-seeking second or third sons of royalty with no hope of inheriting landed estates in Europe. They built sprawling cattle empires through swindles, using the 1872 Mining Law to patent public land into private ownership, fraudulent Homestead Act claims, and through bullying smallholder immigrants out of their lands (hiring mercenaries to do their dirty work when necessary). They used their influence to set up territorial governments – and later state legislatures and agencies and county commissions – to do their bidding. They thought of themselves as landed royalty and expected to be treated that way. It’s a social phenomenon that continues to this day, dramatized by the series ‘Yellowstone.’
Eventually, the federal government formalized the war against native wildlife by establishing Animal Damage Control (which today is cynically-named USDA Wildlife Services), a taxpayer-funded death squad founded to kill off wolves, bears, coyotes, and mountain lions at the livestock industry’s request. The government agents set traps and hunted down the last of the wolves in every western state. Over time, technology allowed ever-more-deadly methods of killing, from aerial gunning using airplanes and helicopters to dumping gasoline into wolf dens to burn the pups alive, and using cyanide-deploying land mines that could be scattered across the West and left unattended to kill coyotes, pet dogs, and rockhounds. Even Aldo Leopold, the founder of wildlife management and an early proponent of ecology, was a government trapper. He came to realize how senseless and destructive this approach really was, and canonized his condemnation in the famous essay, ‘Thinking Like a Mountain.’
Animal Damage Control was one of the first in a long line of taxpayer subsidies for wealthy ranch owners that continue to this day. The overgrazing that fueled the Dust Bowl spawned the Soil Conservation Service (today’s Conservation Districts), founded to maximize the livestock industry’s long-term survival and profitability. There were federal research branches specially dedicated to Promoting agriculture. There were taxpayer subsidies for landowners when it rained too much (“disaster relief”) or rained too little (“drought payments”). The West was divided up like spoils and fenced off with ‘No Trespassing’ signs and overgrazed with abandon on public and private lands alike.
Having subjected the West to ethnic cleansing and wildlife decimation, the cattle and sheep ranchers in the states surrounding Yellowstone fell to warring with each other. Herds of domestic sheep tended by “tramp herders” wintered in the sagebrush basins and were pushed into fragile alpine meadows for the summer, eating everything in their path in annual migrations spanning hundreds of miles. Ranch-based cattlemen were outraged when the sheep herds trailed through, decimating the forage, but they had no legal recourse because most of the land they claimed as part of their ranches was public land that by law could be grazed for free without limit or management by anyone. The cattlemen tried to control the public lands by homesteading all the streams and the watercourses to prevent others from watering their livestock, but the strategy broke down because the massive herds of sheep, unlike cattle, could travel vast distances between watering stops. So, the cattlemen lobbied Congress to pass the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, which set a nominal grazing fee and required stockmen to own a “base property” to gain permission to graze their livestock on public lands. This put an end to the tramp herders, who owned no land of their own, and cemented the cattlemen’s stranglehold on grazing on western public lands.
In Yellowstone, the U.S. Army’s management gave way to Park Rangers with the formation of the National Park Service in 1916. But the wildlife-killing continued, with the last pack of wolves in Yellowstone killed in 1926. It wasn’t until 1933 that the Park Service finally put an end to the practice of killing native wildlife, fostering the eventual recovery of mountain lions and grizzly bears within Park boundaries. But wolves remained extirpated.
South of Yellowstone, a different story of conservation unfolded in Jackson Hole. Congress established Grand Teton National Park in 1929. It was only a postage-stamp of protection applying to the peaks themselves, but not the forelands of the valley. John D. Rockefeller, an oil magnate who built his fortune on the Standard Oil Company empire, founded the Snake River Land and Cattle Company to quietly buy up almost 36,000 acres of private ranches in Jackson Hole for eventual preservation as part of the Park. In 1943, President Roosevelt established Grand Teton National Monument to bring National Forest lands at the base of the Tetons into Park Service management. As the locals began to realize that ranches were being bought out to be shut down and shifted instead to conservation, the expansion of Grand Teton National Park was decried as marking the end of Jackson’s economy. A Wyoming Senator rose on the floor of Congress to condemn it as “a foul, sneaking Pearl Harbor blow” in the midst of World War II. Eventually, and after Rockefeller threatened to sell the land for development, a compromise was struck. Congress approved an expansion of Grand Teton incorporating the Rockefeller ranch lands, but in exchange the Wyoming delegation extracted a special exemption that prevents any President from establishing a National Monument in Wyoming. Meanwhile, Wyoming politicians’ fears that preserving public lands would decimate the local economy were fulfilled by the reality that today, Teton County Wyoming has more wealth per capita than any other county in the United States. That’s what you get when you trade ranching for preservation and tourism.
As time marched forward, the elk population in Yellowstone and Grand Teton recovered, enough so that elk could be exported to lands throughout Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado where elk had been driven extinct by excessive hunting. The eradication of wolves, grizzly bears, and mountain lions had no effect on plummeting big game populations. Instead, strict limits on trophy hunting – coupled with a ban on the game-meat trade – had to be put in place to allow elk transplants to take root. In Yellowstone and in the absence of wolves, elk populations expanded to the point where elk died by the thousands each March, starving to death on inadequate winter ranges stripped bare of edible forage. I remember cross-country skiing from carcass to carcass during my freshman year in college in 1985, guided by a wildlife biology professor warning us all against upsetting the natural balance.
In 1993, the Park Service embarked on a bold plan to restore the natural balance of Yellowstone by reintroducing wolves. The fiercest opposition came from local ranchers, the same families that had driven wolves extinct in the first place. They protested, complained bitterly, and did everything they could to block the return of “giant Canadian wolves,” even filing lawsuits. But the wolves were released before a court order could halt it and as wolf populations grew, they helped bring down the excessive elk numbers. Wolf activity pushed elk out of the bottomlands and into steeper, more forested terrain. This allowed a regrowth of streamside vegetation and aspen groves, some of the most important wildlife habitat, fostering a resurgence of wildlife from beavers to songbirds and even changing the course of streams and rivers. Scientists studying the phenomenon labeled it a “trophic cascade,” underscoring the importance of apex predators to the health of native ecosystems.
The livestock industry and its allies have been trying to discredit the success of wolf reintroduction ever since, even though the establishment of wolves in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming has had no detectable effect on the extent or profitability of ranching in the region. Elk populations and hunter success in the states surrounding Yellowstone also remain at pre-wolf levels.
Even so, wolf populations inside Yellowstone remain vulnerable to depredations by ranchers, hunters, and trappers, as the miniseries highlighted. The bloodthirsty anti-wolf management policies in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming keep wolves on the brink of disappearing, which is exactly what these state governments always intended, having failed to block their return.
The livestock industry’s entanglements with Yellowstone wildlife didn’t just involve wolves and other predators. During the early years, livestock allowed into Yellowstone transmitted a cattle disease called brucellosis to the Yellowstone bison herd. Fearing a return of brucellosis to Montana’s commercial livestock (which might trigger a ban on exporting cattle to out-of-state feedlots and slaughterhouses), the cattlemen raised the alarm and state governments pushed the Park Service to block the natural migrations of bison from summer ranges inside the Park to winter ranges outside its boundaries. Today, instead of treating bison like other native wildlife with the freedom to migrate to their appropriate native habitats, the cattle industry has bullied state and federal agencies into bottling them up inside the Park using a controversial system of captures, killings, and carefully choreographed hunts along the boundary to block the bison from leaving the Park and re-establishing their habitat use in surrounding states.
In one of those ironies you can’t script, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine completed a study on bison and brucellosis around Yellowstone in 2017. The scientists found not one single case of bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle in the states surrounding Yellowstone, at any time in history. Instead, each case of brucellosis contracted by cattle came from elk. While the Academies suggested the possibility of a program to test and slaughter infected elk, elk inhabit steep and heavily-timbered terrain, making eradication of brucellosis functionally impossible. Wolves and other predators are known to selectively prey on diseased elk and deer, representing the best chance of cleansing the wild herds of diseases. But only if wolves, mountain lions, bears, and other predators are allowed to recover to natural population levels, and the ranchers won’t have it.
Today, the largest private landowner around Yellowstone these days doesn’t raise cattle – he raises bison and wolves. Ted Turner’s ranch near Gallatin Gateway, the Flying D, was founded on the principle that ranching could be regenerative, by getting rid of the non-native, invasive cattle in favor of ecologically appropriate (and native) bison, allowing a thriving assemblage of native wildlife from elk to wolves to prairie digs, and marketing the food for fine dining at Ted’s Montana Grill locations. It’s a version of ranching that works for the land, instead of against it.
The cattle industry is dwindling nationwide, and as real estate prices increase (perhaps fueled in part by Hollywood promotion of the region), more ranchers are cashing out. The Paradise Valley, where the miniseries is set, has few large ranches anymore. Like many resort areas, these ranches were carved up into ranchettes during real estate booms in decades past, and the ranchers that sold out were able to profit handsomely. Today, tthe American people are actually the biggest landowner in the region, thanks to federally-owned public lands managed by the Park Service, the Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.
Yet, the livestock industry continues to have a warped influence on the management of public lands outside the National Parks and federal agencies are still renting public lands for commercial livestock grazing – typically at levels that promote overgrazing and land health problems. As a result, grizzly bears that should be protected by the Endangered Species Act are struggling to recover and are routinely killed by federal agents in response to conflicts with livestock that ranchers leave unattended in grizzly habitats – often in the backcountry – on public lands.
In the series ‘Yellowstone,’ the ranchers are the protagonists, and the story is told from their perspective. The miniseries, lauded by some and vilified by others, portrays them as heroes and antiheroes by turns, touching on some important issues along the way. In the real West, the ranchers are the root of a great many problems, arguably the single most widespread bringer of negative impacts across one of the last best places in the world. This tiny, insular good old boys’ club insists that every state and federal policy reflect their interests and advance their agendas. Just like in the show. The real environmentalists are the conservation professionals, who work for the public interest, and speak for the best interest of the lands and their native species. With deep knowledge of lands and wildlife, they know the West as well or better than anyone. Where ranching has ended for good – inside Yellowstone National Park for example – the land recovers, and nature flourishes. And the locals reap massive economic rewards, generating jobs and wealth far outstripping those from mineral booms and busts and economically trivial cattle operations. And still some ranchers rail against the “evils” of preservation.
Since the start of the 21st century, major planetary ecosystems, like the Amazon rainforest and Antarctica have consistently deteriorated, but within only the past two years, these two major ecosystems have deteriorated much faster than ever before. This is happening at geological breakneck speed. Nothing is normal any longer. What’s going on?
The Amazon rainforest experienced a horrific drought event in 2024. Paradoxically, global warming is attacking its own most significant counterweight. A major study found over one third of the Amazon is struggling to recover from four supposedly “one-in-a-century” dry spells in less than 20 years. (Critical Slowing down of the Amazon Forest After Increased Drought Occurrence, PNAS – National Academy of Sciences)
The scientific literature for 2024 focused on some very big issues: (1) record global heat, above the IPCC-warning of 1.5°C above pre-industrial (2) Amazon rainforest rapid deterioration amidst the most brutal drought conditions ever, major rivers dried-up (3) alarming Antarctic conditions prompting an emergency meeting of 450 polar scientists: “Runaway ice loss causing rapid and catastrophic sea-level rise is possible within our lifetimes.” (Emergency Meeting Reveals the Alarming Extent of Antarctica’s Ice Loss, Earth.com, Nov. 24, 2024)
These events are interconnected determinate factors of a global climate system that’s turned unstable. This is not normal. It is erratic and volatile.
For starters, the Amazon rainforest is in terrible condition. Climate scientists would likely agree that loss of the Amazon will be “game over” for civilization in many respects. Based upon current data, they would also likely agree the rainforest is dying.
“A major question is whether a large-scale collapse of the Amazon forest system could actually happen within the twenty-first century… The Amazon stores an amount of carbon equivalent to 15–20 years of global CO2 emissions and has a net cooling effect from evapotranspiration that stabilizes the Earth’s climate. (Critical Transitions in the Amazon Forest System, Nature, February 14, 2024)
In other words, the Amazon has the biggest job on the planet, stabilizing the climate system. It’s telling that, as the Amazon deteriorates, the climate system turns wackier with massive storms, heat, drought, and floods. No more once in 0ne-hundred-year events. They’re once every other year nowadays.
Evidence of serious Amazon deterioration is prevalent. The world’s leading Amazon authority Carlos Nobre (University of São Paulo) was recently interviewed, November 14, 2024: “Carbon Sink to Carbon Source?”
In 1975, 0.5% of the rainforest was deforested.
Today, 18% is deforested.
Today, 38% of the remaining forest is degraded to a vulnerable condition.
For the first time in recorded history extreme drought has become a regular feature of the rainforest, like clockwork every couple of years. This is not normal. According to NASA, the frequency eliminates natural recovery.
In some regions of the forest, the Amazon emits more carbon than it stores, similar to cars, planes, trains, and industry. This is one more first in climate history, a net carbon CO2 emitter directly into the atmosphere, joining human forces.
But it’s not only the Amazon that’s in deep trouble. Recently, scientists discovered impending Antarctic collapse in some regions, like West Antarctica, more advanced than anybody ever thought possible, necessitating an emergency meeting of 450 polar scientists in Australia only a few weeks ago.
These two major ecosystems have powerful impact on the overall world climate system and by all appearances are in early stages of coming apart at the seams, couched in mystery as to “when” and “how earth-shattering” it will be. Alas, “business as usual,” given enough time, and the world will sit up and take notice and declare an emergency. How to fix it? But when and what to do? And why wasn’t it addressed much sooner?
There are no answers to those questions. The Amazon rainforest, Antarctica, and climate change are not highly ranked in public polls, e.g., according to a Gallup Poll, Dec. 12, 2024, the top concerns include immigration, inflation, the economy, healthcare, and poor government leadership. Climate change didn’t make a showing. It’s of little surprise there is not an effective effort to quantify the risks and recommend what should be done, assuming anything is actually possible, probably not, re anthropogenic destruction of life-supporting ecosystems. But scientists know all about it. Just ask them. Oh yeah, almost forgot, the incoming administration doesn’t believe in science.
In today’s world of politics, especially right-wing, science is ignored or denigrated, as it interferes with cooked up conspiracy stuff that motivates ignorant people to vote for whatever flashes on a TV screen. This results in the greatest dumbing-down of society ever witnessed in human history within a strong science legacy traced back to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia 3000 to 1200 BCE. Only brief intervals of modern human history have witnessed political denigration of science like today, other than occasional bouts with religion, e.g., centuries ago, Earth as the center of the universe mayhem, ahem! Could we be going back to that? Maybe.
Meanwhile, threatening, the Amazon is at the most vulnerable of its remarkable history of stability. A key study was posted in the prestigious publication Nature, finding that 75% of the Amazon rainforest is losing “resilience,” or the ability to recover from droughts and fires. (Pronounced Loss of Amazon Rainforest Resilience Since 2000s, Nature).
That chilling fact is the product of global warming and forest-clearing/burning. This is not normal. Quite the opposite, as the mighty rainforest has 55 million years under its belt; it’s a strong survivor, until now.
Four years ago, Princeton held a special Amazon Conference: A World Without the Amazon? Stephen Pacala, the Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University: “We face four major environmental crises in the world now: climate, food, water, and biodiversity. The Amazon is at the center of all of them.”
“The Amazon is the biggest in a belt of forests that wraps the planet’s midsection. It is a jungle so hot and humid it makes its own rain. Its web of rivers is the largest in the world and contains about one-sixth of the world’s fresh water.” (The Amazon is the Planet’s Counterweight to Global Warming, Inside Climate News).
“The trees in the Amazon release 20 billion tonnes of water into the atmosphere per day, playing a critical role in global and regional carbon and water cycles.” (WWF) Where else could 20B tonnes of water per day come from for the global hydrology system? Answer: Nowhere.
Alas, “Up to half of the Amazon rainforest could transform into grassland or weakened ecosystems in the coming decades, a new study found (A Collapse of the Amazon Could Be C0ming Faster Than Thought, New York Times, Feb. 14, 2024).
According to the World Wildlife Fund: “The largest jungle on our planet, the Amazon, is in danger of drying out. If we lose just 5% more to deforestation, it may never be the same again.” (The Amazon is Dying, Our Planet, WWF, Netflix).
That film is five years old. The 5% is nearly gone.
A world climate system not regulated by Antarctica, crumbling, and the Amazon rainforest, which is already wobbly, will turn dangerously erratic in a reign of climate terrorism that takes lives and livelihoods while destroying megacities from coast-to-coast.
Solutions: Stop deforestation and fires that are 95% human-caused and stop CO2 emissions. But nobody wants to hear this.
As 2024 came to a close and we have stepped into a new year overshadowed by ongoing atrocities, have you stopped to consider how these events are reshaping your world?
Did you notice how your future — and that of generations to come — is being profoundly and irreversibly altered?
The ongoing tragedy in Palestine is not an isolated event. It is a crisis that reverberates far beyond borders, threatening your safety, the well-being of your children and family.
Palestinian advocate Katrina Mitchell-Kouttab . . . a powerful address in Auckland last weekend about how people in New Zealand can help in the face of Israel’s genocide. Image: APR
Even fragile ecosystems and creatures have been obliterated and affected by the fallout from Israel’s chemicals and pollution from its weapons.
The deliberate targeting of civilians, rampant violations of international law, and the obliteration of the rights of children are not distant horrors. They are ominous warnings of a world unravelling — consequences that are slowly seeping into the comfort of your home, threatening the very foundations of the life you thought was secure.
But here’s the hard truth: these outcomes don’t just happen in a a vacuum. They persist because of the silence, indifference, or complicity of those who choose not to act.
The question is, will you stand up for a better future, or will you look away? And how could Palestine possibly affect you and your family? Read on.
Israel acting with impunity for decades
Israel has been acting with impunity for decades, flouting the norms of our legal agreements, defying the United Nations and its rulings and requests to act within the agreed global rules set after the Holocaust and the Nazis disregard for humanity.
The Germans, under Nazi rule, pursued a racist ideology to restructure the world according to race, committing crimes against humanity and war crimes that resulted in a devastating world war and the deaths of millions of people, including millions of Jews. A set of rules were formed from the ashes of these victims to ensure this horror would never happen again. It’s called international law.
However, after the Nazis defeat, it took less than a few years before atrocities began again, perpetrated by the very people who had just been brutally massacred and targeted.
European Jews, including holocaust survivors, armed by Czechoslovakia, funded by the Nazis (Havaara agreement), aided militarily by Britain, the US, Italy and France among others, arrived on foreign shores to a land that did not belong to them.
Once there, they began to disregard the very rules established to protect not only them, but the rest of humanity — rules designed to prevent a repeat of the Holocaust, safeguard against the resurgence of ideologies like Nazism, and ensure impunity for such actions would never occur again.
These rules were a shared commitment by countries to conduct themselves with agreed norms and regulations designed to respect the right of all to live in safety and security, including children, women and civilians in general. Rules that were designed to end war and promote peace, justice, and a better life for all humankind.
Rules written to ensure the sacred understanding, implementation and respect of equal rights for all people, including you, were followed to prevent us from never returning to the lawlessness and terror of World War Two.
But the creation of Israel less than 80 years ago flouted and violated these expectations. The mass murder of children, women and men in Palestine in 1948, which included burning alive Palestinians tied to trees and running them over as they lay unable to move in the middle of town squares, was only the beginning of this disrespectful dehumanisation.
Terrorised by Jewish militia
Jewish militia terrorised Palestinians, lobbing grenades into Palestinian homes where families sheltered in fear, raping women and girls, and forcing every man and boy from whole villages to dig their own trenches before being shot in the back so they fell neatly into their graves.
Pregnant Palestinian women had their bellies sliced open, homes were stolen along with everything in it — including my families — and many family members were murdered.
This included my great grandmother who was shot, execution style, in front of my mother as she carried a small mattress from our home for her grandchildren when they were forcibly displaced. I still don’t know what happened to her body or where she is buried. I do know where our house is still situated in Jerusalem, although currently occupied.
These atrocities enabled Israel’s birth, shameful atrocities behind its creation. There is not one Israeli town or village that is not built on top of a Palestinian village, or town, on the blood and bones of murdered Palestinians, a practice Israel has continued.
As I write, plans to build more illegal settlements on the buried bodies of Palestinians in Gaza have already been drawn up and areas of land pre-sold.
These horrific crimes have continued over decades, becoming worse as Israel perfected and industrialised its ability to exterminate human souls, hearts and lives. Israel’s birth from its inception was only possible through terrorist actions of Jewish militia. These militia Britain designated as terrorist organisations, a designation that still stands today.
Jewish militia such as (Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang) formed into what is now known as the Israeli Defence Force, although they aren’t defending anything; Palestine was not theirs to take in the first place.
There was never a war of independence for Israel because the state of Israel did not exist to liberate itself from anyone. Instead, Britain illegally handed over land that already belonged to the Palestinians, a peaceful existing people of three pillars of faith — Palestinian Christians Muslims and Jews. If there were any legitimate war of independence, it would be that of the Palestinian people.
Free pass to act above the law
Israel continues to rely on the Holocaust’s memory to give it a free pass to act above the law, threatening world peace and our shared humanity, by using the memory of the horrors of 1945 and the threat of antisemitism to deter people from criticising and speaking out against the state’s unlawful and inhumane actions.
Yet Israel echoes the horrors of Nazi Germany and its destruction with its behaviour, the difference being the industrialisation of mass killing, modern warfare and weapons, the use of AI as a killing machine, the creation of chemical weapons and huge concentration and death camps which far surpass Germany’s capabilities.
Jews around the world have been deeply divided by Israel’s assertion that it represents all Jewish people. Not all Jews religiously and politically support Israel, many do not feel a connection to or support Israel, viewing its actions and policies as separate from their Jewish identity. For them, Israel’s claims do not define what it means to be Jewish, nor do they see its conduct as aligned with Jewish values.
This is not a “Jewish question” but a political one and conflating the two undermines the diverse perspectives within Jewish communities globally and is harmful to Jewish people. It is important to maintain a clear distinction between Judaism and the political actions of Israel.
How does a genocide across the world affect you? The perpetration of genocide and gross violations of human rights, facilitated or supported by Western powers, erodes the very foundations of the global legal framework that protects us all. This assault weakens democracy, undermines international law, and destabilises the structures you rely on for a secure future.
“The perpetration of genocide and gross violations of human rights, facilitated or supported by Western powers, erodes the very foundations of the global legal framework that protects us all.” Image: Al Jazeera headline APR
It leaves your defences crumbling, your safety compromised, and your vulnerabilities exposed to the chaos that follows such lawlessness as a global citizen of this world under the same protections and with the same equality as the Palestinians.
Palestinian children are no less deserving of safety and rights than any other children. When their rights are ignored and violated, it undermines protections for children worldwide, creating a precedent of vulnerability and injustice. If violations are deemed acceptable for some, they risk becoming acceptable for all.
Sitting safely in Aotearoa does not guarantee protection. The actions of Israel and the US, Western countries — massacring and flattening entire neighbourhoods — send a dangerous message that such horrors are only for “others”, for “brown people” who speak a different language.
But Western countries are the global minority. Many nations now view the West with growing disdain, especially in light of Israel and America’s actions, coupled with the glaring double standards and inaction of the West, including New Zealand, as they stand by and witness a genocide in progress.
When children become a legitimate target, the safety of all children is compromised. Your kids are at risk too. Just because you live on the other side of the world does not mean you are immune or beyond the reach of those who see such actions as justification for retaliation.
If such disregard for human life is deemed acceptable for one people, it will inevitably become acceptable for others. Justice and equality must extend to all children, regardless of nationality, to ensure a safer world for everyone.
But why should you care? Because Israel and the US are undermining the framework that protects you. Israel’s violations of International and humanitarian law including laws on occupation, war crimes and bombing protected institutions such as hospitals, schools, UN facilities, civilian homes and areas of safety, undermines these and sets a dangerous precedent for others to follow. Israel does not respect global peace, civilians, human rights nor has respect for life outside of its own. This lawlessness and lack of accountability is already giving other states the green light to erode the norms that protect human rights, including the decimation of the rights of the child.
The West’s support for Israel, namely the US, the UK, Canada, much of Europe, Australia and New Zealand, despite its clear violations of international law, exposes a fundamental hypocrisy. This weakens the credibility of democratic nations that claim to champion human rights and justice.
The failure of institutions like the UN to hold Israel accountable erodes trust in these bodies, fostering widespread disillusionment and scepticism about their ability to address other global conflicts. This has already fuelled an “us versus them” mentality, deepening the divide between the Global South and the Global North.
This division is marked by growing disrespect for Western governments and their citizens, who demand moral authority and adherence to the rule of law from nations in the East and South yet allow one of their “own” to brazenly violate these principles.
This hypocrisy undermines the hope for a new, respectful world order envisioned after the Holocaust, leaving it damaged and discredited.
Israel, despite its claims, has no authentic ties to the Middle East. What was once Palestinian land deeply rooted in Middle Eastern culture, has been overtaken and reshaped into to an artificial state imposed by mixed European heritage. It now stands as a Western outpost in stark contrast and isolated from surrounding Eastern cultures.
The failure of the West and the international community to stop the Palestinian genocide has begun a new period of genocide normalisation, where it becomes acceptable to watch children being blown up, women and men being murdered, shot and starved to death.
This acceptance then becomes a part of a country’s statecraft. Palestinian genocide, while it might be a little “uncomfortable” for many, has still been tolerable. If genocide is tolerable for one, then its tolerable for another.
Bias and prejudice
If you can comfortably go about your day, knowing the horror other innocent human beings are facing then perhaps it might be time to reflect on and confront any underlying biases or prejudices you hold.
An interesting thought experiment is to transform and transfer what is happening in Palestine to New Zealand.
Imagine Nelson being completely flattened, and all the inhabitants of Auckland, plus some, being starved to death.
Imagine all New Zealand hospitals being destroyed, Wellington hospital with its patients still inside is blown up. All the babies in the neonatal unit are left to die and rot in their incubators, patients in the ICU units and those immobile or too sick to move are also left to die, this includes all children unable to walk in the Starship hospital.
Electricity for the whole country is turned off and all patients and healthcare workers are forced to leave at gunpoint. New Zealand doctors and nurses are stripped down to their underwear and tortured, this includes rape, and some male doctors are left to die bleeding in the street after being raped to death with metal poles and electrodes.
Water is then shut down and unavailable to all of you. You cannot feed your family, your grandchildren, your parents, your siblings, your best friends.
Imagine New Zealanders burying bodies of their children and loved ones in makeshift mass graves, while living in tents and then being subjected to chemical weapon strikes, quad copters or small drones’ attacks that drop bombs and exterminate, shooting people as they try to find food, but targeting mostly women and children.
Imagine every single human being in Upper Hutt completely wiped out. Imagine 305 New Zealand school buses full of dead children line the streets, that’s more than 11,000 killed so far. Each day more than 10 New Zealand kids lose a limb, including your children.
This number starts to increase with the hope to finally ethnically cleanse Aotearoa to make way for a new state defined by one religion and one ethnicity that isn’t yours, by a new group of people from the other side of the world.
These people, called settlers, are given weapons to hurt and kill New Zealanders as they rampage through towns evicting residents and moving into your homes taking everything that belongs to you and leaving you on the street. All your belongings, all your memories, your pets, your future, your family are stolen or destroyed.
Starting from January 2025, up to 15 New Zealanders will die of starvation or related diseases EVERY DAY until the rest of the world decides if it will come to your aid with this lawlessness. Or maybe you will die in desperation while others watch you on their TV screens or scroll through their social media seeing you as the “terrorist” and the invaders as the “victims”.
If this thought horrifies you, if it makes you feel shocked or upset, then so too should others having to endure such illegal horrors. None of what is happening is acceptable, as a fellow human being you should be fighting for the right of all of us. Perhaps you might think of our own tangata whenua and Aotearoa’s own history.
What could this mean for New Zealand?
We are not creating a bright future for a country like New Zealand, whose remote location, dependence on trade, and its aging infrastructure, leaves it vulnerable to changing global dynamics. This is especially concerning with our energy dependence on imported oil, our dependence on global supply chains for essential goods including medicine (Israel’s pager attack against Hezbollah has compromised supply chains in a dangerous and horrific violation that New Zealand ignored), our economic marginalisation, and our security challenges.
All of this while surrounded by rising tensions between superpowers like the US and China which will affect New Zealand’s security and economic partnerships. Balancing economic and political ties is complicated by this government’s focus on strengthening strategic alliances with Western nations, mainly the US, whose complicity in genocide, war crimes, and disrespect for the rule of law is weakening its standing and threatens its very future.
Targeting marginalised groups
The precedent set in Palestine will embolden oppressive regimes elsewhere to target minority groups, knowing that the world will turn a blind eye. Israel is a violent, oppressive apartheid state, operating outside of international law and norms and has been compared to, but is much worse than the former apartheid South Africa.
This will have a huge impact felt all over the world with the continued refugee crisis. Multicultural nations such as New Zealand will struggle to cope with the support needed for the families of our citizens in need.
An increase of the far right reminiscent of Nazi ideology and extremism
Israel is a pariah state fuelled by radicalisation and extremism with an intolerance to different races, colour and ethnicity and indigenous populations. This has created a fertile ground for extremist ideologies, destabilising regions far beyond the Middle East as we have seen in Europe with the rejuvenation of the far-right movement.
Israel’s genocidal onslaughts will continue to be the cause for ongoing instability in the region, affecting global energy supplies, trade routes, and security. The Palestinian crisis will not be answered with violence, oppression and war. We aren’t going anywhere, and neither should we.
Weaponising aid and healthcare
Israel’s deliberate restriction of food, water, and medical supplies to Gaza weaponises humanitarian aid, violating basic principles of humanity. A new weapon in the arsenal of pariah states and radical violent countries and a new Israeli tactic to be copied and used elsewhere. Targeting hospitals, healthcare workers, distribution centres, ambulances, the UN, and collectively punishing whole populations has never been and will never be acceptable.
If it is not acceptable that this happens to you in Aotearoa, then nor is it acceptable for Palestinians in Palestine. It is intolerable for other “terror regimes” to commit such acts, so why is it deemed acceptable when carried out by Israel and the US?
Undermining the rights to free speech, peaceful protest and freedoms
During the covid pandemic, many New Zealanders were concerned with government-imposed restrictions that could be used disproportionately or as pretexts for authoritarian control. This included limitations on freedom of movement, speech, assembly, and privacy.
And yet Palestinians endure military checkpoints, curfews, restricted movement within and between their own territories, and the suppression of their right to protest or voice opposition to occupation — all due to Israel’s oppressive and illegal control. This is further enabled by the political cover and tacit support provided by this government’s failure to speak out and strongly condemn Israel’s actions.
Through its failure to take meaningful action or fulfil its third-party state obligations, this government continues to maintain normal relations with Israel across diplomatic, cultural, economic, and social spheres, as well as through trade. Moreover, it wrongly asserts on its official foreign affairs websites and policies that an occupying power has the right to self-defence against a defenceless population it has systematically abused and terrorised for decades.
The silencing of pro-Palestinian activists and criminalisation of humanitarian aid also create a chilling effect, discouraging global solidarity movements and undermining the moral fabric of societies. The use of victimhood to shroud the aggressor and blame the victim is a low point in our harrowed history. As is the vilification of moral activism and those that dare to stand against the illegal and sickening mass killing of civilians.
The attempt to persecute brave students standing up to Zionist and Israeli-run organisations and those supporting Israel (including academic and cultural institutions), by both trigger-happy billionaire Jewish investors and elite families and company investors whose answer to peaceful resistance is violence, demonstrates how far we have fallen from democracy and the rights of the citizen.
I find it completely bizarre that standing up against a genocide of helpless, unarmed civilians is demonised in order to protect the thugs, criminals and psychopaths that make up the Israeli state and its criminal actors, and the elite families and corporations profiting from this war.
Even here in Aotearoa, protesters have been vilified for drawing attention to Israel’s war crimes and double standards at the ASB Classic tennis tournament. Letting into New Zealand an IDF soldier who is associated with an institution directly implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity should be questioned.
These protesters were falsely labelled as “pro-Hamas” by Israeli and Western media. They were portrayed negatively, seen as a nuisance. Their messages about supporting human rights and stopping a horrific genocide from continuing were not mentioned.
The focus was the effect their chants had on the tennis match and the Israeli tennis player, who was upset. Exercising their legal rights to demonstrate, the protesters were not a security issue. Yet Lina Glushko, the Israeli tennis player, claimed she needed extra security to combat a dozen protesters, many over the age of 60, who were never in any proximity of the controversial player nor were ever a threat.
No mention that Lina Glushko lives in an illegal settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, or that she was in service from 2018-2020 during the Great March of Return. Or that this tennis player has made public statements mocking the suffering of Palestinians, inconsistent with Aotearoa’s commitment to combating hate speech and promoting inclusivity and respect.
Her presence erodes the integrity of international sports and sends a dangerous message that war crimes and human rights violations carry no meaningful consequences despite international law and the recent UNGA (UN General Assembly) and ICJ (International Court of Justice) resolutions and advisory opinions.
Allowing IDF soldiers entry into New Zealand disregards the pain and suffering of Palestinians and the New Zealand Palestinian community, dehumanising their plight. It sends a message of complicity to the broader international community, one that was ignored by most Western media.
Similarly, Israel’s attempts to not just control the Western media but to shut down and kill journalists, is not only a war crime, but is terrifying. Journalists’ protection is enshrined in international law due to the essential nature of their work in fostering accountability, transparency, and justice. They expose corruption, war crimes, and human rights abuses. Real journalism is vital for democracy, ensuring citizens are informed about government actions and global events.
Israel’s targeting of journalists undermines the rule of law and emboldens it and other perpetrators to commit further atrocities without fear of scrutiny or consequences.
The suffering of Palestinians is a human rights issue that transcends borders. Allowing genocide and oppression to continue undermines the shared humanity that binds us all.
Israel’s actions reflect the dehumanisation of an entire population and our failure to enforce accountability for these crimes weakens international systems designed to protect your family and you.
Israel’s influence is far reaching, and New Zealand is not immune. Any undue influence by foreign states, including Israel, threatens New Zealand’s sovereignty and ability to make independent decisions in its national interest. Lobbying efforts by organisations like the Zionist Federation or the Jewish National Fund (JNF), the Jewish Council and the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand push policies that do not align with New Zealand’s broader public interest.
Aligning with a state that is violating rights and in a court of law on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, leaves citizens wide open to the same controls and concerns we are now seeing Americans and Europeans face at the mercy of AIPAC and Israeli influence.
Palestine is a test of the international community’s commitment to justice, human rights, and the rule of law. If Israel is allowed to continue acting with impunity, the global system that protects us all will be irreparably weakened, paving the way for more injustice, oppression, and chaos. It is a fight for the moral and legal foundations of the world we live in and ignoring it will have far-reaching consequences for everyone.
So, as you usher in 2025, don’t sit there and clink your glasses, hoping for a better year while continuing to ignore the suffering around you. Act to make 2025 better than the horrific few years the world has been subjected to, if not for humanity, then for yourself and your family’s future. Start with the biggest threat to world peace and stability — Israel and US hegemony.
What you can do
You can make a difference in the fight against Israel’s illegal occupation and violations of human rights, including the deliberate targeting of children by taking simple yet impactful steps. Here’s how you can start today:
Boycott products supporting oppression:
Remove at least five products from your weekly supermarket shopping list that are linked to companies supporting Israel’s occupation or that are made in Israel. Use tools like the “No Thanks” app to identify these items or visit the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) website for detailed advice and information.
Hold the government accountable:
Write letters to your government representatives demanding action to uphold democracy and human rights. Remind them of New Zealand’s obligations under international law to stand against human rights abuses and violations of global norms. Demand fair and equitable foreign policies designed to protect us all.
Educate yourself:
Learn about the history of the Palestine-Israel conflict, especially the events of 1948, to better understand the roots of the ongoing crisis. Knowledge is a powerful tool for advocacy and change.
Seek alternative news sources:
Expand your perspective by accessing a wide range of news sources including from platforms such as Al Jazeera, Double Down News, and Middle East Eye.
Be a citizen, not a bystander:
Passive spectatorship allows injustice to thrive. Take a stand. Whether by boycotting, writing letters, educating yourself, or raising awareness, your actions can contribute to a global movement for justice for us all.
Together, we can challenge systems of oppression and demand accountability for crimes against humanity. Let 2025 not just be another year of witnessing suffering but one where we collectively take action to restore justice, uphold humanity, and demand accountability.
The time to act is now.
On a sticky day in January, dozens of nannies and aunties from Tainui shook and waved fronds of greenery as they called manuhiri onto Tuurangawaewae Marae.
More than 10,000 people had responded to a rare call for unity from the Māori King to discuss what the new government’s policies meant for Māori. It set the scene for what became a massive year for te ao Māori.
The agreements included either rolling back previous initiatives considered progressive for Māori or creating new policies that many in Māoridom and beyond perceived to be an attack on Māori rights and te Tiriti o Waitangi.
So as the rest of the country wound down for the year, te ao Māori went to work, planning for the year ahead.
This year saw everything from controversial debates about the place of New Zealand’s founding document to mourning the loss of the Māori king, and a viral haka.
A call for unity — how 2024 started The Hui-aa-motu in January was the first sign of the year to come.
Iwi from across the motu arrived at Tūrangawaewae, including Ngāpuhi, an iwi which doesn’t typically follow the Kiingitanga, suggesting a growing sense of shared purpose in Māoridom.
At the centre of the discussions was the ACT Party’s Treaty Principles Bill, which aims to redefine the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and enshrine them in law.
Māori also expressed their concerns over the axing of Te Aka Whai Ora, (the Māori Health Authority), the re-introduction of referenda on Māori wards, removing references to Tiriti o Waitangi in legislation, and policies related to the use and funding of te reo Māori.
The day was overwhelmingly positive. Visitors were treated with manaakitanga, all receiving packed lunches and ice blocks to ward off the heat.
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau te Wherowhero VII addresses the crowd at Hui-ā-Motu last January. Image: Ella Stewart/RNZ
Other than the sheer number of people who showed up, the hui was memorable for these words, spoken by Kiingi Tuheitia as he addressed the crowds, and quoted repeatedly as the year progressed:
“The best protest we can make right now is being Māori. Be who we are. Live our values. Speak our reo. Care for our mokopuna, our awa, our maunga.
“Just be Māori. Be Māori all day, every day. We are here. We are strong.”
The momentum continued, with the mauri of Hui-ā-Motu passed to Rātana pā next, and then to Waitangi in February.
The largest Waitangi in years Waitangi Day has long been a place of activism and discussion, and this year was no exception.
February saw the most well-attended Waitangi in years. Traffic in and out of Paihia was at a standstill for hours as people flocked to the historic town, to discuss, protest, and commemorate the country’s founding document.
Māori activist and former MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Hone Harawira. Image: Angus Dreaver/RNZ
Veteran Māori activist Hone Harawira addressed David Seymour, the architect of the controversial Treaty Principles Bill and ACT Party Leader, directly.
“You want to gut the treaty? In front of all of these people? Hell no! You and your shitty-arse bill are going down the toilet.”
A new activist group, ‘Toitū te Tiriti’, also seized the moment to make themselves known.
Organisers Eru Kapa-Kingi and Hohepa Thompson led two dozen protesters onto the atea (courtyard) of Te Whare Rūnanga during the pōwhiri for government officials, peacefully singing over David Seymour’s speech.
“Whakarongo, e noho . . .” they began — “Listen, sit down”.
Hīkoi organiser and spokesperson for activist group Toitū te Tiriti, Eru Kapa-Kingi at Waitangi commemorations in February 2024. Image: Angus Dreaver/RNZ
It was just the start of a movement which led to a nationwide hīkoi from the top of the North Island to Wellington.
Record number of urgent Waitangi Tribunal claims In the past year, the government’s policies have faced significant formal scrutiny too, with a record number of urgent claims heard before the Waitangi Tribunal in such a short period of time.
The claims have been wide-ranging and contentious, including:
the disestablishment of the Māori Health Authority,
ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill,
limiting te reo Māori use,
reinstating referendums for Māori wards, and
the repeal of smokefree legislation.
Seymour has also criticised the function of the tribunal itself. In May, he argued it had become “increasing activist”, going “well beyond its brief”.
“The tribunal appears to regard itself as a parallel government that can intervene in the actual government’s policy-making process,” Seymour said.
The government has made no secret of its plan to review the tribunal’s future role, a coalition promise.
The review is expected to refocus the tribunal’s scope, purpose and nature back to its “original intent”. While the government has not yet released any specific details about the review, it’s anticipated that Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka will oversee it.
Te Kiingi o te Kōtahitanga — mourning the loss of Kiingi Tuheitia In August, when the seas were choppy, te ao Māori lost a rangatira.
Once again, thousands arrived outside the bright-red, ornately-carved gates of Tuurangawaewae, waiting to say one last goodbye.
The tangi, which lasted five days, saw tears, laughter and plenty of stories about Tuheitia, who has been called “Te Kiingi o Te Kōtahitanga”, the King of Unity.
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII’s body is transferred to a hearse. Image: Layla Bailey-McDowell/RNZ
On the final day, led by Kaihaka, his body was driven the two blocks in a black hearse to the banks of Waikato River. He was placed on a waka specially crafted for him, and made the journey to his final resting place at the top of Taupiri Maunga, alongside his tūpuna.
At just 27 years old, the new Kuini signals a societal shift, where a new generation of rangatahi who know their whakapapa, their reo, and are strong in their identity as Māori, are now stepping up.
The new generation of Māori activists An example of this “kohanga generation” is Aotearoa’s youngest MP, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke.
Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke won the Hauraki-Waikato seat over Labour MP Nanaia Mahuta in 2023. Image: Samuel Rillstone/RNZ
Maipi-Clarke and several other opposition MPs performed the Ka Mate haka in response to the Treaty Principles Bill, a move that cost her a 24-hour suspension from the debating chamber.
At the same time, another up-and-coming leader within Māoridom, Eru Kapa-Kingi, led a hīkoi from the top of the North Island to Wellington, in what is believed to be the largest protest to ever arrive at Parliament.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced that he will not be travelling to the Treaty grounds in Northland for Waitangi Day commemorations in February next year, opting to attend events elsewhere.
Māori met the decision with mixed emotions — some calling it a missed opportunity, and others pleased.
Even before Election Day, environmental groups were suggesting ways that the Biden administration could protect the president’s climate agenda from an incoming president who has vowed to increase fossil fuel production and repeal major climate initiatives. Since then, Biden has taken many of those steps — backing a proposal to curtail public financing for oil and gas projects around the…
Major portions of the Arabian Peninsula are already exceeding 2°C above pre-industrial and likely headed for a staggering temperature rise over coming decades. This disturbing news comes via a major new study by Saudi Arabia’s most prestigious university.
The epicenter of world oil & gas production is in direct line of fire of unnerving acceleration of global warming. This news comes from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, ranked in the top 1.2% of best global universities and published as a peer-reviewed study: Abdul Malik, et al, Staggering Temperature Rise Predicted for the Middle East and North Africa: Some Parts of the Region, Which is Already Warming at the Same Rapid Rate as the Arctic, Could See up to 9 Degrees Celsius of Warming, Journal of Geophysical Research, Atmosphere, November 21, 2024.
It is a devastating outlook that should shake the Kingdom to its foundation as its principal source of wealth, oil & gas production, works against the Kingdom in a most intrusive unstoppable manner. Early signs of deathly heat are already starting to manifest, for example, between the 14th and 19th of June 2024, 1,301 people on the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca died due to extreme heat with temperatures exceeding 50 °C (122 °F). At the time, heat and humidity pushed past survival limits for the weakest.
The dangers of exceeding 2C, as outlined in numerous statements by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -IPCC- and echoed by MIT: “Scientists and policymakers have long agreed that global warming beyond 2° C above the pre-industrial average would pose large and escalating risks to human life as we know it on Earth.” (Source: Why did the IPCC choose 2° C as the goal for limiting global warming? MIT, June 21, 2022)
But the fossil fuel industry is not the least bit concerned. In fact, the industry has scoldingly told the world to Stick It, Deal with It, fossil fuels are here to stay until the last drop, period! Meanwhile, as of September 2024, fossil fuels account for 81.5% of total primary energy consumption worldwide (Energy Institute). This figure has remained constant for decades in the face of 30+ years of annual UN climate conferences of the nations of the world calling for reduction of fossil fuel emissions.
In a March 2024 speech at a Houston energy conference Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser described the ambitious timetables of environmental groups as failing because the world continues to consume record amounts of fossil fuels every year: “We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas and instead invest in them adequately reflecting realistic demand assumptions.”
In the face of demand assumptions for oil and gas, according to the International Energy Agency (IAE), the light at the end of the tunnel for renewables is also brightening: “Led by the massive growth of renewable electricity, the share of renewables in final energy consumption is forecast to increase to nearly 20% by 2030, up from 13% in 2023.”
Yet, the fossil fuel emissions issue is not going away anytime soon.
Because of unremitting fossil fuel production, IAE says 75% in 2030, the world is going to be forced to live with dangerous levels of global warming. After all, nearly every one of the 195 signatory countries to the Paris 2015 Agreement has failed to meet commitments. According to UN Climate Action: Based upon national action plans in effect, the decrease in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2019 will be 2.6%. But according to the Paris ’15 Agreement, a reduction of 43% from 2019 levels is required by 2030. The shortfall is shameful.
Alas, over the past two years, major corporations, world’s biggest, have reversed their climate commitments, e.g., JP Morgan, State Street Quit Climate Group, Blackrock Steps Back, Reuters, Feb. 15, 2024. In fact, ignoring climate change/global warming has become trendy in the corporate world.
Mistakenly, Wall Streeters and fossil fuel companies believe carbon capture technology will overpower the threat of excessive greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and “save the day.” Based upon numerous studies, this is not true, not even close to true, e.g., The False Promise of Carbon Capture as a Climate Solution, Scientific American, May 1, 2024. Rather, carbon capture is a Trojan Horse. Therefore, the challenge going forward will be adaptation to a hotter and hotter unlivable planet.
Eureka! will the planet of the future be viewed from outer space as a world of domed cities surrounded by barren land and turbulent seas?
The Malik Study of heat in the Arabian Peninsula presents a challenging future that could easily go off the tracks and down the rabbit hole: “The Middle East and North Africa, which already include some of the hottest and driest spots on Earth, are undergoing accelerated climate change and will reach warming thresholds two to three decades earlier than the rest of the world. The region, which already has record-breaking summer temperatures, is currently close to exceeding 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming on average compared to pre-industrial temperatures. Additional warming in the region could make some areas uninhabitable without adaption measures… The rapid rate means that the Middle East and North Africa could reach 3 and 4 degrees Celsius of warming (5.4 and 7.2-degrees Fahrenheit) nearly three decades earlier than most of the globe. That warming will be especially rapid in inland areas of the Arabian Peninsula.”
“Adaptation will be necessary, and these adaptation measures could be tested and developed in the Middle East and North Africa. Global warming is a global problem, so you cannot prevent it in just one place. But you can develop artificial environments in regions with high populations,” Ibid.
“Artificial Environment,” as clearly favored in the Malik Study, will likely become the new solution for how to confront climate change. Other than an artificial environment, what choice is there when the world’s leading climate scientist James Hansen (Earth Institute, Columbia University) claims: “Nations of the world meet at annual COP meetings (Conferences of the Parties), where they promise to reduce emissions to ‘net zero’ at some distant date, an almost meaningless pledge. There is no plan to actually stabilize climate…Global temperature took an unprecedented leap of half a degree Celsius in the past two years, which confounded the climate research community… We are headed to global warming greater than 2°C.”
An upcoming global average of 2C suggests the unspeakable for the Middle East, which is outpacing the global average by 2-3 times.
In all, and reading between the lines, it seems obvious that the Malik Study serves as a proxy statement for the Saudi Kingdom, implying: (a) the oil spigots will remain wide open, forever, and ever (b) atmospheric CO2 will increase, without limit (c) global temperatures will go up, a lot (d) live with it!
Already, the Middle East favors “artificial environments”: Ski Dubai is an indoor ski resort with 22,500 square meters of indoor ski area. The park maintains a temperature of −1 to 2 °C (30 to 36 °F) throughout the year. Another example: Surfbase will be Dubai’s first all-year-round indoor surfing spot. It is set to open its doors in 2024 or 2025. And Dubai has built three artificial archipelagos for residence living in the shape of palm trees in the Arabian Gulf.
The Saudi message embedded in the Malik Study is loud and clear, learn to adapt to uncomfortably high temperatures because high-end free-market capitalism is addicted to oil. Is a ‘domed’ Dubai really possible?
Shaggy Peak, Santa Fe National Forest. Photo: Sarah Hyden.
I walk almost daily up into the Santa Fe National Forest along with neighbors and our dogs, and I am always reminded how fortunate we are to have a relatively natural and beautiful forest just outside of Santa Fe. All the forests of the Southwest and across the West are critically important to the planet, and reconnect us with the natural order in an increasingly chaotic world.
Last March, The Forest Advocate invited whoever felt so moved to write several sentences expressing why our forests are so important, and to simply appreciate them. It’s helpful to remind ourselves why conserving our forests is essential – for us and for the generations to come. And that the natural world has deep intrinsic value apart from human needs and desires.
Below are reflections on forests from some friends and readers of The Forest Advocate:
For me, the forests, any forests, represent a shrine of the sacred. The intelligence of nature and its complex ecosystem of animals, plants and minerals, like any reverent edifice, can provide calm to my mind, exercise to my body and soothing to my soul.
Our scientific knowledge of the harmonious workings of a forest continue to give us information about our Mother Earth. But for me, the direct experience of the forest, without any thought of carbon sequestration, oxygen production, cooling the earth’s surface or any other amazing gift, leaves me with a sense of awe and wonder as only a natural forest can.
The protection of our forests is all the more important with climate changes and our need for refugia increases.
– Dee Blanco, DVM
I have lived on the same property on the Old Santa Fe Trail since 1981, and before I began digging the foundations for my house in 1982, I noticed a small ponderosa tree which was only about 5 feet tall and two inches in diameter, about twelve or fifteen feet down-slope from the proposed north wall. I resolved to take care not to damage that tree during the construction, and today, about forty three years later, that tree is thriving and now is about 50 feet tall with a diameter at the base of over 20″. So I can truly say that this tree is a friend and I feel a connection to it that seems to me to be mutual. Certainly the tree has been aware of and has appreciated my love and care in the form of the regular watering I have done, especially over the last decade as the amount of rainfall and snow we get has diminished.
– David Birnbaum
Many years ago, I used to hike down a trail in Colorado that had an enormous tree that looked like it was straight out of a Harry Potter movie. It had a hole in the middle, and I always felt the magic in this tree every time I passed it. It emitted mystical energy that was palpable in my energy field. I always thanked it, feeling grateful for its presence. So, for me, trees are more than vegetation that holds the earth together with their strong roots. They are more than beautiful images that blow in the wind, gather snow on their branches and offer homes to the birds. They are spiritual beings in their own right, deserving of all the respect and gratitude we can bestow upon them.
– Ellen Kohn
Even as a child, I knew that I felt different, felt better, being in a forest. And camping in a forest, near a stream, well, that was the best. Tall pine trees somehow reminded me that I didn’t need to prove my worth to be loved. I just needed to be. After all, there they were, the trees, just being themselves, tall and glorious, waiting for me to notice.
– Dana Reilly
Trees are our partners in the climate emergency: they sequester carbon, promote rain, and network to sustain the health of the ecosystems. Trees figure in human symbolism from our beginnings because they ARE “life”; we breathe in what they breathe out. May this reciprocity continue ~ lest we perish.
– Maj-Britt Eagle
As humans, we often regard our forests only as natural resources for us to use to sustain our lives. Yes, our forests are the “lungs” of the planet. And, beyond that, as we act as stewards of our natural world, we learn to be in awe of the wisdom of our forests. The ecological foundations of our forests are there to inform humans of intrinsic values within the balance of nature.
Acting in community as stewards, we act together to partner with nature – to emulate nature’s balances and thus deepen our experiences of co-existing peacefully with nature and each other.
– Lura Brookins
A forest
A home and place
A shade for my bones, ancestral ashes
Beauty for soul and water for spirit
Solace for tears, joy for the ears
Owl hoots for a mate, I call back with my flute
Forest feeds microbes and tall-standing, ponderous pines
Filters water to make clean drinking, air for supple breaths.
Forest stands for life
Forest houses my kin, soothes my skin
A forest
A home and place
– Charly Drobeck
Forests are vital for sustaining life on our planet, as they provide habitat for countless species, purify our air, and regulate our climate. Without them, we lose the protective green lungs that keep our world healthy. I invest my time in protecting forests because their well-being ensures a livable future for all, including generations yet to come.
– Douglas Moore, The Forest Advocate admin
The forest, for me, is more than a tree-covered landscape; it is a life-sustaining force and a spiritual sanctuary. It draws clouds to the mountains, beckons rain by seeding droplets with terpenes, filters and safeguards water, breathes oxygen into the air, and sustains life through countless intricate pathways. It also holds my memories.
In Santa Fe’s forests, I scattered the ashes of my beloved Australian Shepherd, Lauper, in the 1990s. Decades later, in 2019, my Norwegian Forest Cat, Mauser, was laid to rest here as well. It is here that I discovered two of my greatest passions: skiing and observing fungi. These woods shelter moments of joy, sorrow, and personal growth—echoes of a lifetime intertwined with their roots.
– Joey Smallwood, MS Environmental Science and Policy, GIS
Natural forests cleanse the air we breathe and the water we drink, remind us of the wild things in nature, and bring sanity in a sea of humanity.
– Dr. Dominick DellaSala, Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage, John Muir Project
Forests need protection from logging, aggressive cutting, over-burning, grazing, wildlife trapping, unnecessary forest roads, off-road vehicles, and many other human impacts. Forest management must be a holistic effort to support forests’ own intelligence as they transform in a warming climate. It takes all of us. Please support conservation organizations that are working to steward our forests and helping to create a new paradigm that honors forests. And please go out into forests to enjoy and appreciate them.
4th of July – Albuquerque Trail Loop Photo: Kathleen Burke.
A monsoon storm brewed above Boonrat Chaikeaw as he cast his net into the endless tide of trash in the Mekong River on one day in June. He brought home more plastic than fish over six trips into the polluted waters of the Golden Triangle between Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.
Below the Golden Triangle, at the center of the river’s lower basin, children swam among plastic debris as workers cleared the riverbanks of Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh — with identical plastic pick-up efforts on Tonle Sap lake.
Further downstream, in Vietnam, the river spiderwebs into the tributaries, swamps and islands that comprise the Mekong Delta. In Can Tho, which lies along a Mekong tributary, fish farmers are relieved to no longer be living off a river besieged by plastic waste.
Dozens of fish leap out of the water during feeding time at a fish farm on Son Island in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.(RFA)
The Mekong River supports millions of people along its 4,300-kilometer (2,700-mile) path from its headwaters in the Tibetan Plateau through Southeast Asia and eventually into the South China Sea.
But its size and the politics of shared management has made it particularly susceptible to plastics pollution.
Globally, the Mekong river is among the waterways most responsible for such waste reaching the world’s oceans. The waste isn’t simply unsightly. Plastic pollution threatens thousands of species that rely on a free-flowing river while human consumption of microplastics poses a growing health concern.
Many hoped that a United Nations-led Global Plastic Treaty would ease the plastic pressures on rivers, but disagreements over plastic production and chemical use left the supposed landmark treaty unsigned earlier this month.
Negotiators now look to the sixth meeting, scheduled for sometime next year, to finalize the treaty. But even if a deal is closed, it may still be years before tangible solutions reach Mekong nations.
A fishing boat makes its way down the Ruak River into the Golden Triangle region between Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.(RFA)
In the meantime, many living along the Mekong are not waiting for global action.
Four plastic waste hotspots along the Mekong’s lower basin — Chiang Saen in Thailand, Phnom Penh and Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia and Can Tho in Vietnam — illustrate the efforts being made to address plastic pollution but also the ways plastic is changing the lives of river communities dependent on these waters.
“We’re addicted to plastics, now more than ever,” says Panate Manomaivibool, an assistant professor at Thailand’s Burapha University who has studied plastic waste in the Mekong’s transboundary regions. “Compared to the scale of the problem, attempts to fix it are tiny.”
THAILAND, MYANMAR AND LAOS | The Golden Triangle of the Mekong River
While the entire upper basin of the Mekong River flows through China, where the waterway is known as the Lancang, the Golden Triangle region between Thailand, Myanmar and Laos acts as the gateway to the lower basin.
The meanderings of the Mekong across these three countries act as a politically recognized natural border between nations, showcasing the Mekong’s transboundary nature and the politics involved in managing such a natural resource.
Stormclouds brew above fisherman Boonrat Chaikeaw as he casts his net into the Mekong River by Chiang Khong by the border between Thailand and Laos.(RFA)Mahouts remove plastic waste from the Ruak River in Thailand as a pair of elephants bathe in the background.(RFA)Trash floats down the Ruak River into the Mekong River near the Golden Triangle region between Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.(RFA)
CAMBODIA | The ‘beating heart’ of the Mekong basin
After winding its way past Myanmar and between Thailand and Laos, the Mekong flows into Cambodia.
The nation’s capital Phnom Penh is situated at the confluence of the Mekong and its tributaries, the Bassac and Tonle Sap rivers. More than 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest is the great Tonle Sap lake, known as “the beating heart of the Mekong” because of its unique flood pulse.
Rains from the annual monsoon season from May to October swell the size of the lake to roughly five times its usual size. The force of this flood reverses the direction of the Tonle Sap river, which is the only waterway in the world with this natural phenomenon. When the water level drops during the dry season, the river reverses once again.
A group from River Ocean Cleanup cleans up trash at the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers in Phnom Penh.(RFA)Plastic debris snarls a boat’s propeller as a fishing boat from Kampong Phluk, one of the floating villages on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, flashes past.(RFA)Students volunteering with the NGO2 BambooShoot Foundation pick up trash in Kampong Phluk, one of the floating villages on Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia.(RFA)
VIETNAM | Where the Mekong meets the sea
Past Phnom Penh, the Mekong flows south to the Cambodia-Vietnam border and eventually reaches through the urban sprawl of Ho Chi Minh City.
Here, the mainstem of the Mekong River branches out into tributaries, swamps, and islands to create the Mekong Delta, known as Vietnam’s “rice bowl.” Nutrients flowing in from the Mekong have made the region’s fertile farmland part of a multimillion-dollar rice industry. But with plastics following the same path, those farms face increasing threat.
The delta’s largest city, Can Tho, has now become the epicenter for the region’s waste issues.
Plastic waste tangled in water hyacinths can contribute to flooding in Can Tho City in the Mekong Delta during Vietnam’s rainy season.(RFA)Trung Tin, a rice farmer in Can Tho, fishes a plastic bag out of a rice field in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.(RFA)A fisherwoman flicks away a piece of styrofoam as she washes vegetables in the waters of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. (RFA)
Funding for this reporting was provided by Dialogue Earth, an independent environmental reporting and analysis nonprofit. RFA retains full editorial control of the work.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Investigative.
In a win for Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has dubbed himself “the world’s coolest dictator,” the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador on Monday overturned the Central American country’s 2017 ban on metal mining. Bukele has fought to reverse the historic ban since taking office in 2019. Despite a prohibition in the Salvadoran Constitution, he ran for and won a second term in February…
From being the headline to creating them, Moana Maniapoto has walked a rather rocky road of swinging between both sides of the media.
Known for her award-winning current affairs show Te Ao with Moana on Whakaata Māori, and the 1990s cover of Black Pearl, the lawyer-by-trade doesn’t keep her advocacy a secret.
Her first introduction to news was at the tail end of the 1980s when she was relaxed in the guest seat at Aotearoa Radio — Auckland’s first Māori radio station — but her kōrero hit a nerve.
“I said something the host considered radical,” she said.
“He quickly distanced the station from my remarks and that got the phones ringing.”
It became a race for listeners to punch numbers into the telephone, the first person to get through was New Zealand filmmaker, producer and writer Merata Mita, who ripped into the host.
“How dare you talk down to her like that,” Maniapoto recalled. The very next day she answered the call to host that show from then on.
No training, no worries
Aotearoa Radio was her first real job working four hours per day, spinning yarns five days a week — no training, no worries.
“Oh, they tried to get us to speak a bit flasher, but no one could be bothered. It was such a lot of fun, a great bunch of people working there. It was also nerve-wracking interviewing people like Erima Henare (NZ politician Peeni Henare’s father), but the one I still chuckle about the most was Winston Peters.”
She remembers challenging Peters over a comment he made about Māori in the media: “You’re going to have to apologise to your listeners, Moana. I never said that,” Peters pointed out.
They bickered in true journalist versus politician fashion — neither refused to budge, until Maniapoto revealed she had a word-for-word copy of his speech.
All Peters could do was watch Maniapoto attempt to hold in her laughter. A prompt ad break was only appropriate.
But the Winston-win wasn’t enough to stay in the gig.
“After two years, I was over it. It was tiring. Someone rang up live on air and threatened to kill me. It was a good excuse to resign.”
Although it wasn’t the end of the candlewick for Maniapoto, it took 30 years to string up an interview with Peters again.
Short-lived telly stints
In-between times she had short-lived telly stints including a year playing Dr Te Aniwa Ryan on Shortland Street, but it wasn’t for her. The singer-songwriter has also created documentaries with her partner Toby Mills, their daughter Manawanui Maniapoto-Mills a gunning young actress.
Moana Maniapoto has featured on the cover of magazines. Image: RNZ
Maniapoto has featured on the cover of magazines, one in particular she remembers was Mana magazine in 1993.
“Sally Tagg photographed me in the shallow end of a Parnell Baths pool, wrapped in metres of blue curtain net, trying to act like it was completely normal,” she said.
Just 10 years ago she joined Mana Trust which runs the online Sunday mag E-Tangata, mentored by Gary Wilson (co-founder and co-editor) and print journalist Tapu Misa who taught her how to transfer her voice through computer keys.
“Whakaata Māori approached me in 2019, I was flattered, but music was my life and I felt wholly unequipped for journalism. Then again, I always love a challenge.”
Since jumping on board, Te Ao with Moana has completed six seasons and will “keep calm and carry on” for a seventh season come 17 February, 2025 — her son Kimiora Hikurangi Jackson the producer and “boss”.
It will be the last current affairs show to air on Whakaata Māori before moving the TV channel to web next year.
Advocating social justice
Her road of journalism and music is winding. Her music is the vehicle to advocating social justice which often landed her in the news rather than telling it.
“To me songwriting, documentaries, and current affairs are all about finding ways to convey a story or explore an issue or share insights. I think a strength I have are the relationships I’ve built through music — countless networks both here and overseas. Perfect for when we are wanting to deep dive into issues.”
Her inspiration for music grew from her dad, Nepia Tauri Maniapoto and his brothers. Maniapoto said it was “their thing” to entertain guests from the moment they walked into the dining room at Waitetoko Marae until kai was finished.
“It was Prince Tui Teka and the Platters. Great vocal harmonies. My father always had a uke, gat, and sax in the house,” she said.
Born in Invercargill and raised in Rotorua by her māmā Bernadette and pāpā Nepia, she was surrounded by her five siblings who some had a keen interest in kapa haka, although, the kapa-life was “too tough” for Maniapoto. Instead, nieces Puna Whakaata, Mourei, and Tiaria inheriting the “kapa” gene. Maniapoto said they’re exceptional and highly-competitive performers.
ONO songwriters Te Manahau Scotty Morrison, Moana Maniapoto and Paddy Free. Image: Black Pearl/RNZ
Blending her Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, and Tūhourangi whakapapa into song was no struggle.
The 1990s was filled with soul, R’n’B, and reggae, she said, singing in te reo was met with indifference if not hostility.
‘Labelled a radical’
“If you mixed in lyrics that were political in nature, you were labelled a ‘radical.’ I wasn’t the only one, but probably the ‘radical’ with the highest profile at the time.”
After her “rare” single Kua Makona in 1987, Moana & the Moahunters formed in the early 1990s, followed by Moana and the Tribe which is still going strong. Her sister Trina has a lovely singing voice and has been in Moana & The Tribe since it was formed, she said.
“I’m incredibly proud of it. So grateful to Paddy Free and Scotty Morrison for their skills. Looks pretty too on vinyl and CD, as well as digital. A cool Xmas present. Just saying.”
The microphone doesn’t seem to be losing power anytime soon. All albums adequately named one-to-six in te reo Māori, one can only punt on the next album name.
“It’s kinda weird now morphing back into the interviewee to promote my album release. I’m used to asking all the questions.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Palestinians accuse UK firm of breaching human rights laws by piping oil allegedly used by Israeli army
Palestinian victims of the war in Gaza are taking legal action against BP for running a pipeline that supplies much of Israel’s crude oil.
The claimants have sent the British oil company a letter before claim, alleging it is breaching its stated commitments to human rights under international law.
The 2024 elections left the country in emotional turmoil, with deep uncertainty about the future — particularly regarding environmental justice. As Appalachian women and environmental leaders, we understand the weight of this moment, but maintain a steadfast belief in our communities’ resilience and the transformative power of collective action to drive change. This moment of fear and anxiety…
Yellow-legged ‘Asian’ hornets: don’t believe the hype
Whilst encouraged by the evidence in the study, led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), that measures to limit the spread of yellow-legged ‘Asian’ hornets in the UK have been successful so far, the BBKA has noted that there have been several media reports recently that interpret the findings as suggesting the insects’ incursion has been stopped completely.
The BBKA feel that this is a misreading of the study and one which could hamper future efforts to prevent its establishment.
The BBKA represents nearly 30,000 hobbyist beekeepers in England and Wales and has been supporting the efforts of the Government’s National Bee Unit (NBU) through the formation of volunteer Asian Hornet Teams across the country. These teams have been assisting with identifying potential sightings of yellow-legged ‘Asian’ hornets, as well as heightening awareness of the destructive hornets in their communities.
Maps within the UKCEH study show the UK and much of Western Europe as highly suitable environments in which yellow-legged ‘Asian’ hornets can establish. It provides evidence that widespread surveillance and rapid eradication in some countries has limited modelled projections of the spread, compared to nothing being done in a ‘wait and see’ approach.
In short, this UKCEH research looks at the success of measures in limiting spread. It does NOT suggest the threat has been removed. The report should not be seen as an ‘all-clear’ for this country going forward: a very significant threat still remains, despite the huge ongoing efforts by governments and civil society.
They’re still here…
The BBKA’s Asian Hornet Team volunteers have been working tirelessly to raise awareness of the threat posed by this invasive species, as well as actively responding to suspected sightings and monitoring for further hornet activity within their localities. Their efforts, and the efforts of countless others involved in this process, must not be undermined by the implication that the problem has now been solved. Continued public vigilance and support is vital in maintaining the positive momentum outlined by the UKCEH’s findings.
Diane Drinkwater, chair of the BBKA, said:
The evidence in the study highlights the effectiveness of surveillance and rapid eradication. The hard work of BBKA’s associations and their members who’ve worked hard since the first incursion to support the National Bee Unit’s work to prevent establishment is hugely appreciated.
The BBKA hopes everyone will continue their efforts to raise public awareness which is essential for monitoring and reporting.
Dr Richard Hassall, lead author of the UKCEH study, added:
Our research highlights the effectiveness of action in the UK in preventing the spread of the yellow-legged hornet. Ongoing vigilance and rapid reporting of yellow-legged hornets is critical as the possibility of continued invasion remains high in the UK.
We encourage people to report any suspected sightings to the Asian Hornet Watch App which is available online and as a mobile app.
Yellow-legged ‘Asian’ hornets can be identified by their distinguishing characteristics:
Slightly smaller than our native European hornet.
Black with an orange face.
A thin yellow band near the middle and a broader orange/yellow band around their abdomen, near the tail.
They have bright yellow legs, like they’ve been dipped in a pot of yellow paint – hence the name.
Industrial plants, Port of Longview. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
2024 will be the warmest year on record, the year warming topped 1.5 degrees Celsius. It’s the year the US set new oil and gas production records, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia. It’s a year that saw the US re-elect a climate denier who vows to double US oil production over these record levels, assuming that’s even possible.
It’s a year that saw two of the most destructive hurricanes in US history roar back across the Gulf Coast. It’s the year a tropical cyclone demolished the French colony of Mayotte, killing as many as 10,000 people. In 2024, the temperature in Death Valley hit 130.1; Tepache, Mexico, 125.6; Aswan, Egypt, 121; Las Vegas, 120; and Redding, California, 118. Van Buren, Missouri topped 90 in February. It was the year arid regions like Valencia, Spain, the UAE, Morocco and Algeria, Roswell, New Mexico, and Moab, Utah experienced devastating floods. Storm Boris unleashed a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours on much of Europe. Meanwhile, much of the mid-Atlantic region in the US went more than a month without rain this fall.
It’s the year the UN climate conference, held in the oil city of Baku, failed to reach an agreement on phasing out fossil fuels and committed to providing less than a third of the annual climate funding needed for developing nations to transition from fossil fuels. It’s the year when CO2 levels hit 425.01 PPM, nearly 3 PPM more than last year’s record high. It’s the year when wildfires in Canada burned all year long.
January
+ CO2 reading for Jan. 1, 2024: 422.23 ppm
+ It’s now official: 2023 was the warmest year on record at 1.43C above preindustrial levels, beating the prior record set in 2016 by 0.14C. This continues a rapid warming trend that’s seen global temperatures rise around 1C since 1970.
+ December 2023 was the warmest December on record for the Contiguous U.S. by a wide margin. It was 0.67°F (0.37°C) warmer than December 2021.
+ A new study in Nature estimates that even under an optimistic scenario “the global North would overshoot its share of the 1.5 °C carbon budget by a factor of three, appropriating half of the global South’s share in the process.”
+ The Great Lakes typically have an ice coverage of 55% during the winter months, causing at least half of their surfaces to freeze. As of January 1, they had a combined ice cover of just 0.2%. Lake Superior 0.5%, Lake Michigan 0%, Lake Huron 0%, Lake Erie 0%, Lake Ontario 0%…
+ James Hansen: “When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made climate change, this year and next will be seen as the turning point at which the futility of governments in dealing with climate change was finally exposed.”
+ After an 8-year battle, Judge Ann Aiken has dismissed all of the US government’s motions to dismiss and further stall the so-called youth climate constitutional case Juliana v. US. The case is now bound for trial. In her 49-page opinion, Judge Aiken wrote: “This catastrophe is the great emergency of our time and compels urgent action. As this lawsuit demonstrates, young people—too young to vote and effect change through the political process—are exercising the institutional procedure available to plead with their government to change course.”
+ Leaders at COP28 agreed to a “historic” $700 million in loss and damage funding.Meanwhile, BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies are about to reward their investors with record payouts of more than $100 billion.
+ In the last twenty years, southern New England has experienced nearly 30 fewer snow days a year.
+ The snowpack at the base of our local strato-volcano, Mt. Hood, sits nearly 50 inches below the normal amount for this time of year.
+++
+ You scour the headlines for little rays of hope and, instead, just keep finding shit like the bracing results from this recent AP survey on American attitudes about climate change: “Americans are less convinced that climate change is caused mostly or entirely by humans compared to data from recent years, declining from 60% in 2018 to 49% this year…This increased doubt was just as significant for someone who graduated from college as someone who has a high school diploma or less (11 percentage point drop) and was more pronounced for younger Americans (17 percentage point drop for those ages 18-29 vs. 9 percentage point drop for the 60+ age group)…Democrats and independents are becoming less convinced that climate change is caused mostly by humans, while Republican attitudes remain stable.”
+ According to Berkeley Earth’s 2023 Global Temperature Report 2023 was by far the hottest year since direct observations began: 2023 was 1.54 ± 0.06 °C (2.77 ± 0.11 °F) above the 1850-1900 average, the first year above 1.5 °C (2.7 °F).
+ The melting of Greenland’s ice sheet is accelerating rapidly. A new study published in Nature estimates that Greenland is losing an average of 30m tonnes of ice an hour–20% more than was previously thought. The torrents of freshwater flushing into the Atlantic are expected to speed the collapse of the ocean currents called the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc), the consequences of which will be dire.
+ There’s been a big leak in a pipeline on Alaska’s North Slope, very close to the boundary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The leak started on Saturday evening and the preliminary estimate is 11,550 gallons (275 barrels) of natural gas condensate, also known as “light oil.”
Dec 11: India announces plan to double coal production by 2030
Dec 13: India signs off on “transitioning away from fossil fuels at COP28
Dec 22: India lays out plans to build 88 GW of coal power plants
+ A piece in the Financial Times predicts that the countries in the global south expected to experience the most extreme climate disasters “face a massive financing gap: they need $4.3 trillion by 2030 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.”
+ Thousands of U.S. homes have flooded over and over again: “The bottom line is that the risk and the damages are increasing faster than we are dealing with them.”
+ Recently reclassified as a ‘humid subtropical’ climate, New York City, experienced nearly 700 consecutive days with less than an inch of snowfall.
+++
+ Let’s check the scoreboard for how the Climate Prez is doing: the United States is now producing more oil than any country in history:13 million barrels per day (International Energy Agency). The US now produces one-in-five barrels of global oil production.
+ Since 1970, the Greenland ice sheet has lost over 6 trillion metric tons of ice, which is more than 700 tonnes lost per person for every person on the planet today.
+ A new report says that climate change, not El Niño, was the main driver of the Amazon drought in 2023. The study concluded that climate change made the agricultural Amazon drought 30 times more likely from June to November.In Amazonas state, 59 out of 62 municipalities are facing drought and 15 of them are in an emergency situation, according to the Amazon Working Group. Rivers in some regions have fallen to their lowest levels in more than 120 years. The drought has increased the spread of wildfire and caused mass die-offs of fish and dolphins.
+ Because climate change isn’t producing the expected increase in atmospheric moisture over dry regions, according to a study from the National Science Foundation: “We could be facing higher risks than what’s been projected for arid regions like the SW, which has already been affected by water shortages and extreme wildfire…”
+ In most parts of the country, charging an EV is equivalent to a gasoline price of $1 to $2 per gallon. The national average is $1.41 per eGallon, which is less than half the current gasoline price of $3.07 (as of Jan. 16, 2024)
+ On one of the coldest days of the year in Texas, solar output hit a record high of more than 14,000 megawatts of production, contributing about 20% of the total production of the ERCOT power grid.
+ Officials in southern Portugal’s Algarve region are planning to cut the water allocation for agricultural use by 70% and for households by 15% this year. But the region’s reservoirs are still likely to run dry by summer. An official said, “The situation is becoming catastrophic.”
+ In the last three years, renewable energy cut over $1 trillion from the fuel bill of the electricity sector worldwide.
+ The EU announced it will ban diesel trucks by 2040. Medium and heavy-duty trucks constitute about 3% of the vehicles on the road but they account for 30% of the pollution.
+ A new analysis projects that ammonia-fueled ships can prove cheaper to run than a fossil-fueled fleet and cut emissions by nearly 80%.
+ Just one of the 23 planned LNG facilities could lead to as much greenhouse gas being emitted over the course of its expected operating life, as the EPA’s new methane rule is projected to save in total over the next 15 years.
February 2024
+ During the deluge that submerged much of California this week, a weather station on the UCLA campus recorded nearly 12 inches of rain in 24 hours, a one-in-1000-year rainfall event for Westwood. (Probably happen five more times in the next ten years.)
+ January 2024 was the warmest January on record according to the recently released ERA5 reanalysis. This is the 8th consecutive monthly record.
+ Global sea surface temperatures hit another record high on Tuesday, reaching 21.13°C for the first time in recorded history.
+ Of the world’s three largest tropical rainforest regions, the Amazon, Southeast Asia, and the Congo, only Congo has enough standing forest to remain a strong net carbon sink.
+ Describing the current classification system as inadequate, a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences calls for adding a Category 6 to the hurricane scale, as climate change intensifies the destructive power of hurricanes.
+ More than 110 people were killed in wildfires on the urban/rural interface near Valparaiso, Chile. Hundreds are still missing, making these the deadliest wildfires in South American history. Many of the fires burned in monocultural plantations.
+ In the past 10 years, 183 counties in the US saw their first wind project come online. However, according to an analysis by USA Today, over the same period, nearly 375 counties passed measures blocking new wind developments.
+ The Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimates that large-scale cryptocurrency operations are now consuming more than 2 percent of the US’s electricity.”
+++
+ It’s February and Alberta just declared an early opening to “fire season.” There are a total of 54 new fires and dozens remaining from last year that continue to burn.
+ Still Unsafe at Any Speed: According to a study of the harm done by cars published in Science Direct, one in 36 deaths (1.36 million deaths a year) has been linked to “automobility.” Globally, cars and automobility have killed 60–80 million people and injured at least 2 billion.
+ Can’t wait to see how the Sierra Club and the rest of GangGreen rationalize Biden’s latest retreat on his environmental pledges. This time he’s instructed EPA to back off its strict new tailpipe emission standards, in order to slow the transition to Electric Vehicles, where US automakers continue to lag far behind both China and Europe…
+ The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, once the most progressive court in the country, just struck down a moratorium on the export of coal mined from federal lands. The Associated Press described the ruling as “a setback for Dems and environmentalists.” Not to mention a rapidly warming planet. Northern Cheyenne Tribal Administrator William Walksalong: “We need the Biden administration to step up & live up to its promises to protect our climate, conduct a long overdue review of the federal coal leasing program and make thoughtful plans for the future of public lands.”
+ Biden’s Bureau of Land Management is reviewing a sprawling carbon storage project proposed by ExxonMobil for federal lands in eastern Montana. Apparently, even if we succeed in transitioning from oil, we’ll never rid ourselves of the oil companies…
+ A study published last week in the journal Science Advances is the first to show a strong link between large-scale locust swarms and climate change: ‘Heavy wind & rain may be triggering widespread, synchronized desert locust outbreaks in key breadbasket regions of the world, new research shows. And the range of these ravenous, crop-stripping locusts could expand up to 25% due to climate change.’
+ Of the nearly 1,200 migratory species monitored by the U.N. – including whales, sea turtles, apes, songbirds and others – more than one-fifth are now threatened with extinction.
+ In Okinawa, the water levels of its reservoirs are so low they’ve been forced to switch to using water from Chubu, which has been deemed unsafe for drinking water because of high levels of PFAS contamination.
+ January 2024 was the eighth consecutive month where monthly global temperatures hit a record high. It was also the planet’s second-wettest January on record, according to NOAA.
+ Don’t blame El Nino. Historically, the temperatures of El Nino winters are about the same as La Nina winters.
+ The development of 10 Amazon data centers in two rural counties (Morrow and Umatilla) has turned one of Oregon’s smallest utilities (Umatilla Electric Cooperative) into one of the state’s biggest polluters. Umatilla Electric, which has only 16,000 customers, now generates 1,812,263 metric tons of CO2 a year. Compare that to the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) which serves 97,060 customers and generates only 82,570 metric tons of CO2 a year.
March
+ Given the record temperature in the Atlantic basin, hurricane season may start early and end late this year…
+ Fifteen years before it was predicted, the average global temperature has breached 1.5C above pre-industrial levels over a 12-month period.
+ Oil and gas profits have tripled under Biden, but still the industry wants to evict him in favor of Trump. It’s a lesson Biden still hasn’t learned after five decades in politics.
+ For the third year in a row Atlantic sea ice reached a new low, signaling that the continent’s sea ice has undergone an ‘abrupt critical transition.’”
+ The Smokehouse Creek fire in West Texas began a week ago Monday, spread more than 80 miles in the space of a few hours and at some points was growing as much as 150 football fields every minute. By Thursday, it had become the second-largest burn in modern American history and is now larger than any California wildfire on record.
“According to the National Interagency Fire Center, Minnesota & Wisconsin will see an above-normal wildfire risk starting as soon as March.”
+ By March 1st, 2024, the fire season had already burned 1.5 million acres–more than 50% of all acres burned last year nationally.
+ With global temperatures rising to unprecedented levels, fossil fuel subsidies surged to a record $7 trillion in 2022.
+ After years of funding climate denial, Exxon’s CEO Darren Woods told Fortune magazine this week that the public was to blame for climate change, not the fossil fuel industry: “The dirty secret nobody talks about is how much all this is going to cost and who’s willing to pay for it. The people who are generating those emissions need to be aware of and pay the price for generating those emissions. That is ultimately how you solve the problem.”
+ With at least 150 so-called zombie fires from last year still burning under snow-covered ground, Canada is bracing for another “This year’s fire season may be worse than the record-breaking season of 2023, when 1000s of fires burned 48 million acres million acres. ‘There’s no historical analog to what we’re seeing right now,” said Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildfire science at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia. “Most years they’re not a big deal. But now a lot of these fires have the potential that when the snow melts and it gets warm, dry and windy to actually grow again. So it is a serious issue.”
+ It snowed here in the Willamette Valley on the opening days of meteorological spring, but as for winter…28% of the lower 48 states experienced temperatures at least 5 degrees above normal for the entire season.
+ A new study published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment projects that under all future emissions scenarios, the Arctic Ocean will likely become ice-free for the first time on a late August or early September day within the next 10 to 15 years.
+ The North Atlantic sea surface temperature has been at record warm levels for an entire year now, setting daily record highs every day for 365 consecutive days and counting.
+ Following France, Spain is banning some short-haul domestic flights, and possibly private jets as well, as part of its plan to reduce carbon emissions. The restrictions would apply to most flights with a rail alternative that take less than two and a half hours.
+ New study in Nature: “Almost the entire vegetated land surface [of the planet] will be subject to substantial changes in how climate supports the plants that define terrestrial ecosystems…A profound transformation of the biosphere is underway.”
+++
+ The world’s five biggest fossil fuel companies (Total, Chevron, Shell, BP and Exxon/Mobil) are expected to add 51 billion tonnes of C02 emissions to the atmosphere between now and 2050. A new study by Global Witness finds that the planned fossil fuel production from these “5 majors” will kill 11.5 million people by 2100.
+ The annual atmospheric increase in CO2 was a staggering 3.4 parts per million (ppm) in 2023.
+ A million tons: the amount of ice Greenland loses every two minutes.
+ Every day for the last 12 months, global sea surface temperatures have broken records.
+ Phoenix, the US’s hottest city, experienced a record 645 deaths related to high temperatures in 2023–50% higher than the number of heat-related deaths in 2022.
+ In 1993, the US Forest Service fought wildfires on 1.79 million acres.By 2021, the number of burned acres had more than quadrupled.
+ This week State Farm announced plans to not renew around 72,000 property and commercial apartment policies in California starting this summer, largely because of the increased risk of climate-driven wildfires. State Farm is California’s largest property insurer.
+ According to a report from the Royal Society, Giant Sequoias are now much more numerous and in better condition in the UK than they are across their native range in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California.
+ Desert ecosystems are much more sensitive to climate changes than previously believed. Research in the Sonoran desert has found a sharp decline in vegetation cover, especially in drier areas, mostly attributed to rising temperatures and less rain.
+ China, the world’s leading solar supplier, doubled production capacity last year and now produces nearly three times more panels than global demand. Global prices for panels have fallen 50% in the past year to as low as 10 cents a watt.
+ China’s global share of EV sales hit 48.2% last week and will pass 50% within 3 months predicted Wang Chuanfu, CEO of China’s leading EV-maker BYD.
+ In 2019, 149 million people worldwide were classified as ‘acutely food insecure’ – meaning they did not have enough food to meet their daily nutritional needs. Only four years later, that number has more than doubled to 333 million. One leading cause has been droughts and crop failures attributed to climate change.
+ In the first two-and-a-half months of 2024, more than 10,000 wildfires have burned across 11,000 square kilometers of the Amazon, according to real-time satellite monitoring, a record number for this early in the year.
+ In 2023, carbon emissions in the UK fell to their lowest level since 1897.
+ Lula has made lofty pledges to address climate change and protect the environment, goals that will prove very challenging to meet if Petrobras, Brazil’s state-run oil company, goes forward with its plans to significantly boost oil production, with the goal of becoming the world’s third-largest oil producer by 2030.
+ According to a study out of MIT: “The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry. A single data center can consume the equivalent electricity of 50,000 homes. At 200 TWh annually, data centers collectively devour more energy than some nation-states.”
+ The Biden Administration isn’t just permitting the destruction of Thacker Pass, it’s subsidizing the massive lithium mine slated for the Oregon/Nevada border to the tune of $2.26 billion…
+++
+ In 2020, one in 25 cars sold worldwide was electric; by 2023, it was one in five.
+ UN emissions data is so out of date and incomplete that no one really knows how close most countries are to meeting their emissions targets.
+ People who live in France now produce 7% less carbon than the average person on Earth.
+ A study in Nature reports that fire suppression may be a more important factor in driving the intensity of wildfires than fuel accumulation.
+ This week ocean temperatures in the tropical Atlantic reached levels not normally found until June 3.
+ Hundreds of gray whales have starved to death off the Pacific Coast, owing to a sharp decline in food availability in their Arctic and sub-Arctic feeding grounds attributable to warming oceans…
+ Several of the largest new oil and gas field discoveries since 2021 have been made by companies with net-zero emissions pledges.
+ Agriculture accounts for 74% of the water diverted from the Colorado River, roughly three times as much as the amount of water consumed by cities. Nearly half (46%) of the Colorado River’s water is used to grow alfalfa and other hay crops for cattle.
April
+ Nine of the 10 hottest years have been recorded in the past 10 years and all 10 since 2005.
+ Under Biden, the Climate prez, US LNG exports are at record highs (almost 16 billion cubic feet per day) and are projected to keep on growing. In 2016, LNG exports from the US were nearly zero.
+ UN climate chief, Simon Stiell: ’It’s blazingly obvious that finance is the make-or-break factor in the world’s climate fight.’”
+ A new “rapid analysis” study shows that the “dangerous humid heat” that oppressed western Africa in mid-February was made 10 times more likely by human-caused climate change.
+ Summer temperatures across much of Western Europe have risen three times faster than the global mean warming since 1980.
+ Around 77% of Texas’ electricity is now powered by solar, wind and nuclear.
+ Most nuclear plants in the US are unprepared for climate-driven disasters, such as wildfires and floods, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Nearly 60% of the country’s nuclear power capacity is directly threatened.
+ The Economist: “About a tenth of the world’s residential property by value is under threat from global warming—including many houses that are nowhere near the coast.”
+ Around 54% of ocean waters containing coral reefs have experienced heat stress high enough to cause bleaching, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch. The bleaching is increasing at a rate of 1 percent a week.
+ On April 6th, the low temperaturein Biarritz was +72.5°F, which was the highest minimum temperature ever recorded in France for the month of April. In fact, +72.5°F was one of the highest minimum temperatures ever measured in Biarritz (for any month).
+ The European Court of Human Rights last week ruled that the Swiss government had violated the human rights of 2,000 women over the age of 64, known as KlimaSeniorinnen, or Senior Women for Climate Protection, their government’s failure to combat climate change put them at a higher risk of dying in heatwaves. The women argued they could not leave their homes and suffered ill-health during frequent record hot spells. The landmark ruling forces Switzerland to take aggressive steps to reduce carbon emissions, in line with targets to keep warming to below a global 1.5 C rise.
The diminishing snowpack on the southern slopes of Mount St. Helens, mid-April, 2024. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
+ With another dry summer forecast for the Pacific Northwest and the snowpack in the Cascade Range at the lowest level in at least a decade, Washington officials have declared a statewide drought emergency.
+ CO 2 levels for April 26: 428.63 ppm, a record high.
May
+ A new study in Nature: “Using an empirical approach… the persistence of impacts on economic growth, we find that the world economy is committed to an income reduction of 19% within the next 26 years independent of future emission choices.”
+ Temperatures every month between July and December of 2023 beat the prior record by at least 0.3C. And September shattered the previous record by 0.5C.
+ A UN labor agency report warns of the rising threat of excess heat, and climate change on the world’s workers. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that over 2.4 billion workers — more than 70% of the global workforce — are likely to face excessive heat as part of their jobs at some point, according to the most recent figures available, from 2020. That’s up from over 65% in 2000.
+ The two families (Ferrero and Mars) who own the biggest chocolate corporations have more wealth than the combined GDP of the two countries (Ghana and Ivory Coast), which supply the most cocoa beans.
+ In the last ten, severe storm outages increased by 74% compared with the prior decade. High winds, rains, winter storms, tornadoes and hurricanes, accounted for 80% of all power interruptions over the last 20 years.
+ This has the flavor of a BP ad after Deepwater Horizon…The US is producing more oil (13 million barrels on average every day in 2023) and exporting more LNG than at any time in history.
+ Last year was by far the most destructive wildfire season on record in Canada. But the total burn area so far in 2024 is 20 times what it was by this time lie 2023.
+ Florida’s coral reefs have experienced a 90 percent decline in the past 40 years, largely due to warming oceans.
+ The recent storms that flooded Dubai were made 40% more intense by climate change.
+ Taxing big fossil fuel firms could raise $900 billion for climate finance by 2030.
+ According to Consumer Reports, climate change will cost a typical child born in 2024 at least around $500,000 over their lifetime—and possibly as much as $1 million—through a combination of cost-of-living increases and reduced earnings.
+ Since 1976, more than 4 billion solar panels have been manufactured worldwide and the cost per panel has declined by 96 percent.
+ US emissions declined by 3% last year, almost all of it in the power generation sector, as emissions continued to climb in the transportation, industrial and agricultural sectors.
+ Mashable: “The last time CO2 levels were as high as today, ocean waters drowned the lands where metropolises like Houston, Miami, and New York City now exist.”
June
+ You can believe whatever you want to but …. the two-year increase in the Keeling Curve of peak carbon dioxide levels is the largest on record.
+ Why are CO2 levels continuing to soar? Because industrial nations are still burning massive amounts of fossil fuels. In fact, last year the global consumption of fossil fuels hit a record high last year, producing emissions to more than 40 gigatonnes of CO2 for the first time, according to a report by the the Energy Institute.
+ More than 1000 people have died of heat-related causes during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, where temperatures in Mecca hit 51.8°C (125°F).
+ Here in the US, an Associated Press investigation calculated that there were 2,300 heat deaths last summer, a new record, and the report admitted that the number was almost certainly a dramatic undercount of the actual number of heat-related deaths.
+ A study of the 1995 Chicago heatwave showed that 28% of those admitted to hospital for heatstroke died within a year. Most of the rest had ongoing organ dysfunction and brain damage.
+ India last week, Florida in July: “At the SMS hospital in Rajasthan’s capital, Jaipur, so many bodies of casualties of the heat have arrived at the mortuary that its capacity has been exceeded. Police in the city say many of the victims are poor laborers, who have no choice but to work outside, and homeless people.”
+ A new study finds tiny particles emitted by wildfire smoke may have contributed to at least 52,000 premature deaths in California over a decade. By 2050, cumulative excess deaths from exposure to wildfire smoke globally could exceed 700,000, a two-thirds increase over current numbers.
+ From a study on the environmental impacts of wildfire smoke on lake ecosystems published in Global Change Biology: “From 2019 to 2021, we found that 99.3% of North America was covered by smoke. An incredible 98.9% of lakes experienced at least 10 smoke-days a year, with 89.6% of lakes receiving 30 smoke-days, and some lakes experiencing up to four months of smoke.” We’re fucked, might be the phrase you’re looking for…
+ A new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) shows that average homeowners insurance premiums have increased by 33%from 2020 to 2023, largely driven by climate-related disaster risks.
+ The record rainfall in south Florida last week, which dumped as much as 15 inches of rain in 24 hours on parts of Sarasota, Naples and Miami, normally occurs only once every 500 to 1,000 years.
+ Mario Ariza: “Eventually, Florida’s policies of agnostic adaptation will have to deal with this looming reality, where adaptation is clearly impossible, and retreat may be the only option left.”
+ According to Swiss Re, one of Europe’s largest reinsurers, insurers have dramatically underestimated the annual damages from climate-related disasters and warned that some areas of the continent may become “uninsurable.” Lloyd’s of London’s John Neal: “You’ll never find an insurer saying, ‘I don’t believe in climate change.’”
+ India’s monsoon season delivered 20% less rainfall than usual, especially concerning given the extended heat wave that has gripped the sub-continent.
+ The use of swimming pools and video games in California consume more energy than some entire countries.
+ China’s solar module production, which has tripled since 2021, hit 1,000 GWlast year, nearly five times the rest of the world combined.
+ Worldwide the average price for photovoltaic panels is 11 cents per watt, a global price largely based on the market of the leading producer, China. The average price for panels in the United States was 31 cents per watt.
+ Oil production in the US has more than doubled in less than a decade.
+ Since the world started to get “serious” about global warming, coal demand has only increased–rising by 75% since the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and by nearly 15% since the Paris Agreement in 2015.
+ Every six hours the world burns enough coal to build a new replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
+ On July 15, Chicago issued 16 tornado warnings, the most sent on a single day since 2004. In an average year, Illinois only experiences 50 tornadoes. This year it’s been hit more than 100, already.
+ The Park Fire outside Chico grew by 100,000 acres in a mere 24 hours. It ignited when someone lit a car on fire and rolled it into a forested ravine, but it blew up because the forest is parched bone-dry by year after year of searing summer heat.
+ Here in Oregon’s Willamette Valley we tied a record for the most consecutive 100F-degree days, which, sandwiched between an even longer string of 90+ days, prompted a “flash drought,” pushing the wildfire danger from “low” to “high” in the span of a few days. Oregon has effectively dried out. There are currently at least 27 wildfires burning in Oregon across more than 256,500 acres of land.
August
+ In her acceptance speech, Harris mentioned the border seven times, while saying “climate change” and “health care” only once each.
+ Harris in 2019: “We should do something about the actual emergencies that plague our nation — like climate change or health care access — not playing politics in order to build a wasteful border wall.” Harris is turning flip-flopping into an Olympic sport, just in time for LA to host the next summer games.
On Tuesday, southern Iran recorded a heat index of 82.2°C and a dew point of 36.1°C, provisionally the highest ever globally. The extreme “feels like” temperature is not compatible with life…
+ A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that heat-related deaths in the US have increased by 117% since 1999. “As temperatures continue to rise because of climate change, the recent increasing trend is likely to continue,” the researchers wrote. “Local authorities in high-risk areas should consider investing in the expansion of access to hydration centers and public cooling centers or other buildings with air conditioning.” From 1999 to 2023, there have been at least 21,500 heat-related deaths in the US. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the researchers found that 1,069 deaths were heat-related in 1999, compared with 2,325 in 2023, the most ever recorded.
+ Trump has spent the last few months mocking the idea of rising sea levels, claiming oceans will only rise “one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years … and you’ll have more oceanfront property, right?” Wrong. A new UN reportwarns that rising seas are already causing more frequent coastal flooding and that for some Pacific nations coastal flooding will go from the average of fewer than five days a year between 1980 through the 2010s to once every two weeks by 2050 and once every 2 to 3 days in a worst case scenario.
+ For some Pacific nations, floods will go from fewer than 5 days a year in 1980-2010s, to once a fortnight on average by 2050, and every 2-3 days in a worst-case scenario.
+ Warming ocean currents are undermining the massive Thwaites glacier in Antarctica. The collapse of the so-called Doomsday Glacier could raise sea levels by as much as 7 feet.
+ In only five days last week, Canada’s total wildfire area for the year has grown by more than 700,000 hectares. 2024 is now the *fourth* worst fire season in Canadian history record. If another 406,000 hectares burn it will move into third place, making 2024 the fourth worst fire season on record with another two months left in the fire season. If another 406,000 hectares burn it will move into third place.
* the concentration of greenhouse gasses was the highest on record
* El Niño conditions contributed to record-high sea surface temperatures
* Ocean heat and global sea levels were the highest on record
* The Arctic was warm and navigable
* Antarctic sea ice was at record lows throughout the year.
* Heatwaves and droughts contributed to massive wildfires around the world
+ If you want proof, all you have to do is look at the daily atmospheric CO2 readings from Mauna Loa since Kyoto and Paris…
+ The more than 500,000 trees logged off to make way for Musk’s new Tesla factory in Germany increased carbon emissions by 13,000 tons, the equivalent of driving 33 million miles in a combustion car.
+ On Monday, Yampi Sound experienced its hottest winter day ever recorded in Australia, hitting 106.8°F (41.6°C).
+ A new report from CoreLogic found that 2.6 million homes across 14 western states are at risk from wildfires, led by California with more than 1,258,748 homes in danger, followed by Colorado with 321,294) and Texas with 244,617.
+ Exxon is warning of an “oil shock” if suppliers conclude that oil demand will fall by 2050.
September
+ Bidenmentalism in a nutshell: “On my watch, we’ve responsibly increased our oil production to meet our immediate needs – without delaying or deferring our transition to clean energy. We’re America. We can do both.” Sorry, Joe, you haven’t and you can’t…
+ The Global temperature in August 2024 tied with August 2023 for the warmest of any August on record. Up in Svalbard at 78° north latitude in the Arctic Ocean, the average temperature for August was a hitherto unfathomable 51.8 F (11 C)…
+ For three months, the temperature in Phoenix averaged 99F…On Wednesday, the temperature in Phoenix reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit for a record 100th straight day.
+ US gasoline demand, the world’s single largest pool of oil consumption, has almost certainly peaked for good, according to a report in Bloomberg.
+ Meanwhile, solar prices are falling. Solar module price falls to a record low of $0.096/W, according to Bloomberg’s Global Solar Market Report. The record low prices drove global installations to a new high in 2024.The report says 592 GW will be installed in 2024, an increase of 33% from last year’s record high.
+ A study out of UC Davis shows that ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft are luring people from using more sustainable modes of travel, like walking, cycling and public transport: “More than 50% of ride-hailing trips taken by surveyed riders in California replaced more sustainable forms of transportation — such as walking, cycling, carpooling, and public transit — or created new vehicle miles.”
+ Since 2004, Saudi Arabia’s oil production has fallen and America’s has more than doubled.
+ The Energy Information Agency estimates that North America’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity will more than double between 2024 and 2028, from 11.4 billion cubic feet per day in 2023 to 24.4 Bcf/d in 2028, if projects currently under construction begin operations as planned.
+ In the first half of 2024, 80% of new electricity capacity in the US came from solar and batteries.
+ Only 15 countries account for more the 98.5% of the world’s new coal power generation. But two of those 15 countries, China and India, are responsible for 86% of that capacity.
+ A decade ago, nearly 40% of UK electricity came from coal. Today the UK’s last remaining coal-fired power station is Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station in Nottinghamshire, England, which is itself slated to close at the end of September.
+ The hotter the temperature, the less well students do on exams. Over 13 years in NYC alone, “upwards of 510,000 exams that otherwise would have passed likely received failing grades due to hot exam conditions.” The study published in the estimates that these failed exams delayed or stopped around 90,000 graduations.
+ The ocean heat content of the Gulf of Mexico has smashed previous all-time record highs and this week stands at 126% of the average for the date.
+ A study from the World Bank predicts that climate change will exacerbate tensions around access to water. The report says that the global supply of fresh water per person will fall by 29% between 2000 and 2099. But all regions will not be equally affected. For example, Africa’s water supply could drop by 67%, while Europe’s could increase by 28%.
+ South Korea’s top court ruled last week that the country’s measures to fight climate change were insufficient to protect the rights of its citizens. This is the first climate litigation ruling of its kind in Asia.
+ Norm Schilling, a horticulturist in Las Vegas, on the damage to desert plants from this summer’s extreme heat: “We saw damage to plants this summer that had never shown heat stress before…The heat we’re seeing now is a new paradigm. It’s like the ground is shifting beneath our feet.’”
+ More than 20% of the Amazonian rainforest is already gone and much of what remains–dried out by a mega-drought and seared by extreme heat–is going up in flames…
+ It was 100F here in Greater Stumptown yesterday and heading toward 95F today with thick bands of smoke. And where’s there’s smoke…
+++
+ So Harris pretty effectively rebutted GOP accusations that she’s a communist, Marxist, socialist, pacifist, progressive, environmentalist, civil libertarian, or humanist.
+ With Harris, it sounds like we will get Cheney’s foreign policy, AIPAC’s Middle East policy, Goldman Sachs’ economic policy, and Exxon’s climate policy.
+ Fires are burning down towns and resorts in California, Texas is running out of water, and a hurricane is bearing down on Louisiana once again. Yet, neither candidate advanced a position on climate change last night that went much beyond drill, drill, drill and frack, frack, frack…
+ Harris is fighting climate change by, checks notes, expanding fracking, boosting oil and gas production and building new factories!
+ Can’t we all now agree that the Democrats are objectively worse than the Republicans on climate change? The Republicans don’t believe in climate change and do nothing about it. The Democrats say they believe in climate change and still do nothing about it.
+ Move along, nothing to see here…
+ The US is adding more gas-powered plants than it has in more than a decade, mainly to keep up with the energy demands created by big tech data centers and the AI boom.
+ Emissions from data centers are likely 662% higher than big tech claims. Last year, data centers consumed a fifth of Ireland’s electricity, more than all the electricity used by homes in its towns and cities combined.
+ Microsoft’s AI data centers consume so much energy they’re spending $1.6 billion to reboot the Three Mile Island nuclear plant to power it.
+ What could go wrong?
+ Canada has made real progress in adding renewables to its electric power sector. But these gains have been wiped out by significant increases in oil and gas production, which now account for 31% of its national emissions.
+ The unnamed storm that smashed into North Carolina last week unloaded as much as 20 inches of rain in 12 hours and inflicted $7 billion in damage. There have now been more than 20 extreme-weather events in the US so far this year that have each wreaked $1 billion or more in damages.
+ Over the last 30 years, the average gas tax in France has been around eight times higher than in the United States.
+ Toxicologist George Thompson on the lingering poisonous fallout from the chemicals spilled by the Northfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio: “‘I’ve been a toxicologist for 55 years, and this is the worst event I’ve ever seen. And I’m talking about worldwide. None are as dangerous.’”
+ Nearly 200 environmental defenders were killed last year, most of them by the mining industry in Latin America.
+ Bidenmentalism in Action: A month before the elections, the Biden-Harris administration, which has been dismal on the environment, is moving to strip protections for gray wolves. They seem confident the enviros will vote for them no matter what they do and they’re likely correct…
+ A new report in Nature argues that most climate change models significantly underestimate the risk, severity, and duration of droughts, particularly in North America and Southern Africa. The report says that by 2100, the average most extended periods of drought could be ten days longer than previously projected.
+ Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) explained his opposition to solar energy: “At night, it just doesn’t work.” Crenshaw’s own state is second only to California in solar power generation (31,700 GWh), and solar power has repeatedly saved the ERCOT power grid from collapsing during recent power surges.
October
+ As for climate change, even amid the carnage inflicted by Hurricane Helene, Vance accepted the premise that there is a scientific consensus on human-caused climate change only “for the sake of argument, while Walz weirdly bragged about Biden-Harris turning the US into “an energy superpower.”
+ Here’s the extent of the stultifyingly simplistic back-and-forth on climate change and Hurricane Helene: Walz talks mainly about jobs and increasing oil and gas production, and Vance complains that most solar panels used in the US are made in China (they aren’t)…
Nora O’Donnell: Let’s turn now to Hurricane Helene. The storm could become one of the deadliest on record. More than 160 people are dead and hundreds more are missing. Scientists say climate change makes these hurricanes larger, stronger and more deadly because of the historic rainfall. Senator Vance, according to CBS News polling, seven in ten Americans and more than 60% of Republicans under the age of 45 favor the U.S. taking steps to try and reduce climate change. Senator, what responsibility would the Trump administration have to try and reduce the impact of climate change? I’ll give you two minutes.
JDV: Sure. So first of all, let’s start with the hurricane because it’s an unbelievable, unspeakable human tragedy. I just saw today, actually, a photograph of two grandparents on a roof with a six-year-old child, and it was the last photograph ever taken of them because the roof collapsed, and those innocent people lost their lives. And I’m sure Governor Walz joins me in saying our hearts go out to those innocent people, our prayers go out to them. And we want as robust and aggressive as a federal response as we can get to save as many lives as possible. And then, of course, afterward, to help the people in those communities rebuild. I mean, these are communities that I love, some of them I know very personally. In Appalachia, all across the Southeast, they need their government to do their job. And I commit that when Donald Trump is president again, the government will put the citizens of this country first when they suffer from a disaster. And Norah, you asked about climate change. I think this is a very important issue. Look, a lot of people are justifiably worried about all these crazy weather patterns. I think it’s important for us, first of all, to say Donald Trump and I support clean air and clean water. We want the environment to be cleaner and safer, but one of the things that I’ve noticed some of our democratic friends talking a lot about is a concern about carbon emissions. This idea that carbon emissions drives all the climate change. Well, let’s just say that’s true, just for the sake of argument, so we’re not arguing about weird science. Let’s just say that’s true. Well, if you believe that, what would you, what would you want to do? The answer is that you’d want to reshore as much American manufacturing as possible and you’d want to produce as much energy as possible in the United States of America because we’re the cleanest economy in the entire world. What have Kamala Harris’s policies actually led to? More energy production in China, more manufacturing overseas, more doing business in some of the dirtiest parts of the entire world. When I say that, I mean the amount of carbon emissions they’re doing per unit of economic output. So if we actually care about getting cleaner air and cleaner water, the best thing to do is to double down and invest in American workers and the American people. And unfortunately, Kamala Harris has done exactly the opposite.
Nora O’Donnell: Governor Walz, you have two minutes to respond.
TW: Well, we got close to an agreement because all those things are happening. Look, first of all, it is a horrific tragedy with this hurricane, and my heart goes out to the folks that are down there in contact with the Governors. I serve as co-chair of the council of governors as we work together on these emergency managements. Governors know no partisanship. They work together to… all of the Governors and the emergency responders are on the ground. Those happen on the front end. The federal government comes in, makes sure they’re there, that we recover. But we’re still in that phase where we need to make sure that they’re staying there, staying focused.
Now, look, coming back to the climate change issue, there’s no doubt this thing roared onto the scene faster and stronger than anything we’ve seen. Senator Vance has said that there’s a climate problem in the past; Donald Trump called it a hoax and then joked that these things would make more beachfront property to be able to invest in. What we’ve seen out of the Harris administration now, the Biden Harris administration is, we’ve seen this investment, we’ve seen massive investments, the biggest in global history that we’ve seen in the Inflation Reduction Act, has created jobs all across the country. Two thousand in Jeffersonville, Ohio. Taking the EV technology that we invented and making it here. Two hundred thousand jobs across the country. The largest solar manufacturing plant in North America sits in Minnesota. But my farmers know climate change is real. They’ve seen 500-year droughts, 500-year floods, back to back. But what they’re doing is adapting, and this has allowed them to tell me, “Look, I harvest corn, I harvest soybean, and I harvest wind.” We are producing more natural gas and more oil at any time than we ever have. We’re also producing more clean energy. So the solution for us is to continue to move forward, that climate change is real. Reducing our impact is absolutely critical. But this is not a false choice. You can do that at the same time you’re creating the jobs that we’re seeing all across the country. That’s exactly what this administration has done. We are seeing us becoming an energy superpower for the future, not just the current. And that’s what absolutely makes sense. And then we start thinking about, “How do we mitigate these disasters?”
Nora O’Donnell: Thank you, Senator. I want to give you an opportunity to respond there. The Governor mentioned that President Trump has called climate change a hoax. Do you agree?
JDV: Well, look, what the President has said is that if the Democrats, in particular, Kamala Harris and her leadership, if they really believe that climate change is serious, what they would be doing is more manufacturing and more energy production in the United States of America, and that’s not what they’re doing. So clearly, Kamala Harris herself doesn’t believe her own rhetoric on this. If she did, she would actually agree with Donald Trump’s energy policies. Now, something Governor Walz said, I think is important to touch upon, because when we talk about “clean energy,” I think that’s a slogan that often the Democrats will use here. I’m talking, of course, about the Democratic leadership. And the real issue is that if you’re spending hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of American taxpayer money on solar panels that are made in China, number one, you’re going to make the economy dirtier. We should be making more of those solar panels here in the United States of America.
TW: We are in Minnesota.
JDV: Some of them are, Tim, but a lot of them are being made overseas in China, especially the components that go into those solar panels. So, if you really want to make the environment cleaner, you’ve got to invest in more energy production. We haven’t built a nuclear facility, I think one, in the past 40 years. Natural gas. We have got to invest more in it. Kamala Harris has done the opposite. That’s raised energy prices and also meant that we’re doing worse by the climate.
Nora O’Donnell: Senator, your time is up. Governor, would you like to respond?
TW: Well, look, we’re producing more natural gas than we ever have. There’s no moratorium on that. We’re producing more oil. But the folks know, and my… like I said, again, these are not liberal folks. These are not folks that are green, new deal folks. These are farmers that have been in drought one year and massive flooding the next year. They understand that it makes sense. Look, our number one export cannot be topsoil from erosion from these massive storms. We saw it in Minnesota this summer. And thinking about, “How do we respond to that?” we’re thinking ahead on this and what Kamala Harris has been able to do in Minnesota, we’re starting to weatherproof some of these things. The infrastructure law that was passed allows us to think about mitigation in the future. How do we make sure that we’re protecting by burying our power lines? How do we make sure that we’re protecting lakefronts and things that we’re seeing more and more of? But to call it a hoax and to take the oil company executives to Mar-a-Lago, say, give me money for my campaign and I’ll let you do whatever you want. We can be smarter about that. And an all of the above energy policy is exactly what she’s doing, creating those jobs right here.
+ Trump on climate change: “The planet has actually gotten a little bit cooler recently. Climate change covers everything. It can rain, it can be dry, it can be hot, it can be cold. Climate change. I believe I really am an environmentalist. I’ve gotten environmental awards.”
+ Meanwhile, the Desert Southwest experienced the most extreme high temperatures ever recorded in October.
+ Trump on the Green New Deal, getting more and more insane: “They wanted to rip down all the buildings in Manhattan and they wanted to rebuild them without windows. Take a look; you have to see the bathrooms. Basically, water-free bathrooms, no water. It’s so gross.”
+ What kind of anti-social personality type is still watching this debate, I ask myself, while watching the debate…
+++
Milton from the International Space Station. Photo: NASA.
+ Two weeks after Hurricane Helene tore through the Florida panhandle and left a trail of destruction into the Appalachians and beyond, the Atlantic brewed up three more hurricanes, Kirk, Leslie and Milton: the first time three such storms have been swirling simultaneously after September.
+ Helene killed at least 238 people (with hundreds more still missing) in six states (Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia), making it the second-deadliest hurricane to strike the United States mainland in the past 50 years, after Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,833 people in 2005.
+ More than half of Helene’s deaths took place in North Carolina.
+ Only eight hurricanes have killed more than 100 people since 1950. The last time a storm near as deadly as Helene hit the US was Hurricane Harvey in 2017, which killed 103 people after making landfall near Houston.
+ The initial estimates put Helene’s economic impact at $200 billion, making it the costliest storm in U.S. history.
+ Fueled by record-high temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, Helene went from a tropical storm into a category 4 hurricane in only two days.
+ Weather Channel depiction of what a 9-foot storm surge in a coastal Florida town would look like.
+ 15 feet: Helene’s storm surge when it swamped the coastal towns of Keaton Beach and Steinhatchee.
+ 12 feet: Milton’s storm surge at Sarasota.
+ Total rainfall east of the Mississippi during Hurricane Helene:over 40 Trillion gallons. More than 20 Trillion gallons fell across Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina, especially over mountainous terrain.
+ Over three days, Helene unleashed more than 30 inches of rain over parts of North Carolina.
+ Human-caused climate change boosted Hurricane Helene’s rainfall by about 10% and intensified its winds by about 11%, scientists said in a new flash study released just as Hurricane Milton threatened the Florida coast less than two weeks later.
+ The Gulf of Mexico has warmed at a rate of 0.34 °F (0.19 °C) per decade since 1970, more than twice the rate of the oceans at large.
+ Upper ocean heat content in the Atlantic during the last 66 years…
+ The destruction inflicted by Hurricane Helene forced the Federal Government’s largest repository of climate and weather data, including all historical billion-dollar storms, offline.
+ Chevron is sponsoring articles about Hurricane Helene as part of a PR blitz to convince people that its new ultra-high-pressure offshore deep-drilling project, Anchor, is climate-friendly.
+ Trump Hurricane Helene: “She [Harris] didn’t send anything or anyone at all, days passed, no help as men, women, and children drowned. North Carolina has eight military bases. FortBragg. They changed the name. We won two wars from FortBragg.”
+ More than 5,000 National Guard troops from at least nine states were dispatched to help with Hurricane Helene relief efforts, including soldiers from Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio, New York, South Carolina, Florida, and North Carolina. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has sent personnel to Georgia, as well as dam, levee, and bridge inspection specialists to Tennessee and Kentucky, while others are working to restore temporary power to North Carolina.
+ After the wreckage left by Helene, Florida’s largest property insurer announced it was cutting policies for more than 600,000 homeowners in the state.
+ Milton is the only Category 5 hurricane in Atlantic records (HURDATv2, 1851-present) to exhibit any southeasterly motion vector.
+ According to US Stormwatch, the blue in this image is of birds caught in the Eye of Milton.
+ Most intense Atlantic hurricanes in history by minimum barometric pressure:
+ St. Petersburg reported nearly seven inches of rain in an hour and 10 inches over 3 hours, more of a drenching than a thousand-year rain event. Thresholds for 1,000-year rain in South Florida:
5.56”/1 hour
7.16”/2 hours 8.50”/3 hours
+ Milton generated more than 130 tornado warnings in South Florida as the storm neared the coast, a new record for Florida…
+ Only seven hurricanes have gone from Category 1 to Category 5 in 24 hours or less. Milton is now the second fastest to do so…
Wilma: 12 hours
Milton: 18 hours
Maria: 18 hours
Felix: 24 hours
Dean: 24 hours
Andrew: 24 hours
Anita: 24 hours
+ The “free” Starlink service Elon Musk offered for communities devastated by Hurricane Helene is not free. It’s just the ordinary 30-day trial, and you must buy the hardware.
+ Trump: “I don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government and the Democrat Governor of the State going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”
+ Recall that Trump blocked $20 billion in aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria killed over 3,000 people and knocked out electricity on the island for 11 months.
+ There are already hundreds of allegations of price-gouging after Hurricane Helene and Milton. Harris was against price-gouging for about two days, then backed down after getting slapped by blowhards like Larry Summers–the Dick Cheney of economics. Nothing since, even though the evidence is everywhere. McDonalds is now suing the meatpacking industry for price-fixing…
+ The State of Florida refused to evacuate more than 1,200 people from the Manatee and Lee county jails, which were directly in the path of Hurricane Milton. (During Katrina, the people who ran the jails of New Orleans decided that 6,500 incarcerated people, some as young as ten years old, would remain “where they belong.”)
+ This was the second warmest September on record (2023). Nearly 15% of the globe had their single warmest September.
+ Foreign aid for fossil fuel projects quadrupled in a single year,found, spiking from $1.2 billion in 2021 to $5.4billin in 2022. Meanwhile, clean energy projects received only one percent of total foreign aid, according to a report from the Clean Air Fund.
+ Helene and Milton have given rise to a new grift: Hurricane Conspiracies….
+ “Yes, they can control the weather,” Marjorie Greene Tweeted on X. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done…Climate change is the new Covid. Ask your government if the weather is manipulated or controlled. Did you ever give permission to them to do it? Are you paying for it? Of course you are.”
+ Trump: “Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country…They stole the FEMA money, just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season.”
+ Of the many false claims about Hurricane Helene, one asserted that North Carolina state police had begun arresting FEMA workers. It was planted on social media by a “mid-level” organizer from the Bundy Ranch standoff.
+ According to Wired, “the weather conspiracies, in particular, ramped up significantly after 2011 when a member of the Rothschild family acquired a controlling stake in Weather Central, a company that provides weather data to media companies.”
+ Give MAGA credit. Their conspiracy theories about the Rothschilds (one of them apparently invested in Weather Central) summoning up pre-election hurricanes out of the Gulf and aiming at red states is at least an admission of human-caused climate change. You’ve come a long way, baby.
+ If you want to make it big on the Net, you must have a theory of why what happened didn’t happen.
+ The Helene Conspiracies spread so broadly across his district that Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards felt obliged to issue this extraordinary press release, which is worth reprinting in its entirety as evidence of just how “weird” things have become…
Over the past 10 days, I have been proud of how our mountain communities have come together to help one another. We have seen a level of support that is unmatched by most any other disaster nationwide; but amidst all of the support, we have also seen an uptick in untrustworthy sources trying to spark chaos by sharing hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and hearsay about hurricane response efforts across our mountains.
While it is true, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to Hurricane Helene has had its shortfalls, I’m here to dispel the outrageous rumors that have been circulated online:
1. Hurricane Helene was NOT geoengineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock.
Nobody can control the weather.
Charles Konrad, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southeast Regional Climate Center, has confirmed that no one has the technology or ability to geoengineer a hurricane.
Current geoengineering technology can serve as a large-scale intervention to mitigate the negative consequences of naturally occurring weather phenomena, but it cannot be used to create or manipulate hurricanes.
2. Local officials have confirmed the government is NOT seizing Chimney Rock.
There was no “special meeting” held in Chimney Rock between federal, state, or local governments about seizing the town.
3. Local officials are NOT abandoning search and rescue efforts to bulldoze over Chimney Rock.
4. Chimney Rock is NOT being bulldozed over.
Rutherford County emergency services personnel are going to extensive lengths to search for missing people, including in debris by using cadaver dogs to locate any remains of individuals trapped in the debris.
Just as every other community in Western North Carolina, Chimney Rock officials are focused first and foremost on recovery efforts, followed by plans to rebuild in the future.
5. FEMA is NOT stopping trucks or vehicles with donations, confiscating or seizing supplies, or otherwise turning away donations.
FEMA does not conduct vehicle stops or handle road closures with armed guards—all road closures are managed by local law enforcement, who prioritize getting resources to their fellow community members.
6. FEMA has NOT diverted disaster response funding to the border or foreign aid.
Disaster response efforts and individual assistance are funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts.
FEMA’s non-disaster related presence at the border has always been of major concern to me, even before Hurricane Helene, and I will continue to condemn their deployment of personnel to the southern border, but we must separate the two issues.
7. FEMA is NOT going to run out of money.
FEMA officials have repeatedly affirmed that the agency has enough money for immediate response and recovery needs over the next few months.
Secretary Mayorkas’ statement indicating otherwise was an irresponsible attempt to politicize a tragedy for personal gain.
In the coming months, Western North Carolina is going to need more disaster relief funding than is currently available to assist with recovery efforts.
I’m confident that supplemental disaster relief funding, which I am already involved in the process of creating, will be considered in the House once we return to session in mid-November.
8. FEMA cannot seize your property or land.
Applying for disaster assistance does not grant FEMA or the federal government authority or ownership of your property or land.
9. The FAA is NOT restricting access to airspace for Helene rescue and recovery operations.
The FAA or North Carolina Emergency Management will not prohibit anyone from flying resources into Western North Carolina as long as they coordinate their efforts with NC Aviation.
If you are looking to conduct an airdrop of resources but don’t know who to contact for approval, please reach out to my office and we will share that information with you.
10. FEMA is NOT only providing $750 to disaster survivors to support their recovery.
The initial $750 provided to disaster survivors is an immediate type of assistance called Serious Needs Assistance that may be made to individuals in need as soon as they apply for FEMA assistance.
The $750 is an upfront, flexible payment to help cover essential items like food, water, baby formula and medication while FEMA assesses the applicant’s eligibility for additional funds.
This award is just the first step of a longer process to provide financial assistance to disaster survivors in need of federal support.
As an application moves through the review process, individuals are eligible to receive additional forms of assistance for other needs such as temporary housing, personal property and home repair costs, etc.
I encourage you to remember that everything you see on Facebook, X, or any other social media platform is not always fact. Please make sure you are fact checking what you read online with a reputable source.
With my warmest regards,
Chuck Edwards
Member of Congress
+ Before Florida went MAGA, hurricanes that hit Florida were God’s punishment for the sodomy Pat Robertson believed was rampant in Miami…
+ Exxon knew better in 1990, according to its own internal memos…
+ Biden to FEMA Director Deanne Criswell: “Deanne, you’re doing a helluva job.” As our friend Jesse Walker said, “Saying this to a FEMA director is like taunting the gods.”
+ Feeling a little schadenfreude, Michael Brown?
+ Floridian Jeff VanderMeer, author of Annihilation, which was set in St Marks National Wildlife Refuge: “Very little has been learned or implemented since Hurricane Ian, which I co-wrote about for The Nation at the time. With Milton potentially hitting the same area. FL gov needs to get its act together, beyond just getting better about evacuation orders. Florida politicians have failed us while dismantling regulations and pandering to developers. This has made all of us less safe. You simply CANNOT build in parts of Florida without severe repercussions, but the legislature and developers have done so anyway…I want to emphasize this: Florida was more prepared for hurricanes fifteen years ago with much better regulation and land use ordinances than today. Developers have left us much more vulnerable by building in places they shouldn’t have, aided and abetted by Republican governors.”
+ Tim Barker: “My parents live in the Tampa Bay area. I am glad they are allowed to evacuate to safety. I am furious at my own government for denying this right to people in Gaza, which thanks to the US and Israel has become “a mass death trap” (per NYT). The moral stain will be indelible.”
+ As Hurricane Milton raged across the Gulf, Bobby Lindamood, mayor of Colleyville, Texas, suggested nuking the hurricane to “stop its rotation.”
+++
+ Oceanographer Stefan Rahmstorf on the coming collapse of the Atlantic Ocean circulation currents: “So my risk assessment has really changed. I am now very concerned that we may push Amoc over this tipping point in the next decades. If you ask me my gut feeling, I would say the risk that we cross the tipping point this century is about 50/50.”
+ A new study in Nature reveals that climate change was a key driver behind the extreme #drought in Europe in 2022. The paper reports that human-induced global warming contributed to 31% of the intensity, with 14–41% of such contribution due to warming-driven soil drying that occurred before 2022.
+ Gavin Schmidt, NASA’s top climate scientist, said, “We are going to get to 1.5 degrees a little faster than we anticipated even four years ago. I think this year it’s about 50-50 whether we will reach 1.5 degrees in the [NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies] temperature record.”
Flooding in Roswell, NM. Image: Still from a video on X.
+ On the historic rain event in Roswell, New Mexico, on Sunday: A total of 5.78″ of rain, making it Roswell’s wettest day ever. This is 1/2 their average yearly rain (11.63″). 2.70″ was recorded in one hour between 8 and 9 PM, more than the average for October, November, and December (2.34”).
+ Electric Vehicle Growth Rates for 2024
China: +32%
USA: +9%
Europe: +2% (dragged down by Germany)
Germany: -16% (following the end of an incentive program)
Japan: -12%
+ China buys more EVs than all other markets combined.
+ Development Reimagined estimates that China could install “more than 224GW of clean energy in Africa by 2030, meaning its participation in Africa’s energy transition will be crucial for the continent to meet its target of 300GW by 2030.”
+ An analysis in Nature: Communications Earth & Environment finds that global sea-level rise has doubled in the last 30 years: “Global mean sea level rise amounted to 4.5 mm per year as a result of #warming oceans and melting land ice, more than twice the rate of 2.1 mm/year observed at the start of satellite data in 1993.”
+ Since 2001, forest fires have shifted north and grown more intense. According to a new study in Science, global CO2 emissions from forest fires have increased by 60% in the last two decades.
+ The world’s natural carbon sinks are beginning to fail: “In 2023, the hottest year ever recorded, preliminary findings by an international team show the amount of carbon absorbed by land has temporarily collapsed. The final result was that forest, plants and soil–as a net category–absorbed almost no carbon.”
+ The institution of flat-rate train tickets reduced Germany’s transportation emissions by five percent in their first year of use.
+ An analysis by First Street reveals that financial losses from hurricanes are rising mainly because Americans continue to build in high-risk zones and floodplains, especially in Florida: “Nationally, 290,000 new properties were built in high-risk flood areas from 2019 through 2023, almost one in five of the 1.6 million built in total during that period.”
+ It now requires about 1/8th as much silicon to make a single solar panel as 20 years ago.
+ Over the last 50 years, global wildlife populations have fallen by nearly three-quarters. The sharpest declines have occurred in the Caribbean and Latin America, where wildlife populations have collapsed by as much as 95 percent since 1974.
+ About 77% of the world’s coral reef area has experienced “bleaching-level heat stress” between Jan. 1, 2023, and Oct. 10 of this year.
+ According to the Financial Times, “Over the past five years, renewable energy generation has grown at a compound annual rate of 23 percent in the global south, versus 11 percent in the world’s richest economies.”
+ A study in Science concludes that human-driven extinctions of hundreds of bird species over the past 130,000 years have “significantly reduced avian functional diversity and led to the loss of around 3 billion years of unique evolutionary history.”
November
+ Valencia, Spain experienced 491.2 mm of rain in 8 hours.The average annual precipitation is less than 454 mm. The floods have killed more than 158 people with nearly 2000 still missing.
2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record, with temperatures above the 1.5C warming threshold.
+ Carbon dioxide concentration has increased by more than 10% in just two decades, reports the World Meteorological Organization…
According to Oxfam, around $41 billion in World Bank climate finance —nearly 40 percent of all climate funds disbursed by the Bank over the past seven years— is unaccounted for.
+ In a span of only two decades, India lost one-fifth of its native wildlife species.
+ Amazon is funding the construction of four nuclear reactors along the Columbia River to power its AI data processing plants. They never asked us if we wanted AI, never mind the nuclear reactors needed to power it…
+++
The Earth endured its second warmest October in the last 175 years and is on its way to its warmest year on record.
+ Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, which is hosting the latest global climate conference (CO29), called reports of his country’s soaring carbon emissions “fake news” and said that nations should not be blamed for developing and using fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas, which Aliyev said were “God’s gifts.” At least Aliyev showed up, unlike some of the leaders of the world’s biggest emitters, including Biden, Macron and Modi.
+ Mark this ignominious distinction down on the Biden-Harris legacy: Despite the lofty pledges by Western nations at COP28 last year, global carbon emissions have hit new highs, and there is no sign of a transition away from fossil fuels.
+ According to a new study in Nature, the emissions from private flights by rich people increased by 46% between 2019 and 2023: 70% of these flights came from the US, and half were shorter than 500 kilometers–in other words, the Democrats’ new base…
+++
Biden in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo: White House.
+ When Biden showed up in Amazonia this week bragging about how he’d proved that you could maximize oil production and still protect the environment, his message was somewhat undermined by the fact that he looked like the leader of a Central American death squad, who had been trained in techniques of mass-killing at the School of the Americas…
+ Life expectancy in Delhi is almost 12 years shorter on average than it would be if the air quality met WHO standards: “In several areas of the city, pollution levels were more than 50 times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended safe limit.”
+ Carbon Brief has put together an interactive summary of 750 extreme weather events, documenting the probable contribution of global warming. Finding: “74% were made more likely or severe because of climate change.”
+ According to the latest USDA survey, over 30% of California’s dairy herds are confirmed to be infected with H5N1 avian influenza. This situation is going to get much worse. Over to you, RFK, Jr.: An analysis of the avian flu virus taken from a hospitalized teenager in Vancouver, Canada, shows mutations that could help the virus spread more easily in humans.
+ The Biden administration has retreated from its previous position that a UN treaty should cap global plastic production. Environmental groups have characterized the reversal as “absolutely devastating.”
+ Indonesia, one of the planet’s most rapacious coal consumers, vowed this week to retire all of its currently operating coal plants within the next 15 years.
+ Poll of Canadians on climate change…
“Global warming is…”
Fact/caused by humans: 61%
Fact/caused by nature: 25%
Not real: 10%
December
+ November 2024 was the second warmest November on record in the Copernicus ERA5 dataset, at 1.62C above preindustrial levels. It was second only to November 2023, which was 1.75C above preindustrial.
+ A new study reported in Oceanographic Magazine suggests that plankton may not survive global warming. The effects on the oceans’ biotic life are described as “devasting.”
+ Once an infrequent event, there is now an open water passage in the Arctic Ocean for nearly 40 days a year.
+ The small North Carolina town of Carrboro (pop. 21,103) has launched the nation’s first-ever climate accountability lawsuit against an electric utility. The suit alleges that Duke Energy has run a decades-long ‘deception campaign’ about fossil fuels.
+ Brazil has become the sixth nation in the World to surpass the 50 GW mark in solar energy production. Solar now provides 20% of Brazil’s electricity. This year alone, 189 solar energy plants were built.
+ Instead of setting aside more acreage for threatened wildlife in advance of the rapacious team that will soon be running the Interior Department, Biden’s Secretary of the Interior, Deb Halland, announced last week she’s cutting the critical habitat protection for the imperiled Canada Lynx by more than 88 percent in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Mike Garrity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies: “It appears that the FWS’ strategy is to cause lynx to go extinct in the lower 48 states so they no longer have to pretend to protect habitat for lynx.”
+ There are now more than 280 million electric bikes and mopeds, which are reducing carbon emissions and the demand for oil by more than all other electric vehicles combined.
+++
+ A new assessment published in Environmental Research estimates that all regions on the planet will hit the 1.5 °C warning threshold by 2040 or earlier and that 31 out of 34 regions will reach the 2.0 °C threshold by 2040. For 3.0 °C, 26 out of 34 regions are predicted to reach the threshold by 2060.
+ Once one of the planet’s top carbon sinks, the Arctic is becoming a carbon emitter as its permafrost melts.
+ According to a new study published in Science, warming ocean waters killed about half of the common murres off Alaska’s coast (more than four million birds) and have shown no signs of recovery.
+ Carbon markets don’t work to reduce carbon emissions. That’s the damning conclusion of a new report published in Nature. Even so, the World Bank, US Treasury, IMF and the UN keep pushing them as a decarbonizing solution for the Global South.
+ The first ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean may arrive before 2030.
+ According to a new report from the UN, more than three-quarters (77.6%) of Earth’s surface has become permanently drier in the last 30 years.
+ The nine largest wildfires in California’s history have occurred since 2017, including three of the five deadliest.
+ Big Tech’s AI boom is generating a natural gas infrastructure boom. Scott Strazik, the CEO of GE Vernova, maker of gas turbines, told investors: ” “They’re not building those data centers with an assumption for anything other than 24/7 power. Gas is well suited for that…I can’t think of a time that the gas business has had more fun than they’re having right now.”
+ Meanwhile, Alberta is trying to lure tech companies to build huge, power-hungry AI data centers in the province and run them on natural gas instead of solar or hydro. This will give the oil and gas industry a fresh market for its planet-killing product.
+ The persistent drought in Brazil has driven the price of Arabica coffee to a record high, topping the peak set in 1977.
+ The journal Nature reported that “On 18 November this year, Delhi’s Air Quality Index soared to 1,700 — far exceeding the safe limit of 50 set by the World Health Organization (WHO). Lahore in Pakistan had recorded a value of 1,100 a few days earlier.”
+ Global oil and gas production has increased by 14% since 2013.
+ A study from U-Mass Amherst found that the US is the top beneficiary of the recent surge in global fossil fuel prices, capturing $301 billion in profit and overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia.
+ Tropical cyclone Cyclone Chido, a Category 4 storm which roared across the French territory of Mayotte off the coast of Mozambique on December 15, flattening entire villages, may have killed TENS of thousands of people.
+ With minimum night temperatures above 31 C (87.8 F) in the Canary Islands and 29.6 (85.3) in Puerto de La Cruz, Tenerife, December 15 was the hottest December night ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere.
+ For Christmas week, Hudson Bay is forecast to be +20°C (68°F) warmer than the 1979-2000 average.
+ Average CO2 level for 2024: 422.5, a new record.
Google data center in The Dalles, Oregon. Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Texas’ electrical grid made national headlines in the winter of 2021 when the state experienced statewide power outages. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s power grid operator, was caught completely off-guard when a winter storm exposed the organization’s lack of severe weather preparedness. Embarrassed, ERCOT developed a roadmap to increase the reliabilityof its energy delivery system.
But guaranteeing a reliable flow of energy from the state’s generating plants to the homes and businesses of Texan residents has proven more difficult than expected. ERCOT recently announced that if a comparable storm were to hit the Lone Star State this winter, there is an 80 percent chance that they would again experience blackouts during peak hours.
Failure to resolve Texas’ power grid bottlenecks is perhaps not entirely ERCOT’s fault. Demand for energy in the state has ballooned in recent years thanks, in part, to the explosion and hype around artificial intelligence.
A significant expansion in the supply of data centers is needed to meet artificial intelligence demand because the systems rely on vast computational power. AI systems are energy hungry — for example, a query using ChatGPT takes ten times the energy of a traditional Google search.
There are approximately 342 data centers currently operating in Texas. Running these systems non-stop, daily, for twenty-four hours, requires a gargantuan amount of electricity. As a result, ERCOT has identified data centers as presenting a potential energy emergency alert risk at night and during early morning hours this winter. Data centers are currently consuming close to 9 percent of the energy produced in Texas and it is putting a significant strain on its power grid.
Texas is a microcosm of the threat artificial intelligence poses to the world — lack of energy security for households, an accelerating climate crisis, and the consolidation of corporate power.
It is estimated that new AI servers that will be sold in 2027 will consume between 85 and 134 terawatt-hours annually. This is comparable to the electricity consumption of 18 million people living in the Netherlands.
Data centers can be the size of multiple football fields, and they are dependent on energy-intensive cooling systems that prevent computer servers from overheating and crashing. Water is an important component for cooling towers and lots of it is needed to bring down the temperature of server equipment.
An analysis conducted by the Washington Post and the University of California, Riverside found that generating a 100-word email with ChatGPT-4 requires the use of at least one water bottle. Multiply this by millions of queries that are inputted each day, and you can get an idea of the scale of the tech sector’s water consumption.
In regions where water is already scarce, the unquenchable thirst of Big Tech hits especially hard. In 2021, a Google-owned data center in The Dalles, Oregon, consumednearly one-third of the town’s water supply even as the community grappled with a prolonged drought. As one frustrated resident aptly put it, “Google has become a water vampire, basically.”
Both Google and Microsoft released reports this year effectively razing to the ground the climate goals they set for themselves by the end of the decade. Targets to reduce CO2 emissions are off track and both companies have blamed their investment in data centers for their increased carbon footprint.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently suggested at an AI summit in Washington DC that while the negative effects artificial intelligence will have on the environment are inevitable, we should continue to invest in AI development because “we are never going to meet our climate goals anyway.” The true AI doom scenario is not a sentient robot uprising but the oncoming environmental catastrophe caused by the expansion of AI infrastructure.
What’s worse is that tech companies are wrecking the planet to push a technology that most consumers do not even want. Aggressive investment in AI has resulted in their needless integration into existing consumer products, like an AI toothbrush or a Coca-Cola AI beverage, often without assessing the actual value added.
A recent study found that consumers were less likely to purchase a good if it contained the descriptor artificial intelligence. It demonstrates that the tech industry has created a frenzy that is less about solving real problems and more about staking a claim in an industry fueled by its own hype.
The demand for AI is largely manufactured by Big Tech itself, not the everyday consumers who bear the brunt of its consequences. Tech companies are not pouring billions of dollars into the industry with the hope of solving the climate crisis or initiating a post-work society, but with the aim of surveilling labor and, of course, increasing their rate of profit. They are plundering finite resources in their pursuit of endless growth.
Energy consumption for the sake of AI is pulling energy resources away from other very important endeavors like the green transition.
“There are ways to improve AI to use less power,” Dan Stanzione, executive director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center, told The Daily Texan. But “decarbonizing the power grid is really the most important thing.”
But this will never occur if we continue to privilege the insatiable energy appetite of Big Tech over the collective need for environmental sustainability.
Yet, there are reasons to be optimistic. Communities are beginning to organize, and they are pushing back against the unchecked expansion of data centers and the drain they incur on local resources.
In Loudoun County, Virginia, officials rejected a data center application due to the strains it will put on the local electric grid. Atlanta’s city council shelved a similar proposal, citing an additional concern over local water supply depletion. In Peculiar, Missouri, public outcry led the city to reverse its decision to allow for the construction of data centers in their community, with one resident capturing the broader sentiment: “Big Tech is preying on small communities all over this country.”
This wave of resistance reflects a growing awareness that unchecked AI expansion comes at a cost to both consumers and the climate. By standing up to Big Tech, these communities are laying the groundwork to resist climate change and corporate greed. They are struggling for a future where people and the planet — not profits — take priority.
On Wednesday, the Montana State Supreme Court ruled to keep intact a lower court’s decision from last year, which found that a law banning state lawmakers from considering greenhouse gas emissions when permitting fossil fuel projects was unconstitutional. The lower court ruling was made in late 2023, after 16 young petitioners sued the state on the grounds that a state law allowing such…
Environmental Protection Agency staffers are demanding that the agency end its partnerships with Israel amid the ongoing siege of Gaza.
Staffers with the EPA and Department of Energy published an open letter Thursday demanding that the EPA end collaboration with Israel on energy and environmental partnerships.
The agency exchanges information with Israel and cooperates with Israel on workshops, research projects, and sharing research personnel. Projects include cleaning up and redeveloping contaminated military sites and sharing water reuse practices with U.S. officials.
“We cannot uphold our oath to serve the public interest while remaining quiet about the devastating humanitarian crisis.”
“The ongoing genocide in Gaza has compelled us to speak truthfully on the hypocrisy of protecting human health and the environment within U.S. borders while our government continues to fund and facilitate the destruction of entire communities and ecosystems overseas,” says the letter, which was shared with The Intercept in advance of its public release. “We cannot uphold our oath to serve the public interest while remaining quiet about the devastating humanitarian crisis that continues to unfold before us.”
Time is also running out for the Biden administration to honor its $50 million grant to the Climate Justice Alliance, a nonprofit coalition that had its funding put on pause after it expressed support for Palestine.
The letter demands that the EPA release the group’s federal funds.
The EPA staffers’ letter comes several weeks after The Intercept reported that the agency had delayed paying out money, earmarked under an Inflation Reduction Act program, after right-wing politicians attacked the Climate Justice Alliance for its stance in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza. (The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.)
The December 6 deadline to disburse the funds to the Climate Justice Alliance has passed. Now, the group is at risk of losing funding when President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
“The funds to CJA are critical for building community resilience against climate change threats, particularly in severely capacity-constrained tribal, remote, and rural areas,” the EPA staffers wrote. “Taking away this funding would leave the people living in these communities vulnerable to potentially disastrous climate disturbances.”
Unfulfilled Climate Promises
Biden took office on one of the most progressive climate platforms in recent history, but has failed to deliver on several promised fast-track climate projects, while at the same time opening federal lands to leases for oil and gas extraction.
The Climate Justice Alliance supports 95 grassroots organizations in rural and urban areas, including groups led by Indigenous, minority, and poor white communities working on climate projects. The group’s work does not focus on Palestine, but it called for a ceasefire in Gaza last year and has publicly linked its work to climate justice issues in Palestine.
Fearing professional retaliation, the EPA and Department of Energy staffers published their letter anonymously on Medium under the banner Federal Environmental Workers for Justice in Palestine.
Progressives in Congress mounted their own efforts to get Biden to release the funds to the Climate Justice Alliance.
On December 4, following The Intercept’s reporting, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., and Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., sent a letter urging Biden to deliver key climate priorities and “swiftly disburse” Inflation Reduction Act money.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also contacted the EPA and pressured the agency to release the funding, according to a person with knowledge of the deliberations.
“Prioritizing environmental justice is not selective,” one EPA staffer who worked on the letter told The Intercept. “The United States needs to advance it everywhere, including indigenous communities at home and abroad, which means demanding an end to the genocide in Palestine with an arms embargo to Israel and fulfilling its funding commitment to the Climate Justice Alliance here at home.”
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Citing a recent ProPublica investigation, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., urged the Environmental Protection Agency in a letter this week to issue a final report on the health risks of formaldehyde that is “science-based” and “as strong as possible,” adding that “the agency has an obligation to protect the public from the chemical.”
Formaldehyde, used for everything from preserving dead bodies to binding wood products and producing plastic, is extremely widespread and causes far more cancer than any toxic air pollutant. ProPublica’s analysis of EPA air pollution data showed that, in every census block in the U.S., the risk of getting cancer from a lifetime of exposure to formaldehyde in outdoor air is higher than the goal the agency has set for public exposure to air pollutants.
The EPA issued a draft of the formaldehyde risk evaluation in March and, after receiving feedback from the public and a committee of experts, is expected to release the final version by the end of the year. The forthcoming evaluation will be used to inform future restrictions the agency puts on the chemical. But the ProPublica investigation found that the draft version of the report used unusual techniques to underestimate the risk posed by formaldehyde.
In one case, the agency determined whether concentrations of formaldehyde in outdoor air posed an “unreasonable risk” — a level that requires the agency to address it — not by measuring them against a health-based standard, but rather by comparing them to the highest level of the chemical measured outdoors in a five-year period. The measurement the agency chose as a reference point was a fluke, ProPublica found, and had not met the quality control standards of the local air monitoring body.
The EPA did not immediately respond to questions from ProPublica about Sen. Blumenthal’s letter and when the agency plans to release its final report.
The EPA is evaluating the health risks of formaldehyde under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the main federal law that governs chemicals. That process typically relies on toxicity estimates calculated by a separate division of the agency. In the case of formaldehyde, the EPA released the final toxicity values in August of this year, decades after it began the process of calculating them. Throughout that time, companies that make and use the chemical — and could lose money if it is restricted — criticised the agency’s numbers and worked to delay their release.
Some industry-affiliated members of the expert committee that reviewed the draft evaluation of formaldehyde this year have continued to find fault with the EPA’s toxicity estimates and have suggested that the agency weaken them in its final report.
In his letter, Blumenthal advised EPA Administrator Michael Regan against taking this route. “Throughout your tenure, EPA has been steadfast in upholding its vital mission of protecting human health and the environment,” he wrote. “I urge you to continue this commitment and issue a final risk evaluation for formaldehyde that is rooted in the best available science.”
This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Sharon Lerner.
Like many roads that cut through Wyoming, the highway into the town of Rawlins is a long, winding one surrounded by rolling hills, barbed wire fences, and cattle ranches. I’d traveled this stretch of Wyoming many times. Once during a dangerous blizzard, another time during a car-rattling thunderstorm, the rain so heavy my windshield wipers couldn’t keep pace with the deluge. The weather might be wild and unpredictable in Wyoming’s outback, but the people are friendly and welcoming as long as you don’t talk politics or mention that you live in a place like California.
One late summer afternoon on a trip at the height of the Covid pandemic, I stopped off in Rawlins for lunch. There wasn’t a mask in sight, never mind any attempt at social distancing. Two men sat in a booth right behind me, one in a dark suit and the other in overalls, who struck me as a bit of an odd couple. Across from them were an older gentleman and his wife, clearly Rawlins locals. They wondered what those two were up to.
“Are you guys here to work on that massive wind farm?” asked the husband, who clearly had spent decades in the sun. He directed his question to the clean-cut guy in the suit with a straight mustache. His truck, shiny and spotless, was visible out the window, a hardhat and clipboard sitting on the dashboard.
“Yes, we’ll be in and out of town for a few years if things go right. There’s a lot of work to be done before it’s in working order. We’re mapping it all out,” the man replied.
“Well, at least we’ll have some clean energy around here,” the old man said, chuckling. “Finally, putting all of this damned wind to work for once!”
I ate my sandwich silently, already uncomfortable being in a restaurant for the first time in months.
“There will sure be a lot of wind energy,” the worker in overalls replied. “But none of it’s for Wyoming.” He added that it would all be directed to California.
“What?!” exclaimed the man as his wife shook her head in frustration. “Commiefornia?! That’s nuts!”
Right-wing hyperbole aside, he had a point: it was pretty crazy. Projected to be the largest wind farm in the country, it would indeed make a bundle of electricity, just not for transmission to any homes in Rawlins. The power produced by that future 600-turbine, 3,000 MW Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind farm, with its $5-billion price tag, won’t, in fact, flow anywhere in Colorado, even though it’s owned by the Denver-based Anschutz Corporation. Instead, its electricity will travel 1,000 miles southwest to exclusively supply residents in Southern California.
The project, 17 years in the making and spanning 1,500 acres, hasn’t sparked a whole lot of opposition despite its mammoth size. This might be because the turbines aren’t located near homes, but on privately owned cattle ranches and federal lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Aside from a few raised eyebrows and that one shocked couple, not many people in Rawlins seemed all that bothered. Then again, Rawlins doesn’t have too many folks to bother (population 8,203).
Wyoming was once this country’s coal-mining capital. Now, with the development of wind farms, it’s becoming a major player in clean energy, part of a significant energy transition aimed at reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.
Even so, Phil Anschutz, whose company is behind the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind farms, didn’t get into the green energy game just to save the climate. “We’re doing it to make money,” admits Anschutz, who got the bulk of his billion-dollar fortune from the oil industry. With California’s mandate to end its reliance on fossil fuels by 2045, he now sees a profitable opportunity, and he’s pulling Wyoming along for the ride.
Since 1988, Wyoming has been the country’s top coal-producing state, but its mining has declined steeply over the past 15 years, as has coal mining more generally in the U.S. where 40% of coal plants are set to be shuttered by 2030. In addition to the closed plants, the downturn in coal output has resulted largely from cheap natural gas prices and the influx of utility-scale renewable energy projects. Wyoming’s coal production peaked in 2008, churning out more than 466 million short tons. Today, its mines produce around 288 million short tons of coal, accounting for 40% of America’s total coal mining and supplying around 25% of its power generation. Coal plants are also responsible for more than 60% of carbon dioxide emissions from the country’s power sector. As far as the climate is concerned, that’s still way too much.
The good news is that the U.S. has witnessed a dramatic drop in daily coal use, down 62% since 2008, and few places have felt coal’s rapid decline more than Wyoming, where a green shift is distinctly afoot. Despite being one of the country’s most conservative states (71% of its voters backed Donald Trump this year), Wyoming is going all in on wind energy. In 2023, wind comprised 21% of Wyoming’s net energy generation, with 3,100 megawatts, or enough energy to power more than 2.5 million homes. That’s up from 9.4% in 2007.
The Winds of Change
On the surface, Wyoming’s transition from coal to wind is laudable and entirely necessary. When it comes to carbon emissions, coal is by far the nastiest of the fossil fuels. If climate chaos is to be mitigated in any way, coal will have to become a thing of the past and wind will provide a far cleaner alternative. Even so, wind energy has faced its fair share of pushback. A major criticism is that wind farms, like the one outside Rawlins, are blights on the landscape. Even if folks in Rawlins aren’t outraged by the huge wind farm on the outskirts of town, not everyone is on board with Wyoming’s wind rush.
“We don’t want to ruin where we live,” says Sue Jones, a Republican commissioner of Carbon County. “We can call it renewable, we can call it green, but green still has a downside. With wind, it’s visual. We don’t want to destroy one environment to save another.”
Energy from the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind farms will also reach California via a 732-mile transmission line known as the “TransWest Express,” which will feed solar and wind energy to parts of Arizona and Nevada as well. To be completed by 2029, the $3-billion line will travel through four states on public and private land and has been subject to approval by property owners, tribes, and state, federal, and local agencies. The TransWest Express passed the final review process in April 2023 and will become the most extensive interstate transmission line built in the U.S. in decades. As one might imagine, the infrastructure and land required to construct the TransWest Express will considerably impact local ecology. As for the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind farm, it might not encroach on residential neighborhoods, but it does risk destroying some of the best natural wildlife habitats in Wyoming.
Transmission towers connecting thick high-voltage power lines will stand 180 feet tall, slicing through prime sage-grouse, elk, and mule deer habitat and Colorado’s largest concentration of low-elevation wildlands. The TransWest Express will pass over rivers and streams, chop through forests, stretch over hills, and bulldoze its way through scenic valleys. Many believe this is just the price that must be paid to combat our warming climate and that the impact of the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre projects, and the TransWest Express will be nothing compared to what unmitigated climate chaos will otherwise reap. Some disagree, however, and wonder if such expansive wind farms are really the best we can come up with in the face of climate change.
“This question puts a fine point on the twin looming disasters that humanity has brought upon the Earth: the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis,” argues Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist and executive director of the Western Watersheds Project, a Hailey, Idaho-based environmental group. “The climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis are of equal importance to humans and every other species with which we share this globe, and it would be foolhardy to ignore either in pursuit of solutions for the other.”
Molver is onto something often overlooked in discussions and debates around our much-needed energy transition: What consequences will these massive renewable energy projects have on biodiversity and the wild creatures that depend on these lands for survival?
Is It Really Clean If It Kills?
Biologists like Mike Lockhart, who worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for more than 30 years, claim that these large wind farms are more than just an eyesore and will negatively affect wildlife in Wyoming. Raptors, eagles, passerines, bats, and various migrating birds frequently collide with the blades, which typically span 165 feet.
“Most of the [Wyoming wind energy] development is just going off like a rocket right now, and we already have eagles that are getting killed by wind turbines — a hell of a lot more than people really understand,” warns Lockhart, a highly respected expert on golden eagles.
In a recent conversation with Dustin Bleizeffer, a writer for WyoFile, Lockhart warned that wind energy development in Wyoming, in particular, is occurring at a higher rate than environmental assessments can keep up with, which means it could be having damning effects on wild animals. Places with consistent winds, as Lockhart explains, also happen to be prime wildlife habitats and most of the big wind farms in Wyoming are being built before we know enough about what their impact could be on bird populations.
In February 2024, FWS updated its permitting process under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, hoping it would help offset some of wind energy’s effects on eagles. The new rules, however, will still allow eagles to die. The new permits for wind turbines won’t even specify the number of eagles allowed to be killed and companies won’t, in fact, be out of compliance even if their wind turbines are responsible for injuring or killing significant numbers of them.
Teton Raptor Center Conservation Director Bryan Bedrosian believes that golden eagle populations in Wyoming are indeed on the decline as such projects only grow and habitats are destroyed — and the boom in wind energy, he adds, isn’t helping matters. “We have some of the best golden eagle populations in Wyoming, but it doesn’t mean the population is not at risk,” he says. “As we increase wind development across the U.S., that risk is increasing.”
It appears that a few politicians in Washington are listening. In October, California Representative Jared Huffman and Pennsylvania Representative Brian Fitzpatrick introduced a bipartisan bill updating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The legislation would authorize penalties of up to $10,000 per violation for harm to birds. Still, congressional staffers tell me it’s unlikely to pass, given the quiet lobbying efforts behind the scenes by a motley crew of oil, gas, and wind energy developers.
The Department of Energy projects that wind will generate an impressive 35% of the country’s electricity generation by 2050. If so, upwards of 5 million birds could be killed by wind turbines every year. In addition to golden eagles, the American Bird Conservancy notes that “Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Golden-winged Warblers, and Kirtland’s Warblers are particularly vulnerable. Wind energy poses special risks to endangered or threatened species such as Whooping Cranes and California Condors, since the loss of even a few individuals can have population-level effects.”
And bird kills aren’t the only problem either. The constant drone of the turbines can also impact migration patterns, and the larger the wind farm, the more habitat is likely to be wrecked. The key to reducing such horrors is to try to locate wind farms as far away from areas used as migratory corridors as possible. But as Lockhart points out, that’s easier said than done, as places with steady winds also tend to be environments that traveling birds utilize.
Even though onshore wind farms kill birds and can disrupt habitats, most scientists believe that wind energy must play a role in the world’s much-needed energy transition. Mark Z. Jacobson, author of No Miracles Needed and director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford University, notes that the minimal carbon emissions in the life-cycle of onshore wind energy are only outmatched by the carbon footprint of rooftop solar. It would be extremely difficult, he points out, to curtail the world’s use of fossil fuels without embracing wind energy.
Scientists are, however, devising novel ways to reduce the collisions that cause such deaths. One method is to paint the blades of the wind turbines black to increase their visibility. A recent study showed that doing so instantly reduces bird fatalities by 70%.
Such possibilities are promising, but shouldn’t wind project creators also do as much as possible to site their energy projects as close to their consumers as they can? Should Wyoming really be supplying California with wind energy when that state already has plenty of windy options — in and around Los Angeles, for example, on thousands of acres of oil and brownfield sites that are quite suitable for wind or solar farms and don’t risk destroying animal habitats by constructing hundreds of miles of power lines?
Wind energy from Wyoming will not finally reach California until the end of the decade. As Phil Anschutz reminds us, it’s all about money, and land in Los Angeles, however battered and bruised, would still be a far cheaper and less destructive way to go than parceling out open space in Wyoming.
Wind Is Still a Resource
In that roadside cafe in Rawlins, the two workers paid their bill and left. I sat there quietly, wondering what that couple made of the revelation that the wind farm nearby wasn’t going to benefit them. Finally, nodding toward the men’s truck as it drove away, I asked, “What do you think of that?”
“Same old, same old,” the guy eventually replied. “Reminds me of the coal industry, the oil industry, you name it. The big city boys come and take our resources and we end up having little to show for it.”
Shortly after lunch, I left Rawlins and made my way two hours north to the Pioneer Wind Farm near the little town of Glenrock that began operating in 2011. I pulled over to get some fresh air and stretch my legs. As I exited the car, I could hear the steady hum of turbines slicing through the air above me and I didn’t have to walk very far before I nearly stepped on a dead hawk in the early stages of decay. I had no way of knowing how the poor critter was killed, but it was hard to imagine that the hulking blade swirling overhead didn’t have something to do with it.
Two days after the election, I left on a research trip to Mississippi and Louisiana. I joined four others from my church in Yarmouth, Maine. Our purpose was to witness and learn about the struggle for civil and environmental rights in a region known as “Cancer Alley.”
This 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi — between Baton Rouge and New Orleans — is home to 150 petrochemical plants, all along the river. It is also home to many working-class people, a majority of them Black.
The first thing you notice are the huge refineries. Tall smokestacks spew toxic chemicals and methane flares light up the sky. The scale of industrialization is hard to imagine — there are miles and miles of factories and chemical plants.
On Monday 16 December, Cumbria Safari Zoo announced its plans to close after stacking up years worth of failures and animal rights abuses. However, all is not quite as it seems:
South Lakes Safari Zoo Closure: A Step Towards a Better Future?
What will happen to the animals they hold captive?
The park, previously known as South Lakes Safari zoo and South Lakes Wild Animal Park, has been drowning in controversy for years. In 2013, a Sumatran Tiger attacked and killed a zoo keeper after a ‘lockable self-closing door’ failed.
Cumbria Zoo Company Limited (CZCL) took over the zoo in 2017, when the previous owner, David Gill (who has since changed his name, to David Rivera) was unsurprisingly refused a license. This followed the deaths of nearly 500 animals in only three years.
The company was formed by the zoo’s previous board of directors and promised major improvements. However, a BBC investigation earlier this year uncovered allegations of avoidable animal deaths, welfare issues, and a bullying culture.
CZCL is also involved in a dispute with the Zoo Investment Company (ZIC). They own the land the zoo operates on, and want control of it.
Taking their problems with them?
Whilst this initially seems like a great move, a bit of digging seems to reveal that it seems to be a relocation, rather than a complete closure.
Plans have been lodged by the operators of South Lakes Safari Zoo to create a wild animal reserve at its Tebay site with exotic non-native species.
New Roots Holding Company Ltd has submitted a planning application to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to create the visitor attraction and wild animal reserve at Brockholes Farm.
“The Applicant intends to cease operations at the Safari Zoo in Dalton and develop a more integrated and smaller scale visitor attraction at Brockholes Farm to align with their priorities, values and vision.
The funniest part of this? All the evidence suggests their ‘values and vision’ are nothing short of animal abuse and controversy – including the theft of two Humboldt Penguins in 2018.
Laura Walton, Campaigns Manager at Freedom for Animals, told the Canary:
The closure of Cumbria Safari Zoo is a monumental victory, not only for Freedom for Animals, but for all the animal protection advocates and organisations who have tirelessly campaigned for this outcome.
For nearly a decade, we have carried out undercover investigations, exposed shocking welfare and safety failures, and relentlessly pushed for action. While this news marks a major step forward, our main concern is, and always has been, for the safety and future of animals held captive at the zoo.
The litany of animal welfare and safety issues documented to have occurred at the zoo under the watch of both past and present management, has shown a concerning and consistent lack of appropriate care. Moving the animals to a different site will not address the core issues of why such failings have taken place over the years.
Therefore, we call on the local authority to ensure the animals relocation to appropriate sanctuaries; where they can finally receive the care and dignity they deserve.
The company’s continued damning litany of failures mean that it should be nowhere near the care of animals ever again. However, the half-arsed closure of the zoo speaks to a bigger problem anyway – the captivity of animals for private profit puts the bottom line above animal welfare, every single time.
The A$140 million aid agreement between Australia and Nauru signed last week is a prime example of the geopolitical tightrope vulnerable Pacific nations are walking in the 21st century.
The deal provides Nauru with direct budgetary support, stable banking services, and policing and security resources. In return, Australia will have the right to veto any pact Nauru might make with other countries — namely China.
The veto terms are similar to the “Falepili Union” between Australia and Tuvalu signed late last year, which granted Tuvaluans access to Australian residency and climate mitigation support, in exchange for security guarantees.
In exchange for investment in military infrastructure development, training and equipment, the US gains unrestricted access to six ports and airports.
Also last week, PNG signed a 10-year, A$600 million deal to fund its own team in Australia’s NRL competition. In return, “PNG will not sign a security deal that could allow Chinese police or military forces to be based in the Pacific nation”.
These arrangements are all emblematic of the geopolitical tussle playing out in the Pacific between China and the US and its allies.
This strategic competition is often framed in mainstream media and political commentary as an extension of “the great game” played by rival powers. From a traditional security perspective, Pacific nations can be depicted as seeking advantage to leverage their own development priorities.
But this assumption that Pacific governments are “diplomatic price setters”, able to play China and the US off against each other, overlooks the very real power imbalances involved.
The risk, as the authors of one recent study argued, is that the “China threat” narrative becomes the justification for “greater Western militarisation and economic dominance”. In other words, Pacific nations become diplomatic price takers.
Defence diplomacy Pacific nations are vulnerable on several fronts: most have a low economic base and many are facing a debt crisis. At the same time, they are on the front line of climate change and rising sea levels.
The costs of recovering from more frequent extreme weather events create a vicious cycle of more debt and greater vulnerability. As was reported at this year’s United Nations COP29 summit, climate financing in the Pacific is mostly in the form of concessional loans.
At the country level, government systems often lack the capacity to manage increasing aid packages, and struggle with the diplomatic engagement and other obligations demanded by the new geopolitical conditions.
In August, Kiribati even closed its borders to diplomats until 2025 to allow the new government “breathing space” to attend to domestic affairs.
In the past, Australia championed governance and institutional support as part of its financial aid. But a lot of development assistance is now skewed towards policing and defence.
Kiribati: threatened by sea level rise, the nation closed its borders to foreign diplomats until 2025. Image: Getty Images/The Conversation
Lack of good faith At the same time, many political parties in Pacific nations operate quite informally and lack comprehensive policy manifestos. Most governments lack a parliamentary subcommittee that scrutinises foreign policy.
The upshot is that foreign policy and security arrangements can be driven by personalities rather than policy priorities, with little scrutiny. Pacific nations are also susceptible to corruption, as highlighted in Transparency International’s 2024 Annual Corruption Report.
Since 2019, my country has become a hotbed for diplomatic tensions and foreign interference, and undue influence.
Similarly, Pacific affairs expert Distinguished Professor Steven Ratuva has argued the Australia–Tuvalu agreement was one-sided and showed a “lack of good faith”.
Behind these developments, of course, lies the evolving AUKUS security pact between Australia, the US and United Kingdom, a response to growing Chinese presence and influence in the “Indo-Pacific” region.
The response from Pacific nations has been diplomatic, perhaps from a sense they cannot “rock the submarine” too much, given their ties to the big powers involved. But former Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Meg Taylor has warned:
Pacific leaders were being sidelined in major geopolitical decisions affecting their region and they need to start raising their voices for the sake of their citizens.
Unless these partnerships are grounded in good faith and genuine sustainable development, the grassroots consequences of geopolitics-as-usual will not change.
BANGKOK – An eight gram “shrew mole” that’s one of the tiniest mammals on earth and a fanged furry hedgehog are among the more than 200 animal and plant species newly discovered in Southeast Asia’s Mekong River region.
The discoveries covering Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand highlight the region’s rich flora and fauna, researchers say, and the importance of conserving it in the face of threats from the wildlife trade and unfettered development such as industrial agriculture, mass tourism and hydropower dams.
Scientific recognition of some of the species is the result of fieldwork in remote locations and analysis including genomic studies while one of the mammals identified had gathered dust in museums for decades until identified by researchers.
The Greater Mekong chapter of World Wide Fund for Nature, or WWF, which collated the 234 discoveries, said they show that the region home to Southeast Asia’s longest river is still a fertile ground for scientific exploration and a global hotspot of species diversity.
“But they also remind us of what we stand to lose if unsustainable development activities continue to disregard the value of nature,” it said in a statement.
“Many species are likely to go extinct before they are even discovered, driven by habitat destruction, diseases spread by human activities, competition with invasive species and the devastating wildlife trade.”
This undated photo released by World Wide Fund for Nature shows a Laos karst dragon lizard camouflaged on a jagged limestone pinnacle. The species is only found on limestone pinnacles 50-70 meters high.
The environmental group added that new species can be the key to discovering life-saving pharmaceuticals and genetic variation that could increase resilience to climate change.
The plants identified included a fern that grows underwater and a delicate leafless orchid only known to exist near one village in northern Vietnam.
This undated photo released by World Wide Fund for Nature shows the recently discovered and critically endangered leafless orchid, Chiloschista quangdangii, that is only found near one village in northern Vietnam.
The diminutive shrew mole, which is just 14 centimeters in length [5.5 inches] including a six centimeter tail, was discovered by scientists at nearly 3,000 meters [9,840 feet] above sea level on Mt. Fansipan in northwestern Vietnam.
It’s a member of the mole family but resembles a shrew with its long snout, thin tail and petite forefeet. Weighing in at eight grams [0.3 ounces], it ranks among the 10 smallest terrestrial mammals, WWF said.
Researchers said the Mt. Fansipan shrew mole is outwardly similar to shrew moles found in the southernmost Himalayas, but has significant genetic variations and differences in bone structure.
Isolation in a mountainous “sky island” is likely the reason it diverged from other shrew mole species, according to WWF’s report.
‘Many more’ may be discovered
In the mountains of northeastern Laos, sonographic analysis of mating calls helped identify a new species of bright grass-green tree frog.
Researchers, who dubbed the amphibian mountain jade, said the male’s distinctive “advertising call” consisting of clicking sounds and a series of notes, each exactly 0.28 seconds in duration, marked it out as a new species. That finding was backed up by morphological and molecular analysis.
“There are likely to be many more undescribed species in the region. The mountains of northern Laos, in particular, are a crucial centre for amphibian diversity with high rates of endemism, but are among the least studied areas in Asia,” the researchers said.
This undated photo released by World Wide Fund for Nature shows Zhangixalus melanoleucus, a medium-sized tree frog discovered living in forest at more than 2,000 meters above sea level on Phou Samsoun mountain in northeastern Laos.
The discovery that Vietnam has a hitherto unknown species of fanged gymnure – furry members of the hedgehog family – partly occurred 8,300 miles away in the bowels of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.
Specimens of the macarong – Vietnamese for vampire – had been in the Smithsonian since the 1960s, “highlighting the potential of mining museums for new species,” said Arlo Hinckley Boned, an expert on tropical East Asian mammals at the Smithsonian.
They were genetically compared to even older specimens held in museums in six countries and dating back to the 1930s.
This undated photo released by World Wide Fund for Nature shows Hylomys macarong, a fanged furry hedgehog species found in Vietnam that was formally described from a specimen in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Boned said identifying a new mammal species that has taken millions of years to evolve is something like the discovery of an unknown Picasso or an important archaeological site.
By chance, Russian and Vietnamese scientists had suspected that a macarong specimen they collected in southern Vietnam in 2009 was a new species.
“We found this distinct species in Vietnam more than 10 years ago, but we took too long to describe it and were too late,” said Alexei Abramov, from the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
WWF said the discoveries recognized in 2023 included 173 plants, 26 reptiles, 17 amphibians, 15 fish and three mammals. It brings the total number of species discovered in the Greater Mekong since the late 1990s to more than 3,600.
This undated photo released by World Wildlife Fund shows a tiny leaf-nosed bat, Hipposideros kingstonae, that is found in southern Thailand, Malaysia and Borneo.
“Although these species were just described by science last year, they have been living in the unique habitats of our region for many millennia,” said Chris Hallam, a wildlife expert at WWF Asia Pacific.
“Each of these species is a critical piece of a functioning, healthy ecosystem and a jewel in the region’s rich natural heritage. And the researchers are equally as precious,” he said.
Edited by Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Stephen Wright for RFA.
BANGKOK – Low lying atoll nations told the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, that sea-level rise will render their islands uninhabitable this century, calling for a definitive opinion that lack of action to reduce carbon emissions is a breach of international law.
The two weeks of hearings which wrap up Friday have been defined by starkly different dueling narratives. One from countries – predominantly rich and industrialized – that have sought to deny or minimize blame for a rising average temperature and higher seas. The other, articulated by poor and vulnerable nations, seeks to apportion responsibility and bring about accountability.
“With the rise in sea level, Tuvalu will likely become uninhabitable long before complete inundation,” said Eselealofa Apinelu, a diplomat from Tuvalu, a coral atoll nation of 10,000 people situated halfway between Australia and Hawaii.
“King tides are increasingly causing year-round inundation as marine water percolates through the porous limestone of our coral atolls,” she told the ICJ on Thursday.
Aerial view of Funafuti, Tuvalu’s most populous island on Sept, 6, 2024.
After lobbying by the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, the U.N. General Assembly last year voted to seek an advisory opinion from the ICJ to clarify the legal obligations of states to combat climate change and the consequences of failing to act.
The opinion, expected next year, would be non-binding but could influence other courts as they consider climate change cases. If the ICJ agrees that international law as a whole applies, it could strengthen the negotiating hand of developing nations at the U.N.’s annual climate talk and for rich nations to cut emissions more rapidly and to provide more financial assistance.
Top polluters such as the United States and China told the court that their obligations were already fulfilled by participation in treaties designed to address human-driven climate change, including the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
They argued that emissions of carbon dioxide, which trap heat in the atmosphere and raise the global temperature, cannot be likened to transboundary pollution such as a contamination of a river that passes through several countries.
Developing nations including Pacific and Caribbean island states say a range of human rights are being violated and international law as a whole applies. Bangladesh warned of the possibility of having to relocate millions of people this century from its low-lying delta.
This undated image shows a seven-hectare land reclamation on the principal island of Tuvalu’s Funafuti atoll following its completion in November 2023.
Tuvalu’s testimony included videos played to the court of 3D simulations of how different extents of sea-level rise would completely engulf its filaments of land during storms or extreme tides.
The Marshall Islands also deployed computer modelled simulations in its testimony to demonstrate the possibility of complete inundation of its crucial fresh water wells by storm surges or high tides.
Though simplifications, the visualizations powerfully drove home the larger point of the risks the atoll nations face.
“It is not too late to prevent these doom scenarios,” Marshall Islands climate envoy Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner told the court.
Both Marshall Islands and Tuvalu have turned to land reclamation but are reliant on donors to fully realize the plans.
The Marshall Islands said it needs about US$9 billion to fortify two of its atolls that have most of its population.
“We need time and finance. We need temperatures to stop rising so we have more time. And we urgently need finance because we just cannot afford the adaptation that is necessary,” Jetnil-Kijiner said.
Donor-funded land reclamation has added about 5% to the area of Tuvalu’s most populated island, Fogafale. The country has said it wants US$1 billion to double Fogafale’s area and raise its elevation by reclaiming 3.6 square kilometers (1.4 square miles) from the lagoon.
Apinelu also linked warmer seas and declining fish populations to the burden of health problems in Tuvalu. Half of Tuvaluans’ calories now come from rice and sugar, she said.
“As things stand, Tuvalu cannot survive the catastrophic impacts of climate change,” Apinelu said.
“Tuvalu asks that you be a part of the solution,” she told the ICJ.
Edited by Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Stephen Wright for RFA.
Bull of the Woods Wilderness, Willamette National Forest, Oregon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
This fall, Wilderness Watch and other wilderness advocates gathered at the feet of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, in the trees and away from computer screens, to reflect on the 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act and talk about where we might go in the years ahead. The conservation movement has excelled at Power Point presentations and Zoom meetings and cranking out 50-page legal briefs, but we’ve become really lousy at gathering around the campfire to tell stories, share food, and build our strength from the ground up. The campout was a welcome opportunity to reconnect.
I was asked to speak about the next 60 years of wilderness protection, which is no simple forecast. It’s hard to envision the next 60 years. Many of us feel that uncertainty in our bones. But it seems that if the future will be aided by anything, it will be storytelling and community—remembering what it is to be a human animal who exists as part of a broader community of life and finding ways to tell that story from the gut. We need the lawsuits and agency comments and the technocratic data and lingo—we have to play that game to hold the line—but we can’t get so wrapped up in those boxes that we forget how to tell the right stories.
We are a world in crisis—in ecological crisis, in climate crisis, in a crisis of community and belonging. If there were ever a time for a radical retelling of how we exist on this planet, it is urgently now. Yet, the loudest voices in this discussion, including many non-profit conservation groups, are becoming increasingly corporate in their operations and thinking, and they end up pushing the same more-of-everything agenda that we see everywhere else. Restraint—the thing that creates space for other species to exist—is not at the forefront of the conversation.
In explaining the need for Wilderness, Howard Zahniser said, “This need is for areas of the earth with- in which we stand without our mechanisms that make us immediate masters over our environment—areas of wild nature in which we sense ourselves to be, which in fact I believe we are, dependent members of an interdependent community of living creatures that together derive their existence from the sun.”
The Wilderness Act, more than anything, codifies restraint and recognizes a natural right for “earth and its community of life [to be] untrammeled by man.” The drafters of the Act were careful in their word choice here.
People often mistake “untrammeled” for “untrampled” or “pristine and untouched,” but that isn’t what this word means. A trammel is a restraint or a shackle, something intentionally used to restrict freedom and to control. To be untrammeled is to be free and unbound, to have autonomy and self-will.
There are no places on this planet that are untouched by humans and uninfluenced by human activity, but that is different than direct, intentional control and domination. The Wilderness Act defines Wilderness “in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape.” The word “untrammeled” is, fundamentally, a check on domination. Rather than the “desired condition” bias so prevalent on other public lands, the Wilderness Act protects natural processes—the intelligence of nature. And it prohibits the industrial tools that have allowed us to decimate unprotected landscapes so quickly—roads, aircraft, motorized and mechanized equipment, structures, installations, and commercial enterprise are all prohibited.
Mountain Goat, Goat Rocks Wilderness Area, Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
But the Wilderness Act protects less than three percent of land in the Lower 48, and it’s no big surprise that those three percent are some of the most secure spaces left for wildlife trying to persist in the middle of overwhelming human activity. Add to the mix booming outdoor recreation and our desire to chase what is left of the wild, and these pockets of protected space really start feeling the squeeze. I was sitting in on a Forest Service discussion about stunning recreation overuse in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. In one ranger district, the Forest Service counted over 100,000 visitors entering just a few trailheads in a one-year period. The Forest Service used helicopters to fly out 8,000 pounds of human waste in 2022 and buried nearly 1,100 piles of exposed human excrement and toilet paper—a 790 percent increase from 10 years prior.
In that discussion, there were various “stakeholders” talking in circles about “user group” interests and “visitor use metrics” and doing more studies when someone from the Tulalip Tribes spoke up and said bluntly, “The animals have nowhere left to go. Where do you want them to go?” Nobody answered that question, but that’s exactly the question we need. Until we address the access needs of other species—across their native territories, which includes rural and populated areas, and into new spaces they may need for adapting to a rapidly changing climate—we should be extremely concerned about further imperiling their delicate space in Wilderness.
We need to unapologetically extend the umbrella of equity to the rest of the natural world—to the pika drying wildflowers for winter, the grizzly foraging cutworm moths on a scree slope, the bighorn mother giving birth in the spring, and the honeybee gathering pollen. Their interests matter, and they have a lot to teach us about what it is to be a human animal beholden to the influences and limits of the world that sustains us.
And as we carry wilderness protection into the future, we should be forging better relationships with other communities telling similar stories. The climate movement has a lot of energy, and at least a portion of that movement isn’t afraid of telling the right stories. We should be building relationships with Indigenous communities who carry deep historical knowledge and thousands of years of connection to place.
Speaking on the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, Jamie Pinkham, a Nez Perce tribal member, said, “For the last 50 years the Wilderness Act has been a platform for us to protect natural laws and nature’s freedom.” And, “our task going forward is to harmonize our constitutions with nature’s instinctive constitutions that are timeless and intelligent with long established roles, processes, and commitments essential for their survival.” Jamie noted that nature’s “constitutions depend on the freedom to remain wild.”
This goal—safeguarding the freedom to remain wild, protecting these timeless natural rights—is the ultimate goal of wilderness protection.
Paradise Park, Mount Hood Wilderness, Oregon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes took the wilderness model and made it better. Using the 1964 Wilderness Act as a template, they designated their Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness. The Tribe outright prohibits commercial outfitting and guiding in the Wilderness and codifies respect for grizzly bears, closing a 10,000-acre area to human use between July 15 and October 1 when grizzly bears are gathering to feed on insects.
Instead of wheeling and dealing compromises to the recreation industry or acting like the livestock industry gets a pass to decimate landscapes forever and always, we should take a note from the Salish Kootenai and treat the 1964 Wilderness Act as a floor rather than a ceiling. I very much appreciate the hurdles such things face in Congress, but I also know that if we never demand it, it will never happen. And if we start telling the right stories, more people will understand why we are demanding it.
Our current undeniable reality is that human activity—with our buildings, highways, fast-moving cars, 4-wheelers, e-bikes, aircraft and drones and satellites, 5G networks, mono-cropping, pesticides and herbicides, urban sprawl, logged out landscapes, and an increasing appetite for adventure sports and outdoor recreation—is overwhelming. Some species persist amid all of this, but many don’t, and we’ve squeezed plants and animals who don’t into increasingly fragmented pockets of land away from this inundation. In this context, it should not be a radical position to hold the line for them and to demand a lot more. And we should do this while simultaneously reassessing—seriously reassessing—how we exist on this planet and what our obligations are to those living alongside us.
We owe the rest of the natural world restraint and deference. We owe it a voice. We owe it space. We certainly owe it three percent. Rather than squeezing out that last percent, killing it with the same stories of entitlement and business as usual, our goal for the next 60 years is to unapologetically defend these endangered landscapes and pull them closer, to start seeing and protecting more of the wild in our own backyards and in ourselves.
Activist/educator Tina Ngata (Ngati Porou) has warned proposed changes to Aotearoa New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi principles would undermine indigenous Māori sovereignty, rights, and protections, and risk corporate exploitation and environmental harm.
Ngata is a member of Koekoeā, a tāngata whenua and tāngata tiriti rōpu which brings accessible information and workshops for select committee submissions for the Treaty Principles Bill.
“[ACT leader and Minister for Regulation] David Seymour is saying, ‘it’s just the principles, not the text, so is it really a big deal?’” Ngata said.
Advocate Tina Ngata (Ngati Porou) . . . “The principles are enshrined in the Treaty of Waitangi Act, which came about in 1975 as a result of that generation undertaking hīkoi and protests calling for our land rights and for the Crown to honour Te Tiriti.” Image: Michelle Mihi Keita Tibble
“The Crown commitments are framed within the principles so, when you affect the principles, it has the same legal effect as redefining the Treaty itself.”
Ngata said the principles were the strongest tool to ensure the Crown as a Treaty partner was including and consulting with Māori.
What are the Treaty principles Seymour hopes to redefine? “The principles are enshrined in the Treaty of Waitangi Act, which came about in 1975 as a result of that generation undertaking hīkoi and protests calling for our land rights and for the Crown to honour Te Tiriti,” Ngata said.
The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 introduced the concept of treaty principles, which were commitments for the Crown to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The act established the Waitangi Tribunal.
The principles were often referred to as the “three P’s” — partnership, participation and protection — but there were others such as tino rangatiratanga, ōritetanga as duty to act reasonably.
Over time the principles became more and more defined, particularly in 1987 in a court case where the Māori Council took the Crown to court for trying to sell Aotearoa’s natural assets and privatise them, which was where the principle of consultation came about.
There are no two versions of the Treaty Ngata said the principleswere put into the act to resolve the conflict between what were believed to be two versions that were equally valid but conflicted — often known as the English version, which only 39 Māori signed, and the Māori version, which between 530 and 540 signed.
She said the idea of two versions had a flawed premise.
The Treaty of Waitangi drafted by Captain William Hobson was supposedly translated into Te Tiriti o Waitangi but Ngata said it didn’t qualify as a translation as the two were radically different.
“Even our Māori activists in 1975 were calling the English text the ‘Treaty of fraud’. They were very clear that there was only one valid treaty,” Ngata said.
By valid she means valid by definition where a treaty is an agreement signed between two sovereign nations, and she said the only definition that applied to was Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Incremental journey towards treaty justice Ngata said the principles themselves did not represent Treaty justice but were reflective of the time.
In 1989 Ngāti Whātua leader and respected scholar Sir Hugh Kawharu translated the te reo Māori document into English. She said even that translation was caught up in the time because it said Te Tiriti gave permission for the Crown to form a government. But more recent research had found Te Tiriti allowed for a limited level of governance and not a government.
Ngata described the principles as the strongest tool to ensure the Crown as Treaty partner was upholding its commitments but, even with those principles, there were consistent breaches.
“Even though [the principles] are not truly justice, Māori have taken them and used them to protect ourselves, protect our families, protect our mokopuna rights,” Ngata said.
“Often many times to protect Aotearoa’s natural resources from corporate exploitation.”
She said that point was important to remember, that the principles had been a road block. Arguably, the drive to replace those principles was to make it easier for corporate exploitation.
Overall, the Treaty Principles Bill was taking New Zealand back before 1975 and in reverse from that journey towards treaty justice, Ngata said
The principles in the new bill The Treaty Principles Bill dumps the old principles and introduces three new ones. The proposed principles are below, and Ngata explained the problems in each principle.
Civil government — the government of New Zealand has full power to govern, and Parliament has full power to make laws. They do so in the best interests of everyone, and in accordance with the rule of law and the maintenance of a free and democratic society.
Rights of hapū and iwi Māori — the Crown recognises the rights that hapū and iwi had when they signed the Treaty/te Tiriti. The Crown will respect and protect those rights. Those rights differ from the rights everyone has a reasonable expectation to enjoy only when they are specified in Treaty settlements.
Right to equality — everyone is equal before the law and is entitled to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination. Everyone is entitled to the equal enjoyment of the same fundamental human rights without discrimination.
Māori never ceded sovereignty In 2014, the Waitangi Tribunal found Māori never ceded sovereignty.
Thus the first principle, “the government has full power to govern and Parliament has full power to make laws” negated Māori sovereignty, Ngata said.
In article one, Te Tiriti o Waitangi gave a limited level of governance for the Queen to make laws through a governor but it was not a cessation of sovereignty.
She argued that article three said Māori had the same rights and privileges as those who were British subjects of the Queen.
“If article 1 was a cessation of sovereignty to the Queen over Māori, then why would we need to explicitly say that we then get the same rights and privileges as those who are subjects of the Queen? That would have been inherent within that article.”
Indigenous peoples’ rights to self-determination She said this principle was also not in alignment with how the international community understood human rights.
“The second principle the bill is suggesting is that the Crown will recognise the rights of hapū and iwi but only in so far as they are the same rights as everybody else, unless they are rights that have been enshrined within a settlement act,” Ngata said.
But Ngata said Māori rights did not stem from the Treaty of Waitangi Act, and Māori rights did not stem from Te Tiriti. Instead they were inherent.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognised the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination.
UNDRIP included rights for Indigenous people to freely determine their political status, maintain distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, and participate in decision-making processes that affected them.
“It’s preposterous to say that our rights can only come into effect if they’ve been subject to a Treaty settlement.”
Earlier in the year, Ngata told Te Ao Māori News the government was implementing assimilation policies, which Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term “genocide”, included as part of the broader spectrum of genocide.
One of the examples of assimilation policy was the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority, which was created to ensure better health outcomes for Māori and provide te ao Māori approaches, meaning cultural differences rather than simply based on race.
She said the Crown had a long-standing history of treating Māori unequally: “Colonial governments will only deliver unequal treatment.”
“If you were treating the Treaty with Maori equally, you would not be undertaking this process in the first place.”
The impacts the bill would have Ngata said Māori would be impacted in a “whole ecosystem impact of te ao Māori — across housing, whenua, natural resources, waterways, transport and health”.
She said the bill would impact other marginalised groups and the environment and, therefore, everybody.
She said the bill was being pushed to remove the roadblock to protect the natural environment from corporate exploitation.
It was clear the bill was being driven by multinational corporate interests in accessing natural resources and thus once enacted, there would be environmental degradation.
Ngata said the language and rhetoric David Seymour was using on the topic was reminiscent of and in some cases a direct import of the same rhetoric used to negate treaty rights in Canada and the US.
She cited New Zealand having one of the world’s largest exclusive economic zones (EEZ) (the maritime area a nation has exclusive rights to explore, use and manage natural resources). That zone would be of interest to corporates and, in the past, the Treaty principles had blocked corporations from extracting natural resources.
Ngata said there were international dimensions, and there were parallels with other colonial governments, such as France in Kanaky and Indonesia in West Papua, who “ran roughshod” over Indigenous rights to extract natural resources for profit.
Arizona’s attorney general has sued a Saudi-owned farm operating a massive hay operation in the middle of the Arizona desert, alleging that the business is hastening the loss of the rural community’s rapidly depleting groundwater supply.
The farm owned by Fondomonte uses billions of gallons of groundwater in La Paz County each year to irrigate the desert to grow hay, which it then ships back to the Middle East to feed dairy cows.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes told CIR last year that she was considering suing to stop the damage. On Wednesday, she announced the public nuisance lawsuit. It asks a judge to stop Fondomonte from excessive pumping and require the company to establish an abatement fund, which would cover damages incurred by neighbors such as their wells going dry or their water quality worsening as the groundwater is depleted.
“Arizona law is clear: no company has the right to endanger an entire community’s health and safety for its own gain,” Mayes said in a statement.
Arizona Department of Water Resources director Tom Buschatzke initially said that CIR’s 2015 investigation was making “hay” and overblowing the issue, writing in the Arizona Republic that “there is a sufficient water supply available in this area of La Paz County for at least the next 100 years.”
But domestic wells of neighbors around Fondomonte soon began to go dry. The farm and its neighbors were profiled in the film The Grab, a feature-length documentary about global food and water conflicts, reported and produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting.
In 2017, the well at the Friendship Baptist Church located next to the farm went dry, requiring the pastor to truck in bottled water for baptismals and other events. John Weisser, a rancher near the Saudi farm, told the filmmaking team his well went dry, too, “because the water’s dropping. There’s not enough rain that could replenish it.”
Wayne Wade, who lived in a trailer park near the farm, reported the same problem.
“The water level went below my pump and the pump burned up and melted the casing,” Wade said. “I think everybody knows the problem, but I don’t know how to correct it. I can’t pay for a high-powered lawyer. Neither can any of my friends.”
La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin has been asking for help since news of the Saudi-owned farm first broke nearly ten years ago. Now that the state’s attorney general has stepped in, “I feel that La Paz County finally has someone fighting for us,” Irwin said. “My constituents are experiencing real damages from massive groundwater pumping.”
La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin, who is fighting to conserve groundwater in rural Arizona, talks about water issues with diners at Don’s Historic Cactus Bar & Restaurant in Salome, Ariz., in 2020. Credit: Jonathan Ingalls
Mayes, who was elected in 2022, said that allowing Fondomonte and other mega farms in rural Arizona to pump unlimited amounts of water at no cost beyond the electricity bills they pay to operate the wells has been a failure of the state government.
“Why are we allowing a Saudi owned corporation to stick a straw in the ground and suck so much of our water out and send alfalfa back to Saudi Arabia and not charge them a dime for the water? It is bonkers,” Mayes told Reveal last year. “Water in Arizona is life. Our very survival as a state depends on our doing better when it comes to water.”
“Fondomonte came to Arizona to extract water at an unreasonable and excessive rate because doing so was banned in its home country – another arid desert with limited water,” the lawsuit alleges. “Fondomonte is taking advantage of Arizona’s failure to protect its precious groundwater resource.”
Fondomonte said in a statement that the allegations are “totally unfounded.”
“We will defend any potential action against Fontomonte and our rights vigorously before the competent authorities,” the statement said.
In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, president-elect Donald Trump suggested that he would fast-track and approve nearly any permit request made to the U.S. government if a person or corporation made a $1 billion “investment” in the treasury. “Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits…
Here a few highlights for this year from UN and NGOs sources:
While commemorating the 76th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “human rights are under assault”. “Whether economic, social, civic, cultural or political, when one right is undermined, all rights are undermined,” Guterres said in a post on X. “Let’s protect, defend and uphold all human rights for all people,” he added. In a video message, The UN secretary-general said “we must stand up for all rights — always.”
..As we mark Human Rights Day 2024, we are reminded that human rights are not abstract ideals. They are vital tools for addressing these pressing challenges and advancing dignity and justice for all.
… the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) works to support human rights solutions that strengthen accountability, protect communities and foster peace, recovery, and stability. This includes partnering with National Human Rights Institutions, which often represent the frontline defenders of human rights. … Local initiatives also remain key. That includes women in Somalia who are being supported to lead peace efforts including assisting those facing violence, discrimination, and injustice. “I have resolved numerous local disputes…I feel motivated when I see I have been able to change people’s lives positively,” says Fatuma who led a local Peace Working Group.
As the accelerating climate emergency threatens the ability of current and future generations to enjoy their right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, UNDP is focusing on access to justice, working with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and OHCHR to help communities claim their rights. …The private sector also has a pivotal role to play. UNDP supports the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights including to advance sustainable practices that protect the environment. Indeed, technology offers both risks and opportunities to advance human rights. The Global Digital Compact aims to create an inclusive, open, safe, and secure digital space that respects, protects and promotes human rights. Tech-enabled UNDP tools like iVerify and eMonitor+ deployed in over 25 countries to monitor and address false narratives and hate speech show the potential. It is now crucial to adopt a rights-based approach to technologies like A.I., addressing ethical challenges, protecting data, and tackling biases to mitigate risks today and unlock immense benefits for the generations to come. [https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2024/09/27/united-nations-adopts-ground-breaking-pact-for-the-future-to-transform-global-governance/]
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The NGO Index on Censorship spotlights four people standing up for human rights around the world:
Despite the declaration, all around the world human rights are being challenged, degraded and attacked. That is why this year, on Human Rights Day, we pay tribute to five human rights defenders who have worked tirelessly to defend people’s rights and have been persecuted as a result.
Jemimah Steinfeld, CEO at Index on Censorship said: “In this increasingly polarised and authoritarian world these people stand out as beacons of hope and light. It’s depressing to think that over 75 years since the Declaration, we still need a day like this but that should not detract from the bravery and fortitude of these people. May their example show us all how we can all better fight injustice.”
Marfa Rabkova (Belarus) Marfa Rabkova is a human rights defender who has been behind bars since 17 September 2020. She has long been targeted by the Belarusian authorities as a result of her civic activism. Marfa became head of the volunteer service at the Human Rights Centre Viasna in 2019. During the 2020 presidential election, she joined the “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” campaign, which registered over 1,500 election observers. When peaceful protests began to take place after the election, she helped document evidence of torture and violence against demonstrators. Marfa was indicted on a long list of charges, including inciting social hostility to the government and leading a criminal organisation. She was sentenced to 14 years and 9 months in prison in September 2022, after nearly two years of pre-trial detention. Index on Censorship calls for her immediate and unconditional release. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/03/22/belarus-end-reprisals-against-human-rights-defenders/
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