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The new economy of the Amazon Channel Comment brendan 5th May 2026 Teaser Media

Joint letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney on the urgency of the now-overdue Alberta-federal MOU on climate and energy policies, signed by the leaders of six leading climate and clean energy expert groups.Key facts on the Iran war and the energy...

The gleaming electric motors rolling off the production line at a factory in northeastern England offer an answer to one of the energy transition’s thorniest challenges.

The Advanced Electric Machines (AEM) plant outside Newcastle is at the forefront of building a new generation of motors made without rare earths, a group of 17 nearly indistinguishable metals used to manufacture most of the high-performance permanent magnets that power electric vehicles.

CEO James Widmer, a former aerospace engineer who founded the company in 2017, compares heavy reliance on rare earths in EV motors to the ill-fated decision to add lead to gasoline to resolve a technical issue.

“Putting rare earths in motors is the same thing,” Widmer told Climate Home News in a video call from his office. “You don’t need it, but somebody did it because it was easy.”

Widmer’s firm is among a handful of startup companies working with researchers to eliminate the need for rare earths in magnets and motors – offering a pathway to ease pressure on new mining and refining for one of the world’s most concentrated value chains.

Unease over China’s grip on supplies

As countries strive to reduce their climate-warming emissions by switching to electric transportation, demand for rare earths is soaring. That is increasing pressure for mining new resources and raising concerns about China’s supply chain domination.

China controls more than 90% of global rare earth separation and refining capacity and makes nearly all of the world’s permanent magnets – one of the building blocks of advanced technologies from EV motors and wind turbines vital to the energy transition to microchips, AI data centres and fighter jets. 

An employee assembling a motor at AEM’s factory outside Newcastle (Photo: Advanced Electric Machines)

Beijing spooked Western governments last year when it announced new export restrictions on supplies of rare earths and technological know-how in response to US tariffs on imports of Chinese goods. Automakers were left facing shortages. 

While some of Beijing’s retaliatory curbs were suspended within months, China’s willingness to use its industrial clout over technological chokepoints to advance its geopolitical objectives has injected momentum into the efforts of companies such as AEM to find alternatives to rare earths.

“The best way to avoid the problems with these materials…isn’t to drill, baby, drill. The best way is just not to use them in the first place,” said Widmer. 

Cutting that dependency would help shrink the environmental footprint of EV motors by keeping costly-to-extract rare earths in the ground, Widmer said.

Rare earth-free motors?

The auto industry had already been manufacturing electric motors using rare earth magnets for 20 years when Widmer set up AEM after conducting PhD research at the University of Newcastle.

Toyota’s Prius model, which is widely recognised as the first mass-produced hybrid passenger car, was launched in 1997 and used rare earth magnets in its motor.

About 80% of modern EV drivetrains now rely on high-performance rare earth permanent magnets to convert electricity into torque, according to a 2024 study, fuelling demand for the metals as EV adoption gains traction across the world, from Europe to South Asia.

Rapid electrification has doubled demand for magnet rare earths since 2015 and it is projected to increase by another 30% by 2030, according to the International Energy  Agency (IEA). It recently put the cost of adequately diversifying the supply chain at $60 billion over the next decade.

Demand for EVs and concerns over oil dependence have rocketed back onto the political agenda after the Iran war sparked unprecedented disruptions to global oil markets, reigniting simmering debates about supply chain sovereignty for energy.

James Widmer CEO of AEM, at the company’s factory outside Newcastle (Photo: Advanced Electric Machines)

Contrary to their name, rare earths are found nearly everywhere on the planet in small quantities. However, larger, economically viable deposits are difficult to find and costly to extract.

On top of the expense, getting rare earths out of the ground is energy-intensive and generates toxic waste and sometimes radioactive by-products. This has led to large-scale environmental damage in China and Myanmar, where unregulated mines have become a major source of rare earth elements and are driving environmental destruction and violence, according to NGOs.

Lighter, greener, less risky

Instead of rare earth magnets, AEM’s motors rely on electrical steel laminations – thin stacked sheets of specialised metal – that create a magnetic field when powered.

The company says its electric motors are more energy-efficient and, in some configurations, more power-dense than traditional rare earth motors and reduce the emissions and polluting waste associated with permanent magnet motor manufacturing processes. 

“And we’ve gotten rid of this enormous liability in the supply chain at the same time,” Widmer said.

• Mar 6, 2026 Clean Energy Frontier South African rare earths project aims to rival Chinese with low-cost model The EU-backed Zandkopsdrift project plans to offset the high cost of rare earths production with another mineral in hot demand for use in batteries Read more
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The company, which manufactures electric motors for passenger cars and trucks as well as for the agricultural and aerospace sectors, expects demand for its technology to grow as buyers become increasingly aware of the risks of supply chain disruption and the environmental harm caused by rare earth mining.

AEM’s motors are already being used in commercial vehicles, for example in truck axles in the Netherlands, and the company aims to expand into new regions through a joint venture with Indian manufacturing firm Sterling Tools, a company spokesperson said.

An employee working on a AEM rare earth-free motor in the company’s factory outside Newcastle (Photo: Advanced Electric Machines) ‘Reinventing the wheel’

Some 8,000 kilometres from AEM’s factory floor, a group of Silicon Valley engineers has been inundated with enquiries since Beijing announced its export restrictions on technologies to mine and smelt rare earths, magnet production and recycling. 

As manufacturers worried about shortages, the rare earths supply chain bottleneck became a board-level conversation and executives started scouting for alternatives, said Ankit Somani, a former Google engineer and the co-founder of Conifer.

“Every startup needs an unfair advantage – and that was ours,” he told Climate Home News, adding that the challenge is now to keep up with demand. 

The San Francisco-based startup’s technology removes rare earths from electric scooters and small delivery vehicles by placing the motor directly inside the wheel hub, an innovation it describes as “literally reinventing the wheel”. 

Co-founders Ankit Somani and Yateendra Deshpande speaking at Conifer’s research and development facility in Sunnyvale, California (Photo: Conifer)

To transfer power inside vehicles, the company uses a refined form of iron oxide – the same basic compound as rust – known as a ferrite magnet. 

Somani said the technology reduces the costs of manufacturing electric vehicles by eliminating the need for expensive rare earth supplies. 

Conifer’s first production line already produces 75,000 motor components a year in the city of Pune in western India, the hub of its manufacturing operations, where electric two- and three-wheelers are booming. 

To keep up with demand, the company is planning to open a 250,000-unit capacity facility, Somani said. 

The next generation of magnets

At Minnesota-based Niron Magnetics, which produces permanent magnets using iron nitride instead of rare earths, vice president Tom Grainger said last year’s supply chain disruption had been a wake-up call.

“What was always possible but never quite material – the risk of geopolitical interference in magnet supply chains – became real in 2025,” he told Climate Home News. 

In contrast to magnets that depend on Chinese rare earth supplies, the company’s iron nitride magnets are made from the abundant and inexpensive elements, iron and nitrogen.

Niron estimates that iron nitride magnets could replace roughly two-thirds of the global permanent magnet market.

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Niron Magnetics’ first consumer-facing magnet, used in a professional loudspeaker, was rolled out earlier this year and the firm has already received investment from automotive giants General Motors, Stellantis and parts provider Magna International. 

The company is developing its first full-scale manufacturing plant in Sartell, Minnesota, which aims to produce up to 1,500 tonnes of magnets annually when it opens in 2027, targeting consumer electronics, as well as the automobile sector, data-centre cooling pumps, robotics and drones. 

By Chinese standards, that is a modest start: a typical factory in China can produce between 5,000 and 20,000 tonnes of rare earth magnets, said Grainger. But Niron’s model is designed to be replicated anywhere with basic industrial infrastructure. Unlike rare earth processing, it requires no proximity to a mine or complex chemical permitting. 

“The goal…is a factory that has the scale to deliver in sufficient quantities for large programmes – with the economics that come with scale,” Grainger said. 

The firm is already looking for a second site in the US to build a 10,000-tonne per year facility, equivalent to approximately 1-2% of the global permanent magnet market share, according to the company. 

Governments ramp up support

Anxious to protect their industries from potential supply gaps, Western countries are supporting research into innovative rare earth alternatives.

Jean-Michel Lamarre, a team leader at Canada’s National Research Council, said  the government’s science agency, which has been developing rare earth-free motor technologies, is working on using 3D printing to produce magnets. 

Lamarre said that while removing rare earths from electric motors significantly reduces the costs of materials, making new designs commercially viable remains a challenge. 

Difficulties include scaling up manufacturing capability and responding to rapidly changing market conditions, a spokesperson for Canada’s Department of Natural Resources said.

Conifer’s motor assembly plant in Pune, India (Photo: Conifer)

The US, Canada and the European Union have announced billions in subsidies and financial support to mine and produce more of the materials themselves, as well as funding research on rare earths substitutes. The US government is also investing heavily in American rare earths and magnet producers.  

Recycling rare earth elements from discarded computers, motors and wind turbines also has a role to play in boosting domestic production, said Nicola Morley, a professor of materials physics at the University of Sheffield in the UK, who advises major manufacturers including Siemens and Volkswagen.

Recycling alone has the potential to reduce the need for primary rare earths supplies by up to 35% by 2050, according to the IEA.

Today, around 1% of the rare earths used in end-products is recycled because of technical and economic challenges. But startups are seizing on interest in creating circular supply chains that reduce reliance on China.

Better than rare earths

While recycling may be a relatively quick way for major markets to bolster their supplies of magnet metals, some researchers expect scientists to come up with groundbreaking alternatives to rival rare earths within a matter of years.

At Georgetown University in Washington DC, physicist Kai Liu and his team are working to create new materials for magnet production using a machine that bombards atoms of up to six different metals onto a surface simultaneously – like six games of pool played at once. As they land, the atoms bond into new crystal structures, which Liu’s team tests for magnetic properties. 

Their research has already led to a discovery of magnet materials, Liu said, adding that he is hopeful for further breakthroughs by the scientific community.

“I am cautiously optimistic that within the next five to 10 years, the community might find something comparable or better than rare earths,” he said.

Main image: An employee working on an AEM motor at the company’s factory outside Newcastle (Photo: Advanced Electric Machines)

The post The energy transition has a rare earth problem: These startups are solving it appeared first on Climate Home News.

When Cara Leibowitz, a wheelchair user and disability studies professor in New York City, peered outside her window after one of the East Coast’s many winter snowstorms, she realized she was completely stuck inside.

“I’d look out and I’d be like, ‘Oh, the sidewalk isn’t too bad,’” she said. “And then I’d look at the curb cut, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, never mind. Guess I’m not going outside today.’”

This experience is a common one for disabled people during snowstorms and other severe weather events. Disabled people in cities all over the East Coast suffered this winter due to cities’ lack of planning for how to ensure mobility for disabled people in the aftermath of the snowstorms. 

This was a tough winter; approximately 123 million people faced above-average snow accumulation, the highest amount in five years. This has also been the winter with the most extreme cold in over two decades for large portions of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Disabled people living in East Coast cities faced similar challenges this winter: the snow blocked sidewalks and curb cuts for weeks, preventing residents from accessing necessary medical care, causing increased physical pain, and the emotional loss of social activities. 

These experiences are not just anecdotal. Research has shown that wheelchair users make fewer trips outside per day and travel shorter distances during winter months, with the gap widening sharply on days with snow accumulation. A study conducted after Winter Storm Uri in 2021 found that Texas households with a disabled person had more service disruptions, adverse experiences, and slower recovery after the storm compared to households without any disabled people.

Of course, the snows of winter have long since melted, but advocates say that is never too early for cities to begin preparing for next season to better incorporate accessibility. 

Snow problems

Advocates say snow causes real safety concerns for the many disabled people who are trapped inside.

“It makes me feel like our government officials think or care very little of the independence and safety of people with disabilities because they are knowingly putting us at increased risk,” said Germán Parodi, the co-executive director of The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, which focuses on equity, access, and inclusion of disabled people before, during, and after disasters and emergencies.

“When a disaster happens, like a massive winter storm, it is the government’s responsibility, the city’s responsibility, the local government’s responsibility to provide safety for the people living in that area,” continued Parodi, a wheelchair user in Philadelphia. “Keeping mountains of snow on curb cuts is not only a risk factor for people with disabilities who use mobility aids, but an argument can be made that it is a failure for the whole community.”

In many cities, property owners are legally required to clear snow and ice from the adjacent sidewalks and curb cuts. But just one forgotten stretch of sidewalk can make an entire path unusable for disabled people. More cities could adopt a system like New York’s, where day laborers are paid to shovel sidewalks, but even that program didn’t quickly create clear paths across a wide area of even that most-walkable city. 

Sometimes, the sidewalks were cleared, but the path wasn’t wide enough for wheelchair users to be able to use it. Emma Albert, a wheelchair user and master’s student at Northeastern University in Boston, got stuck in the snow multiple times and had to rely on her friends to free her. Her experiences violate Boston’s snow removal policy, which specifies that property owners must clear at least a 42-inch-wide path within three hours of the snow stopping or otherwise face a fine.

“A lot of the pathways that they paved weren’t wide enough for my wheelchair to get through. I called them ‘Ozempic paths,'” she said. “Obviously a wheelchair can’t fit through this, but also I don’t know how anyone is fitting through this path.”

Physical and social harm

Many disabled people experienced a worsening in their physical condition due to being stuck inside when it snowed.

“Winter is a worse time for me physically in general,” said Kelly Mack, a wheelchair user and writer in Washington. So the aquatic therapy followed by the whirlpool are things that help me maintain my strength, and I definitely lost strength and I was having worse chronic pain.”

Bri Arce, a student in Philadelphia with multiple disabilities, has occasional chronic pain that can interfere with her walking. The snow made her pain worse as well.

“I’m already in pain, I can barely keep my balance. The last thing I needed was to be trudging through thick piles of snow and darn near slipping on ice every two seconds, so it just made the journey a lot harder,” she said.

Snow doesn’t only harm people with mobility disabilities; it also gets in the way of people with visual disabilities.

Kenia Flores, a policy advocate in Washington who is blind and uses a white cane, said the snow made it difficult for her to navigate. At times, Flores had to rely on others to help guide her while she walked, even though she is usually fully independent. 

“I feel very confident using my cane, but what’s like kind of scary is even if you feel a clear path, you don’t know what awaits you on the other side if there’s more ice or more snow,” she said.

The winter weather has also caused social isolation, as Albert of Boston explained. 

“It’s definitely been really frustrating in terms of having to say no to plans that I wanted to go to or trying to go to plans that I was excited about and then realizing that I wouldn’t be able to get there,” Albert said.  

Planning for the future

There are some resources available to disabled people during snowstorms. The Partnership runs a Disability and Disaster Hotline that provides information, referrals, and other resources to disabled people seeking urgent disaster-related needs. Parodi said 13 percent of the calls they received in 2026 have been related to snow, such as inquiries about disruptions to basic needs and services, damage to property not fully covered by insurance, and problems getting food and other supplies. 

Much of the work to clear snow after severe storms falls on individual cities, but this is clearly a systemic issue, according to Parodi, due to a lack of national leadership focused on accessibility in emergency management. He said it is unclear who is currently leading the Disability and Integration Division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Additionally, because the partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown includes FEMA, the agency was operating at reduced capacity for much of the winter.

Advocates mainly want cities to listen to the voices of disabled residents, perhaps, as Parodi has called for, by creating committees focused on the needs of disabled people during disasters.

“Those spaces need to be accessible, physically, communication, programmatically, and compensation needs to be built in for the time and expertise that members of these community will be contributing and spending to properly identify your localities’ issues, gaps, and opportunities in disasters,” he said. “So there is no one blanket answer, but bring your community.”

• As funding for transit from the Biden administration dries up, Americans who live in food deserts and can’t afford cars increasingly have problems accessing groceries, with some paying money they don’t have for delivery service because they have no other option. (The Guardian)
• Unless wages, safety and scheduling flexibility improve, the shortage of workers at transit agencies is likely to worsen, according to the American Public Transportation Association. (Smart Cities Dive)
• This list of cities with the most frustrating commutes doesn’t include a lot of surprises. (The Hill)
• Amtrak is considering making it easier to carry guns onboard trains, even though that’s how the man accused of trying to assassinate President Trump last month traveled to Washington, D.C. (Baltimore Banner)
• An NYU study found that a significant proportion of shared bike and scooter trips replace car trips, but those networks do not reach far enough into low-income neighborhoods.
• Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is introducing legislation that differentiates between e-bikes/scooters and faster, more dangerous types of two-wheeled transportation like motorcycles, which the administration said would protect pedestrians while keeping the safety focus on trucks and SUVs. (Streetsblog MASS)
• California is going to start citing driverless vehicles for violating traffic laws. If a Waymo breaks the law, the company gets the ticket. (CNET)
• Amtrak is discontinuing a route between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City after those respective states failed to include funding in their budgets. As a result, a proposal to extend the line to Kansas is probably kaput. (KERA)
• According to Greater Greater Washington‘s analysis of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s long-suppressed congestion pricing study, drivers would benefit the most from the policy because of the time they’d save as a result of would reduce congestion.
• Pittsburgh is seeking input from residents on their perception of mobility and transportation safety. (WPXI)
• After a month-long education campaign, Richmond is now ticketing drivers who park in bike lanes. (12 On Your Side)
• Urbanist gamers have more choices than Sim City. (Planetizen)

Hoo boy. The stupid and evil, somehow accelerating, burn. America's so-called leader, the "Worst That Has Ever Drawn Breath," manifests ever more cognitive dissonance on steroids. Absurd, addled, vindictive, looming above "a circus of death and chaos," he commits war crimes, guts voting rights, plots devastation, abases decency, murders mercy, yet whines about mean jokes. But as America reels, Banksy, Bruce, Platner and others increasingly declare, "We are not fucking doing this anymore."

Amidst what the head of Amnesty International calls "the year of the predators," humanity itself is under attack, most notably by our ludicrous narcissist and his "casual, bewildering cruelty." Despite his foolishness, Nesrine Malik writes, "This is what evil looks like": See history's portrayals of Hitler - "the startling insignificance of this man who has set the world agog" - and Mussolini, "that funny man, that consummate buffoon." Trump's "farcical puniness," Malik notes, is "a projection onto the world, not of large intent, but of smallness and fear...The consequences of his violence are secondary to the validation that comes from inflicting it (to) erase his terror of humiliation (and) feed his sociopathic appetite for escalation." Thus can deeply silly still equal dangerous.

Daily, the large and small atrocities are both, albeit without the resonance of the label "fascist" only because he lacks the wit, intent and coherence it requires. The war in Iran veers on: "Another day, another pivot. Trump flails." It's won, not, won but not by enough, it's not a war, we made a deal, we don't want a deal, talks are going well, we don't wanna talk, Iran struck a school full of young girls, or if we did it's Obama's fault. Give me ballroom or give me death: The solution to gun violence that kills 12 children a day, wounds 32 more and has affected over 390,000 kids since Columbine - is to build one rich white guy who's never expressed any grief over any of them a gilded bunker of his own. The way to keep more people safe is to kill as many as possible, including by firing squad.

Also, Bill Maher, Hakeem Jeffries, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel are low IQ losers, James Comey tried to kill and "inflict bodily harm on" him with "aggravated beachy seashell pictures," he's so "young, vital, vibrant" he could've joined the Artemis II astronauts easy like he aced his three screening tests for dementia - "A lion, a giraffe, a bear, and a shark. Which one is the bear?" - which the Villages audience def couldn't do, ditto sketchy Harvard Law graduate Hussein Obama. America's response to his musing what we'd do if a con man moron turned up - "How do you get to be president and you're stupid?": "That would suck - we'd probably have unprovoked wars, high gas prices and all our allies would hate us," "He's so close to getting it," "The Irony Meter is dead after spontaneously combusting," and "You're a fucking moron." Also, so grotesquely weird.

Latest bonkers Jesus/doctor post with an umbilical-cord-eating eagle. Nothing to see here.Image from Truth Social

Meanwhile, the Orwellian rules for what you can/can’t see/say keep spooling out, lies sold as half-truths to justify a brazen, racist, whitewashing of both present and past under the shameless moniker of content “inappropriately disparaging Americans past or living,” but always white. Among dozens of changes at our National Parks, gone are signs about the contributions of Native Americans and women, warnings about climate change "not grounded in real science," evidence of Founding Fathers owning slaves and explorers' atrocities against Native tribes. But you do get Trump's loathsome mug plastered on park passes, like on our money, buildings, passports ad nauseum. Happily, fighting back for years have been patriots like the Resistance Rangers, the Alt National Park Service and whatever genius slapped these "Sex Offender" flyers across D.C.'s parks.

Hence incrementally, far too slowly but feeding vital hope and our frayed spirits, the flip side of our grim absurdist timeline begins to emerge as Trump and his monstrous clowns flail, fail, dig their own dank holes. So many horrors should have sparked it -Gaza, ICE, USAID, the boundless greed, cruelty, stupidity. Instead, prices did it, a non-stop, staggering incompetence that saw people being screwed once too often and lied to about one too many senseless wars. Last week, Banksy registered his own anti-imperialist protest in a middle-of-the-night dropping into the heart of ceremonial London a large statue mocking such Blind Patriotism. Mirroring the classical style of surrounding monuments celebrating the British Empire's inglorious colonial past, he presents a suited man, his flag flying into his face, one foot poised to step off into his own demise. Much like, you know.

Banksy's new Blind Nationalism art work amidst London's colonial monumentsImage from Banksy Instagram page

Kicking off his Land of Hope and Dreams American tour several weeks ago, Bruce Springsteen offered his own fiery rebuttal to "a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless and treasonous administration," which drew roars from a huge first night crowd in Minneapolis. Equal parts celebration and call to action, The Boss insisted, "This is still America, and - shades of the Big Lebowski, "this will not stand." Summoning "the righteous power of art, music and rock and roll in dangerous times," he asked the crowd to "join with us in choosing hope over fear, democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unbridled corruption, resistance over complacency, unity over division, and peace over....(lights come up to segue into) "WAR! What is it good for? Absolutely nothin'!" complete with Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello shredding a solo. A righteous, dynamic pair.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

In contrast, standing grotesque and slumped-shouldered in a dingy, empty corner, is the small, mad man-child who spent Monday bellowing to a weary world that Iran will be "blown off the face of the Earth" if it targets U.S. ships in the Strait of Hormuz, which his inane recklessness closed in the first place. Online, in "the most desperate shit" to ever make its demonic way from the White House, a juvenile lackey posted him saying, "Winning it" on a loop for over 60 minutes, which still didn't make it so. The text read, "Can't stop, won't stop." Please fucking do. A horrified America: "This is a real tweet from a real account about a real man who leads a real country." Kyle Kulinski, on "the war criminal of all war criminals" who makes genocidal threats and bleats about insults: “We are not fucking doing this anymore. You don't get to say shit."

Still, one Tom Wellborn says it best in, “A Eulogy for the Worst That Has Ever Drawn Breath,” subtitled “Being a Complete and Unflinching Account of the Most Loathsome Specimen Ever to Consume Resources, Occupy Space, and Insult the Patience of a Universe That Deserved So Much Better." "There are villains, and then there are monsters, and then there are creatures so cosmically, transcendently... terrible that language itself recoils," he begins. "Grammar buckles. Syntax weeps...He is this thing. He is the thing past the thing past the thing. He is the sub-basement of the human condition, the moldy crawlspace beneath that sub-basement, and the writhing centipede beneath that."

"He has no morals. Not a single one. Not even the bad morals that at least imply a moral framework: the corrupt cop who loves his dog, the mob boss who goes to church. No. He exists in a morality vacuum so total that ethicists have proposed naming it after him...A being entirely without moral content. Not evil, because evil requires intention. Simply absent of the entire apparatus...A moral negative space shaped vaguely like a man...He has no empathy....like a raisin...He is incapable of the most basic social theater that even sociopaths manage....He takes without asking. He takes everything without asking. He takes things that aren’t takeable...The principle being: I can....He is stupid in a way that is almost majestic...His stupidity (is) total. Unified....He has been wrong about everything, always, without exception..."

"He is callous the way concrete is callous: not through malice, not through choice, but through an utter material inability to register (another) person’s pain...You could show him the face of grief, and he would wonder aloud if there was parking nearby...He is vicious the way a blunt instrument is vicious: through sheer, undirected force, through the momentum of his own awfulness...He is smelted fury with no purpose, unforged, unbent, uselessly molten....(He is) a statistical outlier so extreme that evolution seems to be embarrassed by him, a glitch in the long project of civilization...And the most horrifying part...He will never know any of this. He will never know what he is." Name it, damn it, take it down. Maine's Graham Platner hopes to help do that. We wish him well.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Boletínes periódicos de TGA Suscribirse Puedes sucribirse en la página página de RiseUp. Última entrega * TEJIENDO ALTERNATIVAS #19: Educación y aprendizaje II (Abril de 2026) Anteriores (en español) * [TEJIENDO ALTERNATIVAS #05] Poder y Democracia * [TEJIENDO ALTERNATIVAS #06] Cambio Climático y Alternativas * TEJIENDO ALTERNATIVAS #07 Para Gustavo Esteva (1936-2022), in memoriam

FIXME Esta página no está completamente traducida, aún. Por favor, contribuye a su traducción. (Elimina este párrafo una vez la traducción esté completa) Cuando los ríos hablan: un tejido narrativo de las vías fluviales de una región Por Talking Wings

FIXME Esta página no está completamente traducida, aún. Por favor, contribuye a su traducción. (Elimina este párrafo una vez la traducción esté completa) Yutsilal Bahlumilal Pluriversidad: Co-creación de alternativas agro-eco-visuales Por Xochitl Leyva Solano y Axel Köhler

FIXME Esta página no está completamente traducida, aún. Por favor, contribuye a su traducción. (Elimina este párrafo una vez la traducción esté completa) Hacia una era postcrecimiento Por Robert Wanalo y Natalie Holmes El Post Growth Institute (PGI) es una organización internacional sin fines de lucro que lidera la transición hacia un mundo en el que las personas, las empresas y la naturaleza prosperen juntas dentro de los límites ecológicos. Trabajamos de manera colaborativa para desarrollar…

FIXME Esta página no está completamente traducida, aún. Por favor, contribuye a su traducción. (Elimina este párrafo una vez la traducción esté completa) TEJIENDO ALTERNATIVAS #07: Una publicación periódica del Tejido Global de Alternativas

Fomentar los vínculos a través de la educación Por Lina Álvarez Villarreal No cabe duda de que estamos atravesando una profunda crisis civilizatoria. Esta crisis se ha manifestado en una multiplicidad de crisis: políticas, económicas, ecológicas y, más recientemente, sanitarias. Creo que el principio motor de esta devastadora situación hay que buscarlo en la ruptura de la relación de las sociedades modernas con la Tierra (entendida como una red viva de relaciones). Esta ruptura se manifiesta e…

This article was written by Eduardo González‑Sargas, a Colorado State University research scientist and ecologist whose work focuses on river and restoration ecology.For more than a decade...

Energy and economic security can be rapidly reinforced by stopping gas loss. The amount of methane vented and leaked into the air today by the global oil and gas industry is even greater than the total pre-war volume of gas passing through the Strait of Hormuz. When flared gas is added, this overall energy waste is equal to over one-half of worldwide LNG exports.

With energy markets roiling over the loss of 20% of the gas volume traveling through this chokepoint, companies have a responsibility to stop their gas loss on energy security grounds alone. Moreover, given price hikes due to the ongoing conflict, there are immediate economic benefits for selling rather than wasting their gas.

Texas’s oil and gas industry spotlights this massive energy and economic opportunity. Preventing gas venting and flaring in Texas alone could make up the total lost gas volume due to current disruptions in the Persian Gulf. Preventing gas waste and accurately accounting for companies’ self-reported gas loss is not only fair practice, but it also has paybacks for industry and increases resource royalties to the Texas state budget. By keeping gas in the pipe and out of the air, operators can also safeguard people and the planet. As one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers, Texas serves as a case study to investigate and quantify how companies can step up to bolster energy, economic, and climate security by stopping gas loss.

Reducing system inefficiencies bolsters energy security

There are inefficiencies in oil and gas industry operations that lead to gas waste and methane emissions. The industry acknowledges it. Mitigating product loss, which is paramount when energy supplies are constrained, can be prevented by tighter oversight, better operations, and strategic investments.

Gas loss is becoming increasingly visible due to advances in satellites, sensors, and continuous monitoring. Ongoing measurements are creating alignment around a new priority: turning actionable data into operational decisions that improve reliability, reduce costs, offer payback, and increase production efficiency. The barrier is no longer technology, but workflows — ensuring that actionable insights reach engineers and operators in time to drive change.

Over 10,000 plumes have been spotted in Texas alone over the past several years, amounting to some hundreds of tons of wasted methane gas. A recent gas release spewing over three tons of methane was detected on the eastern edge of the Permian Basin in Texas, as shown below. The two leaks detected by Carbon Mapper at this site, which persisted for two days, wasted as much energy as it takes to dry over 300,000 loads of laundry.

Sample methane plume spotted in Texas by satellites Source: Carbon Mapper Data Portal, Accessed April 14, 2026.

Lowering the volume of gas we waste heightens energy security because more gas makes it to market. Conversely, supply shocks trigger fuel shortages, especially in import-dependent nations. And energy insecurity drives up the price of oil and gas, leading to inflation and economic insecurity.

Preventing gas waste produces revenue streams and boosts economic security

Methane is the main component in gas, and is also co-produced with oil. When it’s allowed to escape into the atmosphere, it’s sheer energy and material waste. When kept in the pipe and sold, it’s a valuable commodity. Moreover, when companies minimize their operational inefficiencies, the gains are transformed into economic benefits for communities in the form of increased revenues, royalties, and jobs.

The industry knows its gas value proposition. When prices are high, gas loss drops. It then rises when prices are low, as plotted for the United States below.

On a global scale, the estimated 81 million metric tons of methane that the oil and gas industry squanders annually through venting and leaking its gas has an estimated economic value today of $20 billion to 50 billion a year, depending on highly variable gas prices. (See endnote for assumptions). In terms of overall financial opportunities, the economic loss of wasted gas is twice as great when also accounting for the additional 150 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas that is flared worldwide. Given the high volatility of global gas prices, foregone revenue streams, royalties, and resource rents from wasted gas are a material corporate and national concern.

Stopping methane emissions rapidly improves climate security

Methane is over 80 times more powerful at heating Earth over its decade-long lifetime. In other words, every metric ton of methane that is stopped or avoided dramatically lowers damages wrought by droughts, flash floods, excess heat, firestorms, and other climate-driven disasters. The fastest path to reducing methane emissions is improving oil and gas industry operations to prevent gas loss. The companies that succeed in this quest are those that can keep their gas in the pipe.

Improved measurement, models, and methodologies are enabling the shift from data insights to durable action. For example, Carbon Mapper’s data portal identifies large point source methane-emitting events. This focuses operators’ attention on rapidly fixing their super-emitting assets. Separately, NASA’s Black Marble product analyzes nightlights using the VIIRS satellite to make gas flaring data publicly available. And ClimateTRACE quantifies wide-ranging oil and gas industry methane emissions between countries.

Drilling down in Texas

RMI’s study, Drilling Down on Gas Loss, finds that Texas oil and gas operators’ self-reported gas loss is likely 3–4.5 times higher than what is currently self-reported. This results in energy waste and methane emissions that are highly variable across basins, well types, and production volumes, as mapped below.

For example, in February 2026, Carbon Mapper detected a plume in Big Spring, Texas (illustrated above) that emitted 3.4 tons of methane per hour. Coincidentally, this major gas release is in Howard County, Texas, the same county that RMI’s study identified as highly wasteful. Together, bottom-up and top-down analyses can provide real-world validation of gas loss.

Across Texas, the volume of wasted gas identified in this state alone could yield some 15.6 bcm per year of marketable gas. In 2024, before gas prices recently spiked, over $1 billion in Texas’s gas value was forgone, with associated lost tax revenue of nearly $100 million. Today, this amounts to $1.6 billion in forgone gas value at current Henry Hub gas prices.

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Over half of the gas wasted in Texas is attributed to low-volume oil wells that intentionally vent their gas (predominantly methane) directly into the air. This loss is under operators’ control. Moreover, this intentional waste is frequently disguised through under- or false reporting. Nearly one-half of Texas’s company-operated oil leases reported zero gas produced or zero gas loss during at least one month in 2024. Gas leases more accurately reported their product loss.

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Why industry needs to accurately report and stop gas loss

The sizeable gas loss in Texas alone masks the scale of energy waste from an industry that is largely promoting waste reduction. For example, at CERAWeek 2026 — the largest energy convening in Houston, Texas — numerous companies made clear that the oil and gas industry is ready to treat methane and wasted gas not just as an environmental liability, but as signals of operational inefficiency and lost economic value.

Some operators note that spikes in flaring during production is too common, reinforcing the need for actionable, real-time data to improve operations. Other operators emphasize that methane mitigation is becoming embedded in operational excellence, with reductions made through equipment upgrades. Across international and national oil and gas companies, the message was consistent: better data leads to better operations — reducing downtime, improving process control, and modernizing equipment — which directly translates into lower emissions and economic gains.

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When companies reduce gas waste, they not only make a difference to their bottom lines. The war in the Middle East highlights a devastating reminder that preventing gas loss is also a matter of energy security. All told, some 112 billion cubic meters of gas passes through the Strait of Hormuz annually. Remarkably, this disrupted trade volume that is upending global energy markets is just a fraction of the 280 billion cubic meters of gas that oil and gas companies discard through venting and flaring every year. We have the policy and market tools to prevent gas loss. If acted on, this will win-win-win, significantly bolstering energy, economic, and environmental security.

Acknowledgment: Thank you to Dwayne Purvis (Purvis Energy Advisors) for his lead on the Texas study, Drilling Down on Gas Loss.

Endnotes: These calculations assume (1) a methane content in gas of 74%–85%; (2) methane density of 0.657 kilograms per cubic meter; (3) a heat conversion of 1038 btu per cubic foot; (4) resource pricing of $3.70 per million British Thermal Units (MMbtu) for pipelined natural gas anchored on Henry Hub; (5) $11.33 per 1000 cubic feet for LNG; (6) 2024 Waha Gas Hub and Henry Hub prices of $0.21 to 2.21/MMbtu, respectively; (7) April’s Henry Hub gas spot price is computed as $2.79 per MMbtu for 2026.

The post Stopping Global Gas Loss in Its Tracks appeared first on RMI.

A proposed rule would declassify “chemical recycling” as incineration. We think that’s a bad idea.

“It is not that we have a short time to live,” the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca once wrote, “but that we waste a lot of it.” His point — that we often waste things that hold great value — echoes through the centuries.  

As the closure of the Strait of Hormuz forces governments around the world to enact restrictive policies to stabilize their energy supplies and national economies, it’s a critical time to reflect on wasted energy resources.

Before the war, some 20% of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies was shipped through the Strait. But with blockades and damaged infrastructure largely bottling up that supply, it’s a moment to look at where that supply could be made up if a concerted effort is made to stop gas from escaping systemwide.

The answer? Waste. 

The 112 billion cubic meters of gas lost by the Strait’s closure is dwarfed by the scale of gas wasted by venting and flaring worldwide. The good news is that we have the technological and policy tools available to us today to limit waste and increase our energy and economic security. 

Wasted gas is no longer invisible. More satellites, drones, sensors, and other technologies are being used to reconcile differing methane inventories and identify methane super-emitters. Now we must segue from “how to measure” to “how to act.” Getting actionable insights embedded into system design, planning, operations, and emissions management systems is key. So too are policies that limit leakage and actions that amplify methane mitigation through sound financial investments and smart insurance underwriting.

Were Seneca an energy planner today, he might observe that energy supplies are ample, but only if we know how not to waste them. 

 Read more: Stopping Global Gas Loss in Its Tracks

The post The World Wastes More Gas Each Year Than the Strait of Hormuz Supplies appeared first on RMI.

The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable. — Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi The Mississippi River is a...