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China exported a record amount of solar components and photovoltaic panels last month, signalling that manufacturers are benefiting from stronger demand for clean energy technologies as the Iran war has caused oil and gas prices to soar and threatens supply shortages. 

The world’s second largest economy exported solar panels, cells and wafers capable of generating 68 gigawatts (GW) in March – the equivalent of Spain’s entire solar capacity, according to analysis of data from Chinese customs authority by global energy think-tank Ember. 

March’s volume was more than double exports in February and 49% more than the previous record set in August 2025. Three-quarters of the increase came from exports to Asia and Africa. 

As well as the Middle East conflict, a rush by Chinese manufacturers to export solar modules and cells before an export tax rebate ended on April 1 – adding 9% to solar panel costs – was a major driver of the export spike. 

• Apr 7, 2026 News Q&A: Will subsidy cuts for Chinese clean-tech exports hurt Africa’s solar boom? Renewable energy developer Karl Boyce talks to Climate Home News about China’s VAT rebate cuts and the biggest challenges for Africa’s efforts to boost energy access Read more
• Apr 21, 2026 News Fossil fuel crisis offers chance to speed up energy transition, ministers say As climate diplomacy resumes in Berlin, ministers say the Iran war-driven fuel crisis is exposing the risks of fossil dependence Read more
• Apr 21, 2026 News Solar surge kept fossil electricity flat in 2025 as China and India made ‘historic’ shift Energy think tank Ember said fossil fuel electricity fell slightly in both countries simultaneously for the first time, tipping the global balance Read more

“The volumes exported are absolutely gigantic,” Euan Graham, senior analyst at Ember, told Climate Home News. 

“We will see over the coming months how much of that was linked to the tax rebate and how much of that is additional demand – that might vary by region. But certainly a big part of this is the response to the energy crisis,” he said. 

China ends tax rebate on solar exports 

For Qi Qin, China analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, March’s export surge was most likely driven by the end of the tax rebate, which brought forward demand, with high energy prices bolstering the trend. 

“Policy deadlines can create a sharp one-month jump in export, while by comparison, higher oil and gas prices caused by the war are… more likely to support demand over the medium term rather than explain such a strong spike in one single month,” she told Climate Home News. 

Earlier this year, the Chinese government announced that the solar export tax discount was coming to an end in an effort to prevent trade disputes and cut-throat competition for low-price exports among Chinese manufacturers.

In a note at the time, Trivium China, an analysis firm that specialises in monitoring Chinese government policy, said Beijing had become frustrated with state tax resources being used to subsidise overseas consumers. “The rebate end date is all but certain to trigger one of the largest module production booms in history” to beat the April export price hike, it said.

Solar manufacturing booms outside China

Across the world, 50 countries set records for Chinese solar imports in March, while a further 60 saw the highest import levels in six months. Chinese solar exports to Africa reached 10GW last month, a 176% increase compared with the previous month while exports to Asia doubled to 39GW. 

The increase is partly driven by growing solar manufacturing and assembly capacity outside China, as countries seek to produce more of their own solar capacity as well as export panels to other markets. In October last year, Chinese exports of solar cells and wafers overtook already assembled solar panels. In March alone, Chinese solar panel exports reached 32 GW while cells and wafers exports amounted to 36 GW. 

India, which is rapidly building out a solar manufacturing industry, is increasingly importing wafers from China, which can be manufactured domestically into solar cells and assembled into panels. Chinese solar exports to India were up 141% in March compared to February. 

In Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia all imported over 1GW of solar for the first time in a single month, predominantly in the form of solar cells that are then assembled into panels. Exports to Nigeria, which is seeking to significantly ramp up its solar assembly capacity, rocketed 519% – the largest percentage increase. 

“We’ve eagerly awaited the first signs of how countries around the world are responding to the energy crisis and this is just the first piece of evidence we have. The full effects of it will be revealing themselves for months to come, both in terms of the immediate consumer response and also more structural government policy changes,” said Graham of Ember.

The post China’s solar exports reach “gigantic” record in March as energy crisis bites  appeared first on Climate Home News.

Transportation historian Peter Norton sees a pattern in the promises that autonomous vehicle companies make as they push self-driving cars into cities. Read more on Bloomberg.

By: David Jay, Q2 News The Bridger project is a massive oil pipeline project that would come in from Alberta, Canada, into Montana at Phillips County, then go through nine counties before getting to Wyoming. The Montana Environmental Information Center (MEIC) says the pipeline would originate in Alberta with what it calls environmentally destructive fuel …

The post Proposed Bridger pipeline would bring crude from Canada through Montana to Wyoming appeared first on Montana Environmental Information Center - MEIC.

PENNSYLVANIA (April 22, 2026) –  On Earth Day, when we should be focused on protecting our planet, the Trump and Shapiro administrations announced plans to extend the life of two of the dirtiest coal plants in the Commonwealth: Conemaugh Station in Indiana County and Keystone Station in Armstrong County.

Simply put, the state is extending the lives of old coal plants while cutting short the lives of the people living around them.

Originally slated to cease operations in 2028, these plants will remain open through 2032. They are a significant source of climate pollution, emitting over 5.5 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2023. They also emit tons of air and toxic pollutants like nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and mercury, which puts public health at risk and makes Pennsylvanians sick.

Clean Air Council’s Executive Director Alex Bomstein issued the following statement:

“Governor Shapiro says he is defending Pennsylvanians’ constitutional right to clean air and water, but this decision contradicts that. Key-Con had years to comply with federal wastewater rules, and now the state is extending the lives of aging coal plants while cutting the lives short of people living nearby. Pennsylvania should be accelerating the stable, affordable, renewable energy projects already in the pipeline, not doubling down on coal, more pollution, and more climate chaos to address an electricity crunch driven in part by the data centers Shapiro’s administration is promoting.”

Rally Targets Pipeline as Enbridge Begins Line 5 Reroute Construction Near Bad River SAINT PAUL, Minn. — A coalition of Indigenous water protectors and climate activists gathered outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Paul District headquarters during the Tuesday, April 21st, evening rush hour, demanding a halt to construction on the Enbridge Line […]

The post Rally Targets Pipeline as Enbridge Begins Line 5 Reroute first appeared on Indigenous Environmental Network.

The Wednesday, April 22, 2026, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features attorney Mary Stites of the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, talking about current, legal wrangling between the City of Portland and the Zenith Energy oil train terminal and infrastructure, which have violated Oregon and city agreements on numerous occasions, while constructing and transporting its fossil and renewable fuels.  We also share news, videos, and reflections on the climate-altering history of Earth Day, a second Spokane, Washington, screening of Abby Martin’s documentary about global U.S. militarism and its climate and environmental impacts, a nuclear energy informational session presented for Nez Perce tribal officials and members, a Spokane discussion about sustainable approaches to community needs, led by a Nicaragua advocate, two new, southern Idaho, methane power plants proposed by Idaho Power, and a lawsuit brought by 24 states and ten cities against federal agency repeal of the endangerment finding central to climate regulations.  Broadcast for fourteen years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online at KRFP and the Pacifica Network AudioPort, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuels projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.

Earth Day 2026 Explained — The History That Changed the World, April 21, 2026 Anand Sankar

On Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day), Abby Martin’s seminal, 2025 documentary about global, U.S. militarism…, April 20, 2026 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

Nez Perce Tribal Members are invited to attend an informational session regarding nuclear energy…, April 14, 2026 Nez Perce Tribe

Nicaragua: Doing What the People Will — A Sustainable Approach, April 21, 2026 David Brookbank

Idaho Power Applies for Natural Gas Power Plant Certificates, April 7, 2026 ChangeFlow

See also: Idaho Power Company — Application for Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity for the South Hills and Peregrine Power Plants and for an Associated Accounting Order, March 11, 2026 Idaho Public Utilities Commission

Two Dozen States, Ten Cities Sue EPA over Repeal of ‘Endangerment’ Finding Central to Climate Fight, March 19, 2026 Associated Press

The Endless Zenith Saga Continues, April 20, 2026 Locus Focus/KBOO

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today demanding public records about their use of administrative subpoenas to try to identify their online critics.

Court records and news reports show that in the past year, DHS has used administrative subpoenas to unmask or locate people who have documented ICE's activities in their community, criticized the government, or attended protests. The subpoenas are sent to technology companies to demand information about internet users who are often engaged in protected First Amendment activity.

These subpoenas are dangerous because they don’t require judges’ approval. But they are also unlawful, and the government knows it. When a few users challenged them in court with the help of American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Northern California and Pennsylvania, DHS withdrew them rather than waiting for a decision.

DHS and ICE have ignored EFF’s public-records requests for documents about the processes behind these subpoenas, so EFF sued Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

“DHS and ICE should not be able to first claim that they have the legal authority to unmask critics and then run from court when users challenge these administrative subpoenas,” said EFF Deputy Legal Director Aaron Mackey. “The public deserves to know what laws the agencies believe give them the power to issue these speech-chilling subpoenas.”

An administrative subpoena cannot be used to obtain the content of communications, but they have been used to try and obtain some basic subscriber information like name, address, IP address, length of service, and session times. If a technology company refuses to comply, an agency’s only recourse is to drop it or go to court and try to convince a judge that the request is lawful.

EFF and the ACLU of Northern California in February wrote to Amazon, Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Reddit, SNAP, TikTok, and X to ask that they insist on court intervention and an order before complying with a DHS subpoena; give users as much notice as possible when they are the target of a subpoena, so the users can seek help; and resist gag orders that would prevent the companies from notifying users who are targets of subpoenas.

And EFF last week asked California’s and New York’s attorneys general to investigate Google for deceptive trade practices for breaking its promise to notify users before handing their data to law enforcement, citing the case of a doctoral student who was targeted with an ICE subpoena after briefly attending a pro-Palestine protest.

EFF in early March filed public-records requests with DHS and ICE for their policies, procedures, guidelines, directives, memos, and legal analyses supporting such use of administrative subpoenas. EFF also requested all Inspector General or oversight records, all approval and issuance procedures for the subpoenas, all records reflecting how many such subpoenas have been issued, all communications with technology companies concerning these demands, all communications regarding specific named targets or programs, and all communications with the Department of Justice regarding such subpoenas.

DHS and ICE have not responded, even though EFF requested expedited processing of its requests, which requires agencies to get back to requesters within 10 days.

“The policies, directives, and authorization records governing the program have not been disclosed,” the complaint notes. “The legal basis asserted by DHS and ICE for using a customs statute to compel disclosure of information about persons engaged in constitutionally protected speech and association has not been made public.”

For the complaint: https://www.eff.org/document/eff-v-dhs-ice-administrative-subpoenas-complaint

For EFF’s letter urging tech companies to protect users: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/open-letter-tech-companies-protect-your-users-lawless-dhs-subpoenas

For EFF’s letter urging state probes of Google: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-state-ags-investigate-googles-broken-promise-users-targeted-government

Statement of Common Cause President & CEO Virginia Kase Solomón:

Common Cause, our National Governing Board, our executive team, our staff, and the more than one million members we represent across this country, stands firmly with the Southern Poverty Law Center in the face of yesterday’s attack by the Department of Justice.

We are clear that this is a sham case built on illegitimate claims, and it is meant to create a chilling effect on anyone standing on the side of justice and civil rights; particularly those fighting hate groups, white supremacist groups, and those standing up against this administration’s corruption and self-dealing.

For more than 55 years, the SPLC has done some of the most difficult and most necessary work in American society: tracking the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, neo-Nazi networks, and other violent extremist organizations that threaten the safety of Black communities, Jewish communities, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone else these groups target.

The pattern here is unmistakable. This indictment follows a string of investigations into perceived opponents and critics of the Trump administration that have raised serious questions about whether the Justice Department has been turned into a political weapon. FBI Director Kash Patel publicly announced earlier this year that the FBI had severed its relationships with the SPLC, and the administration has made no secret of who it wants to protect and who it wants to destroy based on their loyalty to Donald Trump. Charging a civil rights organization with fraud for exposing the operations of violent hate groups turns the rule of law upside down.

The message this indictment sends is simple. If you investigate white supremacists, the federal government will investigate you. If you name extremism, you will be accused of manufacturing it. If you stand up to this administration, you will be targeted. That is the chilling effect, and it is by design.

The leadership, staff, and more than one million members of Common Cause will not be chilled. Democracy depends on civil society organizations being free to monitor hate, defend voting rights, challenge abuses of power, and speak the truth about those who seek to undermine our multiracial democracy. We have seen this playbook before, in other countries and in darker chapters of our own, and we recognize it for what it is.

We call on members of Congress, the legal community, philanthropic leaders, and our fellow civil rights and democracy organizations to speak out clearly until the Department of Justice drops its attack against the SPLC.

The SPLC has our full solidarity and support. We are confident they will prevail, and the entire Common Cause community will stand with them every step of the way.

The Trump Administration today disclosed the funding agreement for Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project. The administration disclosed the 14-page “Philanthropic Support Agreement” between the White House, the National Park Service and the non-profit Trust for the National Mall in response to Public Citizen’s FOIA request and a subsequent lawsuit.

In October, Public Citizen submitted a FOIA request to the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior seeking the White House Ballroom contract. In December, when the agencies had failed to respond, Public Citizen filed a lawsuit asking the court to compel the agencies to comply with FOIA.

“The Trump Administration’s failure to disclose this contract was flatly unlawful,” said Wendy Liu, Public Citizen attorney and lead counsel on the lawsuit. “The American people are entitled to transparency over this multi-million-dollar project, and this win gets us a bit closer to knowing the truth.”

“This is the first time we don’t have to take the word of the White House; we can see details of this scheme in black and white,” said Public Citizen Democracy Advocate Jon Golinger. “This document reveals that anonymous donations are the heart of this agreement. The questions this raises are, of the hundreds of millions being funneled in secret, who are these anonymous donors, and what are they hiding? The American people deserve answers, and we’ll keep fighting until they get them.”

While many questions remain unanswered surrounding the ballroom’s funding scheme, Public Citizen exposed a myriad of conflicts of interest concerns about pay-to-play government contracts and dropped enforcement actions benefiting ballroom donors in the report, Banquet of Greed.

CommonSpirit Health has been named to the “Dirty Dozen 2026” list by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH). The annual list from NCOSH names 12 companies whose disturbing disregard for safety includes repeated and serious violations of workplace safety laws and a history of ignoring known hazards.

‘FRESH’ and Affordable Foods Act is rotten to the core Anthony Lacey April 22, 2026

WASHINGTON – Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) today introduced a draft bill that would, if enacted, further hobble an already broken system that allows scores of food chemicals to come onto the market with little government oversight.

The bill would gut rules on the information companies must provide the Food and Drug Administration when submitting a notice that a food chemical is “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS. Known as the FDA Review and Evaluation for Safe, Healthy and Affordable Foods, or FRESH and Affordable Foods Act, the bill would:

• Preempt, retroactively and prospectively, all state food chemical laws, including those banning the toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS from food packaging and artificial dyes from school food. 
• Allow new food chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive harm to be considered “safe.”
• Allow new food chemicals to be added to food without an affirmative finding of safety by the FDA.
• Retroactively approve all food chemicals currently considered GRAS.
• Allow new chemicals to be added to food if the FDA does not respond to a GRAS notice within 90 days. 
• Allow new chemicals to be added to food as long as the food chemical company submits a “synopsis” of the chemical company’s safety conclusion.
• Allow new chemicals to be added to food without giving the FDA basic information, such as estimates of dietary exposure. 
• Allow new chemicals reviewed by industry-funded expert panels – including the flavor industry’s notorious “expert” panel – to be automatically GRAS and used in food immediately. 
• Allow companies to use food chemicals in new ways, without asking the FDA for approval. 
• Allow chemicals to be added to food for two years after the FDA determines they are no longer safe, unless there is a severe and imminent risk of harm. 

“I did not think it was possible to make our food system even weaker, but this proposal does it,” said Melanie Benesh, the Environmental Working Group’s vice president for government affairs.

Undermining food safety

Under current law, chemical companies – not the FDA – decide whether a food chemical is safe. Since 2000, almost all new chemicals – nearly 99% –  have come onto the market through the GRAS loophole, an EWG analysis found. 

Currently, many though not all chemical companies wanting to bring a new chemical onto the market submit a GRAS notice to the FDA, and the FDA responds with a “no questions” letter. 

The FRESH and Affordable Act would undermine this already weak system by reducing the information food chemical companies must provide to the FDA and by enlisting industry-funded expert panels to deem food chemicals safe  as long as they are added to an FDA database. 

Experts could continue to have conflicts of interest as long as the divided loyalties are “managed.”

“Blocking state action and further weakening FDA review of chemicals is the food industry’s dream come true: no state regulation, no federal regulation, no problem,” Benesh said.

Making the system worse

In the absence of federal action, states have led the way, banning toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other health harms. 

“We need the FDA to ensure the safety of food chemicals, but this industry proposal would make our current system even worse,” Benesh said.

“In addition to allowing new chemicals to be added to food without FDA review, the FDA does not regularly reconsider the safety of the chemicals we’re already eating,” she said. But the industry bill will not require the FDA to review a single food chemical for safety. 

“The funding proposed by this bill is a fig leaf,” she said. “This proposal will make our food less safe, not safer, by letting industry experts, not the experts we can trust, decide whether new food chemicals are safe and by failing to make sure the chemicals we’re already eating are safe. 

“Every parent should be outraged that the food brands that want their trust propose leaving them with no protection from toxic chemicals in the food they serve their families. Allowing chemicals linked to cancer to be added to food without FDA approval – or without even sharing basic information with the FDA – will not make America healthy.” 

###

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.

Areas of Focus Food Food Chemicals Press Contact Iris Myers iris@ewg.org (202) 939-9126 April 22, 2026

Oroville Hospital registered nurses, who are members of California Nurses Association and its parent union National Nurses United, will hold a rally and community event on Saturday, April 25 to demand long-term solutions to keep Oroville Hospital open and advance their Vision for a Healthy Society.

High levels of national debt in parts of the Global South could hinder efforts to move away from fossil fuels, a new report warns, as more than 50 countries gather this week in Colombia for the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels.

The report, published by the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative in the lead-up to the flagship conference, argues that the current debt architecture is trapping developing countries in a “feedback loop” in which fossil fuel revenues are needed to service debt, while fossil fuel expansion locks countries into borrowing even more.

The cycle, according to the report, leaves very little fiscal space for highly indebted countries to end their reliance on coal, oil and gas revenues, even when their leaders want to phase out fossil fuels. This is the case for some first-mover countries such as Colombia, which is hosting the conference in Santa Marta.

Amiera Sawas, one of the report’s authors and head of research and policy at the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, said the conflict in the Middle East is making this “debt injustice and fossil fuel entrapment” even more evident.

“What we have to start understanding is that both fossil fuels and debt are actually extractions from the Global South,” Sawas told the report’s launch during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings in Washington DC this month. “Many countries are paying more in debt servicing than they are getting in climate finance.”

• Apr 21, 2026 News Fossil fuel crisis offers chance to speed up energy transition, ministers say As climate diplomacy resumes in Berlin, ministers say the Iran war-driven fuel crisis is exposing the risks of fossil dependence Read more
• Apr 21, 2026 News Solar surge kept fossil electricity flat in 2025 as China and India made ‘historic’ shift Energy think tank Ember said fossil fuel electricity fell slightly in both countries simultaneously for the first time, tipping the global balance Read more

Since 2010, low and middle-income countries (LIMCs) have more than doubled their external debt, reaching an all-time high of $8.9 trillion two years ago. They paid about $415 billion in interest on that debt in 2024 – 2.4 times higher than a decade earlier.

At the same time, in some cases like Colombia, Egypt and Jordan, austerity measures agreed as part of IMF and World Bank loan programmes restrict governments from investing in cleaner sources of revenue like renewable energy, the report says.

Leading countries constrained by debt

Colombia – one of the countries leading the global call for a transition away from fossil fuels – is facing precisely such financial barriers to achieving its transition, said Camilo Rodríguez, another of the report’s authors and a research analyst with Oil Change International.

The country has halted all new oil and gas licences and published an energy transition plan estimating transition costs at about 7-10% of its GDP. Yet the government depends on fossil fuel revenues to service its $265-billion public debt, meaning it must find an alternative source of income to cover debt payments.

Rodríguez said debt “is the main barrier nowadays to promote the energy transition and the industrialisation of the economy”.

The South American country has only grown more dependent on fossil fuels over time, as they represented 36% of exports in 2001 and now account for about 52%. Austerity policies still in place after IMF loans have left very little room for investing in Colombia’s energy transition plan, the report says.

Other countries have shown similar patterns. Jordan – despite its staggering public debt equivalent to 90% of GDP – became one of the fastest-growing markets for wind, solar and electric vehicles in the Middle East region. From 2014 to 2021, Jordan went from less than 1% of its electricity generation coming from renewables to 26%, benefiting from the significantly cheaper costs of installing wind and solar power compared with adding fossil fuel capacity.

But Jordan’s high reliance on fossil fuel revenues created an incentive for policymakers to opt for expanding gas projects over renewables, and the country ended up suspending new licences for many solar and wind projects. In 2024, about 40% of government revenues were used to service debt.

“This is not marginal – it is central to the fiscal system. It creates what I would describe as structural fiscal addiction,” said Ali Nasrallah, a policy and research manager at the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. “The state depends on revenues from consumption that is economically, environmentally and socially harmful.”

Gas flaring soars in Niger Delta post-Shell, afflicting communities  

Another report by the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, published in March, argues that debt entrapment in Africa also exacerbates gender injustice. Social consequences from fossil fuel extraction and use – such as displacement of communities or health harm from pollution – can have a substantial effect on local women while, at the same time, states face constraints to increasing social spending to support them.

“African women are facing disproportionate impacts of the fossil fuel industry’s long-running legacy of violence and dispossession,” the report says. “But they are also leading the resistance to it,” it adds, with women-led coalitions in places like Uganda or the Niger Delta challenging major oil and gas projects.

Policy recommendations

As governments head to Santa Marta – where “gaps in the financial and investment system” are on the agenda – the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative recommends building international coalitions to address debt, reforming multilateral financial institutions and increasing funding commitments from donor nations.

The proposed policies include debt cancellation as a way of creating fiscal space in the Global South, ending all international finance for fossil fuel expansion, establishing a binding mechanism on debt resolution at the UN, and advancing green industrialisation to replace fossil fuel revenues.

“To dismantle carbon lock-in and debt at source, we need to recognise collectively that the escalating debt in the Global South is actually an injustice,” said Sawas of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. “We have to name the problem and be honest with ourselves – and that’s where the recommendation of debt cancellation is so critical.”

Comment: Broken debt system must be fixed to confront future climate shocks

As part of the new climate finance goal adopted at the COP29 climate summit in Baku, governments have already agreed to “remove barriers and address dis-enablers” faced by developing countries, including “limited fiscal space” and “unsustainable debt levels”.

Building on this, any plan for a global roadmap for transitioning away from fossil fuels, such as the initiative proposed at COP30 by more than 80 governments, should address the debt crisis in the Global South, Sawas said. One alternative could be financing the rollout of renewables with more public grants rather than loans, she added.

“We need to start properly funding renewable energy and diversification,” she said. “Currently it’s almost impossible for a lot of countries in the Global South to actually make the energy transition, because there’s no support structure.”

The post To phase out fossil fuels, developing countries need exit route from “debt trap” appeared first on Climate Home News.

This article Rural India is not giving up a work guarantee without a fight was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Across villages in India, protests erupted in December 2025 after the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, government scrapped one of the largest social safety nets in the world and replaced it with a watered-down version. 

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MGNREGA, guaranteed paid work to rural households. The new Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act not only drops Gandhi’s name but also steers away from the original rights-based framework that served as an economic lifeline for the roughly 30 percent of households in rural India who live in poverty. 

After Modi signed the new act into law on Dec. 20, unions and other workers’ organizations started mobilizing the rural population, running campaigns and demonstrations explaining the fine print and how it strips away the right to guaranteed employment. While the new law raises the number of days that the government will pay people to work from 100 to 125, it adds restrictions. Before, people who held job cards could apply for work whenever they needed it. Now, there is a 60-day pause period during the sowing and harvesting period. And, most concerning to advocates, work availability is now subject to a capped federal budget. 

Economist Jean Drèze said that this all amounts to a fundamental change: “The federal government now holds the discretion to give work. This dependence is a serious dilution of the principle of [guaranteed] employment, and it is bound to reduce the bargaining power of workers in private employment as well.”  

Protesters across rural India held funeral processions to lament the death of the old program. In the northwestern state of Rajasthan, women wailed, wept and thumped their chests at administrative block offices and headquarters, echoing the local custom of professional mourners, known as rudaalis.

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In other states, women composed and sang songs condemning the rebranded law. Workers also held rallies and submitted memoranda of demands at the government offices, where workers apply for job cards under MGNREGA and demand work. 

Meanwhile, a coalition of center-left political parties, including the Indian National Congress Party, launched their own nationwide agitation, which ran from Jan. 10 to Feb. 25 and included marches, sit-ins and a one-day fast. Their demands are to roll back the new law and strengthen MGNREGA, with timely work assignments and a nationwide minimum wage of $4.30 per day (currently, daily wages range from $2.50 to $4).

Coordinating the bottom-up protests is the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, or NSM, founded in 2017 — a decentralized national coalition of workers’ unions, mass organizations, NGOs, activists and public intellectuals that brought together over 30 groups across 15 states. The coalition’s demands go further than the political parties’ and include 200 days of work per adult rural worker during natural disasters and a minimum wage of roughly $9 per day, adjusted annually for inflation. 

Since December 2025, thousands of people have participated in the nationwide mobilization coordinated by NSM, consisting of creative actions from the local to the state level, including the protests at the administrative offices in January, mass demonstrations at state capitols in February, and women-led protests on International Women’s Day in March. The ongoing protests aim to apply electoral pressure to the ruling party and force the government to repeal the new act and strengthen the old one. 

At ground zero, exasperation and relentless protest

Feb. 2, which marked 20 years of the rural livelihood program, saw mass demonstrations at state capitals, district headquarters and administrative offices.

In Kumrapara Village in the eastern state of West Bengal, which lies in the Sundarbans region — one of the most vulnerable climate hotspots in the world — a group of families gathered around midday to protest the new act and discuss their exasperation over the lack of rural work for many years now. 

In March 2022 the Modi government stopped issuing MGNREGA funds to West Bengal, an opposition-led state, over financial irregularities. Last year, a parliamentary committee report observed that the suspension of funds had led to sharp increase in “distress migration and disruptions in rural development initiatives. … exacerbating economic hardships in the state.”

Life was marginally easier with work available at the villages. Now, the young men have largely left to find seasonal work in southern and western India, over 1,000 miles away from the eastern state of West Bengal where they live. 

Farmer, activist and lawyer Avik Saha said that the BJP government has been trying to throttle the MGNREGA since coming to power a decade ago. “Finally, they have been successful in dismantling the program,” he said. Their goal, he believes, is “to convert rural labor into cheap unorganized labor.” 

The original act, passed in 2005 by the Congress party, was designed to address rural poverty and unemployment. It served as a fallback option for workers in times of agrarian crisis. Numerous studies found that the act was successful in bringing money to rural households and reducing debt and hunger. The work itself built rural infrastructure and adaptation to drought and floods.  

The act was especially crucial for groups who face job discrimination, such as Dalits, Adivasis, migrant workers and women. With a quota that women make up one-third of beneficiaries and an equal-pay mandate, the act encouraged women’s participation in work outside their homes. Over the years, research has shown that MGNREGA has gone a long way in providing women with paid work and autonomy over household decisions, including children’s well-being. According to the central government’s data, women made up over 58 percent of participants in the employment program in 2025.

The protests over the act’s demise build on the years of decentralized rural protests against its erosion. Since the right-wing Modi government came into power in 2014, the act has been under threat, with funds curtailed, wage payments delayed and a hard-to-access digital attendance system leaving the poor scrambling to get work.

Workers visit their local governing body office to demand work on Feb. 2. (WNV/Ritwika Mitra)

Slogans like “Har haat ko kaam do, kaam ka pura daam do” (Give work to every hand, pay fairly for that work) have defined the protests from the early years.

“These show a movement of ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” said Nikhil Dey, founding member of the people’s organization Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, part of the NSM. “The biggest legacy is the coming together of people’s thoughts and actions, and the beautiful articulation of their demands. The slogans are an assertion of their citizenship.”

The women in the village have been protesting since funds were cut off from West Bengal in 2022 — taking to the streets, blocking roads, clanging pots and pans at local administrative offices and traveling to the state capital of Kolkata, 50 miles away. 

“The clanging of plates signaled that we need work to eat — the plate being a symbol of us securing our rice for the day,” said Nirubala Halder, a worker in her 60s who said she has gone to every protest since 2022.

Halder’s neighbor Namita Pramanick, 60, said she is still owed pay for work she did in 2021. “I cleaned ponds painstakingly for 22 days. There is no hope now to get paid or work,” Pramanick said.    

People from the village gather around Kanai Halder, an activist with the West Bengal-based agricultural workers’ organization Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samiti, another member of the NSM. “You cannot afford to lose hope now,” he tells them. “This is going to be a long battle, and we have to prepare for it. Would you rather that your young boys and husbands leave for distant lands?”

Work opportunities are drying up in Sundarbans, which has been called the cyclone capital of India, as climate change intensifies the cyclones. Seawater flooding from the storms is raising soil salinity. Guaranteed work would be a social security buffer in the village and also help climate resilience efforts like restoring mangroves and building earthen embankments to keep out tidal surges. 

“The truth is we have not protested enough,” Saha said. “In a way, we have allowed this to happen. But eventually farmers, farm workers, MGNREGA workers will be forced to come together due to economic compulsion.”

The support of political parties is key

On May Day, the NSM will protest the new act, and on May 15, the platform has planned decentralized demonstrations at work sites and administrative offices across the country. 

The workers’ organizations are learning to tap into the power of social media to spread word about the protests. 

They were inspired by another protest movement brewing in the states of north India in December — in opposition to a ruling by India’s Supreme Court that made the Aravalli hills vulnerable to mining and construction. Instagram was flooded with content. When the workers’ organizations asked the women in the villages how they knew about the protests around Aravalli, they responded by showing them Instagram reels. 

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“We realized we had never explored the potential to connect through social media. It is a smart way to form an organic decentralized movement which the government cannot clamp down on, and to get the mainstream media to pick up on it,” said Nikhil Shenoy, member of Rajasthan Asangathit Mazdoor Union, a part of NSM. 

Workers with the NSM have been recording catchy songs accompanied by puppetry to help push out word about the protests on Instagram.

Ultimately, Shenoy believes that pressure from political parties will be key to making change. With West Bengal headed for elections on April 23 and April 29, the ruling All India Trinamool Congress party has made the first plank of its reelection platform a guarantee of 100 days of work to all job card holders in the state. The party accused the ruling BJP of “betraying the people of Bengal” by withholding funds for MGNREGA.

While there has been some cooperation between the political parties and the NSM, Shenoy stressed the need for more. “The political parties have a reach which we cannot achieve,” he said. “When they are able to pick up on the pulse of the people, then the movement gets bigger. The government will only listen when it is politically hurt.”

This article Rural India is not giving up a work guarantee without a fight was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

This year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will again take place as a fully hybrid conference in both Vienna and online from May 4 to 8. This year, I'll join the event virtually for the full week, participating in the hybrid sessions from the comforts of my home. I already picked most of the sessions I plan to attend and - as meet-hopping is a lot easier online than on-site - I didn't have to pay close attention to where in the conference center they happen. This year, I submitted abstracts to two sessions and both happen to be on Monday. This suits me just fine as it means, that I can freely plan the rest of my week, picking and chosing sessions piquing my interest. This blog post provides an overview of my itinerary.

Monday morning, May 4

The very first session for me at this year's EGU meeting starts at 8:30 and will be EOS1.1 Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection in which I'll have the first of my two oral presentation slots. The session has been (co)convened by Roberta Bellini, Nuno Pimentel, Megan O'Donnell, Thomas Harvey, Ashley Akingbade and Nikos Kalivitis and will include the Angela Croome Award Lecture as well as the Katia and Maurice Krafft Award Lecture.

Science communication includes the efforts of natural, physical and social scientists, communications professionals, and teams that communicate the process and values of science and scientific findings to non-specialist audiences outside of formal educational settings. The goals of science communication can include enhanced dialogue, understanding, awareness, enthusiasm, influencing sustainable behaviour change, improving decision making, and/or community building. Channels to facilitate science communication can include in-person interaction through teaching and outreach programs, and online through social media, mass media, podcasts, video, or other methods. This session invites presentations by individuals and teams on science communication practice, research, and reflection, addressing questions like:

• What kind of communication efforts are you engaging in and how are you doing it?
• What are the biggest challenges or successes you’ve had in engaging the public with your work?
• How are other disciplines (such as social sciences) informing understanding of audiences, strategies, or effects?
• How do you spark joy and foster emotional connection through activities?
• How do you allow for co-creation of ideas within a community?
• How are you assessing and measuring the positive impacts on society of your endeavours?
• What are lessons learned from long-term communication efforts?

Based on its description this seemed to be a very good session to talk about our upcoming website relaunch and it'll be my turn for not quite 10 minutes at 10:05 to do just that in my assigned oral slot. This is the abstract I submitted a few months ago:

Relaunching the Skeptical Science website to include prebunking tools

Skeptical Science is a highly-visited website featuring 250 rebuttals of misinformation about climate change and climate solutions. Many of the rebuttals are written at multiple levels—basic, intermediate, and advanced—in order to reach as wide an audience as possible. Results from a survey we've been running on our website since November 2021 indicate that there is some room for improvements in order to make the rebuttals more robust. It is therefore rather good timing that we've been working on a complete overhaul of our website which should increase the effectiveness of rebuttals in reducing acceptance in climate myths and increasing acceptance of climate facts. A key goal of misinformation interventions is to increase reader discernment, the difference between belief in facts and belief in myths. While there was overall an increase in discernment, with the decrease in agreement with myths greater than the decrease in agreement with facts, the result that belief in climate facts decreased for at least some rebuttals is unwelcome and counter to the goal of Skeptical Science. In this presentation, we'll give a sneak peek at how the new website will look like. One important new feature will be the inclusion - where applicable - of the fallacies employed by a climate myth, so that a rebuttal on the new website will then include all three elements of a successful debunking: fact, myth and fallacy. In my presentation, I'll also highlight some of the other updated or new features this website relaunch will include.

Here is a sneak peek of my drafted presentation:

Judging by their titles and abstracts there'll be many interesting presentations in this wide-ranging session about science communication! So many abstracts were submitted that EOS1.1 was given 4 oral slots (2 each on Monday and Tuesday morning) to cover 35 oral presentations as well as 2 poster slots for a similar number of posters!

Monday afternoon, May 4

In the afternoon of EGU's first day, I'll be joining session EOS4.1 Geoethics: Linking Geoscience Knowledge, Ethical Responsibility, and Action, (co)convened by Silvia Peppoloni, Giuseppe Di Capua, Anita Di Chiara and David Crookall:

Geoscientists play a key role in providing essential information in decision-making processes that consider environmental, social, and economic consequences of geoscience work. Therefore, their responsibilities extend beyond scientific analysis alone. Global challenges, such as climate change, resource management, and disaster risk reduction, push geoscientists to expand their role beyond research and to engage ethically in public efforts.

Geoethics provides a framework for reflecting on the ethical, social, and cultural implications of geoscience in research, practice, and education, guiding responsible action for society and the environment. It also encourages the scientific community to move beyond purely technical solutions by embracing just, inclusive, and transformative approaches to socio-environmental issues.

Furthermore, science is inseparable from social and geopolitical contexts. These conditions shape what research is funded, whose knowledge is valued, with whom we collaborate, and who has access to conferences. As Earth and planetary scientists, we must consider the human and environmental consequences of our work. This is especially true in Earth observation, where many satellites have both scientific and military applications, and where scientific tools have at times enabled ecocide and resource exploitation under neocolonial systems.

This session will offer insights and reflections across a wide range of topics, from theoretical considerations to case studies, foster awareness and discussion of sensitive issues at the geoscience–society interface and explore how geoethics can guide responsible behavior and policies in the geosciences. 

I'll give an oral presentation in the 2nd part of this session at 17:15 sharing the results of the "Skeptical Science Experiment", which we recently pubished a paper about in EGU's Geoscience Communication journal:

Results of the Skeptical Science experiment and impacts on relaunched website

Skeptical Science is a highly-visited website featuring 250 rebuttals of misinformation about climate change and climate solutions. The rebuttals are written at multiple levels—basic, intermediate, and advanced—in order to reach as wide an audience as possible. Since November 2021, we have collected survey data from visitors, assessing the effectiveness of rebuttals in reducing acceptance in climate myths and increasing acceptance of climate facts. A key goal of misinformation interventions is to increase reader discernment, the difference between belief in facts and belief in myths. While there was overall an increase in discernment, with the decrease in agreement with myths greater than the decrease in agreement with facts, we also found that belief in climate facts decreased for at least some rebuttals - an unwelcome result running counter to Skeptical Science’s goals. Due to the survey design and not collecting any information about why readers selected a specific option, we can only make educated guesses about what may have led to selecting a specific option. In parallel to running the experiment on our website, we have also been working on a website relaunch project which will address some of the shortcomings already identified. One new feature will be the inclusion - where applicable - of logical fallacies used in climate myths, so that rebuttals will include all three elements of a successful debunking: fact, myth and fallacy. In my presentation, I'll also highlight some of the other updated or new features this website relaunch will include.

Here is a sneak peek of my drafted presentation:

Rest of the Week

As the rest of the week is not yet cut in stone, I'll not go into any details and will only mention a few sessions I plan to join because they've been fun in previous years or because their titles and abstracts sound interesting:

• EOS1.6 - PICO session - Up-Goer Five Challenge: Making Big Ideas Simpler by Talking About Them in Words We Use a Lot (Tuesday afternoon)
• EOS1.3 - PICO - Games for Geoscience (Wednesday afternoon)
• SC3.3 - Short course - New Toolkits – the destabilisation of science and what we can do about it (Thursday morning)

When I'm not participating in sessions or busy writing about them, I may well hang out in "Gather", the virtual conference center for anybody joining onine. It's a fun set up where you can walk around as an avatar and meet others doing the same either in the virtual pster halls or even outside in a park or on the rooftop.

Looking at the sessions I've thus far added to my personal program, I'm fairly certain that I unfortunately will not be able to make it to all of them - especially the overlapping ones! However, one advantage of pariticpating virtually is that it's possible to quickly jump from one session to another if an interesting presentation beckons! Here is what I have planned:

I plan to publish two companion articles about my presentations as well as a by now almost customary EGU diary. Should be fun!

To learn more about the conference, visit their website at egu26.eu!

This week we look at the relationship between humans and wildlife. Are we working together? PTSD is the result of climate degradation and affects all living beings in our world. Let’s explore this further.

Dear Dr. Green,

Can animals get PTSD? I think about all those animals constantly fleeing wildfires here in California and I worry. Tanya K.

Thank you for your question, Tanya.

Yes. Sadly, science has shown, wild animals can experience PTSD, a.k.a. post-traumatic stress disorder.

These studies, started in the 1990s, coined the term ecology of fear. This concept describes the ripple or domino effect that occurs when the destruction of one species negatively affects an entire biological community, animal and plant life alike.

To a degree, the ecology of fear is normal in the wild: Prey species must maintain constant vigilance for predators to stay alive. However, the introduction of new predators — or new threats — can create a state of hypervigilance, one of the most common symptoms of PTSD.

In this case we might see humans as apex predators, sometimes referred to as superpredators, although that term remains under a fair amount of debate (and it’s worth noting that it’s not related to the harmful criminal justice trope used in the 1990s). Humans are causing the decline of populations, and extinction of wildlife species, at a rate and speed that far outpaces natural wildlife predation rates, due to our technological capabilities and tendency to overexploit and undervalue the natural world.

People all too often view nature as “other,” a place outside us, “a place to go” to spend vacations and weekends — often failing to understand that we’re active, integral beings intertwined in nature.

A Brief Look at How PTSD Works in Both Humans and Animals

Brain imaging shows that humans with PTSD have remarkably altered brain structures. Trauma causes startling physical and chemical changes in the hippocampus, amygdala, telomeres, and Broca’s center that compromise the growth of new neurons (neurogenesis). The mind is unable to put traumatic memories in sequential order. PTSD patients get “stuck” in memory loops of the trauma (the past) and find it difficult to resolve the trauma; they often struggle to move forward, never have children or leave the ones they have, and separate themselves from society (the herd) by moving around restlessly.

This is a very simplistic explanation of post-trauma for the purpose of demonstrating how our trauma responses correlate to those of wildlife and can illustrate how trauma affects wildlife living in threatened natural settings and unrealistic artificial habitats.

Scientific research is increasingly showing the same neurogenesis in wildlife: Trauma stemming from the destruction of habitat, torture, threat of death, and other human-causes hardships results in permanent fear, startle effect, hypervigilance, and anxiety. The brains of animals, though differently structured from humans, react similarly to trauma (depending upon the particular species, of course).

Wild creatures can likewise experience depression, lack of interest or cessation of reproduction, or loss of direction in migratory patterns or loss of their traditional seasonal homing locations due to habitat destruction and have greatly reduced survival rates during or after anthropogenic disasters associated with climate change, such as forest fires, drought, floods, and other crises.

We’ve included some examples of scientific studies of PTSD in wildlife in the resources list below. To outline all of the studies over the past century here would be impossible but take a look for proof that PTSD between humans and wildlife is strongly correlated.

Some other examples of direct infliction of trauma on wildlife by humans include overproduction of agriculture to meet increasing human populations, overfishing, overhunting, habitat destruction, placing value on animal parts (poaching, illegal wildlife trade), hunting for social status (“trophies”, or “aphrodisiac medicines”), and keeping wild animals as “pets,” symbols of wealth and human superiority.

So, Tanya K. and other readers, what will calm your worry about wildlife and your concern they have PTSD? For starters, participation in the environmental movement — a mightily empowering endeavor. Do some research on where your current skills and talents in other fields could help prevent disasters like wildfires and protect wildlife.

We hurt ourselves, as well as the rest of the living, by “othering” wildlife. The best cure for our worry and discomfort is to get off the observation deck and into the fray.

Let me know how it goes — Dr. Green always welcomes life stories when it comes to saving the planet.

Cheers!

Dr. Green

What are you struggling with emotionally when it comes to your relationship with our planet? What are your challenges and concerns? Do you have some success stories to share with our readers?  I want to know! Maybe together we can come up with strategies that will enrich your inner—and outer life! 

See you next time!

Share your challenges and success stories by sending Dr. Green your questions using the form below:

Resources:

Ecology of Fear  (Zanette LY, Clinchy M. Ecology of fear. Curr Biol. 2019 May 6;29(9):R309-R313. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.042. PMID: 31063718).

Ecology and Neurobiology of Fear in Free-Living Wildlife (Liana Y. Zanette, Michael Clinchy. 2020. Ecology and Neurobiology of Fear in Free-Living Wildlife. Annual Review Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 51:297-318. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-011720-124613).

Wolves and their prey all fear the human “super predator” (Kasper, Katharina et al. “Wolves and their prey all fear the human “super predator”.” Current biology: CB vol. 35,20 (2025): 5111-5117.e3. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2025.09.018).

 “Predator-induced fear causes PTSD-like changes in the brains and behaviour of wild animals”. (Zanette, Liana Y.; Hobbs, Emma C.; Witterick, Lauren E.; MacDougall-Shackleton, Scott A.; Clinchy, Michael (2019-08-07). “Predator-induced fear causes PTSD-like changes in the brains and behaviour of wild animals”. Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 11474. Bibcode:2019NatSR…911474Z. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-47684-6)

Check out the Journal for Ecopsychology, a peer-reviewed journal founded in 2009 that “places psychology and mental health in an ecological context to recognize the links between human health, culture, and the health of the planet.”

Reporting on PTSD in Wildlife (just a few examples):

• • • Do Wild Animals Get PTSD? Many creatures show lasting changes in behavior and physiology after a traumatic experience
    • Humans are ‘unique super-predators’
    • The Challenges of Studying (and Treating) PTSD in Chimpanzees: Apes used in animal testing often display symptoms of psychological trauma. Wildlife sanctuaries are helping them recover. (The Revelator, April 22, 2024 – by Tim Brinkhof)
    • New research shows that elephants and other animals can suffer from PTSD
    • Do Wild Animals Suffer from PTSD and Other Psychological Disorders?

Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy.

The post Dr. Green: Can Wildlife Get PTSD? appeared first on The Revelator.

Schemes that certify wood or paper as sustainable are doing little to stem the loss of forests globally, a study finds.

Read more on E360 →

Lakes and wetlands are welcome natural oases amidst the concrete and asphalt of the urban world. In many cities, they are magnets for people seeking a chance to go birdwatching, fishing, swimming, or just use the water as a scenic backdrop.

But these spots have an invisible and unappetizing side as well. They can be hotspots of antibiotic-resistant microbes, posing a potential health risk to people coming in contact with the water.  A survey of wetlands in Chinese cities discovered levels of these microbes on par with untreated sewage, Chinese scientists reported last week in Nature Cities.

The discovery highlights the overlooked risks of what are commonly seen as urban amenities. It also points to possible ways to clean up these waterways. Rather than being a “regulatory blind spot,” these waterbodies “should serve as ‘frontline outposts’ guarding public health and ecological security, requiring our concerted efforts to ensure they serve city residents safely,” lead author Da Lin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Urban Environment wrote in an online essay discussing the research.

The scientists were first alerted to the possible problem while strolling past a wetland in a city park “bustling with human activity,” Lin wrote. While such waterbodies might look appealing, they can also serve as impromptu stormwater storage ponds, capturing runoff from nearby streets or even from overflowing sewage pipes. The scientists wondered to what degree that also turned them into magnets for antibiotic resistant bacteria, which are known to flourish in urban settings.

They collected water samples from 17 wetlands in 9 Chinese cities, filtered the water and examined the DNA left in the filters to see what viruses and bacteria were present, and whether their genes contained signs of antibiotic resistance.

The test revealed nearly 750 types of genes coded for antibiotic resistance in concentrations 9 times greater than what researchers have found in natural lakes. It was approximately the same contamination levels seen in tests of raw sewage, and roughly four times the average levels found in urban wetland elsewhere in the world, based on results from other studies.

This microbial stew included genes for resistance to sulfonamide and tetracycline, as well as genes for broader resistance to a range of antibiotics. The scientists also found traces of 67 different microbes known to infect humans, particularly from the Pseudomonas genus, which are known for having antibiotic resistance. “This data objectively demonstrates that urban wetlands have become important reservoirs” for antibiotic resistant genes, Lin wrote.

Not all wetlands were equally problematic. Waterbodies in poorer cities had higher levels of contamination with antibiotic resistant bacteria. That might be linked to weaker urban infrastructure, which enables more untreated stormwater to flow into these lakes and ponds, the scientists wrote.

That also points to possible ways to tackle the problem. A number of Chinese cities, including the capital of Beijing, have in recent years begun building nature-inspired infrastructure to better cope with stormwater. These so-called “sponge cities” use tools such as permeable pavement, landscaping engineered to soak up rainwater and, yes, wetlands meant to clean the water.

While such infrastructure can help, as the new research points out it can also create public health headaches.

To guard against these wetlands becoming more problem than solution, the scientists called for more robust monitoring and regulation of these waterbodies. Among the recommendations: Set standards for contamination levels with antibiotic resistant bacteria; create a list of high-risk wetlands; and keep the antibiotic problem in mind when designing and managing urban water spots, rather than focusing only on removing nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which can spark algae blooms.

Just as public beaches are now sometimes closed when water tests show high levels of E. coli, perhaps one day something similar might be in place for high levels of antibiotic resistance.

Lin, et. al. “Urban wetlands as hotspots of antibiotic resistomes and their potential viral transmission.” Nature Cities. April 17, 2026.

Photo by LUM3N/Freerange Stock

Despite the rapid growth of renewable energy usage in recent years, the even-more-explosive growth of data centers is delaying the transition to a cleaner grid in ways that could harm the air we breathe. That’s according to new research released for Earth Day on Wednesday by Frontier Group, Environment America Research & Policy Center and U.S. PIRG Education Fund.

“It’s great that renewable energy is growing rapidly, but we also need to be transitioning away from dirty energy sources. We can't afford to lose ground on that front,” said Johanna Neumann, senior director of the Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy at Environment America Research & Policy Center. “Pollution from fossil fuels harms our kids’ lungs and dangerously heats up our planet. We need to get our priorities straight. A healthy, safe environment is essential for a good quality of life.”

The research, building on new government data, tracks a dramatic slowdown in the previously accelerating pace of coal plant retirements as utilities respond to rising electricity demand from data centers and other sources. Compared to 2022, when the country was retiring power plants at a pace that would lead to a coal-free grid by 2040, the current pace of plant retirements would keep some of our dirtiest ones online until 2065. Power generation from coal-fired power plants increased by 13% in 2025 as U.S. electricity generation hit an all-time record.

• One of the research papers, Energy Transition at Risk, uses data from the Energy Information Administration to document both the dramatic slowdown in retiring America’s dirtiest power plants and the resurgence of new proposals for gas-powered plants.
• The other research paper, Fossil fuel plants are staying online longer. That means dirtier air, uses U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data to quantify the amount of air pollution – sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury – produced by many of the fossil fuel power plants whose lifetimes are being extended.

The authors recommend that to reduce the environmental and public health harms of increased electricity demand from data centers and other sources, policy makers should increase energy efficiency, ease barriers to clean energy, and continue to phase out dirty power plants.

“We’ll all suffer if we rush to build new, polluting gas plants for uncertain data center demand,” said U.S. PIRG Education Fund Energy and Utilities Program Director Abe Scarr. “Instead, policy makers should prioritize no-regrets strategies like energy efficiency and renewable energy.”

The new analysis follows Frontier Group’s analysis of delayed fossil fuel power plant retirements in its January 2025 report, “Big Data Centers, Big Problems” and an update of that data in October 2025.

"It's absurd to power the technology of tomorrow with the dirty and dangerous energy sources of yesterday," said Quentin Good, policy analyst with Frontier Group. "Harming the environment and jeopardizing people's health is no way to build a better future."

The groups have also organized a petition as part of broader efforts advocating for data centers to run on 100% renewable energy, follow efficiency standards and operate in ways that reduce load stress on the grid.Environment America Research & Policy Center, a 501(c)(3) organization, conducts research, policy analysis and public education. We illuminate the problems facing our natural world, advance solutions, and inspire intelligent debate about how to put our country and our planet on a greener, healthier path.

U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization, conducts research, policy analysis and public education projects. We spotlight the problems that affect consumers’ health, safety and well-being, advance practical solutions, and promote dialogue about how to elevate the quality of our lives over the quantity of “stuff” we consume.

Frontier Group provides information and ideas to build a healthier, more sustainable America. U.S. PIRG Education Fund, Environment America Research & Policy Center, and Frontier Group are part of The Public Interest Network, which operates and supports organizations committed to a shared vision of a better world and a strategic approach to social change.

As a Chicago Public School parent, I am proud and thrilled that the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has called for May 1 2026 to be a day of civic action. Teachers taking the lead in calling for action to defend public education against federal attacks and to stand up to demand that ICE get out of our cities is good for Chicago and good for my child. From this perspective, I find that the Chicago Tribune editorial board’s March 13 piece attacking the CTU presents a narrow and shortsighted view of what education is.

I do agree with the Tribune editorial that “education starts with the basics.” It is an obvious fact that core skills, like math and reading, are fundamental. However, describing education as being about only the basics is a rote and wooden depiction of what learning actually is. I send my kid to school to not just learn the A,B,Cs and the 1,2,3s but to learn the rich lessons beyond that: how to get along with others, make friends, navigate relationships, resolve conflicts, and discover who they are and what they want to be. We want our children to learn how the world works and how to participate in society.

We want our children to learn how the world works and how to participate in society.

Last May 1, I took my elementary-school-aged kid out of school to attend the large mass march that many of Chicago’s immigrant organizations and labor groups had called. I felt like it was an educational experience about the world. I emailed my child’s teacher to tell her, and she asked that I send pictures. I sent pictures, and she used them on the fly to have an impromptu lesson about protest and democracy with the rest of the class. They talked about how to raise your voice and act to make the school and the world better. They drew pictures of themselves with protest signs and practiced writing (the basics) what kind of things they would write on their sign or banner. Dropping off my child the next day I was struck by how electric my kid’s classmates were. In wanting to talk about my kid’s experience, many of them showed me their pictures, and it was clear that they learned a different lesson about their participation in the world–and also practiced writing as well. The teacher’s creativity is the reason she is beloved by my kid and the rest of the class. This is the kind of learning that is dynamic; it connects the basics with deeper lessons about critical thinking and the world.

There are crucial lessons to be learned by taking a day, along with people around the country, to engage in civic participation around issues that are completely intertwined in schools and education. These issues are not outside the classroom, but rather profoundly impact the classroom, our children, our teachers, and yes, the basics.

The Trump administration is carrying out a massive attack on public education. Per the Center for American Progress, he has withheld more than $4 billion from public education since the start of the 2025-2026 school year. These cuts especially threaten support for youth with disabilities. I know that many of the parents at our school who have kids with IEPs have been in a state of panic in anticipation of loss of critical support. This is paired with the administration’s assault on protections for LGBTQIA youth. I again know many parents and youth to whom this feels very very threatening and scary.

Second, classrooms around the country are feeling the impact of the ICE raids that have been happening around the country, here in Chicago last fall and in Minnesota, the scene of the high-profile murders by federal agents of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. I have received numerous emails from my child’s teacher letting parents know about the “hard conversations” and fear that our elementary-school aged kids are bringing up in the classroom. Our school is 85 percent non-white and around 80 percent economically disadvantaged. Families are directly impacted by the ICE raids targeting those communities. And even if they are not directly targeted by phenomena that can seem distant and outside the classroom, it is us, or it is our friends, our classmates, and our neighbors who are living under the fear of masked armed agents stealing away our loved ones. How does one “stick to the basics” in that context?

What is to be done about these serious issues? On January 23, more than 75,000 Minnesotans came out into the streets in subzero temperatures in a general strike demanding ICE out. Hundreds of businesses were closed and one in four Minnesotans took part in the strike or knew someone who did. Regular people came together to raise their voices against the violence and murder being carried out by federal agents. This mass pressure was a large factor in Trump’s drawing down agents from Minneapolis, forcing Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino into retirement, and firing DHS head Kristi Noem.

Much more is needed to stop the ICE surges, raids, and arrests of thousands of people with no criminal records. Hundreds of children are being detained in concentration camps– writing letters wishing they could go back to school, and hoping–as nine-year-old Deiver Henao Jimenez told popular child educator Ms. Rachel–to leave in time to make it to his spelling bee. What about the educational “basics” for those children? The Tribune editorial board says, “Don’t worry about it, stay in school.” The Chicago Teachers Union–like the huge number of people around the country marching, participating in community ICE watches, raising money, and engaging in mutual aid to help our neighbors say we should stop business as usual and stand for justice for our schools, our neighbors, and our communities.

We should reject the notion that things like fighting for equitable and enriching public education, defending LGBTQIA folks, and trying to stop ICE from carrying out their bullying raids, kidnapping, and murder is something that is distant political work only to be carried out in governmental buildings.

By calling for May 1 to be a Day of Civic Action–that yes, would close schools for a day–Chicago teachers are providing the opportunity for learning important lessons about what it means to participate in a democratic society, what it means to play an active role in trying to make the world better, what it means to use your voice, and what it means to stand up together in community and solidarity. These lessons are impactful, educational, and, I would argue, vital. There is a call for similar actions taking place in cities around the country.

The Tribune editorial condescendingly argues otherwise, absurdly claiming that Chicago’s teachers are “one of the greatest threats to public education” because one day of missed traditional instruction would critically damage our kids’ education and that any advocacy around education should only be done in distant “legislatures” and government buildings. Given this mindset, I am glad that the Tribune editorial board is not teaching my child. The notion that Chicago’s kids are one day away from failure is profoundly pessimistic, and we should reject the notion that things like fighting for equitable and enriching public education, defending LGBTQIA folks, and trying to stop ICE from carrying out their bullying raids, kidnapping, and murder is something that is distant political work only to be carried out in governmental buildings.

On the contrary, we should seek to instill in our kids and in our communities the conviction that we all have a role to play and that we can make change and better the world collectively, together. Indeed, as we know from all the movements for justice in this country that the Tribune editorial board may have missed in history class, this indeed is what it always takes to change the world. At this current historical moment, with the nightmare of Trump’s actions and policies swirling around us, it is urgent that Chicago’s teachers are joining with others around the country to say now is the moment, and that we can all participate–indeed we should participate–in raising our voice and playing an active role in history.

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Featured Image credit: Environmental Protection Agency; modified by Tempest.

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