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1. Background and Context

Secure land tenure, agroecology, and ecological restoration are deeply interconnected pillars of sustainable development in Africa. Evidence from AFSA’s work across the continent demonstrates that when communities, particularly smallholder farmers, pastoralists, women, youth, and Indigenous Peoples, have recognized and protected rights to land, they are more likely to invest in long-term practices that regenerate soils, conserve biodiversity, and build resilience to climate shocks.

Agroecology provides a proven framework for such practices by combining traditional knowledge with ecological principles to restore degraded landscapes while advancing food sovereignty. Ecological restoration, in turn, thrives where tenure security empowers communities to steward their territories.

It is against this backdrop that AFSA is commissioning this consultancy to develop a campaign strategy that bridges grassroots struggles with continental and global policy spaces, while amplifying community voices and driving systemic change.

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is inviting consultants to submit a technical and financial proposal for a consultancy to design and develop a comprehensive campaign strategy for the Protect Our Land, Restore Our Soil Campaign, which AFSA plans to roll out in mid-2026 over a three-year period.

AFSA is seeking an experienced consultant (or team) with a strong background in land governance, agroecology, food sovereignty, ecological restoration, food system advocacy, and movement-building in Africa, and we believe your expertise aligns well with the scope and ambition of this assignment.

2. Objective of the Assignment

Develop and design a campaign strategy to build a continental campaign and movement that places secure land tenure and ecological restoration at the centre of Africa’s transformation.

3. Scope of Work

The consultancy will entail the following components:

a) Background Paper Development

• Synthesize evidence on the interconnections between secure land tenure, agroecology, food sovereignty, and ecological restoration.
• Review AFSA documentation, relevant continental and national policy frameworks, and community testimonies.

b) Campaign Strategy Design

• Develop a robust campaign strategy aimed at:
  • Shifting public and political narratives
  • Mobilizing diverse constituencies
  • Influencing policy processes
  • Building sustained public pressure for land governance reforms.
• The strategy should prioritize:
  • Protection of communal land rights
  • Prevention of land grabbing
  • Promotion of agroecology as a pathway to healthy soils, climate resilience, and food sovereignty.

4. Expected Deliverables

The consultant will be expected to deliver the following outputs:

1. Inception Report
   • Detailed work plan, methodology, and stakeholder engagement approach.
2. Background Paper
   • A comprehensive, well-referenced paper linking land tenure security, food sovereignty, and ecological soil restoration as the foundation of the campaign.
3. Campaign Strategy Package, including:
   • Strategic framework and advocacy roadmap of the campaign
   • Three-year implementation plan
   • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework
   • Branding and communications toolkit.
4. Validation and Final Outputs
   • Validation meeting and report
   • Final (approved and launched) campaign strategy
   • Translated background paper and campaign strategy (English French).

5. Proposed Methodology

The consultancy is expected to apply a mixed-method approach, integrating doctrinal analysis and participatory techniques, including:

• Desk Review of scholarly literature, policy documents, and AFSA materials (Agenda 2063, AU Land Governance Strategy, Malabo Commitments, etc.);
• Participatory Research and human-centred design approaches through virtual FGDs with farmers, pastoralists, women, youth, and Indigenous communities;
• Key Informant Interviews with policymakers, CSOs, traditional leaders, land and agronomy professionals, AFSA Land working group, regional bodies, and funders;
• Stakeholder Consultations and Co-creation Workshops;
• Iterative Drafting and Validation with the AFSA Secretariat and steering committee.

 8. Submission Requirements

Kindly submit here your brief details here (https://forms.gle/gboWrxyGe7zrSE8cA) within 5 days (or not later than May 13). Please don’t attach CVs, technical proposals, financial proposal at this stage. We’ll invite selected candidates to submit these 1 week after the closing date.

Please feel free to reach out to me via admin@afsafrica.org if you require any clarification.

We look forward to receiving your proposal and potentially working together to advance land justice, agroecology, and ecological restoration across Africa.

Today’s jobs report shows the labor market added 115,000 jobs in April, while the number of jobs added across February and March was revised down by 16,000. Since the start of 2026, job gains have averaged just 76,000 per month. The unemployment rate held at 4.3%, near its highest level in four years. Though topline job growth figures may appear steady, this report revealed average wages grew by just 0.2% last month, which next week’s inflation print will almost certainly confirm are behind rising prices.

Groundwork’s Managing Director of Policy and Advocacy Elizabeth Pancotti released the following statement:

“While the president touts this lukewarm headline jobs report, Americans can look at their own paychecks to take the temperature of the labor market. Price hikes fueled by Trump’s senseless war and misguided tariffs are forcing Americans to stretch already-thin budgets to the brink. Working families are being crushed under the weight of Trump’s misguided economic agenda as wages slip behind the skyrocketing price of gas, groceries, and everyday goods.”

A new study identifies thousands of flowering plants belonging to rare and ancient lineages that are in urgent need of protection. 

Read more on E360 →

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. 
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.

This week ‘Leeway’ for fossil fuels

METHANE EXEMPTION: The European Commission is considering making changes to its flagship methane emissions regulation to give fossil-fuel companies “leeway to avoid penalties…in what would be a major win for the oil and gas sector”, reported Politico. According to new draft government guidelines seen by the outlet, “national authorities would be able to grant exemptions to companies on energy security grounds”. A separate Politico story said the move comes after the Trump administration “has intensified pressure on the regulation”.

GAS EXPANSION: The Guardian reported that the Norwegian government has been “heavily criticised for approving plans to reopen three North Sea gasfields nearly three decades after they were closed”, with the justification of helping to “fill the gap in energy supplies created by the Middle East war”. Oslo has also given its approval for oil and gas companies to explore 70 new locations in the North Sea, Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea, the newspaper added.

RENEWABLES INVESTMENT: The Financial Times reported that investors are “piling into clean-power funds at the fastest pace in five years as the Iran war accelerates a global push for energy security and alternatives to oil and gas, boosting a slew of stocks linked to the transition away from fossil fuels”. It added that more than £3bn has been invested in global funds linked to renewable energy in April, bringing their total net asset value up to $43bn.

Around the world

• SHIPPING TALKS: Nations are “back on track” to adopt a framework for curbing global shipping emissions, following the latest International Maritime Organization’s meeting in London, according to a Carbon Brief Q&A.
• SUPER El NIÑO: Global sea temperatures were the second highest on record for the month of April, “stoking concerns among scientists that an El Niño warming cycle is brewing that would intensify extreme weather”, reported the Financial Times.
• ROUND-THE-CLOCK: An International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) report found that “solar and wind power paired with battery storage systems are already delivering reliable, round-the-clock electricity at a lower cost than fossil fuel-dominated energy systems in a growing number of regions”, said BusinessGreen.
• KENYA FLOODS: At least 18 people have died in floods and landslides driven by heavy rain in Kenya, reported Al Jazeera.

0.15C

The average amount by which trees lower summer temperatures in cities globally, according to research in Nature Communications.

Latest climate research

• Airborne microplastics and nanoplastics have the potential to contribute to warming by absorbing sunlight | Nature Climate Change
• A mega tsunami in Alaska in 2025 was “preconditioned by glacial retreat caused by climate change” | Science
• “Net-zero global power systems meeting universal electricity needs for decent living standards are technically feasible” | Nature Energy

(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)

Captured

The UK has avoided the need for gas imports worth £1.7bn since the start of the Iran war, as a result of record electricity generation from wind and solar, according to Carbon Brief analysis. The chart above shows that wind and solar have generated a record 21 terawatt hours (TWh) on the island of Great Britain since the end of February 2026, when the US and Israel first attacked Iran. The record wind and solar output avoided the need to import 41TWh of gas – roughly 34 tankers of liquified natural gas (LNG). Importing those 34 tankers of LNG would have cost around £1.7bn, according to Carbon Brief analysis.

Spotlight Tipping troubles

New research published this week shows how even small increases in global temperature, when combined with deforestation, could push the Amazon rainforest past a “tipping point”.

Crossing this threshold would trigger the gradual transition of vast swathes of the lush rainforest into dry savannah.

On the sidelines of the European Geosciences Uniongeneral assemblyin Vienna, Carbon Brief speaks to lead author Prof Nico Wunderlingfrom Goethe University Frankfurt and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Carbon Brief: Why does the Amazon rainforest have a tipping point?

Prof Nico Wunderling: All tipping elements have important feedback mechanisms that once a threshold – the tipping point – is crossed, kick in and a change in the system is self-amplified. For the Amazon rainforest, this important feedback mechanism is the atmospheric moisture recycling – meaning that the rainforest generates much of its own rainfall.

For eastern parts of the rainforest, moisture mostly comes from the Atlantic. The rainfall it receives then evaporates and is transported towards the west. And, just to give you a sense of how large this feedback can be, for parts of the rainforest, more than 50% of its rainfall is generated by the forest itself.

Prof Nico Wunderling. Credit: Supplied

CB: How do global warming and deforestation both play a role in a potential tipping point?

NW: Both global warming and deforestation undermine this atmospheric moisture recycling. The direct way is deforestation – we cut down the forest, we lose major parts of the evapotranspiration, so you have less rainfall for the downwind forest. Also, global warming impacts the rainforest – it increases the number and intensity of droughts, which decreases the overall available rainfall and, therefore, can decrease the stability of the rainforest, which also leads to an undermining of the atmospheric moisture recycling.

Around 17% of the Amazon rainforest has already been lost. The critical threshold in our study is in the order of 22-28% of deforestation.

CB: Would such a transition be Amazon-wide? Or would it happen in pockets or regions?

NW: That actually depends on the other pressures that we expose the rainforest to. What we found is that, under climate change only [with no deforestation], the threshold kicks in at around 3.7-4C of warming. If that is crossed, then we find that around one-third of the Amazon rainforest is at risk of transitioning to a degraded ecosystem.

Then, if deforestation is also included [at 22-28%], this threshold comes down to well within the Paris Agreement limits – 1.5-1.9C of global warming. At the same time, the area at risk of transition increases from around one-third to around two-thirds to three-quarters. 

CB: In your paper, you say that crossing a tipping point is “not inevitable” – can you elaborate?

NW: In a way, for the Amazon rainforest, we’re in a better situation than with other tipping elements, because we have multiple options for improving our situation. One is we can stop global warming – we can stop emitting and curb emissions before we reach the 2C target. That’s important for the Amazon rainforest. But crucial for the Amazon rainforest is that deforestation levels are halted below 22-28%. 

And, indeed, current trends across the Amazon rainforest show that efforts to decrease deforestation are in place and they seem to work. If these trends continue, then I’m mildly optimistic that we will not reach 22-28%. But, if you would have asked me the same question five years ago, I might have said that, well, by mid-century, these values could be reached.

Watch, read, listen

AFRICA RENEWABLES: A CNBC Africa TV report examined the continent’s “renewables rise” and the “shift from climate policy to energy security”.

‘CLIMATE MONSTER’: New York Times writer David Wallace-Wells has a long read on the approach of “perhaps the most fearsome El Niño since before scientists even began modeling them”.

SANTA MARTA SUMMIT: For the Conversation, two political researchers lay out “four dynamics to watch” to determine whether the first conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia “becomes more than rhetoric”.

Coming up

• 8-9 May: Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders summit, Cebu, Philippines
• 10-14 May: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III second lead author meeting for the seventh assessment report, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• 11-12 May: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ministerial council meeting, Paris
• 11-15 May: 21st session of the UN forum on forests, New York
• 12 May: Bahamas election

Pick of the jobs

• Carbon Brief, journalism internship | Salary: £14.80 per hour (London Living Wage). Location: London/hybrid
• Secure Energy Project, campaign director | Salary: $50,000. Location: Brazil (remote)
• Commonwealth Secretariat, adviser on climate change | Salary: £80,672. Location: London
• Politico, deputy editor, Congress (energy and environmental policy) | Salary: Unknown. Location: Arlington, Virginia

DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.

This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

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The post DeBriefed 8 May 2026: EU eyes fossil-fuel exemptions | Wind and solar save UK ‘£1.7bn’ | Amazon ‘tipping point’ appeared first on Carbon Brief.

For several years, the UK car industry has been claiming that demand is not high enough to meet the government’s targets for sales of “zero emissions vehicles” (ZEVs).

To date, however, the car industry has actually beaten the targets under the government’s “ZEV mandate”.

This pattern of claiming demand is not high enough is being repeated in a regular cycle, following the publication of monthly statistics on new UK car sales by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Each month, this messaging is amplified by large sections of the media, which have published dozens of articles stating – incorrectly – that car companies are missing their ZEV targets.

Meanwhile, the car industry is lobbying for an “urgent review” of the targets, on the basis that “natural demand is still well below the level demanded by the [ZEV] mandate”.

UK car market has ‘over-complied’ with its targets

In 2021, the UK’s then Conservative government developed the idea of a “ZEV mandate” as a way to drive sales of electric vehicles (EVs).

The idea, inspired by a similar scheme in California, is to set a rising target for the share of new car and van sales that must be “zero-emissions vehicles” (ZEVs) each year.

For cars, these targets started at 22% of sales 2024, increasing gradually each year to 80% by 2030.

Towards the end of the first year of the scheme, in November 2024, the SMMT warned that the industry was “likely to fall short”, with EVs making up “just…18.7%” of sales. It said:

“The industry looks likely to fall short of the 22% EV market share demanded, potentially creating a £1.8bn bill for compliance.”

(If manufacturers fall short of their target, they can still avoid having to pay a “bill for compliance” by trading “credits” with other firms, or “borrowing” allowances from future years.)

But, contrary to the industry messaging on the headline 22% goal, the car market actually “over-complied” in 2024, according to official figures published in early 2026.

As such, all carmakers in the UK avoided fines for failing to meet their ZEV-mandate targets.

This was despite only 19.8% of new sales being EVs in 2024 – a final tally that was notably more than one percentage point higher than the industry estimate from November of that year.

The industry was able to “over-comply” with the ZEV mandate because the regime has a series of “flexibilities”, which have been created and added to after lobbying by carmakers.

These “flexibilities” allow individual firms to reduce their targets for ZEV sales by selling combustion-engine cars with lower emissions, such as hybrids or plug-in EVs.

When these “flexibilities” are considered, the car market met the equivalent of a 24.5% target, according to the government, with the surplus of 2.5% being “banked” for use in future years. This is shown in the figure below.

The required (left) and achieved (right) share of ZEVs in total UK car sales in 2024, %. “Flexibilities” include the sale of lower-emission petrol cars. Source: Department for Transport.

In May 2026, the SMMT again told Carbon Brief that EV sales in 2024 had been below the headline target.

When asked by Carbon Brief to confirm that – per the official figures – the UK car market had, nevertheless, “over-complied” with the ZEV mandate in 2024, it did not respond.

Car industry continues to lobby for weaker rules

In a January 2026 release on car sales for the previous year, the SMMT said the “gap between demand [for EVs] and ambition [in the ZEV mandate] is increasing rather than diminishing”.

At the time, Carbon Brief asked the SMMT if it recognised independent estimates from thinktanks and NGOs, showing that – on the contrary – the car industry had also met its ZEV-mandate targets for 2025.

In response, the SMMT sent Carbon Brief a quote from SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes saying that “no one will know” if the industry complied with the 2025 target until official figures come out in 2027.

While this is technically true, the official figures for 2024 showed that the thinktanks and NGOs behind the independent estimates for 2025 had been accurate with their previous forecasts of compliance.

The car industry continues to repeat similar messaging.

The SMMT stated in May 2026 that there is a “persistent gap of around six percentage points against the mandate target” of 33% in 2026 and 38% in 2027. Chief executive Mike Hawes said in the statement that “natural demand is still well below the level demanded by the mandate”.

The gap that the SMMT is referring to is between the headline ZEV targets and the expected level of EV sales, which the body says will reach 27% of all new cars this year and 33% in 2027.

The car industry continues to use these figures to call for a review of the ZEV mandate.

In its latest news release, it says the UK “needs an urgent review” and quotes Hawes saying this should be used to “align policy with market realities”.

These comments are reflected in media coverage, with the Independent, for example, running a misleading headline that says the car market is “still missing government EV targets”. The article adds:

“[T]he industry is still warning that EV demand is not growing quickly enough to meet government targets.”

What neither the SMMT press release nor much of the media coverage mentions is the existing “flexibilities” under the ZEV mandate, which were already expanded last year.

This means the headline 33% goal for 2026 can be met, even if EVs only make up around 25% of sales, according to an estimate of the “real” target published by thinktank New Automotive.

Again, the SMMT expects EVs to make up around 27% of sales this year, which would be comfortably ahead of the “real” target once flexibilities are taken into account.

The government has already pledged to review the ZEV mandate, with the results due to be published in “early 2027”.

In April, car sales platform Autotrader announced that new EVs are now cheaper to buy than petrol cars on average, “for the first time”. EVs were already significantly cheaper to own.

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The post Factcheck: What the UK car industry is not saying about EV targets appeared first on Carbon Brief.

In response, Evergy has increased its planned gas-fired generation in Missouri to 4.7 GW. Separately, it slashed its long-term renewable energy plans more than 90%.

The Nutrient Density Initiative (NDI) and Edacious are leading the Regen Nutrition Project to explore how food production practices influence the nutritional quality of foods.

NDI teamed up with Edacious, a company that provides food testing and analysis, to launch the Regen Nutrition Project in 2024. The project invites NDI’s 50-plus members—including food companies and farmers committed to producing regeneratively—to test samples of their products at Edacious’ food lab.

Edacious’ food analysis technology compares the nutrient content of regeneratively-produced foods with conventional crops to help companies demonstrate the benefits of regenerative practices.

The data “will be critical for demonstrating that eco-friendly practices that build healthy soil and work in synergy with natural systems ultimately produce foods with higher nutrient density,” Mary Purdy, Managing Director of NDI tells Food Tank.

This is particularly important at a time when producers are facing skepticism that labels reflect real differences, Eric Smith, Founder and CEO of Edacious, says. “For producers, nutrition data is becoming a way to validate practices they already believe in—and to communicate that value credibly in the marketplace,” he tells Food Tank.

Edacious and the NDI also developed a Nutrient Density Data Explorer to visualize the nutrient data collected. It breaks down the nutrient content of the samples sent in by NDI members and compares them alongside conventional retail samples.

“We want it to be useful to farmers, researchers, brands, and policymakers alike: a tool that highlights how much variability actually exists in foods, where regenerative systems may be showing early signals of improved nutrient density, and where more research is needed,” Smith says.

Results from the Data Explorer show that regeneratively-produced samples have lower fat content, a better balance of Omega-6 to Omega-3, more protein, and no heavy metals, compared to conventional samples. The project has collected data on proteins in their pilot, and they are looking forward to expanding to grains and produce next.

According to a study in the journal Foods, commercial produce such as apples, oranges, tomatoes, and potatoes have lost up to 25 to 50 percent of their nutrient density in the last 50 to 70 years. And research from the Institute of Environmental Sciences reveals that the climate crisis further threatens nutritional quality.

“As concern about health continues to rise, this evidence becomes a powerful lever for changing purchasing decisions, not only at the consumer level, but also among those with significant purchasing power, including institutions, food service and food is medicine, providers, and retailers,” Purdy tells Food Tank.

Smith makes clear that the goal of the project isn’t to create “perfect foods.” It’s “to shift the conversation toward transparency, context, and continuous improvement, so that nutrition becomes a measurable, valued outcome of how we grow and produce food.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Meizhi Lang, Unsplash

The post Regen Nutrition Project Measures Real Food Nutrient Density appeared first on Food Tank.

Between November 9 to November 20, Food Tank will be on the ground in Antalya, Turkey for the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP 31) as we push decision makers to center food and agriculture in climate solutions.

Building on our past COP programming, Food Tank will organize a series multi-stakeholder dinners, host an evening of farmer storytelling, engage with climate negotiators, and much more. Check back here for more details about our COP31 plans as they become available!

To request an invitation, suggest a speaker, or explore partnership opportunities, please reach out to Food Tank’s Events Director Kenzie Wade at kenzie@foodtank.com.

The post Join Food Tank at COP31 in Antalya, Turkey appeared first on Food Tank.

From September 19 to September 25, Food Tank will be back in New York for Climate Week NYC 2026 with WNYC.

The weeklong series of programming will include panel discussions, live performances, networking receptions, and delicious food as we discuss the many solutions that will make our food and agriculture systems an answer to the climate crisis. Summits will touch on themes including soil health, farmland conservation, the private sector’s role in driving climate action, food and nutrition security, and much more.

Last year’s Climate Week NYC programming brought together more than 300 chefs, journalists, academics, CEOs, farmers, advocates and Broadway performers. And in 2026, we’re looking forward to making an even greater impact. Check back here for more details about our Climate Week plans as they become available!

To request an invitation, suggest a speaker, or explore partnership opportunities, please reach out to Food Tank’s Events Director Kenzie Wade at kenzie@foodtank.com.

The post Join Food Tank at Climate Week NYC appeared first on Food Tank.

Mental Health Awareness Month frequently focuses on therapy and diagnosis, but in the Rio Grande Valley, mental health is inseparable from environmental realities. In Hidalgo, Starr, Willacy, and Cameron counties, conditions like extreme heat, air pollution, flooding risk, food insecurity, and limited behavioral health access converge to shape mental health.

These are not abstract public health concerns; they are daily realities that shape anxiety, depression, and recovery across communities. When families worry about whether their homes are safe, their air is clean, and their next meal is secure, mental health cannot be separated from environmental and social conditions.

Mental Health Awareness Month should expand our knowledge of mental health. It is not simply an individual concern; it is essentially shaped by local environmental and organizational factors that produce sustained psychological strain in the Rio Grande Valley.

Across the region, environmental insecurity goes beyond hurricanes, flooding, and extreme heat. Environmental insecurity goes beyond hurricanes, flooding, and extreme heat. It includes poor air quality, unstable housing, food insecurity, and limited behavioral health services. In South Texas, these stressors combine. They lead to chronic stress, fatigue, and psychological distress, often neglected by traditional mental health frameworks. State of the Air report identified the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville area as one of the most polluted regions in the United States for year-round particle pollution, ranking 16th nationally (American Lung Association, 2025). These patterns reflect sustained exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) across parts of the Rio Grande Valley, including surrounding border communities.

PM2.5 exposure is especially concerning because these microscopic particles can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Long-term exposure is linked to heart and lung disease and systemic inflammation. This increases the risk of anxiety and depression.

For communities facing economic and social stress, pollution adds a further layer to the mental health burden. Households are forced to make tradeoffs between nutrition, housing, utilities, and healthcare; the resulting stress contributes to anxiety, depression, and a persistent sense of instability. For children and families, food insecurity is not only a physical health issue, but also a chronic psychological stressor that affects development, emotional management, and long-term psychological well-being.

For residents in Starr and Willacy counties, where poverty rates remain among the highest in Texas, think Starr and Willacy counties, poverty rates are among the highest in Texas. These problems worsen with limited healthcare and behavioral health services. Ecoanxiety here are real. It reflects distress and uncertainty caused by extreme heat, flooding, and poor air quality. Physiological burden of chronic stress. Elevated allostatic load has been strongly associated with anxiety, depression, and other stress-related conditions (McEwen & Akil, 2020). For many individuals in the Rio Grande Valley, stress is not episodic, it is continuous, formed by environmental and structural conditions that are difficult to avoid.

As we observe Mental Health Awareness Month, it is critical to broaden the conversation. To properly address mental health in the Rio Grande Valley, we must acknowledge the environmental systems that shape it and promote policies that support air quality, climate resilience, food security, and environmental justice as vital factors of mental health. Dealing with these environmental and community factors is essential to reducing the mental health burden in South Texas.

About the Author:

Dr. Aaron Salinas is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg, Texas. With over a decade of experience in academia, he is dedicated to advancing nursing education and promoting student success. In addition to his academic role, Dr. Salinas is a dual board-certified Nurse Practitioner, credentialed as both a Family Nurse Practitioner and a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. He provides patient care as part of the UT Health Rio Grande Valley team at the University Health Center and collaborates with a local psychiatrist and pediatrician through consultation services.

References:

American Lung Association. (2025). State of the air 2025. https://www.lung.org/research/sota

McEwen, B. S., & Akil, H. (2020). Revisiting the stress concept: Implications for affective disorders. Journal of Neuroscience, 40(1), 12–21.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2024). Health and environmental effects of particulate matter (PM2.5). https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution

 

The post When Environment Shapes Mental Health: A Rio Grande Valley Perspective appeared first on ANHE.

A new study reveals the remarkable power of seaweed to clean—and in some cases entirely eradicate—fish waste from aquaculture. 

In the new work based out of the University of Miami, Florida, researchers tested out the abilities of several seaweed species to clean water polluted with fish effluent. Starting with multiple tanks, each containing one of four seaweed species, including a type of red seaweed, and a sea lettuce, the researchers evenly pumped through effluent-filled water into each one from a tank stocked with yellowtail snapper, a common aquaculture species in the region. 

The fish were kept in tanks at commercial production densities, to mimic the polluting effects of a fish farm. All the seaweed species received the same levels of effluent flow to compare their responses. These were also tested against control tanks that contained the seaweeds but weren’t exposed to waste from the fish tank. Researchers took regular readings of water oxygen, CO2, phosphate and ammonia levels in the water, and also tested the seaweeds for levels of protein, fat, minerals, and metals 

This steady analysis revealed that the seaweed had varying—but often striking—abilities to cleanse the water of fish waste. The most significant finding is that one species called Agardh’s red weed, a dense, frilly seaweed with a burgundy hue, reduced levels of polluting ammonia from the fish-contaminated water to below detectable levels, seemingly absorbing all this waste and using it to power its own growth. 

 

.IRPP_ruby , .IRPP_ruby .postImageUrl , .IRPP_ruby .centered-text-area {height: auto;position: relative;}.IRPP_ruby , .IRPP_ruby:hover , .IRPP_ruby:visited , .IRPP_ruby:active {border:0!important;}.IRPP_ruby .clearfix:after {content: "";display: table;clear: both;}.IRPP_ruby {display: block;transition: background-color 250ms;webkit-transition: background-color 250ms;width: 100%;opacity: 1;transition: opacity 250ms;webkit-transition: opacity 250ms;background-color: #eaeaea;}.IRPP_ruby:active , .IRPP_ruby:hover {opacity: 1;transition: opacity 250ms;webkit-transition: opacity 250ms;background-color: inherit;}.IRPP_ruby .postImageUrl {background-position: center;background-size: cover;float: left;margin: 0;padding: 0;width: 31.59%;position: absolute;top: 0;bottom: 0;}.IRPP_ruby .centered-text-area {float: right;width: 65.65%;padding:0;margin:0;}.IRPP_ruby .centered-text {display: table;height: 130px;left: 0;top: 0;padding:0;margin:0;padding-top: 20px;padding-bottom: 20px;}.IRPP_ruby .IRPP_ruby-content {display: table-cell;margin: 0;padding: 0 74px 0 0px;position: relative;vertical-align: middle;width: 100%;}.IRPP_ruby .ctaText {border-bottom: 0 solid #fff;color: #0099cc;font-size: 14px;font-weight: bold;letter-spacing: normal;margin: 0;padding: 0;font-family:'Arial';}.IRPP_ruby .postTitle {color: #000000;font-size: 16px;font-weight: 600;letter-spacing: normal;margin: 0;padding: 0;font-family:'Arial';}.IRPP_ruby .ctaButton {background: url(https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts-pro/assets/images/next-arrow.png)no-repeat;background-color: #afb4b6;background-position: center;display: inline-block;height: 100%;width: 54px;margin-left: 10px;position: absolute;bottom:0;right: 0;top: 0;}.IRPP_ruby:after {content: "";display: block;clear: both;}Recommended Reading:How seaweed farms could change the arithmetic of ocean carbon capture...for the better.

 

Additionally, tests of the water before and after it had run through the seaweed tanks showed that sea lettuce in particular was very good at absorbing carbon from the water, taking up more carbon than any other seaweed species and leaving the water significantly cleared of dissolved CO2. It also generated more oxygen than any other species. Two other seaweed species also significantly decreased the dissolved CO2 content of the effluent-infused water. 

Meanwhile, a species known as sea grapes contained the highest amounts of protein when researchers did sample testing on the effluent-fed algae, pointing to its potential nutritional value, and suggesting it could make sense to produce seaweed commercially alongside fish aquaculture. In nearly all the seaweed species, the researchers also found that samples were enriched with the analyzed nutrients after exposure to the fish-fed water.

Ultimately, the study shows how mimicking natural seascapes, by bringing together fish and seaweed, could produce double-benefits: significantly curbing pollution in the world’s fastest-growing food production sector, while providing an additional source of human nutrient and farmer revenues.

In the short-term, they hope their investigation will convince farmers to at least give seaweeds a go, and to make smarter choices about which species they select when they do.

Lasco et. al. “Evaluation of native macroalgae species of the Southeast U.S. and Caribbean for use in integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA).” Aquaculture International. 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine. AI-generated

Headline News:

• “Battery Array As Powerful As Twelve Nuclear Plants Comes To Major Milestone In California” • While Californians were getting ready for spring break in late March, the state quietly broke an energy grid record: For the first time, its battery fleet discharged more than 12,000 megawatts of power, roughly the output of twelve large nuclear plants. [Yahoo]

Diablo Canyon Power Plant (Doc Searls, CC BY-SA 2.0)

• “US Air Force Sets Its Sights On Space Solar Power” • Despite the sharp U-turn in federal energy policy, the US Air Force is continuing its pursue of the next generation of decarbonization, and space solar is in the mix. Yes, space solar. That nutty idea about beaming solar energy down to Earth. It may not be all that nutty after all. [CleanTechnica]
• “Air Conditioning Battery Program For Renters Could Help Manage Grid Stress” • A renter-friendly pilot program in New York City is testing a different approach to AC: plug-in batteries that can power air conditioners offline during peak demand, helping take pressure off the grid at its most stressed moments while still keeping residents cool. [ABC News]
• “El Niño Looms: Near-Record Sea Temperatures In April Raise Fears Of More Global Heat” • Data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service show average sea surface temperatures reached 21°C in April, the second-highest level ever recorded for the month. Parts of the tropical Pacific were especially warm, and the heat can intensify storms. [Euronews]
• “NY Pension Fund Mulls TotalEnergies Divestment” • The New York State Common Retirement Fund told TotalEnergies that it is considering divesting its stock, the Financial Times reported. The state’s pension fund’s motivation is the French developer’s decision to scrap two US offshore wind leases for a refund of nearly $1 billion in lease payments. [reNews]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Liberating work

A one-year accelerator programme to support the creation of jobs in new worker-controlled green projects has been launched by workers.coop, the UK federation of worker and social cooperatives. Called Own the Future, the programme is part of a wider effort to build an ecological and abundant economy through worker-community controlled enterprise. It is the first such initiative from the organisation, which was founded in 2023 to unite worker cooperatives and build dialogue with other worker-led initiatives including unions, social and climate justice organisations. The first Own the Future cohort includes Canopy Coop, an ecological tree surgery and forestry group in Sheffield; Valley Roots, a food distribution hub in West Yorkshire; Nanny Solidarity Network, a childcare co-op in London; Feral Express, a queer bike courier in Sheffield; and Zero Emissions Delivery Waltham Forest, an established courier firm in London looking to transition to worker ownership.

Shifting power and wealth to workers

GJA’s Steering Group recently hosted a presentation by Siôn Whellens from workers.coop, where he outlined the political history and current status of the UK’s worker cooperatives, the composition of the new federation and its ambition to connect with other worker-led bodies.

workers.coop currently has around 100 businesses in membership, and a wider base of around 2,000 individual supporters. Enterprise members range from large organisations working in adult social care and wholesaling to medium sized engineering firms and smaller collectives of workers in ‘tech for good’, research, retailing, community-led agriculture and communications.

The federation’s members are distinct from businesses owned in trust for ‘employee benefit’. Most of them are rooted in the ecological and social movements, and practice radical worker democracy. workers.coop itself describes its mission as

“To enable workers to unite and collectively advance their economic, social and cultural interests. We value collaboration, solidarity and care for each other, our communities and our planet”.

Pride in Work?

While noting that up until now worker cooperatives have mainly been at the edge of Steering Group members’ awareness, they were particularly interested in the potential for worker-owned co-ops in industries such as solar installation and domestic retrofit. It was agreed to maintain links and dialogue between the two networks, with a view to identifying and capitalising on new opportunities.

workers.coop has free resources for unions and worker groups that might be researching democratic and ecological startups and business conversions, as well as access to a nationwide and international network of organisers and advisers. The federation and the Centre for Democratic Business recently issued a call for the government to close the circle of its £5bn ‘Price in Place’ investment in run-down high streets, by funding a sister programme provisionally called ‘Pride in Work’.This would be aimed at enabling workers and local communities to secure ownership and control of key local workplaces, with a focus on local renewable energy projects, the care sector, logistics and green retailing.

GJA supporters interested in developing links with worker-led cooperatives are invited to check out forum.workers.coop, or to receive occasional emails, including Own the Future updates. Anyone looking for specific advice or information can email solidarity@workers.coop

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In April 2026, Indigenous women’s groups announced looming funding cuts for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG+) support. These cuts occurred without transparent communication or forewarning. At the press conference, Hilda Anderson-Pryz stated, “in March, crucial funding to some Indigenous organizations ended with no official notification of renewal… This lack of sustained support is a significant barrier to making real progress and combating this crisis. Today, our right to life is threatened by the lack of political will and it will remain so until the government enacts the 231 calls for justice. But seven years later… only two have been fully implemented.” Anderson-Pryz addresses the heart of the matter – the true cost of funding cuts – Indigenous women’s lives. 

This economic austerity measure is known as the “sunsetting” of funding. In this case, the federal government will allow critical funding to expire without renewal.

Contrary to the National Inquiry’s (2019) Calls for Justice, which outline the need for long-term, guaranteed, and sustainable funding, multiple programs and projects involving “Indigenous rights, title, and gender-based violence prevention and response” are on the chopping block (Macdonald & McIntosh, 2025). These cutbacks demonstrate that the lives of Indigenous women do not matter to Canada. 

In response to the press conference, over 400 family members of MMIWG+ have questioned the efficacy of National Indigenous women’s organizations. In a letter to Federal government officials, they note that “these organizations do not represent the families” (Ward, 2026, para. 3). This distrust is indicative of tensions between families and Indigenous women’s groups. Both this letter from family members and the National Inquiry (2019) emphasize the need to invest in and resource self-determined, family and survivor-led solutions. 

In this period of economic austerity, and given Canada’s long history of gendered colonization, it is not a surprise that gender-based reconciliatory initiatives are considered expendable.

What do Trump and Carney Have in Common? 

These austerity measures follow news south of the border, where the Trump administration is making funding cuts to the Office on Violence Against Women, which will disproportionately affect Indigenous women. In November 2025, as a part of its attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion, Trump’s administration removed a report from the Department of Justice on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples. Another generation of Indigenous women, on both sides of colonially imposed borders, is now subject to, and targeted by, government policy and societal indifference.

Canada likes to position itself as superior to our Southern neighbours, perpetuating a master narrative of a peaceful, multicultural, accepting, and polite country (Thobani, 2007). This posturing obscures the ongoing colonial genocidal violence that Indigenous Peoples experience through state regimes, policies, and systems. Our relationship to the nation state has always been defined by violence, and hate against Indigenous women runs deep. Despite a master narrative that portrays Canada as a human rights beacon, Indigenous women’s human rights are continuously violated (Luoma, 2021; National Inquiry, 2019a). 

Racism, heteropatriarchy, and misogyny have contributed to Indigenous women being targeted for violence (Bourgeois, 2018; National Inquiry, 2019). The “root cause of violence” against Indigenous women and girls is a “race-based genocide,” and gendered colonization that impacts our safety and contributes to increased violence (Duhamel, 2015; National Inquiry, 2019). Through framing MMIWG as an “Indigenous problem,” Canada has obscured its culpability for ongoing genocide (Bourgeois, 2015; Dowling, 2019; National Inquiry, 2019). The rise in residential school denialism, white nationalism, and general disdain for Indigenous Peoples continues apace, colliding with growing economic uncertainty and fear. 

The Economics of Gender (In)Justice  

Under “Canada Strong,” Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Federal government made massive budget cuts to “Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC),” and to employees who work on the Indigenous rights and relations portfolio at the Department of Justice. These fiscal constraints will widen socio-economic gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples and contribute to the continued underfunding of essential human services. These cutbacks are not “neutral but in fact follow… racial [and, in this case, gendered] lines” (Levesque, 2025, para. 8). 

Despite Human Rights Tribunal findings that the Canadian government has continuously discriminated against Indigenous children through underfunding child welfare services, these recent measures represent a continued colonial strategy of slashing funding and violating the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Notably, “the Canadian Human Rights Commission” is also slated to face funding cuts, which will surely exacerbate the impact of these austerity measures (Levesque, 2025; Smith, 2025, para. 11). 

Amidst this uncertainty, Canada’s economic priorities reveal a shallow commitment to “reconciliation” (Assembly of First Nations, 2025) and gender justice, with disproportionate impacts for Indigenous women. Additionally, federal service cuts include Correctional Service Canada (CSC). Over 50% of federally incarcerated women are Indigenous (and have an MMIW family member). Given the importance of literacy levels for rehabilitation and reintegration, CSC’s proposed cuts to “library technicians and employment co-ordinator positions” will contribute to the ongoing confinement of Indigenous women (Ibrahim, 2026, para. 1), contrary to the Department of Justice’s Indigenous Justice Strategy (IJS) released in March 2025. 

Implementing the IJS strategy will require “substantial effort and funding commitments” (Horn, 2025, para. 11). The 2025 Canada Strong Budget does not mention the IJS. Just like the clip art adorning the IJS – this is yet another example of window dressing – the shifts, niceties, and apologies that momentarily give us hope, “only to ultimately crush it” (Horn, 2025, para. 13). 

Together, these economic measures confirm that the era of rights and reconciliation for Indigenous Peoples, and Indigenous women in particular, is long gone. Instead, as the budget reveals, our inherent rights, laws, and lives are overridden in pursuit of military, extractive, and industrial projects, so-called economic reconciliation or, the “National Interest.”

Economic reconciliation maintains dependence on a predatory economy and perpetuates violence against the land, waters, and Indigenous women. It is not freedom. It is not self-determination. It is colonization. 

Clearly, the lives, human rights, and safety of Indigenous women are not a priority for the Federal government. These austerity measures coincide with record-breaking military spending. As NDP Member of Parliament Leah Gazan noted, Prime Minister Carney is cutting approximately “$7 billion of funding between ISC and Crown-Indigenous relations… and has recently committed $13 billion in military funding.” Funding constraints continue amidst increasing rates of violence against Indigenous women, and minimal effort to implement the National Inquiry’s calls for justice. 

Violence on Violence

Indigenous women have long identified the solutions, programs, and support needed to respond to and protect them from violence. Those solutions have been consistently ignored by successive colonial governments (Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba, 1991; Amnesty International 2004; National Inquiry, 2019; Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996). Families have continuously questioned decisions that are made without them, behind closed doors. 

This lack of transparency and accountability continues with the Canada Strong Budget (2025). Existing programming was already subject to patchwork – meaning it is often unsustainable, short-term, and project-based (or all three) – funding issues, and ongoing struggles to meet the needs of clientele (National Inquiry, 2019a). 

Tightening the fiscal shoestrings and using stealthy “sunsetting” to halt funding that supports ending violence against Indigenous women – while simultaneously increasing funding to support the military industrial complex – demonstrates the Canadian government’s ongoing commitment to sustaining shape-shifting colonial violence.

Endnotes

Assembly of First Nations [AFN]. Federal Budget 2025. AFN, 2025. https://afn.ca/all-news/bulletins/federal-budget-2025/ 

Bourgeois, E. “Generations of genocide – The historical roots of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.” In K. Anderson, C. Belcourt, & M. Campbell (Eds.), Keetsahnak, Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters. University of Alberta Press, 2018.

Bourgeois, R. “Colonial exploitation: The Canadian state and the trafficking of Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada.” UCLA Law Review, 1426 (2015): 1428-1463. 

CPAC. “Indigenous women’s groups warn of the sunsetting of some funding for MMIWG supports.” April 8, 2026 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/live/ak-r2G48WeA 

Department of Justice Canada. Indigenous Justice Strategy. Government of Canada, 2025. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/ijr-dja/ijs-sja/tijs-lsja/pdf/IJS_EN.pdf 

Dowling, S. Elimination, in the feminine. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 21.6 (2019): 787-802. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2019.1607525

Duhamel, K.R. “‘I feel like my spirit knows violence’ understanding genocide – and how to stop it – in the context of the National inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.” In J. Black-Morsette (Ed.), REDress. HighWater Press, 2025.

Fryer, S. & Leblanc-Laurendeau, O. Background paper: Understanding federal jurisdiction and First Nations (Publication No. 1019-51-E). Parliamentary Information and Research Service, 2019. https://lop.parl.ca/staticfiles/PublicWebsite/Home/ResearchPublications/BackgroundPapers/PDF/2019-51-E.pdf 

Government of Canada. Canada Strong Budget 2025. Government of Canada, 2025. https://budget.canada.ca/2025/report-rapport/pdf/budget-2025.pdf 

Horn, K. “The Indigenous Justice Strategy: ‘Progressive and Transformative Reform’?” Yellowhead Institute, May 21, 2025. https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2025/the-indigenous-justice-strategy-progressive-and-transformative-reform/ 

Hwang, P. “Cuts targeting Indigenous rights staff at Justice Department ‘reckless,’ critics warn.” CBC News. February 23, 2026. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/cuts-targeting-indigenous-rights-staff-at-justice-department-reckless-critics-warn-9.7097164 

Ibrahim, S. “Federal prisons to lose library technicians, employment co-ordinators in budget cuts.” CBC News. March 11, 2026. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/prison-cuts-librarians-employment-coordinators-9.7123434 

Lapointe, J. “Can the new B.C. government bring real change for Indigenous communities?” The Narwhal. November 20, 2024. https://thenarwhal.ca/energy-economic-reconciliation-indigenous-youth-bc/ 

Levesque, A. “Carney government cuts unfairly hit First Nations.” Policy Options. July 22, 2025.https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/07/budget-cuts-first-nations/ 

Luetkemeyer, E. “Trump administration removes report on Missing and Murdered Native Americans, calling it DEI content.” Oklahoma Watch. November 14, 2025. https://oklahomawatch.org/2025/11/14/trump-administration-removes-report-on-missing-and-murdered-native-americans-calling-it-dei-content/ 

Luoma, C. “Closing the cultural rights gap in transitional justice: Developments from Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.” Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 39.1 (2021): 30-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0924051921992747 

Macdonald, D. & Mcintosh, E. ‘Budget cuts by stealth: Letting programs ‘sunset’ to cut costs won’t be painless.” Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. October 28, 2025. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/budget-cuts-by-stealth-letting-programs-sunset-to-cut-costs-wont-be-painless/ 

National Inquiry. (2019a). Reclaiming power and place: The final report of the National Inquiry Intro Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. National Inquiry, 2019. https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_Report_Vol_1a-1.pdf
Pember, M.A. “Trump administration targets office on violence against women with ‘consolidation.’” ICT News. January 29, 2026. https://ictnews.org/news/trump-administration-targets-office-on-violence-against-women-with-consolidation/ 

Smith, D. “‘Concerning’ cuts to justice system in federal budget.” CBA National. November 5, 2025. https://nationalmagazine.ca/fr-ca/articles/law/hot-topics-in-law/2025/%E2%80%98concerning-cuts-to-justice-system-in-federal-budget 

Thobani, S. Exalted subjects: Studies in the making of race and nation in Canada. University of Toronto Press, 2007.

Citation:

McGuire, Michaela M. “Sunsetting Gender Justice: Economic Austerity and the Defunding of MMIWG+ Supports,” Yellowhead Institute. May 08, 2026. https://yellowheadinstitute.org/2026/sunsetting-gender-justice-economic-austerity-and-the-defunding-of-mmiwg-supports

Artwork: MMIR 2024, Solange Aguilar, @shesanargonaut

The post Sunsetting Gender Justice: <br> Economic Austerity and the Defunding of MMIWG+ Supports appeared first on Yellowhead Institute.

Permainan slot online sering dianggap sepenuhnya bergantung pada keberuntungan. Namun, pemain berpengalaman memahami bahwa ada beberapa indikator penting yang dapat dianalisis untuk membaca ritme permainan secara lebih efektif. Istilah seperti RTP, volatilitas, hit frequency, hingga pola bonus sebenarnya bukan mitos semata, melainkan bagian dari sistem matematis yang membentuk perilaku sebuah game slot.

Meski demikian, penting untuk memahami satu hal sejak awal: slot online modern bekerja sehingga tidak ada pola pasti yang dapat menjamin kemenangan. Yang bisa dilakukan pemain adalah membaca karakteristik permainan untuk meningkatkan efisiensi bermain dan mengelola risiko dengan lebih cerdas.

Apa yang Dimaksud dengan “Pola Slot”?

Dalam praktik komunitas pemain, “pola slot” biasanya mengacu pada:

• Frekuensi munculnya scatter
• Jarak antar bonus
• Perubahan ritme kemenangan kecil
• Pola taruhan tertentu
• Perilaku volatilitas game

Secara teknis, pola ini bukan rumus pasti, melainkan observasi statistik terhadap perilaku game dalam periode tertentu.

Pemain profesional umumnya tidak percaya pada “kode rahasia slot”, tetapi lebih fokus membaca:

• jenis volatilitas,
• distribusi pembayaran,
• RTP,
• dan momentum permainan.

Faktor Penting untuk Membaca Pola Slot 1. RTP (Return to Player)

RTP adalah persentase teoritis pengembalian dana kepada pemain dalam jangka panjang.

Contoh sederhana:

RTP=96%=96100RTP = 96\% = \frac{96}{100}RTP=96%=10096​

Artinya, dari total taruhan 100 unit, game secara teori mengembalikan 96 unit kepada pemain dalam jutaan putaran. Namun RTP bukan jaminan hasil sesi pribadi.

Cara Menggunakan RTP untuk Membaca Pola

• RTP tinggi (>96%) biasanya lebih stabil
• RTP rendah cenderung lebih agresif terhadap bankroll
• RTP tinggi cocok untuk permainan jangka panjang

Pemain berpengalaman sering memilih game dengan RTP tinggi untuk mengurangi risiko kehilangan modal terlalu cepat.

2. Volatilitas Slot

Volatilitas menentukan bagaimana slot membayar kemenangan.

Volatilitas Rendah

• Menang lebih sering
• Nilai kemenangan kecil
• Cocok untuk modal kecil

Volatilitas Tinggi

• Kemenangan lebih jarang
• Potensi jackpot besar
• Membutuhkan modal lebih kuat

Hubungan RTP dan volatilitas sering disalahpahami. Dua slot bisa memiliki RTP sama tetapi pengalaman bermain sangat berbeda.

Analogi Praktis

Bayangkan dua game memiliki RTP 96%:

• Slot A memberi kemenangan kecil setiap beberapa spin
• Slot B jarang menang tetapi sekali menang nilainya besar

Inilah mengapa pemain perlu membaca “karakter game”, bukan hanya angka RTP.

Cara Membaca Momentum Slot Secara Praktis 1. Perhatikan Hit Frequency

Hit frequency adalah seberapa sering kemenangan muncul.

Ciri slot dengan hit frequency tinggi:

• Banyak kemenangan kecil
• Balance lebih stabil
• Bonus muncul lebih konsisten

Sedangkan hit frequency rendah biasanya:

• Banyak spin kosong
• Bonus sulit muncul
• Potensi payout besar saat menang

Pemain berpengalaman biasanya melakukan 20–50 spin awal untuk membaca ritme game sebelum meningkatkan taruhan.

2. Analisis Pola Scatter dan Bonus

Scatter menjadi indikator penting dalam observasi pola slot.

Beberapa tanda yang sering diperhatikan:

• Scatter muncul berulang di reel tertentu
• Bonus hampir aktif beberapa kali
• Free spin mulai lebih sering muncul

Meskipun tetap acak, banyak pemain menggunakan observasi ini untuk menentukan:

• lanjut bermain,
• pindah game,
• atau menurunkan taruhan.

Membaca Slot Volatilitas Tinggi

Misalkan seorang pemain mencoba game dengan:

• RTP 96,5%
• volatilitas tinggi,
• max win besar.

Dalam 100 spin pertama:

• 70 spin kosong
• 20 kemenangan kecil
• 8 kemenangan sedang
• 2 bonus free spin

Bagi pemain baru, pola ini terlihat buruk. Namun bagi pemain berpengalaman, ini normal untuk slot volatilitas tinggi.

Game jenis ini sering:

• menyimpan payout besar,
• memiliki fase “kering”,
• lalu memberikan lonjakan kemenangan besar.

Karena itu, pemain profesional biasanya:

• menyiapkan bankroll lebih panjang,
• menggunakan taruhan stabil,
• dan tidak langsung mengejar kekalahan.

Mengikuti Pola Tanpa Memahami Volatilitas

Banyak pemain mengikuti “pola gacor” tanpa memahami tipe game.

Padahal:

• pola taruhan cocok di slot rendah volatilitas belum tentu efektif di slot tinggi volatilitas,
• setiap provider memiliki algoritma distribusi berbeda.

Bermain Emosional

Ketika kalah beruntun, banyak pemain:

• menaikkan taruhan,
• mengejar kekalahan,
• kehilangan kontrol bankroll.

Dalam analisis profesional, pengelolaan modal justru lebih penting dibanding mencari pola.

Strategi Membaca Pola Secara Efektif Gunakan Pendekatan Statistik

Fokus pada:

• RTP,
• volatilitas,
• hit frequency,
• dan distribusi bonus.

Jangan terpaku pada mitos komunitas semata.

Catat Performa Game

Pemain serius sering membuat catatan:

• jumlah spin,
• frekuensi scatter,
• waktu bonus muncul,
• pola kemenangan besar.

Data sederhana ini membantu memahami karakter masing-masing game.

Tetapkan Batas Bermain

Strategi terbaik tetap berasal dari kontrol diri:

• tentukan target kemenangan,
• tentukan batas kekalahan,
• berhenti saat target tercapai.

Mengapa Pola Slot Tetap Menarik Dipelajari?

Walaupun slot berbasis, pola perilaku matematis tetap bisa dianalisis secara statistik. Inilah alasan mengapa:

• streamer slot,
• analis kasino,
• hingga komunitas pemain profesional
  sering membahas RTP, volatilitas, dan momentum permainan.

Namun para ahli juga sepakat bahwa:

• tidak ada sistem pasti untuk menang,
• tidak ada jam gacor universal,
• dan tidak ada pola yang bisa mengalahkan RNG secara konsisten.

Kesimpulan

Membaca pola slot online secara efektif bukan berarti mencari trik rahasia untuk menang terus-menerus. Pendekatan yang benar adalah memahami cara kerja game melalui:

• RTP,
• volatilitas,
• hit frequency,
• serta perilaku bonus.

Pemain yang cerdas tidak hanya mengandalkan insting, tetapi juga menggunakan observasi, manajemen modal, dan pemahaman statistik sederhana untuk mengambil keputusan bermain yang lebih rasional.

Pada akhirnya, slot online tetap merupakan permainan berbasis probabilitas. Semakin baik pemain memahami struktur matematis di balik permainan, semakin kecil kemungkinan terjebak dalam keputusan emosional dan mitos yang menyesatkan.

Harjeet Singh is a climate activist and strategic advisor to the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, as well as founding director of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.

For thirty years, global climate talks perfected policy paralysis around the primary cause of the climate crisis: fossil fuels. Within the UNFCCC negotiations, the “consensus card” was played with surgical precision by the fossil fuel industry and wealthy producer nations to block meaningful action.

For decades, talks were restricted to the “demand side” – reducing emissions – while the “supply side” – the extraction of oil, gas, and coal – was treated as a forbidden subject. This so-called progress was a treadmill, leading nowhere despite plenty of sweat.

The breaking point: from Belém to Santa Marta

The failure peaked at COP30 in Belém, where, despite widespread support, the final outcome contained no fossil fuel phase-out mandate. Instead, the world watched as the COP30 Presidency announced a “roadmap” initiative at the very end of the talks – a face-saving measure that lacked formal standing in the process.

The halls of Belém were once again crawling with lobbyists, ensuring that “consensus” remained a tool for delay. Recognising the UNFCCC logjam, Global South countries in the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative demanded a series of dedicated conferences.

• Apr 30, 2026 News Santa Marta summit kick-starts work on key steps for fossil fuel transition The conference offers some 60 nations help to develop roadmaps to shift their economies away from coal, oil and gas, and make international trade green Read more
• Apr 28, 2026 News Santa Marta: Ministers grapple with practicalities of fossil fuel phase-out Around 60 governments that want to make progress on transitioning away from coal, oil and gas are meeting in Colombia to work out how they can do it an equitable way Read more

Colombia, the biggest producer among them, broke the status quo by pioneering this new path: the First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, joined by the Netherlands as co-host.

The pioneering conference in Santa Marta in late April moved us from the “if” to the “how”, signalling a shift from airy pledges to the reality of implementation. But as the dust settles, a more ancient struggle is resurfacing: the struggle for the “pen”.

The invisible hand of control

History shows that when developed nations can no longer block a process, they attempt to colonise it. In Santa Marta, we witnessed the opening gambit of a familiar play – exclusion followed by takeover. Critics signalled this early on in an open letter, calling out the systemic disregard for African lives and environments in global policy and the persistent marginalisation of Indigenous Peoples’ voices and concerns.

Under the guise of “technical support”, wealthy nations fought to steer the outcome of workstreams towards Global North-dominated institutions. Despite the expertise they may bring, why are the recognised bodies for this process exclusively based in an area representing only 20% of the world’s population?

The hastily assembled report containing the “Chairs’ Takeaways” from Santa Marta requires scrutiny and raises the following concerns:

• The Roadmap Trap: Connecting national transition plans to the Science Panel on the Global Energy Transition (SPGET) and the NDC Partnership. These bodies, largely dominated by Western experts, risk imposing frameworks that treat sovereign developing nations as markets for the private sector. Will “science” be used to legitimise a Global North-centric status quo while ignoring debt, trade and finance rules, and other forces that shape national policy?

• The Financial Architecture: Pushing the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to lead the work on macroeconomic dependencies on fossil fuels. Expertise matters, but whose stability is going to be prioritised? Is it the communities losing their livelihoods, or the global financial systems that grew fat on fossil fuel rents?

• The Trade Filter: Bringing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – a club of wealthy nations – into “producer–consumer alignment”. This is a coup to ensure the international trade system keeps serving the West and its elites under the guise of “coordination”.

A view of the room during the opening plenary of the Santa Marta conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels on April 28, 2026 (Photo by IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis) A view of the room during the opening plenary of the Santa Marta conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels on April 28, 2026 (Photo by IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis) The “dos and don’ts” for developed nations

For decades, the responsibility of rich nations to provide public finance for climate action in vulnerable countries has been replaced by private sector “leverage”. Developed nations must stop using “climate finance” as a tool to open new markets for their multinational corporations and put actual, grant-based finance on the table to support the transition in the Global South.

They should also refrain from forcing every initiative back into the UNFCCC gridlock, where meaningful progress on a fossil fuel phase-out has been systematically blocked.

Finally, it is critical that the Santa Marta process is recognised as a sovereign space for historically silenced nations to hold polluters accountable, rather than being treated as a showroom for Western exports.

This requires addressing the hypocrisy of so-called “front runners”. Canada, France, Ireland, Australia and Norway attend these conferences as “leaders” while greenlighting oil and gas expansion. You cannot lead a transition while pouring fuel on the fire. Leadership requires immediately ending expansion; anything else is an expensive photo-op.

Unity as the ultimate tool

For developing nations, the path forward is radical unity. Global North diplomacy often seeks to divide and conquer through bilateral deals that bypass collective power. Developing nations must refuse to be cowed.

This is a chance to move beyond tools that prioritise debt and trade over development. Collectively, the Global South can build technical and financial frameworks that advance energy sovereignty and justice. South-South cooperation must be the primary engine of a fair transition that holds historical polluters accountable.

The road to Tuvalu 2027 – reclaiming the agenda

The announcement that Tuvalu will co-host the second conference in 2027 is a political necessity. Tuvalu, a least developed country, is a living symbol of the climate crisis and a vanguard of justice.

Tuvalu must have the power to set the agenda from day one. This cannot be another “safe space” for dialogue without commitment, as seen at the first conference. The road to Tuvalu must advance a mechanism that gained wider support in Santa Marta but was ignored in the Chairs’ Takeaways: a Fossil Fuel Treaty.

We need a framework to manage the decline of fossil fuel extraction based on fair shares and equity, turning international cooperation into support for resilient, renewable economies.

The process has only just begun. Santa Marta was the spark, but Tuvalu must be the engine room of implementation. The Global South must take the pen to script the transition rooted in equity and justice.

The post Developing countries must hold the pen to script the fossil fuel transition appeared first on Climate Home News.

Johnny Appleseed was ahead of his time. Not because he fed so many people by planting apple trees (really, he got them drunk instead, as his real goal was encouraging the production of cider), but because he created so much shade to enjoy on hot days. More than two centuries later, American cities are wishing they had better followed Appleseed’s lead, as rising temperatures and a lack of tree cover combine to make urban life increasingly stifling.

A pair of new studies show how simply planting more trees can provide huge temperature benefits, not to mention how the additional plant life would boost biodiversity and improve mental health for urbanites. The first finds that tree cover can cancel half of the heat island effect, in which the urban jungle gets much hotter than the surrounding countryside. The second compares neighborhoods in 65 American cities, finding that canopy-deprived areas suffer up to 40 percent more excess heat than heavily greened spots. 

Places like New York and Atlanta and Los Angeles, then, don’t just have to foster and maintain their “gray” infrastructure — roads and sidewalks and such — but their living infrastructure as well. “Heat is already a major public health threat. It kills 350,000 people a year by some estimates, and it’s worse in cities,” said Robert McDonald, the Nature Conservancy’s lead scientist for nature-based solutions and lead scientist for Europe, who spearheaded the first paper. “The urban heat island effect would be about double what it is now if world cities didn’t have trees.”

By increasing their canopies, metropolises dress themselves like their more comfortable rural counterparts. A vegetated area cools itself both because plants “sweat” by releasing moisture from their leaves, and because trees provide shade. By contrast, concrete absorbs the sun’s energy, driving temperatures up, and releases it throughout the night. That beats back the cooling typically experienced in the evening, meaning urbanites without air conditioning don’t get respite. This is especially dangerous for vulnerable groups like the elderly, and it’s one reason heat kills more Americans every year than all other extreme weather events combined.

Such conditions are especially dangerous for those living in lower-income neighborhoods, which tend to have significantly less tree canopy than richer areas. In industrialized areas, for example, vast stretches of concrete absorb and radiate heat. In urban centers, policymakers may have prioritized building dense housing without incorporating ample tree cover. Compare that to the suburbs, which have plenty of parks, curbside trees, and yards to cool things down.

The differences in greenery between neighborhoods translates into striking differences in temperatures. The second study calculated this “cooling dividend,” or the difference in the average urban heat island in areas with low and high canopy cover. It found gaps reaching almost 4 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re lucky enough to live where there’s lots of trees, you might experience 20 to 40 percent less excess heat. The report found that this is playing out regularly across the U.S. “I think what maybe was surprising is that there was a dramatic amount of consistency,” said Steve Whitesell, executive editor at the Healthy Green Spaces Coalition, which authored the report. “In other words, they were all showing an impact.”

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The trick is not just planting enough trees, but planting the right kind. The biggest species provide the most shade, of course. But more cryptically, some provide more evaporative cooling than others — drought-adapted trees, for instance, try to retain as much water as they can. A neighborhood might also want to prioritize food production, opting for trees that create both shade and fruit. Favoring native varieties will also help support native animal life, like birds and pollinating insects. 

Climate change, though, is complicating these calculations. Even in rural areas, without the added temperatures of the urban heat island effect, some places are getting so hot that native plants are moving north in search of cooler climes. Within cities, they are blasted with still more heat — and temperatures will only climb from here. So urban arborists aren’t just planting species that will thrive today, but will survive the climate of tomorrow. “I think that for us to use trees as a type of living infrastructure, that can counter those increased temperatures, is paramount,” said Edith de Guzman, a cooperative extension researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies urban heat but wasn’t involved in either study. “I think it’s pretty much the most important thing we can do.”

But trees alone can’t save urbanites. McDonald’s study found that even if cities planted as many as possible, it would only offset 20 percent of the potential running up of temperatures due to climate change. Designers will have to deploy other techniques, like reflective rooftops, to manage the heat. That’s especially important in poorer nations, whose cities are rapidly growing but have much less tree cover than richer countries, the study found. “It’s just to say that climate change is a big enough challenge that while planting more tree cover helps with temperatures, it won’t do the job by itself,” McDonald said. 

Urban areas have been here before, McDonald added. As the Industrial Revolution kicked in, people in overpopulated metropolises would have to travel to the countryside to glimpse greenery. An exception was London, with its many publicly available green spaces, which Paris took as inspiration when it essentially rebuilt itself in the 1800s and made room for massive parks. Today, planners are similarly bringing some of the country back into the city, blurring the lines between rural and urban. “We know how to increase tree cover, if we put our minds to it,” McDonald said. “But it takes effort and time.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The solution to urban heat is much, much simpler than you think on May 8, 2026.

Campaigners working to limit the use of controversial sun-dimming technology have praised the Europe’s foreign ministers for warning of the risks such technology poses, but opinions remain split over whether it merits more research, with the European Union keeping its position open for now.

At a joint council meeting in Luxembourg, ministers representing the EU’s 27 member states signed off on a statement agreeing for the first time that they were “concerned that large-scale climate interventions, in particular solar radiation modification (SRM), pose significant risks for the climate, the environment, security and geopolitics”.

Their statement, issued in late April, called for a moratorium on deployment of SRM technologies, as well as “the full application of the precautionary principle to geoengineering” and for the EU to engage in international talks on international governance arrangements, including those related to research.

SRM refers to any deliberate attempt to reduce the amount of heat which reaches the Earth from the sun. This could be carried out by artificially brightening clouds or injecting aerosols into the atmosphere, which could reduce or reverse global warming but risk severe and unpredictable side-effects.

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The risks of carrying out SRM are widely acknowledged but climate campaigners and scientists remain divided on to what extent and how its effects should be researched, with some arguing that such work normalises it and encourages its deployment.

Experts on both sides of the debate welcomed the EU’s statement but made contrasting calls on what should happen next. A more pro-research group said the EU should encourage responsible research into SRM’s effects while more anti-research campaigners said the EU should prevent research that could lead to SRM’s deployment and agree not to use it.

Responsible research

Giulia Neri, the interim director of climate interventions at the Brussels-based think-tank Centre for Future Generations (CFG), which supports research into SRM, told Climate Home News that the EU’s statement sends “an important and timely signal on the need for rules governing SRM”.

She added that the fact it was issued by foreign – not climate – ministers shows “a growing recognition that SRM is a geopolitically relevant technology and not merely a climate-related issue”.

Her colleague, CFG adviser on climate interventions, Matthias Honneger added that the EU nations’ ministers in charge of research “might also consider how responsible public research under European oversight can help maintain Europe’s influence”.

This is especially important, Honneger said, as “private and global actors increasingly dominate what we know about this technology and its risks and benefits”.

A well-funded US-Israeli company Stardust claims to be developing the ability to carry out SRM and is seeking customers – including the US government – to pay for them to do so.

Impossible to test

Mary Chuch, who campaigns against geoengineering for the Center for International Environmental Law, also welcomed the foreign ministers’ statement.

She said it was right to emphasise “the risks of highly speculative geoengineering technologies, centre the precautionary principle and reinforce the longstanding moratorium under the Convention on Biological Diversity”.

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But, rather than calling for more research, she and political scientist Frank Biermann called for the EU to join governments in Africa and the Pacific in calling for an international non-use agreement on solar geoengineering.

“As an immediate first step, the European Union must prevent research that could lead to the development and use of solar geoengineering technologies,” Biermann said.

Church said that solar geoengineering is “inherently unpredictable” and that it was “impossible to fully test for intended and unintended impacts without prolonged large-scale implementation”.

De facto moratorium

The council’s conclusion did not weigh in on the research debate, only resolving to engage in talks on the governance of research.

But European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva said in 2024 that research should continue although it should be “rigorous and ethical, and it must take full account of the possible range of direct and indirect effects”.

Also in 2024, the Swiss government attempted to get countries at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) to set up an expert group on SRM. But this failed due to opposition from the African Group, Colombia, Mexico and others, and Switzerland did not try again at the last UNEA in December 2025.

SRM is currently legal in most nations. But there has been a de facto global moratorium in place on geoengineering – which includes SRM – since 2010, when it was agreed by governments under the Convention on Biological Diversity, with exceptions for small-scale scientific research studies.

The post EU warns on solar geoengineering but research debate grinds on appeared first on Climate Home News.

Wetlands, rivers and ecosystems do not stop functioning when legal definitions change. The long-term stability of environmental protection may depend less on enforcement than on cultural attitudes toward nature itself.

In the final part of this three-part interview series, Richard Heinberg reflects on decades of ignored warnings about energy descent and economic collapse, calling for a voluntary relocalization of economics and politics.