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While degrowth in Europe is often framed as a deliberate choice, Japan’s version is distinctive - and instructive. Japan offers a rare set of living experiments in how communities can actually function, and even thrive, without growth as the organizing goal.

A new report finds that across the globe, progress toward developing more sustainable, resilient food systems is not advancing fast enough to meet internationally agreed upon deadlines. 

The research builds on previous studies tracking a number of goals, including some established a decade ago by United Nations member countries, like eliminating hunger and poverty. The deadline to reach these targets, known as Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, is 2030. The paper also considers net-zero emissions goals set by the Paris Agreement. For the majority of these goals, researchers involved in this study say it is now virtually impossible to reach the 2030 deadline. 

The report, led by the Food Systems Countdown Initiative, differs from the group’s earlier work by measuring progress at both the global and regional level. Alongside their paper, which was published in Nature Food earlier this month, the authors launched an interactive dashboard that showcases how nearly every country in the world is advancing (or not) on about 50 metrics. These include things like the cost of a healthy diet, fruit and vegetable availability, agricultural yields, greenhouse gas emissions from growing food, and more. 

For certain environmental and climate-related metrics, this food systems report card feels especially dire. 

For example, the authors looked at how much greenhouse gas emissions from agri-food systems have gone up or down in recent years. In order to do this, the team calculated gross emissions from agri-food systems as a percentage of each country’s average historical emissions. They found that globally, change in agri-food emissions is trending in an undesirable direction — that is, up. Emissions from agricultural production present a significant challenge on the road to reducing global warming, as they make up about a third of manmade greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. 

According to the paper, in order to reach net-zero agri-food emissions by 2030, every region in the world would have to increase its progress by about 70 percent every year over the next four years.

That kind of movement “is absolutely not going to happen,” said Bianca Carducci, an independent nutrition scientist and lead author of the paper. “Most countries probably shift about 5 percent per year on some indicators.”

While potentially unflattering or discouraging, this data point should be viewed within a wider context, said Carducci. The 70 percent figure represents the movement that every region of the world (i.e., the Americas, Oceania) would have to undertake. At the country level, there may be some that are actually doing well and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production. 

Regardless of whether you look at the regional or country level, progress must be viewed holistically, Carducci added. There could be one country that is very close to reaching a certain target, but also stagnating in its efforts. 

This wrinkle in the paper’s analysis reveals something tricky about the nature of measuring progress in the first place. “It’s not a binary,” said Michael Puma, a professor at Columbia University’s Climate School who was not involved in the report. “It’s not as simple as success or failure by 2030.”

Read Next The world is getting too hot to feed itself Ayurella Horn-Muller

One  feature of the report that could help illuminate what success would entail is a web of interactions between all metrics surveyed. (The researchers are planning a webinar next month to help the public better understand all its datasets.) Changes in greenhouse gas emissions, for example, are influenced by cropland change, yields, agricultural water withdrawals, fisheries, and more. It’s also affected by civil society participation, the researchers found. These can all be effective entry points to reducing emissions from our food systems, said Carducci. 

In some ways, deadlines like the ambitious ones associated with SDGs can obfuscate opportunities for improvement. When the authors looked at 2050 as an alternate deadline for achieving SDGs, they found that regions across the world are more on track to meet a majority of their nutrition and environmental goals. 

This shouldn’t be a reason to slow down, though, Carducci said. Regional and global leaders “shouldn’t just throw in the towel and say, ‘OK, we’re not going to make it [by 2030] so we don’t really need to do anything for the next four years.’” 

Using deadlines at all to spur action can be tricky, argued Puma. Overly ambitious cutoffs can incentivize quick fixes that don’t hold up in the long run. He cautioned that the focus should be less on the date by which progress should be completed and more on how we get there. 

“It’s really about designing realistic pathways,” he said — as well as building in accountability measures. 

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline New research shows the world isn’t doing nearly enough to fix its food problem on Aug 28, 2026.

From August 12–14, the South Asia Women's Articulation of La Via Campesina met in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where they carried out a conjunctural analysis, exchanged views on the ongoing struggles of peasant women within the region, and laid out a clear action plan.

The post South Asia Women’s Articulation: Demands for Wider Representation, Recognition and Equity Echo in Sri Lanka Meeting appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

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Berkas digital kini menjadi bagian penting dalam perkembangan permainan berbasis sistem modern. Di balik tampilan visual, animasi, simbol, suara, sampai fitur bonus, terdapat struktur data terorganisasi untuk menjalankan setiap elemen secara berurutan. Pada permainan slot, berkas tersebut tidak hanya berfungsi sebagai penyimpanan aset, tetapi ikut mendukung cara game menampilkan fitur, mengatur respons antarmuka, serta membangun pengalaman bermain lebih dinamis. Sudut pandang ini membuat slot menarik untuk dibahas dari sisi teknologi. Pemain biasanya hanya melihat gulungan, simbol, multiplier, atau bonus. Padahal, di belakang layar terdapat berbagai komponen digital dengan fungsi berbeda. Kombinasi komponen tersebut kemudian membentuk mekanisme game slot secara utuh.

Berkas Digital Menjadi Fondasi Struktur Permainan

Sebuah game modern umumnya memakai banyak jenis berkas. Ada file untuk ilustrasi, konfigurasi, audio, animasi, efek visual, sampai pengaturan antarmuka. Setiap bagian mempunyai peran tersendiri. Dalam konteks slot, struktur tersebut membantu sistem memuat elemen permainan secara efisien. Simbol dasar dapat ditempatkan pada satu kelompok aset, sementara fitur bonus menggunakan konfigurasi terpisah. Pendekatan semacam ini membuat pengembangan game jauh lebih fleksibel.

Developer juga dapat memperbarui tampilan tanpa harus merombak keseluruhan sistem. Misalnya, perubahan tema cukup dilakukan pada aset grafis tertentu, sedangkan logika utama tetap memakai struktur lama.

Komponen DigitalFungsi UtamaDampak pada PermainanFile visualMenyimpan simbol, latar, ikonMembentuk identitas temaFile audioMengatur musik serta efek suaraMembangun atmosfer permainanKonfigurasi fiturMenyimpan aturan tampilan fiturMenjaga alur game tetap konsistenData animasiMengatur gerak simbol serta efekMembuat permainan lebih hidupAntarmukaMengatur tombol, panel, informasiMempermudah navigasi pengguna Mekanisme Game Slot Tidak Hanya Berasal dari Gulungan

Banyak orang menganggap slot hanya terdiri dari reel serta tombol spin. Pandangan tersebut terlalu sederhana. Mekanisme game slot modern mempunyai lapisan jauh lebih kompleks. Beberapa permainan memakai sistem paylines klasik. Game lain menggunakan cluster, cascading reel, expanding symbol, respin, atau multiplier progresif. Semua fitur tersebut membutuhkan struktur logika berbeda. Contohnya, mekanisme cascading membuat simbol pemenang menghilang lalu digantikan simbol baru. Sistem perlu membaca posisi simbol, menentukan elemen mana perlu dihapus, kemudian menjalankan animasi berikutnya. Proses tersebut berlangsung dalam waktu sangat singkat hingga terlihat seperti satu rangkaian visual sederhana. Di sinilah berkas digital membantu menghubungkan tampilan dengan logika permainan.

Game Paling Menarik Biasanya Memiliki Interaksi Berlapis

Daya tarik sebuah game tidak selalu bergantung pada desain mewah. Struktur interaksi justru sering memberi pengaruh lebih besar. Game paling menarik biasanya memiliki beberapa lapisan pengalaman. Putaran dasar memberikan ritme awal. Fitur tambahan kemudian mengubah tempo. Bonus, simbol khusus, atau mode tertentu menciptakan variasi baru sehingga permainan tidak terasa monoton. Perubahan ritme tersebut membuat pengguna terus menerima rangsangan visual berbeda.

Beberapa elemen sering dipakai untuk membangun variasi:

1. Scatter, sebagai pemicu fitur tertentu.
2. Wild, untuk membantu membentuk kombinasi simbol.
3. Multiplier, guna menambah nilai pada kondisi tertentu.
4. Free spin, sebagai fase permainan terpisah.
5. Cascading reel, untuk menciptakan rangkaian simbol baru.
6. Progress bar, sebagai indikator perkembangan fitur.

Setiap elemen mempunyai struktur digital tersendiri. Ketika digabungkan, hasilnya dapat membentuk pengalaman permainan jauh lebih kompleks.

Berkas Digital Membantu Menjaga Konsistensi Game

Selain mengatur visual, berkas digital berperan dalam menjaga konsistensi antarbagian permainan. Hal ini penting karena satu game bisa dijalankan melalui perangkat berbeda, mulai dari desktop hingga smartphone. Ukuran layar, kemampuan perangkat, kecepatan jaringan, serta metode input dapat berbeda. Sistem perlu menyesuaikan aset supaya tampilan tetap stabil. Karena itu, banyak game memakai pendekatan modular. Aset utama dibuat terpisah dari logika inti. Metode ini mempermudah optimasi serta mengurangi beban pemrosesan. Pengguna mungkin tidak menyadari proses tersebut, tetapi hasil akhirnya dapat dirasakan melalui respons tombol lebih cepat, animasi lebih halus, serta navigasi lebih nyaman.

Perubahan Teknologi Membentuk Mekanisme Slot Modern

Perkembangan teknologi membuat slot mengalami transformasi besar. Dahulu, struktur permainan cenderung sederhana. Sekarang, satu judul dapat menggabungkan animasi 3D, tema sinematik, fitur interaktif, sampai mekanisme bonus bertingkat. Transformasi tersebut terjadi karena sistem pengembangan semakin modular. Provider dapat memakai kembali kerangka tertentu lalu membangun tema baru melalui pergantian aset serta konfigurasi. Hasil akhirnya tetap terasa berbeda meski fondasi teknis memiliki kesamaan. Pendekatan ini juga menjelaskan mengapa beberapa game terlihat familiar dari sisi struktur, tetapi memiliki karakter visual sangat berbeda.

Membaca Slot dari Sudut Pandang Sistem

Melihat slot melalui berkas digital memberi perspektif lebih luas. Permainan bukan sekadar susunan simbol pada gulungan. Di belakang layar terdapat kombinasi aset, konfigurasi, animasi, antarmuka, serta logika sistem. Mekanisme game slot menarik justru muncul saat seluruh komponen tersebut bekerja secara sinkron. Visual memberi identitas, audio membangun suasana, fitur menciptakan variasi, sementara sistem menjaga seluruh proses tetap berjalan konsisten. Dari sisi teknologi, berkas digital akhirnya menjadi semacam kerangka tersembunyi. Pemain mungkin tidak melihatnya secara langsung, tetapi struktur inilah yang membantu sebuah permainan terasa hidup, responsif, serta memiliki karakter berbeda dari game lainnya.

For many, the Brown Pelican is a welcome sight on a beach visit – a sign of the warm sand and sun. They can be seen across this hemisphere’s coastlines but are most prevalent in those warmer...

With smoke in the air and wildfires once again making headlines across the state, many communities are focused on the immediate challenges of fire response and public safety. Yet these events also...

A walk in the woods has a different meaning at Stand 13 at the Rheinstrom Hill Audubon Sanctuary – getting hit by branches is a sign of success! This stand used to have a severe lack of...

Open access notables

Carbon emissions exacerbating the Western US water crisis, Williams et al., Communications Earth & Environmen

In the western US, limited water supply and high demand--accentuated by anthropogenic climate change--have resulted in overallocated water resources and rapidly depleting groundwater. Simultaneously, legal and policy mechanisms are being pursued regarding the contributions of large emitting entities (“Carbon Majors”) to such impacts. Here, we quantify impacts on western US water resources attributable to the Carbon Majors, and compare results with a simpler-to-use (‘proportional’) approach. Anthropogenic climate change has driven large decreases in water supply (snowpack and streamflow) and increases in water demand (irrigation demand), with roughly half attributable to the Carbon Majors. These changes have led to a widening seasonal gap between water supply and demand, and with Carbon Majors emissions accounting for ~1/3 of observed, climatically-driven groundwater loss in the Central Valley during 2003-2024. Though both approaches yield similar results, consistent over- and underestimations are present in each variable, suggesting caution is needed when using the proportional approach.

Evolution of Global Sea-Level Rise Projections and Their Uncertainty, Garner et al., Earth's Future

For more than 40 years, scientists have projected future sea-level change. Documenting how sea-level projections have evolved is vital for tracking progress, uncertainties, and future research needs. Here, we update and analyze a database of global-mean sea level (GMSL) projections dating from 1982 to 2025, identifying five key findings. First, GMSL projection generation has been concentrated in a small number of developed countries, with 95% of projections produced in the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, or Australia. Second, while GMSL projections for 2050 and 2100 have been published regularly since the early 1980s, only 30 of 103 studies have produced projections extending beyond 2100; all but one of these 30 studies postdates 2010. Third, among studies providing multiple estimates, the range of highest GMSL projections for 2100 has broadened since 2007, reaching 0.6–2.0 m across publications since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). Fourth, GMSL projections from the IPCC have historically been conservative compared to projections from individual studies. Prior to AR6, ∼66% of 2100 projections at the upper end of uncertainty intervals from individual studies exceeded the corresponding upper projections from IPCC reports. However, the inclusion of “low-confidence” GMSL projections in AR6 to assess higher amounts of GMSL change of poorly known likelihood reduces this problem: the 83rd percentile of these low-confidence projections is exceeded by <25% of upper estimates from individual studies. Finally, analyses suggest that the arrival time of key GMSL milestones are often similar for projections spanning multiple eras and using various methodologies.

Equatorial Extreme Convective Storms Are Expanding and Becoming More Persistent, Zhuang et al., AGU Advance

Extreme rainfall is projected to intensify with climate warming, yet changes in the spatiotemporal structure of extreme-producing storms remain poorly understood in the tropics, as the most convectively active regions of the world are also the most data-scarce. We here leverage the first long-term, sub-kilometer, sub-hourly observational network in equatorial Singapore (730 k?m2), with 122 rain gauges reporting 5 min intensities for 2020–2024 and 82 stations with hourly accumulations for 1980–2024, combined with X-band radar (5 min, 100 m) to produce a high-resolution gridded rainfall reanalysis. Our findings indicate that extreme rainfall in Singapore is becoming larger and more persistent, with intensification resulting in higher storm rainfall volumes while rainfall peak intensities remain largely unchanged. Furthermore, extreme rainfall storms are strikingly compact, with spatial and temporal correlations halving over just 2 km and 4 min, decaying faster than previously recognized and observed elsewhere. This suggests that analyses based on coarse data sets or single stations may have misrepresented rainfall intensification under warming.

From this week's government/NGO section:

Survey reveals gap between climate change concern and actual news coverage, Climate News Tracker/Kantar

A survey of journalists and production staff across UK public service media concluded climate reporting needs new approaches. Broadcast journalists in Britain say they rank climate change and environmental issues above many of the traditional pillars of news coverage – including the National Health Service, international conflict and immigration – yet this is not reflected in what audiences actually see and hear. More than 80% of respondents said crowded news agendas and packed running orders hinder climate coverage. Program editors and channel schedulers may be willing to extend a bulletin for a dramatic, unexpected and consequential story, but the climate crisis rarely meets the threshold for such immediate editorial prioritization. The planet heating up is a slow-burning story whose significance has developed over years rather than hours, making it harder to compete with the urgency of daily news. Journalists also highlighted the difficulty of finding strong editorial “pegs” for climate stories outside major weather events or political announcements. Some 65% said climate stories do not always have a clear or timely news peg.

Climate change is driving unprecedented European ocean temperatures, with severe impacts for marine life, Bergin et al., World Weather Attribution

Researchers from Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, Ireland, and the United Kingdom collaborated to assess the extent to which human-induced climate change altered the likelihood and intensity of the extreme sea surface temperature (SSTs) conditions along the European coasts in July 2026. This year’s high SSTs have been remarkable not only in their intensity, but also in how early in the year they were reached. To assess whether all of the observed warming is attributable to human-induced climate change, we combine observations and climate models. In the Celtic region, climate models and observations show very similar trends, while in all other regions the observed trends are much stronger than those simulated by climate models. Despite this, the authors found that in the two Mediterranean regions, the increase in warming attributable to human-induced climate change is about 2°C, substantially surpassing the level of global warming, even under this conservative estimate. 121 articles in 54 journals by 866 contributing authors

Physical science of climate change, effects

Disturbance characteristics and forest properties regulate surface warming and recovery across Europe, Su et al., Nature Geoscience 10.1038/s41561-026-02071-5

Strengthening impact of Indian Ocean Basin Mode on ENSO under greenhouse warming, Zhao et al., Global and Planetary Change 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2026.105688

Transient Global Overturning Following the Shutdown of North Atlantic Deep Water Formation, Sun & Thompson, AGU Advances Open Access 10.1029/2026av002462

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Understanding the role of contrails and contrail cirrus in climate change: a global perspective, Atmospheric chemistry and physics, 10.5194/acp-24-9219-2024 25 cites.

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Observations of climate change, effects

A Subtle Atmospheric Shift Is Redefining Winter Hydrology on the Tibetan Plateau, Chen et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl121477

Attribution of Summer Warming Trends in the North China Plain during 1968–2023, Li et al., Journal of Hydrometeorology 10.1175/jhm-d-25-0102.1

Carbon emissions exacerbating the Western US water crisis, Williams et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03900-6

Equatorial Extreme Convective Storms Are Expanding and Becoming More Persistent, Zhuang et al., AGU Advances Open Access 10.1029/2026av002370

Evolution of Climate Extremes Over the Indian Subcontinent Using a Revised CEI, Thota et al., International Journal of Climatology 10.1002/joc.70467

Recent Warming Amplification in the Yangtze River Basin Compared to the Global Land, Liu et al., Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres 10.1029/2026jd046491

State of the UK Climate in 2025, Kendon et al., International Journal of Climatology Open Access 10.1002/joc.70470

Synoptic drivers of the August 2024 record-breaking rainfall in the Chadian Sahara: dynamics, thermodynamics, and socio-economic consequences, Tchinda et al., Weather and Climate Dynamics Open Access pdf 10.5194/wcd-7-1425-2026

Widespread coral bleaching across subtropical and temperate Japan under record marine heat stress, Kurihara et al., Scientific Reports Open Access 10.1038/s41598-026-65095-2

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Drivers and Impacts of the Record-Breaking 2023 Wildfire Season in Canada, Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-024-51154-7 295 cites.

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Instrumentation & observational methods of climate change, effects

A Guide to Single Changepoint Tests for the Climate Researcher, Lund & Shi, Journal of Climate Open Access pdf 10.1175/jcli-d-25-0681.1

Application of spatial statistics for climate-sensitive natural hazard management, Reinprecht et al., Climate Risk Management Open Access pdf 10.1016/j.crm.2026.100873

Historical cold biases exaggerate future elevation-dependent warming over the Tibetan Plateau, Deng et al., Atmospheric Research 10.1016/j.atmosres.2026.109288

Sensitivity to climate Delta selection in Pseudo-global warming simulations of mesoscale convective systems: case study of the august 2022 event in northern Japan, Tahara & Hiraga, Frontiers in Climate Open Access pdf 10.3389/fclim.2026.1921704

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Tipping point detection and early warnings in climate, ecological, and human systems, Earth System Dynamics, 10.5194/esd-15-1117-2024 92 cites.

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Modeling, simulation & projection of climate change, effects

100 m resolution projection of future urban heat Island of a tropical Coastal City, Chen et al., Urban Climate Open Access 10.1016/j.uclim.2026.103100

CMIP6 Historical Evaluation and Future Changes of Climate Extreme Indices at Regional Scale From the US-Mexico Border Region to Central America, Ramos-Esteban et al., International Journal of Climatology 10.1002/joc.70536

Disentangling Anthropogenic Effects on Southern Hemisphere Circulation and Surface Climate: A Multi-Model Large Ensemble Approach, Diaz et al., Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres Open Access 10.1029/2025jd046229

Projection and Uncertainty of Midsummer Precipitation in the Northern China Monsoon Region by CMIP6 Models, Yang et al., International Journal of Climatology 10.1002/joc.70438

Regional Temperature Trends and Future Warming Risks in Pakistan Using Bias-Corrected CMIP6 Ensembles and Machine Learning Techniques, Ullah et al., International Journal of Climatology 10.1002/joc.70497

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
IMO2020 Regulations Accelerate Global Warming by up to 3 Years in UKESM1, Earth s Future, 10.1029/2024ef005011 22 cites.

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Advancement of climate & climate effects modeling, simulation & projection

A sea ice free Arctic: CMIP7 Assessment Fast Track abrupt-127k experimental protocol and motivation, Sime et al., Geoscientific model development Open Access pdf 10.5194/gmd-19-5881-2026

Drought forecasting across multiple temporal scales using CMIP6 projections and hybrid deep learning models for Central Anatolia, Türkiye, Citakoglu et al., Atmospheric Research 10.1016/j.atmosres.2026.109271

Evaluating North American Winter Extreme Precipitation Variability and Its Drivers in CMIP6 Models, Jeong et al., Weather and Climate Extremes Open Access pdf 10.1016/j.wace.2026.100948

Evaluation of Downscaled CMIP6 Performance for Rainfall and Wind Over the Maritime Continent, Alifdini et al., International Journal of Climatology 10.1002/joc.70476

Evaluation of the ALARO1-SFX (CY43T2) regional climate model over Belgium across different resolutions, Dewettinck et al., Geoscientific model development Open Access 10.5194/gmd-19-7911-2026

GCAM-Europe v7.2.0: enhancing policy-relevant climate modelling through spatial and sectoral detail, Sampedro et al., Geoscientific model development Open Access pdf 10.5194/gmd-19-7741-2026

How Observation-Based Data Influence Uncertainty in Local Climate Projections, Taylor et al., Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 10.1175/jamc-d-25-0146.1

Representation of Long-Term Observed UK Winter Precipitation Trends and Variability in UKCP18 Global Climate Models, Carruthers et al., International Journal of Climatology Open Access 10.1002/joc.70540

The CMIP6-downscaled CORDEX-Southeast Asia (SEA) ensemble: evaluation and benchmarking for megacities of SEA, Nguyen et al., Geoscientific model development Open Access 10.5194/gmd-19-7653-2026

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Pushing the frontiers in climate modelling and analysis with machine learning, Nature Climate Change, 10.1038/s41558-024-02095-y 157 cites.

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Cryosphere & climate change

Enhanced interannual variability of early-winter snowfall in northern Xinjiang since the 1990s and its relationship with Arctic sea ice, Han et al., Global and Planetary Change 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2026.105684

Event-driven atmospheric forcing and meltwater lake response in maritime antarctic, Shah et al., Frontiers in Environmental Science Open Access pdf 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1916729

Fate of heat approaching the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf mediated by continental shelf eddies, Stewart et al., Science Advances Open Access 10.1126/sciadv.aec8232

Historical and Projected Antarctic Sea Ice Trends Across High-Resolution Coupled Model Hierarchies, Bushuk et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2026gl124043

Multiyear tropical warm pool warming drives slowdown in Antarctic mass loss, Wang et al., Nature Open Access 10.1038/s41586-026-10912-x

Reconsidering the drivers of ice-shelf collapse, Arthur et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-76772-1

Relationships between Arctic sea-ice concentration, temperature, and specific humidity in the lower troposphere during 1980–2021, Uhlíková et al., cryosphere Open Access pdf 10.5194/tc-20-4585-2026

The multilayer ocean circulation melting the 79N Glacier ice tongue, Reinert et al., cryosphere Open Access pdf 10.5194/tc-20-4563-2026

What SAR Labels Hide About a Changing Arctic, Mahmud, Earth s Future Open Access 10.1029/2026ef008828

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet may not be vulnerable to marine ice cliff instability during the 21st century, Science Advances, 10.1126/sciadv.ado7794 38 cites.

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Sea level & climate change

Addendum: Sea level much higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments, Seeger & Minderhoud, Nature Open Access 10.1038/s41586-026-11017-1

Evolution of Global Sea-Level Rise Projections and Their Uncertainty, Garner et al., Earth s Future Open Access 10.1029/2025ef007836

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Tropical Cyclone Storm Surge-Based Flood Risk Assessment Under Combined Scenarios of High Tides and Sea-Level Rise: A Case Study of Hainan Island, China, Earth s Future, 10.1029/2023ef004236 16 cites.

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Paleoclimate & paleogeochemistry

Asian summer monsoon orbital variability directly paced by CO2 and precession, not eccentricity, Millot-Weil et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-76856-y

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Dry hydroclimates in the late Palaeocene-early Eocene hothouse world, Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-024-51430-6 10 cites.

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Biology & climate change, related geochemistry

Arctic and Tibetan Plateau Tundra Show Divergent Temperature and Precipitation Thresholds Under Climate Change, Zhu et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2026gl124727

Breaking Boundaries: Multidirectional Responses of Malagasy Bats to Unmitigated Future Climate Change, Stewart-Roberts et al., Diversity and Distributions Open Access 10.1111/ddi.70254

Brood Chamber Carbonate Chemistry in the oyster Ostrea edulis Is Dynamically Shaped by Warming, Acidification, and Ventilation, Gray et al., Global Change Biology 10.1111/gcb.71007

Carbon emissions exacerbating the Western US water crisis, Williams et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03900-6

Climate Controls Cold- But Not Warm-Adapted Sphagnum Distribution and Carbon Sink Capacity, Wang et al., Global Change Biology 10.1111/gcb.71006

Climate warming drives thermal shocks and accelerated freshwater habitat fragmentation, Wang et al., Nature Climate Change Open Access 10.1038/s41558-026-02731-9

CO2 physiological forcing mitigates climate-driven water limitation on vegetation growth and carbon uptake, Kang et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-76835-3

Comparative Distribution Projections of Hydrophilic and Xerophytic Invasive Species in Turkey Under CMIP6 Climate Scenarios, Tursun et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access pdf 10.1002/ece3.74172

Distribution Shifts of Vaccinium Berry Wild Relatives in China Under Climate and Land-Use Changes, Pang et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.74154

High elevation shrubification in the subarctic during the Holocene Thermal Maximum and 21st century, Harning et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03965-3

Hot temperature during development alters iridescence in Morpho butterflies, Rubin et al., PNAS Nexus Open Access 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag243

Impacts of Climate Change on Alpha and Beta Diversity Patterns of Cerrado anurans, Sabino et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.73983

Increasing CO2 levels fertilize C4 grass production, Simpson et al., Nature Open Access 10.1038/s41586-026-10935-4

Limits on the capacity of an ectotherm to buffer temperature extremes through the construction of a central refuge, Ord & Blazek, Oecologia Open Access pdf 10.1007/s00442-026-05959-6

Modeling the effects of climate risk on primates globally: New perspectives on conservation priorities, Teng et al., Science Advances Open Access 10.1126/sciadv.aeg0031

Population Structure of a Living Fossil, the Atlantic Horseshoe Crab, and Its Vulnerability in the Face of Imminent Climate Change, Luo et al., Diversity and Distributions Open Access 10.1111/ddi.70256

Post-heatwave immune challenge reshapes selection on heatwave responses, Salo et al., Royal Society Open Science Open Access 10.1098/rsos.260674

Prediction of the Potential Distribution of Cirsium vulgare in China Under Climate Change Scenarios Based on Its First Recorded Occurrences in Southern China, Hu et al., Ecology and Evolution Open Access 10.1002/ece3.74028

Projected Effects of Climate-induced Changes in Phytoplankton biomass in the Southern South China Sea, Kiel et al., Biogeosciences Open Access 10.5194/bg-23-5827-2026

Responses of Antarctic seabird populations to past climate change, Ng et al., Ecography Open Access 10.1002/ecog.08322

Soil Warming Shifts Seasonal and Soil Depth-Related Root Growth Dynamics in Subarctic Grasslands, Bhattarai et al., Global Change Biology pdf 10.1111/gcb.71055

The giant Antarctic amphipod Paraceradocus miersi will not fare well if freshening continues in the Southern Ocean, Spicer et al., Marine Environmental Research Open Access 10.1016/j.marenvres.2026.108368

The policy relevance of climate-change scenarios for biodiversity research, Schoeman et al., Nature Reviews Biodiversity 10.1038/s44358-026-00193-7

The ‘Lifeboat Hypothesis’: Aquatic Microplastics in a Warming World—Climate-Resilient Refugia for Bacterial Pathogens, Quilliam & Ormsby, Global Change Biology Open Access 10.1111/gcb.71078

Thermophilization: Concepts, Methods, and Implications of Changes in Community Composition due to Global Warming, Feeley et al., Global Change Biology pdf 10.1111/gcb.71063

Widespread coral bleaching across subtropical and temperate Japan under record marine heat stress, Kurihara et al., Scientific Reports Open Access 10.1038/s41598-026-65095-2

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Impacts of marine heatwaves in coastal ecosystems depend on local environmental conditions, Global Change Biology, 10.1111/gcb.17469 37 cites.

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GHG sources & sinks, flux, related geochemistry

A global atmospheric methane record from a tropical ice core, Lamantia et al., Nature Open Access 10.1038/s41586-026-10938-1

Analysis of the temporal variability of CO2, CH4 and CO concentrations at Lamto, West Africa, Tiemoko et al., Tellus B Open Access pdf 10.1080/16000889.2020.1863707

Carbon dioxide and methane emissions from plants and peat soil in a Cyperus papyrus wetland in Uganda, Farmer et al., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences Open Access 10.1098/rstb.2025.0048

Decorrelating carbon and water fluxes in the Amazon Basin, Worden et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-75526-3

Environmental controls over greenhouse gas dynamics of tropical peatlands of the Central Congo Basin, Girkin et al., PubMed pmid:42619525

Experimental warming alters iron–carbon interactions and CO2 and CH4 emissions in pristine mangrove soils, Molitor et al., Atmospheric Environment Open Access 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2026.122315

Extensive parasite transmission and variation in a functional receptor associated with drug resistance in endemic Schistosoma mansoni, Berger et al., Science Advances Open Access 10.1126/sciadv.adt3721

Hydrological controls on dissolved carbon export from permafrost peatland catchments of northeastern China, Wang et al., Frontiers in Environmental Science Open Access pdf 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1915601

Lakes Amplify Carbon Emissions Relative to Downstream Export in Aquatic Networks, Alriksson et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl120340

Land-use change causes rapid carbon losses in Congo Basin peatlands across climate scenarios, whereas the effects of climate change alone are uncertain, Young et al., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences Open Access 10.1098/rstb.2024.0486

Limited blue carbon potential of intertidal seagrass meadows in the Wadden Sea – a case study in a tidal basin, Mohr et al., Biogeosciences Open Access pdf 10.5194/bg-23-5715-2026

Mesenchymal stem cells receive adaptive islet–derived miR-151–containing sEVs to promote β cell compensation in obesity, Guo et al., Science Advances Open Access 10.1126/sciadv.adu4196

Methane Emissions From U.S. Lakes Dominated by Ebullition, Shallow Zones, and Anthropogenic Drivers, Shen & Raymond, Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2026gl124792

Precipitation-dependent nonlinear accumulation of soil organic carbon in response to warming via microbial residues, Chen et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access pdf 10.1038/s43247-026-03941-x

Quantifying climatic drivers and identifying spatial risks of vegetation carbon sink instability: a case study of central–western Inner Mongolia, Liu et al., Frontiers in Environmental Science Open Access pdf 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1819623

Shaping of developmental gradients through selection on multiple loci in Antirrhinum, Bradley et al., Science Advances Open Access 10.1126/sciadv.adx2011

Soil disturbance in wetlands by feral pigs increases greenhouse gas emissions, Adame et al., Biogeosciences Open Access pdf 10.5194/bg-23-5781-2026

Strategic design of methane observation networks to improve emission estimates: A case study in Africa, Li et al., Atmospheric chemistry and physics Open Access pdf 10.5194/acp-26-11893-2026

Surface-water carbon exchange from mangroves and responses to global warming, Ouyang et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-77058-2

The Fragile Sink: Reconceptualizing Soil Carbon Stabilization and Its Vulnerability Under Global Change, Iqbal et al., Global Change Biology 10.1111/gcb.71071

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
A large net carbon loss attributed to anthropogenic and natural disturbances in the Amazon Arc of Deforestation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 10.1073/pnas.2310157121 41 cites.

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CO2 capture, sequestration science & engineering

Bamboo carbon pathways: sustainable approach to climate change mitigation, TK & S, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution Open Access pdf 10.3389/fevo.2026.1876587

ForestERW: a spatially explicit carbon dioxide removal model for practical enhanced rock weathering applications in United States forests, McDonnell et al., Frontiers in Climate Open Access 10.3389/fclim.2026.1855001

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Non-aqueous alkoxide-mediated electrochemical carbon capture, Nature Energy, 10.1038/s41560-024-01614-7 27 cites.

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Decarbonization

Multi-Scenario Carbon Peak Prediction for Aviation Logistics Based on an Extended STIRPAT Model: Empirical Analysis From Guangxi, China, Zhang et al., Geoscience Data Journal Open Access pdf 10.1002/gdj3.70089

National hydrogen policy inequality in aviation: a hidden barrier to climate mitigation, Rostami et al., Climate Policy 10.1080/14693062.2026.2713870

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Future hydrogen economies imply environmental trade-offs and a supply-demand mismatch, Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-024-51251-7 180 cites.

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Geoengineering climate

Mapping the future of ocean carbon dioxide removal in Australia: site suitability for electrochemical ocean alkalinity enhancement, Benjamin et al., Frontiers in Climate Open Access 10.3389/fclim.2026.1854445

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Technical note: Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement Pelagic Impact Intercomparison Project (OAEPIIP), Biogeosciences, 10.5194/bg-21-3665-2024 9 cites.

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Black carbon

Warming potential of atmospheric black carbon modulated by particulate matter, Liu et al., Nature Geoscience 10.1038/s41561-026-02068-0

Aerosols

Future projections of surface dust concentrations in major dust source regions of the Mesopotamian plains, Abadi et al., Atmospheric Research 10.1016/j.atmosres.2026.109282

Particle Size as a Key Remaining Uncertainty in Dust Direct Radiative Effect After EMIT: An Earth System Model Study, Li et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl121571

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Has Reducing Ship Emissions Brought Forward Global Warming?, Geophysical Research Letters, 10.1029/2024gl109077 73 cites.

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Climate change communications & cognition

A caution on climate hope, Blakey & Hudson, Environmental Politics 10.1080/09644016.2026.2721047

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
A 27-country test of communicating the scientific consensus on climate change, Nature Human Behaviour, 10.1038/s41562-024-01928-2 47 cites.

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Agronomy, animal husbundry, food production & climate change

Circular nutrient recycling via Juncus effusus-derived biochar: impacts on soil properties, sorghum yield, and GHG fluxes, Wilson et al., ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS RESEARCH Open Access 10.1186/s40068-026-00496-w

Climate-Induced Severe Water Scarcity Events as Harbingers of Global Wheat Price, Trnka et al., Earth s Future Open Access 10.1029/2025ef006095

Modeling agricultural water deficit risk in finland under CMIP6 climate scenarios, Jahromi et al., Scientific Reports Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41598-026-65956-w

Overcoming barriers to achieving a Net Zero agri-food sector: Challenges and solutions, McGuire et al., Environmental Science & Policy Open Access pdf 10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104469

Research on the impact mechanism of climate risks on financial vulnerability of farmers in typical ecologically fragile regions of Northwestern China, Liu et al., Frontiers in Environmental Science Open Access 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1892381

Social network structure and climate change adaptation information diffusion among dairy farmers: evidence from northern Tunisia, Gara et al., Frontiers in Climate Open Access pdf 10.3389/fclim.2026.1848645

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Optimistic growth of marginal region plantations under climate warming: Assessing divergent drought resilience, Global Change Biology, 10.1111/gcb.17459 36 cites.

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Hydrology, hydrometeorology & climate change

A Subtle Atmospheric Shift Is Redefining Winter Hydrology on the Tibetan Plateau, Chen et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl121477

Carbon emissions exacerbating the Western US water crisis, Williams et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03900-6

Equatorial Extreme Convective Storms Are Expanding and Becoming More Persistent, Zhuang et al., AGU Advances Open Access 10.1029/2026av002370

Synoptic drivers of the August 2024 record-breaking rainfall in the Chadian Sahara: dynamics, thermodynamics, and socio-economic consequences, Tchinda et al., Weather and Climate Dynamics Open Access pdf 10.5194/wcd-7-1425-2026

Time Series Analysis of Temperature and Precipitation Dynamics Using CETA and MCETA Methods, Gul et al., International Journal of Climatology 10.1002/joc.70484

Warming-driven rise in soil moisture entropy signals growing instability risk in the Asian Water Tower, Xie et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-76955-w

Yellow River sediment sinks exhibit divergent decadal responses to anthropogenic and climatic forcing, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03969-z

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Declining Reservoir Reliability and Increasing Reservoir Vulnerability: Long-Term Observations Reveal Longer and More Severe Periods of Low Reservoir Storage for Major United States Reservoirs, Geophysical Research Letters, 10.1029/2024gl109476 26 cites.

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Climate change economics

Developing double materiality for climate-related financial policy, Stiroh, Nature Climate Change 10.1038/s41558-026-02725-7

Extreme temperatures and low-income household finance: evidence from payday loans, Xie et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-76945-y

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Equity weighting increases the social cost of carbon, Science, 10.1126/science.adn1488 25 cites.

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Climate change mitigation public policy research

Fast Today, Fair Tomorrow: Competing Priorities Shaping EU Climate Law and Policy, Accogli et al., Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change Open Access 10.1002/wcc.70081

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Climate policies that achieved major emission reductions: Global evidence from two decades, Science, 10.1126/science.adl6547 303 cites.

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Climate change adaptation & adaptation public policy research

AQUA v1.0.0: The Application for QUality Assessment for the Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin – the core engine, Nurisso et al., Geoscientific model development Open Access pdf 10.5194/gmd-19-7725-2026

Climate change adaptation strategies of rural women-headed households in southwestern Ethiopia, Sherif et al., Discover Sustainability Open Access 10.1007/s43621-026-04230-5

Ethical and governance frontiers in big data for climate resilience, Pokharel & AlQahtani, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability Open Access pdf 10.1016/j.cosust.2026.101723

Incident Risk Prediction for Global Maritime Networks Under a Changing Climate, Azadnia & Miller-Hooks, Risk Analysis Open Access pdf 10.1111/risa.70340

Leveraging social capital for climate change adaptation in the Mara River Basin, Kenya, Omondi, Environmental Sociology 10.1080/23251042.2026.2721649

Thermal justice in urban climate change adaptation, Gobatti et al., Nature Climate Change 10.1038/s41558-026-02727-5

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Lessons from a decade of adaptive pathways studies for climate adaptation, Global Environmental Change, 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102907 114 cites.

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Climate change impacts on human health

Climate change and hypertension: global trends, temporal patterns, and regional insights, Ye et al., Frontiers in Climate Open Access 10.3389/fclim.2026.1703142

From climate hazards to early warning: Salmonella as a sentinel for the Climate–AMR–WASH nexus, Tang et al., PLOS Climate Open Access pdf 10.1371/journal.pclm.0001040

Global analysis of sub-daily urban impacts on atmospheric variables and thermal comfort in a climate change scenario, Hoffmann et al., Urban Climate 10.1016/j.uclim.2026.103079

Marine heatwaves and undernutrition in low- and middle-income countries, Gray et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open Access 10.1073/pnas.2528506123

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Integrating effects of overheating on human health into buildings’ life cycle assessment, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 10.1007/s11367-024-02353-3 11 cites.

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Other

Ecological regime shifts decouple organic carbon sequestration from nutrient-driven productivity in Anthropocene shallow lakes, Huang et al., Global and Planetary Change 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2026.105686

Gender, power, and tokenism in nature-based solutions to climate change, Yamoah & Nyantakyi-Frimpong, Climate and Development 10.1080/17565529.2026.2712491

Perfluoroalkyl substance release in permafrost surface waters is projected to increase under global warming, Yu et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access pdf 10.1038/s43247-026-03946-6

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
The history and future of IPCC special reports: A dual role of politicisation and normalisation, Climatic Change, 10.1007/s10584-024-03788-1 13 cites.

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Informed opinion, nudges & major initiatives

Future Projections of Burned Area in Europe Highlight the Importance of Human Action, Billing et al., Global Change Biology Open Access 10.1111/gcb.71043

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Bring digital twins back to Earth, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change, 10.1002/wcc.915 29 cites.

buffer/IOPN Articles/Reports from Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations Addressing Aspects of Climate Change

Unlocking California's Flexible Load: A Durable Blueprint for Affordability and Reliability, Cutter et al., GridLab, Kevala, and Energy and Environmental Economics

Realizing the full potential of flexible load requires consolidating California’s fragmented landscape into a clear set of complementary pathways anchored by three core principles: compensating below verified avoided costs, paying exclusively for measured performance, and building on standardized, interoperable program architecture. Time-of-use (TOU) and dynamic rate structures can drive persistent behavior shifts without counterfactual baselines or aggregator overhead, but they are unlikely to fully deliver the benefits that many hope for. Only by advancing rate design and programmatic pathways together can California fully unlock the state’s load flexibility potential. To capture the value rates leave behind, load-serving entities (LSEs) should deploy three standardized mechanisms:- Retail Pay-for-Performance: Accessible, non-firm, as-available load reduction compensated against verified individual-level regression baselines. - Firm Capacity: Contracted, predictable load shift carrying Resource Adequacy (RA) value and clear performance accountability.- Wholesale Market Access: Streamlined direct California Independent System Operator (CAISO) market participation tailored for large commercial loads and sophisticated aggregations. Locationally targeted dispatch specifically tailored to defer infrastructure upgrades at high-value, constrained distribution nodes.

Evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of heat action plans, Sobhaninia et al., Red Cross Red Crescent Global Disaster Preparedness Center

The authors analyzed the content of Heat Action Plans (HAPs) from different regions of the world, interviewed local officials involved in HAP development and implementation to understand their impact then developed and piloted an actionable HAP Implementation and Effectiveness (HAPIE) Tool that can help cities to track the implementation and effectiveness of HAPs.

Advancing policy coherence for agrifood systems transformation, Bedeau et al., Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

The authors examine how policy coherence is being advanced in practice to enable agrifood systems transformation, drawing on experiences from 10 countries. It explores the continuous and iterative processes that countries are following to align agriculture, climate, biodiversity, nutrition and equity agendas and translate shared goals into policy processes, institutional arrangements and coordinated action across sectors and levels of governance. By focusing on implementation rather than policy design alone, the authors highlight enabling factors, common challenges and practical entry points to move beyond siloed approaches. The publication is intended for policymakers, practitioners and development partners seeking actionable insights to advance multiple agrifood systems outcomes in complex national contexts.

Climate change is driving unprecedented European ocean temperatures, with severe impacts for marine life, Bergin et al., World Weather Attribution

Researchers from Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, Ireland, and the United Kingdom collaborated to assess the extent to which human-induced climate change altered the likelihood and intensity of the extreme sea surface temperature (SSTs) conditions along the European coasts in July 2026. This year’s high SSTs have been remarkable not only in their intensity, but also in how early in the year they were reached. To assess whether all of the observed warming is attributable to human-induced climate change, we combine observations and climate models. In the Celtic region, climate models and observations show very similar trends, while in all other regions the observed trends are much stronger than those simulated by climate models. Despite this, the authors found that in the two Mediterranean regions, the increase in warming attributable to human-induced climate change is about 2°C, substantially surpassing the level of global warming, even under this conservative estimate.

Water Reuse Energy Demands and Water Quality Metrics, Shurtliff et al., Idaho National Laboratory

The authors discuss strategies for enhancing water resilience in energy production by advancing water reuse and reclamation technologies, particularly for thermoelectric power plants and data centers. The focus is on efficiently closing the water loop by processing discharged cooling water to recover valuable minerals, thereby reducing energy-intensive water sourcing and management. This approach aims to alleviate water scarcity issues, especially in arid regions, while also promoting operational sustainability.

Water Availability for Cooling Systems: Assessing Demands, Constraints, and Alternative Sources for Thermoelectric Plants and Data Centers, Bastidas Pacheco et al., Idaho National Laboratory

The authors address Water-for-Energy by focusing on improving water management to provide additional cooling water to further thermoelectric energy production and support data center deployments. They assessed existing demands and constraints on cooling water and identified alternative sources of water to meet growing needs of large-scale water and energy users.

All hazards operational guidance: responding to climate disruption, Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation

The authors provide guidance to help local highway authorities (LHAs) design, implement, and test their operational response to disruption to their networks caused by extreme heat, flooding, wildfires, and other hazards. Leaders must ensure that an operational framework is in place that allows the authority to act quickly when faced with credible risks from such events, prioritize interventions where consequences for communities are greatest, and make available suitably qualified, experienced, and empowered professionals to take timely, defensible decisions under conditions of uncertainty. The operational framework should facilitate coordinated action across the organization and with partners, supported by “good enough” information, sound governance arrangements, and effective communication. It should also ensure that decisions are recorded and used after the event to inform future planning and investment.

Climate Resilience as Strategy: Scaling Corporate Action on Physical Risks from Climate Change, Radulovic et al., Systemiq and the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions

Most companies now acknowledge growing physical risk and have begun strengthening business continuity. But maturity still lags exposure. Many adaptation plans push implementation far into the future — and only 25% of corporate adaptation measures are genuinely strategic in nature. A key gap is valuation — the ability to quantify avoided losses in ways finance teams trust. Without this, resilience falls down the priority list against nearer-term initiatives. The mismatch between capital planning cycles and multi-decade physical risk trajectories compounds the problem. Guidance is expanding quickly, and strongest on risk assessment and disclosure. But it remains fragmented and uneven on the elements that convert insight into action: valuing resilience, building financeable pipelines of interventions, and enabling ecosystem collaboration.

Survey reveals gap between climate change concern and actual news coverage, Climate News Tracker/Kantar

A survey of journalists and production staff across UK public service media concluded climate reporting needs new approaches. Broadcast journalists in Britain say they rank climate change and environmental issues above many of the traditional pillars of news coverage – including the National Health Service, international conflict and immigration – yet this is not reflected in what audiences actually see and hear. More than 80% of respondents said crowded news agendas and packed running orders hinder climate coverage. Program editors and channel schedulers may be willing to extend a bulletin for a dramatic, unexpected and consequential story, but the climate crisis rarely meets the threshold for such immediate editorial prioritization. The planet heating up is a slow-burning story whose significance has developed over years rather than hours, making it harder to compete with the urgency of daily news. Journalists also highlighted the difficulty of finding strong editorial “pegs” for climate stories outside major weather events or political announcements. Some 65% said climate stories do not always have a clear or timely news peg. That is disappointing.

Current Best Practices on Wildfire Risk Reduction for Electric Transmission and Distribution Systems, Coleman et al., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

To help utilities, states, and municipalities address growing wildfire risks, the authors prepared a comprehensive report outlining current best practices for wildfire planning, prevention, response, and recovery. They highlight utility-led strategies for mitigating wildfire risks from electric transmission and distribution systems. This work underscores the urgent need for proactive investment in resilience as wildfire threats intensify across the nation.

Managing construction in a changing climate, Suzanne Davenport, NHBC Foundation

The authors explore how climate change is affecting construction across the UK, the effects of extreme weather on construction quality, programs, materials and costs, the risks to worker health, safety and wellbeing, practical guidance and checklists for site managers to prepare for extreme weather, and, resilient construction solutions, technologies and techniques to improve climate adaptation on site.

U.S. gas power proposals tied to data centers nearly double in six months, Jenny Martos, GEM

Driven by rapid data center expansion, U.S. gas-fired power capacity in development jumped 50% to 378 GW, with Texas leading the push and developers pivoting to faster-to-install engines to skip supply backlogs. However, severe turbine supply constraints, project delays, local moratoriums, and mounting public opposition leave the true scale of this US$647 billion gas buildout highly uncertain.

Evaluation of ARPA-E's Mission and Goals, Marchant et al., National Academies of Science

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) was established in 2009 to address barriers to developing transformational science and technology solutions for the nation's energy and environmental challenges. The authors evaluate ARPA-E's operations and assesses the effects of its' programs to date. The authors also explore the agency's future challenges and opportunities, recommending ways ARPA-E can build on its' early successes to respond effectively to emerging energy needs. Key recommendations address funding and leadership stability, strategic planning and evaluation, risk and failure management, process innovation and experimentation, and transparency and public communication. About New Research

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This article The movement to defend the Minneapolis 15 was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

When Minneapolis organizer Alec Stewart pulled out of his parking spot on June 16 and headed to work, it seemed like an ordinary day. That is, until Homeland Security Investigations, a detective-like sub-agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, rolled up with multiple squad cars and dragged him out of his vehicle. 

“I was never told I was arrested,” said Stewart, who goes by Mac. “I was not told what for. I was not shown any warrants. I had no idea [I was going to be arrested] until I was in cuffs.”

Mac was among the thousands of Minnesotans who rallied to defend their neighbors this January when Trump inundated Minneapolis-St. Paul with federal immigration agents who outnumbered regular police 3 to 1. Residents responded with one of the most sweeping, complex and powerful movements of the decade, mobilizing a multitude of existing relationships and organizations to craft a shield capable of fighting off Trump’s domestic militia. Using the encrypted app Signal, they built networks to track officers and warn potential arrestees. They launched mutual aid networks to support those who were in hiding to avoid becoming targets of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. They blockaded roads, tailed ICE vehicles and went out on a one-day general strike. 

The charges faced by Mac and his 14 co-defendants, all of whom were arrested on the same day, carry multi-year sentences. The government claims all 15 people indicted “did knowingly conspire … to prevent by force, intimidation and threats, officers and employees of the United States Department of Homeland Security … from discharging the duties of their officers,” while individual defendants have been charged with additional crimes like assault on a federal officer. The alleged “conspiracy” involved everything from conversations in Signal chats about plans to blockade an ICE processing center, to assigning working groups for the Jan. 23 General Strike, to possessing homemade defensive shields or just following federal officers — as tens of thousands around the country have done. 

What’s particularly alarming to the defendants and their allies is that the charges don’t cite any specific officers who were assaulted, and the government’s evidence includes mundane activist chatter: discussing protests and ICE locations, posting an article from the anarchist website CrimethInc. Anything provably tied to organizing, or just radical ideas, became proof of conspiracy: renting a U-Haul, purchasing a trailer from Facebook Marketplace, calling on Facebook for the public to “become ungovernable” — all were alleged evidence of malicious intent. 

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What’s also alarming is how that information was gathered. Recently, the defense filed a motion that revealed the existence of Operation Puppet Master, a program to surveil and investigate Twin Cities labor unions, churches and community groups in advance of the filing of criminal charges. Unions in which defendants were member leaders had their finances quietly inspected, including their national unions’ political donations. Undercover officers attended protest planning meetings and covertly recorded unsuspecting citizens. The level of surveillance was shockingly broad: Homeland Security Investigations had near carte blanche to categorize almost any organization that could oppose sweeping deportation arrests as potentially criminal. 

If the government can make these charges stick, it could have a profound chilling effect on one of the largest social movements of the 21st century, and could chart a pathway for the Trump administration to effectively criminalize any opposition. That is why these 15 defendants have vowed to fight the charges, and why they have a committee of supporters who are doing what it takes to support those who have been singled out.

They came for everyone

“I think they picked us out because we’re good organizers,” said Treasure Thoreson, a special education teacher who was among those indicted. All 15 of the defendants are union members, and many are leaders in their locals. Thoreson is an executive board member of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators and was a captain during their confrontational strike in 2022. When Trump came back in 2024, she knew deportation defense had to be the priority. She built on her strike experience as she began to organize against ICE in her neighborhood, working with a group of rank-and-file union members called the Workers’ Solidarity Circle.

“This is purely a way to try and send a message of fear and of repression,” Thoreson said of the charges. That opinion was echoed by everyone working on the Minneapolis case, and also by those doing jail support for criminalized protesters across the country. 

Protesters rally at the Whipple Building, an ICE processing center, on Jan. 30 in Minneapolis. (Octavio Jones / AFP via Getty Images)

The Minneapolis 15, as the defendants have become known, are the latest in what is becoming an institutional strategy by the federal government. In the fall of 2025, a 12-count indictment was issued relating to a shooting of an officer during a July 4 protest outside of the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas. In September, Trump labeled “antifa” a “Domestic Terrorist Organization” and connected the Prairieland case to it. Prosecutors in the case used “antifa” ideology as evidence of “providing material support to terrorists” — support that allegedly came in the form of offering “property, services, training, communications equipment, weapons, explosives, personnel (including themselves) and transportation.”

The Prairieland indictments cast a wide net and tried to implicate protesters, some of whom barely knew each other, in the shooting based on their attendance at the demonstration, participation in a Signal channel coordinating direct actions and, in one particularly shocking situation, having moved a box of political zines that were considered evidence. 

Many of these defendants were ultimately convicted of charges like rioting or providing material support to terrorists and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, for a cumulative sentence of more than 450 years in federal prison. The defendant who transferred the box of protest literature received 30 years for “corruptly concealing a document or record.” 

“The outcome of this case will haunt movements for decades to come,” wrote the Prairieland defense committee in a public statement. “The Trump administration is using what happened on July 4 to test its ability to criminalize dissent and chill all opposition.” 

Also last fall, six demonstrators, including a congressional candidate, were arrested while protesting the Broadview ICE facility in the Chicago suburbs and charged with felony conspiracy to impede a federal official, among other charges, though the felony charges were eventually dropped. Then, in January, 39 people were arrested at the Cities Church in St. Paul for protesting against the ICE officer who served as their lay preacher, and charged with interfering with religious freedom. These arrests galvanized the media because former CNN host Don Lemon, who was covering the event as a journalist, was among those charged, thus sending the message that reporters could be treated as perpetrators. 

Reuters found at least 655 cases brought in 2025 and early 2026 under 18 U.S.C. Section 111, the primary law being used against people accused of interfering with ICE, which punishes anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates or interferes with” federal officers. This was the rationale given by masked federal immigration agents for arresting 42-year-old Minnesota resident Becky Ringstrom after surrounding her car and pounding on her window with a metal object. As a result, she was told, her information was entered into a government database, presumably allowing the administration to further build out a list of activists who challenge their authority. 

What’s different about the Minneapolis case, is that it uses another statute, 18 U.S.C. Section 372, focusing on alleged coordination, which widens its potential scope. 

With arrests mounting, charges escalating, and the government employing broad infiltration and surveillance, those who are organizing the defense committee hope that their model can be reproduced by communities around the country if and when their resistance is criminalized.

The best defense

“A lot of what the defense committee is trying to do is bring attention to the fact that this happened and show support for these people,” said Emily, a Minneapolis organizer who is a part of the defense committee and asked that only her first name be used for fear of government reprisal. 

When activists are arrested, they are at a huge disadvantage in terms of resources and finances. A defense committee is critical to pooling community connections and skills that can support them as they head towards trial. 

Because legal costs and the expenses of other consequences from facing such extraordinary charges can become insurmountable, creating a fundraiser was the first order of business. The fund had reached over $390,000 as of Aug. 27. Immediate support is often the next priority: helping the defendants pay their rent, get groceries and figure out day-to-day needs, particularly since in this case the defendants were ordered to have no communication with each other by the court. 

Previous Coverage

Steadfast resistance under occupation from Minneapolis to Palestine

“I think that’s another reason they’re doing this is to scare people that this could happen to you if you do anything to protect your neighbors,” Emily said. “You could be facing legal charges and have to go through that process, which could take months, if not [longer].” 

This is why Mac says “the process is the punishment,” since the time and money it takes to even win a case, or see it through until it is dismissed, can be enormous. Since the evidence includes things most of the city was doing, the slogan “Minnesota, the land of 100,000 unindicted codefendants” has spread.

While financial and legal support are absolutely critical, so, too, is ensuring that the defendants stay a part of the public conversation and are supported by larger institutional players. Some members of the defense committee work with the media, while others connect with community groups. And as members of unions, the co-defendants have a built-in base of support. 

“Today, the Trump administration is trying to criminalize those who speak up for their neighbors — trashing civil liberties, transparency and accountability — and then pepper spraying those who dare to call them out,” said Randi Weingarten, the national president of American Federation of Teachers, of which Thoreson’s union is an affiliate. 

Union membership is mentioned in the indictment, as is the historic Jan. 23 general strike, which suggests that labor activism is part of why the Minneapolis 15 were singled out. Unions have played an especially large role in the movement against ICE’s occupation of Minneapolis, above and beyond that single-day strike. Unions like Unite HERE helped to transport vulnerable immigrant workers to and from work, and others, like CWA Local 7250 and SEIU Local 26, built mutual aid networks to support those who couldn’t work for fear of ICE arrest. The Minneapolis Federation of Educators had one of the most central roles, working with parents to prevent ICE arrests at schools by establishing hundreds of weekly watch shifts each week.

Minneapolis teachers, parents and children rally against ICE targeting schools. (Riley Bruce / Take Action MN)

Most movements that have faced extreme legal repression, from the Black Panthers to the New Left, have had to maintain long-term support for political prisoners. These efforts are necessary to help to ensure that no one is left behind, though they can require significant time and financial resources. But they also help the larger project survive, which in this case means maintaining the systems of mutual aid and direct action that activists are invested in.

“It would be tragic to see all the work we’ve done get hamstrung by this politically repressive move,” said Mac, echoing what other defendants have said: The best form of support is to continue to defend our communities. 

“[We need to] keep on going and doing what we have been doing — organizing, developing decentralized local groups that can have each other’s backs, so that when something happens again, we have this protection — and to continue to get unions involved,” said Emily, in a point echoed by the defendants.

The committee is eyeing upcoming court dates over pretrial discovery motions that will determine how widely the state can cast its evidentiary net. Discovery can be punitive in the same way that the length and cost of a court case can. The process can be used to pull private conversations and information about dissidents into the public record. This can include conversations and internet activity that range from embarrassing to incriminating, often forcing activists to go through a painfully humiliating process of exposure that leads them open to further repression. Putting limits on that is a priority for the committee. 

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With the federal government’s wildly outsized indictment and sweeping surveillance tactics, the outcome could be precedent-setting for what options federal authorities have when looking to infiltrate a particular locality’s anti-ICE network. Given that Trump has also used ICE as a kind of federal protest police, his federal allies need a legal victory that would allow Trump to target any city that defies him.

The only thing that will stop that, besides good legal counsel, is having the community behind them to remind prosecutors and judges that their actions are observable and have consequences ranging from protests to lawsuits and election losses. Trump’s attacks on civil liberties and democracy are sustained primarily where resistance wanes. While the neutrality of courts has held in some cases and bent to Trump’s will in others, what happens outside of the courtroom is just as important as what happens inside it.

This article The movement to defend the Minneapolis 15 was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Más de 20 especialistas, autoridades, académicos,organizaciones de la sociedad civil y representantes de movimientos de recicladores de América Latina y el Caribe se reunirán el próximo 2 de septiembre en Santiago de Chile para compartir experiencias,conocimientos  y estrategias para impulsar la transición hacia modelos basura cero en la región.

Santiago de Chile, agosto de 2026. — ¿Cómo puede la gestión de los residuos contribuir a enfrentar la crisis climática y, al mismo tiempo, generar soluciones locales y fortalecer a las comunidades? Esta será una de las principales preguntas que abordará el “Seminario Internacional basura cero: el rol estratégico de los residuos orgánicos para la acción climática y la democratización de soluciones”, que se realizará el miércoles 2 de septiembre, de 8 a.m. a 5 p.m., en el Aula Magna de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Organizado por GAIA, Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) y la Alianza Basura Cero, el encuentro reunirá a especialistas, organizaciones sociales, autoridades, representantes de gobiernos locales, academia y personas vinculadas a la gestión de residuos de distintos países de América Latina.

El seminario pondrá en discusión el potencial de los modelos basura cero como una estrategia concreta frente a la crisis climática, con especial énfasis en la gestión y valorización de los residuos orgánicos. La agenda contempla cuatro espacios: basura cero como estrategia climática y de desarrollo local; basura cero como política pública nacional; experiencias que demuestran que estos modelos funcionan; y un panel estratégico sobre cómo avanzar hacia una mayor responsabilidad de las empresas frente a los impactos generados por sus productos.

Entre las personas expositoras se encuentran Marcelo Mena, exministra de Medio Ambiente de Chile y director ejecutivo de Global Methane Hub; Juan Pablo Escudero, investigador del Instituto Emmett de UCLA y especialista en derecho ambiental; Kevin Basoa, del Ministerio del Medio Ambiente de Chile; María José Ureta, jefa de la Oficina de Economía Circular de Chile; Miguel Rivas, director de proyectos de Ponguinguiola, quien ha impulsado políticas públicas orientadas a la protección de ecosistemas, la reducción de plásticos y el desarrollo de soluciones climáticas, educativas y comunitarias; Christie Keith, coordinadora internacional de GAIA; y representantes de organizaciones de recicladores de base de Brasil, Argentina y Chile, entre otros especialistas y referentes de la región. 

La diversidad de voces busca poner en el centro soluciones que no sólo reduzcan los impactos ambientales, sino que también incorporen justicia social, participación ciudadana, trabajo digno y desarrollo local.

Basura cero plantea una mirada que va más allá de la disposición final de los residuos: busca prevenir su generación, recuperar materiales, reducir la contaminación y fortalecer sistemas locales capaces de responder a la crisis climática desde soluciones concretas y democratizadas.

Las inscripciones son gratuitas y deben realizarse previas al evento a través de este link.  

Fecha: miércoles 2 de septiembre de 2026

Horario: 8:00 a 17:00 horas

Lugar: Aula Magna, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Más información.

El seminario también contará con transmisión en vivo. Registros en este link.

Contactos de prensa: 

Camila Aguilera, GAIA, camila@no-burn.org  | +56 9 8913 6198

María Fernanda Pérez R., BFFP, mafe@breakfreefromplastic.org | +58 424 210 8017

The post Seminario internacional abordará el rol estratégico de los residuos orgánicos para la acción climática y la transición hacia basura cero first appeared on GAIA.

In the late 1980s, the city of Phoenix, Arizona made a bet: If residents no longer had to sort glass from paper from plastic, more of them would recycle. Single-stream recycling was born—one bin, one truck—and it spread fast. By 2010, nearly two-thirds of U.S. recycling programs had switched. Europe and Japan, however, didn’t follow suit; they opted for multiple bins and consumer sorting, betting that purity rather than convenience was the real prize.

Then came 2018. China upended the recycling world with the “National Sword,” a policy with an intimidating name that slammed the door on contaminated imports. Overnight, single-stream’s hidden costs became visible.

At first, it looked like the end of the debate between single stream and dual stream. But it turned out to be an inflection point. What followed has been a period of experimentation. Some materials recovery facilities are adapting, investing in optical sorters and robotics. A handful of cities have reversed course to dual-stream, reigniting the debate.

The stakes are far bigger than sorting logistics. The EPA estimates recycling a ton of mixed materials avoids nearly 2.8 metric tons of CO2-equivalent versus landfilling it. In 2018 alone, recycling and composting kept an estimated 193 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent out of the atmosphere—roughly the annual emissions of 42 million cars.

Contamination undermines this emissions math; convenience and greater participation shores it up. So what combination of technology, economics, and human behavior will bend the emissions curve further—now and in the future? 

 

Source: Statista by CC • • • The Climate Case for Single Stream 

1. Quantity over quality. Contamination is single-stream’s Achilles heel—but it might be offset if more material is recycled. A number of municipalities that switched to single stream have reported increased collection rates ranging from 20% to as high as 84%.  And if the numbers are right, this can translate into carbon savings. A 2022 life-cycle analysis paper focusing on Virginia found that single stream actually saved about 4% more carbon thanks to the higher participation rate. 

2. Robots could sort it out. Single-stream recycling doesn’t ask people to sort their recycling, but that doesn’t mean the recycling doesn’t get sorted. It just happens at the collection center instead. AI-powered sorting robots equipped with cameras and trained to recognize and grab different types of plastic promise to make the process extraordinarily efficient. One manufacturer boasted their machines were able to help the facility hit a 99% purity rate and pick out as many as 55 items per minute. 

3. Less trucks, lower emissions. Picture a recycling truck in a single-stream set-up, trundling through a neighborhood. By the time that truck has completed its route and gone down each and every street, it may have burned 100 miles worth of fuel. As Quartz pointed out, garbage trucks are basically the worst vehicle possible in terms of fuel efficiency. That may be bad enough, but since multi-stream set-ups often need multiple trucks to keep waste streams separate, they need to run that 100 miles several times to finish the job, increasing their emissions level well over the single-stream truck’s route. That said, electric trucks do exist and are starting to roll out. And since these don’t produce emissions themselves, the distinction may soon be moot.

• • • The Climate Case for Multi Stream  

1. Quality over quantity. Multi-stream recycling turns out cleaner material. This is important since contaminated recycling often ends up in a landfill where paper and other organic material decomposes and emits methane and other greenhouse gases. U.S. landfills overall spew the equivalent of 24 million cars worth of emissions per year—and this might be a severe underestimate. High-end landfills do capture some of this methane, but most don’t. Refuse could also go into an incinerator to generate energy. But waste-to-energy schemes have been held back by high costs and big questions around how much they actually save in emissions. The BBC called them as bad as coal.

2. Less downcycling. So let’s say you throw a clear plastic PET bottle into a single-stream recycling bin. It is then mixed with all kinds of other plastic, and unfortunately once melted down, it can never be a drink bottle again. Instead, it’s turned into other, less valuable things like tote bags. That’s what’s known as downcycling. In terms of carbon, downcycling is better than a landfill. But it’s not that much better. One analysis put downcycling’s savings at only 4% compared to incineration (even in the best case waste-to-energy scenario), compared to 27% savings if it was same-cycled. And, as Grist pointed out, downcycling may ultimately be more about delaying landfill, not wholly preventing it. Multi-stream recycling, with its cleaner end products better avoids this problem.

3. Participation is an American problem. Single-stream schemes might seem to boost participation rates, but you know what else does? Being German. The EU as a whole, which mandates multi-stream recycling, enjoys an average municipal recycling rate of about 40%. Germany in particular hits a whopping 69%, thanks to very clear guidance on bin usage as well as pay-as-you-throw schemes, where households pay for garbage by weight, rather than a flat fee. Meanwhile, the single-stream-loving US lags behind at only about 32%.

 

• • • What to Keep An Eye On

1. Shipping and handling. Shipping raw materials can add significant emission costs and even cancel out the benefits of recycling. One report found that the emissions from truck transport outweigh the emissions benefits for recycled fiber after only 360 miles. Glass was better, at 1,150 miles, and metals could go upwards of 3,200 miles before their benefits petered out, but there was always a limit. Similarly, making a special trip in your car to return reusable containers to the store could end up producing more greenhouse gases than you save using the containers in the first place.

2. Better recycling through chemistry. Many plastics can’t really be recycled currently, no matter how they’re sorted. But new tech using advanced chemistry, enzymes, or even microbes might change that. Recently, for example, a team at Cambridge University built a solar reactor that turns old plastic bottles into clean hydrogen fuel. Another group of chemists in China developed a process to convert hard-to-recycle styrofoam waste into high quality jet fuel at a cost competitive with petroleum-based fuels. And still another lab announced a new chemical process transforms plastic waste into an effective carbon capture material. Many more such innovations are are making their way into commercial markets.

3. What’s powering the recycling plant? Recycling plants require energy to operate and where this energy comes from may end up mattering more than any of the material that actually passes through its doors. When researchers ran the numbers for paper recycling, for example, the results were sobering. If all wastepaper was recycled, emissions could increase by 10%. That’s because recycling paper uses more fossil fuel electricity than making new paper. The emissions would drastically go down if paper production and recycling were powered by renewable energy.“In our analysis,” they note, “landfill practices mattered more than material flows, and energy use mattered the most.”

 

Top image: by Dropflare/Adobe Stock

Cement is one of the most-used manmade materials in the world. And the kilns that produce this in-demand building material belch about 8 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions.

But a team from ETH Zurich and the US company Heirloom Carbon Technologies now propose a way to dramatically cut emissions from future cement factories. By employing established technologies, cement factories could not only capture their own emissions, the researchers write in the journal Chem Circularity, but also remove additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

The world produces about 4 billion tons of cement every year. Manufacturing cement, which is the key ingredient of concrete, is notoriously difficult to decarbonize. That’s because it requires heating limestone at high temperatures in large fossil fuel-burning kilns. And the chemical reaction itself releases carbon dioxide.

The ETH team proposes powering kilns with clean electricity rather than fossil fuels. That would cut the carbon emissions from heat production. Heirloom Carbon’s direct air capture technology would then capture the carbon dioxide released during limestone conversion. The gas would be compressed and permanently stored underground.

The company’s DAC technology, called calcium looping, is “uniquely positioned for such integration,” the team writes in the paper. That’s because the process cycles calcium between two compounds: calcium carbonate and calcium hydroxide. These are the same materials and chemical conversion steps used in cement manufacturing.

 

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Limestone, or calcium carbonate, is the starting point. When heated, the limestone breaks down into calcium oxide, also known as quicklime, and carbon dioxide. In the proposed system, adding water to the quicklime would make it absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn back into limestone, and the loop would continue.

According to the researchers’ calculations, electrifying the kiln and using calcium-looping DAC could reduce the climate impact of cement production by 78% by 2050.

Heirloom has been running a plant in California since 2023. The plant can capture 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. “Heirloom was an ideal partner for us because the company is already operating the first calcium looping DAC systems on a commercial scale,” said Vittoria Bolongaro, a graduate student and lead author of the paper, in a press release.

The team analyzed various energy scenarios. These included operating the plant using the current US electricity mix; using a clean electricity mix consisting of wind and solar energy; and a fully autonomous clean-energy system with photovoltaics and battery storage.

“We were able to show that the technology has a net-negative carbon footprint,” Bolongaro said. “In other words, commercial calcium looping DAC plants with carbon dioxide storage remove more carbon dioxide than they generate over their entire lifecycle.”

Source: Vittoria Bolongaro et al. Life cycle assessment of solid calcium-looping direct air capture and its synergistic dual use for net-negative cement. Chem Circularity, 2026

Image: Getty images for Unsplash+

In 2024, the Biden administration enacted wide-ranging regulations to protect communities near petrochemical plants from air toxics. The Trump administration has since granted exemptions to scores of polluting facilities and is working to rewrite the long-awaited rule.

Read more on E360 →

A new report co-published by the Centre for Future Work and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives reviews six new ‘Workforce Alliances’ being established by the federal government as part of its economic strategy responding to Donald Trump’s trade war. The report concludes that the Alliances have potential to improve training, labour supply, and labour standards – but Canadian unions must be ambitious and assertive to ensure that they fulfil this potential.

The report, Hinge Moment for Canada’s Workforce and Industrial Policy, is based on research presented at the recent Canadian Industrial Relations Association conference at Université Laval in Québec.

The federal government is advancing these new Alliances to strengthen the labour side of major new investment and industrial policies. Somewhat reminiscent of the previous tripartite era of sector councils from the 1990s, unions are once again being invited to participate. 

Ottawa has announced six Workforce Alliances, which largely mirror the government’s industry, energy and transportation infrastructure initiatives. On a parallel track, a historic $6 billion funding stream to support Red Seal skilled trades training has also been launched. 

Unions have ample experience with supply-side training programs. Too many have focused solely on meeting the labour supply needs of employers, with limited benefits for workers and no opportunity to build union power. Could this iteration of workforce policy be an opportunity for the labour movement to do better? Does it create an opening to influence industrial policy, labour standards and worker rights? 

At a special panel during the 2026 conference of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association (CIRA) at Université Laval in June, union experts and labour studies academics came together to review the Workforce Alliances and their associated training initiatives, and examine the opportunities for genuine trade union engagement.

The presentations to the CIRA conference are collected in this compendium. The goal is to start a bigger discussion among trade unionists and progressive researchers about a labour strategy that links workforce policy with labour standards and conditionalities across the industries and sectors receiving federal funding, including a larger role for unions in shaping industrial policy. 

Several common themes emerge from the contributions collected here. First, workforce policy cannot be reduced to labour supply measures aimed solely at meeting employers’ skills needs. Second, sectoral institutions and public investments must be linked to stronger labour standards, worker retention and equitable employment outcomes. Finally, the Workforce Alliances raise broader questions about industrial governance and whether unions can use these new institutions to exercise meaningful influence over economic strategy and democratic decision-making. 

Fred Wilson’s introduction traces the evolution of workforce policies from the old sector councils, to industry-led labour market information programs and now back to partial joint governance in the Workforce Alliances. In each case, the primary purpose has been to provide “labour market information,” or LMI, and training programs to meet employer needs. Yet, in this latest version of workforce policy, to meet the government’s promise of “not just jobs, but careers” will require going well beyond the LMI model. Labour’s goals in the new workforce policies must address sector and industry-based standards and industrial policies that create and sustain high-quality, value-added jobs. 

Ken Delaney, the managing director of the Canadian Skilled Trades Employment Coalition (CSTEC), Canada’s longest-standing “sector council” model, speaks to the limits of the former sector councils that were confined by government agendas. CSTEC’s work highlights the promise of workforce programs to address worker transition, equity and inclusion, especially if workers are allowed to maintain EI benefits in training. The organization’s programs also demonstrate how the career-building potential of Red Seal training can be adapted to meet the needs of skilled workers in manufacturing and other sectors. Delaney encourages unions to seize the opportunity in the Workforce Alliances to integrate industrial policy with labour market policy. 

Professor Evelyn Dionne’s study of the construction sector in Quebec warns that sector programs to increase labour force supply and speed up construction can lead to “a downward spiral marked by declining skill levels, lower-quality housing, inefficient green buildings and high turnover.” Dionne calls for project labour agreements (PLAs) to be incorporated into housing and construction projects in order to establish common and high-quality terms and conditions governing all workers and contractors. “By embedding training, equity and labour standards into procurement processes,” she writes, “PLAs can help ensure that accelerated construction does not come at the expense of quality or working conditions.” 

After pressure from within the Liberal caucus, reinforced by advocacy from social policy and feminist advocates, the federal government agreed to establish a Workforce Alliance for the care economy. Laurell Ritchie, a member of the Care Economy Initiative, emphasizes that in the care economy, worker retention is as important as recruitment. Like industrial sectors, meeting workforce goals in the care economy will require sector-based programs and standards, and strong government leadership. The inclusion of the care economy among the Workforce Alliances is itself recognition that industry and workforce policy can be influenced by advocacy from unions and women’s organizations. 

Unifor Research Director Angelo DiCaro’s contribution on the interrelationship between industrial policy and workforce policy underscores the need for the state to act as a “conductor” of a complex orchestra involving multiple public and private players. A weak state role leaves the government as a passive enabler of the private sector, resulting in “industrial improvisation” rather than industrial strategy. For the Workforce Alliances to make a real difference, they must go beyond workforce development—filling vacancies, and sponsoring training—to become well-rounded tables for “peak-level social dialogue” with “a whole-of-supply-chain approach” to labour standards and industrial growth. 

As DiCaro aptly puts it, the Workforce Alliances could be “a vital cog in the wheel of industrial growth and rising workplace standards.” Alternatively, they could become an “unambitious and burdensome exercise, simply facilitating training fund transfers, and entirely delinked from future-facing industrial strategy.” 

Prime Minister Carney has described this as a “hinge moment” for Canada, as Canadians collectively face up to the unprecedented threat posed by Donald Trump and aggression from Washington. It is also a hinge moment for labour. The potential reorientation of Canada’s economy away from deep dependence on U.S. export markets, with a greater role for active industrial policy and public investment, carries both opportunities and risks for unions and the workers they represent. 

The Workforce Alliances are an opportunity for unions to shape this historic economic moment, leveraging workers’ position at the point of production to demand both material progress and democratic power as this pivot unfolds. Canada’s unions must demonstrate that they have the organizational capacity and political leverage to bring a working-class agenda to the Workforce Alliances, and help to shape this new era of industrial policy in favour of workers. 

Please see the full paper here.

The post Workforce Alliances an Opportunity for Canadian Unions to Shape Future Industrial Strategies appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

For Immediate Release:

August 26, 2026

Contact:
Ashley Castaneda, ashley@restorethedelta.org

SOLANO, CA — California Forever, a proposed development project in Solano County that would have devastating impacts on the Delta, is once again seeking to circumvent legislative processes to gain preferential treatment. Despite the Solano County Board of Supervisors voting in opposition to California Forever, legislation advancing through the state Legislature and supported by Governor Newsom would create sweeping exemptions from environmental review to move portions of the project forward. 

Today at a press conference, when asked by a reporter about the controversial legislative proposal concerning California Forever, Governor Newsom stated that he would have “voted for it in a nanosecond”.

The bill contains several dangerous provisions, including: 

• The bill contains several dangerous provisions, including: 
• Eliminating environmental review for a large new industrial site in Collinsville for shipbuilding and other undisclosed industrial uses.
• Creating vague exemptions that extend the bill’s stated purpose and could allow the construction of data centers tied to shipbuilding.
• Allowing California Forever to unilaterally end tribal consultation without mitigation measures or agreement from affected Tribes.
• Overriding the vote of the people of Solano County, who have, since 1984, preserved their right to weigh in on land-use changes through the Orderly Growth Initiative.

Restore the Delta has worked successfully with Solano Together and the Solano County Board of Supervisors to reject this harmful proposal in recognition that it is an attempt to bypass due process, public input, and the priorities of local communities and Tribes. Now, Sacramento must stop this trailer bill to ensure that local residents maintain the right to shape economic planning and development, not billionaires.

We successfully convinced the Board of Supervisors to reject this harmful legislation, but we need Sacramento to stop this trailer bill once and for all. 

Take Action Before It’s Too Late!

1. Tell Governor Newsom and California legislators “No backroom deals for California Forever!”

• Governor Newsom – (916) 445-2841
• Speaker Robert Rivas – (916) 319-2029
• Pro Tem Limon – (916) 651-4021
• Assemblymember Wilson – (916) 319-2011
• Senator Cabaldon – (916) 651-4003

Tell them that: 

• You oppose any attempts to streamline the controversial California Forever Project, which would have direct and detrimental impact on Delta communities and ecosystems; and 
• Trailer Bills that circumvent the policy process undermine our democratic process and should not be entertained

2. Sign the NEW petition calling on State Lawmakers to not pursue this legislation.

SEND A LETTER TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY!

An introduction from Britt Gondolfi, Bioneers Indigeneity Special Programs Coordinator

I first met Jasmine Smith in her ancestral homeland, the Great Smoky Mountains, along the banks of the Long Person, the Cherokee name for the river and stream system that has sustained the Cherokee people for millennia. We were camping streamside at a Protecting Mother Earth gathering hosted by the Indigenous Environmental Network. Over several days, we attended workshops and strategic visioning sessions together, learning directly from tribes working to protect and preserve our precious planet. 

When Jasmine took the stage at an open mic, her powerful poem about the legacy of Cherokee women carried the audience 20 generations back and 7 generations forward, leaving them on their feet for a standing ovation. My 7-year-old was so moved by the Indigenous teen on stage that she found the courage to share an impromptu song of her own. That moment captured one of Jasmine’s great gifts: lifting up, inspiring, and empowering other young Indigenous women to speak up and join in. 

At 16, she founded a junior chapter of the North American Indian Women’s Association so young women in her tribe could build a support network of sisters and aunties and get organized. After taking Bioneers’ Indigenizing the Law course, Jasmine connected her organization of Indigenous teenage girls with our Native Youth Ambassador Program. With grit, determination, brilliance, ferocious faith, and guidance from elders, parents, and mentors, these young women helped pass the first-of-its-kind Rights of the Long Person Resolution in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Council. The resolution created a task force and inspired the council to initiate efforts to undam a section of the Long Person on the Ewa River. 

In this conversation, Jasmine shares the journey behind that work, the power of young Indigenous women organizing together, and what it means to indigenize the law by speaking for “that which cannot speak for itself.”

What follows is an edited excerpt of a conversation recorded at the Bioneers 2026 conference.

BRITT: Would you share how you decided to start the NAIWA Daughters, and who NAIWA (North American Indian Women’s Association) Daughters are?

Jasmine Smith

JASMINE: NAIWA is a nonprofit within our tribe with elder women members. They’re known for their cooking, but we always wanted to bridge the gap and have youth talk to our elders more. I remember the day we went in there; we were talking about creating this pilot program and building that partnership. I was so nervous talking to our elders about it. Now we’ve built those relationships, and they’re supporting our work, and we’re supporting theirs.

My third great-grandma, Ruth Littlejohn, is a very big pillar within our community. She helped found our fire station and raised money for our housing program. She’s a very impactful and strong woman. She and Ethylene Conseen and another woman they knew got together to create a network of Indigenous women across Turtle Island, and that’s when they started NAIWA. It grew from the Cherokee chapter into a national nonprofit.

NAIWA Daughters is also contributing and partnering with national NAIWA more. We’ve attended several national conferences, and this year, the national organization is coming back to the homelands. They’re having their conference in Cherokee, and we’re planning that and will host youth caucuses for the first time in a long time. They originally had youth as part of it, but it kind of dwindled away after my great-grandma passed away. So we’re getting to bring that back to our homelands. 

My second great aunt is the treasurer for our chapter, and for the national nonprofit. We have four generations within NAIWA this year. So my aunt, my grandma, my mom, my sister, and me. We have four generations on our homelands, affecting change and starting youth caucuses. So it’s a really historic moment, and it’s part of our family and lineage.

BRITT: You’ve talked about patriarchy and the importance of Indigenous women having a platform and a place of leadership in the community. This is a very wise and grounded awareness to carry. How old were you when you started the NAIWA Daughters? How old are you now, and how did you get to this place of understanding?

JASMINE: I started NAIWA when I was 11, and this understanding of how Indigenous women lead goes back to our ancestral ways. As a community, we understood that women were pillars and lifegivers, and we honored them, but we were an egalitarian community. So everyone was equal, but we honored women for what they did for our community and how they gave life. Without them, we wouldn’t be here. That’s something that they passed down through generations.

Coming from a family that has such strong matrilineal women and matriarchs, it’s kind of in my DNA to lead. And harnessing this in NAIWA Daughters was an outlet for that, and it fostered that environment. And through, I think, intergenerational trauma, our community’s looking at how we can reconnect with those ancestral values. 

It reflects within our tribe. I grew up not having seen Indigenous women within our tribal leadership. And now, since the ‘90s, we’ve had four women on our tribal council. It was an honor bringing our resolution for Rights of Nature into the chambers, and there were already four women on the council supporting us. It was great, because it wasn’t like we were talking to a bunch of men. We got to see women who looked like us in those seats, and they have really been empowering, supporting us.

We’ve always seen, at least in my family, women taking leadership. And my mom’s someone I always look up to because she always takes that leadership role. And she does so much, but she does it the right way, and understanding when we do anything, we have to do it under a certain set of values. So it kind of goes back to those values of how we live and how we interpret things, and just a way of being.

BRITT: You all originally started with a Rights of Nature initiative for the Eastern hellbender salamander. Will you walk us through the journey and thought process, and how you ended up narrowing your focus to this immense water body? And share a bit about the Cherokee history of the Long Person?

It all ties back to our water. We are water. Water is life. We couldn’t do any advocacy for land without talking about water. You can’t talk about Cherokee people without talking about water.

JASMINE: Yes, Long Person’s what we call our waterways. Its head begins in the mountains, and its feet travel to the sea. That’s over roughly 800 miles. This is a personal connection for me because my Cherokee name’s Agasga, meaning “rain”. So when you’re a baby, in our community you’re introduced to water. And for us, traditionally, we went to water and had ceremony sometimes seven times a day. It was a daily routine to have that relationship.

The journey to create the resolution all started when we were tubing down the river, and we would have to stop all the time because tourists would stack rocks, which disrupts the ecosystem and the homes of the juwa, the hellbender salamander. We got so frustrated, we wanted to do something about it. So we started conversations, and thought, “what if we made a resolution that says you can’t do this?” Then we talked about advocating for the land. We didn’t really know about Rights of Nature efforts until we met you. We understood this isn’t a new concept, it’s a cultural concept, something we’ve done since time immemorial, advocating for nature, and being a voice for the voiceless. 

We submitted a public comment, and that was one of our biggest community events. We had over 60 youth participants and adults come in just one night, planned out the public comment, wrote it as a community, and advocated for the juwa. We even had a survey about how many of the adults here had seen a juwa, and three or four raised their hands. Then we asked the youth, and nobody raised their hand. That’s a connection point that we’re losing because our waters have been unclean, and the hellbender has always been an ecological count, a mark, for us. What we say is that if the water flows over its back five times, it’s clean enough to drink. And what is it telling us when the juwa’s going endangered, and it’s going extinct? The juwa has been around since the dinosaurs. It survived all of that, and it’s starting to be endangered now. So what are we doing, as humans, for it to be going extinct? It’s a cultural loss as well. 

This resolution has opened many doors for other projects, like the dam project. We’re working on undamming one of the big parts of our Long Person, and reconnecting the sicklefin redhorse fish with the juwa. They haven’t been in connection for almost 101 years. 

But it all ties back to our water. We are water. Water is life. We couldn’t do any advocacy for land without talking about water. You can’t talk about Cherokee people without talking about water. You can’t talk about our homelands without water, because it is the center of Cherokee. If you look at where we lived traditionally, it was always in a water bend, and the importance of water to us has always been there.

BRITT: Take us back to that day in the council chambers. There were thousands of people watching online, and the room was packed. Feelings, memories, what did it feel like that day?

JASMINE: We started the Rights of Nature process 18 months before, and we kept asking: What’s it going to be like on Council day? Over those 18 months, I created scenarios in my head: Am I going to do this, am I going to do that? When it came to writing my speech and talking to Council, one of the things I really wanted to say is that we can’t flex sovereignty if we aren’t going to our ancestral roots and decolonizing our legal systems. In my speech, I talk about how we can’t be Cherokee without our land, and if we don’t pass this resolution, are we really upholding those Cherokee values, and is this a priority for our tribe?

The river is right beside our tribal council, so before even going into the chambers, we started with a water ceremony and brought the Long Person into the conversation in a pot that was made by a beloved woman. We had to make sure that we were doing this the right way, and with intentionality by having Long Person, because we couldn’t have had that conversation without it in the room.

Within our group, we were trying to figure out who was going to cry first, and we all thought it would be our mentor, Kim, and it was me first. I tried not to get emotional, but even now, any time I talk about it, I do, because it was such a significant moment.

Having community support was the biggest thing, prioritizing this in our tribe. NAIWA were there supporting us. Having my elders there, government leaders, tribal council leaders taking time out of their day to come support this. We saw that other people saw the value in this program, and what we’re doing to help mold these Indigenous women into being the future leaders of our tribe. And it felt right. It was a full circle moment.

It was very hot in the room, and people there were talking about how you could just feel the ancestors there. One of our council women, Shennelle Feather, talked about how we get to honor and reconnect with our Long Person, our relative, and have that relationship go to a deeper level. That’s something we haven’t had in a very long time. So through the Long Person Resolution, we’re reconnecting with our ancestors. And having that relationship and advocating for things that don’t always have a voice. So being a voice for the voiceless. 

So that’s kind of what the day was like. I was happy to see my fellow Indigenous young leaders speaking up and advocating and making change. And I’m always so proud of them. I never envisioned us doing this, but it was almost like our ancestors entrusted this to us, a calling to restore ancestral ways, and to heal intergenerational trauma.

BRITT: That’s beautiful. I watched it remotely. I was crying my eyes out. Other allies were texting me; they were all crying. I had jokingly said that obviously we’re honoring water here, because water is flowing out of all of us watching what was happening in this Council Room. So it was so beautiful to see y’all carry the Long Person in that beautiful pottery made by this beloved woman. It was only right, I think, that tears fell because we’re water. And so by recognizing the Long Person as a rights-bearing entity but also relative, it’s like it’s honoring the water in us and in the ecosystem and in the spirit of that person.

So what was it like to be a teenager going to your tribal council and telling them: I want you to pass this law.

JASMINE:  It was not an easy process. We had separate meetings with tribal council members to gain their support, and meetings with the chief to talk about how this would affect our fishing department, and how it would affect other fish and wildlife, and how our tribe operates, and tubing companies. And yes, all those things are so important, but talking about that – it’s almost as if we’re forgetting the real importance of the resolution and advocating for Long Person, because it hasn’t had an advocate in so long.

We realized we had to get community input, and get the community behind it to get it over the finish line. Educating the community was hard, but beautiful at the same time, because they reconnected to a cultural concept that we’ve always had, and it empowered them. And a big success was making our Rights of Nature T-shirts, and having it say “Water Protector” in Cherokee and in English. So when anyone wears the T-shirt, they’re a water protector too, just by wearing that T-shirt and empowering our community members to affect change. 

So with the survey, we got those responses that showed we had pretty much full support, which was a big factor in our tribe’s support. Because at the end of the day, they’re supposed to be there for their community. And when we showed them that, it was really, really hard for them to say no. It was healing for the tribal council and just for our tribe in general because this was the first resolution in our tribe that doesn’t look at water as something to be owned or profited from, and giving rights back, and having this resolution in places like our visitor center, and some of our biggest achievements as a tribe. It was a lot of work, but it’s so rewarding to know our waters are protected. 

Now we’re looking at what specific laws we need to protect the Long Person. One of the things my mom always jokes about is that if you need anything done, let the youth handle it.

BRITT: That’s incredible. I love what you said in your presentation, that, you know, this is not a new legal concept. And you brought in that traditional value of doing good. I think for many people in the Rights of Nature movement, there’s this idea of this hot, new legal, environmental movement, and that it’s brand new in 2008 in Ecuador, in the constitutional amendment, but I think the real truth of the matter is this is old.

Right relationship, reciprocity, seeing oneself as a part of the ecosystem, not separate from it, not allowing people to poison the well and kill all the animals and ruin the food and the air. I mean, there were laws before there were the current governments that are operating in this territory now. People think that everyone was just running around wild, but there were laws and value systems, and that’s how you have thousands of years of continuous culture; that’s how you have thousands of years of language and practice and spirituality; that’s how people survive where they’re placed for thousands of years is because there are rules. And what I find so powerful and so beautiful and inspiring is that y’all are the youngest leaders in your community, but you’re bringing forward some of the oldest rules.

Would you share a bit about the Cherokee value system and principles of doing good? What did you learn about Cherokee values in the process of bringing about this good work? And for people that aren’t familiar with Cherokee, if you could help them understand the rules that you all live by.

One of my favorite things about our language that I find so fascinating is that you see how our values are built into just the way we communicate, and understanding relationship and reciprocity, and all of those components. Two examples are how in Cherokee “root”, in direct translation, means “to help”. And for basket, whenever you’re talking about making a basket, you never say, “I made a basket,” you always say, “I mended wood to sculpt this object.” It’s that understanding that we utilize these things but it’s a relationship we have with them, and respecting that.

JASMINE: That’s actually how we start our resolution off, we list the Cherokee values that correlate with the resolution itself. And that’s what we try to encompass in everything we do, as a tribe, as NAIWA Daughters, and just as people. And understanding that everything we do reflects our ancestors’ sacrifices. It’s also things like meeting people, making connections, supporting one another. Those are all Cherokee concepts. And it’s the little things that amount to the big successes. And without partnerships, conversations, and reciprocity, work and relationships, we wouldn’t have been able to get this resolution going and finished.

Throughout this process, we made sure to uphold those values with everything. When we’re talking to elders, we make sure we’re listening more than talking, and soaking up the knowledge, sitting in space with them. Talking to educators and attorneys in this process, how can we make sure that our words are translated into legal government systems today? 

One of my favorite things about our language that I find so fascinating is that you see how our values are built into just the way we communicate, and understanding relationship and reciprocity, and all of those components. Two examples are how in Cherokee “root”, in direct translation, means “to help”. And for basket, whenever you’re talking about making a basket, you never say, “I made a basket,” you always say, “I mended wood to sculpt this object.” It’s that understanding that we utilize these things but it’s a relationship we have with them, and respecting that, so anything we do, every time we speak our language, throughout this process, it’s going back to those values. And everything we do we need to do the right way. 

We really learned that through this process, and doing anything with NAIWA Daughters, making sure our projects instill those values. That’s one of the things the girls were talking about when we first started, is why doesn’t our tribe already have these things built into our constitution, and have them as the basis of our tribe? This is what the youth are supposed to be doing today, this is our job. We get to bring these values back and be the leaders that we need today, and be the future leaders our tribe needs.

BRITT: That’s beautiful. What’s next for you all?

JASMINE: What’s next, specifically for Rights of Nature, is the dam project. We have this resolution put in place; it lays the foundation for anything environmental, anything talking about land or water, we can always refer back to this. It’s great to know that because we’ve effectively made it possible for so many other projects. That’s one of the bigger things coming up for NAIWA Daughters. But outside of our priority projects, we’re speaking at conferences on Rights of Nature, and empowering other youth.

BRITT: What is your call to action or advice or counsel, especially for young people? You were inspired by a group of young people who did something in their tribe; you went home, you made it uniquely yours and did it in your way, and have had beautiful outcomes already would be your message to youth in Indian Country.

JASMINE: Sitting with the Mashpee NEA and learning about their efforts for the rights of the herring was so helpful, having those conversations and understanding, what to expect if something happens, what’s your counter. But it also creates a community, a network of Rights of Nature advocates. That’s one of the things that we really wanted to voice, is while NAIWA Daughters is doing work, we’re always open to supporting youth and giving guidance, and helping out, because Rights of Nature is so important; we want to support other tribes.

What I love about having conversations with youth and empowering them is that they can always do it better than we did. My advice for youth is never, never give up on the work, because you’re not just advocating for other youth now; you’re advocating for youth in the future. 

Community is one of the biggest things. If it’s hard, creating a network and making relations makes it so much easier. Garner support. We had support from people who weren’t even from or non-Native companies and organizations. If their values are the same as ours, and they want to partner, creating a network of supporters outside of the tribe is really helpful when we’re talking about sovereignty and having people in the community that can support and uphold the work. 

It’s important to advocate for our waterways, and to effectively make Mother Nature whole and healthy all together, we have to create these networks. It’s good here, but it also has to be good here, and over there. We’re doing it for not my sixth grandchild, but my great, great, great, great, great, great-grandchild that I’ll never meet. Knowing that I made a difference and made their life better. You do it to honor your ancestors, because they made sacrifices for you to be where you are, and you have to do the same for future generations.

Honestly, it gives me chills sometimes just talking about it, because before the Long Person Resolution, I had an innate connection with water, but now it’s different. It’s more of a “I see you, and you see me” deeper relationship, and knowing you’ve protected me for so long, I’m going to give back in a time when you need it. It’s understanding if your ancestor speaks to you and you get this feeling to keep going. That was really our fuel to do this, and understanding that it’s meant to be and it just takes time.

The post Speaking with Youth who are Speaking for the Voiceless: A Conversation with Jasmine Smith appeared first on Bioneers.

When logging companies cut down trees to thin overcrowded forests, they are left with a costly headache: giant mounds of limbs and spindly trunks worth so little that it’s easier to burn them.

But they could turn this biomass trash into carbon-rich treasure, both making money and trapping much of the carbon dioxide that rises into the atmosphere from these blazing slash piles, according to new research.

In many parts of the arid western United States, companies could earn billions of dollars by simply burying the wood debris underground and selling carbon credits, according to research published today in Science Advances.   

The new work shows that “pairing these two pathways together could enable more forest restoration as well as carbon storage,” said Sinéad Crotty, an ecologist and manager at the Carbon Containment Lab, a Connecticut-based nonprofit that studies ways to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

The strategy is deceptively simple. Plants are the ultimate carbon capture device, sucking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in wood and leaves. But the long-term fate of that carbon hinges on what happens when those plants are cut down or die.

Burn them, and much of it goes back into the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming. Let them decay, and the same thing happens. But if you stick them underground and shield them from the air, much of that carbon should stay put. After all, that’s basically what happened with all that oil and coal we are now burning. It was once ancient vegetation buried under sediment.

 

.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:The idea of burying wood to store carbon is so simple it almost sounds absurd. But is it?

 

While people are wrestling with the climate crisis, there is a simultaneous forest health emergency. Many western U.S. forests are overgrown and filled with flammable vegetation, thanks to a combination of dense forests that regrew after logging and decades of suppression of wildfire and Indigenous burning. Pair that with the current mega drought gripping much of the region and you have a recipe for the massive wildfires that blanket states in smoke this time of year.

Crotty and her collaborators wanted to see how viable it would be to tackle both the climate and forest problems by finding a revenue stream to help pay for forest thinning while simultaneously capturing some of the carbon inside the vegetation.

They compared the costs and carbon emissions from different scenarios: the conventional approach of burning the wood waste; burying it in a specially made landfill; burning it for energy and capturing the carbon rising from the smokestacks; letting it rot; or cooking it into a charcoal-like substance called biochar.

To make the calculations more realistic, the scientists considered factors that could affect the cost and effectiveness. They estimated the distance from forest thinning to sites where the wood could be buried or burned. They mapped variables such as rainfall that would influence how deep the wood needed to be buried to avoid rotting and emitting greenhouse gases.

The modeling revealed that in many cases, burying the vegetation made the most sense. Over a century, burning keeps just 4.5% of the carbon stored. Letting it rot is nearly as bad. Biochar stored 44% of the carbon. By contrast, burial in a special landfill captured 78% of the carbon, on par with the 81% from burning and carbon capture. With such carbon capture projects extremely rare, burial appears more realistic in the short term.

The financial math backed up these findings. Burning is the costliest, losing $49 for every ton of carbon dioxide due to expenses such as manpower and planning. If companies can sell carbon credits for $100 per metric ton—a common benchmark in the carbon credit world—burial would earn around $21 per ton, bioenergy would earn $12 and biochar would break even if the leftover char is sold.

With the federal government proposing to treat 3.5 million acres of forest this year, those cost differences add up. Rather than costing $3.1 billion to burn the leftovers, burial could store some 60 million tons of carbon dioxide and earn around $2 billion, the scientists found.

Some companies already see the possibility of spinning this wood waste into buried gold. One company, Graphyte, is turning wood into solid blocks, encasing them in plastic and burying them. It plans to open a plant in Arizona using wood from forest thinning. Colorado-based Woodcache is burying slash on a small scale, while Mast Reforestation is entombing dead trees left after wildfires.

Still, the researchers caution that burial won’t always be the right answer. Factors like soil conditions and rainfall can affect whether the carbon, once buried, will stay in the ground.

“In the wrong soil, digging a burial chamber can release more carbon than the wood could ever store,” cautioned Leah Clayton, the paper’s lead author and incoming Ph.D. student at Stanford University who previously worked at the carbon lab.

That puts a premium on detailed planning for individual sites.

“No single pathway is a silver bullet,” said Clayton. “But there are promising opportunities everywhere.”

Clayton, et. al. “Near-term, geospatial opportunity for biomass carbon storage to address the wildfire and climate crises.” Science Advances. Aug. 26, 2026.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine

The new rules shut more migrants out of basic financial and health supports. Here is who is affected, why it matters and why we need to speak up.

What are Ontario Works and ODSP?

In Ontario, financial support is available to some people who need help paying for basic needs.

Ontario Works (OW) supports people with little or no income. The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) supports low-income people who meet the program’s disability requirements.

These programs are already small and exclusionary. A single person on Ontario Works receives only $733 per month – nowhere near enough to pay rent, buy groceries and meet basic needs.

That amount has been frozen for eight years.

What did Ford change on August 13?

On August 13, 2026 the Ford government changed Ontario’s OW and ODSP regulations to explicitly exclude people based on their immigration status.

The new rules say that people are not eligible if they:

• do not have authorization to remain in Canada; or
• are only authorized to remain temporarily, including people on work and study permits,

unless they fall within specific exceptions, including having made a refugee claim or certain applications for permanent residence.

The same new exclusion was added to ODSP.

The government also removed an existing protection for some people with enforceable removal orders who cannot leave Canada for reasons completely beyond their control.

The new rules Immigration situationBefore August 13: what the regulations saidSince August 13: what the regulations sayRefugee claimantsCould qualify for ODSP and OW. No change – remain eligible if they meet the other OW/ODSP requirementsPeople who have applied for permanent residenceCould qualify for ODSP and OW. No change – remain eligible if they meet the other OW/ODSP requirements.Migrant workers, international students and other work permit holdersThe regulations did not explicitly say that everyone with temporary status was ineligible. They excluded people categorized as “visitors” and “tourists”.Now explicitly excluded.Undocumented people without an enforceable removal orderCould qualify for ODSP and OW. Now explicitly excluded. People with an enforceable removal order who cannot leave Canada for reasons completely beyond their controlCould qualify for ODSP and OW. Now explicitly excluded.People with an enforceable removal order who have made an H&C application for permanent residenceCould qualify for ODSP and OW. No change – remain eligible if they meet the other OW/ODSP requirements.

Before August 13, the regulations excluded “visitors” and “tourists,” but neither term was defined in the legislation or regulation. 

The Ford government has now removed those words and replaced them with much broader language explicitly covering temporary immigration status and lack of immigration status.

Were migrants receiving OW and ODSP?

Ontario had a longstanding unjust practice of caseworkers treating many people with work and study permits as “visitors.” As a result, many migrants were often denied OW or ODSP. Those who could, challenged those decisions at the Social Benefits Tribunal.

The regulations did not previously say that every person with temporary immigration status, or every person without immigration status, was automatically excluded, so hearings at the Tribunal were often successful. 

The Ministry describes this as a “clarification” of its longstanding policy. But what it has actually done is put a much broader immigration-status exclusion directly into Ontario law.

Who will this hurt?

These rules affect people who may have lived, worked and paid taxes in Ontario for years and then suddenly need help because of illness, unemployment, abuse or another crisis.

Patel: Patel is a 40-year-old man who came to Canada from Bangladesh after fleeing persecution because of his bisexuality. His immigration applications were denied, but he was afraid to return. He was later diagnosed with liver failure and cirrhosis. Because of his serious health condition, Canada cannot remove him. ODSP provides him with essential financial and medical support. Ford has now removed that protection. People in Patel’s situation can now be denied the basic financial and health supports they need to survive.

John: John is a 30-year-old seasonal agricultural worker from Jamaica who has been coming to Canada every year since 2020 to grow and harvest our food. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2024. He could not work while receiving chemotherapy and temporarily relied on Ontario Works.  Today, John is in remission and back at work. Under Ford’s new regulation, most workers in John’s immigration situation are now explicitly excluded from Ontario Works.

Vanessa: Vanessa is a mother from Jamaica who worked as a home support worker caring for elderly people. During the pandemic, she fled abuse from her ex-partner with her children and entered the shelter system. After losing her job, she temporarily relied on Ontario Works while looking for work and child care. Her family later became permanent residents and she returned to care work. Under the new regulations, migrant women on temporary status in similar situations can be explicitly denied basic financial support while trying to escape violence or survive a crisis.

Why is the Ford government doing this?

Meanwhile, Ontario’s Auditor General found that the Ford government spent a record $111.9 million on government advertising in 2024–25. Six of its ten largest advertising campaigns would not have passed Ontario’s former, stricter rules against partisan government advertising.

And while poor people and migrants struggle to pay rent and buy food, Premier Ford used taxpayer money to buy a $28.9 million dollar jet for his own private use. Members of Ford’s government have spent hundreds of thousands of public dollars on hotel rooms and fancy dinners. 

The government announced these changes after media attention around a Social Benefits Tribunal case involving a man who had lived and worked in Canada for decades before losing his home. He challenged the denial of social assistance and won. Ford responded by changing the regulations.

No one should be denied food, housing, medicine or the means to survive because of the immigration documents they have or do not have.

At a time when rent and food prices are soaring and decent jobs are harder to find, blaming migrants will not make anyone’s life more affordable.

Taking $733 a month away from someone with cancer, someone escaping violence or someone who has lost their job will not lower the rent, raise wages or fix health care.

These changes are another attempt to pit migrants and poor people against each other while those responsible for the affordability crisis escape responsibility.

We must reject divide-and-rule and speak up together.

I’m a migrant and I’m worried. Where can I get support?

Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is a group of current and former migrants. We come together to support each other and push back against unfair rules and laws like these.

If you live in the Greater Toronto Area, we offer free, confidential, in-person Migrant Support Clinics every second Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

You can share what is happening and work with other migrants to understand your options and find solutions.

Fill out our form to sign up.

Can’t come in person? Fill out the form anyway and we will get back to you.

The post Ford just changed who can get Ontario Works and ODSP. first appeared on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

The post Ford just changed who can get Ontario Works and ODSP. appeared first on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

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