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Jonathan Mertzig was wary when Madison rolled out a fleet of 62 electric buses in the fall of 2024. The city had tested a few of them four years earlier, and it had not gone well. Winter in Wisconsin gets mighty cold, and batteries do not like the cold. 

“Operationally, they were a nightmare,” said Mertzig, a member of the Madison Area Bus Advocates. “Every time you got on one there would be an alarm going off. You never knew when one was going to die in the middle of the road.” 

Cities across the country have experienced similar growing pains while electrifying public transit. A study conducted in Ithaca, New York, found that range can plummet by about half when the mercury hits 24 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. That makes Madison, which sees an average of 18 days below zero each year, a tough proving ground. Riders like Mertzig, who experiences severe migraines and avoids driving, need the buses to run no matter what.

This time, they’ve done just that.

Metro Transit, which provides about 9.1 million rides annually, installed overhead chargers on key routes, allowing buses to quickly top off at several stops. Improved battery capacity also lets them go farther between plug-ins. The real test came January 23, when the temperature dropped to -4 degrees F, shutting down the University of Wisconsin-Madison — but the buses kept running.

That said, the rollout has not gone flawlessly. Last year, the transit agency apologized when the overhead charging system malfunctioned, sidelining buses. In January, maintenance issues forced it to reduce service on two routes, but officials insist cold weather was not a factor.

Just a few years ago, electric buses routinely faltered in cold conditions, reinforcing doubts about whether they could replace diesel and natural gas-burning fleets in northern cities. Now, with better batteries and strategically placed chargers, Madison is at the forefront of a small but growing number of cities testing whether those doubts still hold. Making the technology work through a long Midwestern winter could reshape how others approach electrification. Some 3.6 million commuters nationwide rely on buses to get around. With transportation accounting for roughly 28 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, transit agencies are looking for alternatives to polluting machinery that creates a particular health risk around bus stops.

Madison is among more than 100 U.S. cities that have pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Electric buses are key to that goal.

Metro Transit’s first experiment came during a broader effort to launch a system that could carry more riders with lower emissions. The city rolled out three electric buses — which cost $1.3 million and were funded in part through a federal grant — in 2020 to see how they’d do in daily service. Although the pilot introduced Madison to zero-emissions transit and helped build institutional know-how, the buses, supplied by Proterra, were dogged by battery and maintenance issues. The city has since purchased coaches built by New Flyer. 

“We had no real success with Proterra,” said Joshua Marty, the agency’s facilities manager. Beyond the range challenges, his team had trouble sourcing parts and maintenance from the company, which declared bankruptcy in 2024.

Batteries have gotten significantly better in the short time since Madison decided to go electric. “Energy density has been increasing at roughly 7 percent per year over the last decade,” said Eric Kazyak, a mechanical engineer and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That boost has helped the 60-foot buses become the workhorses of Madison’s fleet. They work the city’s Bus Rapid Transit lines, and fill in on popular routes near the university campus.

A Metro Transit bus parked beneath a pantograph “quick charger” at the end of the line. Just 15 minutes during regularly scheduled layovers allows each coach to travel as far as 258 miles a day. Courtesy Metro Transit.

Buses that work Route A — which runs east to west across the city — can stay out for most of the day because they recharge during routine layovers at each end of the run. The driver settles beneath an overhead pantograph “quick charger” for about 15 minutes. That boost allows each coach to travel as far as 258 miles a day. By the time it reaches the end of the line, the battery has dropped by 15 to 20 percent — a gap the charger refills in as many minutes. At night, the fleet returns to a dedicated depot with 16 slightly slower, but still plenty zippy, quick chargers. 

The north-to-south Route B does not yet have overheard charging hardware, so buses trundle around for four hours before returning to the depot with roughly 25 percent on their battery. The city plans to add pantographs to the route at some point, a move that would nearly double the time those rigs spend carrying passengers. Still, even the coldest winter days don’t reduce range by more than 10 percent compared to a balmy summer afternoon.

Between 60 and 70 percent of the fleet is typically running at any given time, with the rest in for maintenance and cleaning or being used to train drivers — a figure that Cody Hanna, the transit agency’s transit maintenance manager, said is unaffected by weather. The biggest challenge has been getting parts for the buses, which are more complex than their diesel counterparts and trickier to diagnose when something goes sideways. “With an electric bus, it could be an inverter, it could be a motor, it could just be a bad wire, could be a bad sensor,” he said. “There’s so many different things that are talking to each other.”

While on-route charging has been a boon for Madison, it could be cost-prohibitive for smaller cities. “This is a really good idea,” said Max Zhang, a mechanical engineer and professor at Cornell University who led the study in Ithaca. “At the same time, there’s also cost issues. Those charging stations, my understanding is they’re not cheap.”  

Pantograph chargers typically cost roughly the same as the $1.5 million that Madison spent on each bus. Yet they might have actually saved the city money. Without them, Hanna said, Metro Transit would need to triple the number of buses running on Route A from 18 to 54. 

Those tradeoffs are playing out at a moment of federal retrenchment. The Trump administration has sought to curb electric bus investment. An analysis by the nonprofit advocacy organization Transportation for America found that only 3 percent of federal “low or no emission” program grants awarded last year went to zero-emission buses. 

Nonetheless, other frigid cities, including Minneapolis and Duluth — once a poster child for the technology’s failures — are expanding their clean energy fleets, and Milwaukee has embraced on-route charging.

But Mountain Line in Missoula, Montana, might be furthest down the road. Although it doesn’t get as frigid there as it does in Madison, the city experiences a week or two of temperatures below zero each year. Missoula also sits in a valley, trapping diesel exhaust. It began the transition toward electrification in 2018, and has since replaced about 90 percent of its fleet — putting the city well ahead of its goal of being entirely electric by 2034.

Read Next How gas stations can become the best place to charge your EV Benton Graham

Jordan Hess, the transit agency’s CEO, began working with electric buses in 2016 as transportation director at the University of Montana. Back then, the buses would recharge on the route much like those in Madison. Missoula’s coaches have batteries big enough to complete runs without topping off. It also helps that Mountain Line, like Metro Transit in Madison, uses diesel-powered heaters to keep passengers warm.

“They’re a little bit like chickens,” Hess said of the buses. If the temperature falls below zero, “they start squawking. You start taking precautions, and you start thinking about heat. I think of electric vehicles the same. [It] can get pretty darn cold before you have a lot of problems.” 

The buses have also brought changes for operators. Shanell Hayes has driven diesels and electrics in her three years with Metro Transit. Last winter, while returning to the depot to recharge, the lumbering bus suddenly topped out at 35 mph, then 20, and then just 2. She pulled over to wait for a supervisor, who followed her the last mile to the bus barn. It took an hour, testing her faith in the technology. Still, she likes how the behemoths handle snowy, icy conditions. Regenerative braking uses the motor to help slow the vehicle, sending power otherwise lost as heat back to the battery. It allows for a lighter touch on the brake pedal.

“I just take my foot off the gas and just allow it to slow down on its own,” Hayes said. “That way I can use my brake minimally without sliding.”

Rabbit Roberge was in his first week of driving when he pulled up to a pantograph charger at the western end of Route A on a cold January morning. He drives a Toyota Prius, so he’s familiar with regenerative braking and the benefits of electric propulsion. He’s a fan of the tech. “They’re smoother,” he said of the buses. “They’re not as loud. They’re just all-around nicer to drive.”

Riders, too, seem to have embraced the change, though there have been challenges. Susanne Galler, who has been riding regularly since giving up her car in 2000, was still getting around on crutches after a bike accident in 2024 when she noticed that most of the seats in the electric buses require a step up to reach them. She also has seen one bus require a tow, and another that died at a stoplight. Still, she considers the transition to zero-emissions machinery as a “positive step.”

Kira Breeden, a doctoral student at the university, regularly takes the Route A to campus, particularly when it’s too nasty to ride her bike. She finds the buses to be dependable.

“I think it’s a really good system,” she said. “I’ve heard occasionally people complain about the timeliness of buses, but I’ve never had any issues, except for one snowstorm my first year — which makes a lot of sense, because it was dumping snow.” That storm occurred in March 2024, before the electric fleet rolled out, so it was probably a diesel bus that left her stranded. It’s a reminder that cold weather can sideline any machine.

Support for this story was provided by The Neal Peirce Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting journalism revealing ways to make cities and their surrounding regions work better for all people.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Electric buses are passing a brutal cold-weather test in Wisconsin on Feb 23, 2026.

The arrest of the U.K. rapist formerly known as Prince, and the echoing, trans-Atlantic edict that no one is above the law, lay ever-barer America's "true exceptionalism": A culture of immunity so corrosive our own heinous, in-his-fever-dreams "exonerated" Predator-In-Chief has enragingly yet to face any consequences for his manifold sins, crimes, cruelties and depravities, petty and profound. Finally, says Epstein survivor Maria Farmer, "(Let) all the dominoes of power and corruption begin to fall."

The stunning arrest by Thames Valley Police of "Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor" - notably, not "His Royal Highness," ”the Duke of York" or other niceties - on his 66th birthday was widely seen as not just an arrest but "a transfer of power," a possible, long- awaited shift in the tides for once-untouchable elites of the Epstein class that announces power and status may no longer keep them safe, at least outside the crooked U.S. Shortly after 8 a.m., police arrived in six unmarked vehicles at Wood Farm on King Charles’ Sandringham Estate to haul Andrew off; they also reportedly searched his former residence near Windsor Castle. The charge, "suspicion of misconduct in public office" - talk about your euphemisms - stems from Andrew's term as UK trade envoy from 2001 to 2011, when he allegedly shared with Jeffrey Epstein confidential government reports on potential investment opportunities from Vietnam, Singapore, China and Afghanistan.

The envoy gig mandates a "duty of confidentiality"; any "abuse of public trust" that uses public power as "private currency for self-serving or nefarious reasons" carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. (Just imagine what they'd make of the Trump cartel's brazen, perennial grifting.) Andrew, of course, has also been charged with raping outspoken Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide last year at 41, which led to him being stripped of his royal titles before slinking out of public view. Regrettably, he never faced a rape charge in court due to several factors - a civil settlement with Giuffre, a high bar for conviction beyond a reasonable doubt, and other legal loopholes. Presumably for some Epstein victims, bringing Andrew to even a modicum of justice on the easier-to-prove misconduct in office charge may feel dispiriting, like nabbing the murderous Al Capone for tax evasion: Better than nothing, but not good enough.

Andrew's was the first arrest of a senior member of the British royal family in modern history. The last one arrested was King Charles I in 1647, following his defeat in the English Civil War by Parliamentarian forces; a believer in the divine right of kings, his tyrannical reign led to his imprisonment, trial for high treason, and beheading in 1649 - the moral arc of the universe moved faster then. After Andrew's arrest, his brother King Charles, who had received no warning beforehand, issued a statement on, not his bro but “Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor”; he expressed “deepest concern" but "whole-hearted support" for the investigation: "Let me state clearly: the law must take its course." Others cited the same probity. Prime Minister Keir Starmer: "No one is above the law.” The family of Virginia Giuffre: "No one is above the law, not even royalty." Heartbreakingly, they added, "For survivors everywhere, Virginia did this for you."

Waxing cautious about possible shifts in power, The Mirror’s Christopher Bucktin notes, "A birthday arrest should not stand alone as a rare spectacle. It should signal something larger: that no title, no fortune, no political office is sufficient armour against the law...Justice cannot stop at one imprisoned accomplice while others retreat behind legal teams and influence." A new report from the UN's Human Rights Council, which finds Epstein's wrongs "may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity," echoes him. Arguing the files' "credible evidence of systematic and large-scale sexual abuse, trafficking and exploitation" - thus contradicting the "little evidence" bullshit of our DOJ and FBI - it dismisses vapid calls to "move on" as "a failure of responsibility towards victims." Resignations alone aren't enough, it adds: "It is imperative that governments act decisively to hold perpetrators (criminally) accountable."

As further evidence "Epstein elites can't hide anymore" - except, yes, infuriatingly, here - active investigations of Epstein-related crimes in 16 countries are now sweeping up officials on both sex-trafficking and corruption charges; Canada will reportedly open the next one. In the UK, former ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson was fired and is under investigation - oops, now arrest - for passing on financial info to Epstein; Starmer’s chief of staff, who appointed Mandelson, also resigned. In Norway, a former prime minister was charged with "gross corruption” for his Epstein ties, and two diplomats are being investigated. In France, so are a former Culture Minister, his daughter and a senior diplomat. Non-Epstein-related justice has also come for South Korea's former President Yoon Suk Yeol - a life sentence with hard labor for an insurrection - and Brazil's Bolsonaro, whose 2023 coup attempt got him 27 years, and no pardons.

"This is what accountability looks like," argues David Kurtz of Andrew's arrest and all the rest, which "sends a signal far beyond London - straight to Washington." What it proclaims: "If the King's own brother is not above the law, neither is the King's dinner guest, nor his Commerce Secretary." Infernally, the lesson has yet to be heeded in an America ruled by a two-bit, 34-count felon and rapist abetted by a cabal of flunkies managing a Mafia-style criminal regime with no bottom and a corrupt SCOTUS whose "out-of-thin-air immunity doctrine" has made him less accountable than actual royalty - spawning a nation "exceptional among developed nations solely in (its) unwillingness to hold the powerful to account, even in the most egregious cases." Confirming that stark reality was last week's unfurling, outside the DOJ, of a huge banner of Dear Leader, "an abomination and an outrage" straight-up declaring our alleged justice system "a pure creature of presidential whim, retribution and cover-up."

Meanwhile, despite Epstein files that "scream 'Guilty" - with his hideous name appearing over 38,000 times in 5,300 released files representing just 2-4% of the grisly whole - Trump had the chutzpah to respond to a question about the possible ripple effect at home of Andrew's arrest by professing, four times in 30 seconds, he's been "totally exonerated." "Well, you know, I'm the expert in a way, because I've been totally exonerated," he blustered, prattling on in toddler-ese. "I did nothin'. It’s very nice. I can actually speak about it very nicely. I think it’s a shame. I think it’s very sad. It’s very, very sad to me. It’s a very sad thing. To see it, and to see what’s going on with his brother. King. So I think it’s a very sad thing." Fucking Christ. Nope, wasn't me, nothing to see here, not a creep, all good, if sad. And not a word on the survivors. Appalled observers: "Guilty as fuck," "The man on my TV screen is batshit crazy," and, "I hope to live long enough to see this POS in a cell with an open toilet." Or maybe none?

Epstein’s carefully curated, now slowly splintering network of elites included billionaires, academics, politicians, scummy MAGA hangers-on like Steve Bannon - “Dude. You up??" - with culpability circling ever closer to Trump. A trove of damning evidence has surfaced, from the removal of 53 files bearing his name to journalist Roger Sollenberger's account of disappeared allegations in a civil complaint and FBI slideshow that the DOJ spoke four times to a Jane Doe who credibly charged she was forced to perform oral sex on Trump when she was about 14; when she bit down on his penis, she said he punched her in the head, kicked her out, and later raped her vaginally and anally. Experts say such emerging stories of abuse reveal a ghastly, familiar pattern; the latest, in Alaska, is "nothing short of horrifying." Thus does Masha Gessen argue that it's time for us to stop speaking of the Epstein story "as a story about extraordinary lawlessness. It is a story about ordinary lawlessness."

Dating back, in Trump's case, a savage lifetime. By now he's committed most of the crimes Thomas Jefferson charged King George with in the Declaration of Independence - ignored laws "necessary for the public good," sent "swarms of Officers to harass our people," kept "Standing Armies without Consent," altered "fundamentally the Forms of our Government," ravaging due process, free speech, health care, civil rights, history itself. The lies, deaths, grift, cruelty, unceasing assaults on decency. The "monstrous machine" to snatch up and spit out thousands of innocents - "¡Libertad!” - in concentration camps. The children trapped with cancer, measles, trauma: "Please get me out of here." Two-month old Juan Nicolás, unresponsive in Dilley, choking on his vomit, abruptly deported with his family to Mexico, tracked down and cared for thanks to "America's most relentless immigration reporter," because, "The story is rarely the policy - (it's) the person standing in the rubble of the policy."

Today, the two essential pillars of Trump's "fantasy version of nationalist renewal" - ethnic cleansing and tariffs - are both rubble, rejected by the public, the courts and even a corrupt SCOTUS, which enraged him so much he revived a cringe John Barron to rave about the "fools and lap dogs” who rejected his cherished tariffs and the imaginary hundreds of billions they brought in to make us '"the hottest country." The drek kept spewing. He praised lickspittles Thomas, Alito, Beer Keg Brett for "their strength and wisdom," especially Beer Keg, "for his, frankly, his genius." He respects them "because they not only dissented, their dissent is so strong. I'm very good at reading language and it read our way 100%...My thousands of victories...Like the wars I stopped. The Prime Minister of Pakistan said I saved 35 million lives by getting them to stop. That's -- and I did it largely with tariffs." He's vowed new tariffs, "and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way." So much winning.

Also somewhere he asked the owner of "they made steel products" how he was, and the man said, "I'd love to kiss you," because "we were down to working one hour a week and then you came in and imposed tariffs (and) now we're going to double shifts seven days a week and maybe to 24 hours almost seven days a week, we're hiring people like we haven't - like I've never..." Trump: "Nobody's standing in (the) position I have as president had the insight, the courage, I don't know what it is. They're all pouring into the United States. But just like that great patriot said, Sir, what you've done, nobody thought was possible." As to "slimeball" Gorsuch and Coney Barret, they're "an embarrassment to their families" and were "swayed by foreign interests." Dems were intrigued: The Judiciary Committee's Jared Moskowitz felt he should find out more about them, and another Dem felt the next president "will have no choice but to replace all 9 members with new justices with no foreign entanglements."

On Saturday, the White House held the annual Governors' Dinner, designed to "build relationships and discuss things in a bipartisan way." Historically, the staid, candle-lit, black-tie affair - Melania wore $2,400 silver foil pants - can serve as a genial distraction from Congressional battles. In this rancorous moment, it was a shitshow - actors on both sides alternately called it "a farce" and "a glowing evening" - because after the Mad Hatter King uninvited two Dems, the only Black and only openly gay governor, Dems all boycotted it what became a MAGA ass-kissing fest. Trump used the moment to blame two Dem governors for a sewage spill in the Potomac River. "We have to clean up some mess Maryland and Virginia have left us," he snarled. "It's unbelievable what they can do with incompetence." The ruptured pipe is part of a D.C.-based, federally regulated utility under the oversight of the U.S. EPA. As to "mess," we hope to see this face replicated soon at home.

"It could go either way. There's no other way. You have other ways you can go. You don't have to go that way. You can go other way." - Donald J. Trump, lifelong sexual and financial predator and deeply, deeply shameful President of the United States of America

The former Prince Andrew leaving the police station after his arrestPhoto by Phil Noble/Reuters, a portrait of power crumbling in real time that went viral on BlueSky

Nebraska State Senator Eliot Bostar has introduced LB 1255, a bill that would ban any use of eminent domain by public power suppliers in Nebraska, to seize property against landowners’ wishes.

Bold supports LB 1255, and encourages Nebraskans to testify and submit public comments to members of the Judiciary Committee.

The bill presents an opportunity to ban any application of eminent domain by public power providers in our state — like Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) and Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) — so that landowners who don’t want projects on their property impacting their businesses have the right to say, “No thanks.”

The public hearing for LB 1255 was held on Thursday, Feb. 26, and I testified in support alongside Nebraska landowners at the Capitol.

ACTIONS:

1. Click here to send a letter to Senators on the Judiciary Committee: Vote YES on LB 1255.

3. Make calls to Senators on the Judiciary Committee, urging them to vote YES on LB 1255:

• Sen. Carolyn Bosn: (402) 471-2731
• Sen. Wendy DeBoer: (402) 471-2718
• Sen. Bob Hallstrom: (402) 471-2733
• Sen. Rick Holdcroft: (402) 471-2642
• Sen. Terrell McKinney: (402) 471-2612
• Sen. Victor Rountree: (402) 471-2627
• Sen. Tanya Storer: (402) 471-2628
• Sen. Jared Storm: (402) 471-2719

Thanks for taking action to protect property rights, and our land and water.

The extreme heat, high winds, and severe dry conditions that produce towering, fast-moving flames that advance by the acre are not just becoming more common; new research shows that these factors are increasingly arising in multiple regions at the same time, creating the conditions for simultaneous wildfires around the world.

Read more on E360 →

The first half of the Forum of Peoples and Social Movements opened with a strong and unified call from leaders of social movements to place land and territories at the centre of global political action.

The post “Land Grabbing, Extractivism and Conservation-driven Dispossession are Intensifying” : Forum of Peoples and Social Movements – Day One appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

In our latest, we talk with return guest Dr. Stephen Bezruchka about how structural inequality and economic policies that favor the ultra rich are causing a health crisis in America.…

Our vision is grounded in four mutually reinforcing axes: restitution, redistribution, recognition and regulation (4Rs).

The post ICARRD+20 Briefing Note : Redistribution, Restitution, Recognition and Regulation as the four mutually reinforcing axes of an integral reform appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

The extreme heat, high winds, and severe dry conditions that produce towering, fast-moving flames that advance by the acre are not just becoming more common; new research shows that these factors are increasingly arising in multiple regions at the same time, creating the conditions for simultaneous wildfires around the world.

In a study published today in the journal Science, researchers reported that the ideal conditions for major wildfires are now aligning across different parts of the world at more than double the rate they did nearly 50 years ago. Climate change is a major driver, accounting for about half of this increase. It’s the latest example of how humans are reshaping the nature of wildfires.

These changes have led to periods of inescapable smoke from blazes and more stress on firefighters, expanding the public health, economic, and social costs of infernos. As the climate continues to warm, these trends are likely to continue to worsen.

Wildfire smoke is already linked to tens of thousands of premature deaths in the US, and recent years have shown how this smoke can cross continents and oceans, polluting the air for people far away from the flames. East Coasters might remember how Canadian wildfires a few years ago bathed cities like New York and Philadelphia in an amber haze, triggering air quality warnings. One study found that the smoke from those fires contributed to 82,000 deaths.

Read Next Wildfire smoke is a national crisis, and it’s worse than you think Matt Simon

Meanwhile, the efforts to contain these devastating blazes are devouring money, time, engines, tankers, and firefighters, often beyond what local fire departments can muster on their own.

But with more wildfires burning in different parts of the world at the same time, countries will have their own blazes to deal with, and less outside help will be available.

The result is that we may see more years with multiple major blazes at the same time, and you might find it harder to find clear air to breathe for growing swaths of the year.

How more of the world is getting primed to burn at the same time

Cong Yin, the lead author of the study and a scientist at the University of California Merced, explained that research has been piling up showing that the weather conditions that favor major wildfires are becoming more common in different regions. Yin wanted to take a step back to see if there was a pattern that would emerge when he looked at the world as a whole.

Yin and his colleagues analyzed global climate and fire data between 1979 and 2024 and traced the fire weather index, a measure of fire dangers based on meteorological traits like temperature, wind, and moisture. The higher the index reaches, the greater the chances of a dangerous wildfire. The team drew on fire activity records from the Global Fire Emissions Database, which uses satellite data and ground-based measurements to track burned areas around the world. The team then counted the number of days where the fire weather index was in the 90th percentile in more than one region.

The results showed that over the study period, days with extreme fire weather conditions were increasing in places inside regions like North America, but also seeing severe fire weather line up across far-flung areas like North America and Europe. That makes it harder to coordinate firefighting efforts across borders.

We’ve seen in recent years that countries with major fires have received needed help from neighbors, and from farther away. Teams from Canada and Mexico joined the fight against the Los Angeles wildfires last year, even bringing equipment like tanker aircraft. During the wildfires in Spain last summer, the Netherlands, France, and Italy also sent firefighting aircraft. In past fire seasons, South Africa has sent firefighters to Canada. The U.S., Australia, and New Zealand have a standing firefighting cooperation agreement to share personnel and equipment between the countries.

Read Next Who pays for wildfire damage? In the West, utilities are shifting the risk to customers. Will Peischel

However, worldwide, the number of days where severe fire weather has occurred in multiple places at the same time has more than doubled over the majority of fire-prone landscapes. With more fire weather occurring at the same time, countries may not be able to lend out tools and personnel as much because they’ll need everyone on deck at home.

When Yin and his team looked closer at regions like North America, climate variability drivers like the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, the periodic warming and cooling of the Pacific Ocean, tended to create fire weather conditions across the continent. The planet’s boreal regions — forested areas in northern latitudes — showed the highest levels of synchronized fire weather. They tend to experience extreme heat, little rain, and high winds at the same time more often. At the same time, the research identified areas where fire conditions are becoming less aligned, like Southeast Asia. The researchers think this is likely due to increasing humidity in tropical regions as temperatures rise. That can make it harder to achieve the ideal conditions for a major fire.

To figure out the role of climate change, the researchers constructed a model of a world where the climate hasn’t changed and compared it to the observed results of the world we’re currently in. They also calculated the role of natural climate drivers like the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. When they looked at the difference between the scenarios with and without warming, they found that climate change driven by humans has led to about half of the observed increase in synchronized fire weather since 1979.

Yin cautioned that there are some caveats to consider. Even when weather conditions are favorable to fire, they aren’t a guarantee that one will ignite. Fires also need fuel and a source of ignition. Without these two ingredients, even the most severe hot, dry, and windy conditions won’t lead to a blaze. “They are more difficult to predict or measure,” Yin said. “If we want to do a better job, we need to measure all these three dimensions.”

Where there’s fire, there’s smoke

You may have already experienced how wildfires have become impossible to ignore, even when they’re far away, whether you’re breathing their smoke or paying for their damages. These results show that millions more people will likely be breathing dirty air with you when a major fire season gets underway.

Robert Field, a fire researcher at Columbia University, observed that when so many fires burn at the same time, the smoke can pose an even bigger public danger than the flames. Thousands of homes may burn, but millions of people end up breathing dirty air that takes years off their lives. And when these blazes ignite, the resources for containing wildfires may end up spread thin. That could lead to longer stretches of dirty air as well as more costly damages to property, which end up getting passed onto you through higher taxes and insurance rates.

Read Next Growing evidence points to link between autism and wildfire smoke Zoya Teirstein

The increasing threat from wildfires is also taxing for firefighters, who are not just facing more dangers to their lives and limbs, but also to their mental health. Field said the study shows that everyone should start preparing for the threat of simultaneous severe fires. “I really haven’t seen a paper like this on a global scale,” said Field, who was not involved in the study. “I think it’s a prelude to what’s coming.”

It’s clear then that we can’t simply rely on firefighting to cope with this problem.

Many of the ways we measure fire risk today systematically underrate the actual threats that you might face, especially as average temperatures continue to rise and as communities sprawl into fire-prone landscapes.

Getting an accurate assessment of wildfire risk is critical, even if it is inconvenient for your property values. We also need to invest more in managing the landscape through measures like controlled burns, which can worsen air quality but prevent even worse breathing problems down the line.

And of course, we need to reduce our impact on the global climate by curbing our emissions of greenhouse gases. But until then, keep an eye on the forecast and the air-quality index, and keep an N95 mask close.

toolTips('.classtoolTips3','Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other gases that prevent heat from escaping Earth’s atmosphere. Together, they act as a blanket to keep the planet at a liveable temperature in what is known as the “greenhouse effect.” Too many of these gases, however, can cause excessive warming, disrupting fragile climates and ecosystems.');

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Scientists have found another alarming pattern in wildfires on Feb 22, 2026.

Ashish Kothari

Originally published by Meer on 13 February 2025.

Lessons from grassroots ecological and social innovations in India.

January 2026 has been an inspirational start to a new (Gregorian) year, if I look beyond the daily stories of …

The year was 1991, and logging on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast was in full swing. One of many contentious targets was the Caren Range , where incredible stands of yellow cedar, western hemlock, and Pacific silver fir had flourished for millennia. Regrettably, that would change forever, when the chainsaws arrived. In the aftermath, one particularly ancient stump was discovered, and the growth rings revealed that the tree was 1835 years old. It was the oldest recorded tree in Canadian history at the time!

This 1835 year old yellow cedar stump sparked the public outcry that eventually resulted in the creation of Spipiyus Provincial Park … Photo provided by Friends of Caren to Western Canada Wilderness Committee

The public outcry that followed led to the formation of Friends of Caren, an organization dedicated to preserving what remained of the ancient forests of the Caren Range. The Western Canada Wilderness Committee was a key player in bringing publicity to their cause. Two years later, conservationist Randy Stoltmann, the founder of the BC Big Tree Registry, was invited to the Sunshine Coast to be measure a pair of immense yellow cedars near Lyon Lake. Those trees were duly recorded, and nominated to the registry in 1993. Later, 2979 hectares of land in this highly contested region was protected by the Government of British Columbia, and became known as Spipiyus Provincial Park, in 1999.

This was the area originally proposed as parkland in the Caren Range by the Friends of Caren and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) in the early 1990s. Photo credit WCWC publication

The name “Spipiyus”(pronounced “SPIP-ee-yoss”) has its roots in the language of the Shíshálh (Sechelt) First Nation, and refers to the Marbled murrelet. An endangered seabird that relies on the canopies of old growth forests for habitat, the murrelet also holds great cultural significance.

The fabled Marbled Murrelet… Image from Wikipedia

Follow me now, as the calendar moves forward to 2024. Steve McKenzie, a friend of mine living on the Sunshine Coast, had mentioned he wanted to relocate those two cedars the late Randy Stoltmann had visited in 1993. That spring, he and fellow tree enthusiast Theo Dwyer set out to fulfill that quest. Through the miracle of modern technology, Steve even managed to send me live updates while they conducted their search. I waited in suspense, staring across the water from Nanaimo toward Halfmoon Bay, hoping they would succeed. Good news, they did!

The subalpine forest of the Caren Range had stood for thousands of years before the region was logged. Thankfully, some of it still survives! …Photo credit Western Canada Wilderness Committee publication

Later that year, Steve invited me to join him on a return trip to Spipiyus that he and Theo had planned for August. When Christine Chourmouzis, who is the registrar for the BC Big Tree Registry, found out I was headed to the Sunshine Coast, she asked me if I might remeasure the trees and assess their health. I happily accepted the task!

Looking at Sechelt Inlet from the Caren Range

It’s said that the ancient forest of the Caren Range is the oldest documented closed canopy temperate rainforest in Canada. The elevation ranges between 750 and 1200 metres, where fog is frequent and snow often lingers into early summer. Those conditions mean that fires are rare, and understories are rich and diverse. In addition to the elusive marbled murrelet, wildlife sighted in the range can include black bear, cougar, black tailed deer, Roosevelt elk, pine marten, and even the occasional wolverine!

Well, they say that getting there is half the fun, but if that’s the case, “they” must never have driven the logging roads that access Spipiyus Provincial Park. Let’s just say that Steve’s capable Toyota 4 X 4 had about all it could handle on the voyage, and several days later he discovered it had sustained serious suspension damage! If you attempt the drive, a sturdy high clearance vehicle is an absolute must!

Yeah, it’s THAT kind of road

It took time to drive those twenty kilometres of loose, rocky, and rutted roads, but we made it in one piece! Better still, our good friend Doug Pope had been able to join us for the trip, making us a team of four. The heat of the warm summer day hit hard as we geared up for adventure, and minutes later, we took to the woods. It helped that Steve and Theo already had already tackled the route, because they knew how to avoid the tricky cliff bands we would encounter.

The view from the road, as we geared up for the trek

It didn’t take long before we entered what I can only describe as a world of wonder. The forest reminded me of British Columbia’s Cypress Provincial Park, where scientists believe there has not been a forest fire for over 4000 years!

Once we gained the plateau, we entered the cloud forest, where the temperature dropped noticeably

Photography here seemed a simple art to master, since all you needed to do is point your camera and shoot, for inspiring results. I was optimistic that we might find a marbled murrelet nesting tree, but unfortunately that was not to be. No, this day would be about enjoying the subtleties of a place that had changed little over countless centuries.

Tsuga heteropylla, the western hemlock This forest is intensely beautiful, in every way This photo gives you a good example of what the terrain is like

While we made our way toward the two trees of legend, other discoveries were made. Here and there lay the shattered remains of fallen yellow cedars and western hemlocks, reminding us that this primeval place was constantly evolving. Some clearings were laden with moss that felt like walking on a bed of sponge, while in others, outcroppings of steep granite had the forest resembling a massive rock garden.

A cluster of old growth western hemlocks Many of the hemlocks were quite tall Theo and Steve admiring the forest The bark of aging giants always has such character! Typical obstructions on the forest floor seen here. On the whole, the bushwhacking was not extremely difficult The greenery was picturesque!

Near the base of a cliff, we stumbled upon a peculiar western hemlock which had taken on an unusual form, likely after being struck by a falling tree. Hemlocks are known to take on unique shapes after accidents or exposure to disease.

The western hemlock adapts to stress in a wide variety of ways! I am certainly grateful that this forest will remain protected! Theo and Steve looking at mushrooms It is such a wonderfully quiet refuge

Just metres away, a massive western hemlock was located, which we later nominated to the BC Big Tree Registry. The tree, measuring 1.95 metres in diameter, now ranks as the 24th largest of its species in British Columbia!

It was surprising to see so many healthy western hemlocks that had reached old age. When they grow in subalpine forests like this one, it seems they are less susceptible to disease. A very healthy canopy Tale of the tape Theo (and Steve) nominated this beauty to the BC Big Tree Registry

We descended now, needing to circumvent difficult ground, and that led eventually to a quiet glade, protected from prevailing winds. Climbing over, around, and on top of all the fallen trees added to the adventure!

Doug uses a fallen giant here as a walkway. I sometimes call these superhighways, when they help speed travel through the forest, that is! Bushwhacking Doug and Steve making their way through these fine pillars Doug admiring some cedars Theo passes by the shell of a long dead yellow cedar And now, Theo searches for a way around this obstacle! Enchanting light A moss covered forest floor that had the texture of sponge Hollowed Rock gardens Still standing!

Suddenly, a hulking mass materialized, seemingly out of nowhere. “Can you see it?” Steve hinted, looking in the direction of a veteran yellow cedar. Rays of sunlight pierced the forest canopy as we approached its gnarled and twisted base. I was speechless. This was a tree the likes of which I had never seen before!

And there it was! This yellow cedar is the most spectacular one I have ever seen! Doug, Steve, and Theo enter the clearing Doug is going for the stoic, traditional pose here! Like many ancient yellow cedars, this one showed evidence of a bear den at its base As you can see, the crown of this tree is quite vigorous

We spent a considerable amount of time with this colossus, studying it carefully. It measured 3.34 metres diameter, which was slightly larger than Randy Stoltmann’s original number. The crown spread and height, on the other hand, were almost exactly what Randy had recorded back in 1993. This cedar remains in vigorous health, currently ranking second in the BC Big Tree Registry for overall size, and first in diameter. Mother Nature has clearly outdone herself here!

Truly a wall of wood! Several measurements were taken, as we wanted accurate data

Right beside this giant, another beautiful cedar grows, perhaps a direct descendant. While we did not attempt to discern the age of either tree, I believe that even a conservative estimate would easily place the larger specimen in the vicinity of 2000 years old!

I will never forget this place! Both trees enjoying the afternoon light

We decided to break for lunch before visiting the other yellow cedar that Randy Stoltmann had nominated to the registry in 1993. Reaching that tree would once again require losing a little elevation, as it rested near rocky bluffs which had to be carefully avoided. Nevertheless, we arrived at our destination in just another half hour. Soon we were looking at a yellow cedar which still retains eleventh place in the BC Big Tree Registry. We determined that the measurements Randy had taken in 1993 had remained unchanged. The tree breaks the tape at 2.65 metres in diameter, and no doubt approaches 1500 years in age!

Arriving at the second yellow cedar Another beautiful cedar grows not far away from the second cedar we sought The crown of the second cedar was also in excellent condition Steve obtains a measurement Silvery bark

The arduous task of returning to the logging road still loomed ahead, but Steve and Theo had another suggestion. They convinced Doug and me that the forest closer to Lyon Lake had a few more surprises! Getting there meant climbing back up to the plateau, then dropping down into a broad basin as we approached the lake.

It wasn’t long before we ran into this western hemlock on the way to Lyon Lake Well, nobody said it was going to be easy! The forest near Lyon Lake Meadow

Unfortunately, the first of those surprises was a ground nest of wasps I staggered into. The vengeful horde I disturbed stung me numerous times, and had me thinking that this kind of encounter had been all too frequent for me in recent years. In close proximity to that hazard was yet another yellow cedar we were compelled to investigate. It boasted a heavily burled base that resembled an enormous club foot. The twisted, silvery bark of this ancient warrior had survived many centuries, and the tree had also lost much of its height, probably due to storms.

Old soldier of the forest Gnarled and full of character! Club foot

Climbing out of the lake basin was tiring, as the heat of day finally caught up to us. In time, we made it back to the road, where ample refreshments awaited. Naturally, more interesting finds were made along the way!

Cluster of giants In the shadows Did I mention nobody said it was going to be easy? Nearly ready to descend toward the road Doug’s in there somewhere!

To round out the day, we drove to the end of the logging road, where there were breathtaking views of Sechelt Inlet and the surrounding mountains to appreciate. Gazing at the hills in the late afternoon light, I could not help but wonder what secrets still lay hidden in the Caren Range!

The area beyond the cut block in the foreground remains relatively unexplored!

*******AUTHOR’S NOTE*******

I would like to extend my thanks to Friends of Caren and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee for their hard work in urging the Province of British Columbia to set aside the lands of Spipiyus Provincial Park.

As well, I appreciate the efforts taken by Randy Stoltmann and Friends of Caren in documenting these trees for the BC Big Tree Registry. Had they not done so, perhaps none of us would have ended up visiting this enchanted forest.

Last, but far from least, thanks to Steve McKenzie and Theo Dwyer, for their diligence in relocating the trees, and for guiding Doug and me to see them. I forward to the next visit!

"The issue of land has to do with everything that involves caring for the planet. For us, it not only includes access to land, but also to territory, and the social role of producing food for the people."

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Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is continuing to fuel its data centers with unpermitted gas turbines, according to a Floodlight visual investigation. Thermal drone footage shows xAI is still burning gas at a facility in Southaven, Mississippi, despite a recent Environmental Protection Agency ruling reiterating that doing so requires a state permit in advance.

State regulators in Mississippi maintain that since the turbines are parked on tractor trailers, they don’t require permits. However, the EPA has long required that such pollution sources be permitted under the Clean Air Act.

Any exemption for these machines “could leave these engines subject to no emission standards at all,” the agency wrote in a January final ruling.

However, thermal images captured by Floodlight — and analyzed by multiple experts — show more than a dozen unpermitted turbines still spewing pollutants at the plant nearly two weeks after the EPA’s recent ruling. 

“That is a violation of the law,” said Bruce Buckheit, a former EPA air enforcement chief, after reviewing Floodlight’s images and EPA regulations.

Thermal drone footage shows unpermitted turbines operating at xAI’s gas plant in Southaven, Mississippi, nearly two weeks after the EPA ruled such turbines require permits before they can run. (Evan Simon / Floodlight)

xAI, which is seeking permits for dozens more turbines in Southaven, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The EPA, which under Trump has initiated a record low number of enforcement actions, declined to answer questions about the turbines at Musk’s AI facilities and referred to local authorities on permits.

The first and only public hearing on the matter is scheduled for February 17, and the public comment period is still open.

The Trump administration has made AI a priority, but as data centers proliferate across the country, regulators are struggling to keep pace with the industry’s increasing reliance on custom-built power sources and their public health impacts on surrounding communities. And Southaven, where state regulators are at odds with federal guidance, is a prime example. 

xAI parked 27 unpermitted turbines in the suburban city of Southaven, Mississippi, to power the company’s nearby data center. Evan Simon / Floodlight

The turbines there help power Grok, the company’s controversial chatbot, and emit harmful pollutants linked to health problems such as asthma, lung cancer, and heart attacks.

“The risk of living next to this type of power plant is well documented,” said Shaolei Ren, a University of California, Riverside associate professor who specializes in the health impacts of data centers. “From the health perspective, we know that this is not good.” 

Southaven residents have voiced concerns for months over the noise and pollution emanating from the 114-acre site that is largely hidden from public view — a site xAI is looking to expand. 

“For them to be releasing so much pollution in such a populated area, not to mention that there are at least ten schools within a two-mile radius of the facility, is really concerning,” said longtime resident Shannon Samsa. “It’s horrifying to me that we’re allowing this in our community.” 

From Memphis to Mississippi

The Southaven turbine cluster is part of xAi’s rapidly growing footprint along the Tennessee-Mississippi border. That expansion began in the spring of 2024 in South Memphis, next to historically Black neighborhoods, with the construction of Colossus 1, which the company touted as the world’s largest AI supercomputer.

The Southern Environmental Law Center released thermal images in April revealing that xAi had been operating more than 30 unpermitted gas-powered turbines at that site.

“We were hopeful that the health department would step in,” said Patrick Anderson, a senior attorney at the SELC. “That never happened.” 

County officials in Tennessee maintained the turbines did not require a permit despite longstanding EPA policy that they do. In July, amid local pushback, the county permitted 15 turbines for use at Colossus 1.

On January 15, the EPA reiterated its decades-old policy that such machines need a permit. By then, xAi had already built a second data center in the area, Colossus 2. To power it, the company parked 27 turbines just across the stateline in Southaven, Mississippi, a diverse suburb of Memphis with higher-than-average levels of air pollution. 

“When you’re talking about these turbines, think of the jet engine,” said Buckheit.  

Thermal drone imagery captured by Floodlight in late January shows some of the 15 permitted turbines operating at xAI’s Colossus 1. Evan Simon / Floodlight

Despite the EPA’s recent directive, Floodlight’s thermal imagery — analyzed by multiple experts — shows 15 unpermitted turbines in operation at Southaven. Public records obtained by Floodlight show 18 of the 27 turbines have been used since November, at least.

“One might easily have expected, since this has been going on for some months, at least [issue a] stop work order,” said Buckheit, who served during the Republican administrations of Gerald Ford and George W. Bush. He also said the EPA could refer the case to the Department of Justice. 

“But apparently that didn’t happen.”

xAI’s gas plant in Southaven, Mississippi, has been operating unpermitted turbines since at least November to power the company’s nearby datacenter, according to documents obtained by Floodlight. Evan Simon / Floodlight Playing by a different set of rules

An EPA spokesperson did not answer Floodlight’s questions relating to its enforcement options, instead saying, “EPA does not approve the operation of gas turbines at facilities, that would be the state or local air permitting authority.” 

Air permits are traditionally handled by state agencies. However, according to its own website, the EPA is responsible for making sure these agencies comply with federal regulations and “generally will take enforcement action” if a state government fails to “take timely and appropriate action.”

xAI “violated the Clean Air Act the first time, and now they’re gonna copy and paste and do it again,” said Anderson. “I maybe had some naive hope that the regulators who are most in the day-to-day business of implementing the Clean Air Act in Mississippi would do the right thing.” 

In response to Floodlight’s questions, a spokesperson from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said the EPA’s recent rule leaves permitting decisions to state authorities. 

“The turbines currently operating at the Southaven facility are classified as portable/mobile units under state law and therefore remain exempt from air permitting requirements during this temporary period,” they said. “Nothing in the EPA’s January 15 rule altered that determination under Mississippi regulations.”

An asthmatic, Krystal Polk said she was forced to empty out the home that’s been in her family for generations and cancel her plans to retire there out of concerns for her health after xAI began operating gas powered turbines directly across the street from her property. Evan Simon / Floodight

Longtime resident Krystal Polk said she had no idea xAI was coming to Southaven until black fences were set up across the street from her house. The area, she said, was once quiet and serene, with an abundance of wildlife, but is now bombarded by ceaseless noise and pollution. 

“I do feel like xAi is playing by a different set of rules,” she said. 

An asthmatic, Polk said she was forced to empty out the home that’s been in her family for generations and cancel her plans to retire there out of concerns for her health.

“We are a casualty of the whole data center race,” she said. “I feel that my voice doesn’t matter.”

The spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said the agency takes public concern around emissions, noise, and overall quality of life seriously, and though the turbines — in their view — do not require permits, all “applicable air quality standards still apply.”

Krystal Polk’s family home (foreground) sits directly across the street from xAI’s gas plant in Southaven, Mississippi. Evan Simon / Floodlight AI’s increasing thirst for fossil fuels 

Despite lofty sustainability goals put forward by industry leaders, data centers across the country are increasingly turning to fossil fuels to power the AI boom by using custom-built power plants like the ones seen in Southaven.

Roughly 75 percent of this power comes from natural gas, according to a recent report by CleanView, which tracks clean energy and data center projects. 

“Nearly every project we reviewed mentions renewables, hydrogen, or nuclear in its public announcements,” the author wrote, but renewables aren’t scheduled until 2028 or later.

And “nuclear is a decade away,” he said.

Now, xAI is seeking to expand in Southaven, applying in January for a permit to operate 41 turbines at the site. 

The facility could emit more than 6 million tons of greenhouse gases and over 1,300 tons of health-harming air pollutants every year, according to xAI’s permit application. That would make it among the largest fossil fuel power plants in the state. The company also purchased property in Southaven for a third data center that, when completed, will make the Colossus cluster — spanning Memphis to Southaven — one of the largest data center complexes in the world.

Shannon Samsa, a physician’s assistant, had hoped to raise a family in Southaven, but the presence of xAi’s gas-powered turbines has made her and her husband reconsider. Evan Simon / Floodlight

“It would be devastating,” said Samsa, the Southaven resident. “No community in their right mind would want something like this in their backyards.”

Samsa, a physician’s assistant, had hoped to raise a family in Southaven, but the presence of xAi’s gas-powered turbines has made her and her husband reconsider. She has helped collect more than 1,000 signatures for a petition demanding Mississippi authorities shut down the plant. 

“I don’t want my children to be growing up around such massive amounts of air pollution,” she said. “I don’t want them to have to live in a place where their health and their overall well-being are not considered over economics.”

toolTips('.classtoolTips3','Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other gases that prevent heat from escaping Earth’s atmosphere. Together, they act as a blanket to keep the planet at a liveable temperature in what is known as the “greenhouse effect.” Too many of these gases, however, can cause excessive warming, disrupting fragile climates and ecosystems.');

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline ‘A different set of rules’: Thermal drone footage shows Musk’s AI power plant flouting clean air regulations on Feb 21, 2026.

The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) are launching a new intervention to strengthen the macadamia nut value chain in Rwanda.

This is the second venture of the IFAD and MAFF’s joint Enhanced Linkages between Private Sector and Small-scale Producers (ELPS) initiative. ELPS is a strategic partnership to engage Japan’s private sector in fighting hunger, malnutrition, and poverty by investing in rural development globally.

The new intervention forges an economic partnership Rwanda Nut Company Ltd. and its parent company OSTI to help ensure Rwanda’s macadamia nut value chain is secured with core resources. According to Rick van der Kamp, Lead Specialist on Markets and Value Chains at IFAD, a main objective of the partnership is increasing Rwanda Nut Company’s productivity, therefore increasing farmers’ revenue.

“We currently expect this to lead to better prices and higher volumes for the farmers,” van der Kamp tells Food Tank. “The idea is to get farmers almost US$90 per year more income—that’s significant when many farmers in Rwanda only earn about US$500 or so per year.”

More than 70 percent of Rwanda’s population work in agriculture, and the agricultural sector contributes 33 percent to the country’s GDP, according to the World Resources Institute.

Rwanda Nut Company also aims to secure organic certification, which would both serve as a further income generator for farmers and “ensure sustainable, environmentally-friendly production,” says van der Kamp.

Organic certification “plays an important role in domestic and international organic trade since it enables organic producers to access export and local markets, and to obtain premium prices while improving farming practices,” states the Rwanda Standards Board. IFAD expects that OSTI Japan’s resources can help Rwanda Nut Company farmers work towards obtaining this certification.

According to Rwanda Nut Company, macadamia trees take five years to produce fruit from seed to harvest, and an additional 15 years to reach peak harvest. “The amount of time it takes to bear fruit is almost as long as raising a family. The process is important to farmers in the same way family is important to us,” the Company says.

The ELPS initiative, which supports the development of Rwanda Nut Company’s value chain, aims to leverage the innovation and efficiency of the Japanese private sector. They hope this will help to raise incomes and create job opportunities for rural small-scale producers in Africa, according to IFAD.

“With hunger on the rise in Africa for yet another year, the need to partner with the private sector has never been more pressing,” President of IFAD, Alvaro Lario says.

And van der Kamp believes this partnership is a good example of how leveraging corporate investment can directly impact the quality of life of small-scale producers. “More than anything, we work to get farmers more income from their farms,” he tells Food Tank, “so they can buy nutritious food [and] pay for their children’s schooling and unexpected medical bills.”

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Photo Courtesy of Neil Palmer, Wikimedia Commons

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Coming into the Milan-Cortina Olympics, an American hadn’t won a medal in men’s cross-country skiing in half a century. A few days into the Games, though, Vermonter Ben Ogden squeaked through the classic sprint semifinals. Suddenly there was hope. In the final, Ogden pushed across the Tesero Stadium finish line in second — breaking the drought.

Asked afterward if he thought it might take another 50 years for the next podium, he said no. Five days later, he and Gus Schumacher made good on that when they took silver in the team sprint. 

With two days of competition remaining, U.S. skiers and snowboarders have already earned more than a dozen medals at these Games  — including Mikaela Shiffrin’s gold in the alpine slalom, Chloe Kim’s silver in halfpipe snowboarding, and Jessie Diggins overcoming a bruised rib to win a Nordic bronze. The cross-country ski team’s three-medal haul is its largest ever.

The hardware is historic for another reason as well: It was won despite the first-ever Olympic ban on fluorinated ski waxes containing so-called “forever chemicals.”

Since the 1980s, elite skiers and snowboarders have relied on these “fluoro” waxes, which are exceptional at repelling water and dirt. Former U.S. racer Nathan Schultz told Grist they provide a “really ridiculous speed advantage.” But they contain PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of 15,000 chemicals notorious for never breaking down. Studies have linked exposure to thyroid disease, developmental problems, and cancer.

Amid growing concern, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, known by the French acronym FIS, announced plans for a blanket ban on fluoro waxes in 2019. The policy took effect in 2023. The International Biathlon Union also prohibits them. Without fluoros, teams have had to rethink everything from ski choice to race-day strategy, making these Games the clearest test yet of whether elite snow sports can succeed in a PFAS-free era.

“These have been some of the trickiest three weeks of waxing I’ve experienced,” said Chris Hecker, who is Schumacher’s ski technician. Some days brought rain. Others were sunny and warm. Then there were those where the snow piled high. “Every variable — precipitation, sun exposure, humidity, even a one-degree temperature shift — can influence which skis and waxes we select.” 

Fluorinated waxes were long seen as a “great equalizer” that improved speed across a range of conditions, particularly when the snow was warm or wet. Without it, success depends more on ski or snowboard choice and the grind pattern etched into their base to optimize performance, much like a tire tread. 

Read Next The Olympics are ditching PFAS waxes — and the ‘ridiculous’ speed they gave skiers Joseph Winters & Tik Root

Different conditions call for different skis, and elite cross-country racers often travel with dozens — sometimes more than 100 — pairs. Still, wax is crucial. “We’re always chasing marginal gains,” said Hecker. “At this level, tiny differences matter.”

Choosing the best combination of skis and wax has meant constant testing and re-evaluation throughout the Games. Although there have been what Hecker called “small mistakes” along the way, the team quickly adapted. 

“It’s nearly impossible to have the absolute best skis every single day,” he said. “That said, we’ve had a wildly successful Olympics.”

Hecker and the cross-country team aren’t the only members of Team USA trying to rise to the post-fluoro occasion at these Games. Tanner Keim is a ski tech with the U.S. free ski team also working without the fluoro waxes he used four years ago in Beijing. 

“It was a lot warmer in Italy. Fluoros would have been popping for all the wax techs,” he said, adding that humidity also was a major factor, especially at the women’s slopestyle skiing event. The men competing in big air also seemed to be trying to find every extra mile per hour, with coaches pulling many athletes down the launch ramp to gain more speed.

After years of testing and adjustment, Keim feels that he’s got the new materials fairly well dialed in. His athletes have two silver medals as proof. But even still, he said, “I would have been a little bit more confident with the fluoros.”

While competing without fluoros has been hard enough, preventing people from competing with it has been almost as tough. In 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined the equipment company Swix hundreds of thousands dollars for illegally importing PFAS wax. A large part of FIS delaying the implementation of its ban came because testing was finicky and carried a risk of false positives.

A testing regime was sorted out two years ago, and Milan-Cortina saw the first Olympic disqualifications for violating the ban: Two South Korean Nordic skiers and a Japanese snowboarder. All of them say their positive tests were the result of accidentally using the wrong wax or applying tainted wax. In a statement to Grist, the South Korean Ski Association said “test results showed that [fluorine] was detected in one of the [fluorine]-free waxes.”

If enforcement marks the rule’s credibility, the results mark its success. For athletes, medals, of course, are the most visible validation of that, and Team USA still has two more days to build on its triumphs. For the cross-country team, that means the men’s and then women’s 50-kilometer race, dubbed a “ski marathon,” in which Diggens, Schumacher, and Ogden are expected to compete. 

After his latest podium, Ogden was again asked whether the U.S. men might slip back into a slump. “No — I don’t think it’ll be another 50 years,” he said, two glimmering silver medals hanging from his neck.

Correction: An earlier version of this story accidentally referred to fluoride instead of fluorine in one paragraph.

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Team USA is proving that world-class skiing doesn’t require PFAS wax on Feb 21, 2026.

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Mineralization at Bald Hill project in New Brunswick, Canada. Image: Antimony Resources.

Antimony Resources (CSE: ATMY) says it has further expanded the massive antimony stibnite mineralization at its Bald Hill project in Canada’s New Brunswick province.

Recent drilling has outlined an antimony deposit over 700 metres long and to a depth of at least 350 metres, the company said in a statement on Friday, noting that the widths of mineralization averaged 3 to 4 metres, with antimony grades ranging 3% to 4%.

The field crew has exposed further mineralization in bedrock in the project’s Marcus West zone through continued trenching, and sampling is ongoing to further trace the mineralization along strike, it added.

The new discoveries made on the Bald Hill property are part of a 2026 exploration program that will be carried out in conjunction with a 10,000-metre definition drilling on the project’s main zone. The drilling program will include soil sampling as well as prospecting and sampling. An airborne survey is being investigated, the Vancouver-based company said.

Stibnite is commonly mined for its antimony content. China implemented strict export controls on antimony in September 2024, significantly affecting global supply chains. Efforts to locate and extract the crucial material for defense and high-tech industries are ramping up in Canada and the US.

Drilling is scheduled to begin immediately on the Marcus West zone to complete up to six shallow drill holes to test the zone at a depth of between 30 and 50 metres, ATMY said.

Unexplored areas to be further evaluated include the project’s central zone, where 2010 trenching returned 2.9% stibnite over 8.18 metres, and the south zone, where trenching has exposed stibnite mineralization over about 150 metres.

 “It is very exciting to see the mineralized samples being brought to surface by the excavator for examination by the geologists,” Antimony Resources CEO Jim Atkinson said in the statement. “It is obvious that this is a highly mineralized area and the “bladed” stibnite is very attractive,” Atkinson said, adding that work is also progressing very well on definition drilling at the main zone.

 A second drill was added to this program last week, the company said.

Pausing to look into your backyard and discovering your feeder alive with Red-headed Woodpeckers, sparrows, goldfinches, and juncos can spark joy, connection, and a deeper sense of purpose. Taking...