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Exciting news, patriots! After cancelling his OG concert, Dear Leader will now celebrate our 250th birthday with "the Greatest Rally, EVER!" featuring the "fabulous" 83-year-old Lee Greenwood and “a fine and highly dignified gentleman," himself. Also, for some reason, "prune-face" Bruce Springsteen and a gazillion A-list performers are holding two concerts to honor America's "songs that shaped us." Reviews call it "a rare gift" in music history, but they're all losers and lunatics.

Taking time off from nodding off (again) in a meeting, Trump as predicted has finally cancelled his much-hyped “Freedom 250 concert of has-beens and never-weres after almost all nine acts bailed; poor Vanilla Ice, reportedly the only, desperate act still ready to go on. The concerts were set to kick off his equally-fab-sounding Great American State Fair, a "once in a generation...State Fair like no other" - "Dive into the fun and feel the energy" - hosting carnival rides, "hands-on partner activations" from each state, and daily workshops with titles like Land & Prosperity, Family Life and Community Support, Everyday Health and Well Being with MAHA Monday, and Faith, Values, and Inspiration.

Trump was his usual chivalrous self in defeat after the concert went down in tacky flames. "We don't want singers with no talent, but big fees to put you to sleep," he wrote. "We’ve told them all to stay home." Instead, he giddily announced “a Rally to end all Rallies!" in "magnificent Washington D.C, now totally beautified." Because, "All we want is you, me, a few speakers, and the Greatest Music ever played, the same Music you have listened to for years!" it will feature die-hard Lee Greenwood (again), with "one of the Greatest Hits of All Time," his 1984 God Bless the U.S.A, after which he will introduce "a fine and highly dignified gentleman known as President DONALD J. TRUMP!”

There's more: The "amazing" opera singer Christopher Macchio, who has just 571 listeners on Spotify, will join in. "Not since the legendary Luciano Pavarotti has there been such a voice!” bragged Trump, though Pavarotti’s family has protested his use of the opera great's songs by arguing, "The values of brotherhood and solidarity which Luciano Pavarotti expressed throughout (his) artistic career are entirely incompatible with the worldview offered by Trump.” Also, the U.S. Army Band, Armed Forces Choir and "The President’s Own United States Marine Band" will perform “all your favorite Hits." Observers say the gig "sounds lame as fuck," but MAGA fans who go to every rally "like Deadheads with less weed and more racism" will probs love it.

Amidst other glad fails - even UFC fighters have trashed him with Star Wars rants of "Darth Vader gonna get took (sic) down" - many deem a more apt celebration of America's birthday the June 4 and 5 concerts in New Jersey by Springsteen and many fellow musicians. The guest list is so vast and illustrious - among them, Bon Jovi, Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, Kenny Chesney, Tom Morello, Gary Clark Jr., Dion, Dropkick Murphys, Shemekia Copeland, Keb’ Mo’, Nils Lofgren, Valerie June, Darlene Love, Public Enemy, David Sancious, Tony Trischka, Sister Sadie, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty, Steve Van Zandt, Jimmie Vaughan, the New Breed Brass Band - it's assumed Bruce called in favors: "They were beckoned, and graciously agreed."

Springsteen and the E Street Band just wrapped their Land of Hope and Dreams Tour - "No Kings" plastered below - in Philadelphia. Celebrating "hope over fear," it featured his most fiery political songs: Born in the USA, Death To My Hometown, No Surrender, Darkness On the Edge of Town, Streets of Minneapolis, Dylan's Chimes of Freedom. The two new concerts, titled Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us, are likewise unabashedly rabble-rousing. Held in Springsteen's Jersey backyard at Monmouth University, they will also launch the new Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, which aims to preserve the Boss' legacy and offer "a journey through American music history" with ongoing exhibitions, archives and workshops.

This week's concerts, says Robert Santelli, "reflect everything the Center stands for" - the power of "a rich and diverse treasury of American music (to) bring people together (and) the inspiration to think about our shared history in divisive times." Casting a wide and joyful net, artists perform landmark songs from American music - blues, bluegrass, Native, rock, hip-hop, folk, jazz, country, gospel. Tickets are reasonably priced for an intimate venue, and brief narration before each performance offers context to the artist, song, and genre. Thursday night reviews praised "a magical, once-in-a-lifetime moment in music history" and a nod to "how powerful music is in telling our nation’s story." Both concerts sold out.

Bruce and the Dropkick Murphys' rousing rendition of American Land, based on a 19th-century poem by an immigrant steelworker, which asks and celebrates those "who will make his home in the American Land." In brief, all of us.

The McNicholases, the Posalskis, the Smiths, Zerillis, too
The Blacks, the Irish, Italians, the Germans and the Jews
They come across the water a thousand miles from home
With nothing in their bellies but the fire down below.

See on Instagram

Registered nurses at KPC Health’s Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, Calif. voted overwhelmingly on Thursday, June 4 to join California Nurses Association (CNA), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest and fastest-growing registered nurse (RN) union. The nurses voted 91 percent in favor of joining the union.

This article In Japan, raves and tea parties become sites of protest was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Shinjuku Station in Tokyo is the busiest railway station in the world. On a given day, roughly 2.7 million passengers pass through. On March 29, they were joined by a stream of ravers, who danced while holding signs opposing the genocide in Palestine, xenophobia, queerphobia, fascism and war.

Under the slogan “Drop Bass Not Bombs,” thousands danced and waved glow sticks while demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, due to the government’s escalating push towards rearmament and close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.

The action was organized by Protest Rave, a group of progressive DJs and participants in Japan’s club culture. It’s one of several ways that artists in the country are using their creativity to make people pay more attention to politics. The public demonstration stands out in the country where societal norms and deference toward the government make mass protests and open political debate rare.

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Mars89, a DJ and founding member of Protest Rave, explained the idea behind the action.

“The majority of the Japanese people, they’re not interested in politics,” he said. “We want people to know what’s happening.” 

The choice to hold the protest in the middle of a big city was deliberate, he said. “I hope some people passing on the street when we have the protest start to think about it.”

Artists break the silence

While cultural aversion to  public protest remains a challenge for activists in Japan, the government’s recent efforts to remilitarize have provoked an uptick in political demonstrations.

Right-wing Prime Minister Takaichi, who espouses Japanese nationalism and opposes same-sex marriage, is pushing to revise the country’s pacifist constitution, which was written after World War II to restrict Japan’s participation in war and military alliances. Already she has succeeded at scrapping a longstanding ban on the export of lethal weapons. Much of Japan’s rearmament flows from its relationship with the United States, in which Japan is used as an economic and military foothold for U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region. Takaichi has worked to maintain this relationship and build a bond with Trump, even as Trump has insulted Japan.

In response to Takaichi’s militaristic positions and her close relationship with U.S. imperialism, tens of thousands of Japanese people have participated in antiwar protests in recent months. 

A budding protest movement in Japan demonstrates against the right-wing government’s plan for rearmament. (Mars89)

Protest Rave has been publishing interviews from the March 29 action on its Instagram page. Many ravers discuss how the public and inviting character of the rave makes it easier for people to feel they can engage in political discussions and voice their opposition to the government.

One regular participant of Protest Rave is alternative musician Haru Nemuri. “Artistic work exists within the freedom and diversity of expression, which is inherently political,” Nemuri said. “If you ignore politics while being an artist, you’re basically a free rider of that freedom.”

In April, Nemuri began holding “Guerilla Afternoon Tea,” a pop-up action in the form of a public tea party where people are encouraged to connect in community and talk about politics. She did not mince words about Japan’s drive towards rearmament.

“It’s infuriating that the Japanese government has never properly reckoned with its past wrongdoings, and is now reverting to becoming the Japanese Empire all over again,” she said. “The relationship between America and Japan since World War II has always been like that of master and a slave — Trump, the naked king, and Takaichi, the naked slave, are the perfect mirror of that relationship.”

The roots of pacifism

Takaichi is one of the most popular political leaders in the world, reflecting a phenomenon of rising nationalism in Japan. Despite this popularity, her desire to formally revise the country’s constitution has sparked controversy. Many Japanese people hold a strong attachment to the 1947 constitution.

Prior to the war, Japan was a fast-growing empire. The Japanese military, in its quest for expansion, committed atrocities against neighboring countries, including the abduction of thousands of Korean women into sexual slavery and the massacre of Chinese civilians. One of the most horrific aspects of Imperial Japan was Unit 731, an initiative by the empire to conduct biological and chemical experiments on thousands of prisoners of war from many nations.

The nation’s military defeat and the aftermath of the war led Japanese society to rethink the country’s imperial ambitions. The horrific nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. left Japanese people with a unique understanding of the violence and cruelty that war produces, and many people adopted pacifist attitudes. Antiwar and anti-nuclear sentiments can be found in some of Japan’s most internationally recognized cultural exports, including the original Godzilla franchise and the works of esteemed animator Hayao Miyazaki.

The Japanese constitution, written a year after the bombings, reflects the cultural shift that followed the war. Article 9 states: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.”

Takaichi has targeted Article 9, arguing that it should be formally revised. While amending the constitution has proved difficult due to public outrage, the Japanese government already reinterpreted the constitution decades ago to establish and maintain a modern military, under the guise that these forces exist solely for defensive purposes.

Advocates for rearmament also point to the fact that the constitution was shaped by the U.S. at a time when allied forces were militarily occupying Japan. It’s true that following the war the United States used its own military power to shape the new institutions of Japanese society to align with U.S. interests. However, those in Japan who raise the U.S. occupation to justify revising the constitution and rearmament are aligned with the country’s conservative ruling party, which has historically denied or even justified the atrocities carried out by the Japanese Empire.

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Nationalists on social media have also tried to discredit the country’s antiwar protests as not authentically Japanese, pointing to the presence of expats and signs written in English. But as Mars89 sees it, connecting with movements and activists beyond those in Japan is something to embrace.

“We were inspired by the many protests in other countries: the United States, the United Kingdom and Korea as well,” he said. “I think we should unite worldwide. We need to find some way to unite with the protests in other countries.”

Nemuri has also been inspired by movements in other countries and is thinking about how to use her art to foster a stronger culture of political discussion in her country.

“Last year, I saw [Zohran] Mamdani win an election, and their team took to the streets with signs saying, ‘Let’s talk politics,’” Nemuri said. “I’m not a politician, but a musician, and I think I can expand this towards more artistic activities. Drawing from [German philosopher Jürgen] Habermas, I’d love to bring the public sphere, the coffee house, out onto the streets where literally anyone can join.”

This article In Japan, raves and tea parties become sites of protest was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

“Management has highlighted [transmission constraints] as a risk factor ... citing behind-the-meter as a potential solution,” said Jefferies equity analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith.

Although Florida is at “normal risk” for long-term energy adequacy, the unit near Orlando needs to remain online partly to help serve potential data centers in the state, the department said.

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

This week UK proposes new emissions target

‘ON COURSE’: The UK government has proposed reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to 87% below 1990 levels by 2040, reported the Associated Press. The newswire cited scientists saying that the goal “puts the UK on course to meet its 2050 net-zero target”. To meet this target, the UK would “need to invest around £880bn over 25 years…but doing so would yield benefits worth £1,620bn”, according to an in-depth analysis of the plans by  Carbon Brief.

UPCOMING ‘FLASHPOINT’: The Financial Times noted that, for the target to become “legally binding”, it must be approved by parliament. While the UK’s previous carbon budget “received cross-party support”, this time the proposal is “expected to become a flashpoint among lawmakers”, it added, with both the Conservatives and Reform pledging to “scrap” net-zero policies.

DRIVING FORCE: Separately, a new report by consultancy Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Economics has valued the UK’s “net-zero economy” at more than £100bn a year, reported the Guardian. It added that, by a broad measure, the UK energy transition supports 1.1m jobs and provides “nearly 4% of the UK’s economic output”.

US ‘dismantling’ oceans data

SYSTEMS OFFLINE: The Trump administration is “dismantling” a “$368m deep-ocean observation system” that, among other things, allows scientists to monitor the ocean currents that affect the global climate and understand how the “ocean is absorbing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere”, said the New York Times. Bloomberg reported that Trump’s efforts to close the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), a key climate science research institution, has been “temporarily blocked” by a judge. 

RULE ROLLBACK: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an independent body that regulates US securities markets, has proposed repealing the climate-disclosure rule, which “requires some public companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and the risks they face from global warming”, said the Associated Press. The Trump administration also announced plans to allocate $700m to support “clean, beautiful coal” power and export infrastructure, said BBC News.

Around the world

• EU EXEMPTIONS: The EU will allow member states to breach the bloc’s fiscal rules to “cope with high energy prices stoked by the Iran war”, as long as the measures they use help “accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels”, reported Bloomberg.
• SLOW SPENDING: The German government has only paid out €24bn of the €37bn it was “supposed to disburse” in 2025 from a special fund for infrastructure and “climate neutrality”, reported Clean Energy Wire. 
• URGENT WARNING: UN secretary-general António Guterres said a likely upcoming El Niño weather event must be treated as the “urgent climate warning it is”, said Al Jazeera.
• HOEKSTRA ON COP: The outcomes of many of the most recent COPs have been “underwhelming”, EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra has said, according to Reuters. COPs should be supplemented by “smaller groups…who are willing ​to move faster”, he added.

3,400

The number of excess deaths across India caused by a single day of extreme heat, according to coverage in the Hindustan Times of a new study.

30,000

Excess deaths caused if the extreme heat lasts five days.

Latest climate research

• In a 1.5C warmer world, the timing of floods will shift by more than seven days across half of the world’s landmass | Nature Communications
• Temperature and rainfall together account for more than 13% of methane generated from landfills in Incheon, South Korea | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• The postponed International Maritime Organisation “net-zero framework” could increase biofuel use in shipping to 40% by 2050 | Nature Energy

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

Captured

China’s carbon dioxide emissions grew by 2% in the first quarter of 2026 due to a rise in “wasted” wind and solar generation, according to new analysis for Carbon Brief. However, emissions remain below their March 2024 peak, it added.

Spotlight Why China’s solar boom is slowing down

China made headlines in 2025 for installing record levels of solar. But in 2026, new capacity is expected to be lower than last year’s figures. 

This week, Carbon Brief examines what is behind China’s lower 2026 solar additions. 

Solar power has been a major element of China’s renewables buildout since the mid-2010s. 

The country installed 315 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in 2025, adding more than half of all new solar globally. The year before, it added 277GW.

But the picture in 2026 to date is very different. Installations in March fell 56% year-on-year to 9GW, while new capacity in April totalled 10GW, a 79% drop compared to a year earlier, according to Carbon Brief’s analysis of official data.

Domestic uncertainty

The lower pace in 2026 had been anticipated by analysts.

In previous years, massive solar installations were driven by strong policy support for renewables, including a fixed-price tariff for generators.

In February 2025, the government announced that new solar and wind projects would instead be financed through a new “contract for difference” (CfD)-style system. 

Under the new system, power from a certain amount of renewable capacity will be purchased for a fixed “strike price”, which to date has been far lower than previous guaranteed tariffs. Further projects will need to secure their own contracts on the open market.

While the new system is posing challenges for developers in the short term, it is part of a longer-term shift towards market-driven pricing for renewables, which has already made them cheaper than coal.  

The change led to a rush of new project installations ahead of the June 2025 cut-off date, so that they could fall under the old fixed-price regime.

New solar additions totalled 45GW in April 2025 and 93GW in May 2025, before falling to 14GW in June 2025, according to Carbon Brief analysis of government data.

Additions also spiked in December, in both 2024 and 2025, as developers raced to meet completion deadlines including those under the 14th five-year plan.   

Some reports have attributed the precipitous drop this year to falling demand for solar in China.

But this is a “major oversimplification”, David Fishman, principal at energy consultancy the Lantau Group, wrote on LinkedIn.

The real challenge, he said, is that “developers and banks [are] still figuring out how to finance and build projects without policy-backed revenue guarantees”.

Yang Biqing, energy analyst for Asia at thinktank Ember, agrees, telling Carbon Brief that the new CfD-style system has created “greater uncertainty” for developers, compounded by fierce competition and a growing push for “consolidation” in the industry.

The government set a target for 200GW of new solar and wind capacity in 2026. 

Fishman told Carbon Brief that this will be “difficult” for the government to achieve, though not impossible. Current levels of solar additions – reaching perhaps 120GW for the year – plus an “ambitious” 80GW of new wind power, could help China to hit the target, he said.

Others are more bullish. The China Photovoltaic Industry Association forecasts 180-240GW of new solar in 2026.

But few believe additions will match the breakneck pace of 2025. 

“China’s solar industry is no longer a story of capacity expansion”, said Yang, with officials now “increasingly” focused on integrating current generation into the grid. 

Soaring exports

Meanwhile, China’s solar exports are still going strong.

China exported almost 1.2m tonnes of solar cells in April 2026, according to Reuters. Although down from a record high in March, it represented a 60% rise year-on-year, added the newswire.

This signals solar’s attractiveness globally in the face of rising energy prices caused by the Iran-US conflict, analysts have said. 

High demand for panels has been reported across several continents, including Europe, Asia and Africa. 

For example, in the Philippines, the conflict is “driving” solar uptake, one analyst told the Associated Press, adding:

“People want solar and people want solar now.”

A version of this article is also available on the Carbon Brief website.

Watch, read, listen

EL NIÑO IMPACTS: An interactive piece from BBC News described how the forecasted “super” El Niño could impact global climate and weather in the coming months.

‘CAUTIONARY TALE’: Two researchers wrote in Climate Home News that “Indonesia’s failing Just Energy Transition Partnership is a cautionary tale”.

‘CULTURE WAR’: Time magazine spoke to London mayor Sadiq Khan about how he “survived the climate culture war”.

Coming up

• 8 June: World Ocean Day
• 8-18 June: Bonn climate talks, Bonn, Germany 
• 11 June: Climate Adaptation Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean webinar, online

Pick of the jobs

• The New York Times, climate policy correspondent | Salary: $124,980-$160,000. Location: Washington DC
• Regulatory Assistance Project, associate, electricity systems and electrification | Salary: €50,000-€60,000. Location: Madrid and remote
• Future Energy Networks, head of policy | Salary: £75,000-£100,000. Location: London and remote

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

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

The post DeBriefed 5 June 2026: UK eyes 2040 emissions cut | US ‘dismantling’ oceans research | China’s solar slump appeared first on Carbon Brief.

Solar power has been a major element of China’s renewables buildout since the mid-2010s. 

The country installed 315 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in 2025, adding more than half of all new solar globally. The year before, it added 277GW.

But the picture in 2026 to date is very different. Installations in March fell 56% year-on-year to 9GW, while new capacity in April totalled 10GW, a 79% drop compared to a year earlier, according to Carbon Brief’s analysis of official data.

Domestic uncertainty

The lower pace in 2026 had been anticipated by analysts.

In previous years, massive solar installations were driven by strong policy support for renewables, including a fixed-price tariff for generators.

In February 2025, the government announced that new solar and wind projects would instead be financed through a new “contract for difference” (CfD)-style system. 

Under the new system, power from a certain amount of renewable capacity will be purchased for a fixed “strike price”, which to date has been far lower than previous guaranteed tariffs. Further projects will need to secure their own contracts on the open market.

While the new system is posing challenges for developers in the short term, it is part of a longer-term shift towards market-driven pricing for renewables, which has already made them cheaper than coal.  

The change led to a rush of new project installations ahead of the June 2025 cut-off date, so that they could fall under the old fixed-price regime.

New solar additions totalled 45GW in April 2025 and 93GW in May 2025, before falling to 14GW in June 2025, according to Carbon Brief analysis of government data.

Additions also spiked in December, in both 2024 and 2025, as developers raced to meet completion deadlines including those under the 14th five-year plan.   

Some reports have attributed the precipitous drop this year to falling demand for solar in China.

But this is a “major oversimplification”, David Fishman, principal at energy consultancy the Lantau Group, wrote on LinkedIn.

The real challenge, he said, is that “developers and banks [are] still figuring out how to finance and build projects without policy-backed revenue guarantees”.

Yang Biqing, energy analyst for Asia at thinktank Ember, agrees, telling Carbon Brief that the new CfD-style system has created “greater uncertainty” for developers, compounded by fierce competition and a growing push for “consolidation” in the industry.

The government set a target for 200GW of new solar and wind capacity in 2026. 

Fishman tells Carbon Brief that this will be “difficult” for the government to achieve, though not impossible. Current levels of solar additions – reaching perhaps 120GW for the year – plus an “ambitious” 80GW of new wind power, could help China to hit the target, he says.

Others are more bullish. The China Photovoltaic Industry Association forecasts 180-240GW of new solar in 2026.

But few believe additions will match the breakneck pace of 2025. 

“China’s solar industry is no longer a story of capacity expansion”, says Yang, with officials now “increasingly” focused on integrating current generation into the grid. 

Soaring exports

Meanwhile, China’s solar exports are still going strong.

China exported almost 1.2m tonnes of solar cells in April 2026, according to Reuters. Although down from a record high in March, it represented a 60% rise year-on-year, added the newswire.

This signals solar’s attractiveness globally in the face of rising energy prices caused by the Iran-US conflict, analysts have said. 

High demand for panels has been reported across several continents, including Europe, Asia and Africa. 

For example, in the Philippines, the conflict is “driving” solar uptake, one analyst told the Associated Press, adding:

“People want solar and people want solar now.”

Q&A: Can China turn hydrogen into its next clean-energy industry?

China Policy

|

27.05.26

Analysis: China’s new carbon metric leaves Germany-sized gap in its emissions

China energy

|

26.05.26

Q&A: China’s leadership calls for ‘strict control’ of fossil fuels

China Policy

|

24.04.26

Analysis: How Chinese media is covering the Iran energy crisis

China Policy

|

07.04.26

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The post Chart: Why China’s solar boom is slowing down appeared first on Carbon Brief.

New coal-fired plants in Anchorage, Alaska, and Mt. Storm, West Virginia, would total 2.85 GW. They would be the first new U.S. coal plants to come online since 2013.

A new solar-powered desalination device could help address society’s growing thirst for freshwater and energy. The device has specially engineered solar panels that pull potable water from seawater while also extracting salts, including lithium. Because it removes salts, the system does not produce harmful brine waste.

Researchers at the University of Rochester reported the device in the journal Light: Science and Applications. And in a recent related paper published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, the team showed that the panels can be tweaked to separate lithium from the recovered salts. The modified device extracted about half of the lithium from Great Salt Lake water samples.

According to the United Nations, the world has entered an “era of global water bankruptcy”. About 2.2 billion people do not have access to safely managed drinking water, and 3 billion live in areas where total water levels are declining or unstable.

Many parched regions of the world rely on desalination plants that convert seawater into fresh water. But the technologies used today are energy-intensive and expensive. They also generate large volumes of concentrated briny water that is discharged into the ocean where it can damage local ecosystems.

So the Rochester team took inspiration from the coffee ring effect to design their new solar desalination device. First, they etch small, black metal panels with ultra-fast lasers to make special solar panels. The textured black surface absorbs nearly all incoming sunlight and is very good at attracting water.

The patterned region quickly wicks water. As the device absorbs sunlight, the water evaporates and is distilled into fresh water. Meanwhile, the metal’s grooves are patterned in a way that they guide the salts and minerals outward to the edges of the active area, much like a coffee ring is formed as liquid evaporates and push the solid particles out in a circle.

For lithium extraction, the researchers embedded hydrogen titanate nanoparticles into the panel’s grooves. The particles selectively trap lithium ions selectively while other salts move to the passive collection zone.

“Mining lithium from the Earth has proven to be very taxing from an energy and environmental standpoint, so pulling lithium directly from saltwater could be a very important future route,” said Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics and physics, in a press release.

Sources:

• Luheng Tang et al. Additive-free and brine-discharge-free solar-thermal desalination with simultaneous complete mineral mining from ocean water. Light: Science, 2026.
• Luheng Tang et al. Rapid lithium extraction via solar-thermal interfacial evaporation with zero liquid discharge. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2026.

Image: University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster

Here in the U.S. but certainly also all over the world, when people have questions about health and wellness, nearly three-quarters of us turn to the internet first. And in a country where 1 in 2 adults is experiencing diabetes or pre-diabetes and 7 in 10 faces overweight or obesity, according to The Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, nutrition is increasingly a central subject we’re relying on technology to help guide.

This week, I was in Washington, D.C. for FIMCON, a new national Food is Medicine Conference. I moderated a panel that explored how we can communicate nutrition and health messages to the public using a mix of digital platforms, behavioral science, and emerging artificial intelligence (AI) tools. I spoke with experts including Nira Goren, MD, Head of AI for Societal Health & Food is Medicine at Google; Noosheen Hashemi, Founder & CEO of January AI; and Sarah Mastrorocco, VP & GM of Instacart Health.

I find it fascinating that the increasing public realization of the power of Food is Medicine in recent years has coincided with the boom of generative AI, and I’ve got to be honest: It makes me both excited and nervous. GenAI is a hugely powerful tool—and with major opportunity comes the serious challenge of using it responsibly. That’s exactly why we need to talk about it.

According to a study in Frontiers in Nutrition, AI can be used to deliver personalized nutrition recommendations, enable early dietary interventions to prevent chronic diseases, and optimize food processing to reduce food waste. At the Periodic Table of Food Initiative, researchers are using AI alongside a global database to map out what they call the “dark matter” of food—the overwhelming majority of biomolecules in food we don’t know about—to improve human and planetary health.

These potential impacts stretch from your forks all the way back to our farm fields. At the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) this week, the annual Menus of Change summit brought together chefs, advocates, and private-sector food leaders to discuss ways that food systems of the future—including health-oriented technologies like AI—begin in the kitchen.

And as we’ve reported at Food Tank, AI tools can also help farmers improve their land management practices via precision agriculture; analyze climate risks and predict disruptions before they become disastrous; and strengthen transparent and traceable supply chains.

But of course, no technological solution is a silver bullet. Along with well-documented environmental impacts that cannot be ignored, generative AI exists in an overwhelming internet information ecosystem that is not always accurate.

“Unfortunately about 50 percent of the information online in nutrition is disinformation,” Nira Goren of Google told us at Food Tank’s SXSW Summit earlier this year. “So navigating that sea of information—what’s high quality, what’s not high-quality, why are these two institutions saying conflicting things—is something we wanted to help make better.”

To address this, Google is working with the Tufts Food is Medicine Institute to ensure their tools and models are both building upon and delivering the best available public nutrition information.

And the public health landscape has changed significantly in recent years. For example, challenges around obesity have really only become predominant in the past few decades, says cardiologist Dariush Mozaffarian, the Director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University.

“I graduated medical school in 1995; we were talking about eating disorders (when) we talked about nutrition. There wasn’t an obesity epidemic in 1995. So this has happened in just the last 30 years in our adult lifetimes,” he says.

And the economic stakes are higher than ever, too. Besides the quality-of-life impacts of poor nutrition, health care spending and lost productivity from sub-optimal diets cost the economy US$1.1 trillion in the U.S. alone, per The Rockefeller Foundation. So the costs of getting things wrong—or doing nothing!—are enormous.

There’s no question that the food movement needs to ask serious questions about the future of generative AI. When it comes to protecting biodiversity, establishing food sovereignty, and even the idea that food is our first and best medicine, we often find deeply powerful answers in Indigenous wisdom that has guided humanity for millennia. As the climate crisis becomes more intense, we cannot afford to make certain sacrifices but we also cannot afford to leave powerful tools on the table unused.

In other words, some new problems require new solutions. Investing in emerging technologies to bolster our efforts to nourish the planet can truly pay off—if we manage them responsibly and center equity and justice in all of our decision-making.

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

Photo courtesy of Nathan Dumlao, Unsplash

The post Asking Serious Questions About AI’s Role in Food is Medicine appeared first on Food Tank.

Utility Dive caught up with the associate deputy secretary of energy at the Edison Electric Institute conference in Las Vegas, where the dominant theme was balancing demand growth with affordability.

The country is currently facing a runoff election to choose its new president. National organizations representing Indigenous Peoples and peasants have outlined a critical agenda to ensure full respect for their rights.

The post Peru: Indigenous Peoples and Peasants Mobilize Against the Threat of a Setback for Democracy appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

In the second of our Breaking the Sword dispatches from the West Bank, Farah, Calico and Noah report on the Israeli practice of establishing Shepherding Outposts as an instrument for grabbing Palestinian land

The post Zionist pogroms and shepherding outposts in the West Bank appeared first on Red Pepper.

Update: Marin and Sonoma County voters came through to keep SMART trains moving! With 70% of the vote, Measure B passed! This decision will renew the existing quarter-cent sales tax for SMART train service and the adjacent multi-use pathway. 

Measure B doesn’t create a new tax. It keeps existing investments alive—securing the next 30 years of service.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) train carries over 4,000 riders each weekday, offering a proven alternative to car travel that eases Highway 101 congestion and cuts greenhouse gas emissions. But without renewed funding, SMART cannot sustain current operations, let alone grow.

Greenbelt Alliance proudly endorsed Measure B and is thrilled that Marin and Sonoma counties are supporting climate-smart transit in their region! Thank you to everyone who showed support for Measure B on the ballot!

Why It Matters

SMART is more than a train. Every trip taken on SMART means fewer cars on the road, less pollution in the air, and a cleaner commute for thousands of North Bay residents. For an environmentally motivated community, Marin and Sonoma’s housing and transportation systems still depend heavily on single-occupancy vehicles. This measure represents a needed investment in public transportation. 

Without Measure B, SMART will not be able to maintain today’s service levels. That means fewer trains, fewer riders, and more cars on 101. It means an incomplete pathway system. And it means abandoning an investment that voters in Marin and Sonoma counties have already made in their shared future.

Protecting and Growing a Regional Investment

Over the past decade, SMART has extended its reach across the North Bay, and the 24 mile pathway running alongside the tracks has become a beloved active transportation corridor for cyclists and pedestrians alike. Measure B protects that progress and opens the door to more: expanded service hours, greater geographic reach, and a pathway system that’s finally complete.

Measure B directly funds:

• Continued daily SMART train service connecting Sonoma and Marin counties.
• A reliable, low-emissions alternative to Highway 101.
• Expansion of service hours and geographic reach across the North Bay.
• Completion and maintenance of the SMART pathway for cyclists and pedestrians.
• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the region’s transportation sector. People who ride SMART reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 33% compared to completing the same trip in a car.

A Smart Investment in Our Shared Future

At Greenbelt Alliance, we believe that resilient communities require both healthy lands and healthy transportation systems — the kind that give people real alternatives to driving, reduce emissions, and keep our region connected even as climate pressures intensify.

Thirty years from now, the North Bay can be a place where hopping on a train is as natural as getting in a car—where our transportation choices match our values. This vision is now closer to becoming a reality with the passage of Measure B.

The post WIN: Voters Said YES To Keep SMART Trains Moving appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

Believe it or not, America has the largest train network in the world, but it’s mostly used by freight companies who ship coal at five miles per hour. But how on earth did things get so bad for trains that carry people?

If you need a crash course in why it’s so hard to travel a long distance in America outside of a car or an airplane, look no further than one of our favorite YouTube channels, Climate Town, to learn about the last 200 years of U.S. passenger rail history in under 30 minutes.

And because it’s created by the hilarious “guy with a climate science and policy degree” Rollie Williams and his crack team of researchers and producers, we promise it’ll be one of the most informative and funny things you’ll watch all month. Seriously: make it all the way to the end for a truly deranged illustration of a horse, more than one jump scare of Jim Cramer eating Spam, and most important, a recipe for fixing this mess and getting America’s transportation future back on the rails:

• Can more investment save Brightline? The first privately owned intercity rail company in the U.S. since the formation of Amtrak in the 1970s looked like it would be a huge success, but is now on the verge of going bankrupt. It’s not quite fast enough, a bit too expensive, and because it uses existing at-grade rail lines, kills a lot of people. (Fast Company)
• Despite high gas prices, Americans were driving more than ever in April, according to new Federal Highway Administration statistics. (Wall Street Journal; paywall)
• Electric vehicle owners save money on gas and maintenance, but they pay an average of $1,000 extra for insurance because EVs cost more to fix after a crash. (Grist)
• Planners have retreated from politics since the Jane Jacobs area and no longer lead community discussions about transportation or other issues, writes Billy Cooney. (Southern Urbanism)
• Commercial roads lined with aging strip malls could become transit-oriented boulevards with mixed-income housing instead. (Architect Magazine)
• Almost half the miles driven by California’s Waymo robotaxis are “deadheading,” without any passengers inside. (Findings)
• Texas is cracking down on immigrant school bus drivers, already in short supply. (Observer)
• Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s administration is treating the failure of a transportation funding referendum as a PR problem, not a policy one. (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
• Voters in two Bay Area counties overwhelmingly approved a sales tax measure to fund rail transit. (KQED)
• The Illinois legislature passed a bill allowing Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize. (Capitol News)
• Transit advocates want to make sure addressing a funding shortfall is at the top of Pennsylvania legislators’ minds. (Capital-Star)
• As the Trump administration continues to make hay over a supposed crime wave on transit, the Federal Transit Administration is now investigating MARTA after a stabbing on an Atlanta train and another at a station. (WABE)
• Minneapolis bikeshare Nice Ride shut down in 2023, but could return with e-bikes. (MinnPost)
• Warsaw is turning a large parking lot in front of a government building into a park. (Pragmatika)
• Coach operator FlixBus restored the route number 666 to a bus connecting Krakow and the Polish seaside resort of Hel. (BBC)
• Walking and biking rather than driving made an Irish Times writer feel more connected to her city.

On April 11 2026, union members from Los Angeles and San Diego crossed the border into Mexico to attend the first Crossborder Labor Summit (Encuentro Binacional) in Tijuana since the late 1990s, organized by the Casa Obrera de Baja California, and hosted by the Telephone Workers Union of Baja California and Sonora (SINDETEL).

Flyer for the April 11 2026 Crossborder Labor Summit.

In recent years, there has emerged an increasingly combative, independent, and organized labor movement in Mexico’s maquiladora industry. It has resulted in largescale wildcat strikes like those of Matamoros workers in 2019, as well as in independent union campaigns in more established industries. Within this context, Casas Obreras, labor organizing centers, emerged as leading hubs of activity in Mexico’s main industrial regions.

The Casas Obreras have been supporting independent, democratic unions that challenge the traditional top-down unionism that has characterized Mexican labor for decades. For example, in 2022 the Casa Obrera del Bajio helped coordinate the victory of the newly organized National Independent Auto Workers Union (SINTTIA) at General Motors in Silao, Guanajuato. In 2024, the Casa Obrera de Baja California, supported the campaign by Luxshare workers to unionize their factory, the first successful independent campaign in the region since 1998. Most recently, they helped the Supply Chain Transporters Union, (SITRABICS) win the right to represent cross-border truckers.

The April meeting in Tijuana created a place for union workers from Los Angeles and San Diego to meet union workers on the Mexican side and learn about labor issues that affect workers on both sides of the border. The event was kicked off with a welcoming message by the Casa Obrera providing a historic background of the Mexican labor movement and labor organizing in Tijuana’s maquiladora industry. Organizers with the Labor Solidarity Action Network (LSAN) opened with a message of solidarity and critical analysis of Trump’s attack on labor and our democratic rights in the US.

Los Angeles brought a contingent of members from the United Steelworkers (USW 675 and USW 137M), SEIU 721, and a few educators. In San Diego, LSAN and SEIU 221 coordinated to bring a large contingent of educators from AFT 1931, AFT1474, UAW 4811 and the CFA. Others came from the flight attendants union, healthcare workers, and state employees. Members of the Tempest Collective, Socialist Horizon, and the Zapatista-affiliated Congreso Nacional Indigena were also in attendance.

Eddie Contreras, a member of USW Local 675, and worker for Savage Infrastructure at the Marathon refinery in Wilmington, CA was also in attendance at the labor summit. He and his coworkers recently organized a union at that workplace and successfully negotiated a first contract. He was impressed by the turnout and saw opportunities for collaboration: “The workers can all learn from one another. Maybe there’s something we tried at my job that they might want to try. Maybe there’s something they tried that we can try at my job.”

Mexican unions in attendance included the SINDETEL, SINTTIA, SITRABICS, UNTA (app/gig workers) and SINDJA, the National Independent Democratic Agricultural Day Laborers Union. UNTA members shared recent organizing updates and some success organizing app and delivery workers. SINDJA members attended the congress to express solidarity and thanks for past support in their own unionization campaigns in the agricultural fields of San Quintin, Baja California.

Based on the testimonies from Mexican workers, we learned of the difficult organizing conditions at such factories as Prime Wheel in Tijuana, maker of aluminum and alloy wheel rims, where workers have been organizing for democratic union representation. Since 2024, workers have called for justice and investigations of the disappearance of Servando Salazar Cano, a worker at Prime Wheel who was leading a unionization campaign in the plant but who mysteriously disappeared in the factory and has never been seen again. His body hasn’t been found, either, and his widow has called on authorities to carry out forensic investigations and accountability.

Alarmingly, journalists, environmental activists, and labor organizers in Mexico are at high risk of violent retaliation or human rights violations for carrying out advocacy work. In recent months, workers at the Camino Rojo mine in Zacatecas denounced management’s negotiations with the Sinaloa cartel to harass and intimidate a unionization drive. Since the case broke, the mining sector, led by Canadian companies, has been under scrutiny for sabotaging union elections. Orla Mining, the parent company of Camino Rojo, was forced to fire top executives thanks to a rapid response clause negotiated in the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

During the first half of the meeting, workers from both sides spoke about union elections. During the second half of the meeting, attendees split into working groups to discuss a series of questions focused on the common interests of workers in Mexico and the US. Participants discussed campaigns where US-based unions could support Mexican unions leading the independent labor movement through boycotts, protests, or public pressure campaigns. All working groups agreed to continue coordinating these campaigns and to meet once a year at a similar summit to assess progress and collaboration.

Attendees at the Crossborder labor summit, April 2026.

At the end of the Labor Summit, many participants had discovered common ground and common workplace issues. Jordan Dearden, the First Vice President of USW Local 675, who works as an Instrument Technician at the PBF refinery in Torrance, CA, stated,

The issues we’re having north of the border are the same issues as south of the border. It’s not a border thing. It’s just where you are; you need safer working conditions, better benefits, you know, equal pay for equal work. The issues that we have as workers are the same.

He also pointed out the importance of organizing crossborder meetings at a time when the Trump Administration continues to divide workers with anti-immigrant racism: “I think anytime you’re able to meet and work on a grassroots level, that’s really what impacts. This is how we change things.”

Since the April meeting, organizers on both sides have continued to coordinate efforts and disseminate information about this initiative to labor networks in Tijuana, San Diego, and Los Angeles. In recent weeks, the focus has been on contract negotiations at the Luxshare plant in Tijuana, where in 2024 SINTTIA won the first independent union in the region since 1998. The Luxshare workers, Casa Obrera de Baja California, and its allies hope to continue the string of independent, democratic, union victories.

Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Tempest Collective. For more information, see “About Tempest Collective.”
Featured Image credit: Héctor Rivera and Hannah M; modified by Tempest.

The post Rebuilding labor solidarity across the border appeared first on Tempest.

For Immediate Release:

June 4, 2026

Contact:
Ashley Castaneda, ashley@restorethedelta.org

SACRAMENTO – Tribes, environmental justice organizations, fishing groups, and environmental advocates joined forces yesterday in a Day of Advocacy for the Delta, engaging with legislators on water policy issues impacting Delta communities, environment and economy. The Day of Advocacy, organized by the Bay-Delta coalition, focused on:

• Support for the California Water Renaissance Plan which proposes a shift towards a sustainable local water supply and away from expensive, unreliable water imports
• Support for AB 2218 which would establish a statewide policy directive to remedy historical water inequities with California Tribes
• Support for SB 872 which invests proactively in Delta levees and subsided state conveyance infrastructure to ensure long term protection for communities and water supply 
• Opposition to AB 2026 which deepens water system inequities, minimal protections for the Delta and extends unpermitted diversions
• Opposition to AB 2215 which fast tracks permitting of the controversial Delta Conveyance Project and bypasses review for environmental impacts

The Advocacy Day brought together 45 volunteers, who organized into 11 teams and held more than 60 meetings with legislative offices. Participants had productive conversations with decisionmakers, voicing broad community support for common sense water solutions desperately needed in the state. 

STATEMENTS FROM COALITION MEMBERS:

Gary Bobker, Program Director, Friends of the River:

“CA Bay-Delta Flows Advocacy Day is a chance for citizen activists to provide a counter-narrative to the official state ‘party line ‘ that in order to address the impacts of climate change, California must divert and dam every drop of water and build incredibly expensive and inefficient projects to move and store that water. Instead, people from diverse communities and regions come together to talk to legislators about how the biggest new source of water for our cities is from reusing and recycling water and capturing storm runoff; how recharging our depleted groundwater aquifers can be done without robbing our rivers and lakes of the water they need to survive, provide clean water and support healthy ecosystems; and how expensive and unnecessary boondoggles like the Delta Tunnel can only be made to seem feasible when the rules are relaxed to ignore legal, environmental and financial realities – steps that the legislature cannot and should not sanction. These citizen voices are vital to helping lawmakers make the right decisions that promote a sustainable water future for all Californians.”

Bruce Reznik, Executive Director, Los Angeles Waterkeeper:

“Agencies throughout the Los Angeles region have established aggressive local water supply goals, aiming to move from 40% local water to 80% countywide by 2045, and they are already moving ahead on major wastewater recycling, stormwater capture and groundwater remediation projects. These efforts will not only make the region more water secure in the face of increasingly less reliable sources of imported water due to our changing climate; they will also help reduce water pollution as well as our carbon footprint, create greener and healthier communities, and provide a tremendous number of local jobs and economic activity for the region. We now need the LA delegation to the state legislature to get behind this agenda if we are going to successfully bring all these critical projects to fruition.”

Cintia Cortez, Policy Manager, Restore the Delta:

“California faces a critical choice in its water planning: legislators can either invest in a resilient and affordable water future for all Californians, or waste billions on the destructive Delta Tunnel, a project that would fail to deliver reliable water supplies for future generations. Over 40 volunteers joined the Delta Flows Coalition to advocate for the Water Renaissance Plan, which would protect the Delta’s annual $7 billion economy, enhance the Delta ecosystem so local communities can reconnect with their waterways, and support local investments in Southern California.”

Christie Ralson, Associate Attorney, San Francisco Baykeeper:

“The San Francisco Bay Estuary ecosystem is in crisis. Through conversations with over 60 legislative offices, San Francisco Baykeeper and our colleagues educated decision makers on the direct threats to the continued survival of this unique ecosystem and the communities that rely on it and shared our vision for the future of water in California.”

###

FoodCorps and Teachers College, Columbia University recently announced a new microcredential designed to help K-5 teachers integrate food education into everyday classroom learning. The six-week program, Food Education in the Classroom (Food-E), combines nutrition science and experiential learning to help educators foster students’ knowledge, curiosity, and confidence around food.

Food-E is launching on the 80th anniversary of the National School Lunch Program, which feeds nearly 30 million students every school day and is an important source of fruits and vegetables for many children, Rachel Willis, President of FoodCorps, tells Food Tank.

But access alone is not enough, according to FoodCorps. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that 60 percent of U.S. children fall short of fruit intake recommendations and 93 percent do not consume enough vegetables.

The launch comes eight months after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cuts eliminated SNAP-Ed, a federal nutrition education program that served roughly 90 million Americans, including 35 million children. One consequence of those cuts, Willis says, was the loss of nutrition educators in schools and communities. Food-E is designed to help address that gap by preparing K-5 teachers to integrate food education throughout the school day.

The course integrates biology, ecology, environmental science, sociology, and history, allowing educators to connect food lessons to existing learning standards rather than treating food education as a separate subject. Willis says conversations with Pamela Koch, Associate Professor of Nutrition and Education at Teachers College and head of the Food-E program, helped shape this approach.

Koch’s work with educators reveals a common challenge: many teachers recognize the value of food education but struggle to fit it into already packed curricula. Food-E addresses that challenge by helping educators identify opportunities within lessons they already teach. A geometry lesson, for example, might incorporate food through concepts such as measurement, shapes, or fractions.

The course also encourages teachers to make use of “micromoments”—brief periods before an assembly, during transitions, or at the end of the school day—to spark conversations and curiosity about food. Rather than adding another responsibility to educators’ workloads, Willis says the goal is to make food education a natural part of students’ daily learning experiences.

Food-E pairs nutrition science with experiential learning, helping educators help students engage with food through hands-on activities. According to FoodCorps, an average of 60 percent of students who participate in its food education programs report greater preference for fruits and vegetables. Students who participate in more hands-on activities, such as cooking and gardening, consume up to three times as many fruits and vegetables.

Willis says Food-E is designed to help more educators bring these experiences into the classroom through activities ranging from cooking and gardening to science experiments, taste tests and food-related storytelling, helping students build curiosity, confidence, and agency around food from an early age.

In addition to nutrition science and classroom activities, Food-E challenges participants to think critically about their own experiences with food. Early modules ask participants to reflect on their memories of school meals, the messages they received about food growing up, and the experiences that shaped their attitudes toward eating. The course also explores how those experiences can influence classroom conversations and shape students’ perceptions of food.

Willis says this work is important because educators have an opportunity to help children develop curiosity and confidence around food rather than judgment or anxiety. Reflecting on her own experience, Willis says her work in food education has led her to reconsider some of her own assumptions about food. Food-E, she explains, creates space for educators to do the same while ensuring that students have the opportunity to develop their own relationships with food.

Making Food-E broadly accessible was essential to FoodCorps’ vision for the program. Willis says the organization wanted to create a resource that could support nutrition educators, classroom teachers across disciplines, and individuals with little or no prior experience in food education. That approach extends to the program’s cost. FoodCorps set the enrollment fee at US$295 in an effort to reduce barriers to participation and make it easier for both schools and individual educators to enroll.

FoodCorps envisions a future in which all 50 million public school students have access to food education and nourishing meals at school. Willis says Food-E is a critical tool for scaling that impact. By equipping more educators with food education tools, Willis believes the program can help build support for policies and practices that expand children’s access to nourishing school food.

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

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

The post FoodCorps and Teachers College Launch Food Education Microcredential appeared first on Food Tank.

Update: Contra Costa voters sent a clear message this past election by voting to protect the county’s Urban Limit Line (ULL). As of June 3,  68% of voters said a resounding YES to Measure A, marking an incredible win!

Once again, the voters endorsed the renewal of the ULL, which was set to expire by the end of the year, for another 25 years. This effective land-use tool has been in place for over three decades. In that time, the line has been adjusted only six times, and voters renewed it in 2006 with 64% support. The landscapes that define Contra Costa exist in part because that commitment has been kept.

We thank all the voters who endorsed Measure A and our partner Save Mount Diablo who advocated for its passage!

Contra Costa voters just sent a clear message that the farms, the hills, and the open spaces that make this county worth living in are worth protecting. This is smart growth done right, directing development where infrastructure exists, keeping sprawl out of fire-prone hillsides and climate-vulnerable shorelines, and making sure future generations inherit a county they’ll actually want to call home. Greenbelt Alliance is proud to have stood with Contra Costa voters on this one."

Zoe Siegel, Senior Director of Climate Resilience at Greenbelt Alliance Why the Urban Limit Line Matters

When Contra Costa voters approved the Urban Limit Line (ULL) in 1990, they made a decision about what kind of county this would be. They drew a boundary beyond which urban development couldn’t go – protecting the farms in the Tassajara Valley, the open hillsides above Walnut Creek, and the wetlands along the shoreline—and they asked future generations to keep it in place.

The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors has referred the measure to voters, with updates to the boundary to better reflect current conditions on the ground. 

The ULL isn’t about stopping growth. It’s about making sure growth happens in the right places: in existing communities where infrastructure already exists, where people can get around without a car, where new housing and new neighbors strengthen what’s already there. By establishing a clear line beyond which no new urban land uses can be designated, the ULL has protected the county’s agricultural lands, open hillsides, and natural landscapes for more than three decades.

Protected open space and farmland are not optional extras — they are foundational to the health, climate resilience, and livability of Contra Costa communities. Clean water, cooler temperatures, local food, open land that absorbs carbon, and buffers communities from wildfire and flood. The ULL supports all of that by directing growth where it belongs and keeping natural lands open.

Why Greenbelt Alliance Endorsed Measure A

Greenbelt Alliance has worked to protect the Bay Area’s open spaces and farmland for nearly 70 years, and the Contra Costa Urban Limit Line is central to that work. By keeping growth focused within existing communities and away from natural landscapes, the ULL directly supports our mission to protect the greenbelt and help Bay Area cities thrive. 

Measure A is also a critical climate tool. Compact infill development reduces the vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions that drive the climate crisis, while preserving open lands sequester carbon, filter water, and buffer communities against extreme heat, flooding, and wildfire. At a time when federal rollbacks are threatening environmental protections across the board, locally-driven policies like this one matter more than ever.

Passing Measure A advances priorities that matter deeply to residents across the county, including:

• Protecting agricultural lands and open space from conversion to sprawl development.
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and traffic by directing new housing and jobs to infill locations.
• Maintaining the 65/35 Land Preservation Standard, which ensures that at least 65% of the county’s land remains non-urban.
• Restricting new development in fire hazard severity zones and on steep slopes, reducing wildfire risk.
• Supporting successful implementation of the county’s newly adopted 2045 General Plan.

By approving Measure A, Contra Costa County is able to maintain approximately $2 million annually in local street maintenance funding from the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, which required the permanence of the ULL for the funding.

There Is Room to Grow Inside the Line

Opponents of urban growth boundaries sometimes argue that such limits constrain housing production. The Contra Costa ULL tells a different story. The county’s 2045 General Plan process confirmed that vacant and underutilized land inside the existing ULL can accommodate 23,200 new housing units, 1.2 million square feet of new commercial development, and 5 million square feet of new industrial space. There is no need to expand into open space and farmland to meet the county’s growth needs — and there never has been.

Measure A also includes targeted adjustments to the ULL map that would make it more accurate and functional: removing areas with major development constraints or protected status, aligning the county line with city boundaries where cities have adopted their own urban growth boundaries, and cleaning up inconsistencies like so-called ULL “islands.” These changes reflect reality on the ground without opening the door to sprawl.

The post WIN: Contra Costa Voters Say Resounding YES to Renewing Urban Limit Lines appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.