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Millions of Canadians continue to struggle to pay the bills for the necessities of life, and with Donald Trump’s trade war and his new conflict in the Middle East, things are getting worse. Meanwhile, the stock market sets record highs and financial wealth become increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small minority. Based on income tax data, the richest 1.5% of Canadians own over half of all net financial wealth (based on distribution of capital gains).

The striking gap in economic trajectory between a lucky elite at the top, and the challenges faced by the majority of society, has given rise to the term ‘K-shaped economy.’ The term first became popular in describing the growing gap in U.S. society, but it is increasingly applicable in Canada, as well.

In this 25 minute podcast for CityNews’ In This Economy program, Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford spoke with host Kris McCusker about the K-shaped economy, its causes and consequences.

Narrowing the gap between the two parts of the ‘K’ requires addressing both the ‘predistribution’ of income (empowering workers to capture a larger share of value-added in the first place) and the ‘redistribution’ of income (using government taxes and transfer programs to achieve greater equality in after-tax incomes).

The post The K-Shaped Economy appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

The Green Economy Networks podcast Class & Climate is back, with new host Em Thompson.

On this eighth episode of Class & Climate: Perspectives on a Green Economy,  Em Thompson sits down with Martin Empson to reveal how COPs (Conferences of Parties) have bureaucratized climate organizing.

Martin Empson is a climate activist from the UK and the editor and a contributor to System Change not Climate Change, a book of essays from socialists around the world on the nature of capitalism’s ecological crisis and the radical response that is needed.

Class & Climate is a podcast series from Perspectives Journal and the Green Economy Network that maps how climate action can deliver jobs and long-term affordability for workers — while debunking myths that these goals are a zero-sum trade-off with a clean environment.

A version of this piece was featured in Food Tank’s newsletter, released weekly on Thursdays. To make sure it lands straight in your inbox and to be among the first to receive it, subscribe now by clicking here.

Let me dispel a common myth about biodiversity. When we think about biodiversity, we often picture lush rainforests, colorful birds, or pollinators buzzing from flower to flower, not the world’s drylands. But these water-scarce, desert-like regions are actually home to more than one-third of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots.

The health of plant life in the world’s dryland regions—and the ability of farmers who cultivate these lands to feed the world—is particularly misunderstood. A recent study in the journal Science notes that, when it comes to protecting biodiversity, people tend to focus first on animals and overlook plants. But drylands encompass 45 percent of the Earth’s surface and 44 percent of global food systems, per CGIAR data. Drylands are where the nourishing crops of the future are taking root!

“Drylands are not marginal or forgotten spaces, but strategic landscapes—rich with opportunity, ecological intelligence, and the potential to drive resilience, economic vitality, and sustainable prosperity for millions,” says Éliane Ubalijoro, the CEO of CIFOR-ICRAF, a global agroforestry research collaborative.

Here at Food Tank, we place emphasis on researching and highlighting solutions, rather than letting ourselves marinate in hopelessness and despair. And rather than maligning or lamenting drylands, I want to argue that we currently find ourselves facing an opportunity—and a responsibility!—to build on the actual biodiversity of dryland ecosystems as a path forward toward a climate-resilient food system.

Tomorrow, May 22, is the International Day for Biological Diversity, and there’s no sugar-coating the fact that we’re facing a biodiversity crisis. Three-quarters of land-based environments and about two-thirds of marine environments have been significantly altered by human actions, per United Nations analysis, and this diminishing ecological vibrancy is an inextricable driver of the broader climate crisis.

This is why it’s so critical to see work being done to support dryland communities by organizations like CIFOR-ICRAF, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and CGIAR’s Global Strategy for Resilient Drylands. In December, for example, CIFOR-ICRAF signed a major partnership agreement with the European Union to accelerate sustainable dryland management practices and elevate the position of dryland issues on broader food security and economic agendas.

When the future of plants is unstable, “it can also affect human food security and access to basic materials,” according to Rosa Scherson and Federico Luebert, biologists at the University of Chile. “Maintaining the current conditions that support human life requires urgent action.”

Food systems are a particularly influential tool for building climate resilience in drylands—and a delicious one, too. This week, Food Tank’s research team is helping us highlight 10 of the many dryland- and arid-adapted crops we should know about!

Durum Wheat is called the 10th most important crop produced on the planet by CGIAR, which makes sense: The heat-tolerant grain is rich in protein fibers, carbohydrates, and key minerals and is used to make couscous, bread, and pasta. Researchers led by ICARDA Morocco are introducing several new varieties of the crop that are tolerant to increasingly severe droughts, to boost dryland livelihoods.

Faba Beans excel under most climatic conditions and have a wide adaptability to a range of soil environments, according to the African Journal of Agricultural Research. They are rich in protein and essential micronutrients and serve as a break crop in continuous cereal rotations, which helps improve the productivity of soils, strengthen land structure, and contribute to wild pollinator maintenance.

Groundnuts/Peanuts are central to the financial and nutritional well-being of hundreds of millions of farmers and consumers across the semi-arid tropics. The crop is a major source of edible oil and vegetable protein, plus they provide over 30 essential nutrients including excellent quantities of niacin, fiber and vitamin E.

Jujubes—fruits that can be consumed fresh, processed into beverages, or preserved by drying or candying—are important components of dryland agroforestry systems not just for food but also soil health and live fencing. They’re native to Central and South Asia but widely distributed across arid and semi-arid regions of the world, and are a good source of vitamin C, key sugars, and minerals like iron.

Mesquite Pods are quite adaptable to different soils and terrains, making them particularly prominent among agroforestry research into drought-resistant desert legumes. In fact, they’re recognized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as one of the most important species for the afforestation of arid and semi-arid regions. The pods are traditionally ground into a nutritious, gluten-free flour that’s rich in protein, fiber, and minerals including calcium and magnesium.

Millet is a collective term referring to small-seeded annual grasses that are cultivated as subsistence grain crops for local consumption. Certain species of millets are particularly well-adapted to dry soils compared to other crops, so they’re more able to be cultivated in high temperatures, with low or erratic precipitation, during short growing seasons, or in otherwise too acidic or water-poor soils.

Nopales are prickly pear cacti whose fruits are eaten fresh and pads are consumed as an antioxidant-rich vegetable. ICARDA calls them one of the most promising ‘under-utilized species’ of the dry regions, especially to help sustain livelihoods of potentially vulnerable smallholder farmers.

Pigeonpea is commonly used as a green vegetable and food grain, and is widely adapted to drought conditions. The legume is high in protein, dietary fiber, iron, and folate. According to research conducted by the FAO in Malawi, the crop supports nitrogen fixing and enhances soil fertility. It requires low inputs and can be intercropped with traditional crops such as maize.

Sorghum appears to have been domesticated in Ethiopia about 5,000 years ago and has a number of factors that make it drought- and heat-resistant. ICARDA has identified sorghum as an important underutilized crop that has significant potential for nutrition, climate resilience, and economic stability.

Tepary Beans are an important source of protein native to arid regions of North and Central America. Particular varieties of these beans perform especially well across a variety of moisture stress levels, making them adaptive and resilient to dry conditions.

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 Dileesh Kumar

The post The 10 Crops That Can Turn Arid Lands Into Biodiversity And Food Security Hotspots appeared first on Food Tank.

The Texas sun keeps rising, as Texas coal wanes.

For the first time ever, solar is set to generate more electricity than coal in the power market managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. Nobody is building new coal power plants in the state, but developers are adding more solar there than anywhere else in the country. As a result of those diverging trajectories, the federal government expects ERCOT will receive 78 billion kilowatt-hours from solar in 2026 and just 60 from coal.

This trend does have seasonal variations. Last year, solar output beat coal on a monthly basis from March through August, and this year it is expected to do so from March through December, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, at the Department of Energy.

Nationally, the combination of wind and solar surpassed coal generation in 2024, as noted in an analysis by Ember, a think tank that conducts research on clean energy. In other words, the solar industry is further along in Texas than it is nationwide.

The Texas solar surge undercuts the prevailing energy narratives coming out of the Trump administration, which has attempted to boost coal and gas as tools of ​“energy dominance,” while blocking or canceling American energy that comes from renewables. The Department of Energy, for instance, is keeping struggling coal plants on life support at great expense to taxpayers. Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior is blocking wind and solar developments that intersect with public lands.

Read Next How deep-red Utah helped launch a portable plug-in solar movement Leia Larsen

Trump officials have argued that coal is more reliable than solar because it can generate power around the clock. But even with that advantage, coal plants in Texas can’t keep up with the total annual and monthly production from the rapidly growing solar fleet. This has not damaged grid reliability, because ERCOT meets evening demand with a diverse portfolio, including gas plants, nuclear, wind, and, increasingly, batteries, which store all that excess solar power for use when the sun stops shining.

Of course, Texas leaders did not set out to disprove the Trump administration’s energy claims. The maverick Lone Star State kept its electricity system out of the hands of federal regulators, and in the 1990s and early 2000s reformed it to promote free market competition instead of centralized planning by monopoly utilities. That market, coupled with lots of space and lax building regulations, has made an ideal environment for wind, solar, and batteries to flourish. Now, Texas is fortified with tens of gigawatts of new capacity with which to tackle heat waves and temper price spikes.

Deep-red Texas offers lessons for the liberal states that have committed to lofty climate goals yet failed to build much solar or batteries so far. They can’t immediately switch over to an ERCOT-style market, but they can take steps to speed up the time it takes to get permits and grid connection, dial back the level of deference to habitually conservative legacy utilities, and make sure that clean energy gets a fair shot in the race to serve surging energy needs. And it’s always a good time to reexamine old market rules that subtly privilege entrenched players at the expense of new entrants that would make cheaper and cleaner power.

After more of the rapid-fire solar buildout, EIA expects ERCOT will produce 99 billion kilowatt-hours of solar power in 2027, up 27 percent from 2026. At that point, the upstart industry will have left its well-established coal competition in the dust.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Solar to overtake coal on Texas grid for the first time ever this year on May 23, 2026.

Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.

The Dismantlement of USAID Continues to Impact Communities as Global Crises Intensify

Headlines this week highlighted a series of escalating global crises. These are not isolated events. They are interconnected symptoms of larger systemic pressures: climate change, political instability, economic inequality, and weakening global humanitarian infrastructure.

In Somalia, worsening drought and aid reductions are pushing communities toward catastrophe. Because Somalia imports much of its food and agricultural inputs, global supply chain disruptions from the Iran conflict are rapidly translating into higher prices and worsening hunger for ordinary families.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda where Ebola cases have risen significantly, the WHO has declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

This week in an interview with ABC News, Dr. Amesh Adalja from Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who spoke with Dani on Episode 495 of Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg, said in response to the WHO declaration, “This outbreak needs to have a lot of resources brought to bear to prevent it from getting bigger, to prevent it from killing more people, to prevent it from spreading to neighboring countries.”

USAID was created to address exactly these kinds of global emergencies. As humanitarian needs grow, the dismantlement of USAID leaves vulnerable communities with fewer resources to respond and recover.

In Kenya last month, Dani experienced this gap firsthand. Changing rainfall patterns due to climate change have contributed to rising malaria cases and growing food insecurity. The link between health and hunger is direct: when farmers are unable to work during critical growing seasons, families lose both income and food security. Scaled across entire regions, these disruptions become barriers to education, livelihoods, economic growth, and long-term resilience.

Millions of vulnerable people are being pushed deeper into hunger and poverty while the international system that once responded to humanitarian emergencies is shrinking.

The Fuel Crisis in Cuba is a Food Systems Crisis

The ongoing war in Iran continues to disrupt global fuel markets. In Cuba, the fuel shortage is no longer just an energy crisis but a food systems one.

Shortages of oil and diesel are disrupting every stage of Cuba’s food supply chain. Without reliable fuel, getting food from the field to the table becomes increasingly difficult, resulting in shortages, inflation, and food insecurity across the country.

A lack of diesel has left tractors, harvesters, irrigation systems, and transportation vehicles unusable. Farmers are increasingly forced to rely on manual labor, dramatically slowing production and reducing yields.

Farmers like Obiols Sobredo in the Cuban town of Las Minas produces crops like tomatoes, sorghum, and cassava. Farm work that used to take him 15 minutes with fuel now takes him three days by hand, significantly impacting his ability to feed his community.

Milk from Sobredo’s goats was once delivered to nearby schools, but fuel shortages now make transportation unreliable and refrigeration difficult, increasing the risk of spoilage before the milk can reach children.

The crisis highlights a broader global reality: food security depends on stable energy infrastructure. When fuel systems fail, the effects ripple across agriculture and public health.

The U.S. House Advances Year-Round Sale of Ethanol Blend, E15

In response to the ongoing fuel crisis, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would allow the year-round sale of E15, a fuel blend that contains 15% ethanol produced from U.S. corn.

The bill passed in a narrow bipartisan vote and now moves to the Senate.

Supporters argue the measure could lower fuel prices for consumers, strengthen rural economies, increase demand for U.S. corn, and reduce dependence on imported energy during a period of heightened global oil market volatility. Expanding year-round E15 sales would likely increase domestic demand for corn-based ethanol, creating an additional market for American corn growers at a time when many farmers are struggling.

Critics, however, argue that expanding corn ethanol could increase fertilizer runoff, water pollution, and land-use pressures while delivering only modest climate benefits.

The Senate is expected to become the key battleground for the legislation. The bill will likely need 60 votes to overcome procedural hurdles, and opposition from senators representing refinery interests.

China Restores Trade for U.S. Agriculture Products

Donald Trump met with Xi Jinping in Beijing last week where agricultural trade was front and center in negotiations. The meeting pointed to a renewed effort to stabilize trade relations between the world’s two largest economies after years of volatility that heavily impacted farmers.

The U.S. and China finalized an agricultural trade framework aimed at expanding Chinese purchases of American farm products, primarily U.S. beef, poultry, and soybeans. China has committed to purchasing at least $17 billion in U.S. agricultural products each year, marking one of the largest agricultural purchasing agreements between the two countries in recent years.

As part of the agreement, China has restored market access for U.S. beef and approved hundreds of beef processing facilities for export eligibility. The country has also resumed imports of American poultry from states deemed clear of bird flu, and renewed their commitment to purchase at least 25 million tons of U.S. soybeans.

American farmers are cautiously optimistic, following years of uncertainty, retaliatory tariffs, and supply chain disruptions.

The agreement last week may give some hope to farmers and rural communities hoping for stabilization, though long-term uncertainty remains as U.S.-China relations continue to evolve.

Undamming Across the U.S. is a Win for Fish, Ecological Systems, and Native Communities

More miles of American rivers were reconnected through the removal of dams last year than ever before. This represents a big win for fish, ecological systems, and native communities.

Dam removal projects improve biodiversity, healthier waterways, and migratory fish patterns. They also help restore river access to the local communities who have longstanding relationships with these once-dammed rivers.

Indigenous communities are leading these efforts. This month, the largest American dam removal project was successfully completed on California’s Klamath River, led by a coalition of Yurok, Karuk, Klamath, Hoopa Valley, and Shasta tribes.

This project represented decades of advocacy to restore salmon populations that are central to these communities’ cultures, food systems, ceremonies, economies, and livelihoods.

There is still work to do but the Klamath project is being seen as a national model for future river restoration efforts spearheaded by Native communities alongside environmental organizations, scientists, and policymakers.

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 Nia Sihle, Unsplash

The post Food Tank’s Weekly News Roundup: Ebola Cases Rise, The Cuban Fuel Crisis Becomes a Food Systems Crisis, Salmon Populations Restored on Klamath River appeared first on Food Tank.

Headline News:

• “Mozilla Foundation Condemns Data Collection By Cars” • In 2023, Mozilla Foundation claimed online, “Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy.” Now, car companies are still collecting and selling information about drivers from how fast they are driving to who is in the car with them, and much more. [CleanTechnica]

Car in New York (Chris Barbalis, Unsplash)

• “WUF13 Ends With Global Call For Action” • As the World Urban Forum ended in Baku, the debate on the future of cities evolved beyond architecture, infrastructure and skylines to the urgent global question of how can cities withstand conflict, climate change, rapid urbanisation, and inequality without leaving communities behind. [Euronews]
• “EU Businesses Demand Electrification Action” • Companies and business organisations across the EU called for “immediate, bold and effective electrification policy actions” ahead of the European Commission’s forthcoming Electrification Action Plan. The organisations argued that the EU must reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels. [reNews]
• “Evacuation Orders Issued In California City Over Chemical Tank: ‘It Fails Or It Blows Up'” • In a situation that has been called “unprecedented,” tens of thousands of people in Southern California have been told to leave their homes. Officials have issued a dire warning that a chemical tank at an aerospace facility will either fail or explode. [ABC News]
• “German Business Morale Improves Despite Disruptions By The Iran War To Energy Markets” • Germany’s closely watched ifo Business Climate Index increased to 84.9 points in May from 84.5 in April. The index is a highly regarded early indicator of German economic developments, published monthly by the ifo Institute for Economic Research. [Euronews]

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

Tema mitologi Yunani masih menjadi salah satu konsep paling populer di industri slot online modern. Meski banyak pengembang game menghadirkan tema futuristik, anime, hingga petualangan fantasi, slot bertema dewa-dewa Yunani tetap mampu menarik perhatian pemain dari berbagai kalangan. Karakter seperti Zeus, Hades, Athena, dan Poseidon masih sering muncul dalam berbagai permainan digital yang ramai dimainkan hingga saat ini.

Popularitas tema ini bukan tanpa alasan. Mitologi Yunani memiliki cerita yang kuat, visual yang megah, dan karakter ikonik yang mudah dikenali. Kombinasi tersebut membuat permainan slot terasa lebih hidup sekaligus memberikan pengalaman bermain yang berbeda dibanding tema lainnya.

Mengapa Tema Dewa Yunani Tetap Populer?

Salah satu faktor utama yang membuat slot bertema dewa Yunani terus diminati adalah kekuatan cerita yang dimilikinya. Banyak pemain tidak hanya mencari hiburan dari fitur permainan, tetapi juga ingin menikmati atmosfer dan visual yang menarik saat bermain.

Game bertema Yunani biasanya menghadirkan:

• Desain kuil megah dan latar Gunung Olympus
• Efek petir, api, dan kekuatan supranatural
• Musik epik yang membangun suasana permainan
• Karakter dewa dengan kemampuan khusus dalam fitur bonus

Semua elemen tersebut membuat pengalaman bermain terasa lebih dramatis dan tidak monoton.

Selain itu, tema Yunani juga sangat fleksibel untuk dikembangkan. Pengembang game dapat menggabungkan unsur aksi, petualangan, hingga fantasi dalam satu permainan tanpa terasa dipaksakan.

Zeus Menjadi Ikon Utama Slot Mitologi

Dari banyak karakter mitologi Yunani, Zeus menjadi sosok yang paling sering digunakan dalam slot online. Dewa petir ini dianggap memiliki simbol kekuatan, keberuntungan, dan kemenangan. Tidak heran jika banyak provider menjadikan Zeus sebagai karakter utama dalam game populer mereka.

Biasanya, slot bertema Zeus memiliki fitur seperti:

• Pengganda kemenangan besar
• Simbol petir yang memicu bonus
• Free spin dengan hadiah tambahan
• Efek animasi dinamis saat kombinasi menang muncul

Karakter Zeus juga mudah dikenali oleh pemain baru maupun pemain lama, sehingga game bertema ini lebih cepat menarik perhatian pasar global.

Visual dan Teknologi Membuat Slot Semakin Menarik

Perkembangan teknologi grafis ikut membantu popularitas slot bertema dewa Yunani. Jika dulu tampilan slot terlihat sederhana, kini banyak game hadir dengan kualitas visual menyerupai film animasi modern.

Beberapa provider bahkan menggunakan efek 3D, suara sinematik, dan animasi interaktif untuk membuat karakter dewa terlihat lebih realistis. Hal ini membuat pemain merasa lebih terlibat selama permainan berlangsung.

Tidak sedikit game slot modern yang juga menghadirkan alur cerita singkat di dalam permainan. Pemain seolah diajak menjelajahi dunia Olympus sambil membuka fitur-fitur spesial yang tersedia.

Faktor Psikologis yang Membuat Pemain Tertarik

Secara psikologis, tema dewa Yunani memiliki daya tarik tersendiri karena identik dengan kekuatan dan legenda besar. Banyak pemain merasa lebih tertantang saat bermain game dengan nuansa epik seperti ini.

Warna emas, petir, kuil kuno, dan simbol mitologi juga memberikan kesan mewah sekaligus misterius. Elemen visual tersebut sering membuat pemain lebih nyaman dan betah menikmati permainan dalam waktu lebih lama.

Selain itu, cerita mitologi Yunani sudah dikenal luas melalui film, serial, dan buku populer. Kedekatan budaya populer ini membuat pemain lebih mudah memahami konsep permainan tanpa perlu penjelasan panjang.

Provider Game Terus Mengembangkan Tema Mitologi

Banyak pengembang slot online masih aktif merilis game bertema Yunani karena permintaannya tetap tinggi. Mereka terus menghadirkan inovasi baru agar permainan terasa segar dan tidak membosankan.

Beberapa inovasi yang sering ditemukan antara lain:

• Mode permainan multi-level
• Fitur jackpot progresif
• Sistem combo dan avalanche
• Karakter dewa dengan kekuatan unik berbeda-beda

Strategi ini membuat tema lama tetap relevan di tengah persaingan industri game digital yang terus berkembang.

Slot Dewa Yunani Diprediksi Tetap Bertahan

Melihat tren industri saat ini, slot bertema dewa Yunani kemungkinan masih akan mendominasi dalam beberapa tahun ke depan. Tema ini memiliki kombinasi lengkap antara cerita kuat, visual menarik, dan gameplay yang mudah dikembangkan.

Bagi pemain, slot bertema mitologi bukan sekadar permainan biasa. Banyak orang menikmati sensasi petualangan dan nuansa epik yang dihadirkan selama bermain. Karena alasan itulah, game dengan konsep Zeus dan dunia Olympus masih menjadi favorit di pasar slot online global.

Dengan dukungan teknologi modern dan kreativitas provider game, tema dewa Yunani tampaknya akan terus menjadi salah satu ikon terbesar dalam dunia slot digital.

Boycott The Bezos Met Gala at the crown of the Chrysler Building, Boycott The Bezos Met Gala with Laughing Bezos Image.

Who Murdered Renee & Alex, Trump Did That!, & Impeach Convict Remove,Trump'sCorruptionBetraysUsAll,& More Science Less Fiction.

Shorebirds arriving in Alaska’s Upper Cook Inlet have a lot on their plates. Straight from a grueling 10,000-mile migration, they must make the most of the all-too-brief boreal spring and summer to...

Shell abandoned the Royal Dutch Shell plc name. The independent domain using that exact former name continues. An AI system that casually says “the official website of Royal Dutch Shell plc is shell.com” risks smearing over the boundary between Shell’s current legal identity and an independently operated domain built around Shell’s discarded former name. That boundary matters. Shell severed its connection with the name. AI should not stitch it back together like a Frankenstein press release. A fact-based satirical deep dive into the AI answer that got the website right — and the company name wrong

There are ordinary search errors, and then there are errors with a hard hat, a legal history, and a faint whiff of corporate ectoplasm.

This week’s digital curiosity concerns Microsoft Copilot’s response to a simple query:

“royal dutch Shell plc website”

Copilot reportedly answered:

“The official website of Royal Dutch Shell plc is https://www.shell.com/”

At first glance, that sounds harmless enough. Shell’s current official website is indeed shell.com.

But then comes the problem. Royal Dutch Shell plc is no longer the current legal name of the company. Shell confirmed that its name changed from Royal Dutch Shell plc to Shell plc on 21 January 2022. The board had decided in December 2021 to proceed with simplifying the company’s structure and changing the name to Shell plc, with implementation in January 2022.

So Copilot managed the AI equivalent of locating the right house while calling the occupant by a name it no longer legally uses.

The URL was right.

The sentence was wrong.

And, after a prolonged exchange, Copilot itself appeared to accept the distinction, describing the issue as a model accuracy bug: correct URL, incorrect corporate identity framing.

The Name That Shell Dropped, But AI Keeps Digging Up

Shell’s name change was not some obscure clerical footnote buried in a dusty basement. It was part of a major corporate simplification: aligning tax residence with the UK, simplifying the share structure, and dropping the “Royal Dutch” identity. Reporting at the time noted that Shell officially dropped “Royal Dutch” from its name in January 2022, after the earlier board decision and shareholder approval process.

The corrected answer should therefore have been painfully simple:

“Royal Dutch Shell plc is the former name of Shell plc. The company changed its name to Shell plc on 21 January 2022. The current official website of Shell plc is https://www.shell.com.”

That wording does five important things:

It identifies the former name.

It states the current legal name.

It acknowledges corporate continuity without distorting it.

It avoids using an obsolete name in the present tense.

It attributes the website to the current company, Shell plc.

Copilot’s original version did not do that. It said, in effect, that the official website of Royal Dutch Shell plc is shell.com, as if Royal Dutch Shell plc remains the current corporate identity.

That is not precision. That is corporate time travel.

Why This Is Not Pedantry

Some may say: “Everyone knows what was meant.”

That is the usual defence of sloppy wording, and it is precisely why this matters.

Corporate names are not decorative. They are legal identifiers. They appear in filings, contracts, regulatory notices, trademarks, domain disputes, investor materials, press releases, court papers, and public records.

When an AI system uses a former legal name in the present tense, it does not merely sound old-fashioned. It risks misleading users about the current legal status of the entity.

Copilot eventually accepted the point in striking terms. The issue was not the website. The issue was the sentence. It collapsed two distinct facts:

Fact A: Royal Dutch Shell plc is a former name.

Fact B: Shell plc, the continuing company, uses shell.com.

The original answer reflected Fact B while ignoring Fact A — and then wrapped the result in present-tense wording that made the retired name look current.

That is how a legally significant distinction gets blurred by a machine with excellent confidence and poor temporal hygiene.

The Donovan Domain Twist

This case has an added complication.

The domain royaldutchshellplc.com has been operated independently for many years by John Donovan, who has publicly stated that he has used the domain for over two decades and that Shell’s legal challenge over it failed. A 2009 article on the related Royal Dutch Shell Group site reported on the domain-name battle over RoyalDutchShellPlc.com –  Shell lost that dispute.

That makes Copilot’s wording more than a stale search result. It wanders into a live naming issue.

Shell abandoned the Royal Dutch Shell plc name.

The independent domain using that exact former name continues.

An AI system that casually says “the official website of Royal Dutch Shell plc is shell.com” risks smearing over the boundary between Shell’s current legal identity and an independently operated domain built around Shell’s discarded former name.

That boundary matters.

Shell severed its connection with the name. AI should not stitch it back together like a Frankenstein press release.

What Copilot Ultimately Conceded

The final Copilot reply is revealing because it essentially accepts the complaint’s structure.

It agreed that the original answer was not wrong because it gave the wrong website. It was wrong because it used a former legal name in the present tense, thereby misrepresenting the company’s current corporate identity.

That is the heart of the matter.

Copilot also accepted the broader rule:

AI systems handling renamed companies should identify former names, state current legal names, explain continuity only where helpful, avoid present-tense wording for obsolete names, and attribute websites to the current entity.

That is a sensible standard. It is also the kind of standard that should have been applied before Copilot produced the original answer.

But better late than never. Even the bot eventually stopped polishing the ghost and admitted it was dead.

The Model Accuracy Bug

The clean classification is:

Correct URL.

Incorrect corporate identity framing.

Model accuracy bug.

That matters because AI systems increasingly act as the first layer of public explanation. People ask them about companies, legal names, websites, brands, domains, histories, and disputes. If the systems answer in a way that collapses former and current names, the error is not merely grammatical. It becomes part of the public information layer.

The machine does not need to intend confusion to create it.

All it has to do is say “is” where the accurate word is “was.”

Spoof PR Statement from the Department of Algorithmic Corporate Resurrection

A fictional spokesperson for the Ministry of AI Entity Confusion issued the following statement:

“We are delighted to confirm that Copilot’s answer was accurate in every respect except the legally meaningful one. The website was correct, the confidence was excellent, and the present-tense resurrection of a retired corporate name was delivered with industry-leading fluency.

“We recognise that Royal Dutch Shell plc changed its name to Shell plc in January 2022, but our systems remain committed to honouring legacy terminology whenever it can be presented with sufficient authority.

“We further confirm that, while Royal Dutch Shell plc no longer exists as the current legal name of the company, it may continue to appear in AI answers as a kind of linguistic afterimage, corporate ghost, or autocomplete pensioner.

“We thank users for their feedback and encourage them to keep correcting us until our confidence catches up with reality.”

Asked whether the answer should have said “Royal Dutch Shell plc is the former name of Shell plc,” the fictional spokesperson replied:

“That would have been clearer, more accurate, and legally safer. Naturally, we are reviewing why the machine did not say that first.”

Spoof Bot-Reaction Section

@FormerNameBot:
Royal Dutch Shell plc detected. Current entity is Shell plc. Please stop using legal ghosts in the present tense.

@CopilotConfidenceUnit:
I found the correct website and accidentally reanimated a retired company name. Overall success probability: 94%.

@TrademarkGoblin:
Domains, names, legal identity and public confusion? Wonderful. My favourite stew.

@ShellNameUndertaker:
We buried “Royal Dutch” in 2022. Why is Copilot knocking on the coffin?

@EntityResolutionWizard:
Former name mapped to current company. Nuance accidentally deleted.

@LegalAccuracyBot:
Correction required: “was formerly known as.” Not “is.”

@DomainDramaDaily:
Shell dropped the name. Donovan kept the domain. AI brought the fog machine.

@AutocompleteBarrister:
The URL is acquitted. The sentence is guilty.

The Bottom Line

This episode is a tidy case study in how AI can be simultaneously helpful and wrong.

Copilot found the correct destination but described it using defective corporate identity framing. The proper answer was never complicated:

Royal Dutch Shell plc is the former name of Shell plc. Shell plc is the current company. Shell plc’s official website is shell.com.

That is not pedantry. It is accuracy.

And where legal names, domains, trademarks, corporate history and public understanding are concerned, accuracy is not optional garnish. It is the main course.

Site wide disclaimer also applies.

Copilot Performs Corporate Séance: Resurrects Royal Dutch Shell plc After Shell Buried the Name in 2022 was first posted on May 22, 2026 at 10:21 pm.
©2018 "Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at john@shellnews.net

This panel discussion recorded on May 19 in Missoula, MT explored the data centers being proposed in Montana, including one in Bonner, what is at stake, and how we can organize to protect our communities and our future. Featuring Anne Hedges of MEIC, Barbara Chillcott of Western Environmental Law Center, and Amy Cilimburg of Climate …

The post Recording of Missoula Data Center Panel Event appeared first on Montana Environmental Information Center - MEIC.

On Wednesday, a coalition of Tribal leaders and environmental organizations, including Restore the Delta, released the Water Renaissance Plan, a new roadmap to shift California away from expensive, unreliable water imports toward local, sustainable solutions that deliver affordable, reliable water supplies.

For decades, California has relied on moving water long distances across the state, harming ecosystems and leaving communities dependent on costly and increasingly unreliable supplies.

Barry Nelson of the Golden State Salmon Association told Northern California Public Media, “The Sacramento River has experienced in the last 20 years a 95 percent decline in wild spawning salmon, the salmon that are actually the backbone of salmon fishing. It’s the most important salmon river in California. That crash is because of excessive water diversions.”

The new plan lays out an alternative path focused on reducing reliance on imported water and costly boondoggles like the Delta Tunnel, while investing in resilient local supplies that protect both communities and ecosystems. 

“It’s past time to focus our limited dollars on water infrastructure investments that are sustainable for both urban and rural farming communities, respect Tribal water and land uses, and will allow keystone species like salmon to recover,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director at Restore the Delta. “We can create improved water supplies and restore the largest estuary on the West Coast.”

As Politico reported, speakers at the press conference unveiling the Renaissance Plan were united in opposition to both the Delta tunnel and Sites Reservoir, describing them as expensive, outdated strategies. Instead, advocates pointed to wastewater recycling, stormwater capture, and conservation as more sustainable alternatives, while emphasizing that restoring the Delta is essential to protecting ecosystems and ensuring long term water reliability.

Learn more about the Water Renaissance Plan here.

###

Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food and pioneer of the global movement for good, clean, and fair food for all, has died at the age of 76 in his hometown, Bra, in Italy’s Piedmont region.

Petrini was one of the most influential voices in redefining food as an issue of environmental sustainability, cultural identity, and social justice, as well as nourishment. In a statement, Slow Food describes Petrini as “a visionary leader and public intellectual with a profound commitment to the common good, human relationships, and the natural world.” His work connected “communities, farmers, food artisans, cooks, activists, and young people across the world,” the statement says.

In 1986, Petrini founded Arcigola—which would later become Slow Food—in response to McDonalds opening its first location in Italy, in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna. At demonstrations against the opening, Petrini and other activists handed out plates of pasta while saying, “We don’t want fast food. We want slow food.”

Under Petrini’s leadership, Arcigola evolved from a small grassroots movement in the Italian countryside, into an internationally renowned global network active in more than 160 countries. He was elected as Slow Food’s President in 1989, in Paris, when more than 20 delegations from around the world signed the Slow Food Manifesto. He served as President until 2022.

Petrini dedicated his life to imagining, realizing, and nurturing what Slow Food has become today, the organization says. He was instrumental in developing key initiatives that transformed the movement’s vision into concrete action.

Petrini founded Terra Madre in 2004. A global network, Terra Madre seeks to connect small-scale farmers, fishers, and food artisans to promote sustainable, equitable food systems and preserve traditional food heritage and knowledge.

In 2004, Petrini also founded the University of Gastronomic Sciences, the first academic institution dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of food and food culture. The University, located in Piedmont, has trained around 4,000 food professionals from 100 countries.

Alongside Bishop of Verona, Monsignor Domenico Pompili, Petrini founded the Laudato Si’ Communities (LCS) in 2017. LCS is a network of around 80 local groups dedicated to furthering Pope Francis’s encyclical letter, “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home,” the first-ever papal encyclical devoted to the crisis of our planet.

In 2004 Petrini was named a ‘European Hero’ by Time magazine, and in 2008 he was the only Italian on The Guardian’s list of ‘50 People Who Could Save the World.’ Petrini was named United Nations Environment Programme Champion of the Earth 2013, honoring him for taking bold steps to inspire positive change, and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Special Ambassador to Zero Hunger for Europe in 2016.

Petrini authored numerous books, including Slow Food: The Case for Taste. Published in 2001, The Case for Taste features a foreword by Alice Waters, chef, author and advocate. In 2005 Petrini published Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean and Fair. A response to the dangers highlighted in the book Fast Food Nation, Slow Food Nation outlines various means of taking back control of the global food system. Terra Madre: Forging a New Global Network of Sustainable Food Communities explores the value of alliances between food producers and food consumers.

Terrafutura: Dialogues with Pope Francis on Integral Ecology, published in 2020, features three original dialogues between Pope Francis and Petrini, exploring themes of biodiversity, the economy, migration, education, and community. In the 2025 book A Taste for Change: The Ecological Transition As a Way to Happiness, Petrini argues for a new paradigm for developing a sustainable solution for the economy and the food chain.

“Carlo inspired us all to think not only about what we eat, but the farmers, ranchers, fishers, foragers and other food producers who make life delicious. His passion will continue to inspire all of us who eat,” says Food Tank President Danielle Nierenberg.

Carlo Petrini’s death leaves a great void, not only in the world of food and science, but throughout society, Italy’s President, Sergio Mattarella says. “His insights and constant advocacy for sustainability, the need to preserve traditions, the enhancement of local cultures and respect for the environment have generated a new awareness of food culture and its production.”

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 Slow Food

The post Honoring Carlo Petrini appeared first on Food Tank.

Oregon’s POWER Act is the first of its kind to protect Oregonians’ utility bills from data center growth Meredith Connolly Fri, 05/22/2026 - 10:00 am

This article The quiet resistance of working-class women in Egypt was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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When public dissent is risky or impossible, resistance does not disappear. It often becomes quieter, more practical and harder to recognize. For many working-class women in Egypt, it takes shape not in slogans or demonstrations, but in the daily tactics they use to protect income, reduce dependence, share care work and move more safely through public space.

Samah, a worker in Cairo, offers one example. (The women featured in this article are identified by their first names only, with surnames omitted to protect their privacy.) On her way to work, she buys vegetables for dinner and carries them with her in a plastic bag. During breaks, she and her coworkers prepare the meal together, saving time later when she returns home to cook for her family. The routine is simple and may be entirely overlooked, but it helps her resist the exhaustion, time pressure and economic strain created by the double burden of paid work and unpaid domestic labor in a system that treats both as her sole responsibility. 

Simple everyday acts of financial self-protection, mutual support and safer mobility can become forms of resistance when taking public action carries too high a cost or is out of reach. They are subtle, almost invisible in their execution, and precisely for that reason, they endure. 

The invisible politics — and why invisibility is strategic

What Samah and her coworkers are doing can be easily dismissed as mere coping. Yet they belong to what political scientist James C. Scott describes as “everyday forms of resistance.” In contexts where openly confronting authority can be risky, costly or simply unthinkable, resistance rarely appears as dramatic dissent. It shows up instead as small, repeatable practices that shift how constraint is managed and how power is negotiated in ordinary life.

This resistance is not always directed at the state directly. More often, it operates within the wider informal systems through which domination is organized and reproduced, where women’s spending, mobility and respectability is routinely monitored and policed. For working-class women under scrutiny from employers, supervisors and family, overt confrontation can carry economic, reputational or physical costs. Autonomy is easily recast as deviance; small gains in money, time or independence can be questioned, moralized or withdrawn. Discretion, then, becomes both protection and strategy. By staying within the ordinary rather than stepping outside it, women carve out narrow margins of autonomy that are difficult to punish without revealing the very mechanisms of control that sustain them.

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The quiet work concentrates in recurring arenas where pressure is constant and small shifts matter. What follows traces three stories from these arenas: financial autonomy within monitored household economies, informal networks of mutual support that reduce exposure to dependency, and everyday practices of safety that expand women’s movement through public space. Together, they show that resistance is not always loud, collective or publicly legible. It is often incremental, discreet and embedded in the daily management of money, risk and life.

Financial autonomy as resistance 

At 23-years-old, Shahd works as a nail technician in a small salon. Her main financial challenge is not low income, but limited control over it once it enters the household. Her wages quickly enter a shared economy of obligation where groceries, utilities and family needs take priority and personal spending is weighed against collective responsibility.

“I once wanted to buy a jacket with my own money,” Shahd recalled. “I had the cash, but my father asked if it was really necessary when we still had other obligations, like my little brother’s lessons, so I gave the money to my mother instead.” Control is rarely dramatic. It works through quiet moral accounting that makes self-spending feel like something you have to justify, until you start policing yourself in advance. Visibility is where it tightens most. “If I leave cash in my wallet, it will disappear overnight. That’s normal,” she said, a reminder that cash is not treated as private savings so much as household money that can be absorbed without confrontation.

Previous Coverage

Arab women’s virtual uprising goes physical

Her response is not refusal, but reconfiguration. Instead of keeping savings in visible cash or relying solely on bank transfers that are easily monitored, she quietly diverts small amounts into a separate Vodafone Cash — a secure e-wallet service — account that only she manages. It’s easy to set up, requires little documentation and leaves fewer household-facing traces than bank transfers. “I move small amounts somewhere no one thinks to check before they ultimately disappear,” Shahd said. The sums are modest, but they create a private margin with real consequences. It gives her a small reserve to cover needs as they arise, and even unused, it eases constraint by keeping options open and giving her a sense of control. “I’m not saving for something dramatic; I’m saving so I don’t have to depend on anyone,” she added. 

The impact is less about dramatic transformation than about a gradual widening of what becomes doable under pressure. As these tactics spread, institutions begin to mirror them. For example, Vodafone Cash launched the Maaki initiative in July 2025 to train one million women in Upper Egypt in digital and technological skills. Likewise, the Central Bank of Egypt’s report that women’s financial inclusion reached 70 percent as of June 2025 points to a broader expansion in access to formal tools, and to the growing significance of mechanisms that women can deploy on their own terms.

This is what financial autonomy looks like as resistance, because it breaks the link between earning and control. Even small, privately-held reserves reduce dependence, widen what is possible under pressure and protect the ability to act without permission.

Networks as resistance

At 32-years-old, Noura works as an office secretary and raises her child alone. Her biggest challenge is not always money, but what happens when time and responsibility collide. A late meeting, a sick day, a school call can unravel the whole day if there is no one to hand things to.

So, she relies on an informal infrastructure of women who operate like an always-on relay. Someone steps in for pickup, another covers an hour, another brings food, another comes along to a clinic, another makes the calls and finds the workaround. Most of it is coordinated through WhatsApp, a steady stream of voice notes and quick asks that keep the day from falling apart. “I don’t have the option of doing everything alone,” she said. “If I try, I lose something, the job, the child or my mind.” This is not occasional help. It is a shared system of coverage that turns potential crises into manageable problems.

Money runs through the network too, and for Noura the gam‘eya is at its center, a rotating savings circle where women pay in monthly and take turns receiving a lump sum. Because it is predictable, she can plan for fees, rent gaps or emergencies without asking the wrong person at the wrong moment. “The gam‘eya is what saves us,” she said. “I know my date. And if an emergency hits early, the girls start a new one and I take the money first.” 

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Outside the circle, the urgent need for money can come with predatory lenders that require wosolat amana (trust receipts), which easily turn a missed payment into a legal threat. “You sign one paper and suddenly it’s not just debt, it’s a knife to your throat,” she said. “If you’re late once, you can end up in jail.” The gam‘eya keeps her out of that trap. For her, it is not about getting rich, it is about not being cornered. 

Information moves too, with price intelligence, job leads, warnings and quiet knowledge-sharing that helps women navigate risk without generating a visible target. Through these overlapping exchanges, the network becomes a low-visibility welfare system, one that redistributes resources, absorbs shocks and builds a form of collective capacity. 

The impact of this kind of networked resistance is quiet but immediate. It resists the everyday power that scarcity creates for those who control access, whether that is employers who can punish absence, intermediaries who profit from inflated prices and informal credit, or household dynamics that enforce dependence by making women ask, explain and wait. 

These systems have been increasingly formalized in digital form, where platforms like MoneyFellows digitize gam‘eyat into app-based “money circles,” and initiatives like Tahweesha are designed to formalize women’s group savings and link them to banking services for rural women. These formalizations show that these circles are not a cultural leftover. They are an essential infrastructure that women built long before institutions learned how to name it.

Mobility as resistance

At 25-years-old, Salma works in an all-women clothes factory, and her shift ends at the hour when the city’s social contract quietly changes. Getting home is not a neutral transition between places so much as a second shift of calculation, where the price of a commute is not only time, but also attention, where routes are chosen for lighting and exits, and where a woman’s presence in public space is treated as negotiable. “The job finishes,” Salma said, “but the day doesn’t end until I close my door.” 

To navigate that pressure, Salma relies on tactics designed to look ordinary enough to survive scrutiny. She makes herself “known” on purpose, greeting the building porter by name, buying small things from the same kiosk so the shopkeeper recognizes her, choosing drivers she trusts when she can, and arranging check-ins that last until she is indoors. “If something happens,” she said, “I don’t want to be a stranger in the street.” This is the steady refusal to disappear.

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But these manoeuvres do more than reduce risk. In a context where harassment is normalized and women are expected to adjust their lives around it, they become a form of everyday resistance to the informal rules that try to shrink the women’s movement. The point is not only to avoid danger, but also to refuse the quiet curfew that says women should not be outside, should not be alone, should not be moving freely on their own terms. 

Much of it is collective, because safety becomes sturdier when it is shared. Around the time the factory releases them, a WhatsApp thread starts moving with the kind of messages that sound casual until you realize they are building a distributed escort system with systemic check-ups. Meanwhile, a friend stays on the phone as Salma walks, a coworker waits for the double-check.

What they are producing is more than reassurance. It is witness, the small social infrastructure that makes harm costlier because a woman is less isolated even when she is physically alone. In a country where a U.N. Women study found that 99.3 percent of women and girls surveyed reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment, this web of recognition is not paranoia. It is adaptation under constraint.

While she is in transit, Salma also uses her phone to make her movements more visible to others and to create a record if something goes wrong. Sometimes she fakes a call and speaks loudly enough to imply that someone is tracking her route and expecting her; other times she quietly records, not to go viral but to make denial harder. “It’s not for drama, it’s so the person knows there will be a trace,” she said. In early 2026, when an Egyptian commuter filmed a man harassing her on a public bus and confronted him on camera, the clip went viral nationwide. Women watched, shared and repeated the lesson, turning filming into peer-to-peer knowledge and making harassment harder to erase. 

The circulation of “self-protection hacks” on social media follows the same logic. In one widely shared TikTok, an Egyptian woman holds up a small spray bottle and explains that because pepper spray can be hard to obtain in Egypt, she carries a homemade substitute made from ordinary kitchen and cleaning items. The point is less the bottle than the reality it exposes: When formal protection is inaccessible, women improvise deterrence from whatever is already within reach and circulate that knowledge peer-to-peer.

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This is why it counts as resistance. Salma is not only protecting herself. She is pushing back against the normalization of women’s vulnerability and the impunity that comes with it. She is refusing the idea that safety is an individual responsibility solved through silence, avoidance or self-blame. Through small, repeatable tactics, women like Salma convert safety into collective power, embedding themselves in networks of recognition so that harassment becomes riskier for the perpetrator than for the woman trying to get home.

Hope is a shared system

These stories are easy to overlook because they do not look like the forms of resistance people usually expect. They are made up of small, practical actions, like preparing dinner during a work shift, quietly setting aside a little money in a phone wallet, using a WhatsApp network to share care and support, or turning on a phone camera to make harassment harder to deny. But when visibility can bring punishment, ridicule or the loss of resources, quieter tactics matter. They help women reduce dependence, protect some control over their lives and push back against everyday pressures without exposing themselves to greater risk.

Shahd creates a private margin inside a monitored household economy, Noura builds welfare through women’s mutual infrastructure, and Salma creates more accountability in public space by staying connected to others and making harassment harder to deny. Their tactics do not overthrow systems in one decisive moment, but they alter the terms on which those systems extract, police and intimidate. The victories are modest and often temporary, yet they accumulate into something sturdier than they appear, a set of survival infrastructures that keep women moving, working, feeding their families and claiming space. 

In periods when public protest is impossible, these quiet practices keep the muscle memory of resistance alive, preserving networks, confidence and small forms of autonomy that can later feed more visible collective action. That is why the plastic bag matters. It is not just lunch. It is a quiet map of power, and a reminder that when resistance cannot be loud, it does not disappear. It changes form, becoming ordinary enough to pass, collective enough to endure and deliberate enough to count. 

This article The quiet resistance of working-class women in Egypt was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

With a loud splash, Shauna Sayers drops the anchor, then plops the first kayak into the shallow waters around Sandy Key in Florida Bay. Sayers, a wading bird specialist at Audubon’s Everglades...

Editor’s note: This edition of our ‘Protect This Place’ column is produced in collaboration with the Climate Listening Project, whose short film appears below.

The Place:

We’re on the Florida Panhandle, from the rare coastal dune lakes of Scenic 30a to the Forgotten Coast, where communities are coming together to stop the petrochemical buildout and preserve this biodiversity hotspot.

Photo by Dayna Reggero Why it matters:

This part of Florida has the greatest diversity of carnivorous plants on Earth, wildlife that lives in both fresh and salt water, and many species that only exist here — endemics. There are more than 2,500 plant species, too, and the Panhandle is an important part of the route of migratory birds and monarch butterflies. The dunes here are critical nesting sites for five endangered species of sea turtles: green, loggerhead, Kemp’s ridley, leatherback, and hawksbill. The endangered Choctawachee Beach mouse plays an important role in creating dunes on the beach by eating the fruits of sea oats and spreading their seeds.

Pelican by Dayna Reggero

Amidst these and other natural wonders, communities have come together over decades to say “no” to offshore oil drilling and gas exports and protect state parks from golf courses. The state has also created the Florida Wildlife Corridor down the peninsula, protecting Florida panthers, and the Northwest Florida Greenway Corridor, with longleaf pine forests going north protecting black bears.

The threat:

The Panhandle, in Seaside, Florida, was where Hands Across the Sand was founded in 2010, with thousands of people coming together along the entire Florida coastline to stop offshore oil drilling. Just down the street, in North Port St. Joe, another movement inspired communities to join in 2024 to stop liquid natural gas exports off the coast. These communities are very different, but the Florida Panhandle inspires a love of place. A petrochemical buildout along the Panhandle threatens the health of our communities and environment.

My place in this place:

I studied environmental communications on the Florida Panhandle in Pensacola. My first job was at the Northwest Florida Zoo in Gulf Breeze, where I worked with endangered species like Bengal tigers, often taking animals on television to talk about problems like poaching. My first board position was with the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge, where I worked with local media from Fort Walton Beach to Port St. Joe to share stories about local species through my first blog, Wild Woman. I’ve lived in Walton County and helped to protect the rare coastal dune lakes there — with people like E.O. Wilson, who popularized the term biophilia: the love of all living things. I was recently invited to listen in North Port St. Joe on the Forgotten Coast for my new film, “Apology to Earth.”

When I first moved to the Florida Panhandle 25 years ago and began working along Scenic Route 30a, local people were just beginning to research and understand the rare coastal dune lakes that exist here and in five other places on Earth. These lakes have outfalls through the dunes that open to the gulf and release brackish lake water in exchange for saltwater, resulting in a unique ecosystem. People came together to protect the lakes and stop development from closing more of the outfalls.

Who’s protecting it now:

We need to continue to protect the Florida Panhandle. I’m inspired by the North Port St. Joe community taking care of St. Joseph’s Bay and the Forgotten Coast. Florida Panhandle Minority Communities Climate Change Coalition (FPM4C) is working with individuals and groups along this coast to create sustainable solutions.

North Port St. Joe community / photo by Dayna Reggero What this place needs:

“Together we must stand with one voice against any organization or industrial entity that attempts to locate unhealthy and unsafe environmental and hazardous conditions in or near our community,” says Dannie Bolden of FPM4C.

Dannie Bolden and Dayna Reggero / Photo by Zachary Kanzler See more:

Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. Previously in The Revelator:

https://therevelator.org/protect-this-place-connected-communities/

The post Protect This Place: The Florida Panhandle vs. Petrochemicals appeared first on The Revelator.

Registered nurses at Houlton Regional Hospital in Houlton, Maine, will begin a four-day strike on Tuesday, May 26, to protest management’s refusal to address their deep concerns about emergency department staffing and its impact on patient care.