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China-focused Majestic Gold (TSXV: MJS) has suspended operations at its Denggezhuang (DGZ) underground mine in Shandong province, following a hanging wall incident that killed one of its employees.

In a press release on Monday, the gold miner said the worker was struck by loose rock while performing risk removal operations at DGZ, one of three underground mines operated by its subsidiary based in Yantai City.

Despite immediate rescue efforts, the worker succumbed to injuries, it added.

Following the incident, authorities in Shandong province ordered the suspension of production and asked the company to rectify the situation while temporarily withholding its relevant licenses for the DGZ mine. They also ordered an immediate investigation into the accident to determine the cause and nature of the accident, the responsibility of on-site management, and the direct economic losses of the accident.

The investigation team will jointly review the remediation measures undertaken by Yantai Mujin, Majestic Gold’s subsidiary in charge of mine operations, before authorizing the resumption of operations at DGZ.

In its statement, Majestic said it “will continue to work closely with Yantai Mujin to fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation” and “is committed to implementing all necessary safety measures, addressing potential hazards, and ensuring that all on-site safety management and supervision are in place.”

The company operates several mines in Shandong province, with its main asset being the Songjiagou open-pit mine located 50 km south of downtown Yantai. Last year, it produced 31,949 ounces across all its operations.

Shares of Majestic Gold fell 2% to C$0.15 apiece following the mine suspension, giving the British Columbia-based gold miner a market capitalization of C$152.9 million ($111.4 million).

In 1982 cartoonist Bob Thaves wrote that dancer Fred Astaire “was great, but don’t forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did… backwards and in high heels.”

When it comes to environmental and LGBTQIA+ activism, nothing could be truer of drag queen extraordinaire, Pattie Gonia, who first went viral in 2018 after posting a video of herself hiking in six-inch-heeled boots. Overnight she became the “backpacking queen.”

With her fiery auburn hair and mustache and fantastical costumes made of upcycled and recycled clothing and other materials, Pattie has become the fierce voice of a generation determined to combat climate change. She has capitalized on her ever-growing platform of more than 700,000 social media followers to spread her message through gloriously entertaining videos and stage performances at festivals across the world.

Ever since she discovered drag to express herself authentically, Pattie has merged powerful, often comedic performance art with her unwavering, inspiring dedication to raise awareness about threats to nature, both manmade and otherwise.

Pattie Gonia on stage in Denver. Photo: Monica Lloyd Photography, used with permission

A leading advocate for inclusivity and diversity in the outdoors, Pattie co-founded the Outdoorist Club, a nonprofit that encourages LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and femmes to venture into the outdoors through community and education. She is also a board member of Brave Trails, which provides a summer camp and backpacking trips for queer youth, as well as the founder of the Queer Outdoor and Environmental Job Board, a free career sourcing tool.

To date she has fundraised over $2.7 million for LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and environmental causes. Her passionate pursuit has garnered several prestigious awards including the “Next Gen Leader 2024” from Time, “Nat Geo 33 Changemaker” by National Geographic, and “Person of the Year 2022” from Outside.

 

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We spoke with Pattie Gonia during a break from her ambitious international touring schedule, which is currently bringing a team of environmentally focused drag queens to venues around the United States.

Aside from “going outside,” where do you find your source of personal strength and joy to continue your work as an environmental activist?

My chosen family. Other drag performers like Sasha Velour, Shea Couleé and VERA!

And knowing that every time I take action for people and the planet, a little bit of fascism dies a sweet death.

Now that we are witnessing the rapid-fire dismantling of protections for federal wildlife lands and nature preserves, has your approach to environmental activism changed? Do you see it changing with the rollback of laws that have preserved our environment?

Now is an important time to remember what our queer elders who founded the queer rights movement knew well –– we mourn in the morning, we fight in the afternoon, and we dance in the evening –– and it’s the dancing that keeps us going. We need to fight hard but we also need to celebrate the wins, build the community and make the joy that will sustain the movement.

Do you see your approach to your drag art form evolving to meet these new threats, or will it remain the same?

Yes, [a lot of] drag represents a fight for nature, just as much as the fight for equality of the people on it.

Is it harder to find the “joy” at the center of your message? Or have you found a renewed strength in the new challenges ahead?

Joy is and always will be the goal. They take joy away from us and what do we got? Make no mistake, people in power want us to believe we don’t deserve joy. That’s when they win. I won’t let them have that.

In a time when millions of people are feeling disheartened, demoralized and even terrified for the future, what would you say to rally them to continue their efforts to fight for the protection of our environment and find their joy?

Inaction is an active choice. Doing nothing is doing something. People in power want us to believe that we can’t affect change. Yet, if we look at history, we can see that time and time again, the people united will never be defeated.

 

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What are three things that members of the LGBTQIA+ community can do today to show the world that they still believe in the protection of nature and our world? How can they use self-expression to promote the cause of saving our natural environment?

One: We must remember that nature is gay as fuck. I’m not talking gay whales that have sex with each other, which is true. But I’m talking about a broad definition of queerness in nature –– the way nature problem solves, resists, gets creative and survives against adversity. That’s queer nature to me.

Two: Go outside with people you love in a way you love. Doesn’t have to be a 20-mile hike. How about a picnic or a blunt or a walk outside at a local park?

Three: When we go outside, we build a relationship to nature. Through that relationship we realize how needed it is to fight and protect nature, because we fight for what we love.

Pattie Gonia’s current projects include a touring drag show entitled SAVE HER!, a TV series with Bonnie Wright of “Harry Potter” fame, and collaborations with artists and musicians across a variety of environmental spaces. To learn more about Pattie and her organizations and nonprofits, visit her website or find her on Instagram and TikTok @pattiegonia.

Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Scan the QR code, or sign up here. Previously in The Revelator:

Environmental Muralist Faunagraphic Brings an Urban Oasis to the Concrete Jungle

The post Pattie Gonia: Nature’s Warrior Queen appeared first on The Revelator.

Equinox Gold (TSX, NYSE-AM: EQX) said new drilling at its El Limon mine in Nicaragua yielded the highest-grade gold mineralization discovered to date on the property.

Highlight hole EL-TMR-25-036, which is located along the so-called VTEM corridor, cut 10.8 metres grading 36.77 grams per tonne gold from 93 metres depth, Equinox said Monday in a statement. Another hole, EL-BAB-25-121, intersected 15.3 metres grading 8.55 grams gold per tonne from 126.6 metres downhole.

The results are the first to be released from a planned 100,000-metre program of discovery and resource expansion diamond drilling at El Limon, which Equinox acquired from B2Gold (TSX: BTO; NYSE-AM: BTG) in 2019. El Limon, which has produced more than four million oz. gold so far, “continues to demonstrate strong exploration upside,” according to the company.

“These results highlight the potential to extend the mineralized corridor both to the north and west of existing deposits,” National Bank Financial mining analyst Mohamed Sidibé said in a note. They also “reinforce the strategic value of the Nicaraguan assets within the broader Equinox portfolio, particularly as the company continues to integrate the Calibre assets,” he added.

Vancouver-based Equinox last month completed the C$2.56 billion ($1.87 billion) acquisition of Calibre Mining, which vaulted the company to No. 2 among Canadian gold producers after Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE, TSX: AEM). Equinox subsequently promoted chief operating officer Darren Hall to the post of CEO to replace founding shareholder Greg Smith, who stepped down.

Equinox-Calibre tie up lifts miner to Canada’s fourth largest

Other highlights from results released Monday included hole LIM-24-5088, which cut 7.4 metres at 13.93 grams gold from 117.7 metres depth, and hole EL-TMR-25-031, which intersected 5.6 metres grading 22.18 grams gold from 234.9 metres downhole.

Resource expansion

Equinox’s exploration strategy in Nicaragua puts the emphasis on resource expansion and discovery drilling across existing resource zones and at high-priority targets such as the VTEM gold corridor and the mothballed Talavera underground mine. Talavera, which produced about 800,000 oz. gold when in operation, hosts about 630,000 oz. of inferred gold resource from 3.8 million tonnes of material grading 5.09 grams gold per tonne.

Its Nicaraguan assets operate as a “hub and spoke” platform in which ore from multiple open-pit and underground deposits is processed at either the El Limon or La Libertad mills. Equinox has more than 1 million tonnes of surplus processing capacity available at its Nicaraguan processing facilities.

“Over the last five years, we have successfully permitted and brought four new satellite mines into production in the country, typically progressing from discovery to first production within 18 to 24 months,” Hall said in Monday’s statement.

“Given the upside potential for new satellite mines, our permitting track record, and surplus milling capacity within the hub and spoke operating platform, we believe these exploration results continue to significantly enhance the long-term value of these assets in Equinox Gold’s portfolio.”

Equinox shares fell 1.6% to C$8.60 each Monday morning in Toronto as the broader stock market declined. That gave the company a market capitalization of about C$6.5 billion ($4.7 billion).

Back from the Brink New Mexico Hub
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Nuclear Watch New Mexico
Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium
Up in Arms

Media and Public Advisory:
80th Anniversary of the Hiroshima Atomic Bombing (August 6, 2025)

Contacts:
Tina Cordova, TBDC, 505.270.9685, tcordova[at]queston.net

Seth Shelden, ICAN, 347.705.0058, seth[at]icanw.or

Sophie Stroud, NWNM, (505) 231.9736, sophia[at]nukewatch.org

 What: Commemoration of the Hiroshima atomic bombing. Introductory remarks by Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester (by video from Japan). Video by Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream for his Up in Arms campaign to reduce military and nuclear weapons spending. Remarks by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (winners of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize), Nuclear Watch New Mexico, the Back from the Brink New Mexico Hub, and the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. Q&A for media will follow and then the public. There will be a special mystery appearance for photo opportunities.

Where:  1420 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505. Park in back via Taos Street one block east of Cerrillos Road/Highway 14.

When:   5:30 pm MT, August 6, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing.

Background:  Eighty years after the first atomic bombing, we are in an accelerating second nuclear arms race, made more dangerous by multiple nuclear actors, cyber weapons and artificial intelligence. The U.S. is embarking upon a $2 trillion “modernization” program to keep nuclear weapons forever. Because of accidents, miscalculations and nuclear warfighting capabilities that could destroy civilization overnight, so-called “deterrence” is a threat to humanity’s ongoing survival. Meanwhile, New Mexico’s own Trinity Test Downwinders have yet to receive just compensation for multi-generational cancers.

Speakers will point out concrete actions that concerned citizens can take to help promote a safer world.

Please feel free to forward this advisory. A link for online viewing will be provided beforehand. This event is organized by Nuclear Watch New Mexico. Stay updated at www.nukewatch.org

In a packed schedule of field visits, lectures, and discussions, LVC delegates studied and observed a wide range of agricultural practices: from family farming at the village level to industrial-scale operations at the county, provincial, and national levels. This diversity offered a comprehensive view of China's current agricultural landscape.

The post China’s Land System and Rural Revitalisation: Notes from a La Via Campesina Field Study appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Africa’s Path to Zero Waste: Reflections on The Zero Waste Academy 2025

By Desmond Alugnoa and Ama Asiedu 

For nearly a decade, the GAIA Africa team has been providing technical expertise to support the successful implementation of zero-waste models across Africa.

Between June and July 2025, we hosted our first-ever Africa Zero Waste Academy. Our goal for the academy is to empower individuals and organisations with the knowledge and skills to implement zero-waste solutions throughout the continent. It also aims to serve as a growing platform for the practical deployment of sustainable waste management in cities.

This initiative builds upon the pioneering work done by our colleagues in other regions, as well as the Africa-specific academies held in Tanzania and Morocco.

What a journey it has been! This was not just training; it marked the emergence of waste management changemakers.

A Dream Rooted in Community

When we launched the Africa Zero Waste Academy, the goal was clear: to build the next generation of African Zero Waste champions. We knew the solutions to our continent’s waste crisis already existed in our compost heaps, in the knowledge of our waste picker movements, and our traditional reuse practices. All we needed was to connect the dots through effective collaboration.  For six weeks, over 40 participants from 18 African countries met online to explore the foundations of Zero Waste. Using an online platform called Moodle, they completed structured modules, submitted real-time community assignments, and participated in weekly live discussions guided by facilitators. The learning was not just theoretical; participants audited their household and neighbourhood waste streams, mapped informal waste systems, explored composting and plastic reduction strategies, developed advocacy campaigns, and drafted project plans tailored to their local context. By the end of the online seminars, one could feel it: this group was ready for more.

Then came the in-person magic. From 7 to 11 July 2025, selected participants travelled to Durban, South Africa, for hands-on training, field visits, and development of waste storytelling skills. Together, participants visited real zero-waste communities, learned from frontline waste workers, shared project ideas, received feedback, and celebrated their graduation with dancing, joy, and unity. For some, it was their first international experience. For all of us, it was a life-changing opportunity that provided a learning platform.

Real People, Real Impact

The impact of the Academy lies in the stories participants told after the training. These are the seeds of systems change—local, tangible, unstoppable. Below are a few of them.

“The Africa Zero Waste Academy didn’t just teach me strategies. It gave me a community. I now have a network of passionate individuals across Africa I can rely on for guidance, collaboration, and support in implementing real Zero Waste solutions. That kind of solidarity is priceless.”– Sabrina from Namibia.

“I’ve already started composting in my backyard. My neighbours are curious, and we’re planning a training for the whole community.” – Fathia from Ghana.

What Comes Next?

The Africa Zero Waste Academy 2025 may be over, but the journey continues: alumni will implement and scale their projects. We are grateful for collaborating with groundWork to host this event in South Africa and expand our horizons to work with other pioneering zero-waste implementers for future versions of the academy. GAIA Africa will continue to provide mentorship and support, and we’ll gather again, bigger, bolder, better! To the participants, facilitators, funders, and partners, thank you for sharing your belief in this vision. You showed that Africa is not waiting to be rescued from waste; we are rising to lead. Keep following our work. 

Our zero waste future is African, and it’s already here!

ENDS.

The post Africa’s 2025 Zero Waste Academy first appeared on GAIA.

Adriatic Metals (ASX, LON: ADT) reported strong gains in silver and gold production in the second quarter of 2025, even as it lowered full-year guidance ahead of its planned acquisition by Dundee Precious Metals (TSX: DPM).

The company, which operates the Vareš silver-zinc-lead project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said silver equivalent output rose 23% to 1.7 million ounces in the three months to June 30, up from 1.4 million ounces in the first quarter. The total included 720,449 ounces of silver and 4,840 ounces of gold, both up from 595,993 and 3,998 ounces, respectively.

Adriatic also reported increased zinc and lead production, and confirmed that commercial production at Vareš officially began on July 1, just after the quarter ended.

The company completed construction of the Veovača tailings storage facility in March, , with first tailings deposited in April. A dedicated road linking the plant to the facility became operational in June.

Despite the second-quarter output increases, Adriatic cut its full-year silver equivalent production forecast to between 9.5 million and 10.5 million ounces, down from a previous range of 12 million to 13 million ounces, though still higher year-on-year.

The company’s cash balance stood at $59 million on June 30, down from $76 million at the end of March.

Adriatic Metals accepted last month a $1.25 billion takeover offer from Dundee Precious Metals, a Canadian gold miner with operations in Bulgaria, Serbia and Ecuador.

“Following the board’s recommendation to accept the proposed acquisition of Adriatic by Dundee Precious Metals, we remain committed to maintaining positive operational momentum throughout this transactional period,” Adriatic Metals chief executive officer Laura Tyler said in the statement.

The merged company will keep its global headquarters in Toronto, while Adriatic’s UK office will shut down.

To keep pace with evolving regulatory expectations and market developments, financial institutions are increasingly turning to corporate transition assessments — evaluations of how a client or investee will be affected by and respond to the energy transition — to gain insights into climate-related risks and opportunities. Yet, despite their importance, transition assessments often fall short of delivering business-relevant intelligence to financial institutions.

This is because today’s assessments often produce superficial snapshots of companies. For financial institutions to make informed decisions about capital allocation, client engagement, and risk management, transition assessments must evolve into tools that provide deep, actionable intelligence. Below we discuss the pitfalls of current assessments and point to how some adjustments — even if implemented for a small subset of priority companies — can deliver big returns.

The shortcomings of current practices 

Two areas offer the greatest potential improvements to the value of corporate transition assessments:

First, the level of analytical detail that assessments provide can be strengthened. Today’s assessments mostly rely on companies’ climate targets, governance structures, and aggregated transition-aligned capital expenditures, but rarely examine the operational realities underlying these figures. Without understanding a company’s assets, transition dependencies, or region-specific constraints, it is hard to see where a company is headed, what stands in their way, and how financial institutions can support companies or mitigate associated risks.

Second, corporate transition assessments results need to be more actionable. Assessments typically result in high-level ratings or summary scores for a company, which can indicate areas of concern but not necessarily inform practical next steps. If a bank risk officer or relationship manager cannot use an assessment to articulate specific transition risks — or opportunities — for a client, for example, its value is diminished.

Transition intelligence as commercial advantage 

To address these limitations, the financial sector must embrace assessments as tools for delivering transition intelligence. A more robust approach to transition assessments involves integrating feasibility and context into the analysis. This includes three key innovations:

1. Transition Footprint Mapping: Mapping a company’s activities and assets to understand where transition exposure and opportunity really lies.
2. Investment Alignment: Evaluating whether a company’s actual investment pipeline (beyond aggregate capital expenditure figures) is consistent with stated targets and sector and regional pathways.
3. Dependency Mapping: Understanding how market factors, technological developments, and national policy frameworks shape what is possible and when for different companies.

Although financial institutions face capacity and data limitations across extensive portfolios, implementing even a handful of these practices for high-priority companies can yield significant benefits. The following contrasting examples of assessments of a major power producer illustrate why depth matters:

Assessment 1: Superficial Snapshot

• The company has a transition assessment score of 3 out of 5
• This reflects an ambitious 1.5°C-aligned target for 2030, but no long-term target
• It also reflects appropriate sustainability governance
• The company has expressed a commitment to build out renewable generation capacity, but lacks capex-based disclosures
• The company discloses emissions annually, but does not include Scope 3 emissions

Assessment 2: Decision-Useful Assessment

• Assessment shows the same disclosures and targets
• Yet, an examination of the company’s projects under construction and announced projects shows a significant gap between the company’s current pipeline and its 2030 target
• The assessment shows the company was primarily relying on the buildout of a new hydropower plant to replace coal assets and meet its target
• The hydropower project failed recently, making it significantly challenging for the company to achieve its transition goals

The second assessment clearly paints a more complex picture. It allows a financial institution to engage the client or investee, meaningfully ask questions about their fallback options for the canceled project, explore financing for alternative low-carbon infrastructure, or flag risk from overexposure to coal in a tightening regulatory landscape. That kind of insight is what creates commercial advantage. It is what allows a relationship manager — who might only get one or two questions on climate with a client per year — to ask the right questions.

A collaborative path forward 

The benefits to more robust corporate transition assessments are significant, but so are the challenges to developing these practices. Many financial institutions already face constraints in building the internal capacity and expertise required for generating transition assessments. Data gaps, especially in emerging markets, further complicate assessments. However, these barriers underscore the importance of investing now in capability-building, peer learning, and cross-sector collaboration.

Emerging frameworks, technological advancements, and AI tools are opening up exciting possibilities to advance assessment practices. What’s needed is a community of practice — financial institutions, regulators, data providers, and civil society working together to turn assessments into a strategic asset — to help financial institutions understand where companies are today, what they aim to achieve, and how capital can be best directed to support credible, effective transition pathways. RMI is working with a community of practice to advance transition assessment practices. In the coming months, we will publish resources and tools including guidance on how to improve transition assessments, selecting and interpreting transition pathways, and incorporating regional context into assessments.

This work — though complex — offers a profound opportunity. Financial institutions are uniquely positioned to enable the global net-zero transition. But to seize this opportunity, transition assessments must move beyond being voluntary or regulatory compliance exercises. They need to deliver value across functions, from risk management to business development, and do so in a way that is scalable and cost-effective.

The post Financial Institutions Need Smarter Transition Intelligence — Here’s How appeared first on RMI.

An energy transition is taking shape in remote communities across Canada. This transition comes with a number of important decisions regarding the programs, initiatives, and projects that will work best to support communities in reaching their energy...

Canada’s Torex Gold Resources (TSX: TXG) is making another bold move in Mexico, announcing a C$449 million ($327M) all-share deal to acquire Prime Mining (TSX: PRYM), owner of the Los Reyes gold-silver project.

Under the agreement, Prime shareholders will receive 0.060 Torex shares for each Prime share, translating to roughly 10.5 million new Torex shares, or 10.7% of the company. 

Torex said the acquisition enhances its medium and long-term growth potential by adding a high-quality advanced exploration/development-stage asset in Mexico.

The move follows Torex’s acquisition in June of junior Reyna Silver, which granted the Toronto-based miner access to early-stage exploration projects in northern Mexico and Nevada, US.

The Los Reyes project, located in Sinaloa, is a key addition to Torex’s development pipeline. It hosts a combined open-pit and underground mineral resource of 1.5 million ounces of gold and 54 million ounces of silver in the Indicated category, along with 538,000 ounces of gold and 21.6 million ounces of silver in the Inferred category.

Silver boost

With this acquisition, Torex boosts its Measured and Indicated gold resources by 32% to 6.2 million ounces, and its Inferred resources by 44% to 1.8 million ounces. The deal also diversifies Torex’s portfolio with significantly increased silver exposure.

“The acquisition of Prime Mining, and the previously announced all-cash acquisition of Reyna Silver, support our strategy to systematically build a diversified, Americas-focused precious metals producer,” Torex chief executive officer Jody Kuzenko said in the statement.

Torex also operates the Morelos mine complex 180 kilometres southwest of Mexico City. The site includes the Media Luna and ELG underground deposits, the ELG open pit, a fully integrated processing plant, and supporting infrastructure. 

Morelos produces more than 450,000 ounces of gold annually, making Torex the largest gold producer in Mexico. The company also plans to bring a third underground deposit, EPO, into production by late 2026.

Climate change is bringing ever more precipitation and rising seas to low-lying Denmark. In response to troubling predictions, Copenhagen is enacting an ambitious plan to build hundreds of nature-based and engineered projects to soak up, store, and redistribute future floods.

Read more on E360 →

One sunny morning in May, four high school students stood on a flower-dappled prairie in southern Dallas holding shovels. Before them swayed a Texas blazing star, a tall and spindly stalk that erupts in a bottlebrush of purple florets. Max Yan, a senior, made two putts on either side of the imperiled member of the aster family and was beginning to wedge it out when a siren wailed in the distance. He froze, his foot on the blade. There were no fences, no signs warning them off. But the land is, like 97 percent of the state, private property, and they were, strictly speaking, breaking the law.

“Hopefully that’s not for us,” he said.

The siren faded, and the teens — who attend St. Mark’s School of Texas, an elite, all-boys prep academy on the other side of town — resumed work. They are among the most dedicated members of its prairie club, rising early on weekends to rescue rare plants from bulldozers and move them to restoration sites. Their guerrilla campaign rattles some professional conservationists, but in an era of mounting climate anxiety, it offers a tangible way to make a difference. Not to mention a dose of adrenaline. It is, one said, like “collecting my Pokémons.”

Laura Mallonee / Grist

Laura Mallonee / Grist

Max Yan (top, with shovel) and other members of the Blackland Prairie Restoration Crew at St. Mark’s School rescue plants at Coneflower Crest, a prairie in southern Dallas slated for demolition. Laura Mallonee / Grist

Laura Mallonee / Grist

Coneflower Crest, as the boys call this place, after the dusty pink flowers that bloom here, covers nearly 300 acres of undeveloped land believed by some to be the last large intact prairie in Dallas County. Heavy machinery is expected to crush most of it, making way for hundreds of homes and businesses promised to revitalize a neglected corner of Dallas. The developers tout their project’s walkability and eco-friendliness, with ample open space, water-smart landscaping, and native vegetation. But even the greenest projects come at a cost: The city is trading an ecosystem that naturally mitigates the effects of climate change for still more impervious growth that only exacerbates them. 

The trend is accelerating across Texas, where blackland prairie once stretched roughly 12 million acres from the Red River to San Antonio — an area nearly twice the size of Vermont. Eons ago, an ancient inland sea sculpted the state’s limestone geology and enriched its soil, sustaining more than 300 species of indigenous grasses and herbaceous flowering plants like big bluestem, lotus milkvetch, and rattlesnake master that fed bison and pronghorn antelopes.

Laura Mallonee / Grist

But since European colonization, agriculture and urban development have swallowed 99.9 percent of the prairie and continue taking their fill. No more than 5,000 acres are left statewide, and last year, a solar farm claimed most of the largest remnant near the Oklahoma border. In Dallas County, which covers some 908 square miles, more than 300 acres have been scraped away since 2014 to make way for everything from data centers and parking lots to high-rises and warehouses — and even a golf course.

All that concrete increases flooding and emissions, depletes aquifers, and compounds the urban heat island effect — the same problems prairies naturally alleviate, said Norma Fowler, a plant ecologist at the University of Texas at Austin. Long grasses and herbs help the ground soak up rain. Their roots reach a depth of 16 feet, producing humus-rich soil that holds water and releases it slowly. Prairies also cool cities, temper the impact of wildfires, and sequester up to one ton of carbon per acre each year. It’s why biodiversity loss and climate change are inherently linked. “Everything we do for conservation is also mitigating the bad effects of climate change,” Fowler said. “If we want to save the planet, it’s not either-or. It’s both-and.”

Read Next This grass has toxic effects on US livestock, and it’s spreading Robert Langellier

Environmentalists have rallied to save the region’s grassland since at least the 1980s, when one particularly impassioned fellow patrolled Pioneer Prairie — a 127-acre field off Interstate 30 — with a shotgun. By the 1980s, development of the site loomed, prompting naturalist Ken Steigman to start surreptitiously digging up plants. He even used a sod cutter to roll up ribbons of earth — bugs and all. “It’s like Noah’s ark,” he said. “You are trying to protect everything.” 

Plans to replace the prairie with condos stalled amid an FBI investigation of its developers, who were later convicted of loan fraud. Activists rejoiced. Still, development came in bits and pieces, including the construction of a medical complex and a church. In 2019, a native nursery owner named Randy Johnson saw a drilling rig pulling cores for geotechnical analysis, a harbinger of construction. He rode his Honda minibike through its Indian grass as a kid, but by his 20s, reckless joy had given way to wonderment. Johnson worked with the city manager to map its most ecologically sensitive areas, thinking the landowner might build around them, but the bulldozers spared nothing. “It’s one of the most depressing things,” he said with a drawl. “[It’s] something you love and have devoted your life to, and every day you get in your car and see it being destroyed.” 

Laura Mallonee / Grist

He had nearly given up hope when a lanky freshman named Akash Munshi wandered into the St. Mark’s greenhouse, which Johnson tended, that same year. The young man was “hyper,” Johnson said, and extremely bright. Inspired by relatives in south India who cultivate rice, Munshi wanted to learn how to grow food and started a horticulture club. That interest gave way to native plants, and within a couple years, Munshi was as fluent in their Latin names as their common ones. 

His senior year, the club began restoring prairie to an acre of bermuda grass along a nearby bike path, a feat that consumed his time outside studies and soccer practice. To source the seeds, he visited local prairies, often after spotting their grassy texture and blinding limestone in satellite imagery. He counted six large sites fated for development, impressing on him a need to salvage as many plants as possible. Within two years, all but one — Coneflower Crest — were stripped bare. 

“It was pretty crushing. I didn’t realize how quickly I would lose them,” he said. “There were some sites where there was no sign of development, and I’d come back [the] next week, and the whole thing was scraped.” 

The destruction coincides with unprecedented biodiversity loss. Forty percent of all known plants worldwide, and 45 percent of flowering ones, could be at risk of extinction, and they are disappearing at a rate many magnitudes higher than normal due to human activity and climate change. Those recently discovered — like glandular blazing star, first described in 2001 and found only in Texas — are even more likely to vanish without anyone understanding their role or what benefits they might offer. As populations of at-risk flora shrink, their gene pools become less diverse, making them vulnerable to collapse. 

From left: Plants for sale at Native Plants and Prairies Day at White Rock Lake in Dallas. Monarch caterpillars crawl through a plastic container on display at the Texas Conservation Alliance’s booth during a native prairie event at White Rock Lake. The organization annually cultivates thousands of seedlings at its Native Plant Propagation Center at the Dallas Zoo. Laura Mallonee / Grist

“Each one of those that’s lost is threatening an already under-pressure system,” said Canaan Sutton, a botanist at the National Ecological Observatory Network. The organization collects ecological data to support research on how ecosystems are changing in response to climate change and other factors. Animals of all kinds lose food and habitat when prairies fall, particularly invertebrates with unique relationships to plants they’ve evolved with. There are fewer caterpillars to feed the birds, for example, and fewer bees to pollinate blooms and crops like east Texas’ famed blueberries. 

Rescuing doomed individuals can help prevent uncommon species from undergoing “a silent extinction,” Sutton said. Though conservationists focus on collecting seeds, they aren’t always ripe when developers permit harvesting. Some, like hall’s prairie clover, remain so poorly understood that few know how to germinate them. Others, including compass plants, take years to bloom from seed, delaying their availability to pollinators. Keeping a specimen alive helps bridge these gaps. But ultimately, the restoration sites where they live are faint echoes of the vast, complex ecosystem they once knew.

“What we’re in now is this perpetually shifting baseline of, ‘This is what we have, and this is as good as it gets,’” Sutton said. “Ultimately, people doing these rescues are trying to move that baseline back in the direction of the past and a more interconnected, natural world — even if that’s just [with] a handful of plants.”

The summer after his senior year, Munshi was leading a high school tour through another prairie destined to become a highrise. Stopping for a water break, he noticed a tiny yellow flower against a girl’s black shoe. “Oh shoot!” he said. “That’s dalea hallii!”

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Hall’s prairie clover — a globally imperiled plant listed as threatened by the state — grows on chalky, south-facing slopes of limestone prairies. These patches, an offshoot of the blackland prairie, form where bedrock breaks the surface, creating microhabitats that shelter species found nowhere else. They survived for centuries because the rocky terrain was too difficult to plow. But now, as developers search for more land to build on, that same rock offers an ideal foundation for sprawl.

At the time of Munshi’s discovery, just 59 populations were known to exist on Earth. He counted at least 100 plants and shared his find on Instagram and during a presentation at a meeting of the Native Prairies Association of Texas. It stunned Sutton — then president of the group’s Blackland chapter — and he worked with the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, or BRIT, which banks obscure seeds, to arrange a rescue operation that October.

The developer gave the crew three hours to dig up what it could. Wearing his customary conical straw hat, Johnson showed more than 40 volunteers how to excavate the plant’s 4-foot-long tap root using knives, pickaxes, sledgehammers, and pneumatic drills. Afterward, he hauled about 300 daleas to his nursery in Forney. Johnson, who is known locally as a plant wizard and, with his long gray hair and narrowed eyes, looks the part, repotted them in soil packed with microbes from bat guano and other things. A month later, he texted Sutton a picture of a flourishing dalea ready for its new home. “He was like, ‘Check it out, dude!’” Sutton said.

Laura Mallonee / Grist

To increase their odds of survival, the clover was spread across several sites, including a park, a preserve, and a ranch. More than one-third of those planted on public land survived, a high success rate for such delicate flora. But 180 minutes wasn’t sufficient to save the remaining plants dotting Penstemon Point. So, when Kay Hankins, a conservation botanist at BRIT, offered to contact the developer at Coneflower Crest, Munshi asked her not to, fearing they wouldn’t be given enough time. He and others have spent hundreds of hours relocating thousands of flowers from that site and others to a bike path 30 minutes north — casting any worries about trespassing aside like the rocks they pried loose with their shovels 

Despite the questionable legality of their efforts, Munshi said no one has ever confronted them or even asked them to leave. Once, at another location, a passerby suspected him of burying a body and called the police. When the officers saw the plants, they left. “They don’t care,” Munshi said. “They’re literally about to scrape the entire site.” 

Johnson fears seeking permission could backfire. A raft of federal protections shields endangered species. Texas offers few for those it lists on its own, and landowners who don’t want the hassle or liability of having them on their property may target them. “This is a war between us and the developers, and nobody’s calling uncle or throwing up white flags,” he said. “You can get out of jail, you can post bail, but once the [plant] genetics are gone, they’re gone, and I’m not going to let that happen if I can help it.”

But some in Texas’ native plant community are uneasy with this approach, arguing that permission is essential for “ethical” digs that promote trust and collaboration with landowners and developers. “If all the experience developers have [with conservationists] is negative, we’ll always be initiating the dialogue from a disadvantaged position,” Hankins said.

Laura Mallonee / Grist

Developer involvement could ensure that activists don’t inadvertently disturb land that isn’t slated for construction, and more volunteers might help out if it doesn’t involve breaking the law. It also enhances the flora’s value for research and conservation, Hankins said, since reputable institutions, seed banks, and herbaria don’t accept specimens collected without paperwork. As Ashley Landry, who founded the Native Plant Rescue Project near Austin, put it, “We can’t give rare plants to conservation organizations if they’re stolen.”

Landry plays “a long PR game” to gain access. She monitors municipal websites and follows the news to spot new development, then sends emails and snail mail to start a conversation with landowners. She also drives by their property to try catching them in person. In February, her team of 30 volunteers relocated 900 square feet of MoKan, the 30-acre “crown jewel” of central Texas prairies. Tractors carved out 56 sections, each as thick as a mattress, and stitched them together like quilts at two nearby sites. If the transplants take, the method could be replicated elsewhere.

“I just always feel so thankful to have seen these places before they’re gone,” said Landry. “It helps frame your understanding of what the landscape is supposed to look like.”

Relatively few people can enjoy that experience today—and even fewer are likely to know it in the future. In Dallas, swaths of historic prairie survive in parks, preserves, and the unwanted stretches along utility lines and railroads. Most are tucked away on private land, off-limits to trespassers. These slivers of the past are all that remain there of the grasslands that once waved across the state. The prep school boys now fighting to save what’s left were raised in neighborhoods garnished with greenery from other continents. Some say they grew up without the strong sense of place that environmentalist Wendell Berry has called essential for living in a locale without destroying it. 

Like Landry, those who have truly seen Coneflower Crest — not just looked at it, but knelt in its grasses, attuned to its miniscule delights and dramas — have felt changed by the experience. Munshi, now a plant science major at Cornell University, vividly remembers the first time he glimpsed what became his favorite prairie. White rosinweed and Cobea penstemon speckled the grasses, and butterflies flitted amid more echinacea than he had ever seen, suggesting the ground had never been scarred by a plow. “This is, like, a 10!” he exclaimed, filming the scenery. “Imagine what else is in here!”

Laura Mallonee / Grist

Leadership of the club he founded, the Blackland Prairie Restoration Crew, passed to Yan, who graduated this spring. He has since handed it off to two boys who joined him in digging up the Texas blazing star and a handful of other beleaguered species. Just two days after their surreptitious dig, a dozen men and women in business suits smiled for the cameras as they scooped shovelfuls of what might be the county’s last expanse or tallgrass. Homes may rise on the pockets that held the greatest biodiversity. Yan and his friends knew this was coming and they understand the need for more housing, but it still saddened them. He dreams of a movement that would push developers to preserve prairies, though such a movement may come too late. “I just don’t know if the prairie will be able to recover at that point,” he said. “There are parts of Coneflower Crest that will never be recovered.”

Stacked against this tremendous loss, their efforts felt almost trivial. But long after the bulldozers at Coneflower Crest move on to the next job, hundreds of its priceless plants will persist, quivering in the breeze along the bike path. Before Yan and his classmates even transplanted the last of the flora they’d rescued, a few uprooted daleas bloomed in their buckets, rising from the soil toward the sun just as they have always done.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The guerrilla campaign to save a Texas prairie from ‘silent extinction’ on Jul 28, 2025.

Last summer, the United States took a crucial step towards protecting millions of workers across the country from the impacts of extreme heat on the job. In July 2024, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, published its first-ever draft rule to prevent heat illness in the U.S. workforce. Among other things, the proposed regulation would require employers to provide access to water, shade, and paid breaks during heat waves — which are becoming increasingly common due to human-caused climate change. A senior White House official at the time called the provisions “common sense.”

Before the Biden administration could finalize the rule, Donald Trump was reelected president, ushering in another era of deregulation. Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced plans to revise or repeal 63 workplace regulations that Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said “stifle growth and limit opportunity.” 

OSHA’s heat stress rule wasn’t among them. And though the new administration has the power to withdraw the draft regulation, it hasn’t. Instead, OSHA has continued to move it forward: The agency is currently in the middle of soliciting input from the general public about the proposed policy. Some labor experts say this process, typically bureaucratic and onerous even in the absence of political interference, is moving along faster than expected — perhaps a sign that civil servants at OSHA feel a true sense of urgency to protect vulnerable workers from heat stress as yearly temperatures set record after record. 

But labor advocacy groups focused on workers along the food supply chain — many of whom work outside, like farmworkers, or in poorly ventilated spaces, like warehouse and meat processing facilities — say workers have waited too long for basic live-saving protections. Earlier this month, Senator Alex Padilla and Congresswoman Judy Chu, both from California, reintroduced a bill to Congress that, if passed, would direct OSHA to enact a federal heat standard for workers swiftly.

It’s a largely symbolic move, as the rulemaking process is already underway, and the legislation is unlikely to advance in a Republican-controlled Congress. But the bill signals Democratic lawmakers are watching closely and urgently expect a final rule four years after OSHA first began drafting its proposed rule. The message is clear: However fast OSHA is moving, it hasn’t been enough to protect workers from the worst impacts of climate change. 

“Since OSHA started its heat-stress rulemaking in 2021, over 144 lives have been lost to heat-related hazards,” said Padilla in a statement emailed to Grist. “We know how to prevent heat-related illnesses to ensure that these family members are able to come home at the end of their shift.” 

The lawmaker added that the issue is “a matter of life or death.” 

Farmworkers in southern California take a water break in the middle of a heat wave.
ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP via Getty Images

Heat is the deadliest form of extreme weather, according to the World Health Organization. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 986 workers died from heat exposure on the job from 1992 to 2022, or about 34 per year. 

This is very likely an undercount. Prolonged heat exposure can exacerbate underlying health problems like cardiovascular issues, making it difficult for medical professionals to discern when illness and death is attributable to extreme heat. As heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions continue to push global temperatures higher, experts expect heat-related illnesses and deaths to follow.

The life-threatening impacts of exposure to extreme heat in the workplace have been on the federal government’s radar for more than 50 years. Labor unions and farmworkers have long pushed for federal and local heat standards. In 2006, California became the first state to enact its own heat protections for outdoor workers, after an investigation by the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health found 46 cases of heat-related illnesses the year prior. Legislative efforts to protect workers or nudge OSHA along often follow or name farmworkers who died from heat stress. Padilla and Chu’s bill from this year is named after Asunción Valdivia, a 53-year-old who died in California in 2004 after picking grapes for 10 hours straight in 105-degree Fahrenheit heat. 

OSHA’s proposed heat standard would require employers to establish plans to avoid and monitor for signs of heat illness and to help new hires acclimate to working in high heat. “That should be implemented yesterday,” said Nichelle Harriott, policy director of HEAL Food Alliance, a national coalition of food and farmworkers. “There really is no cause for this to be taking as long as it has.”

In late June and early July, OSHA held virtual hearings in which it heard testimony from people both for and against a federal heat standard. According to Anastasia Christman, a senior policy analyst from the National Employment Law Project who attended the hearings, employees from the agency seemed engaged and asked substantive questions. “It was very informative,” she said. OSHA didn’t respond to Grist’s request for comment.

As written, OSHA’s proposed heat rule would apply to about 36 million workers in the U.S. Christman noted that sedentary workers — those who sit for most of the work day — are currently excluded from the federal standard. Ironically, at one point during the agency’s hearings, participants had to take an unscheduled break after the air conditioning stopped working in the Department of Labor building where OSHA staff were sitting. “They had to be evacuated because it was too hot to sit there and be on a Zoom call,” said Christman. She estimated that if sedentary workers were non-exempt, the number of U.S. workers covered by the rule would nearly double to 66 million.

From her point of view, OSHA is moving “very fast on this — for OSHA.” But Christman acknowledged that, even in a best-case scenario, regulations would not be on the books for another 12 to 14 months. At that point, OSHA would publish guidance for employers on how to comply with the regulation, as well as respond to any legal challenges to the final rule. That process, “in an optimistic world,” she said, could take between two and four years. 

A farmer loads plants on a truck at an ornamental plant nursery in Homestead, Florida, some 40 miles north of Miami.
CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP via Getty Images

For many farmworkers, as well as other workers along the food supply chain, that’s too long to wait. 

“For decades, millions of workers have been waiting for federal heat standards that never came,” said Oscar Londoño, co-executive director of WeCount, a member-led immigrant rights organization based in South Florida. 

The group has spearheaded multiple campaigns to draw public attention to how sweltering temperatures impact outdoor workers in the region, including plant nursery workers. Londoño said some agricultural workers have told WeCount it already feels like the hottest summer of their lifetime.

In response to the news of Padilla and Chu’s bill, Londoño said, “We appreciate any step by a lawmaker trying to protect workers, especially as we’re seeing, once again, a record-breaking summer.” But he cast doubt on OSHA’s ability to enforce regulations around heat stress, particularly in the agricultural sector.

“We know that there are employers across the country who are routinely violating the laws that already exist,” said Londoño. “And so adding on new laws and regulations that we do need doesn’t automatically mean that workers will be protected.”

WeCount’s organizing is hampered by Florida’s Republican governor and state legislature, which passed a law last year prohibiting local governments from enacting their own heat standards. In the absence of politicians who will stand for workers, WeCount members are trying to publicize the risks that agricultural workers take on. Their latest campaign, Planting Justice, centers on local plant nursery workers, who grow indoor houseplants. 

The goal is to try and educate consumers about the labor that goes into providing their monsteras, pothos, snake plants, and other indoor houseplants. “If you buy indoor houseplants, it’s very possible that that plant came from workers in Florida,” said Londoño, “workers who are being denied water, shade, and rest breaks by working in record-breaking heat, including 90- or 100-degree heat temperatures.”

Down the line, the nursery workers hope to solidify a set of demands and bring those concerns to companies like Home Depot and Lowe’s that sit at the top of the indoor plant supply chain. Similar tactics have worked for agricultural workers in other sectors; the Fair Food Program, first established by tomato pickers in 2011 in Florida, has won stringent heat protections for farmworkers in part by building strong support for laborers’ demands among consumers.

“Right now we are looking at every possible solution or strategy that can help workers reach these protections,” said Londoño. “What workers actually need is a guarantee that every single day they’ll be able to go to work and return home alive.” This kind of worker-led organizing will continue, he said, whether or not OSHA delivers its own heat standard.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline A long-awaited rule to protect workers from heat stress moves forward, even under Trump on Jul 28, 2025.

Seeding ecofeminism in Rojava Channel News brendan 28th July 2025 Teaser Media

Amplifier Films reports on their recent coverage on indigenous struggles against logging and their new film project, Defenders of the Forest. 

It’s no secret that Indigenous people are on the front lines of the fight against environmental destruction and climate change. This is why I’ve dedicated so much of my time to amplifying their struggles—because, beyond the efforts of NGOs (most NGOs, in my experience, are fairly ineffective at stopping the destruction), Indigenous land defenders have the deepest stake in this fight. They know exactly why they’re resisting: for the land, for future generations, for their children and grandchildren. This vision, rooted in long-term care and connection to the land, is what drives them to fight like hell.

This summer has taken us across territories, from the legendary site of resistance at Kanehsatake, to the newly christened Camp Sovereignty at kilometre 133 on the Chemin Parent. There, Nehirowisiw territory chief Robert Echaquan, alongside his family and supporters, has stopped logging operations. They’re now preparing a second blockade to pressure the Quebec government to recognize their sovereignty and reach a just agreement over forest management.

We also visited powerful train blockades in Wemotaci and Mashteuiatsh, where defenders stopped forest products and raw logs from moving through their territories—part of the growing resistance to Bill 97 and the wider colonial forestry regime in so-called Quebec.

From this frontline work, we’re creating a new film: Defenders of the Forest (https://amplifierfilms.ca/forest), a grassroots documentary five years in the making. We began filming in the winter of 2021, as this movement was being born—right in the middle of the pandemic—and while I was also working on Yintah. Now, we’re in the final push. The film is being made in close collaboration with Nehirowisiw (Atikamekw) and Innu land defenders, and will be released freely online between mid-September and early October to support organizing, screenings, and community-led fundraising.

We’ve also documented a powerful conversation for our upcoming project A Red Road to the West Bank. Rehab Nazzal, a Palestinian artist who hosted Clifton during his 2016 visit to the West Bank, was able to leave Palestine during a rare window when airspace opened. We brought her to Kanehsatake, where she met with Clifton and Mohawk land defender Ellen Gabriel for an interwoven, anti-colonial dialogue linking struggles from Turtle Island to Palestine.

We’re now urgently seeking $5,000 USD to complete post-production on Defenders of the Forest: editing, sound, color, and fuel for travel. Thanks to a U.S.-based fiscal sponsor, tax-deductible donations of $5,000 or more are now possible. If you or someone you know can give at that level, please contact us directly—it would allow us to focus on the essential filmmaking, rather than constantly chasing $20 here and $30 there (though we’re grateful for those too!).

Long-running anarchist radio show and podcast The Final Straw speaks with Dani Burlison, one of the editors behind Red Flag Warning: Mutual Aid and Survival in California’s Fire Country.

This week, we’re sharing this a chat with my friend, Dani Burlison on her recent book, Red Flag Warning: Mutual Aid and Survival in California’s Fire Country! We speak about fire ecology, housing pressures and mutual aid in the wake of natural (and human caused) disaster. Check the show notes for links to a few projects mentioned. You can find more of Dani’s writings at DaniBurlison.com/, books listed here, and more by Caw at CawShinyThings.com

• Transcript
• PDF (Unimposed)
• Zine (Imposed PDF)

Northern CA projects mentioned:

• Undocufund
• North Bay Jobs With Justice
• North Bay Organizing Project
• North Bay Rapid Response
• Legal Aid of Sonoma County
• Forestry and Fire Recruitment program

Southern CA projects mentioned:

• Pasadena Community Job Center
• Los Angeles Mask Bloc

Photo by Matt Palmer on Unsplash

The violent interception of the Handala Boat, which occurred while the vessel was sailing in international waters, constitutes a grave violation of international law. It breaches the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which affirms the right to freedom of navigation and prohibits the use of force against civilian ships on peaceful missions.

The post La Via Campesina Condemns the Military Assault on the Handala Boat appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

In the midst of a global energy transition, the market for magnetic rare earth elements (REEs) is likely to face a threefold demand increase by 2035, which could further exacerbate global supply challenges, according to a report by McKinsey & Company.

REE magnets are currently the strongest permanent magnets available on the market to power e-motors and wind turbines. The magnets typically require four rare earth elements as inputs: neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb), with the first two being the primary constituents and the latter two being additives to enhance performance in more demanding applications.

McKinsey estimates that magnetic REEs now make up the largest share of the overall rare earth market by value at 80%, despite accounting for 30% of the total production volume.

Credit: McKinsey & Company

Due to their significance to clean energy technologies, global demand for magnetic REEs is expected to triple from 59,000 tons in 2022 to 176,000 tons in 2035. This growth, it adds, will be driven by strong growth in electric vehicle adoption, which is outpacing the substitution of REEs with copper coil magnet, as well as the high rate of renewable capacity expansions in wind.

Meanwhile, supply is expected to fall short by as much as 30%, especially in the absence of production forecasts for China, which has a near monopoly on the global mine production and refining, McKinsey says.

The firm also warns that even in a scenario in which Chinese volumes fill the supply gap until 2035, geopolitical considerations could put additional strain on an industry that has already been plagued by challenges around scaling in other regions.

China’s grip to persist

While demand for magnetic REEs is broadly distributed across geographies due to their critical role in high-tech applications, their primary supply is highly concentrated, with China dominating over 60% of mining and 80% of refining, McKinsey notes.

Credit: McKinsey & Company

Light REEs are expected to remain heavily dependent on China until 2035, it adds, while more than 60% of heavy REEs—vital for wind turbines, EVs, and robotics—will likely continue to be mined in Asia-Pacific and refined in China.

Despite global efforts to develop local REE value chains, including regulatory initiatives that could theoretically reduce China’s share in mining to under 50%, supply diversification is still expected to progress slowly over the next five to 10 years, the firm says. It also warns that China’s recent export restrictions on certain REEs remain an ongoing geopolitical risk.

Focus on recycling

As a result, secondary sources like recycling may become increasingly important, given the long timelines, environmental hurdles, and high costs of developing new mining and processing capacity.

Today, more than 80% of REE scrap originates from applications in consumer electronics, appliances or internal combustion engine vehicles, all of which use relatively small magnets for motors, actuators, and sensors, among other things.

However, increased use of magnetic REEs for EVs and wind turbines could cause scrap pools to continuously shift by 2050, McKinsey says. BEV drivetrains, industrial motors and wind turbines could generate scrap on a similar magnitude, providing a new pool of larger magnets containing higher shares of valuable heavy REEs.

McKinsey estimates that the REE value chain could generate about 40,000 tons of pre-consumer scrap, originating from magnet design and manufacturing steps, as well as 41,000 tons in post-consumer scrap from various end uses reaching end of life.

With the majority of downstream magnet manufacturing occurring in China, most pre-consumer scrap will be generated, processed, and recovered in the region as well. By contrast, scrap from post-consumer sources will likely be geographically diverse, though recovery challenges may remain.

According to McKinsey, post-consumer REE recycling would require dedicated separation of the magnet for further processing, which is a practice currently not adopted within existing recycling value chains focused on high-value or high-volume materials, such as gold and copper or aluminum and steel.

Americans are paying more for electricity, and those prices are set to rise even further.

In almost all parts of the country, the amount people pay for electricity on their power bills — the retail price — has risen faster than the rate of inflation since 2022, and that will likely continue through 2026, according to the Energy Information Administration, or EIA.

Just about everything costs more these days, but electricity prices are especially concerning because they’re an input for so much of the economy — powering factories, data centers, and a growing fleet of electric vehicles. It’s not just the big industries; we all feel the pinch firsthand when we pay our utility bills. According to PowerLines, a nonprofit working to reduce electricity prices, about 80 million Americans have to sacrifice other basic expenses like food or medicine to afford to keep the lights on. And it’s about to get even worse: Utilities in markets across the country have asked regulators for almost $29 billion in electricity rate increases for consumers for the first half of the year.

Why are prices rising so much all of a sudden? Right now, there are the usual factors driving the rise in electricity rates: high demand, not enough supply, and inflation. But there are problems that have been building up for decades as well, and now the bills are due: Aging and inadequate infrastructure needs replacement, while outdated business models and regulations are slowing the deployment of urgently needed upgrades.

On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump promised to bring energy prices down by increasing fossil fuel extraction. “My goal will be to cut your energy costs in half within 12 months after taking office,” Trump said last August in a speech in Michigan.

But electricity prices are still going up, and Trump’s signature legislative accomplishment, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is likely to raise prices further. Without better management and investment, the result will be more expensive and less reliable power for most Americans.

The variables baked into your power bill, explained

There are several key factors that shape how much you pay for electricity.

There’s the cost of building, operating, and maintaining power plants. Higher interest rates, inflation, tariffs, and longer interconnection queues — power generators waiting for approval to connect to the grid — are making the process of building a new electricity generator slower and more expensive. PJM, the largest power market in the U.S., said this week that soaring demand for electricity and delays in building new generators will raise power bills 1 percent to 5 percent for customers in its service area across 13 states and the District of Columbia.

Then there’s the fuel itself, whether that’s coal, oil, natural gas, or uranium. For renewables, the cost of wind, water, and sunlight are close to zero, but intermittent generators need conventional power plants or energy storage systems to back them up. Still, wind and solar power have been some of the cheapest sources of electricity in recent years, forming the dominant share of new power generation connecting to the grid.

That electricity then has to be routed from power plants over transmission lines that can span hundreds of miles and into distribution networks that send electrons into homes, offices, stores, and factories.

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Then you have to think about demand, over the course of hours, days, months, and years. Some utilities offer time-of-use billing that raises rates during peak demand periods like hot summer afternoons and lowers them in evenings. Cooling needs are a big reason why overall electricity use tends to be higher in summer months than in the winter. And for the first time in a decade, the U.S. is experiencing a sustained increase in electricity use driven in part by a rapid build-out of power-hungry data centers, more EVs, more electric appliances, and more air conditioning to stay cool in hotter summers.

More users for the same amount of electricity means higher prices. The Trump administration’s rollback of key incentives for renewables and slowdown of approvals for new projects is likely to slow the rate of new generation coming online.

And the process of bridging electricity supplies with demand is becoming a bottleneck, thus comprising a larger share of the overall bill. “If you actually look at the cost breakdowns of what’s significantly increasing, it’s really the grid,” said Charles Hua, founder and executive director of PowerLines. “It is the poles and wires that make up our electric infrastructure that’s increasing in cost particularly rapidly.”

According to the EIA, just under two-thirds of the average price of electricity is due to generation costs, with the remainder coming from transmission and distribution. However, energy utilities are now putting more than half of their expenditures into transmission and distribution through the end of the decade. “It used to be the case maybe a decade ago where generation was the largest share of utility investments, and therefore customer bills,” Hua said. “But it has now been inverted where really it’s the grid expense that is rising and doesn’t show any signs of relief.”

There are several reasons for this. One is that the existing power grid is old, and many components like conductors and switchgear are reaching the ends of their service lives. Replacing 1960s hardware at 2025 prices raises operating costs even for the same level of service. But the grid now needs to provide higher levels of service as populations grow and as technologies like intermittent renewables and energy storage proliferate.

Power outages driven by extreme weather are becoming more frequent and longer, but hardening the grid against disasters like floods and fires is expensive too. Putting a power line underground can add up to double or more the price of stringing conductors along utility poles, which is why power companies have been slow to make the change, even in disaster-prone regions.

While utilities are pouring money into distribution networks, they are having a harder time building new long-distance transmission lines as they run into permitting and regulatory delays. The U.S. used to build an average of 2,000 miles of high-voltage transmission per year between 2012 and 2016. The construction rate dropped to 700 miles per year between 2017 and 2021, and dipped to just 55 miles in 2023. There were 125 miles of new high-voltage transmission installed in the first half of 2024, but it was all for one project. The Department of Energy this week canceled a loan guarantee for the Grain Belt Express, a transmission project that would stretch 800 miles across four states.

There are also shortages of critical parts of the grid like transformers, while tariffs on materials like aluminum and steel are pushing up construction expenses.

One underrated driver of higher prices is the lack of coordination between utilities, grid operators, and states on how to spend their money. In utility jargon, this process is called Integrated Distribution System Planning, where everyone with a stake in the energy network puts together a comprehensive plan of what to buy, where to build it, and who should pay — but only a few states like Illinois, Maine, and New Hampshire have such a system set up.

“That’s sort of a no-brainer,” Hua said. “Anybody should understand the need to plan ahead, especially if you’re talking about something that has such high economic implications, but that’s not what we’re doing.”

So while prices are rising, there’s no easy way around the fact that the grid is overdue for a lot of necessary, expensive upgrades. For millions of Americans, that means it’s going to get more expensive to stay cool, charged up, and connected.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Why your energy bill is suddenly so much more expensive on Jul 27, 2025.