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Recycling facility fires expected to reach new high

Across North America, recycling and waste management facilities are experiencing an increase in reported fires, with 2025 predicted to reach a new annual high. A recent special report by Fire Rover highlights this trend, attributing the record-high reported numbers and escalating financial risks to factors such as lithium-ion batteries, escalating demands from insurers and inadequate control measures.

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The post Recycling facility fires expected to reach new high appeared first on Resource Recycling News.

Canadian waste services must report plastic quantity

Speakers from Coastal Waste Management Association discussed the new reporting responsibilities for Canadian waste service providers, including recyclers, for the Federal Plastics Registry during a recent webinar.

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The post Canadian waste services must report plastic quantity appeared first on Resource Recycling News.

Donald Trump is still trying to steamroll the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) into sharing private taxpayer data with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a mass scale. In Public Citizen’s lawsuit seeking to stop this sharing arrangement, a federal judge confirmed that immigration authorities cannot get access to individual taxpayer records to target undocumented people for civil cases such as deportations.

This past week, however, Trump ousted IRS Commissioner Billy Long, the sixth person to hold the position since Trump took office in his second term. The Washington Post reported that Trump and Long clashed over sharing private tax information of undocumented immigrants with ICE and DHS. The Washington Post reported that DHS “sent the IRS a list Thursday of 40,000 names of people DHS officials thought were in the country illegally and asked the IRS to use confidential taxpayer data to verify their addresses,” but that the IRS refused to give tax credit information to ICE because that information was not covered by the IRS-ICE data sharing agreement.

“It’s deeply concerning that a Senate-confirmed IRS commissioner may have been let go because he resisted pressure to violate legal protections on taxpayer privacy,” said Public Citizen Attorney Nandan Joshi. “The IRS cannot lawfully share tax credit information with ICE without a court order, no matter how much political pressure the IRS commissioner faces.”

Public Citizen, co-counseling with Alan Morrison and Raise the Floor Alliance, filed a lawsuit on behalf of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, Somos Un Pueblo Unido, Inclusive Action for the City and Immigrant Solidarity Dupage against the IRS seeking to prevent the IRS from engaging in the unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information for purposes of immigration enforcement. Public Citizen will submit its latest reply in its lawsuit in the coming days.

Yesterday, Trump announced that he will nominate E.J. Antoni as the next commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Antoni has repeatedly and unfairly attacked the agency he’d be set to run, contributed to the right-wing Project 2025 policy blueprint, and in his role at the Heritage Foundation has stretched the truth about the economy to make partisan political claims. This comes after Trump fired the former BLS commissioner after the monthly jobs numbers released in early August showed a sharp slowdown in the pace of U.S. job growth. Trump’s announcement makes it clear that he expects the BLS commissioner to only release data that shows the economy is booming—even if it means the data must be manipulated or changed by political appointees. This move is undemocratic—and economically dangerous.

BLS is one of the most respected statistical agencies in the world, known for its methodological rigor, independence, and transparency. It has long produced reliable economic data that are a crucial input to economic decisions across the country. The economy runs on reliable data. Businesses use these numbers to decide whether to hire or expand. The Federal Reserve uses them to decide when and how much to change interest rates. State and local governments use them to plan budgets. Trump’s attempt to politicize BLS means that policymakers and the public wouldn’t be able to trust the data. If this happens, confidence in U.S. data will collapse and reasonable economic decision-making will be impossible. This manufactured chaos will reduce business investment and consumer spending, making a recession—and soaring unemployment—far more likely in coming months. Between illegal firings of public servants, starving data agencies of needed resources, and now political intimidation, the U.S. looks set to run into the next economic downturn flying blind. The cost of this incompetence will be felt by working people first.

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Consumer Price Index for July, showing that headline inflation was at 2.7 percent in July, but core inflation rose to 3.1 percent. In response, Natalie Baker, director of economic analysis at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:

The consistent upward trend in inflation is the latest sign that President Trump’s reckless trade war and the resulting economic uncertainty are wreaking havoc on family budgets and the American economy. Combined with the lackluster jobs report and recent GDP numbers, this is a clear warning sign that the president’s policies are raising prices and squeezing consumers. It’s a chilling reminder that the risk of stagflation is growing by the day.

Earlier this month, a group of environmentalists and public justice advocates announced they are legally challenging the Government of Saskatchewan’s decision to extend the life of its coal-fired power plants. The decision was originally communicated...

You’ve participated in some protests and have a cause which you feel is under-represented and needs support in your community. It might be time to organize your own protest.

Organizing protests is a lot of work: They require forethought, planning, and preparation. But you can do it!

As we’ve discussed in this series, sociologists have proven that the most effective protests build public support through non-violence and peaceful disruption. The peaceful disruption creates a sense of pressure to do something, while embracing the tenets of non-violence communicates that the protest has constructive intentions.

Let’s take a brief look at organizing a convincing, persuasive protest that has a greater chance of being successful.

Create a Team of Organizers for the Protest

Begin by reaching out to like-minded community members, asking if they want to help organize a protest, intentionally building relationships with those who are interested. Actively listen and consider their experience and guidance.

Then seek out local, regional, and national organizations that support your cause and invite them to collaborate with you. Contact them well in advance (weeks, months) to help set the date of the protest event and get their “buy-in” to endorse (and attend) the demonstration. They may have resources (to avoid duplication of efforts), information, and networks you can tap into.

After you meet with these other like-minded organizations, make a detailed plan for the division of labor before and during the event. This is critical for a successful outcome. For example, will you have a first aid crew? Will you have lanyards, badges, T-shirts or hats so participants can easily identify key contacts during the protest?

Meanwhile, start building the event itself. The time, place, and program should be geared to the desired audience, which leads us to the bigger questions.

Define the Strategy

Protest leaders and participants must collectively be able to answer these questions during planning:

• • What exact goals do you want to achieve in this demonstration?
  • Are you advocating for, supporting, or protesting a specific issue/cause?
  • Set the tone of the demonstration. What you want to accomplish depends on how your cause is viewed by the public and media (optics). If your demonstration is too festive it may not seem serious to the public.
  • What type of protest will best achieve your goal? The most common modes of protest are marches and rallies, sit-ins, walk-outs, vigils, and more complex efforts like encampments and choreographed or theatrical expressions.

Practical Planning for the Event

• • When and where should you organize this action to make the most effective impact?
  • Do you need a town/city/local/state permit for this event? (Hint: the answer is probably “yes.” Plan ahead so you have enough time to get this in place.)
  • Contact the local and/or national media with information and an invitation to cover the event.
  • Ask: Who has the power to help make your plan happen? This includes donations and funding to pay for signs, travel, accommodations for disabled participants and shirts, hats, lanyards, and other identifying items for participants and organizers.
  • Seriously consider the location, route and timing of the demonstration: Will a certain holiday or day of the week have the most impact? For example, many groups have “Moral Mondays” or popular “Souls to the Polls” on Sundays during elections. Consider what day and time is best for your cause. Morning? All day? An evening candle vigil?
  • Do you aim to build a larger coalition to continue working on your issue after this event? Make sure your communication channels are clearly established.
  • Are you trying to be seen and heard by an elected official or influential figure? If you plan ahead, you can invite interested celebrities, government figures, and other well-known activists to your event. That means having a staging area at the appointed meeting place and time, with microphones, speakers, and lectern.
  • Educate protest participants in their civil rights: Have you made clear to participants their local, state and federal rights, such as the First Amendment and local/state rules for having a march or protest?
  • Provide your participants with solid information about legal limitations that exist in the protest area such as digital safety and the right to film in case authorities confiscate your phone.

Define Clear Goals for the Event

Setting your goal clearly is tantamount to success, because it’s the prime determinant of the form and function it will take for optimal outcomes. Common goals for demonstrations include:

• • Advocacy: To urge legislators or the public to look favorably on a bill, adopt a particular idea or policy or service, or pay attention to the needs of a particular group of people.
  • Support: To express agreement or solidarity with a person or group, with an idea or policy, or with a particular issue.
  • Counter-demonstration: To respond to a demonstration or other public event already scheduled by another public figure or organization.
  • Public Relations: To advertise or put in a good light an event, issue, organization, segment of the population, etc.
  • Action: To achieve a specific substantive purpose, effect the prevention of, or change, a particular public project, entity, or policy. An event, for example, could include meeting with city, state and federal elected representatives.

What Extra Training Do You Need?

For example, many organizers take classes in de-escalation, which can help during tense or mob situations.

It All Starts With You

Stay cool, calm, and protest peacefully during the summer, and throughout the year.

And we want to hear from you. What questions do you have about protesting? What advice would you share? Send your comments, suggestions, questions, or even brief essays to comments@therevelator.org.

Sources and Resources for this Article

Summer of Change: New Books to Inspire Environmental Action

The Activist Handbook and other sources below provide practical guides and resources so you can plan your demonstration successfully.

Indivisible  and No Kings offer training and education on protesting safely and effectively, as well as new and upcoming protest events.

The Human Rights Campaign: Tips for Preparedness, Peaceful Protesting, and Safety

ACLU Guide: How to Protest Safely and Responsibly

Amnesty International Protest Guide

Wired: How to Protest Safely: What to Bring, What to Do, and What to Avoid

Infosec 101 for Activists

“The New Science of Social Change: A Modern Handbook for Activists”  by Lisa Mueller

“Agenda Seeding: How 1960s Black Protests Moved Elites, Public Opinion and Voting”  by Omar Wasow

“Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha)”  by M. K. Gandhi

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

 

The post Freedom of Voice: The Newcomer’s Guide to Organizing A Peaceful and Effective Protest appeared first on The Revelator.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 12th, 2025 Contact: Cesar Aguirre, (559) 907-2418, cesar.aguirre@ccejn.org Bakersfield, CA – Three newly released reports expose alarming health and safety risks confronting Kern County communities—particularly those living next to oil and gas operations—and uncover state-created loopholes that allow dangerous pollution to persist. IVAN Quarterly Reports (2024)A typical year in Kern County […]

There is little connection between price and quality of clothing items, according to a first-of-its-kind study that put 47 different t-shirts through a series of durability tests.

Consumers tend to use price as an indicator of clothing quality, but spending more money doesn’t guarantee a t-shirt will last longer. “If you spend £/$5 on a t-shirt, you may find that it performs better than that of a £/$50 t-shirt,” says Kate Baker, a graduate student at the University of Leeds in the UK, who presented the research at the Product Lifetimes and the Environment (PLATE) Conference in Aalborg, Denmark in July.

While a spendier garment can in some cases be more durable, “We are trying to encourage consumers that cheap does not equal disposable,” Baker says.

Physical durability is key to a more sustainable and circular fashion industry. People need to be able to keep wearing their clothing items for longer and pass them on in good condition.

But until now, there has been no objective, reproducible way to measure durability of clothing. “There is very little a consumer can identify at the point of purchase to understand whether a garment will last,” Baker says. “The aim of our research is creating a method to measure the durability of garments which can be used by brands going forward and in turn be communicated to consumers.”

Baker and her colleagues gathered 24 men’s and 23 women’s t-shirts offered by various UK clothing brands, from discount to luxury labels. They washed and tumble-dried the shirts 50 times.

Previous studies have only looked at single indicators of durability, but they used a suite of factors weighted by the most common reasons consumers get rid of a t-shirt: pilling, overall appearance, and changes to shape and shrinkage. The researchers also assessed fading and color change, as well as the strength of the garment’s seams and fabric.

 

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They added all these factors together for an overall score ranging from 0 (extremely poor) to 30 (excellent).

The researchers found no correlation between price and durability. Six of the 10 best shirts cost less than £15 and outperformed the most expensive shirt, which sold for £395. The most expensive shirt placed 28th out of 47; the least expensive shirt, sold for £4, came in 15th.

The most durable t-shirt cost £28, but the second-worst cost £29. The findings are in line with other research from the University of Leeds group indicating little correlation between price and durability, Baker says.

More durable t-shirts tend to contain a percentage of synthetic fibers such as polyester, polyamide, and elastane, the researchers found. All-cotton t-shirts shrink more than synthetic ones. But 100% cotton can be durable too: four of the top 10 shirts were made of this material.

Some of the durability factors are correlated. T-shirts that don’t pill also tend to look pretty good overall after 50 washes. T-shirts that don’t shrink also tend to maintain their shape.

For consumers on the lookout for a t-shirt that lasts, the researchers recommend choosing heavier rather than lighter weight cotton tees; considering a blend that includes synthetics; and resisting the assumption that higher price means better quality.

The researchers have also tested other clothing items, including casual and formal trousers, shorts, jeans, underwear, and pajamas, and aim to investigate whether the patterns of durability they identified in the t-shirt study also apply to other garments, says Baker.

Putting the findings into practice will require government action. “There are currently no laws around the performance of clothing going onto the market,” Baker says. But if clothing makers were required to conduct durability testing and report the results, consumers could have a lot more confidence in their purchases.

Source: Morris K. et al. “Measuring physical garment durability: An assessment of 47 T-shirts.” Proceedings of the 6th Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference (PLATE2025), 2025.

Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine.

This piece is part of the weekly series “Growing Forward: Insights for Building Better Food and Agriculture Systems,” presented by the Global Food Institute at the George Washington University and the nonprofit organization Food Tank. Each installment highlights forward-thinking strategies to address today’s food and agriculture related challenges with innovative solutions. To view more pieces in the series, click here.

Dan Glickman has spent his career at the intersection of food, policy, and public service. As U.S. Secretary of Agriculture during the Clinton administration, a long-serving member of Congress, and later the head of the Motion Picture Association and a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Glickman has seen firsthand how the food system has evolved—and where it still falls short. 

In this conversation with the Global Food Institute’s Priya Fielding-Singh, Glickman reflected on the shifting politics of food and agriculture, the critical role of science, and the urgent need to align food policy in the United States with public health and climate realities.

Looking back on your time as Secretary of Agriculture, what do you see as the biggest shifts in the food system since then?

The biggest change is that food issues and food policy have become much bigger topics of conversation among policymakers. Historically, agriculture and food weren’t part of everyday discussions the way the military and education were. That’s completely changed. Now we’re talking about things like dietary health, supply chain issues, fertilizer—things that used to hardly get any widespread attention at all.

What do you think is responsible for this change?

The focus on individual health has been a big factor. People really understand now that old expression—you are what you eat. And young people are growing up interested in these issues. They’re asking important questions, like, where is this food grown? Is it good for us? What are the additives? 

It’s a great thing that these issues have taken on a life beyond the traditional agriculture community. Napoleon once said, war is too important to be left to the generals. The same is true for food and agriculture policy: it’s too important to be left solely to people in the food and agriculture industry.

If you were Secretary of Agriculture today—in a moment when the climate crisis, nutrition security, and food safety are top concerns—what would your priorities be?

One priority would be making sure we don’t fall behind on doing the kind of good, thoughtful science we need to address key issues like agricultural productivity, nutrition, and the threats we’re seeing to modern agriculture. We don’t want to fall behind as leaders on these key issues, nor do we want to lose an important talent base of researchers.

I would also work to avoid turning food and agriculture issues into a political battle between left and right. Agriculture research is still very bipartisan, and land-grant schools get a lot of bipartisan support in both Congress and from industry. But we want a research portfolio that is broad enough to deal with the modern issues of our times—and I worry that issues like climate and weather variability have become increasingly political. 

The fact is that agriculture is more vulnerable to climate and weather variability than pretty much any other segment of the economy. Whether we’re talking about drought, heat, excessive rainfall, or related pests and diseases, the agriculture industry needs to deal head-on with where the threats are.

I’d also focus on continuing to improve school meals, which are—for the record—much better than they once were. When I was in school, we had roast beef for lunch, and it was sliced so thin and greasy you could see the colors of the rainbow in it. That’s changed—school meals now meet nutrition standards that exceed what many of us eat at home. And people are recognizing the importance of school meals as a nutritional foundation for a lot of kids in this country. 

In a world where you could remake the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), what would its charge be with respect to the food system?

There’s always a lot of discussion about whether the USDA should have jurisdiction over food safety versus the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. I won’t comment on that, but I will say that we need to pay attention to food safety, whether it’s fresh produce, processed foods, or meat and poultry. The USDA does a good job, but they’re not focused enough on what happens to food between processing and when it reaches the consumer. 

The USDA is also not particularly involved in education, marketing, and advertising, but they should be. I’m not saying we should regulate what people eat—but getting good information to consumers is important, and that requires cooperation between the government, private sector, nonprofits, and universities.

Finally, the USDA needs to be an active environmental agency. Today, anything that smells of climate creates an enemy. But climate impacts agriculture. The fact is that we need to grow different crops and livestock—and we need good science to understand how best to do it. 

There’s a lot of fear around GMOs (genetically modified organisms), CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), etc. But I’ve never been afraid of those kinds of innovations. People take genetically modified drugs every day. We can’t be afraid of science in food and agriculture while embracing it in medicine.

When you think ahead to the next decade, what innovations do you think will matter most for the food system?

The first thing is precision nutrition. We’ll develop foods that can prevent or treat disease. There’s work being done to enhance nutritional value—not only in fruits and vegetables, but also in row crops and livestock. 

The second thing is water. In some parts of the world, we have more water than we need; in others, far less. Technology can help solve the problem of water utilization in crops and variability from year to year. We’ve got to figure out how to manage that variation better without depleting aquifers and groundwater everywhere.

Desalination is the final issue. We’ve never quite figured out how to desalinate water at scale because it’s very expensive and requires high energy use. In some places you can do it in small quantities, but scaling it up has been hard. The oceans offer all the water in the world—if we could figure out how to do it well!

Do you think our current food policies are aligned with our nutrition goals? What needs to change?

I’d give us a C-plus right now. We haven’t flunked, but we’re doing just okay. As a matter of national policy, the relationship between food, nutrition, and health has long been a low priority.

I give credit to Secretary Kennedy and his group for at least raising these issues. I don’t like a lot of their solutions, but they’ve recognized that there’s a problem. One issue is that our federal feeding programs have not historically been directed toward nutrition, though things have moved since my time at the USDA. Both WIC and School Meals have requirements to be updated to reflect the latest nutrition guidelines. But we can do more. For instance, nutrition may be the second letter of SNAP, but that’s not its main focus. 

It’s also worth noting that nutrition simply hasn’t gotten the national attention other public health issues have. The Advertising Council of America has covered high-priority public health issues—like seat belts, motorcycle helmets, and smoking—and that’s helped move the needle. But in the food area, there’s been nothing like that. 

What have you learned over the course of your career—working across politics, policy, and the private sector—about what it really takes to improve food and agriculture systems?

My mother used to say, you have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listening is a very good trait—and one I’ve used as much as possible throughout my career to get things done.

The second thing is that consumers have great power. They may need help, but they can significantly influence the policy debate. So when it comes to fixing the food system, it’s important to never underestimate what public demand can achieve.

Photo courtesy of David Trinks, Unsplash

The post From Capitol Hill to the School Cafeteria: Q&A with Dan Glickman on Fixing Our Food System appeared first on Food Tank.

Headline News:

• “Jellyfish Forced Shutdown Of French Nuclear Plant” • EDF confirmed that four of the six reactors at the Gravelines nuclear plant were shut down by jellyfish clogging the cooling system. Their abundance was tied to sea temperatures raised by climate change. The remaining reactors were down for maintenance already, so all 5.4 GW were offline. [Euronews]

Jellyfish (Jack B, Unsplash)

• “Offshore Wind Gains Momentum In Atlantic Canada” • In parts of Newfoundland winds regularly reach a Category 3 hurricane’s power, and offshore winds are higher and steadier. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston proposed the Wind West project to develop 40 GW of offshore capacity, enough to meet 27% of Canada’s demand. [The Energy Mix]
• “US Banks Cut Fossil Fuel Financing As The Market Outweighs Politics” • Wall Street’s six largest banks cut their financing to oil, gas, and coal projects by 25% year-over-year through August 1, 2025. In dollar terms, that means a cut from roughly $97 billion in 2024 to $73 billion this year. Morgan Stanley cut its fossil fuel lending by more than half. [CleanTechnica]
• “Vestas Secures 950 MW Of US Orders” • Vestas has received orders totaling 950MW for undisclosed wind energy projects in the US. The company did not disclose project details or turbine models, but said the orders form part of its latest intake in the region. The announcement follows yesterday’s news that Vestas won a 40MW order in Poland. [reNews]
• “Next Massachusetts Solicitation Delayed” • Massachusetts officials delayed their fifth round of offshore wind procurement until next year. A Department of Energy Resources memo said that feedback from developers overwhelmingly recommended that the next request for proposals for offshore wind projects not be issued until 2026 at the earliest. [reNews]

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

International Youth Day 2025 Theme – “Local Youth Actions for the SDGs and Beyond” 12th August 2025 On this International Youth Day 2025, the AFSA Youth and Agroecology Working Group affirms its unwavering commitment to harnessing the power of youth-led local actions to drive agroecological transformation and sustainable development across Africa. Under the theme “Local […]

The post Amplifying Youth-Led Local Agroecological Actions for Sustainable Development first appeared on AFSA.

Reclaiming Power: The Path Towards Radical Democracy and Collective Liberation Introduction The Global Confluence on Radical Democracy, Autonomy, and Self-Determination held in Port Edward, South Africa from February 2 to 6, 2025, was organised by Global of (), in collaboration with WoMin Alliance, Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), Academy of Democratic Modernity (ADM), and Jineoloji Academy. Together, these organisations provided both the theoretical and practical frameworks for the meeting, …

In Morocco, the High Atlas Foundation is working with farming communities to preserve traditional crops by building nurseries for native fruit and nut trees. Through these efforts, they aim to promote women’s empowerment and food sovereignty.

The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) is a community development organization committed to helping preserve traditional crops across Morocco through participatory planning, community nurseries, women’s cooperatives, and youth engagement. By helping farming families shift from starchy staple crops to high-value heritage varieties including carob, almond, argan, and olive, HAF tries to protect agrobiodiversity, improve livelihoods, and strengthen long-term food and nutrition security.

The Foundation integrates fruit tree planting with initiatives that support literacy, women’s empowerment, cultural preservation, and youth opportunity. This model is designed to help farming communities grow crops while strengthening the social and economic systems that sustain them—and it is yielding lasting outcomes.

“We have seen rural agricultural incomes grow multiple fold as a result of our 25 years of planting trees,” says HAF President Yossef Ben-Meir, pointing to rising prices for olive oil and carob, which have doubled in recent years.

The tree nursery development projects begin with community-led decision-making during empowerment workshops that “assist local people’s confidence-building, self-discovery, and analysis of the social relationships, emotions, and key aspects of their lives,” Ben-Meir tells Food Tank. This approach, he says, helps participants define the initiatives they need most and “enhances the likelihood of sustainability and affirms the decision making of the local people.”

At the heart of HAF’s work is the planting of organic and indigenous seed varieties deeply rooted in their regions—chosen and cultivated by communities themselves. “The seeds of local varieties are native to their region and so there is a sincere appreciation of this important biodiversity element to the program,” says Ben-Meir. Alongside fruit trees, HAF supports the cultivation of local medicinal and aromatic plants, drawing on generations of knowledge in harvesting, drying, and selling them. This expertise, he says, “is based on their heritage.”

Fruit tree agriculture in Morocco has traditionally “been in the male domain of production,” Ben-Meir explains, so women generally have less direct experience with it. But women have long been stewards of wild medicinal plants, which play a vital role in their livelihoods and culture. As more women take on leadership roles in nursery management and crop cultivation, Ben-Meir sees that dynamic evolving.

To help overcome what Ben-Meir describes as the “gender division of production,” HAF helps connect rural women who have studied at public universities with young women in their home communities who haven’t had the same educational opportunities. These returning graduates collaborate with local women to develop agricultural enterprises—like tree nurseries or value-added products—that empower their peers and expand women’s roles in fruit tree cultivation. “This is key for our future,” he says.

But water scarcity remains a major obstacle to the success of these women and their communities. Water access and management “is by far the costliest input that communities and HAF are committed to implementing,” Ben-Meir explains. He adds that water scarcity “inhibits farming families from planting and diversifying their crop away from the barley and corn.”

To help farming communities out of poverty, Ben-Meir says, significant investment is needed in water infrastructure. This includes wells, basins, solar panels, pumps, piping, and the training required to maintain them. But limited financial resources and rising seed costs make it difficult to meet these growing infrastructure needs.

As these irrigation challenges intensify, Ben-Meir says that long-term resilience depends on the preservation of the genetic resources that underpin sustainable agriculture to safeguard biodiversity and prepare communities for future crises. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, “genetic resources are crucial to help agriculture cope with pests, plant diseases, and climate change.”

HAF works to formalize seed storage, but much of the current seed stock still comes from farming families. Their cuttings form the initial seed stock needed for reseeding local sustainable tree nurseries.

The Foundation looks to local partners including the Moroccan Jewish community, which lends unused land adjacent to their historic cemeteries at no cost for communities to build nurseries. Ben-Meir explains, “this kind of interfaith collaboration for fruit tree projects determined by local people enhances the interfaith partnership and the preservation of these cultural heritage locations.”

But preserving Moroccan crop varieties “is not dependent on one specific partner,” Ben-Meir tells Food Tank, “but really is an identity-based priority as an organization, and that is genuinely held by farming associations, cooperatives, and communities.”

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 High Atlas Foundation

The post Morocco’s Grassroots Movement to Preserve Crops and Culture appeared first on Food Tank.

08-21 * 13:00 - Toolkit meeting (franco)

Emily Donovan has a mission: “Make the polluters pay.”

The mother of twins took on the role of activist when she started fighting for her North Carolina community in 2017. Her main target: PFAS “forever chemicals,” which do not degrade and at even low levels have been linked to a wide range of human health risks, including fertility issues, immune interactions, cancer, liver damage, thyroid disease, asthma, and more.

A recent report from the nonprofit Waterkeeper Alliance found that 98% of waterways in the United States contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS. One of the country’s most polluted rivers, according to the report, sits at the heart of Donovan’s own Cape Fear community in North Carolina.

After the first news of this contamination broke in 2017, Donovan and other local activists came together around a kitchen table and founded Clean Cape Fear, a community action group focused on fighting the polluters of the Cape Fear River and holding elected officials accountable to restore and protect the region.

Since those early days, Donovan has made numerous strides against PFAS, most notably in leading the dialogue that led the EPA, under the Biden administration, to issue the first nationwide regulations for PFAS in drinking water in April 2024. For this work, the United Nations named Donovan a defender of human rights, recognizing her unwavering commitment to fighting PFAS contamination on a national level.

Now, under President Trump, the EPA has rescinded those regulations that took so much work to set in place.

“I am sad, and I am frustrated,” says Donovan. “But after the announcement came out, I’m settled and resolved. That sadness has settled into anger, which is a very good fuel for motivation. Stupidest thing they could have done is to make people angry.”

Trump Aids Polluters

On April 10, 2024, the EPA set out legally enforceable limits — called “maximum contaminant levels” — for six PFAS chemicals in drinking water: PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, GenX (HFPO-DA), and PFBS. Under these rules, PFOA and PFOS were limited to 4 parts per trillion (ppt); PFNA, PFHxS, and GenX were limited to 10 ppt, and PFBS was regulated under the federal “hazard index,” meaning it does not have a fixed parts-per-trillion number but is considered to add risk to human health if it’s in drinking water. Public water systems had until 2029 to fully meet these federal requirements, as PFAS regulations often differ from state to state.

What was considered a historic move is now being dismantled with breathtaking speed. The regulations instituted by the Biden administration were withdrawn by the Trump administration on its second day in power.

The EPA’s most recent change rescinded regulations covering four of the six common PFAS contaminants while keeping regulatory compliance for PFOA and PFOS, both of which have been retired from commercial use.

Regulations on GenX — the chemical that polluted Cape Fear — were quietly canceled under this change.

Several nonprofits, including the NRDC and Earthjustice, have filed lawsuits challenging the new federal PFAS drinking water standards and the hazardous substance designations, arguing they violate the Safe Drinking Water Act, a safety standard set in 1974. Earthjustice represents Cape Fear residents in both cases.

“I believe this is an illegal move,” says Donovan.

 

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Earthjustice and NRDC recently issued a press release pointing out the “anti-backsliding” provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act, which should have prevented the EPA from weakening existing standards. Despite this provision, NRDC claims that the recent rollback in PFAS regulations is doing just that: weakening federal standards that were already set in place.

Donovan says the recent deregulation has created confusion on the local level about who should pay for decontamination costs. She argues that the companies that polluted the waterways should be the ones paying for the cleanup, not the local municipalities.

“If the EPA is going to acknowledge the law,” Donovan says, “then what they’re doing right now is really stalling and confusing communities and making it more difficult for utilities to make a good decision, because they’re creating this unnecessary uncertainty.”

She also notes that this distraction takes attention off of new PFAS chemicals, such as PFPrA, that are showing up at extremely high levels in the area’s water source — threatening residents’ health and already costing them money.

“The water bills keep going up for a problem that we didn’t create,” says Donovan. “This is expensive, and it should not be the burden of the utilities. It should be the burden of the polluters, and should be stopped at the source. But we’re not seeing this administration address those concerns.”

Instead of a unifying fight alongside utility companies, Donovan finds clean water activists at odds with them.

“We’re not seeing the water utility associations address those concerns either. We see them standing opposite us with the chemical industry on lobbying day,” she says.

Origins of an Activist

In 2017, the Wilmington Star-News broke the news that the Fayetteville Chemours factory was manufacturing GenX and had been polluting the Cape Fear River for decades. Donovan says that residents later discovered that the company was also inadvertently producing it as an industrial byproduct, discharging GenX into their wastewater stream, which ran into the river.

“No one in America was saying anything about GenX,” says Donovan, “so everyone was upset and terrified, and then Chemours came to town, and it was a closed-door meeting. It was very obvious that they were controlling — controlling the narrative, controlling the information.”

According to Donovan, tests showed high amounts of GenX found in the finished water, which is the final product in the water treatment process, from the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority. So she submitted a water sample from her children’s elementary school in Brunswick, North Carolina, which sits right between the Chemours plant and the Cape Fear region, an hour each way. Results showed that the elementary school in Brunswick had the highest PFAS levels out of all the areas tested.

Studies have since shown GenX to be one of the most toxic of the PFAS chemicals, even more so than the retired legacy chemicals they replaced.

A Sacred Charge

At times when she could feel alone or overwhelmed by the scope of the situation, Donovan draws on advice she received from clean water advocates Erin Brockovich and Mark Ruffalo: “No one is coming to save you. You have to save yourself.”

She remains determined, though, and uses her background in communications and political science to effectively reach people regarding their rights as citizens.

Her friend Jessica Cannon, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, calls her “the activist of activists.”

Cannon praises Donovan’s strong moral compass as the driving force in all she does for her family and community. She notes that Donovan draws from her work as a youth group coordinator and communications manager for a progressive church as part of her mandate “to protect God’s green Earth.” Donovan’s strong faith is apparent to all who meet her, even in email, with her signature featuring a scripture urging people to love one another.

Still, Donovan remains tenacious when coming up against giant chemical corporations. “When people tell her no,” says Cannon, “it’s like waving a red flag in front of her.”

Even though their work has resulted in new research studies and regulations, Donovan says it hasn’t been easy. “Everything that we have achieved, we feel like we’ve had to fight for it every step of the way,” she says. “We’re not looking for credit, but we want it to be documented that we had to fight for it because we want other communities to know no one’s coming to give you this. We had to fight every step of the way to get access to this stuff.”

While this fight against chemical companies is long and arduous, Donovan notes that it’s important to consider that states and local communities still have time to course-correct.

“I want to make that distinction very clear,” she says. “States still have the power to issue permits that control PFAS releases. If they choose not to do it, they’re benefiting and aiding the polluters by forcing communities to clean up PFAS pollution in the tap water that shouldn’t be there from the start.”

Local Contamination, Worldwide Impact

Water has always played an essential role at Cape Fear, which served as a significant port during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II.

Today, it serves as a living nursery for young sea life and a foundation for the area’s tourism, which includes beaches, seafood restaurants, an aquarium, and water-based activities. The 191-mile-long Cape Fear River carries significant water from North Carolina rivers into the Atlantic Ocean. Its waters, now brown due to heavy pollution over the years from nearby industries, flow into the largest river basin in the state, which supplies drinking water to residents in the neighboring town of Wilmington.

We don’t know where those chemicals that started in North Carolina travel once released into the Atlantic Ocean, but studies have found PFAS even in the blood of polar bears in the Arctic.

Donovan asks what industry is near polar bears.

She also expresses concern about a 2022 study that found PFAS “have now exceeded the planetary boundary, which means there’s no space left on Earth where there’s no PFAS contamination.”

As a result, Donovan adds, we’re “dealing with almost an existential crisis for humanity related to this contamination because these are chemicals that do not degrade naturally; they live forever.”

The Weight of Forever

Donovan has noticed in pictures she took with her family at the beach, unsuspecting children playing in the background in the seafoam, which looks like mounds of white shaving cream. A recent study, though, has shown that high concentrations of PFAS are found in the seafoam on these beaches.

“There’s always this under the surface, a level of parental anxiety that we’re somehow more vulnerable now,” Donovan says. “So, it’s making peace and living with the tension of always wondering if that sneeze is innocent or if that sneeze is a signal to something more dire.”

 

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Eight years after the discovery of PFAS contamination in Cape Fear, Donovan says concerns about clean water add an extra layer of uncertainty as a mother. Even everyday activities, like showering, feel troubling.

“I worry about eating local seafood because I know the waters that it’s caught in,” she says. “I will drive out of my way to go to the area that has the cleanest tap water when I get takeout, or if we eat out. And I know that’s a privilege.”

Donovan also takes contamination into account when planning time together as a family. “There are certain beaches we just don’t visit locally. We’ve learned which beaches are probably less polluted than others, and those are the ones that we’ll go have fun at. I wanted to plant a backyard garden, and we’ve chosen not to, because I don’t want to grow contaminated produce.” Earlier this year a study found that produce grown in home gardens near the North Carolina Chemours plant contained dangerous levels of PFAS.

Decisions that she might not have thought of before now carry extra weight as she considers her family’s health. “There’s just certain things that I would like to do that I can’t do right now or that I’m choosing not to do because we were overexposed for so long. I want to give our bodies a chance to rest and heal.”

Donovan has always been hyper-focused on her local efforts for clean water. She worked with schools in Brunswick and the neighboring New Hanover counties to install reverse osmosis filling stations to bring clean drinking water to 49 local public schools, providing students with the option to drink clean, unpolluted water.

For some, a project of this size could be overwhelming, but not for Donovan. Cannon calls her “a force of nature.”

A Long Fight

Donovan has testified before Congress twice. The first time, she was given 48 hours’ notice to testify before the Energy and Commerce Committee.

“It was terrifying,” she says.

The second time was in 2019, before Congress’s Subcommittee on the Environment of the Committee on Oversight and Reform. Donovan pressed legislators about the 25 PFAS toxicants in the Cape Fear River and the need for corporate accountability and action. She brought a community letter signed by 1,000 Wilmington/Fayetteville residents asking Congress to take action.

Donovan testified that more than 50 different PFAS chemicals had been documented in the area’s air, soil, and water and that the Food and Drug Administration had found GenX and other PFAS chemicals on produce at a local farmer’s market.

Donovan also told Congress that residents in her area have three times the national average of C8, also known as PFOA, found in their blood, despite the fact that the compound was phased out many years ago.

Donovan testified that Cape Fear residents also have a very specific “cocktail” of PFAS chemicals found in their blood that has not been seen anywhere else in the country but was found in 99% of the blood samples taken from residents. She also related stories about friends, family, and neighbors in her community facing various cancers and then asked for PFAS to be listed as hazardous substances so the community could enact the EPA’s Superfund law, which would allow the research, containment, and cleanup of the toxicants without a cost burden on residents.

“We shouldn’t have to be forced to sue Chemours to get them to pay for the damages they have done,” Donovan said in her testimony.

During her second testimony, community members from Fayetteville, Wilmington, and Parkersburg, West Virginia, where PFAS was originally discovered, stood by her side. Residents whose health had been severely and forever affected by PFAS were physical proof of what these invisible chemicals could do.

After her first testimony, Donovan recalled a big bipartisan effort to understand PFAS and the situation at hand. The second time around, though, she remembers a partisan shift in how things should be resolved, and it became obvious “who was protecting industry and who was protecting communities.”

In 2023, Donovan took her advocacy global and sought support from the United Nations Human Rights Council. Working with the University of Berkeley Environmental Law Clinic, she contacted the UN to “leverage their soft power” in calling out Chemours for human rights violations. Working with the UN opened doors in the U.S. government to start a dialogue about actions and regulations that needed to take place. As a result, nine “special rapporteurs” — independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council — joined together for a public statement in response to show that human rights violations happen in the Global North, as well as how the Global North responds to these violations. As a result of the dialogue, the first-ever nationwide regulations for PFAS in drinking water issued in April 2024 were a historic win for activists.

 

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The Fight Continues

In what could feel like an uphill climb at times, Donovan admires the community of people like her who are fighting for clean drinking water. She often quotes fellow clean water activist Andrea Amico, who says, “We are as persistent as PFAS.”

The EPA has seen many changes with the new administration, with the Office of Research and Development suffering perhaps the deepest cuts. Donovan calls this department the “lifeblood” of PFAS work, noting that it discovered lead contamination in Flint, Michigan, and is currently helping with water contamination efforts from the Los Angeles wildfires. She explains that the office performs targeted analysis, searching for things still unknown in water, which takes a lot of skill and money to perform. The findings are reported in a federal database and are available to the public and state officials.

The Biden administration passed a number of laws to provide funding for addressing PFAS in the drinking water of low-income and rural communities. Recent reports indicate that the Trump administration is actively trying to weaken or dismantle the EPA.

Donovan fears that this will result in the entire structure’s access to funding being eliminated, with restricted access to funding nationwide for upgrading treatment centers to meet new drinking water requirements. As of April 2025, Fayetteville, North Carolina, no longer receives federal grant money for clean drinking water. Now, it’s left to the community to figure out how to pay for the costly treatments to filter their polluted drinking water.

Despite such obstacles, Donovan says she remains determined to keep fighting. She talks about the need to channel her rage at what’s going on in the world into fuel for change.

“That’s what I chose,” said Donovan. “To focus on making a better world by turning that anger into something productive and positive.”

The author is a named plaintiff in the federal PFAS multidistrict litigation against 3M.

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:

The Silent Threat Beneath Our Feet: How Deregulation Fuels the Spread of Forever Chemicals

The post Meet the Activist Fighting PFAS Pollution — and Winning appeared first on The Revelator.

As the UK approaches its fourth heatwave of the summer and wildfires burn in Dorset and Edinburgh, climate campaigners have condemned BP’s decision to push ahead with reopening the North Sea’s Murlach oil field in direct defiance of Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s call to halt new fossil fuel projects.

BP’s move comes as climate scientists warn the UK must urgently phase out oil and gas to meet its net-zero commitments and limit global heating to 1.5°C.

Kate Blagojevic, Europe Team Lead 350.org, said:

“This is climate vandalism, pure and simple. BP is putting its profit margins above the survival of communities, ecosystems, and future generations. Every barrel of oil from this project pushes us closer to climate breakdown, more floods, more fires, more heatwaves. The era of fossil fuels is over, and BP’s desperate attempts to wring out the last drops of oil from the North Sea are a reckless betrayal of the public and the planet. They should be winding down, not doubling down.”

Campaigners warn that reopening the Murlach oil field undermines the UK’s credibility as a climate leader just months before world leaders gather for COP30 in Brazil. The field was previously shut down in 2004 as it was deemed uneconomic, but has become viable again due to advancements in extraction technologies.

350.org is calling on the UK Government to stand firm against fossil fuel expansion, invest in renewable energy, and deliver a just transition for workers and communities.

Elbows up for Mom,hauling laundry baskets up and down three flights of stairs,gasping at soap operas with her hands full,tucking corners tight on hopeand threadbare...

The post “Elbows up”: A poem first appeared on Spring.

Israel has murdered Anas Al-Sharif, 28, a steadfast, well-known Al Jazeera correspondent called "the voice of Gaza to the world," in a targeted strike in Gaza City that also killed four other journalists. Long threatened by Israel for his relentless coverage of Israeli atrocities, Al-Sharif vowed to continue "every day and every hour to report what is happening - this is our cause." In a last message, Al-Sharif wrote, "I lived pain in all its details and I tasted loss and grief time and again...Do not forget Gaza."

Al-Sharif was among five Al Jazeera journalists killed in a clearly targeted strike on a tent housing them outside the main gate of al-Shifa Hospital late Sunday. The other victims were Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. In his last post before his death, al-Sharif said Israel had launched intense bombing, called "fire belts," on Gaza City; his final video showed the sky lit by orange flashes as loud booms sounded.

Calling Al-Sharif "one of Gaza's bravest journalists" - and one of the most prominent with over half a million followers online - Al Jazeera said he and his colleagues were among the last remaining voices in Gaza "conveying its tragic reality to the world." It accused Israel of waging a “campaign of incitement” against its journalists by repeatedly fabricating evidence seeking to link them to Hamas; in the last 22 months, the Israeli military has killed over 230 journalists, including multiple ones from Al Jazeera.

A U.N. rapporteur had earlier cited Israel's "repeated threats and accusations" against Al-Sharif, arguing, "Fears for (his) safety are well-founded." Last month, Israel claimed it had "unequivocal proof” he was a member of Hamas, and on Sunday they admitted to a deliberate strike against Al-Sharif, "the head of a terrorist cell." Colleagues dismissed the claim as propaganda, with "zero evidence" to support it. Said a colleague of Al-Sharif's: "His entire daily routine was standing in front of a camera from morning to evening."

Other journalists also charge Israel is waging "a deliberate war on journalists" purely for their willingness to risk their lives to document Israel's genocidal crimes, from mass bombardment to mass starvation. “Israel’s strategy is clear: Silence the truth by murdering those who report it," said The Palestine Chronicle's Ramzi Baroud, who mourned having to lose so many journalists solely for their "commitment to the truth." Still, he insisted, "Their deaths will not bury the Palestinian story."

Al-Sharif had earlier written that, "despite all (the) difficulties and tragic circumstances" he and his colleagues had faced over the last brutal year and a half, he held to his belief that "it is the duty of the world to see and witness what we are documenting...This drives us to continue in our coverage to our last breath." Still, he knew death likely awaited. "This is my will and final message," he wrote in April. "If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice."

"First, peace and God’s mercy and blessings be upon you," he wrote in the translated post published by his family. "God knows I have given all my effort and strength to be a support and a voice for my people since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of Jabalia Refugee Camp. My hope was that God would grant me life so I could return with my family and loved ones to our original town of Ashkelon (Al-Majdal), now occupied. But God’s will was swifter, and His judgment is inevitable."

Berating "those who remained silent, who accepted our killing," he goes on to entrust those reading "with Palestine, the jewel of the Muslim crown and the heartbeat of every free person in this world...with its people and its innocent children who were not granted a lifetime to dream or live in safety and peace," and with his wife and two children he did not live to see grow. "I die steadfast in my principles," he writes. "Forgive me if I have fallen short, and pray for mercy for me, for I have kept my promise...Do not forget Gaza."

"I lost my voice screaming, 'Massacre, massacre,' hoping that the world takes action. But it is an unjust world." - Anas Jamal Al-Sharif.

Headline News:

• “It’s Time To Divest From Plastic – Ceramics Are One Viable Alternative” • Plastics Treaty negotiations began on August 5 and are due to conclude on August 14, 2025, but a failures at the proceedings have put the fate of the plastics treaty in jeopardy. In this article, we look at ceramics as an alternative to plastics for many articles. [CleanTechnica]

GaeaStar ceramic cups (GaeaStar image)

• “Swarm Of Jellyfish Shuts French Nuclear Power Plant” • The Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France has been shut down after a swarm of jellyfish entered the filter drums that pull in cooling water, according to its state-owned operator, EDF. The plant is one of the largest in France. It is cooled by water from a canal connected to the North Sea. [The Guardian]
• “Black Hole: Dozens Of Renewable Energy Projects Still Waiting On EPBC Decision” • There is more evidence that Australia’s EBPC Act approvals process is failing renewable energy projects, with another report showing no projects sent into the queue 2023 or 2024 have been approved. The EPBC is doubling timelines. [RenewEconomy]
• “Five Community Batteries Power Up In Adelaide” • The first batteries in the ARENA Community Batteries Project, managed by Momentum Energy, were switched on in Adelaide, South Australia. Five batteries, with a total capacity of 770 kW and 2,061 kWh, help reduce costs for the retirement village residents and shop tenants. [Energy Source & Distribution]
• “Google Launched An AI Model That Functions Like A Virtual Satellite” • Satellites gather images help scientists understand our planet. But these images come from many different sources, and it can be difficult to combine them into a single picture. Google’s AI model AlphaEarth Foundations can combine them to create highly detailed maps almost in real time. [Euronews]

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