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Agroecology and regenerative communities: a day of exchange between young people, farmers, schools, and institutions in Bracciano

On Saturday, October 24th, from 9:30 AM to 7:00 PM, at the Chiostro degli Agostiniani in Bracciano (RM), Navdanya International is promoting a meeting dedicated to the resilience of territories, biodiversity, and community participation. The event, titled “Agroecology and Regenerative Communities – Networks of resilience between young people, schools, farmers, and institutions,” will bring together agroecology experts, institutional representatives, associations, youth organizations, and agricultural realities to discuss the challenges of ecological transition, combining local experiences with international perspectives.

How can communities be built that are capable of facing environmental, climate, and social crises? What role can agroecology, biodiversity protection, ecological education, and citizen participation play in the regeneration of territories? And how can experiences of ecological and social regeneration be transformed into collective processes capable of influencing public policies and the choices that affect the future of territories? Answers to these questions already exist and have long since become good practices that are now waiting to be translated into concrete policies.

In an international context marked by the worsening climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and the growing vulnerability of food systems, agroecology represents not only a set of sustainable agricultural practices, but also a perspective of ecological, cultural, and social transformation. It is an approach that recognizes biological and cultural diversity, community autonomy, and the sharing of knowledge as the fundamental conditions for building more resilient food systems and territories.

From local experiences to national and international policies

The meeting stems from the experiences developed by Navdanya International through the Terrae Vivae programme, the ecological education pathways and School-Work Training initiatives, the project “RiGenerAzione Ecologica – Cittadinanza e Partecipazione,” co-financed by the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, and Officine Municipali, carried out in collaboration with the Municipality of Bracciano and co-financed by the European Union under the PR Lazio ESF 2021–2027. These are experiences that connect schools, new generations, agricultural producers, and institutions, experimenting with forms of learning, cooperation, and active participation in the life of local territories.

The initiative, which enjoys the patronage of the Bracciano-Martignano Regional Natural Park, aims to go beyond the presentation of individual projects, opening a space for exchange on the conditions needed to strengthen territorial networks and connect local experiences with national strategies and international processes for sustainability and food security, as confirmed by the director of Navdanya International, Ruchi Shroff: “The good practices that come from the territories are in fact laboratories from which proposals emerge for the democratization and sustainability of food systems, even at the international level.”

Young people, biodiversity, and participation: the day’s programme

The morning, from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM, will be dedicated to “Young People and Territories,” a space for exchange among youth organizations on the role of new generations in regeneration processes, within the framework of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development.

In the afternoon, from 2:30 PM to 6:00 PM, the programme will get underway with two public conversations dedicated to the resilience of territories and the collective construction of change.

Particular attention will be given to agricultural biodiversity and seed sovereignty, with a talk by Salvatore Ceccarelli, an internationally renowned agricultural geneticist, who will explore the relationship between genetic diversity, climate change adaptation, and farmer autonomy.

Among those taking part in the discussion will be Caterina Batello, president of the Italian Association of Agroecology, Mara Cossu and Tiziana Occhino of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, Silvia Canali of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Silvia Francescon of the Italian Buddhist Union, the Mayor of Bracciano Marco Crocicchi, representatives of local farms (Fattoria biologica Le Bricchiette, Fattoria Faraoni, Azienda Agricola La Argentina), representatives from schools (Istituto Agrario Salvo D’Acquisto, the Art Lyceum of IIS Luca Paciolo), youth organizations (the Network of Youth Associations from the mapping of the project “RiGenerAzione Ecologica: Cittadinanza e Partecipazione“), and civil society (GASP – Gruppo di Assistenza e Solidarietà Popolare).

Also taking part will be Magdalena Ackermann, representing civil society at the UN Committee on World Food Security, and Ruchi Shroff of Navdanya International.

A dedicated session, “Territori in relazione: Bracciano–Tubas,” will be devoted to international cooperation in agroecology and the prospects for community resilience, connecting the territory of Bracciano with the Palestinian territory of Tubas.

A meeting open to the public

Throughout the day, the Chiostro degli Agostiniani will host exhibitions of educational projects created by schools, the art exhibition “Ars non dat Panem” by the Art Lyceum of IIS Luca Paciolo, the photo contest organized by Terrae Vivae Youth, local producers, seed exchange initiatives, agroecological games, and creative workshops for children and adults. In the convent’s cloister, stands will be set up by producers, associations, and the CRAS Wildlife Recovery Center of the Lago di Vico Reserve.

The initiative aims to promote knowledge and participation as concrete tools for transformation, fostering new alliances among those who cultivate the land, those who educate, those who study, those who govern, and those who work every day to protect the commons.

An opportunity to bring together practices, knowledge, and policies, in the conviction that the regeneration of territories cannot be entrusted solely to technical solutions, but requires democratic processes, cooperation, and communities capable of deciding their own future together.

Information and participation

Event: Agroecology and Regenerative Communities – Networks of resilience between young people, schools, farmers, and institutions

Date: Saturday, October 24, 2026
Time: 9:30 AM–7:00 PM
Location: Chiostro degli Agostiniani, Via Umberto I, 5 – Bracciano (RM)

Programme and registration form:
https://navdanyainternational.org/it/save-the-date-agroecologia-e-comunita-rigenerative/

Contact: info@navdanyainternational.org

Navdanya International
https://navdanyainternational.org/

 

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After decades of losses, mangrove trees are gaining ground on coastlines around the world, often in places they have never grown before. Paradoxically, scientists say, warming temperatures and the destruction of inland forests are helping to power the revival.

Read more on E360 →

Racism is a powerful technique for sustaining injustice. We must respond to what it does, argues Gargi Bhattacharyya, if we are to dismantle it

The post Rethinking anti-racism appeared first on Red Pepper.

.stk-0359e53 {margin-top:var(--stk--preset--spacing--70, 3.38rem) !important;margin-bottom:var(--stk--preset--spacing--70, 3.38rem) !important;} .stk-2zo0h3w {margin-top:50px !important;margin-right:50px !important;margin-left:50px !important;}.stk-2zo0h3w .stk-block-heading__text{font-size:3rem !important;font-family:"Barlow Semi Condensed", Sans-serif !important;}@media screen and (max-width: 1023px){.stk-2zo0h3w .stk-block-heading__text{font-size:3rem !important;}}Citizens’ Atlas on False Climate and Circularity Solutions
In Focus: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

.stk-fadc901 .stk-inner-blocks{gap:9px !important;}.stk-fadc901 {margin-left:50px !important;} .stk-hzfvrpd .stk--svg-wrapper .stk--inner-svg svg:last-child{height:20px !important;width:20px !important;}.stk-hzfvrpd .stk--svg-wrapper .stk--inner-svg svg:last-child, .stk-hzfvrpd .stk--svg-wrapper .stk--inner-svg svg:last-child :is(g, path, rect, polygon, ellipse){fill:#f5d18e !important;} .stk-vybxwqf {margin-left:0px !important;}.stk-vybxwqf .stk-block-heading__text{color:#2e5a9a !important;}GAIA Asia Pacific

This fact sheet assesses 14 false solutions projects by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank from January 2015 to August 2026.  It highlights total financing by false solution type, recipient countries, funding types and financial instruments, and environmental and social risk categories. Since 2015, the bank has supported USD 5.4 billion worth of projects with false solutions to circularity and climate action, worsening the debt burdens of countries.

Download your copy of the fact sheet here!

The post first appeared on GAIA.

Across Brittany, tractors can be seen trundling onto beaches to remove truckloads of foul-smelling algae ahead of the tourist rush. 

Situated below steep cliffs and ancient forests, these once pristine beaches have been devastated by algal blooms – the rapid growth of toxic seaweed which kills off fish and plant life. This sea lettuce algae can also release a toxic gas that can cause humans dizziness, chest pain, breathing problems, and even cardiac arrest.

The French peninsula is not alone. Fed by harmful pollution from agriculture, and fuelled by seas warmed by climate change, lurid green blooms are increasingly appearing on beaches and lakes across Europe – prompting hundreds of swimming bans across the continent this summer. 

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Scientists are clear on the cause: for decades, chemicals including nitrogen and phosphorus have leached into waterways from human sewage, as well as fertilisers and excess manure fuelled by the rapid growth of Europe’s factory farms. 

These ‘nutrients’ are vital for plant growth – but in large quantities they destroy the delicate balance of ecosystems, allowing certain plants, including algae, to multiply at the expense of animals and other species.

Green algae on Plage du Yar, Plestin-le-Grèves, in Brittany, France. Agricultural run-off carries the algae down the river Yar and into the sea. Credit: Selene Magnolia Gatti

DeSmog visited some of the worst impacted spots in Europe, speaking to fishers, swimmers, and business owners whose livelihoods and wellbeing depend on healthy waters.

This article was published in partnership with Euronews and Climatica

On the shores of lakes and beaches across France, Spain, Germany and Northern Ireland, we heard accounts of plummeting fish and insect numbers, swimming bans, and beach closures. 

The risks of algal growth have been known for decades, but higher temperatures and longer summers mean these dangerous blooms are growing larger and lasting longer in many of the continent’s most iconic waterways. 

“I remember our beautiful beach before the pollution,” says Brittany resident Jean Hascoet, who leads local campaign group Baie de Douarnenez Environnement. “Now, with thousands of pigs near our town, everything is different.”

Brittany resident and environmental campaigner Jean Hascoet, pictured here in Douarnenez Bay, France, says the surge in intensive farming in the region has devastated local beaches. Credit: Selene Magnolia Gatti

‘Spain’s Sacrificial Zone’

“You’ll never see me swimming in that water again,” Fina says. 

The 84-year-old from Murcia in southeastern Spain lives with her husband Francisco on the beachfront at Los Urrutias, on the west coast of the Mar Menor, Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon. Rotting seaweed piles up on the shore, giving off a foul stench. 

“This used to be paradise. The sea was teeming with seahorses,” Fina says. 

Brittany resident and environmental campaigner Jean Hascoet, pictured here in Douarnenez Bay, France, says the surge in intensive farming in the region has devastated local beaches. Credit: Selene Magnolia Gatti

The last decade has seen a sharp increase in algae growth in the Mar Menor – a hotspot for Spanish and international tourists. Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, is reliant on nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus to grow, and in this region, intensive farming has provided a ready supply. 

Spain is the EU’s largest producer of pork, accounting for a quarter of the bloc’s production. In the Mar Menor catchment area, according to latest government figures, 305 pig farms house nearly 700,000 animals – producing vast amounts of manure and slurry, a liquid mixture containing faeces and urine. When it rains, the nutrient-rich mixtures flow from fields into rivers feeding the lagoon.

Algae piled up on one of the Mar Menor’s 22 beaches, Los Urrutias, near Murcia, Spain, due to excess nitrogen from industrial agriculture and livestock farming. Credit: Santi Donaire

“The land can’t accommodate it all,” says Pedro Luengo, a biologist and spokesperson for the campaign group Ecologistas en Acción in Murcia. “We’re a sacrificial zone.”

Tourists now steer clear of the area closest to the farmland – the western region where Fina lives, which was once an idyllic family holiday spot. 

Instead, on other beaches, such as La Manga in the east, bathers enjoy an artificial paradise thanks to local authorities who, as in France, remove the algae daily over the summer months. In the first three months of 2026, they collected more than 4,000 tonnes from Mar Menor’s shores and nearby water– roughly the weight of 1,000 elephants.

Algae piles up in skips after being collected by municipal workers in Los Urrutias, Murcia, southeastern Spain. During peak season, cleaning crews remove the algae blooming in the saltwater lagoon on a daily basis. Credit: Santi Donaire

Authorities say these clean-ups help protect human health and allow essential sunlight to reach sea life, which would otherwise be blocked by the blooms. But it has not shielded those who rely on the lagoon for their livelihood.

“We used to catch far more gilthead seabream and prawns. Now the catch is much smaller,” says Rubén Albaladejo, a fisherman from Lo Pagán. “The Mar Menor is a drain into which everyone dumps their rubbish and waste.” 

Algal blooms endanger aquatic life by consuming vast amounts of oxygen, meaning fish, seahorses, and crustaceans can suffocate. They also produce toxins that attack the nervous and respiratory systems of sea life. 

Alongside nutrient pollution, water temperatures rose sharply this year amid record-breaking heatwaves across the continent. “We’ve reached 30 degrees – something we’ve never seen before.” Albaladejo says that in these conditions, species such as gilthead seabream struggle to reproduce.

Scientists warned in August that human-caused climate change was driving record temperatures in the continent’s seas, with a 2C temperature rise registered in the Mediterranean, and around 1.4C in ​Western European seas.

Rubén Albaladejo mends nets on his fishing boat, moored at the fishermen’s guild in San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia, Spain. Credit: Santi Donaire ‘The Lough Is Dead’

Albaladejo shares his worries with fishers across Europe. Around 2,000 kilometres away in Northern Ireland, Declan Coney has also seen Lough Neagh – the UK’s largest lake – devastated by blue-green algae every summer since 2023. 

“Fishing is instilled in me – generation after generation,” Coney says. “This year has been the worst ever for fishing. The Lough is dead.”

Coney has been working on the lake since 1975. He used to go out with his father and sometimes caught £1,000 worth of fish in a day, he says. But now the cost of the diesel required to boat to his nets can be greater than the value of the catch. 

Trout and eel numbers have fallen in recent years, in part thanks to the oxygen-hogging blue-green algae, whose weight also forces Coney’s fishing nets shut, so fish can’t swim inside. 

Since the 2000s, the lough has also been besieged by the invasive zebra mussel species. These consume large amounts of phytoplankton, depriving other species of these microscopic plant-like organisms, a vital food source, as well as attaching to fishing nets and ripping them. 

“There’s no money [in it],” Coney says. “It’s not a livelihood anymore.”

Declan Coney has fished on Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland for decades, but plummeting catch numbers have made it impossible to make a living.
Credit: Joe Laverty

As in Spain, Lough Neagh’s algal blooms are the result of decades of nutrient pollution. Northern Ireland’s livestock sector has grown rapidly, supported by government expansion plans since 2013: poultry numbers have risen by a third, and pigs by 74 percent. 

Earlier this year, investigative outlet Watershed and The Guardian found evidence of cattle, pig and human faeces in samples of water from the lough, which spans nearly 400 square kilometres and provides 40 percent of Northern Ireland’s drinking water. 

Mary O’Hagan lives on the north-west of the lake. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she set up a wild swimming group, and found that the cold water had huge benefits – from improving mental health to relieving chronic pain.  

“In my 30s, I didn’t have much of a life, I wasn’t looking after myself. Swimming in Lough Neagh changed my life completely,” O’Hagan says. “We had a community.”

But after the second year of the blooms, she felt forced to shut the swimming group down. 

“I couldn’t in all good conscience organise swims where people would be exposed to bacteria, algae, or god knows what else.” 

“The first year… was awful. It was like Armageddon. To see the shores covered as far as the eye can see in pea green sludge, was horrendous,” she says.

Campaigner Mary O’Hagan was forced to shut her swimming group due to harmful pollution in Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland. Credit: Joe Laverty

O’Hagan’s concerns are shared by swimmers and local authorities elsewhere in Europe. In Germany, dozens of lakes are also routinely devastated by algal blooms, triggering a spate of temporary swimming bans this summer. 

“The water used to be clear, you could see your own feet,” says Oland Stephan, who has run a kiosk at Sander lake in northern Germany for 18 years. Once a popular bathing spot, the lake has been off-bounds for swimmers for the last few years because of the blue-green algae – which can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and skin irritation, among other issues. 

“I could make a living back then, but not anymore,” Stephan says. “I have bankruptcy papers at home.”

Peter Bünting, a lifeguard at the lake, says the cloudiness of the water from the algae makes search and rescue operations challenging. “You might have a casualty in front of you but you just can’t see.”

Sander lake in Lower Saxony, Germany. The lake is frequently closed to swimmers due to harmful blue-green algae pollution. Credit: Selene Magnolia Gatti ‘More Animals Than People’

Certain types of algae have been linked to fatalities. When sea lettuce and blue-green algaes break down, they can produce hydrogen sulfide, a lethal gas that smells like rotten eggs and causes  blocked airways and fluid to build up in the lungs if inhaled in large quantities. 

Since the 1980s, sea lettuce algae has been linked to as many as six deaths on Brittany’s beaches. 

Locals here are clear about the cause of the algae growth. Near the tourist town of Saint-Brieuc, “the pigs” has been scribbled across an official sign warning about the danger and symptoms of inhaling toxic gas from the algae. 

“We have many more animals than people,” environmental author Yves-Marie Le Lay told DeSmog. Although the peninsula covers just five percent of France’s surface, its 6.8 million pigs account for 58 percent of the country’s total population. “We have a manure problem, it all ends up in the rivers.”

Author and campaigner Yves Marie Le Lay demonstrates the use of a gas mask on the Plage du Fond de la Baie, in Locquirec, Brittany, France. He uses the device when algae blooms appear, to avoid inhaling any toxic gas. Credit: Selene Magnolia Gatti

For environmental activist Fabrice Hamon, who lives near the Penfoul beach in Western Brittany, bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella from manure run-off have also become a daily concern – washed by rain from farmland down to the sea. 

Since official tests in the summer of 2025 identified E. coli on Penfoul, the beach has been under a partial swimming ban, and is at risk of being closed permanently. 

Red signs warn swimmers and dogs against spending time on the algae-strewn Penfoul beach in Western Brittany. Credit: Selene Magnolia Gatti

Hamon says these bacteria are “super dangerous” if they are swallowed or come into contact with areas like the eyes and nose – and can cause infections, such as conjunctivitis, urinary tract infections, and gastro-intestinal infections that lead to diarrhea and vomiting.

Hamon is uneasy about the coming months. This summer’s droughts meant that fewer harmful excess nutrients were washed into the waterways from fields treated with manure, but instead are stored in the soil until it rains. Europe, the fastest-warming continent in the world, is seeing more intense and unpredictable bouts of extreme weather, including increased downpours and flooding.

“Right now there’s a build-up of bacteria in the fields,” Hamon says. “All it takes is a heavy downpour and bingo. It’s a slow-acting poison: little by little, ecosystems are being degraded by the build-up of pollution linked to intensive farming.”

Environmental activist Fabrice Hamon with the device he is using to test water in the River Foul in Brittany, France. He also regularly collects water samples to test for E. coli. Credit: Selene Magnolia Gatti Warming Seas

As climate change accelerates, warming temperatures are also exacerbating the algal blooms. Algae grows quicker and lasts longer in warm waters, as higher temperatures allow it to digest and reproduce at a faster rate. 

Jürgen Leicher, deputy chairman for the German environmental group BUND in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, has been sailing on the Baltic Sea for 40 years, and says this year’s algal blooms were the worst he’s ever seen. 

Temperatures in Germany broke records for three consecutive days in June, reaching almost 42C. Satellite images of the Baltic in August show vast algal blooms swirling towards the coast.“You feel really afraid when you sail for hundreds of miles through a yellow-brown dirty sea,” says Leicher. “All the way through this algae, the sea was dead. You see no birds, no mammals, no fish. It’s so empty.”

Agriculture is the biggest source of the problem: the intergovernmental body HELCOM estimates it accounts for up to 90 per cent of nitrogen and up to 80 per cent of phosphorus in diffuse nutrient run-off into the Baltic. 

Despite decades of intergovernmental efforts to reduce nutrient pollution, the Baltic is struggling to recover from the environmental damage combined with rising temperatures. Each year, when algae dies it sinks to the seabed, taking large amounts of phosphorus with it. That phosphorus is released back into the ocean in future years — a dangerous feedback loop that picks up speed as the sea warms.

Satellite image of algal blooms in the Baltic Sea, August 2026. Credit: Dávid D. Kovács, Jan Musial, Jędrzej Bojanowski, Dennis Clarijs, Jurry de la Mar, and András Zlinszk / Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem Seeking Solutions

In the face of these huge challenges, residents, campaigners and scientists are united in their determination to find solutions. 

Leicher thinks that better monitoring could help track the profound environmental disruption taking place in the Baltic Sea. His colleagues at BUND Schleswig-Holstein have launched a citizen science project, which will see volunteers collect water samples twice a month from local rivers. By analysing the samples in a laboratory, the organisation hopes to pinpoint sources of pollution and help efforts to cut nutrients.

In Brittany, Fabrice Hamon has designed an app – La Météo Bacterio – which helps monitor for bacteria in the 20 odd rivers that flow onto local beaches, meaning tourists and residents can check for warnings before they swim.

Others are focusing their efforts on political and legal action. In recent years, campaigners and residents have won a raft of legal victories – including persuading the Spanish government in 2022 to bestow ‘legal personhood’ on Mar Menor, providing the lagoon with rights to protection and restoration.

Residents and campaigners stage a protest at Playa de Los Espejos in Los Alcázares against the pollution of Spain’s Mar Menor, September 2026. Credit: Santi Donaire

Ultimately, though, scientists say that nutrient pollution must be slashed to limit the recurrent harmful algae growth – and that means transforming agricultural practices. 

“The science is clear on what needs to be done,” says Professor Friedhelm Taube from Kiel University (CAU), who spent 12 years advising Germany’s Ministry of Agriculture. Governments should support farmers to use less nitrates-heavy fertiliser, plant catch crops like grass clover that absorb some of the excess nutrients from soils before they run into rivers, lakes and sea, and reduce the number of animals farmed on limited land, he says.

“Farming animals can be fine,” Taube says, but to keep nutrient run-off within safe limits, numbers should be reduced to just one ‘livestock unit’ per hectare – a technical term that translates to just one dairy cow or around three pigs. That means far fewer animals in regions where they are intensively farmed, he adds. 

Campaigners in Spain also face a stark choice. “Either we wreck the Mar Menor,” says Pedro Luengo from Ecologistas en Accion, “or we transform the agricultural model”.

In Northern Ireland, Mary O’Hagan is determined to continue to fight for change. “I credit getting into Lough Neagh for the lovely active life I lead,” she says. “It’s one of the reasons I fight back in the way I do.” 

It’s a long fight, but Mary is hopeful. “I’d like to see improvements in my children’s lifetimes – to see it restored to how it was.”

Additional research by Joey Grostern and Louis Bontemps

Editing by Phoebe Cooke and Clare Carlile

The post In Pictures: ‘Armageddon’ at Europe’s Swim Spots Linked to Climate Change and Factory Farm Pollution appeared first on DeSmog.

'People vote their real lives' Channel Comment brendan 22nd October 2026 Teaser Media

Armenia is reconsidering its plans for a new nuclear power plant after a fresh proposal from Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom and a sharp revision of the country’s future electricity needs, potentially opening the door to decades of continued dependence on Russian nuclear technology.

The discussions come as Armenia works to extend the operating life of its aging Metsamor nuclear power plant, whose sole functioning reactor was commissioned in 1980 and is now expected to remain in service until at least 2036.

During a September 29 meeting in Yerevan, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev presented Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with proposals for new nuclear generating capacity, including a Russian-designed VVER-1000 reactor capable of producing approximately 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

The proposal is one of several under consideration by Armenia, which has also explored nuclear cooperation with the United States, France, South Korea and China.

Pashinyan emphasized that no decision had been made and that the government would evaluate competing proposals on economic and technical grounds, including their cost, safety, construction schedules and guarantees.

But according to Bellona nuclear expert Alexander Nikitin Armenia’s eventual decision will be shaped as much by geopolitics as by its electricity requirements.

A changing calculation

Until recently, Armenia had favored replacing Metsamor with one or more small modular reactors, whose relatively modest generating capacity appeared better suited to the country’s limited electricity market.

But on October 1, Pashinyan acknowledged that the government’s calculations had changed.

According to the prime minister, new investment projects, including facilities associated with artificial intelligence, have substantially increased Armenia’s anticipated electricity requirements.

Just over a year ago, he said, Armenia had an electricity surplus. Now, investment commitments have created the prospect of a deficit.

“I have said dozens of times before that we need nothing more than a modular nuclear power plant,” Pashinyan said. “But now, due to this change, we have to understand that, most likely, a modular plant will not be enough for us.”

He suggested that a reactor with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts might prove a more practical alternative, although experts are still examining the question.

The shift could improve Rosatom’s prospects. Unlike many proposed small modular reactor designs, Russia’s conventional VVER technology has an established operating history, something Moscow has emphasized in promoting its nuclear exports.

Yet a large reactor would also present challenges for Armenia’s relatively small electricity grid, requiring careful consideration of how the country would manage the sudden loss of such a substantial generating unit.

Nikitin, however, believes Armenia should continue exploring smaller reactors rather than concentrating its future nuclear generating capacity in one large facility.

“Given Armenia’s heightened seismic activity, I believe the country would be better served by establishing several power-generation centers using small modular reactors based on designs currently being offered by nuclear companies from the United States, South Korea, France or even China,” he said.

He also suggested that Armenia could establish an international consortium to develop small modular reactors, potentially including Rosatom, since cooperation with the Russian corporation will remain necessary as long as Metsamor continues operating.

Keeping Metsamor running

Meanwhile, Armenia remains dependent on its existing nuclear plant.

Metsamor’s second reactor, a Soviet-designed VVER-440 unit, began operating in 1980. Both of the plant’s reactors were shut down following the devastating 1988 Armenian earthquake, but the second was restarted in 1995 amid severe electricity shortages.

Today, it supplies a substantial share of Armenia’s electricity, estimated by Nikitin at approximately 30 to 40 percent.

Rosatom is participating in a modernization program intended to extend the reactor’s operation until 2036, when it will have been in service for 56 years, excluding its period of shutdown.

Likhachev has said he sees no technical obstacles to reaching that target. He also disclosed that Armenian officials are examining the possibility of a further extension until 2046.

Such an undertaking would require extensive additional investment in safety systems, equipment modernization and spent-fuel storage. Likhachev acknowledged that the necessary expenditures could substantially increase the cost of electricity generated by the plant.

Nikitin describes the extension as an interim measure driven by Armenia’s difficult energy circumstances rather than a desirable long-term solution.

“Extending the operating lives of nuclear power plants has become common practice in virtually every country. There is nothing unusual about it in itself, although aging equipment can certainly be expected to cause problems, particularly when subjected to external stresses such as earthquakes,” he said.

He warned that Armenia’s seismic conditions and the limitations of Metsamor’s original Soviet-era design make replacing the plant particularly important.

“The sooner Armenia develops a new nuclear power infrastructure, the less likely it will be to encounter problems with a plant built to an outdated design that did not incorporate many of today’s safety requirements,” Nikitin said.

A decision with lasting consequences

For Armenia, choosing a replacement reactor involves more than selecting generating capacity.

In recent years, Pashinyan’s government has moved toward closer relations with the European Union while effectively freezing its participation in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization. Armenia has also discussed the possibility of withdrawing from the Eurasian Economic Union.

Nikitin argues that Moscow views these developments with concern and regards nuclear cooperation as one means of maintaining its influence over Armenia.

“Russia is doing everything it can to preserve the country’s dependence on Rosatom, pursuing various initiatives and offering proposals through the nuclear corporation that appear attractive at first glance,” he said.

In Nikitin’s assessment, the strategic purpose of these offers is to discourage Armenia from moving further away from Russian-led institutions and toward the European Union.

Russia already supplies Metsamor’s nuclear fuel and provides technical services. Awarding Rosatom the contract for a replacement plant could preserve that relationship for decades through fuel deliveries, maintenance, specialized equipment, personnel training and nuclear safety support.

“If Armenia agrees to build another Russian nuclear power plant, it will effectively become dependent on Rosatom — and therefore Russia — for nearly a century,” Nikitin warned.

He pointed out that the long-term relationship between a nuclear plant and its technology supplier extends well beyond construction, encompassing fuel supplies, spent-fuel management and the maintenance of specialized equipment.

Choosing a Western or Asian supplier could diversify Armenia’s nuclear partnerships, although alternative technologies would bring their own financing, licensing and construction challenges. Pashinyan has said Armenia expects to select its new reactor technology by the end of 2027, perhaps sooner.

With construction likely to take many years, the government faces a narrowing window in which to replace Metsamor before its planned retirement. For Nikitin, the choice goes to the heart of Armenia’s relationship with Russia.

“The decision to build a new nuclear power plant in Armenia will undoubtedly be driven more by politics than by energy considerations,” he said.

The post Armenia reconsiders nuclear future as Rosatom offers replacement for aging Soviet reactor appeared first on Bellona.org.

NEW LONDON, WISC. (October 21, 2026) — Bouressa Family Farm, owned and operated by fifth-generation farmer Rachel Bouressa, has earned the National Audubon Society’s Bird-Friendly Land...

This article by Nicolas Scibelli first appeared on Yale Climate Connections and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

[Haz clic aquí para leer en español]

A single stream nourishes the cattle of Ismael “Jim” Solis’ ranch on Panama’s Azuero Peninsula, which juts out into the Pacific Ocean.

Solis has raised cattle through countless droughts and dry spells over the years, weathering them with little concern.

But as El Niño builds strength ahead of Panama’s coming dry season, he worries that for the first time, his stream may run dry. 

"We hope it keeps flowing, but we need more rain so it will last when the dry season comes,” he said. 

Solis has spent his life raising cattle on the Azuero since his family arrived decades ago in the small town of Los Asientos on the southern part of the peninsula. His ranch is one of many that dominate the region, checkering the landscape in a matrix of rolling pasture dotted with trees, the last reminders of the expansive forest that once blanketed the surrounding hillsides. 

Extreme drought has caused the artificial reservoir on Cecibet Peralta's ranch to run dry. (Image credit: Nicolas Scibelli)

Across the Azuero Peninsula, extreme drought is stretching water resources thin. To counter it, some are switching to a more sustainable system of cattle ranching known as silvopasture, a method that incorporates trees into the landscape and helps preserve water. Those who have made the switch say the increased tree cover has proven vital in maintaining water supply and grass yield while neighboring farms feel the effects.

Still, with forecasts of a historically strong El Niño building in the coming months, a difficult dry season lies ahead for silvopasture and conventional ranchers alike.

Feeling the heat

The Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology of Panama declared an El Niño alert in May, warning of drier conditions on the Azuero Peninsula and a 10-20% reduction in rainfall during the region’s typically wet season. As the months drag on, ranchers are seeing the effects. 

“In the past, it wouldn't have been as hard as it is this year,” said Edwin Carrasco, a silvopastoral rancher in Herrera province. 

Edwin Carrasco, a silvopasture rancher in Herrera province, Panama. (Image credit: Nicolas Scibelli)

The stream on Carrasco’s property has run dry, requiring him to pump water from a well on site. The ranch remains in a precarious position as drought lingers. 

"I'm frightened, because we don't know what we're going to do with the animals if it doesn't keep raining,” Carrasco said. 

In the nearby Los Santos province, Cecibet Peralta is another rancher dealing with water shortages. Peralta uses a large artificial reservoir on her ranch to water her cattle, though it historically has not always lasted through the dry season. Peralta recently expanded the reservoir’s capacity hoping it would provide year-round water, but with this year’s El Niño-charged drought, even the expansion has not been enough. 

The dry reservoir has forced Peralta to move her cattle to a neighboring farm with more stable water resources. She’s now looking to expand the reservoir again in an attempt to stay ahead of the rapidly changing climate.

Living fences separate fields on a silvopasture ranch just outside of Los Asientos on the southern part of Panama's Azuero Peninsula. (Nicolas Scibelli)

“Every year the summers are stronger,” she said. “The intense heat causes the water to be used up more quickly.”

With a seasonal dry climate, the Azuero is projected to experience higher temperatures and increasingly irregular rainfall patterns in the coming decades. As climate change potentially drives stronger El Niño events, prolonged droughts are likely to occur again in the future. 

Nature’s original solution

For years now, some on the Azuero have been planting trees on their farms and using a less intensive, mixed-rotation system known as silvopasture. Those who have established these systems say they are seeing the results as drought rages on. 

“Nowadays, we have a greater abundance of water because of the way it has been managed,” said Manuel Cedeño, a silvopastoral rancher from the small community of Los Asientos. "Better water quality, better forage for the animals; more biodiversity.”

In contrast to conventional systems that clear the land entirely for pasture, silvopasture incorporates planted and naturally regenerated trees into pastures for grazing. It also uses mixed-rotation cycles that reduce overgrazing and preserve soil health. 

A cow walking to pasture on a silvopasture ranch in Veraguas province, Panama. (Image credit: Nicolas Scibelli)

The conventional wisdom that trees are detrimental to cattle production is unfounded, according to Jake Slusser, a tropical forester working with Yale’s Environmental Training and Leadership Initiative. Slusser is not affiliated with Yale Climate Connections.

“Trees offer everything from shade, forage, fodder, fruit,” Slusser said. “Some trees fix nitrogen so that the pasture grass that they're eating has a lot higher nutritional content, especially in terms of protein.”

Silvopastoral systems are also crucial for preserving water levels and water quality. Most systems use pumps to transport water directly to cattle, reducing the need for cattle to travel directly to water sources while limiting pollution. Increased vegetation along riparian areas also improves shade cover, reducing evaporation.

“These are just in general much more resilient farms during El Niño years when you have these long-term droughts, because you're conserving and utilizing the water you have on [the] farm in a very efficient way,” Slusser said.

The Yale initiative has been working with ranchers on the Azuero since 2009, having helped many farmers make the change to silvopastoral systems. Thousands of hectares of land on the peninsula have been deforested or degraded since ranchers began clearing the region in the 1940s, the majority of which are still actively used for cattle grazing today. Slusser said silvopasture presents an opportunity to improve environmental outcomes in actively farmed areas.

“That's where the most degraded landscapes are,” he said. “It allows the biggest potential because you're not replacing people's traditional livelihoods; you're enhancing them by doing silvopasture.”

A solar-powered well on a silvopasture ranch outside of Los Asientos. The pump provides water for the ranch's cattle and protects water quality. (Image credit: Nicolas Scibelli)

The transition to silvopasture is not seamless, as significant upfront financial and technical investments are required. Silvopasture also does not entirely reduce the negative environmental impacts of cattle ranching, with substantial climate-warming methane emissions still caused by the practice.

Still, the positive effects are clear to ranchers in water-stressed areas like the Azuero. For those like Solis who have not yet made the transition to silvopasture, this year’s drought is making a compelling case to do so. 

"If you don't reforest, the water disappears more quickly,” he said.

Looking ahead to a drier future

This year’s extreme drought has been a reason for many to begin examining the future of their farms more closely. The dry season still looms on the horizon, and water resources on many ranches have already been stretched thin. With extreme weather events becoming increasingly common throughout Latin America, some believe silvopasture offers a potential solution moving forward. 

“This is one of the ways we can mitigate climate change and help the planet benefit," Cedeño said. 

Cows grazing in a mixed-rotation pasture outside of Los Asientos. (Image credit: Nicolas Scibelli)

For Cedeño, the change to silvopasture has been a worthy investment. Although the drought is providing new challenges on his ranch, he nonetheless feels secure that his cattle will have water throughout the coming year. Cedeño has already helped several other ranchers in Los Asientos make the change to silvopastoral systems and is looking to expand his own operation even further. 

He hopes that in the future, farms like his will be the norm.

"The culture of the farmers in this Azuero area had always been to cut down the trees, plant pasture, and raise cattle,” he said. “If we could change that mindset, I think we could accomplish much more.”

//

The Environment Agency has refused to extend its public consultation on plans for gas drilling and fracking at Burniston in North Yorkshire.

Proposed Burniston drilling and fracking site.
Source: Europa Oil & Gas permit application

DrillOrDrop reported yesterday that villagers had called for an extension to the final consultation on an environmental permit.

This followed local concerns about revisions to two key documents after the EA admitted what it called “a small number of minor typographical errors and inconsistencies”.

An EA spokesperson told us this evening:

“We value the contribution of the community and have carefully considered requests for additional time.

“However, we are satisfied that there has been a reasonable opportunity for all interested parties to respond and have closed the consultation.

“We will provide the outcome in due course.”

The EA said the Burniston consultation period had already been extended to give people time to consider the updated documents.

The EA also said all the amendments had been “clearly identified and summarised”. It said the changes did not affect its draft decision to approve the permit.

The regulator also said it had used “a range of channels to raise awareness of the consultation, including notifying the local MP, councillors and parish councils, and issuing online information and community letters.

Deadlines and updates

The EA originally set a deadline for comments of 26 September 2026.

On 24 September 2026, the Burniston permit consultation webpage changed the closing date for comments to today, 21 October 2026. There was no explanation.

On 29 September 2026, an update on the webpage acknowledged errors in the draft decision document.

On 7 October 2026, a second update said the errors had been corrected and revised documents were now available on the webpage.

Some local people said the EA community letter about the revised documents had not reached them until 14 October 2026. Others said they had not received one.

Local reaction

The campaign group, Frack Free Coastal Communities (FFCC), said this evening:

“We are disappointed – not so much that they have not extended the consultation but more that they have refused to engage with the fact that their revised decision document perpetuates the confused terminology of the first version.”

The group said yesterday the deadline had not “give sufficient time” and went “against the spirit of the EA’s published code of practice for consultations”.

FFCC said it needed more time to carry out a “comprehensive analysis of shortcomings that affect the EA’s technical analysis and appraisal of the permit application”.

Burniston Parish Council had asked the EA for an extension to the consultation of at least two months.

The council chair, Cllr Richard Parsons, said yesterday:

“Burniston Parish Council and members of our community have become extremely concerned about the changes that have been made to the Environmental Agency report into the Burniston Gas drill licence.

“There have, very recently, been a large number of changes many of which do not just cover minor errors.”

June Rubis is a Macquarie University Research Fellow working on Indigenous rights and biodiversity governance and a steering committee member for the Cali Fund. She writes here in her personal capacity.

At COP16 in Cali, governments made a significant commitment: at least half of the funding from the new Cali Fund should support the self-identified needs of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, including women and youth. It was a watershed moment for multilateral benefit-sharing.

The challenge now is to translate that commitment into access arrangements that recognise the different institutions, priorities and decision-making processes of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

For generations, biodiversity and traditional Indigenous knowledge have provided significant value to companies who depend on nature’s genetic diversity to discover new drugs that fight diseases, create products that improve health, and grow crops resilient to extreme heat and flooding events. While some compounds are sampled directly from the source country, increasingly the digital blueprints are held in online public databases which are freely accessible to use for innovation and research.

Countries urged to ramp up “insufficient” nature policies at COP17

The Cali Fund was established at COP16 to encourage commercial users of Digital Sequence Information, or DSI, to share benefits arising from its use. Estimates suggest it could generate over $3.5 billion a year – a stark contrast to the modest $10,656 currently committed to the fund from just five SMEs, underlining how much progress must be made at COP17 over the next two weeks.

The COP16 decision that set up the fund offers two routes for money to reach Indigenous Peoples and local communities: through government authorities, and through direct payments to institutions identified by Indigenous Peoples and local communities themselves. 

Varied ways of organising

Indigenous Peoples and local communities organise through a wide range of institutions. Some have national or regional organisations experienced in managing international grants. Others work through territorial organisations, customary institutions, community associations, cooperatives or networks. Some have professional finance teams and audited accounts; others have extensive experience governing territories, collective resources or conservation work without having been organised around international funding requirements.

For direct access, some questions are already apparent. Which institutions should be able to receive funds? How should they be identified? What fiduciary standards should apply? How should safeguards and accountability work where institutional capacities differ? What support may be needed where institutions have strong community mandates but less experience with international finance?

Comment: Protecting nature is a public duty, not a Wall Street profit opportunity

If access is designed mainly around institutions that already meet the expectations of large international finance mechanisms, early funding will tend to favour those already familiar to funders. They will gain further experience and become better positioned for future funding, while institutions with less administrative capacity may remain outside the system despite strong community mandates and long histories of stewardship.

These first decisions matter most, because they set the terms for everyone who follows.

The role of intermediaries requires care. Some Indigenous organisations may want a fiscal host to hold and manage funds on their behalf. Communities may choose to work through an NGO they trust. Government-facilitated arrangements may work well in particular national contexts.

What matters is the function an intermediary performs and the authority that comes with it. Providing administrative support is different from deciding which Indigenous organisations qualify, which priorities can receive support, or how success will be assessed. Direct access means communities keep that decision-making authority.

Decision-making power

The COP16 decision refers to institutions that Indigenous Peoples and local communities identify. But authority among Indigenous Peoples does not sit in one kind of body. It may sit with territorial organisations, customary institutions, community associations or combinations of these. Legal recognition and customary authority do not always align neatly.

Global deforestation slowed in 2025 but Brazil’s election could undo “fragile” gains

An important feature of the Cali Fund’s governance is that Indigenous Peoples and local communities participate as full members of the Steering Committee, rather than as observers. Seven Indigenous Peoples and local community representatives, one from each of the seven socio-cultural regions, participate in consensus-based decision-making alongside representatives of governments and UN entities. Six additional representatives from civil society, scientific institutions and the private sector participate as observers.

That representation carries responsibility. Institutional legitimacy, access and representation take different forms across the seven socio-cultural regions. Indigenous Peoples and local communities members therefore have an important role in bringing those differences into the Fund’s governance and in ensuring that arrangements developed for one context do not become the assumed model for everyone else. 

Safeguards and clear responsibilities

COP17 can establish the core principles and direction, while allowing operational pathways to develop in ways that respond to different regional contexts. The decisions countries take in Yerevan will shape how that flexibility is realised in practice. 

The choices made around access will influence which institutions are able to participate, which routes become established and which forms of authority are recognised within the funding architecture. The aim should be an architecture with enough structure to maintain confidence while allowing for different forms of Indigenous and community governance.

A credible direct-access pathway will need safeguards, financial oversight and clear responsibilities. This would give the 50% commitment a stronger institutional foundation.

The Cali Fund’s importance will ultimately depend not only on how much funding reaches Indigenous Peoples and local communities, but on whether they are able to determine how the money is accessed, governed and used. This requires access pathways that recognise their institutions, priorities and decision-making processes, rather than requiring them to conform to a single predetermined model.

The post COP17 must settle who decides how Cali Fund money is disbursed appeared first on Climate Home News.

Judge Chutkan Reopens National Monuments Litigation

 

On October 13, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issued an order granting a request by SUWA and other conservation groups (filed in September) to reopen the 2017 litigation challenging President Trumps’ illegal reductions of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. Those cases had been stayed after President Biden restored the two monuments in 2021. Now, unfortunately, they’re relevant again.

During a status conference held a few days later, Judge Chutkan ordered the federal government to give those working to protect the monuments 48 hours advance notice of any surface disturbing activities on lands cut from the national monuments.

“President Trump’s attack on Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments, two crown jewels of the nation’s public lands system, was illegal, plain and simple,” said SUWA Legal Director Steve Bloch. “And because of this unlawful act, irreplaceable cultural resources and the monuments’ unique geology and flora and fauna are now at risk from activities like mining. Today was an important step towards restoring protections for the monuments. We’re looking forward to presenting our arguments to the court and defending these remarkable landscapes.”

>> Read our full press release

Photo © Whit Richardson

Bears Ears Mining Claims Increase to 72 (So Far)

 

Since mining restrictions were lifted on lands Trump illegally cut from Bears Ears National Monument, 72 mining claims have been filed on some of those now unprotected landscapes. This is more than triple the number of claims filed after Trump’s first-term attack on the monument.

“The pace of new mining claims in Bears Ears National Monument is alarming and reinforces the need for vigilance while we work to undo Trump’s illegal actions and restore both Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments,” said SUWA Staff Attorney Hanna Larsen. “These claims are located in some of the region’s most remarkable places, including the headwaters of the Dark Canyon Wilderness and just outside Natural Bridges National Monument.”

SUWA continues to monitor these claims and will act as necessary to protect both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments from irreversible harm.

>> Read our most recent press release

Photo © Jeff Foott

SUWA and Partners File Suit to Protect Nine Mile Canyon

 

On October 6, SUWA, alongside the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition and Center for Biological Diversity, sued the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for approving a hydrocarbon highway through Gate Canyon in eastern Utah. That project—if completed—would straighten 6 miles of what is currently a scenic, winding gravel road and involves the blasting and destruction of 100-foot-tall canyon walls, Utah historical sites, and habitat for threatened wildlife. It would also lead to dramatically increased truck traffic, sometimes mere feet away from archaeological sites in nearby Nine Mile Canyon, often described as the “world’s longest art gallery” due to its abundance of Native American rock imagery.

This would all be done to accommodate 70-foot oil tanker trucks traveling to the oil fields and transloading facilities in Carbon County, Utah. As many as 1,000 vehicles could pass through the area each day—the equivalent of a tanker truck every 7 minutes, according to news reports.

Our lawsuit challenges the BLM’s rushed and behind-closed-doors environmental review for failing to disclose or analyze the impacts of increased traffic and the destruction of Gate Canyon on scenery, wildlife, the area’s rock imagery, and historic axle grease inscriptions. The agency also ignored its own management plans that require protecting cultural and scenic values and violated the federal National Historic Preservation Act and the Endangered Species Act.

>> Read our full press release

Photo © Ray Bloxham/SUWA

BLM Proceeds with Plan to Auction Off Wild Landscapes for Fossil Fuel Development

 

Last month, SUWA and many of our supporters submitted comments on a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lease sale offering 43 parcels of public land in Utah for oil and gas development, including wild places in the Dirty Devil and Hatch Point regions. The agency has since released a final environmental assessment discounting that input and intends to move forward with the sale.

As you may recall, many of the parcels—including some near Bears Ears National Monument—are in designated critical habitat for the Mexican Spotted Owl, a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Yet the BLM failed to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about foreseeable impacts to the owl, as required by the ESA. Instead, the agency kicked the can down the road to the drilling stage when it claims that it may (but likely won’t) fulfill that requirement. This backwards approach is illegal and does nothing to ensure the owl is protected.

SUWA plans to file a formal protest of the leasing decision. Stay tuned for future updates.

Photo © Ray Bloxham/SUWA

Attention Wordsmiths: SUWA Is Hiring!

 

Can you imagine writing copy for future Redrock Reports and drafting (or editing) a wide array of other SUWA materials, both print and digital? Now is your chance! SUWA is seeking a Writer & Communications Specialist to join our growing Communications Team. If you have a deep love for protecting public lands, strong writing skills, and experience with social media, please apply. We offer great benefits and the opportunity to learn and grow with other communications professionals in support of a great cause.

The application deadline for this position is Monday, November 9. Learn more, including how to apply, at suwa.org/careers.

On the Horizon: November 2026 Elections

 

We’d be remiss if we didn’t note that the 2026 Midterm elections are less than two weeks away on Tuesday, November 3. During this election, at the federal level, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are on the ballot, and depending on where you live you may have a senator on the ballot as well. This is in addition to any races that may be happening at the state, county, or local level.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, SUWA does not endorse candidates, but we can encourage you to vote! In many states, early voting or vote-by-mail is already underway. You can visit vote.org to check your registration status and learn about how to vote, wherever you live. One final ask: once you’ve made a plan to vote, reach out to a family member, friend, or colleague and help them do the same!

The post October 2026 Redrock Report appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

By Quentin Scott, Federal Policy Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Not long ago, conversations about solar reflective methods (SRM) were dominated by one question: How do we stop it? At this year’s Climate Week NYC, we heard a different one: How do we make sure research into this emerging climate technology is done responsibly? 

Nearly 100 scientists, policymakers, advocates, students, skeptics, and supporters came together for Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN)’s SRM Research Hub Crawl to grapple with what responsible research into and governance of SRM could look like. The concerns haven’t disappeared, and they shouldn’t. But as climate impacts grow harder to ignore, people are increasingly willing to move beyond debating whether SRM should exist and start asking how we can responsibly explore its potential to help protect our planet.

That’s what happened on Wednesday, September 23, when CCAN hosted our SRM Research Hub Crawl: Building a Community for Responsible Research and Governance. People across sectors showed up to discuss responsible research into SRM techniques. Such an event would have been hard to imagine in years past, but it showed us how the public is hungry for oversight over responsible research into SRM as climate change becomes harder to ignore.

Why This Conversation Can’t Wait

Let me be clear about where CCAN stands: solar reflective methods are not a substitute for rapidly cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Full stop. We’re still fighting for clean energy alternatives, and against every rollback of climate progress.

Climate change is already forcing hard choices on communities, but policy isn’t keeping pace. Meanwhile, SRM research is growing—whether or not we’re comfortable with it. That doesn’t mean deployment is inevitable, and it certainly doesn’t mean it’s desirable. It means the public deserves a transparent, inclusive conversation about what research is happening, what we still don’t know, and what safeguards would be required if this technology ever were to be deployed.

If that conversation doesn’t happen, the public is left in the dark. With climate change making the road ahead even harder to see, the public needs to move back into the driver’s seat.

Not Your Typical Convening

Most SRM discussions happen in technical and academic settings, with the usual insiders. We wanted to open up the conversation, so we brought it to the bar with our first-ever “Hub Crawl.”

Participants moved between interactive hubs hosted by partner organizations. One hub dug into the science of SRM. Another explored emerging governance frameworks. Others tackled policy debates and what meaningful public engagement should look like. People with very different views on SRM—from supporters to skeptics—engaged directly with the research and the governance challenges around it.

Ben Kalina, director and producer of the Plan C For Civilization documentary, said the SRM field has always been “dangerously shrouded in mystery,” dominated by a small number of researchers and personalities. He called the event fun:“Standing on the roof, talking about the earth’s reflectivity, it was like a sci-fi mini-convention sharing what we’ve learned—and what we don’t know—with a curious and questioning Climate Week community,” he said.

I’ll take it. Serious doesn’t have to mean stuffy.

Different Perspectives, Shared Questions

This year’s Climate Week took place after a record-shattering summer, on the heels of the hottest month ever recorded and 12 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. Our co-host, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS),  pointed to urgency. Dr. Hannah Safford, FAS’s Associate Director of Climate and Environment, pointed to glacier collapse and flash flooding in the Himalayas and unbearable heat around the world. “We owe it to ourselves, our neighbors, and our kids,” she said, “to rigorously, responsibly explore tools like SRM that could help reduce climate risks, even as we continue to ramp up mitigation and adaptation.”

The organizations that joined us don’t all agree with one another, and that was the point: the Federation of American Scientists, University of Chicago, Reflective, Degrees Initiative, Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering, Environmental Defense Fund, Plan C For Civilization Documentary, and SRM360. Thank you to every one of them who attended and shared their views. 

Research Is Not Deployment

I say this often, and I’ll keep saying it: CCAN does not support SRM deployment. We do support studying whether it could work, what the risks are, who would be affected, and who gets a say. Those are responsible questions, and we need answers before other nations or private companies make those decisions for us.

Decisions about whether, how, and under what conditions research proceeds should be shaped by rigorous science, strong safeguards, and public accountability. Most of all, they should be shaped by the people most affected by climate change, not by whoever has the most money or the loudest voices.

Earlier this year, we watched lawmakers in statehouses across the country push bills to ban even the study of these technologies, many built on conspiracy theories rather than evidence. Banning research doesn’t make the technologies disappear. It just ensures we won’t have the full picture if it ever comes time to make a decision.

Climate Week’s Hub Crawl showed an alternative path: a room full of people from all backgrounds, willing to ask hard questions in public, backed by scientific research.

What Comes Next

Responsible SRM research is no longer a fringe topic in the climate community. As the climate crisis intensifies and policy lags, SRM is moving onto the agenda. The real question is who will be in the room when decisions get made.

If scientists, advocates, and affected communities don’t show up, a small number of people who have their own agendas will fill that space.

CCAN will keep bringing people together and pushing for SRM research that is transparent, publicly accountable, and governed by strong safeguards. We’ll also keep fighting for the cuts in carbon pollution that nothing else can replace.

If you’re curious, skeptical, or both—good. Join us. We’d love to hear from you.

Sign up to volunteer with CCAN!

About the author: Quentin Scott (he/him) joined CCAN in January 2021 as part of the newly created CCAN Federal Team. He moved from Chicago specifically to build political will for groundbreaking national climate and climate justice policies. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, he got a first-hand look at the two Americas and sought to bring the two Americas closer together through advocacy.

Before joining CCAN, Quentin was chief of staff for an Illinois State Representative and a legislative correspondent in the US House of Representatives, and has led numerous issue and candidate campaigns across the Midwest and East Coast. In his roles, he has stood with neighborhood groups to hold industrial polluters accountable in communities of color and looks forward to bringing that fight to the federal level.

The post The SRM Conversation Is Growing: Nearly 100 Scientists, Advocates, and Skeptics Showed Up to Claim Their Seat appeared first on Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Vietnam Veterans Against the War Protest the Nixon Administration at the 1972 RNC

The Wednesday, October 21, 2026, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features Allie Rosenbluth with Oil Change International talking about the deceptive Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act currently rushed through Congress, which would weaken bedrock, environmental laws protecting waterways, endangered species, historic sites, tribal consultation, and public review through required, government, environmental impact reports on proposed infrastructure, and would speed permitting of clean and dirty energy projects.  We also share news, videos, and reflections on opportunities to oppose and stop this latest legislative deal for industry, tar sands mining and tailings pond pollution of the Athabasca and Mackenzie rivers and First Nations in Canada, a settlement ending the lawsuit brought by Lithium Nevada against six indigenous and allied Thacker Pass mining protesters, a request for support of a Native land defender from the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline, whose home sustained a retaliatory attack, and an observed, 2026 derailment and Amtrak delay in North Dakota, 25 years after a nearby, Canadian Pacific train wreck that released fertilizer ammonia, killed one resident, and injured hundreds more.  Broadcast for fourteen years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online at KRFP and the Pacifica Network AudioPort, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuels projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.

“The Death of the Mackenzie River,” A Warning We Cannot Ignore, October 14, 2026 Keepers of the Water

Free! Thacker Pass Defenders Settle Lawsuit as Ethics Scandal Grows, October 9, 2026 Max Wilbert

Help Land Defender Kanahus Manuel Rebuild Her Home, October 8, 2026 Leftie Jane

Nineteen Train Cars Derail in Minot, September 30, 2026 Minot Daily News

One Killed after Train Derails, Leaks Ammonia, January 18, 2002 CNN

See also: Derailment of Canadian Pacific Railway Freight Train 292-16 and Subsequent Release of Anhydrous Ammonia near Minot, North Dakota (Railroad Accident Report NTSB/RAR-04/01), January 18, 2002 National Transportation Safety Board

Stop the Dirty Deal Again + Mass Call Tonight @ 5 pm PT/8 pm ET, October 21, 2026 People vs. Fossil Fuels (email similar to next article)

Stop the Latest Dirty Deal!, 2026 People vs. Fossil Fuels

Oppose Permitting Reform Organizing Call, 2026 Zoom/People vs. Fossil Fuels

The Deceptive “Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act”, October 19, 2026 Locus Focus/KBOO

 

In this conversation, edited and updated, Bioneers Producer Stephanie Welch speaks with Chloe Maxmin. Hailing from rural Maine, Chloe is the Co-Founder of Dirtroad Organizing alongside her best friend, Canyon Woodward. She also runs Begin Again Farm with her partner, Bill Pluecker, growing organic vegetables for her community. Chloe received an honors degree from Harvard College, where she co-founded Divest Harvard. Chloe served in the Maine House of Representatives in 2018 and the Maine State Senate in 2020. She was the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maine Senate and is the co-author (with Canyon) of Dirt Road Revival. (Note: Dirtroad Organizing is a non-partisan organization that focuses on values, not Party. Chloe’s political work does not affect Dirtroad’s non-partisan commitment.)

STEPHANIE: In this political climate, where we’re being told how polarized we are as a country, but there are many issues that a majority of people in the U.S. agree on, such as the need for universal healthcare, a living wage, having clean air, water, and food. Considering your work finding common ground, is it frustrating to hear all the time the refrain, especially in the media, that we can’t come together? How are you feeling about that aspect of our current political climate?

CHLOE: I mean, we are polarized. It’s something I experience in my community, and people who come through our organization, Dirtroad Organizing, are experiencing it, too. The ability to simply have a conversation across party lines is very, very difficult right now, and it takes a lot of intention and thought to make that happen. 

But at the same time, I think that the power of finding common ground still exists. We have to carve out the space to make that happen. We’re told a lot of stories that make it hard for people to hear the other side. This has made it both much more difficult to have space for another point of view, and it has also stoked horrible racism, xenophobia, and violence in our country that has made these bridge-building conversations unsafe for many people. At Dirtroad Organizing, our work is about trying to find the space where you can find that moment to reach beyond. 

There’s definitely a lot of prejudice and judgment on the left about rural voters that voted for Trump, and that’s a theme that rural voters feel. I feel it as a progressive living in a rural area–a kind of remote disdain from the left about folks in my community. People in my community are good people, and they’re disenfranchised and don’t feel represented, and can’t make ends meet. But in so many spaces that I’m in on the left, it feels like I have to make the case that they should talk to people who voted for Trump. 

Of course, some people who voted for Trump are far right extremists that I don’t have space for. But most folks are just trying to find the best way towards a good life for themselves and their families. I hear many folks saying, you know, just trust Trump, it’s all going to work out, he’s going to keep his word. And then I hear other people saying, “I regret voting for him.” I think time will tell, and we’ll see how it shakes out in our elections.

Photo by Henney Sullivan, courtesy of Dirtroad Organizing

STEPHANIE: I was in Iowa and interviewed small farmers and others who were sick of agribusiness and were organizing locally to advocate for busting up monopolies that are killing their communities. I sat with one farmer who showed me his childhood photo album saying: This used to be a vibrant community, we had dances every Saturday night, farmers could earn a living and pass on the farm to their children. And now everything here is boarded up and the town is dead. These are farmers who got arrested in 2008 protesting the Obama Administration for turning its back on homeowners. The rally I went to included immigrant workers dealing with unfair treatment by the meat packing industry, and local labor unions. One farmer, who happened to be a woman, told me we have got to reinvest in rural America, or this country is doomed. But I don’t see a focus on rural communities as a strong part of the current progressive agenda, do you? 

CHLOE: Yeah, I agree. I don’t think it’s represented well at all on the left. It’s a huge challenge. I think it’s one that rural folks feel quite acutely that the left doesn’t quite have the policy solutions that many rural communities need. The issues may be the same, but the approaches that you need in a rural community just look different. It’s complicated.

There’s an amazing book, The Politics of Resentment, focused on rural Wisconsin and how rural folks perceive a lack of support, especially on the policy level, from urban Democratic policymakers. There are many incredible books on this topic that can speak to it better than I can. But it’s a very pervasive feeling among rural folks that they don’t feel represented. The left doesn’t show up in rural communities, especially when they’re campaigning, and so we’ve seen just a systemic disenfranchisement of rural communities’ voices on the left as we’re making this policy. So it’s a circular problem. 

You can’t make policy for impacted communities unless you have those impacted communities at the table, and if we’re not actively organizing and investing in what are now conservative rural spaces, then we’re never going to understand that experience and what we need to be integrating into our laws. This is true for all communities that have not historically been central to Democratic law-making.

STEPHANIE: I find that there are still many people who don’t realize that millions who voted for Obama twice voted for Trump the first time, and they’re still wedded to this idea that there are these stagnant voting blocs. Over and over again, when voters are asked what they care about most, they say the same thing: the economy and the cost of living. And when the Democrats don’t deliver to voters and make material differences in people’s lives, they lose. Is that what you’re finding with voters that you talk to in rural areas? Is that an issue for them?

CHLOE: Yeah, based on my own experience and what I hear from the folks that we work with, I don’t think rural folks see their issues reflected in policymaking. And the challenges they face in their lives have gotten worse and worse. There are now many incredible organizations working to address this, and I do think that the tides are turning for the better thanks to this amazing work. 

Rural voters are privileged in our American democracy just the way that our Electoral College is set up, the way that our Congress is set up. So rural voices have an outsized influence on our policy at the national and at the state level. So if we’re talking about building durable progressive power that truly does advocate for the rights of everyone, we can’t get there unless we’re actively organizing in rural places. 

On the left, I think there’s frustration amongst policymakers that they’re losing ground, and there’s certainly frustration amongst the folks in rural communities. They don’t see themselves reflected in what’s happening with the people that they elect. It definitely feels like a huge mess. So from that perspective, it’s like people needed something different. The politics as usual was not working for rural folks, and, mostly for worse, people saw that reflected in Trump and his campaign. So that’s how I see the reality that we’re living with, people are just desperate to be heard and represented and have their needs met.

I think back to 2018 when I first ran, and talking to so many folks who had voted for Bernie in the 2016 primary and then voted for Trump, and trying to understand what that thread was. I think part of it is that folks felt an authenticity in Bernie, and they felt some form of authenticity in Trump, and that translated. But I think the sense of populism was also a common theme, that they felt like Bernie was trying to advocate for everyone in working class folks, and then they also saw that represented in Trump, and they didn’t see that represented in the Democratic establishment. 

Photo courtesy of Dirtroad Organizing

STEPHANIE: Let’s talk about your work in rural communities in your neck of the woods. How did you get involved in politics?

CHLOE: I’ve always loved my hometown. And growing up, I knew I didn’t share the same politics with everyone that was part of the village that was raising me, but they were all good people, and we shared our core values. 

When I was in high school in 2009, there was no partisan lean amongst rural voters. But then I went off to college, and I met Canyon Woodward, who managed both of my campaigns. Canyon also grew up in a rural red town. And while we were in college, something really interesting was happening in rural America. By 2016, by the time we had graduated, just seven years later, rural voters were swinging to the right by over 16 points. So when we went home after graduation, it really felt like a different world, and that is obviously manifested in 2016 when Trump was elected. My hometown State House district and my hometown State Senate district voted for Trump, and what that policy represented to me felt really at odds with the good-hearted community around me.

So in 2018, I decided to run for State House in my hometown, which had a plus 16 Republican advantage, and Canyon came up to manage the campaign. The work was really just about trying to understand what was happening in rural America and why things went so far one direction so quickly. We ran a campaign that was really based in grassroots organizing and relationship building, and we won. Then in 2020, we ran for the state Senate against the highest ranking Republican in the state, and we won again using the same philosophy of just reaching across differences and building really strong, broad, intentional movements. I served four years in the legislature, and this experience taught us so much about what it means to organize in rural America. 

A core part of our campaign was trying to get away from how things had been done, because that obviously wasn’t working well in our districts or in other districts like ours across the country. I don’t think anything we did was that radical, just minor changes to make our campaigns more representative of the communities we were organizing in. I was very lucky that Canyon had the skillset to create our canvassing universe. It’s basically the list of folks that you go and talk to when you, unfortunately, just don’t have the time to knock on every door.  We really focused on talking to Republicans and independents because it’s a conservative district. 

So many of those conversations were purely about bridging divides and trying to find common ground. It was so shocking how, on a daily basis, we would talk to people who had never been contacted by a Democratic candidate or campaign in their entire voting history. And many people said no candidate had ever come to their door, regardless of political affiliation. It was every day. I mean, it was so wild. I still hear this pattern echoed today with the leaders that come through Dirtroad Organizing, all these years later. They hear the same thing in their rural communities as they are out organizing. 

Photo by Forest Woodward, courtesy of Dirtroad Organizing

In my mind, it’s like, okay, if this person hasn’t been contacted before, maybe there’s a reason why. You know, maybe they’re too conservative to consider voting for someone like me, but that was not the case at all. These were incredible people with incredible stories who truly just wanted to be heard and represented, and we, as the left, had never shown up to hear their stories. Their stories shaped me; stories that I didn’t see reflected in the left and how we think about policy. So it was just very important to me to talk to folks.

I remember one door in particular. It was a trailer in the middle of the woods, down a very long dirt road. I canvassed by myself, which is not safe or accessible for everyone, but it’s what worked for me, and I could see that a guy lived there, and all the curtains on this trailer were drawn. And, you know, my heart was going a little bit. But I went up and knocked on his door, and we ended up having this really lovely discussion. And he said, “You are the first person to ever come and knock on my door, and people judge what my house looks like, and I can just see them drive away.” And that was so touching to me. 

I felt that judgment too when I drove up to the door. But that’s a lesson, you know, not everything is as it seems. And he ended up voting for me. And he kept my palm card on his fridge. It was one of those life-changing moments that challenges how you perceive the world. 

STEPHANIE: Were you finding common concerns among the people you talked to?

CHLOE: This was now many years ago, but I was surprised that the biggest thing that I heard was that people just didn’t feel represented. It was like everything had failed folks so much that it wasn’t one particular issue anymore, but just the system in general was failing people. And everyone has very specific examples in their lives of how politics has failed them. It was a sacred priority for me to actually represent my community once I was elected. I didn’t want to go hear stories and then go sponsor bills that weren’t reflective of the issues that I heard, or take votes that weren’t reflective of my community. So that felt very important to me.

I think everything has gotten more and more polarized since then. But my own experience to this day is that this sense of not feeling represented has gotten stronger and stronger and stronger, and everything that we’re experiencing right now is a consequence of people just feeling deeply unrepresented and not seeing the very personal challenges that they have in their lives addressed by the people that they elect.

STEPHANIE: When you were being presented with bills to vote on, or introducing your own legislation, what was your experience working with people who voted for you and those who didn’t vote for you who were still in your district?

CHLOE: It was fascinating, and taught me so much about myself and my community, and the Democratic Party in general. There were times when I didn’t vote with my party because I was representing my community, and there were times when I voted with my party, and maybe it didn’t match up with my community. It’s so hard. I always thought when I was elected it’d be very easy to tell where my community landed on an issue, but, people reach out when they’re fired up about one issue, and it’s very hard to tell what the other side thinks if they’re not as fired up. I knocked on so many doors, so I felt like I had a really good sense of where my community was, but that kind of real-time feedback was tough. 

Policymaking is very nuanced. An issue can be black and white, but the bill that the issue is held in can be very complicated. And so there can be one line in a bill that could have huge consequences, but it takes time and energy to communicate that to your constituents. I always viewed it as my job as an elected official – I’m getting paid to do this work, I’m getting paid to go to Augusta and read all of the bills – so I always tried to take the time to explain to people why I voted one way or another. But it’s almost never black and white.

As a constituent before I was elected, I always looked at policymaking and it seemed really black and white to me. And as an elected official, you realize there’s just always more to consider than what it seems. Of course, there are some issues where I do think it’s black and white, but I think in most cases that it’s more complicated.

STEPHANIE: It seems if you’ve built trust, to a certain extent, a lot of people would say, okay, I trust you; I know you’re going to compromise. Were you getting any pushback, including from the Democratic Party in general when you weren’t voting for the bills they were putting forward? Did you feel a lot of pressure?

CHLOE: Most elected officials have felt pressure at one point or another in their service. But, yeah, there’s pressure. There’s pressure, for sure. I think some of that is understandable, and some of it I don’t love. But, you know, that’s part of the experience of being elected, is being able to navigate that and kind of understanding why you’re there. 

I was there to represent my community, and that’s what I focused on. As a Democrat representing a conservative community, the way that I navigate the situation is going to be very different from how a Democrat representing a more liberal community is going to navigate it. And since we have more Democrats representing liberal communities than conservative communities, I think it’s just a different dynamic. And that’s okay.

STEPHANIE: Have you thought about being part of another party outside of the Democrats and Republicans? 

CHLOE: I’m a bit of a cynic. I think we’re kind of stuck with the two-party system, and I believe in reforming the Democratic Party from the inside out, that’s just my own personal theory of change. But we need all of the theories of change to move forward in this work. There’s so much work going on right now to support pro-democracy Republicans and conservatives that are running for office. I think that’s so important. A lot of Republicans don’t represent some of the social extremism that we’re seeing reflected right now in the larger Republican Party. 

I think it’s also important for Independents to run for office. One of my bills was to support independents voting in primaries in Maine to kind of even out the partisanship that we see in party primaries. I really like rank choice voting, which we also are lucky to have in Maine, because that allows Independents to have a fair shot when they’re running for office. 

Photo courtesy of Dirtroad Organizing

Dirtroad Organizing supports candidates, organizers, and staffers in rural areas across the country. To date, we have over 200 alumni from 39 states. These rural leaders are bringing so much love and empathy and care to the people they live with, and they’re paving a better way forward for all of us. We’re a non-partisan organization, and for me, it’s more about the values that you’re running to represent rather than the party that you’re from. As I chose to run, I wanted to run as a Democrat because I feel like the values of the Democratic Party are supposed to serve rural places well, they’re supposed to serve my community well. But they’re just not. So trying to kind of do some of that translation work, that was the task that I wanted to take on. But it’s not for everybody, and not every community wants that as well.

STEPHANIE: Right, and they abandoned the working class by design. Senator Chuck Schumer said their strategy was to appeal to suburbia and that for every working class Democrat voter they lost, they would get two Centrist Republicans. I don’t think that worked out for them, but it’s no surprise that low-wage workers feel they have no one representing them. The Democratic Party is very low in opinion polls, so maybe it’s a great time to be reforming it.

CHLOE: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s going to be a multi-decade task, probably. We’ve lost folks pretty quickly and have not been super successful at making the case that the Democrats do advocate for working class folks, as you just said. Again, I think this narrative is starting to shift now, which is really exciting to see.

The work of rural organizing is very complicated, and there is so much to unpack in what it means. Rural organizing as a white woman in my Maine hometown is very different from what it looks like in the South. But at the core, I really believe in the power of showing up and having really intentional and authentic face-to-face conversations. I feel like that’s the only way to break down some of the silos and judgments that each party has about each other. In my experience, and what we hear from our folks through Dirtroad Organizing, is when you knock on a door, the first question is: Are you a Democrat or a Republican? And you know, I would always blurt out very quickly, “I’m a Democrat but I’m a good Democrat.” But oftentimes the door gets shut in your face before you can even have a conversation. 

So I think that the best way for Democrats to make the case that they do care about working class folks and rural working class folks is that you have to show up at people’s doors, and you have to prove it. You have to show it. And then you have to get elected and you have to actually work on the policies that benefit those rural working class folks in a way that resonates with them, with the messaging and the stories that rural folks will listen to, because it’s a different language in rural America. 

Rural America deserves that nuance and attention. We’ve got to show up, and we have to kind of be able to hold that door open long enough to have that conversation, and plant that seed that maybe it’s not such a bad idea to vote for this person. I think that’s very important to do that consistently, not just in every October of an election year, but really showing up and organizing in communities. That’s so important. There are so many rural heroes who are doing this work, day in and day out, year after year–and those folks to me are the ones who are holding our democracy together.

I think it’s also important to have different voices and different representation in office that reflect the reality of rural communities. We also know you don’t get paid to run for office, and in many state legislatures, you don’t get paid a living wage at all to serve. In New Hampshire, you make $100 a year. In New Mexico, you make nothing. When I was in the Maine statehouse, I think it was like $14,000 in our first year, and $10,000 the second year. Most folks who do get elected at the state or local level don’t make enough to survive. So there’s a reason why our politics are skewed to older, retired folks or independently wealthy people, because that’s who it’s accessible to. 

There are so many movements right now to rethink how to make politics more accessible, to have campaign finance laws, or to allow folks to pay for childcare if they’re a parent while they’re campaigning to have a living wage while you’re serving. There’s so many pieces to it. Also, if you get elected and you don’t look like the majority of the body that you’re going into, then that’s a very difficult and isolating experience, as well, and you are more likely to get targeted. And that’s very scary. There’s a lot of risk involved as well if you don’t reflect kind of the majority of what our politics look like. So I think that’s a huge part of it. 

We also believe, at Dirtroad, that running for local office can still make such a huge difference. So much of our political conversation is at the statewide or national level, and that feels very hard to influence. You know, you’re one vote out of millions if you’re at the state level. At the national level you’re one vote out of hundreds of millions. So it just feels like no matter what you do or who you call, that it doesn’t really have an impact. And I certainly feel that, even though I’m very involved in politics. 

But at the state legislative level, at the local level, those bodies have a huge influence over what our communities look like, over the policies that we’re living in every single day. But they’ve been very overlooked, especially by the left. The right has done an incredible job of organizing at the local level, and we’ve seen that, especially at the school board level with all the effort to ban books and really use school boards to influence what our education system looks like. 

When you run at the local level, you can win by like five or ten votes. In Maine, we have state legislative races where people win by one vote. So you can see that every vote does make a difference, and it is important that you’re engaged and that you show up. And as the candidate, or as someone in the campaign, every vote truly does matter. It matters how many people we talk to. It matters that we’re reaching beyond the choir, because that’s how we make sure that we’re electing folks that are more representative of the communities.

STEPHANIE: Is it pretty consistent that candidates who have a solid ground game, who are actually talking to people and have support to knock on doors and have the conversations, win? 

CHLOE: Not always. We try and encourage folks to look at their campaigning as social movement building, that it’s not about a vehicle that gets one person from being a citizen to an elected official, it’s hopefully part of the journey, and an opportunity to organize in your community and talk to people. You have an excuse to go knock on doors, to make phone calls, to write postcards, to reach out in ways that you just don’t have the social license to at other times of the year. So I think that’s such a big part of it, is that ground game. 

Of course, that doesn’t always work, and I think especially in some conservative districts where it’s a steep hill to climb, you know? So we work with people who build incredible ground games, and it doesn’t quite get them to the finish line, but at the same time, winning isn’t always winning. They’ve been building movements, building volunteer infrastructures, creating a dialogue in their community where that dialogue wasn’t there before, and it looked very different than it was before they ran. So thinking about it that way is important. 

STEPHANIE: A movement definitely emerged with the Bernie campaigns. There was momentum and excitement, and a lot of organizing. They relied on small donations, which inspired a lot of people. And then he just handed everything over to the Democrats, including my email, which really makes me mad because I cannot get off their lists. But, you know, the air was really let out of that tire, so to speak. 

CHLOE: Yeah, I think that’s a theme for the Democrats, just universally, that we build movements and then we can’t quite sustain them. And I think there are examples of movements that have done  amazing jobs at sustaining very large movements over many cycles, and I think that’s pretty cool. But oftentimes, we do that organizing and then we’re burned out, we’re tired, we’re exhausted, we’re bummed, and it’s very hard to keep that organizing going. It’s like this boom or bust cycle of electioneering that has also impacted communities because they see people coming to their doors and all of this energy being invested for this year, and then it’s gone. It doesn’t make anyone feel good if you just kind of flit in when someone needs you. You want to be shown that it’s important that you’re there all the time. 

There are so many organizations that are doing year-round organizing across the country in every single state and at the national level, focused on doing this ground work in a way that bridges cycles, and that isn’t just tied to one candidate and one election. I feel like that’s such an important model as well. I mean it’s hard work. And we work with so many folks who put themselves on the line. They put their lives on hold. They don’t get to see their families and their friends and their loved ones because they’re campaigning. And they build these really beautiful movements, and then, you know, organizing in conservative districts, you don’t win, and that’s so hard. 

So part of our work – and we’re in these coalitions – is to support those people who did that incredible movement-building work, to support them if they want to run again, to support the movements that they built if they don’t want to run again. But just trying to think of it all more holistically and what it takes to organize in rural spaces. But as we started this conversation with the level of polarization and othering right now is at a very scary and dangerous level. And so to us, it makes it even more important to be able to do this work of bridging differences in rural America.

STEPHANIE: Yeah, I do feel there’s a kind of hopelessness. But I also feel that these experiences of making connections is key to despair. My cousin, who sadly passed away recently, was a trucker who worked all the time and dealt with a lot of stress and frustration. We grew up in Kentucky. And we went back and forth online politically, disagreeing on this and that, and after a while he said, “You know, Cous, I think you might have a point. I think a lot of what I’m putting out there is just a bunch of BS, and I don’t really mean it.” He was just caught up in the drama and didn’t have time to do a lot of research. We found a lot of things we agreed on. So I hope people become more open to having conversations with others who they might even perceive to be extreme. And just dig a little bit. You know? 

CHLOE: Yeah, definitely, definitely. I feel so inspired by the stories that we hear from the folks we work with, how they’re still finding common ground. You know, I hear over and over again, and it’s something that we talk about in our trainings as well – How do we want to show up in communities? How can we show up in ways that are authentic, that resonate, no matter what political party people are from? How can we really run on values that show that we’re all connected and are all facing so many of the same struggles? We might be facing them in different ways, and some of us are experiencing some struggles more acutely than others, but we are all in the same boat. 

In 2024, Dirtroad Organizing had 37 folks on the ballot all across rural America, and over 50 percent either won their seats or outperformed past cycles, and even in districts where Trump made huge gains, these folks were outperforming when they were running at the local level. We had one guy, David Arends, who ran in a very conservative district in northern Montana. He made his ballot competitive for the first time in over a decade, and he outperformed that district by nine points because he just literally went and talked to everybody. This year, we have over 70 Dirtroad alumni on the ballot. These folks are incredible leaders who deeply care about their communities and are out there, right now, organizing for a better future for all of us. Again, we’re a non-partisan organization. Many of our candidates gain ground because they run authentic grassroots values-based campaigns that are really focused on representing their community. So that, to me, that’s a sign that that’s where it’s at. That’s where our hope is. 

But running for office, working on campaigns, rural organizing in general is tough work. It’s tough work. And it can be really lonely and isolating, even though I think it’s the most important thing that we can be doing right now. So everything that we do is about trying to bring more resources and attention to the stories of what this organizing actually looks like. Dirtroad Organizing actually just launched a story telling program to uplift the incredible work of our alumni. It’s called HomeGrown, and you can find us on Substack. 

• Dirtroad Organizing website
• Homegrown Substack by Dirtroad Organizing
• 2020 Bioneers Online Keynote from Chloe as State Senator

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