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Trump’s NPS nominee met with skepticism, hostility
Early reaction to President Trump’s nominee to run the National Park Service ranged from skepticism to outright hostility. Statements from conservation groups noted that hospitality executive Scott Socha would take charge of an agency that has been heavily damaged by the Trump administration over the last year.
Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association, said that NPCA was ready to work with Socha, but “he must put the Park Service’s mission first, stand up for park staff, fill critical vacancies and halt attacks on our nation’s history.”
Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for the Save Our Parks campaign, noted that Socha “has zero experience in public service or conservation,” and that Socha has “made a career out of extracting maximum profit from our national parks, not protecting them.”
Center for Western Priorities Deputy Director Aaron Weiss highlighted Socha’s connections to the first Trump administration, when his company, Delaware North, was suing the Park Service for $51 million, claiming it owned trademarks on the names of historic park lodges, including “Ahwahnee” and even “Yosemite National Park” itself. During that time, Socha attended a meeting with then-Interior Ryan Zinke that was set up by corrupt congressman Chris Collins, who was under investigation for insider trading. Collins ended up in prison, while the Interior department ultimately paid Delaware North more than $3 million to restore the names of the lodges at Yosemite.
What gutting the Council on Environmental Quality means for public landsIn the latest episode of CWP’s podcast, The Landscape, Kate and Aaron are joined by Professor John Ruple, a public lands law expert at the University of Utah and former attorney at the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), to discuss the Trump administration’s dismantling of the CEQ’s authority over NEPA regulations. He breaks down what the Trump administration means when it claims to have ended NEPA’s “regulatory reign of terror” and why removing uniform environmental review standards creates chaos for public lands. Listen now on Apple Podcasts or watch the episode on YouTube.
Quick hits Indigenous history and science purged from Glacier National Park Trump blew up a cornerstone of climate regulation—industry may regret itHeated | Associated Press | The Daily | New York Times | Vox | Grist | Reuters | Politico | The Guardian | Washington Post | BBC
Sen. Schiff launches Senate probe into Freedom 250 group selling access to TrumpABC News | USA Today | The Hill
Meet the anti-democratic zealots presiding over Trump’s makeover of U.S. history Doug Burgum, the regime toady of our time Burgum’s new coal mascot tells a story about what it’s like to work under the Trump administration Trump administration backs Daines’s attempt to strip wilderness protection in Montana The Forest Service wants to ‘streamline’ public land management by giving you less opportunity to comment Quote of the dayThere’s always somebody who doesn’t get the memo. Such as folks who have yet to learn that Utah is a state where public-lands tourism is key to the economy. What’s really sad is that among those who have not received, or understood, this information are the members of our congressional delegation.”
—Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board
Picture ThisAre you interested in hiking Angels Landing anytime in 2026? Then you need to apply for a permit lottery!
Seasonal applications for spring hikes will open Friday, February 13th and will close at 11:59pm on Wednesday, February 25th.
For more information, important dates for the rest of the year, and the link to apply, visit go.nps.gov/AngelsLanding
Featured image: Scott Socha testifies before Congress in May 2021. Senate Energy and Natural Resources CommitteeThe post Trump’s NPS nominee met with skepticism, hostility appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.
The Hub 2/13/2026: Clean Air Council’s Weekly Round-up of Transportation News
“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up-to-date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.
Register here for Transit Equity Day: Workshop & Celebration! Join Clean Air Council and Transit Transit Forward Philadelphia to celebrate on 2/21 with food, speakers, and community activities. Register and learn more here!
Happy Valentine’s Day! Download Valentines for your favorite public transit rider from the Council here.
NBC Philadelphia: AI-powered cameras on SEPTA buses have led to thousands of tickets – SEPTA buses have been capturing footage of drivers idling or parking in bus lanes throughout the city, and more than 112,000 citations have been issued in the past seven months as a result. Cameras are on more than 100 SEPTA buses with routes in Center City and University City. AI-powered cameras identify cars parked illegally in bus lanes or stops, and footage is sent to PPA officers for review. Bus routes with ticket enforcement have gotten 3-6% faster, with citywide bus route travel times having slowed during the same time period. The bill for the first seven months of this program is nearly $2.8 billion, with fees from drivers reaching $4.3 million. The agency says the focus of this program is to increase compliance, not increase revenue for the PPA.
PhillyVoice: Philly to put up ‘No Stopping’ signs along bike lanes citywide after receiving $1 million from PennDOT – Philadelphia is replacing signs across the city to better protect cyclists. Signs in bike lanes currently instruct drivers not to park, but as part of a $27 million funding package, they will be replaced with ones that also instruct drivers not to illegally stop in bike lanes. The funding package uses revenue from red light cameras to pay for traffic safety upgrades.
Image Source: The City of Philadelphia6ABC: Controller says speed cushions installed at Philadelphia schools not done to standards – In the summer and fall of 2025, 140 speed cushions were inspected at 44 schools by the Philadelphia City Controller. Only two had height and length measurements within the specified range. 95% of the inspected speed cushions were too steep, and homeowners had been reaching out to 311 to report noise, drivers swerving to avoid them, and vehicle damage. It’s unclear if the city will be forced to pay to repair the cushions or how much the total bill would be. A copy of the published report can be found here.
Other StoriesThe Inquirer: $29M in federal and private funds to go toward Delaware River watershed projects
SEPTA: New Bus & Metro Schedules, Feb. 22 & 23 & New Regional Rail Schedules
6ABC: Portion of MLK Drive in Philadelphia closed until further notice due to emergency maintenance
WHYY: Judge orders Trump administration to restore funding for rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey
6ABC: Study finds parts of country have large gaps in charging infrastructure
Call New York Legislators: Pass the Insure Our Communities Act!
The post Call New York Legislators: Pass the Insure Our Communities Act! appeared first on Stop the Money Pipeline.
DeBriefed 13 February 2026: Trump repeals landmark ‘endangerment finding’ | China’s emissions flatlining | UK’s ‘relentless rain’
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
DANGER DANGER: The Trump administration formally repealed the US’s landmark “endangerment finding” this week, reported the Financial Times. The 2009 Obama-era finding concluded that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and has provided a legal basis for their regulation over the past two decades, said the New York Times.
RACE TO COURT: Multiple environmental groups have already threatened to sue over the administration’s decision, reported the Guardian. The fate of the ruling is likely to ultimately be decided by the Conservative-majority Supreme Court, explained the New York Times.
‘BEAUTIFUL CLEAN COAL’: Separately, Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring the Pentagon to buy coal-fired power, a move aimed to “revive a fuel source in sharp decline”, reported the Los Angeles Times. Despite his efforts, Trump has overseen more retirements of coal-fired power stations than any other US president, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
Around the world- CLIMATE TALKS: UN climate chief Simon Stiell said in a speech on Thursday that climate action can deliver stability in the face of a “new world disorder“ while on a visit to Turkey, which will host the COP31 climate summit later this year, reported BusinessGreen.
- IBERIAN CATASTROPHE: A succession of storms that hit Spain and Portugal in recent weeks have caused millions of euros worth of damage to farmlands and required more than 11,000 people to leave their homes in Spain’s southern Andalusia region, said Reuters.
- RISKY BUSINESS: The “undervaluing” of nature by businesses is fuelling its decline and putting the global economy at risk, according to a new report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), covered by Carbon Brief. Carbon Brief interviewed IPBES chair Dr David Obura at the report’s launch in Manchester.
- CORAL BLEACHING: A study covered by Agence France-Presse found that more than half of the world’s coral reefs were bleached over a three-year period from 2014-17 during Earth’s third “global bleaching event”. The world has since entered a fourth bleaching event, starting in 2023, a scientist told AFP.
- ‘HELLISH HOTHOUSE EARTH’: In a commentary paper, scientists argued that the world is closer than thought to a “point of no return”, which could plunge Earth into a “hellish hothouse” state, reported the Guardian.
The record amount of solar, onshore wind and tidal power secured in the latest auction for new renewable capacity in the UK, reported Carbon Brief.
Latest climate research- Human-caused climate change made the hot, dry and windy weather in Chile and Argentina three times more likely | World Weather Attribution (Carbon Brief also covered the study)
- “Early-life” exposure to extreme heat “increases risk” of neurodevelopmental delay in preschool children | Nature Climate Change
- Climate change, urbanisation and species characteristics shape European butterfly population trends | Global Ecology and Biogeography
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
CapturedChina’s carbon dioxide emissions have “now been flat or falling for 21 months”, analysis for Carbon Brief has found. The trend began in March 2024 and has lasted almost two years, due in particular to falling emissions in major sectors, including transport, power and cement, said the analysis. The analysis has been covered widely in global media, including Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg, New York Times, BBC World Service and Channel 4 News.
Spotlight UK’s ‘relentless rain’This week, Carbon Brief takes a deep dive into the recent relentless rain and floods in the UK and explores how they could be linked to climate change.
It is no secret that it can rain a lot in the UK. But, in some parts of the country, it has rained every day of the year so far, according to Met Office data released this week.
In total, 26 stations set new monthly rainfall records for January. Northern Ireland experienced its wettest January for 149 years and Plymouth, in the south-west of England, experienced its wettest January day in 104 years.
Areas witnessing long periods of rain included Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, which has seen 41 consecutive days of rain “and counting”, reported the Guardian. The University of Reading found that its home town had its longest period of consecutive rain – 25 days – since its records for the city began in 1908.
The relentless rainfall has caused flooding in many parts of the country, particularly in rural areas.
There were more than 200 active flood alerts in place across England and Wales at the weekend, with flood warnings clustered around Gloucester and Worcester in the West Midlands, as well as Devon and Hampshire in southern England. A flood “alert” means that there is a possibility of flooding, while a “warning” means flooding is expected.
“Growing up, the road to my school never flooded. But the school has already had to close three times this year because of flooding,” Jess Powell, a local resident of a small village in Shropshire, told Carbon Brief.
Burst river bank of the river Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Credit: Alice Vernat-Davies Climate linkWhile there has not yet been a formal analysis into the role of climate change in the UK’s current lengthy period of rain and flooding, it is known that human-caused warming can play a role in wet weather extremes, explained Dr Jess Neumann, a flooding researcher from the University of Reading. She told Carbon Brief:
“Warmer air can hold more moisture – about 7% more for every 1C of warming, increasing the chance of more frequent and at times, intense rainfall.”
The UK owes its rainy climate in large part due to the jet stream, which brings strong winds from west to east and pushes low-pressure weather systems across the Atlantic.
Scientists have said that one of the factors behind the UK’s relentless rain is the “blocking” of the jet stream, which occurs when winds slow, causing rainy weather patterns to get stuck.
The impact of climate change on the jet stream is complex, involving a lot of different factors. One theory, still subject to debate among scientists, is that Arctic warming could play a role, explained Neumann:
“As the Arctic warms faster than the tropics, the temperature gradient that fuels the jet stream weakens, causing it to become slower and wavier. Blocking patterns develop that can cause weather conditions to get stuck over the UK, increasing the likelihood of extreme rainfall and flooding.”
Adaptation needsLong periods of rain saturate the ground and can have adverse impacts on agriculture and wildlife.
Prof Richard Betts, a leading climate scientist at the Met Office and the University of Exeter, said that these impacts can have harmful effects in rural areas:
“The climate change-driven increase in flood risk is impacting food production in the UK. In 2024, the production of wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape shrunk by 13% due to widespread flooding of farmland.
“Assistance with recovery after flooding is increasingly important – obviously, financial help via insurance and reinsurance is vital, but also action to reduce impacts on mental health is increasingly important. It’s very stressful dealing with the impacts of flooding and this is often not recognised.”
One key adaptation for floods in the UK could be to “integrate natural flood management, including sustainable urban drainage, with more traditional hard engineering techniques”, added Neumann:
“Most importantly, we need to improve our communication of flood risk to help individuals and communities know how to prepare. We need to shift our thinking from ‘keeping water out’ to ‘living with water’, if we want to adapt better to a future of flooding.”
Watch, read, listen‘IRREVERSIBLE TREND?’: The Guardian explored how Romania’s emissions have fallen by 75% since the 1990s and have been decoupled from the country’s economic growth.
UNDER THE SEA: An article in BioGraphic explored whether the skeletons of dead corals “help or hinder recovery” on bleached reefs.
SPEEDING UP: Through dynamic charts, the Washington Post showed how climate change is accelerating.
Coming up- 16-19 February: Sixth meeting of the subsidiary body on implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Rome, Italy
- 20 February: Webinar on the key findings from the International Energy Agency policy brief: the value of demand flexibility: benefits beyond balancing
- 20 February: UN day of social justice
- 22-27 February: Ocean Sciences Meeting, Glasgow, UK
- UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), national senior climate change expert | Salary: Unknown. Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
- British Antarctic Survey, marine biologist | Salary: £31,183. Location: Antarctica
- Green Climate Fund, regional lead for resource mobilisation – Europe | Salary: $109,000. Location: Seoul, South Korea
- Scientific American, documentary film proposals | Up to $80,000 per commissioned film
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
DeBriefed
|DeBriefed 30 January 2026: Fire and ice; US formally exits Paris; Climate image faux pas
DeBriefed
|DeBriefed 23 January 2026: Trump’s Davos tirade; EU wind and solar milestone; High seas hope
DeBriefed
|DeBriefed
| jQuery(document).ready(function() { jQuery('.block-related-articles-slider-block_0c1fb743ebca86b78322921d07b11a5a .mh').matchHeight({ byRow: false }); });The post DeBriefed 13 February 2026: Trump repeals landmark ‘endangerment finding’ | China’s emissions flatlining | UK’s ‘relentless rain’ appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Union registered nurses across the country hold day of action Feb. 19 to protest ICE as one of worst public health threats
AEP contracted large load pipeline doubles to 56 GW
American Electric Power’s data center pipeline in Texas surged to 36 GW by the end of December, from 13 GW in the third quarter.
UK: High Court rules ban on Palestine Action under terrorism legislation unlawful
In response to today's High Court judgment that the proscription of Palestine Action under terrorism legislation is unlawful, Tom Southerden, Amnesty International UK’s Law and Human Rights Director, said:
“Today’s ruling is a vital affirmation of the right to protest at a time when it has been under sustained and deliberate attack. The High Court’s decision sends a clear message: the Government cannot simply reach for sweeping counter‑terrorism powers to silence critics or suppress dissent. We welcome this judgment as an essential check on overreach and a powerful reminder that fundamental freedoms still carry weight in UK law.
“We are relieved - and encouraged - that the Court has recognised the dangers of treating direct action as terrorism. This decision halts a pattern of escalating restrictions, aggressive policing tactics, and an ever-expanding definition of what constitutes ‘terrorism’. It draws an important line in the sand against attempts to narrow the democratic space and undermine public confidence in the right to speak out.
“The implications are profound. Thousands of peaceful protesters - including those involved in the Defend Our Juries campaign - have been arrested for something that should never have been a crime. This ruling offers hope not only for them, but for anyone who believes that challenging those in power is a legitimate and necessary part of public life.
“A healthy democracy depends on people being able to organise, protest, and demand accountability without fear of being branded a threat. Today’s outcome strengthens that principle and underscores the importance of safeguarding our rights against disproportionate, politically motivated interference.
“Amnesty will continue to expose attempts to erode these freedoms, stand with those targeted for peaceful activism, and defend the right to protest wherever it is threatened. This decision marks an important step forward - and we will keep working to ensure the Government respects both the spirit and the letter of today’s ruling.”
Türkiye prioritises cleaning up garbage emissions in COP31 ‘action agenda’
The Turkish government has chosen cutting emissions from the waste sector as its top priority for COP31’s action agenda, according to a draft seen by Climate Home News.
The document, which other countries will feed back on before it is published in March, lists 14 priorities, with the “rapid reduction of waste-derived methane emissions” ranked first.
The “action agenda” is the part of the COP process aimed at inspiring and enabling real-world climate action. It runs separately from the formal negotiations between countries, which will be presided over primarily by Australia under an unusual compromise agreement.
Reducing emissions from garbage disposal is the personal project of Turkish first lady Emine Erdoğan. She leads the Zero Waste Foundation and successfully lobbied the United Nations for a global Zero Waste Day.
More contentious topics like fossil fuels do not explicitly feature in the action agenda. At a press conference on Thursday, Türkiye’s environment minister and COP31 incoming President Murat Kurum said “we cannot simplify things down to only fossil fuels” as it is just “one branch of the struggle”.
Nearly 68% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions come from burning fossil fuels, while waste accounts for about 4%. Most of these emissions come from waste decomposing in landfills and releasing greenhouse gases as it rots, with a smaller amount generated by the incineration of waste to produce electricity.
Türkiye’s draft action agenda says that circular economy policies, like extending manufacturers’ responsibility over their products’ disposal and eco-design, should be scaled up, meanwhile systems to measure, report and verify emissions should be strengthened. Measurable results towards achieving zero waste should be delivered before 2030, it adds.
To achieve this in the short term, it says, there should be more organic waste diverted from landfills, better capturing of landfill gas and cleaning up of methane super-emitters. Longer-term solutions include recycling and composting.
Waste campaigners excitedKait Siegel, director for waste methane at the Clean Air Task Force campaign group, said she was “excited to see Türkiye elevate the issue of waste sector emissions” and “continues the trend from COP29 and COP30 of including this topic in the action agenda”.
She said waste emissions data collection and monitoring must be improved worldwide, alongside building capacity and funding mechanisms at both national and subnational levels.
At COP30 last year, an initiative backed by the Global Methane Hub was launched to cut 30% of methane emissions from organic waste by 2030, with 25 cities involved.
The initiative aims to recover surplus food, integrate waste workers into the circular economy and scale up city pilots, composting hubs and foodbank networks.
Siegel said she was interested in seeing how this will be implemented, how finance can be scaled up and how satellite remote sensing data can be better incorporated.
Mariel Vilella, who leads global climate work at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, told Climate Home News that focussing on waste is “both urgent and overdue”.
She said that waste methane is a “powerful super-pollutant and prioritising zero waste solutions offers one of the fastest, most cost-effective pathways to deliver meaningful progress towards global climate goals”. Solutions include waste separation, composting, recycling and biological treatment, she said.
But Andreas Sieber, head of political strategy at 350.org, said that, while waste management is important, “COP31 will ultimately be judged on whether it helps drive the transition away from fossil fuels” and efforts should focus on agreeing a roadmap away from coal, oil and gas.
Türkiye is a major importer of European waste, much of which is intended for recycling. In practice, however, significant volumes end up in landfills or are illegally burned in the open, generating greenhouse gas emissions and polluting the air and soil. The Zero Waste initiative, launched in 2017 by Emine Erdoğan, aims to address these problems.
The post Türkiye prioritises cleaning up garbage emissions in COP31 ‘action agenda’ appeared first on Climate Home News.
Nurses to host town hall to discuss Vision for a Healthy Society
A Fourth-Generation Family Farm Adapts for the Future
Olivia Fuller, a fourth-generation farmer at Fuller Acres in upstate New York, spent her childhood with dairy cows. As an only child, the farm shaped her sense of identity and community.
“The cows and the farm were my world,” says Fuller. “I had an unofficial litmus test for new friends. If they couldn’t handle being in the milking parlor or around the cows, we likely weren’t going to work out.”
Despite that deep connection, Fuller did not envision farming as her future career. She saw the way of farming she knew best—small-scale dairy farming—as exhausting and financially unstable for her parents.
“Growing up, I only ever saw one way of farming, dairy farming,” she says. “And it was farming that took every ounce of physical energy, grit, and money that one could muster.”
Like many farm kids, Fuller imagined leaving and returning to the farm later in life. She thought she might become a writer or magazine editor, eventually coming back to the farm for a quieter, more recreational connection to the land. But that vision began to change as she and her partner, Tom, spent time away from the farm and learned more about the broader agricultural landscape in America.
Fuller began working at the nonprofit American Farmland Trust, and she saw how difficult it was for young farmers to access land.
“I was amazed to discover that there were so many young people interested in farming,” says Fuller. “There were hundreds, if not thousands, of hardworking young people who desperately wanted what we were fortunate to have, access to land to farm on.”
She realized that her relationship to the family farm was something to be protected, not taken for granted. She and her father applied for New York State’s farmland protection program through a local land trust. This would establish a conservation easement on the farm, permanently protecting the land for agricultural use.
“We were all on board with that idea,” says Fuller. “It was the first big decision we made together on the farm, and it felt like a huge win to be chosen.” The easement closed on Fuller’s 25th birthday in 2017.
But Fuller’s fight to preserve the family farm was far from over. Three years later, Fuller’s mother died of pancreatic cancer. And amid the family’s profound loss, Fuller knew she needed to face a pressing challenge: continuing dairy farming at their scale was no longer economically viable.
“We moved into my grandparents’ old farmhouse and planted our roots even deeper. Saving the farm became my primary mission,” says Fuller. “We had already lost so much, and I couldn’t stand to see Dad lose the farm…But if we stayed the course with dairy, that was a growing possibility.”
The Fullers were losing thousands of dollars milking cows at their scale: “Our equity was crumbling beneath us,” says Fuller. While the conservation easement funds had bought them some time, they needed to make the farm more financially sustainable for the long term.
Fuller stepped into a leadership role, focusing on business planning, marketing, and diversification. She convinced her father to begin breeding some of the dairy herd to beef, slowly building a new business model centered on direct sales. As revenue stabilized, her father’s trust followed.
“I could place cash in my dad’s hands,” she says. “He slowly started to trust me that this could work.”
Eventually, her father made the difficult decision to let go of the family’s milking herd. Fuller Acres transitioned fully to raising beef cattle, pigs, and sheep using rotational grazing, allowing animals to fertilize the land naturally. That winter, the family remodeled the former milking parlor into a self-serve farm store.
“It may not be a dairy barn, but it will never be an empty barn,” Fuller’s father told her.
Today, customers stop by the farm to buy meat and linger to chat, bringing new energy and purpose to the land. But for Fuller, the most meaningful change is seeing her father experience a different relationship to farming.
“He finally doesn’t have to work that hard just to survive,” says Fuller. “He gets to do work he loves. But he also gets to decide when to call it quits and go fishing…And sometimes when I’m really lucky, I get to pick up a fishing pole and join him.”
This article is part of Food Tank’s ongoing Farmer Friday series, produced in partnership with Niman Ranch, a champion for independent U.S. family farmers. The series highlights the stories of farmers working toward a more sustainable, equitable food system. Niman Ranch partners with over 500 small-scale U.S. family farmers and is committed to preserving rural agricultural communities and their way of life. Food Tank was proud to collaborate with Niman Ranch in lifting up family farmer stories, including Fuller’s, at Climate Week NYC: A Night of Storytelling Honoring Our Farmers. Watch her story and others on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.
Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.
Photo courtesy of Olivia Fuller.
The post A Fourth-Generation Family Farm Adapts for the Future appeared first on Food Tank.
A highly-sensitive ‘electronic nose’ measures methane where it matters most: On the cow
Researchers have invented a methane-sensing ear tag for cows that could accurately measure how much of this potent greenhouse gas they produce, in the chemically-saturated environment of a cattle barn.
Measuring methane levels is important for calculating the true environmental impact of dairy and beef cattle. It also reveals clues about the diet and relative health of livestock, so could be a boon for farmers. Several technologies exist to measure cattle emissions. But according to the new paper, most either struggle to isolate methane in the very noisy chemical landscape of a cattle farm, or they alter the cow’s behavior in ways that make them less practical to use.
Seeing a gap in the market, the Harvard-based researchers set about inventing an alternative. Theirs consists of three layers of sensing materials, formed into a discrete, waterproof ear-tag that can be easily attached to cows. One layer is built to detect volatile organic compounds, and a second detects temperature and humidity shifts to alert the analyst, as these conditions can make it harder to read methane levels.
A third, most important, layer is made of metal-oxide, a substance that can detect short-term changes in the composition of ambient gases. Crucially, this layer is topped by a membrane composed of activated carbon and plastic fibers: together these make a filter, which selectively absorbs all gases except for methane, which is then allowed to travel through to the metal-oxide sensor below.
At least, that’s what the researchers designed it to do. Next, they had to test it out. In lab experiments, they placed the sensor in a chamber filled with a mixture of methane and other gases that roughly mimicked a cattle barn environment. The sensor, they found, could successfully separate gases from one another and isolate the methane, so that the metal-oxide layer got a clear read on this gas and how much was in the air. Not only that, but the system was highly sensitive, detecting methane even at low levels of 8 parts per million.
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To double-check its sensitivity, the researchers tested the device with a powerful volatile organic compound called pentane, which can drown out methane signals. They found that even when the chamber contained high levels of pentane alongside methane, their sensor reduced pentane’s interference with the methane signal by 2500-fold, compared to a device that lacked the discriminating filter.
According to these experiments, the invention can therefore single out methane amid the chemical noise, and accurately determine pollution levels in the air. This could lead to more accurate industry methane estimates, but could also guide farmers towards different types of feed or other measures to bring down methane levels in their livestock.
The device still needs to be tested out in the wilds of a real cattle barn, and the researchers say it’s still far from commercialization. For now, they have a name for their invention: they call it the ‘electronic nose’.
Patel, et. al. “Highly Selective Enteric Methane Monitoring Through Modular Sensor-Filter Assembly.” Advanced Materials Technologies. 2026.
Image: ©Anthropocene Magazine
Data centers pursue on-site power as affordability tops utility concerns: BofA
Hyperscalers are looking to secure power fast, “firm and smooth with storage, then layer in solar as the lowest-cost marginal energy,” wrote Bank of America Securities analyst Dimple Gosai.
GAIA Welcomes COP31 Zero Waste Priority, Calls for Climate Finance to Scale Solutions
PRESS STATEMENT
Feb 13, 2026
GAIA welcomes the COP31 Presidency’s decision to prioritize zero waste and waste methane reduction—a critical and timely step toward accelerating climate action and advancing a just transition for frontline communities.
Mariel Vilella, Director of GAIA’s Global Climate Program, said:
“Recognizing zero waste as a top climate priority is both urgent and overdue. Waste methane is a super-pollutant driving near-term warming, yet zero waste solutions—like composting, recycling, and organic waste treatment—can reduce methane emissions by up to 95% and cut total waste-sector emissions by more than 1.4 billion tonnes. These solutions deliver cleaner air, jobs, healthier communities, and stronger local economies, while ensuring a just transition for waste workers and marginalized communities.
“Türkiye has a unique opportunity to lead by elevating zero waste as a core climate solution, mobilizing finance toward implementation, and demonstrating scalable, equity-driven models. Across the globe, communities are already showing what works—from Dar es Salaam diverting 100% of organic waste from 4,500 households, to Brazil’s 20+ waste picker organisations supported with USD 70M, and 37 Philippine cities committed to cutting 70% of methane emissions from waste by 2030.
“Climate finance must shift from harmful disposal practices, like waste-to-energy incineration, to community-led zero waste initiatives that deliver results on the ground. Zero waste is not only a climate solution—it is a justice-centred development opportunity. The time to act is now.”
Additional information about zero waste in practice across the world
Across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, local governments and community organizations are demonstrating that zero waste systems can deliver rapid, equitable climate solutions. The cases of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Quezon City (Philippines), and Accra (Ghana) illustrate how decentralized, community-based organic waste management creates green jobs, reduces methane emissions, and strengthens local governance. These examples show that solutions already exist, but scaling them requires supportive policies, networks, and financial backing. (GAIA Zero Waste Business Models)
Additional transformative examples worldwide include:
- Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: The Bonyokwa ward zero waste model collects 1.74 tonnes daily from 4,500 households, achieving 95% source segregation and 100% organic waste diversion, cutting 16.4 tonnes of methane annually.
- Brazil: Over 20 waste picker organisations, including in São Paulo and Brasília, are implementing organic waste recycling systems under the National Strategy for Municipal Biowaste, supported with over USD 70M in funding.
- Philippines: The Zero Waste Cities Network now includes 37 cities committed to cutting 70% of methane emissions from waste by 2030. The Philippine National Waste Workers Alliance (PNWWA) unites 1,000+ workers advocating for labour rights and safe working conditions.
- Durban, South Africa: Food waste from the Warwick markets is composted for the Durban Botanic Garden, reducing landfill costs (~USD 93/ton) and creating jobs. The project is scaling to three markets and eventually all nine city markets.
- Accra, Ghana: Green Youth Africa Organization (GAYO) integrates 600 informal waste workers into municipal waste systems, reducing burning and improving livelihoods.
- Europe: Nearly 500 municipalities are committed to zero waste under the Zero Waste Cities Certification. Highlights include Milan collecting 95 kg of organics per person annually, Salacea (Romania) increasing separate collection from 1% to 61% in three months, and Partizanske (Slovakia) reducing residual waste by 57 kg per person within a year.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Sonia Astudillo, Global Climate Communications Officer | +639175968286 | sonia@no-burn.org
GAIA is a network of grassroots groups as well as national and regional alliances representing more than 1000 organizations from over 100 countries. With our work we aim to catalyze a global shift towards environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social movements that advance solutions to waste and pollution. We envision a just, Zero Waste world built on respect for ecological limits and community rights, where people are free from the burden of toxic pollution, and resources are sustainably conserved, not burned or dumped. www.no-burn.org
The post GAIA Welcomes COP31 Zero Waste Priority, Calls for Climate Finance to Scale Solutions first appeared on GAIA.
February 13 Green Energy News
Headline News:
- “Collett Completes Stranoch Turbine Deliveries” • Collett has completed delivery of 189 wind turbine components to EDF power solutions UK’s 102-MW Stranoch Wind Farm in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The logistics specialist transported components for twenty Vestas turbines comprising nine V150s, seven V136s and four V117s. [reNews]
Transporting turbine blades (Collett image)
- “Mexican Navy Ships Carrying Humanitarian Aid Dock In Cuba As US Blockade Sparks Energy Crisis” • Two Mexican Navy ships carrying humanitarian aid docked in Cuba amid an energy crisis caused by a US blockade. The ships arrived two weeks after US President Trump threatened tariffs on any country selling or providing oil to Cuba. [Euronews]
- “BYD Passed Up Ford In Global Auto Sales In 2025” • Here is something that has had almost no attention. It is the fact that BYD delivered more vehicles in 2025 than Ford did! BYD, which only sells plugin vehicles, sold 4.6 million vehicles, while Ford sold 4.4 million and was passed up by the Chinese EV producer for the first time. [CleanTechnica]
- “Africa Leads Growth In Solar Energy As Demand Spreads Beyond Traditional Markets, Report Says” • Africa was the world’s fastest-growing solar market in 2025, defying a global slowdown and reshaping where the momentum in renewable energy is concentrated, according to a report by the Africa Solar Industry Association. [Yahoo Finance]
- “President Trump Makes Most Aggressive Step Yet To Roll Back US Climate Rules” • President Donald Trump reversed the “endangerment finding” of 2009 that underpins US efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, marking Trump’s biggest effort to dismantle climate regulations. The repeal wipes out all greenhouse gas standards. [Euronews]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
Agnico Eagle posts record reserves, hikes payout
Canada’s largest gold miner, Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX, NYSE: AEM), reported record 2025 reserves of the precious metal and a 135% surge in annual profit, lifting its dividend as higher gold prices boosted revenue.
Year-end gold mineral reserves rose 2.1% to a record 55.4 million ounces, supported by exploration success and the initial declaration of reserves at the Marban deposit in Malartic following the March 2025 acquisition of O3 Mining. Reserves totalled 1.33 billion tonnes grading 1.30 g/t gold.
Measured and indicated resources increased 9.6% to 47.1 million ounces, or 1.2 billion tonnes at 1.22 g/t, while inferred resources climbed 15.5% to 41.8 million ounces, or 522 million tonnes at 2.49 g/t.
Net income for the year ended December 31, 2025, jumped to $4.46 billion, or $8.89 per share, from $1.9 billion in 2024, as revenue rose 44% to $11.91 billion on stronger gold prices.
The company met its full-year production target, producing 3.45 million ounces of gold in 2025. That compares with 3.4 million ounces in 2024. Fourth-quarter output reached 841,000 ounces, in line with consensus estimates.
Full-year all-in sustaining costs rose 8% to $1,339 per ounce, largely due to higher royalty payments tied to stronger gold prices.
In addition to gold, Agnico produced 2.5 million ounces of silver, 8,446 tonnes of zinc and 5,393 tonnes of copper in 2025.
The company increased its quarterly dividend to 45 cents per share from 40 cents, effective the March quarter of 2026.
“Agnico Eagle has never been better positioned, with the strongest balance sheet in our history,” president and CEO Ammar Al-Joundi said in the statement.
He added that the company’s project pipeline could lift annual gold production by 20% to 30% over the next decade to more than four million ounces by the early 2030s.
Agnico Eagle launches $130M Avenir unit for critical mineralsBMO analyst Matthew Murphy said projects at Malartic, Detour Lake, Upper Beaver and Hope Bay could add 0.7 million to one million ounces a year over the next decade, pushing output above four million ounces in the early 2030s. He also pointed to progress on a second shaft at Malartic and potential additional production from the Marban satellite pit later in the decade.
Agnico ran an average of 120 diamond drill rigs in 2025 and completed 1.4 million metres of core drilling across its portfolio.
2026 plansFor 2026, the company expects exploration and project spending of $565 million to $635 million, with a midpoint of $600 million. That includes about $384 million for capitalized and expensed exploration and roughly $216 million for advanced exploration projects, studies and other corporate development work.
Key priorities include continued drilling at the Detour Lake underground project, assessing the full potential of the Canadian Malartic property, advancing regional synergies in Abitibi and expanding exploration at Hope Bay.
Shares of Agnico Eagle rose nearly 1.7% in pre-market trading Friday in New York to $205.21. The stock has climbed 104% over the past year, giving the company a market capitalization of about $103 billion.
Market sentiment has reflected the company’s strong performance over the past year. The miner topped MINING.COM’s Global Mining Power Rankings in the large-cap category for a third straight month in January.
The rankings highlight companies viewed by investors, analysts and industry insiders as delivering operational consistency, financial momentum and strategic progress across market capitalizations.
EPA revokes its Endangerment Finding, dismantling the legal basis for U.S. climate pollution limits
GAIA condemns the Environmental Protection Agency‘s (EPA) official revocation of its 2009 Endangerment Finding (“Finding”) under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act. The Finding was based on decades of overwhelming scientific evidence and legal precedent that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) endanger public health and welfare. The administration argued that the Clean Air Act does not give it legal authority to regulate GHG, thereby destroying the legal foundation upon which vital climate protections were based.
By decoupling greenhouse gas emissions from the documented harm they do to human and environmental health, the administration is flinging open the door for massive deregulation at the federal level. Their initial stated intent for revoking the Finding is to gut motor vehicle emissions regulations. But it won’t stop there.
On Wednesday, the day before officially revoking the Finding, the administration continued to prop up the coal industry in an Executive Order requiring the Pentagon to source energy from coal-fired power plants, following up on their June 2025 proposed “Repeal of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units.”
For GAIA and our members working at the intersection of waste and environmental justice, this revocation will limit the tools we have to hold polluters accountable and to protect our communities, and especially Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities where polluting infrastructure is most often sited.
The waste sector is one of the biggest emitters of methane, a greenhouse gas with 82.5 times the warming potential of CO₂ over a 20-year period. Ending the Finding will take away the authority of the EPA to regulate methane and co-pollutants from landfills, incinerators, and other waste facilities. Additionally, this will stall progress toward true zero waste systems, such as organics diversion, composting, and nontoxic reuse, that cut methane at the source while advancing climate, health, and equity goals.
Plastics production and disposal are exponentially expanding GHG emitters. If plastics were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest GHG emitter. Without EPA authority to regulate GHG emissions, the plastics and petrochemical industry will be free to expand all of the processes–including pyrolysis and gasification–that release extensive GHG emissions, in addition to using toxic chemicals.
This decision is so egregious that numerous organizations have promised to sue the administration, which GAIA fully supports.
The post EPA revokes its Endangerment Finding, dismantling the legal basis for U.S. climate pollution limits first appeared on GAIA.
The more Europe relies on the US for energy, the more it’s vulnerable to pressure by Trump
Mads Christensen is Executive Director of Greenpeace International.
As the military and diplomatic establishment gather for the annual Munich Security Conference, the air will be thick with talk of “strategic autonomy” and “energy security.” But there is little autonomy to talk of when sovereignty is for sale, and security is a hollow promise while regional stability depends on the weaponized resources of a rival power.
We are witnessing the unmasking of a 19th-century worldview: Resource Colonialism. In Venezuela, the mask slipped quickly; the world watched as the United States Navy deployed off the coast, reviving gunboat diplomacy for the 21st century. This was confirmed by President Trump’s declaration that the U.S. would exercise ‘de facto control’ over Venezuela’s oil industry.
In Greenland, the ‘prize’ is territorial expansion, and minerals, coveted for economic gain and military security. The rush for Greenland’s minerals threatens to replicate every abuse of the oil age: building on the same colonial mindset, displacing Indigenous communities, poisoning local water, and overriding democracy. Rhetoric toward Greenland has shifted from pressure to hostility, then manifesting in the ‘framework of a future deal’ as announced by VP Vance.
Emboldened by his bestseller ‘The Art of the Deal’, and the myth that he is the world’s ultimate businessman, Trump has replaced diplomacy with acquisition. His administration is treating sovereign territories and Indigenous homelands as if they were a real estate portfolio in Manhattan.
Global liquidation saleThe fact of the matter is that Trump’s transactional worldview, where everything has a price tag, is not leadership but a global liquidation sale. Backed by a cabal of fossil-fuel billionaires, this circle of autocrats is treating the 21st century like a distressed asset to be stripped bare, regardless of the costs to the rest of us.
But growing up in Denmark and working in the Arctic for many years, there is one thing I know for certain: Greenland is not a deal to be made. It is not a place to be defined or controlled by anyone other than the people of Greenland.
And this is not just an American problem. Look East, and you see the mirror image. As Greenpeace has documented, Russia has transformed into a total “fossil fuel war economy.” The Kremlin’s aggression is funded almost entirely by oil and gas exports, creating a feedback loop where extraction finances its war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as internal oppression.
In response, European leaders have finally agreed to end Russian gas imports, but are blindly rushing headlong into a dependency on American liquefied fossil gas. Trading dependency on Putin for dependency on Trump, however, is not a security strategy: it’s a high-stakes game with very poor cards.
This is a message European diplomats need to bear in mind in Munich this week as they gather to discuss urgent issues such as energy security: the more Europe depends on the US for energy, the greater the vulnerability to pressure by Trump.
Climate action is “weapon” for security in unstable world, UN climate chief says
Every euro spent on US oil and gas strengthens Trump’s authoritarian agenda at home and colonialist ambitions abroad, threatening Europe’s independence and security. The only way for Europe to achieve true energy security is to phase out fossil gas and accelerate the shift to a fully renewable energy system.
The ‘Art of the Deal’ mindset treats the world like a chessboard and uses the fact that the board is burning to advance its interests. To Trump, the melting ice in Greenland isn’t a global catastrophe but just a door opening to get to the minerals underneath. But when we treat the climate crisis as just another ‘variable’ in a trade war, we lose the ability to cooperate.
Path to peace and security lies in clean energyTrue security is not trading Russian gas for American fracking. It means phasing out fossil fuels and accelerating the shift to a fully renewable energy system that makes no dictator or president the master of Europe’s lights, whether they sit in Moscow, Mar-a-Lago or elsewhere.
True security is a just transition away from fossil fuels, not a military scramble to burn them faster. Expanding oil extraction anywhere undermines global climate goals and increases climate risks everywhere. A fossil-free, peaceful future requires breaking the link between energy systems, militarisation and exploitation.
Explainer: What is the petrodollar and why is it under pressure?
The leaders gathering in Munich have a stark choice. They can acquiesce to the dogma that might make right and that sovereignty is for sale, or they can recognise that true security requires charting another path entirely with a rules-based global order at its heart.
Rejecting resource colonialism needs to go hand in hand with boldly displaying different leadership: one that reclaims the moral compass. True leadership is built on solidarity, not threats. A healthy society isn’t measured by the profits of a few, but by the wellbeing of the many. Success isn’t about who wins; it’s about who thrives.
We are defined by what we save, not what we take.
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Take Action: Tell State Leaders To Defend Our Right to Clean Air
The post Take Action: Tell State Leaders To Defend Our Right to Clean Air appeared first on ANHE.
Ministers meet, but the future of $10-a-day child care remains uncertain
In advance of a January 30 meeting in Ottawa between Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial ministers responsible for early learning and child care, Child Care...
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Poison at play: Unsafe lead levels found in half of New Orleans playgrounds
Sarah Hess started taking her toddler, Josie, to New Orleans’ Mickey Markey Playground in 2010 because she thought it would be a safe place to play after Josie had been diagnosed with lead poisoning.
Hess had traced the problem to the crumbling paint in her family’s century-old home. While it underwent lead remediation, the family stayed in a newer, lead-free house in the Bywater neighborhood near Markey, where Josie regularly played on the swings and slides.
“Everyone was telling us the safest place to play was outside at playgrounds, so that’s where we went,” Hess said.
Josie’s next blood test was a shock. “It skyrocketed,” Hess said. Josie’s lead levels had leapt to nearly five times the national health standard.
When the soil at Markey was tested in late 2010, it too was found to have dangerously high levels of lead. But the city took no meaningful action to inform Markey’s users or make the park safe. Parents started posting warning signs at the park and flooded City Hall with outraged calls and emails. Holding Josie in her arms, Hess made an impassioned speech to the City Council.
A child’s shoes are left in the dirt next to the playground at Mickey Markey Park in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans in November 2025. It’s common for children to play barefoot at this playground. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for AmericaIn short order, the city had hired a company to test Markey and other parks, and pledged to fix the lead problem wherever it was found.
“I couldn’t have been more pleased,” Hess said. “They were totally into it. My impression was they were going to make them all lead-free parks.”
But a Verite News investigation conducted over four months in 2025 found that lead pollution in New Orleans parks not only persists, it is more widespread than previously known. Dozens of city parks with playgrounds remain unsafe, including Markey and others that underwent city-sponsored lead remediation in 2011. The city does not appear to have conducted any major remediation or lead testing of parks since that time.
The findings indicate that city officials fell short in their cleanup efforts then, and that a very large number of New Orleans children are exposed to excessive amounts of lead now, said Howard Mielke, a retired Tulane University toxicologist and one of the nation’s leading experts on lead contamination.
“It’s a failed program,” he said. “They didn’t do what they needed to do to bring the lead levels down in a single park.”
Verite News reporters tested hundreds of soil samples from 84 city parks with playgrounds in fall 2025. Adrienne Katner, a lead contamination researcher with Louisiana State University, verified the results. The testing found that about half the parks had lead concentrations that exceed a federal hazard level established in 2024 for soil in urban areas.
“I am surprised they haven’t been tested and mitigated,” said Gabriel Filippelli, an Indiana University biochemist who studies lead exposure. “If there’s evidence of kids playing in soils that are as high as [Verite’s testing] described, that’s kind of horrifying.”
Public health researchers and doctors say that children under 6 absorb lead-laden dust more easily than adults, contaminating their blood and harming the long-term development of their brains and nervous systems. There is no known safe exposure level for children, and even trace amounts can result in behavioral problems and lower cognitive abilities.
Find out what the lead levels are at New Orleans playgrounds window.addEventListener('message',function(event){if(event.origin!=="https://veritenews.org")return;if(event.data.type==='resize'){const iframe=document.getElementById('verite-nola-map');if(iframe){iframe.style.height=event.data.value+'px'}}},!1)New Orleans is in financial straits with a budget deficit of about $220 million, and it’s unclear what priority or resources Mayor Helena Moreno will, or even can, allocate to restart lead remediation efforts. In response to the financial crisis, Moreno has eliminated dozens of positions and plans to furlough 700 employees one day per pay period to save money. Moreno’s administration did not respond to requests for comment.
The city doesn’t routinely test for lead in parks, said Larry Barabino, chief executive officer of the New Orleans Recreation Development, or NORD, Commission, the agency that oversees most of the city’s parklands. He confirmed the last significant effort to test parks ended in 2011.
He called Verite’s results “definitely concerning” and pledged to work with city departments and local experts to potentially remediate unsafe parks.
“Safety is our number one priority here at NORD,” Barabino said. “If there’s anything that’s a true environmental concern or risk, that’s something that we believe in definitely making sure we take action.”
Andrea Young heard similar pledges 14 years ago. Like Hess, Young had a child who frequented Markey and had high lead levels in her blood. The mothers helped form a community group called NOLA Unleaded that pushed the city to clean up Markey and other parks. Young thought they had succeeded, but said she now realizes that the city had not done enough.
“It makes me question the value of the work that [the city] did, and the safety we felt in letting our kids play there again,” Young said with a trembling voice. “It just sort of shakes me up a little bit, you know?”
Testing New Orleans parksVerite News conducted soil tests on the city parks that property inventories and maps list as having play structures. Samples were taken from surface soil, which is most likely to come into contact with children’s hands and toys or be inhaled when kicked up during play or blown by the wind.
Lead is typically found in very small amounts in natural soil. The average lead abundance in U.S. soils is 26 parts per million, equivalent to less than an ounce of lead per ton of soil.
Soil samples collected by Verite from New Orleans parks averaged about 121 ppm — nearly five times the national average.
Verite reporter Tristan Baurick tests lead levels while reporter Halle Parker maps the exact GPS coordinates of the reading at Mirabeau Playground in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans in September 2025.Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for America
The federal hazard level for lead in soil was 400 ppm until early 2024, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Joe Biden lowered it to 200 ppm for most residential areas and 100 ppm in areas like New Orleans with multiple sources of lead exposure, including contaminated soil, lead paint, and large numbers of lead pipes.
More of a guide than a mandate, the EPA screening levels can steer federal cleanup actions and are often adopted by state and city governments to inform local responses to lead contamination.
California has long had a much lower standard of 80 ppm. Of the New Orleans parks Verite tested, 52 — or about two-thirds — had results that fail California’s standard.
In October, President Donald Trump’s administration rolled back the EPA screening standards. The administration retained the 200 ppm threshold for residential areas but eliminated the 100 ppm level for areas with multiple lead sources.
The administration didn’t dispute the validity of the 100 ppm threshold, but argued that a single level “reduces inconsistent implementation and provides clarity to decision-makers and the public.”
The change, according to Mielke, doesn’t align with the science, which has long shown that children are harmed when exposed to soil with levels below 100 ppm. He was one of several scientists who had pushed for lower thresholds since the EPA established its first screening levels more than 30 years ago.
Families spend time at Confetti Playspot in Algiers Point on the West Bank of New Orleans in November 2025. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for AmericaMielke said the 100 ppm screening level should still be applied in urban areas, especially New Orleans. The city has a long history of soil contaminated with lead from a combination of sources, including lead-based paint, leaded gasoline, and emissions from waste incinerators and other industrial facilities. Lead particles spread easily by wind, eventually settling in the topsoil.
Verite found lead levels above 100 ppm at numerous places that get heavy use by children. Lead contamination more than four times that level was recorded near the slides at Markey, outside a playhouse in Brignac Park near Magazine Street and at a well-worn spot under an oak tree at Desmare Park in Bayou St. John.
Elevated lead levels tended to follow the age of the neighborhood. The city’s older neighborhoods, including the Irish Channel and Algiers Point, had some of the highest lead levels, while Gentilly and New Orleans East, which were developed mostly after the 1950s, tended to be lower, according to Verite’s findings.
Search all of Verite News’ test results window.addEventListener('message',function(event){if(event.origin!=="https://veritenews.org")return;if(event.data.type==='resize'){const iframe=document.getElementById('verite-nola-database');if(iframe){iframe.style.height=event.data.value+'px'}}},!1)Verite spoke to more than a dozen parents at playgrounds across the city, and most were surprised at the levels of lead in the parks.
In the Irish Channel, Meg Potts watched her son run around the dusty playground at Brignac. All of Verite’s samples at the park surpassed the threshold the EPA deemed safe for urban areas, reaching nearly 600 ppm.
Potts knew high lead levels existed in the city, but didn’t realize her neighborhood park could be a source of exposure for her son.
“ I’m just thinking about all of this now because he’s had to go in and have his lead tested,” she said. “He’s like right on the cusp of having too high lead.”
The invisibility of lead makes it challenging for parents to manage among other priorities. Meghan Stroh, whose children often play at Markey, said it’s hard for parents to protect their children from every threat, but tackling lead at parks is one way the city could help.
Children play at Desmare Playground in the Bayou St. John neighborhood of New Orleans in November 2025. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for America“It’s a concern that I have amidst a myriad of others,” she said while holding her 10-month-old daughter on her hip. “So, it would be nice to have one thing checked off the list.”
Katner, the LSU researcher, said Verite’s results can serve as a starting point for city officials to conduct more comprehensive testing in parks, noting that even a single lead hotspot in a park is concerning.
“ It doesn’t matter where it is in the soil; there’s exposure there,” she said. “The kid playing in that part of the park is going to get the highest dose.”
A legacy of leadBefore the 1970s, lead was nearly everywhere. A 2022 study estimated that the vast majority of the U.S. population born between 1960 and 1980 was poisoned by dangerously high levels of lead in early childhood. On average, lead exposure has resulted in a loss of 2.6 IQ points for more than half the population through 2015.
Lead pollution from cars spread into areas near roads, especially major thoroughfares, until leaded gasoline was phased out by 1996. Similarly, emissions from trash incinerators and industrial sites contaminated the surrounding soil. New Orleans had at least eight incinerators that blew toxic gases and lead dust over several neighborhoods, including Algiers Point and St. Roch, until they were closed in the 1970s and ‘80s.
Today, the most pervasive source of lead in soil is degraded paint. Lead-based paint was used extensively for homes and buildings until it was banned in 1978. In New Orleans, most of the houses were built before 1980, according to the 2024 American Community Survey. As the paint deteriorates, Tulane University epidemiologist Felicia Rabito said it can chip or turn into toxic dust.
Edith Salmon, 10 months, plays with dirt and other debris scattered across the playground’s rubber tiles at Mickey Markey Park in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans in November 2025. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for America“ The leaded paint goes straight into the dust and it goes straight into the soils, which is a major source of exposure for young children in the city,” said Rabito, who studies lead poisoning and other health conditions.
Children under 6 years old are especially vulnerable, in part because they love to stick their hands in their mouths. Rabito stressed that kids don’t have to eat the soil directly to be harmed. Children putting their thumbs in their mouths after playing on a seesaw or eating a dropped Cheerio can be enough.
Even a one-time exposure to contaminated soil can raise the level of lead in a child’s blood, Rabito said. They’re at an even higher risk if they have a calcium deficiency.
”Lead mimics calcium, so the body essentially thinks that the lead is calcium,” Rabito said. After the lead enters the bloodstream, it’s hard to fully remove. Most of it is stored long-term in the body’s bones, accumulating over time and potentially releasing into the bloodstream again later.
Rabito recommended that parents steer clear of contaminated playgrounds because it’s hard to avoid exposure.
Lead paint peels off a pole at Hunter’s Field Playground in New Orleans in September 2025. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for AmericaThe only way to know if a child has lead poisoning is a medical test. By state law, Louisiana healthcare providers are required to ensure every child between 6 months and 6 years of age receives at least two blood tests by age 1 and age 2.
But the law did not include a way to enforce those testing requirements, so many providers don’t test, according to a 2017 report from the Louisiana Department of Health. The screening rate has always been very low in New Orleans, Rabito said. In 2022, fewer than one in 10 children under 6 years old were screened for lead poisoning in the city, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“ There’s not anything that we can say about lead poisoning or lead levels in children in Orleans Parish with any scientific certainty,” Rabito said. “ As you see from your own testing, there are different pockets of contamination depending upon where you’re playing. Parents really need to get their children tested.”
Limited soil testing, patchy fixesIn 2010, Claudia Copeland joined Hess and other Markey regulars in having their kids tested for lead. One of Copeland’s children, born in Germany, had a blood lead level considered normal at the time. But her younger, New Orleans-born child showed elevated levels that set off alarm bells for Copeland, a molecular biologist.
“There really is no safe level, but it was really bad,” she said.
Copeland hurriedly made signs and posted them around the park. “THE SOIL IN MARKEY PARK IS TOXIC!” they blared in big black letters.
Claudia Copeland, a mother and activist who pushed the city to remediate Mickey Markey Park in 2010, poses for a portrait at the park in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans in December 2025. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for America“The city was aware, but they just were not doing anything,” Copeland said. “Parents needed to know. We were all so ignorant about what was in the soil. You know, we’re all saying ‘a little dirt never hurt.’”
Outcry from parents prompted the city to first fence off and padlock Markey, and then promise a more comprehensive response.
The New Orleans health commissioner at the time, Karen DeSalvo, said the city should do “everything we can to understand what the risk might be and to remediate it.” But she also appeared to minimize the dangers of lead at city parks, saying other health risks, like the flu, were greater.
“In the scheme of the many public health challenges that kids have, it’s not the greatest challenge, honestly,” DeSalvo told The Times-Picayune in February 2011.
Then-mayor Mitch Landrieu was more definitive, pledging a swift, far-reaching action.
A child goes down the slide at the Daneel Playground in Uptown New Orleans in November 2025. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for America“The city will take all necessary measures to investigate possible lead contamination in other parks and playgrounds and remediate them as soon as possible,” he said in March 2011.
Two months later, testing and remediation were completed at several parks. Members of NOLA Unleaded celebrated and brought their kids back to familiar playgrounds.
But Verite’s review of work orders shows that the city’s testing and remediation efforts were limited to a small number of parks. Despite city leaders’ assurances of a broad response, only 16 parks were tested in 2011, according to documents obtained through public records requests.
Mielke and NOLA Unleaded’s members believed most or all of the city’s parks were tested, pointing to Landrieu’s promises and an article in the Atlantic that reported that the city agreed to “test all of the public parks in the city.”
“I guess I kind of believed that, and then you realize that that’s not actually true,” said Young after learning the city’s testing was more limited than she thought. “If the majority of the parks they tested were high [in lead], what would make them think all the others are fine?”
A weathered sign warns drivers that there are children playing nearby at Evans Playground in Uptown New Orleans in November 2025. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for AmericaLandrieu did not respond to a request for comment. DeSalvo, who retired last year as Google’s chief health officer, said “extremely limited resources” forced the city to weigh its response to lead contamination with the many other health threats residents faced.
“We worked to address the range of exposures whenever possible with the resources we could muster,” she said.
Of the 16 parks the city tested, only two — A.L. Davis in Central City and Norwood Thompson in Gert Town — had levels below 400 ppm, the federal threshold at the time, and were deemed safe by Materials Management Group, or MMG, which was and still is the city’s environmental consultant. One park, Evans in the Freret neighborhood, was found to have lead levels as high as 610 ppm but wasn’t remediated for reasons not made clear in testing documents and progress reports submitted by MMG. Thirteen parks, including Markey, underwent remediation after testing showed the properties exceeded the 400 ppm threshold that MMG used to determine soil hazard levels.
Fourteen years later, Verite’s testing found A.L. Davis and Norwood Thompson have comparatively low lead levels, although A.L. Davis had one sample slightly above the 100 ppm threshold.
Evans, which did not undergo remediation despite unsafe lead levels in 2011, had the highest lead reading of all soil samples collected by Verite. Alongside a low-hanging oak branch, on ground worn bare by children’s play, Verite recorded lead at 5,998 ppm, a level nearly 60 times the urban soils threshold and more than twice that of Verite’s second-highest sample, taken at Soraporu Park in the Irish Channel.
In 2011, MMG recommended remediation at Evans, including installing a fabric layer topped with clean soil in three areas, including the northeast corner where Verite collected the 5,998 ppm sample. MMG noted in a 2015 progress report that it had not performed the work, but the firm did not explain why.
Zen Trismegistus, right, relaxes on an inflatable couch she brought from home while she watches her daughters Axeliah Dupuy, 10, and Zeniya Walters, 3, play nearby at Easton Park in the Bayou St. John neighborhood of New Orleans in November 2025. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for AmericaMMG did not respond to requests for comment.
Documents obtained by Verite show that the city’s remediation efforts focused on covering patches of contaminated soil rather than the comprehensive treatment Mielke recommended to city leaders in 2011. Mielke had urged the city to fully cover play areas with clean soil, a strategy his research showed was highly effective in reducing lead exposure.
In 2010, Mielke led an effort to reduce lead exposure at 10 child care center playgrounds in New Orleans. He and his team covered the entire footprint of each playground with water-pervious plastic fabric and then six inches of Mississippi River sediment from the Bonnet Carre Spillway, a source of clean, cheap, and easily accessible soil. Lead levels fell, with most playgrounds testing below 10 ppm.
The remediation at city parks also used fabric and soil layers, but the coverings were mostly limited to areas with lead levels above 400 ppm, leaving many hazardous areas exposed. Testing and remediation reports obtained by Verite typically show soil capping in only two or three spots, with most of each park remaining untreated.
The remediation at Comiskey Park in Mid-City, for instance, was limited to a 200-square-foot circle in a soccer field and a 400-square-foot strip along a basketball court. No remediation was done near the playground, where Verite’s testing detected lead levels between 155 ppm and 483 ppm.
At Easton Park in Bayou St. John, the 2011 remediation covered four areas totalling about 4,700 square feet, but the park’s playground was left untouched. Verite measured four samples around the playground that exceeded the 100 ppm threshold, including 1,060 ppm and 603 ppm readings near Easton’s swingset.
The soil cover at Markey was more extensive than in other remediations, stretching across much of the park’s playground and shaded picnic area. But Verite’s testing found high levels of lead in the remediated area, including two samples above 200 ppm and one just above 400 ppm.
“That’s kind of shocking,” Copeland said. “At Markey, the kids play everywhere, and in the sandy areas, they really dig down. I’ve seen holes going almost three feet down, like they’re playing at a beach. They could be getting into contaminated soil and distributing it around.”
Mielke was surprised to learn that the remediation results were far more limited than he recommended. He was blunt in his assessment of the work.
“They worked on too small an area, and they should have been using … large amounts of soil and covering over large areas,” he said.
Hess, a New Orleans native who recently moved to Colorado, said failing to deliver on projects is all too common in New Orleans, a city infamous for chronic dysfunction and mismanagement.
“It’s so sad to have done such a shit job,” she said. “But that’s so New Orleans. I’m sorry. I don’t live there anymore, but it still makes me sad.”
A roadmap for cleanup?Barabino, the recreation district CEO, said he would share Verite’s results with city project managers and MMG.
“It’s definitely concerning if it’s at the level that’s considered a true risk of threat, and we would get it to [the] capital projects [administration] immediately to get MMG out there, so we could take the steps needed to remediate and make those areas and grounds safe for our kids and families to use,” Barabino said.
Filippelli said the city should conduct comprehensive testing of every park and do regular checkups. But because lead contamination in New Orleans parks is extensive and city leaders are struggling to close a large budget deficit, Filippelli recommends that the city remediate the worst parks first.
Twins Justice and Jamar Johnson, 6, play in the grass with Stevie Irish, 5, at Soraparu Playspot in Uptown New Orleans in November 2025. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for AmericaHe and Mielke don’t believe the city must take the route of full remediation, which involves digging up lead-tainted soil and trucking it to a hazardous-waste landfill. That’s very costly and is usually unnecessary if a park is properly capped with clean soil, Filippelli said.
Verite obtained cost estimates for 10 of the 13 parks targeted for remediation in 2011. The total cost was $83,000 in 2011, or about $120,000 today. The work covered more than 1.3 acres across the 10 properties. Compared with similar remediation efforts described by Mielke and Filippelli, the city’s remediation efforts were very expensive. Filippelli estimates that similar work can be done for about $20,000 per acre — about a fifth of what was spent to remediate just over an acre at New Orleans parks.
Evans, Markey, and many other parks with high lead levels have about an acre of open soil or grass that could be capped for about $20,000. Some parks with the biggest lead problems are the smallest in size. Soraporu Park, which scored the second-highest lead levels in Verite’s testing, would need about a half-acre of coverage. Union and Brignac parks, each less than a quarter acre, could be capped for about $5,000, according to Filippelli’s rough estimates.
Mariah Lee carries her daughters in her arms at the Lafitte Greenway playground in New Orleans in November 2025. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for AmericaRemediation should be coupled with efforts to reduce contamination from nearby sources, primarily old houses, Rabito said.
“When you clean up soil, you’re not going to do it much good if you haven’t identified what’s contaminating the soil,” she said. In many cases of recontamination, the culprit was a nearby house that was shedding lead paint.
“Which means the soil was clean for a hot minute before it got recontaminated,” she said. “So, we need to make sure that those homes are cleaned up and maintained in a lead-safe way.”
Cleaning up New Orleans parks will also likely require sustained public pressure, said the parents involved with the lead issue in 2011.
“I was not intending to kick butts or make anybody look bad,” said Copeland of her efforts to alert parents about the dangers at Markey. “But nothing would have happened unless all these parents were calling in to the city.”
.mc-methodology-scale { --color-primary: #3c3830; --color-secondary: #dfdfdf; --color-tertiary: #ccc; --typography-primary: "PolySans", sans-serif; --typography-secondary: "Basis Grotesque", sans-serif; font-family: var(--typography-secondary); margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; } .mc-methodology-scale * { box-sizing: border-box; } .mc-methodology-scale__container { max-width: 1000px; margin: 0 auto; padding: 0; } .mc-methodology-scale__button { width: 100%; border: none; outline: none; cursor: pointer; padding: 15px 0; background: none; text-align: left; font-family: var(--typography-primary); font-size: 1rem; color: var(--color-primary); display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: space-between; border-bottom: 1px solid var(--color-tertiary); } .mc-methodology-scale__button:hover { background-color: #f9f9f9; } @media (hover: none) { .mc-methodology-scale__button:hover { background-color: transparent; } .mc-methodology-scale__button.touched { background-color: #f9f9f9; } } .mc-methodology-scale__button:after { content: '+'; font-size: 1.2rem; color: #666; margin-left: 5px; } .mc-methodology-scale__button.active:after { content: '−'; } .mc-methodology-scale__panel { max-height: 0; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s ease-out; font-size: 0.95rem; line-height: 1.5; color: #444; padding: 0; margin: 0; } .mc-methodology-scale__panel p { margin: 15px 0 !important; padding: 0 20px !important; } @media (max-width: 768px) { .mc-methodology-scale__container { padding: 0; } .mc-methodology-scale__button { font-size: 0.9rem; padding: 12px 0; } .mc-methodology-scale__panel { font-size: 0.85rem; } .mc-methodology-scale__panel p { padding: 0 15px; } } How Verite News tested New Orleans parksTwo Verite News reporters were trained to use an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer to test 531 soil samples over a month in late 2025. The XRF is a $30,000 handheld device that can detect the unique traits of lead at trace levels, down to 10 parts per million. The analyzer is widely used by government and university scientists.
The reporters tested 531 soil samples over a month in late 2025, following protocols developed by retired Tulane University toxicologist Howard Mielke and vetted by three other lead-contamination researchers. The reporters tested surface soil in and around play structures and other areas of parks that children use. Of the more than 110 parks in New Orleans, Verite concentrated on the 84 that city property inventories and maps list as having play structures. The reporters collected between three and 11 samples at each park, depending on the size, site accessibility, and levels of contamination. The GPS was accurate to within a few feet depending on cloud cover and signal blockage from buildings and trees.
Verite’s results were reviewed by Adrienne Katner, a lead-contamination researcher at Louisiana State University. She verified the testing’s accuracy by comparing it with a smaller set of park soil samples collected by her team last summer. Due to the limitations of Verite’s sampling method, the results can’t be used to describe the state of a whole park. But they provide a starting point for city officials to conduct more comprehensive testing that could guide remediation.
document.querySelector('.mc-methodology-scale__button').addEventListener('click', function() { this.classList.toggle('active'); this.classList.toggle('touched'); const panel = this.nextElementSibling; if (panel.style.maxHeight) { panel.style.maxHeight = null; setTimeout(() => { this.classList.remove('touched'); }, 300); } else { panel.style.maxHeight = panel.scrollHeight + "px"; } });This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Poison at play: Unsafe lead levels found in half of New Orleans playgrounds on Feb 13, 2026.
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