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'A brutal reminder' Channel News brendan 30th September 2026 Teaser Media

As Russia escalates its attacks, Ukraine’s resistance holds, and peace negotiations are at an impasse, the people of Ukraine need international solidarity from anti-war people as much as ever. The military and civil resistance of Ukraine is anchored by its working-class majority who are on the frontlines and the production lines fighting for Ukraine’s national existence, for democracy, for social and economic policies in the interests of the majority, and for a just peace.

Global solidarity with Ukraine’s struggle for survival is as important as solidarity with Palestine in the face of Israel’s genocide, ethnic cleansing, and annexation.

Much responsibility for the bloody military stalemate in Ukraine lies with the United States’ cutback of support for Ukraine’s defense, especially the failure to provide desperately needed defense against Russia’s ballistic missile attacks.

While Russian ground offensives on the frontlines have largely stalled since the fall of 2022, Russia has progressively accelerated the scale of its bombardment of civilians and civilian infrastructure far behind the frontlines, with civilian casualties growing with the increasing strikes on schools, hospitals, and residential buildings; power, heat, water, and sewage infrastructure; and port, railway, and logistics centers. Russian soldiers are hunting and killing civilians in “human safaris” using FPV (First Person View) drones in Kherson and other frontline communities. With the U.S. diversion of Patriot missile interceptors to the wars in the Middle East and the resulting depletion of supplies, Ukraine has been left with no effective defense against Russia’s terrorist missile strikes.

Russia is expected to mobilize an additional 500,000 new troops for a coming offensive after the ritualized parliamentary elections on September 18-20 from which the only anti-war party has been banned. North Korea is deploying 50,000 troops, 120 ballistic missiles, and six missile launchers to join Russia’s ground and air offensives. In addition to continuing to sell Russia components for weapons systems, this year China has doubled its purchases of Russian oil. Revenues from oil and gas are crucial to funding the Russian war machine, accounting for 25% to 30% Russia’s federal budget of which the military has consumed 40% to 50% annually since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

Russia and its echo chambers accused Ukraine in late July of “escalation” intended to merge the wars in Ukraine and Iran after Ukrainian drones bombed Iranian cargo ships transporting military supplies from Iran to Russia in the Caspian Sea. These Ukrainian airstrikes were self-defense. Iran entered the war on Russia’s side four years ago in the summer of 2022 when it began training Russian drone operators in Crimea and Iran itself in the use of the attack drones it was supplying to Russia.

Even though the U.S. has cut military and economic aid to Ukraine since the beginning of 2025 when Trump came into office, and European aid falls well short of what Ukraine asks for and needs, Ukraine has developed its own considerable military industrial capacities. It now produces most of its ammunition and has built an innovative and effective drone force. Surveillance and attack drones have made the frontlines impassible for the unrelenting Russian ground offensives, while constant improvements in Ukraine’s mid-range and long-range drones have imposed “kinetic sanctions” inside Russia that have severely degraded Russia’s oil and gas refining, export capacities, military production, weapons depots, and supply lines.

Stalemate, Escalation, and Deprivation

Despite the war’s stalemate, escalating air strikes by both sides are increasing destruction and casualties in both countries. The most credible estimates find that total military and civilian casualties have surpassed two million. Russia’s battlefield casualties are close to 1.5 million, including 500,000 killed. Ukraine’s military casualties are as many as 600,000, including up to 140,000 killed. The verified UN total for Ukrainian civilian casualties is over 68,000, including nearly 17,000 killed, with 2026 having the highest civilian casualties since the first month of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The verified totals do not account for probably tens of thousands more Ukrainian civilians who died in the bloody siege of Mariupol in 2022 and in the Russian-occupied territories where an accurate count remains impossible until those territories are liberated.

Any expression of Ukrainian or Crimean Tatar identity is severely punished by heavy prison sentences, torture, and widespread property confiscation. Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar books are burned and their cultural artifacts are destroyed.

Life for people in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine is desperate. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have been abducted/kidnapped to Russia into a vast network of camps for ideologized Russian historical indoctrination, cultural erasure, and military training. Any expression of Ukrainian or Crimean Tatar identity is severely punished by heavy prison sentences, torture, and widespread property confiscation. Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar books are burned and their cultural artifacts are destroyed. Human rights groups regard these policies as genocidal and among the most repressive in the world due to the total suppression of political and civil rights and the demographic engineering of ethnically cleansing Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars and recruiting Russian settlers.

For the living, life is becoming more difficult. Ukrainians are finding empty shelves at grocery stores due to Russian bombing of warehouses. They face a fifth deadly winter with even deeper cuts to power, heat, and water. Poverty rates are up from 5% before the war to 25% to 30% today. Russian families and communities are feeling the costs of the war in fallen soldiers, high interest rates, inflation, cuts to social services due to military priorities and growing fiscal constraints, and consumer goods shortages, including long lines for gasoline.

People in the Global South are also feeling the consequences of this war as Russia and Ukraine bomb each others’ ports and vessels on the Black Sea.

People in the Global South are also feeling the consequences of this war as Russia and Ukraine bomb each others’ ports and vessels on the Black Sea, choking off grain exports and raising world food insecurity that has already been hit by “super” El Niño weather patterns that are bringing drought or destructive flooding to many agricultural regions of the world. Russia recently rejected Ukraine’s proposed “grain truce” in the Black Sea.

Negotiations Impasse

The stalemated war calls for a ceasefire and negotiations toward a permanent peace settlement. Ukraine is willing, but Russia is not. The Ukrainian government and a majority of its people according to credible polling are willing to compromise for a ceasefire at the current contact line, with the national status of the Russian-occupied territories to be determined diplomatically, not militarily, over time. Ukraine is willing to forgo NATO membership if comparable security guarantees against further Russian aggression are provided in another form.

Russia, on the other hand, has shown no willingness to compromise. It insists that Ukraine withdraw from the rest of the territories that Russia has claimed to have annexed before negotiations can begin. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov have repeatedly said Russia will take those territories by military force if Ukraine does not surrender them.

Citing sources within the Kremlin, journalists report that Putin ordered his security services to undertake covert actions to “implode NATO and the EU from within” in 2026. Putin hopes that “hybrid warfare” against Europe along with the ascension of far-right pro-Russian political parties will undermine European support for Ukraine.

Russian “hybrid warfare” against European countries is many faceted. It has included cyber attacks, a drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo plane at the Leipzig airport in Germany, Russian air strikes on a hydropower dam and a high-voltage power line in southern Ukraine that caused major power and clean water shortages in downstream Moldova. There have been thwarted assassination attempts in Poland including of a dual citizen of Ukraine and the United States. Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers has dragged anchors to damage underwater power lines, data cables, and gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. Russia has instigated anti-Ukrainian demonstrations and violent assaults in Poland, conducted influence operations and provided material support for far-right pro-Russia political parties and candidates in Moldova, Romania, Germany, Poland, France, Italy, Britain, and other countries, and there have been numerous drone intrusions around military bases, airports, and power and water infrastructure in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, The Netherlands, Britain, and Ireland.

Russian Tanks, Western Banks, and Domestic Oligarchs

Europe’s response has been equivocal. While it has partially filled the gaps left by the withdrawal of U.S. aid, it still cannot agree to a plan to use Russia’s nearly $250 billion in frozen assets to aid Ukraine, limiting itself to small payments of “windfall” interest earnings from these assets. Meanwhile, the U.S. administration is not only withholding military and economic aid, it has pressured Ukraine to surrender land to Russia for a “peace” settlement that would carve up Ukraine between the U.S. and Russia for mutual exploitation and a resumption of American corporate participation in the Russian oil and gas industry.

This U.S. imperialist approach to Ukraine was exemplified in early August when Trump said no to Zelensky’s requests for military aid – No to Patriot missile interceptors, No to licenses so Ukraine could build its own Patriots, and No to extending Starlink functionality for Ukraine to Russian territory to help it strike Russian missile manufacturers. Trump added that under the minerals deal he forced on Ukraine last year, “We can go in there at any time we want to take pretty much whatever we want.”

We should not have any illusions about the self-proclaimed “conversion” of Laura Loomer, the far-right influencer and Trump whisperer. Loomer has her own agendas that are not Ukraine’s. In Ukraine she promoted her anti-Muslim, white nationalist agenda by saying it was “refreshing” that she had seen no Muslims in Ukraine. In fact, the percentage of Muslims in Ukraine is double that in the United States. She proclaimed that Ukraine is a willing American ally in its war on Iran even though Zelensky has said the Iran war benefits Russia and hurts Ukraine. Far-right ideologues like Loomer have nothing positive to offer Ukraine.

The Ukrainian working class buttressing Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion and occupation needs solidarity from their counterparts in trade unions and progressive social movements around the world. They face not only Russian tanks and Western banks, but also domestic oligarchs whose profiteering and corruption schemes continue to be little taxed, investigated, or regulated under the neoliberal policies of the Zelensky government.

It is a good sign for Ukrainian democracy that street protests have influenced government actions, from last year’s successful defense of the state’s anti-corruption agencies to this year’s ongoing demonstrations concerning military leadership, soldiers’ terms of service, transit fare hikes, and proposed regressive revisions to the labor and civil codes that threaten the rights of workers, women, LGBTIQ+ people, people with disabilities, and independent journalists.

Our international solidarity should include demanding that Western banks and governments stop conditioning loans and grants to Ukraine on neoliberal policies that undermine the social and economic security of the Ukrainian people.

The remarkable volunteer self-organization and mutual aid of the Ukrainian people during the war cannot be expected to substitute for sustainable government programs for housing, income, health, and education. Our international solidarity should include demanding that Western banks and governments stop conditioning loans and grants to Ukraine on neoliberal policies that undermine the social and economic security of the Ukrainian people. We should be demanding the cancellation of Ukraine’s unjust foreign debts as well as an increase in grants instead of loans to maintain and improve Ukrainian social services. We should demand that Western governments provide the weapons systems that Ukraine needs to defeat Russia’s aggression.

People-to-People Solidarity

As we demand changes in our own governments’ policies, we should also be working directly with Ukrainian trade unions, socialists, and progressives in educational and material aid projects. International debates on the left about the war in Ukraine too often do not include the voices of Ukrainian leftists. We should be providing more venues where they can present their analyses of the war and what they need to sustain their movements against foreign imperialisms and domestic reaction.

[W]e should also be working directly with Ukrainian trade unions, socialists, and progressives in educational and material aid projects. International debates on the left about the war in Ukraine too often do not include the voices of Ukrainian leftists.

Progressive anti-imperialists are also working with Ukrainian leftists to raise and distribute material aid to Ukrainian trade unions and social movements to help them meet basic needs for Ukrainians, such as medical supplies and diesel generators, solar panels, and heat pumps for power and heating.

This November and December an International Solidarity Convoy to Ukraine is a major civil society and labor union initiative organized by the International Network of Solidarity with Ukraine (INSU), with which the Ukraine Solidarity Network (US) is affiliated. The convoy aims to deliver critical material aid and strengthen global working-class solidarity with the Ukrainian working class.

Operating as an international “ground flotilla,” the convoy will have southern columns departing from Barcelona and Italy, a central column coming from Ireland and Britain, and a northern column starting in Norway. The columns will be hosting events along the transit routes to mobilize international trade unions, feminist networks, environmental organizations, and LGBTIQ+ groups in a unified stance of anti-imperialist solidarity. The columns will converge in Poland before crossing the border into Ukraine for major distribution stops in Lviv, Kyiv, and hard-hit regions in the war-torn East.

We urge everyone to contribute to this effort. To donate and get involved, please visit the International Solidarity Convoy to Ukraine at https://solidarityconvoyukraine.com/.

Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Tempest Collective. For more information, see “About Tempest Collective.”
Featured Image credit: Leonhard Lenz; modified by Tempest.

The post Ukraine Needs International Solidarity as Russia Escalates Its Aggression appeared first on Tempest.

BoM chart shows giant El Niño climate pattern in the Pacific is nearing record weekly levels.

The post El Niño nears record levels as ocean conditions tilt in unfavourable direction for eastern Australia appeared first on Renew Economy.

Centre for Future Work Economist and Director Jim Stanford was recently invited to give testimony to the Senate’s National Finance committee, regarding the state of Canada’s macroeconomy in the wake of Donald Trump’s trade war and other geopolitical uncertainty. Stanford emphasized the continuing resilience of the national economy, which has avoided recession and recently chalked up decent growth and job-creation numbers – despite the damage done by U.S. tariffs to our exports and business investment. He warned Senators that diversifying the destination for Canadian exports is not an adequate response to current risks: Canada must also focus on diversifying the composition of exports, using pro-active measures to add value to Canadian resources through processing and manufacturing (rather than depending mostly on exports of unprocessed resources, which now account for over 50% of total Canadian merchandise exports). He also stressed that the challenge of the trade war does not justify jettisoning core labour, social, and environmental criteria in economic development policies. Stanford specifically criticized the federal government’s intention (in its Bill C-39) to codify ministerial powers to ban strikes in the federal sector of the economy, on vague and subjective grounds of ‘national interest’.

Stanford’s opening remarks to the Senate committee are posted below. They draw on more extensive analysis contained in several recent public presentations; see Stanford’s presentation slides here for more detail.

Opening Remarks Senate Standing Committee on National Finance Hearings on Canadian Economic Outlook, Sep. 29, 2026 By Jim Stanford, Economist and Director Centre for Future Work

Thank you very much, Senators, for the opportunity to meet and share my views on Canada’s economic and fiscal situation as you prepare for the upcoming federal budget.

The Centre for Future Work is a labour economics research institute, founded in Canada in 2020. We conduct research on the full range of economic issues facing working people: including the future of jobs, wages and income distribution, skills and training, sector and industry policies, globalization, the role of government, public services, and more. The Centre also develops timely and practical policy proposals to help make the world of work better for working people and their families.  The Centre is independent and non-partisan.

Today I will provide some short comments on the current state of Canada’s economy, how it is withstanding the uncertainty caused by the erratic changes in U.S. trade policy, and themes that the federal government should emphasize in its future actions. Then I will welcome your questions and comments.

Recent economic indicators confirm that Canada’s economy is maintaining its stability and momentum despite the disruptions arising from U.S. tariffs and other uncertainty on the international front. Second-quarter growth was both strong and well-balanced. All major cylinders in Canada’s economic engine were firing: with significant growth in consumer spending, government expenditure (on both current services and capital investment), business non-residential investment, residential investment, and exports. Even our exports to the U.S. grew, as well as our exports to other countries. The overall rate of growth (2.3% annualized) would have been much stronger but for a major inventory drawdown during the quarter, as businesses worked down excess inventory accumulated in previous less vibrant quarters. That portends continued strength in future quarters, as firms adjust to renewed growth and readjust their inventories accordingly.

In the labour market, job-creation has been decent if not spectacular, with over 200,000 jobs created in the last 12 months, most of them full-time. Even manufacturing (which has borne the brunt of U.S. trade actions) has seen year-over-year job growth of over 20,000 new positions, which attests to the diversity and resilience of this vital sector. Ironically, the weakest employment numbers are presently arising from the public sector, including education (mostly due to job reductions in colleges, adjusting to the whiplash effects of erratic immigration policies for international students) and public administration (mostly due to headcount reductions in the federal civil service). This public sector downsizing is unnecessary. The public sector is relatively insulated from President Trump’s trade actions, and should be a source of stability as the economy adjusts to the new global environment. The federal government in particular should rethink this downsizing, which will also affect the quality of federal service delivery to Canadians.

One warning sign from the labour market is a noted deceleration of wage growth, which had been quite robust over the previous four years. The initial inflation shock following the COVID pandemic required a pickup in wage growth in Canada, to try to restore real purchasing power for Canadian workers damaged by the temporarily high inflation of 2022 and 2023. That repair job worked: wage growth exceeded inflation significantly from late 2023 until the present, allowing real wages to recover and then some. Real wages are now higher than they were before the pandemic, and this has been essential in helping Canadian address affordability challenges. It is testament to Canada’s labour relations system that real wages, on average, have been more than fully repaired. Strong improvements in minimum wages in most provinces (and the federal jurisdiction), and Canada’s strong collective bargaining system, explain why real wages have performed better here than in many other countries – including the U.S., where real wages are falling.

However, a combination of slower wage growth and a rebound in inflation (resulting from the U.S. war against Iran) are now threatening that success. Hourly nominal wages were up only 2.0% year-over-year in August, the slowest in 5 years – and not enough to keep up with current inflation. Placing continued priority on strong wage gains for Canadian workers will be essential for protecting purchasing power and sustaining consumer spending, which after all accounts for half of total GDP. In this context, I must express alarm regarding the federal government’s intention to codify restrictions on normal collective bargaining rights in its proposed changes to the Canada Labour Code, as part of its current Bill C-39. Codifying the government’s right to interfere arbitrarily in bargaining and suppress constitutional rights (including the right to withhold labour) on the basis of vague and subjective measures of ‘national interest’, is a step in the wrong direction, that would heighten the risk of future deterioration in real wages in Canada.

Canada’s trade performance has also been surprisingly robust despite the impact of swings in U.S. policy. Exports of goods and services in nominal terms have increased to both the U.S. and other countries, partly due to higher prices (especially for oil) and partly increased volumes. Since the end of 2024 (when President Trump won election), Canada’s exports to countries other than the U.S. have grown by 18% (to the second quarter of 2026). Even our exports to the U.S. are up 9%. The share of our total exports going to the U.S. has fallen to 67%. There is a lot going on behind these numbers (including the rise in world petroleum prices following the U.S. war on Iran), but it seems clear that efforts to diversify Canadian trade ties are paying off.

Let me conclude with some high-level thoughts about the broad task facing Canada’s economy in the coming years. The attacks on our economy, and indeed our sovereignty, from south of the border are forcing us to redefine how we orient Canada’s economic and social development. Instead of relying on access to the huge U.S. market as our key advantage in investment location, we must develop a more self-reliant and diversified vision for future investment, innovation, trade, and growth. This means attracting more investment here (from both foreign investors, but also more investment of our own capital, such as the trillions held by Canadian entities, including our pension funds, in the U.S. and other foreign markets). It means strengthening our trade ties with the rest of the world. But it’s not just the quantity of investment and exports that matters: it’s also the composition of those flows, and the quality of the economy – and society – that we build. There is a current temptation, as we gird our national loins to withstand the irrationality of the Trump administration, to double down on anything we can do, and do quickly. This has contributed to a great rush to expand resource extraction and exports.

However, reinforcing Canada’s dependence on extraction and export of unprocessed primary products has its own risks to our economic capability and sovereignty – including well-known vulnerability to global demand and geopolitical swings, as well as (in the case of fossil fuels) environmental risks that are more urgent every year (and which continue to accumulate regardless of the climate denialism of the U.S. government and some others). Our vision should be to build an economy that is not just viable in the face of Trump’s attacks, but retains the core values which motivate Canadians to defend our country as an entity distinct from that south of the border. That means preserving a balance in our economic strategy between getting big things done quickly, and making sure we are doing the right kinds of big things, and doing them properly – including with due attention to sustainability, Indigenous consultation and consent, and basic social and labour values and rights. In that regard, it is more important than ever for Senators to play their full oversight role, to ensure that the federal government’s response to this dangerous moment does not dismiss those values and priorities in a rush to sign deals and accelerate projects.

Thank you again for your attention, and I look forward to your questions or discussion.

The post How Canada is Surviving Trump’s Trade War appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

Report suggests focus has shifted from how we can leverage rapidly improving emissions measurement technologies, to whether or not they will fit into a clunky, regulatory box.

The post The revolutionary methane detection technology that probably won’t fit into our regulatory box appeared first on Renew Economy.

The Australian Greens has named its new leaders, in a move the party says will offer "fresh leadership" and an answer to the rise of One Nation and the far right.

The post “Staring down the climate crisis:” New Greens leaders promise to take fight to One Nation – and to Labor appeared first on Renew Economy.

This September, as part of the Global Day of Action Against WTO and Free Trade Agreements, La Via Campesina hosted a global webinar featuring a lecture by renowned author, academic, and activist Raj Patel.

The post Trade, Capitalism and the Food System – Study Session with Raj Patel appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Same-day delivery? More like Hell on Wheels.

Amazon delivery drivers have spent the last five years racking up thousands of serious traffic violations, including speeding through school zones, blocking bus and bike lanes and parking next to fire hydrants, according city data collected by an organization looking to reform the logistics giant’s hiring practices.

A new interactive tool from the labor-aligned Alliance for a Greater New York details the many thousands of traffic infractions drivers for Amazon collected between July 2021 and June 2025. The interactive map, called Amazon Delivers Dangers, shows that Amazon-associated delivery vans drew 14,290 tickets from cameras and traffic enforcement agents over the five-year period.

The map sorts the tickets into the following categories:

• 3,602 citations for blocking bus lanes, bus stops, or other public-transit access
• 2,689 citations for obstructing curb access
• 2,366 citations involving traffic and intersection safety
• 2,162 citations for speeding in school zones
• 2,051 citations for obstructing emergency-response access
• 1,340 citations for blocking pedestrian or cyclist space.

Between 2019 and 2024, the number of packages delivered in New York City jumped by nearly 40 percent, from 1.8 million per day to 2.5 million per day. That trend has driven many more delivery vans onto city streets.

An illegally parked van in the Grand Street bike lane.

The map shows that Amazon delivery drivers’ dangerous habits are not limited to a single corner of the city or a few bad-apple drivers. The company’s drivers have received tickets in every last one of the city’s 51 City Council districts, and the 10 plates with the most combined citations accounted for only 904 of the 14,920 tickets.

The map is the latest lob in the fight between labor organizers and Amazon over the Delivery Protection Act, a bill proposed by Council Member Tiffany Caban (D-Queens). That bill requires the operators of “last-mile” warehouses to directly hire anyone doing deliveries out of that warehouse, which would effectively require Amazon to directly hire the delivery drivers who work for the company dropping off packages around the city.

Currently, Amazon relies on subcontracting its deliveries out to companies known as Delivery Service Partners, which are local independent logistics companies that lease Amazon trucks and uniforms from the online retail giant. By hiring DSPs as subcontractors that pick up deliveries from its warehouses around the city, critics say Amazon is able to skirt any regulations or responsibility for how those drivers behave on the road, despite the fact that Amazon is the company that tracks delivery times and sets routes for drivers.

Every dot is a traffic ticket collected by an Amazon-linked delivery van.

Caban’s bill would also mandate safety training for drivers and ensure that Amazon proper — and not an ever-changing roster of DSPs — is liable for the traffic violations by delivery drivers.

“Amazon’s business model is built on the routine violation of traffic laws,” Matt Multari, a former Amazon delivery driver, said in a press release announcing the new mapping tool. “Amazon surveils you and tracks you to the minute, forcing you to go faster. You don’t have time to look for parking. If Amazon’s AI notices that you are going slower than what they expect, you can get penalized, or eventually terminated.”

A majority of the City Council supports Caban’s bill. Amazon has spent $5 million lobbying against the legislation, and warned supportive Council Members that the company would stop using electric cargo bikes to deliver packages if it becomes law. It is unclear why Amazon would abandon its micromobility practices if the city required it to directly hire the people who ride company-branded cargo bikes.

“Companies like Amazon are using subcontractors to shield themselves from their responsibility to keep workers and New Yorkers writ large safe,” Caban said in a press release. “That’s why I’m proud to be the lead sponsor of the Delivery Protection Act, which would create a licensing system for last-mile deliveries, force companies to take responsibility for their drivers, protect against unfair retaliation and firing of workers, and require real training for workers.”

A spokesperson for Amazon claimed the company’s violations are a “tiny fraction” of its total deliveries, which “does not suggest a systemic issue” — and pointed to the company’s e-cargo bikes as evidence of Amazon trying to address the issue.

“Safe and responsible delivery practices are always a top priority. Delivery Service Partners are local, independent businesses, responsible for their own operations and for following the traffic and parking laws in the communities where they operate, including addressing any citations,” the rep, Leigh Ann Gullett, said in a statement.

“We work closely with them to promote safe delivery practices, from hands-on driver training to in-vehicle safety technology, and we continue to invest in solutions like our e-cargo bike and on-foot delivery programs that reduce the need for vehicles on city streets and help us be a good neighbor in the communities we serve.”

Surging rates of high blood pressure in pregnancy – does chemical exposure play a role? Anthony Lacey September 30, 2026

• Rates of high blood pressure in pregnancy rose 73% between 2016 and 2024, building on a trend of rates more than doubling between 1989 and 2016.
• The increases are not limited to people with established risk factors and span all age, weight and racial/ethnic groups.
• A growing body of research links exposure to environmental chemicals with hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.
• To reduce exposure to chemicals, consumers can check product labels, choose glass over plastic and consider using a water filter.

Rates of high blood pressure during pregnancy have risen sharply, up 73% between 2016 and 2024, according to a report from the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention. 

The 2026 report, finding the rate of gestational hypertension jumped from 6% in 2016 to 10.4% in 2024, draws on data from U.S. birth certificates collected during this period.

The increase during this period extends an upward trend observed in previous years – rates more than doubled between 1989 and 2016. 

True rates of gestational hypertension could be even higher: the CDC notes it may be underreported on birth certificates.

Disorders affecting many

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, usually referred to as HDP, affect roughly 10% to 15% of pregnancies in the U.S.  

HDP is an umbrella term covering several related but distinct conditions, each with their own health risks. The CDC report focuses on one of these disorders – gestational hypertension – but any of them can pose major threats to the health of the mothers giving birth and the developing fetus:

• Chronic hypertension. High blood pressure present before pregnancy or diagnosed before 20 weeks of gestation.
• Gestational hypertension. High blood pressure that develops after 20 weeks of pregnancy, without signs of organ damage or protein in the urine.
• Preeclampsia or eclampsia. High blood pressure after 20 weeks of gestation, with the presence of protein in the urine or signs of other organ dysfunction, such as liver or kidney issues. Preeclampsia becomes eclampsia with the onset of seizures.
• Superimposed preeclampsia. New or worsening symptoms or organ dysfunction in a person with chronic hypertension diagnosed before the pregnancy. 

Long-term harms

These common pregnancy disorders are among the leading causes of illness and mortality among pregnant people in the U.S. 

Adverse health outcomes of any of these disorders have been linked to placental abruption, organ damage or failure, maternal mortality, and cardiovascular disease later in life. They can also contribute to poor birth outcomes, such as stillbirth, neonatal mortality, restricted fetal growth, preterm birth and low birthweight. 

Some of these birth outcomes, like preterm birth, are known to be associated with worse health outcomes, such as developing chronic respiratory or renal problems, later in life. 

Known HDP risk factors

A person is more likely to develop HDP if they have any of the following: 

• Pre-existing health conditions, like chronic high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease
• An autoimmune disease such as lupus
• Certain characteristics and types of pregnancy, such as a pregnancy of multiples, a first pregnancy, conception through IVF, or a previous history of HDP. 

Demographic factors, including being 35 or older, having obesity, income status, and race and ethnicity, have also been associated with increased risk. 

The CDC report showed that the increased rates spanned all racial and ethnic groups, though not equally. Black and Native American women had the highest overall rates, up to 12.3% for Black women and 13.2% for Native American women. 

Although the overall rate among Asian pregnant people is lower than the average, they also have experienced the steepest percentage increase, with rates more than doubling from 3.5% to 7.1% during the study period. 

Consistent with prior research, the CDC report found gestational hypertension rates were higher among people with known risks, such as obesity and pregnancy at an age over 40. 

Rates also rose across all age groups and in every body mass index category, not just among those already considered high risk. 

This finding suggests existing risk factors alone do not account for the increase, though the exact degree to which any single factor contributes to this trend remains unclear.

Could environmental chemical exposure increase the risk?

While the CDC report cites other studies on HDP risk factors, those references do not examine environmental exposures. But regular exposure to harmful chemicals in personal care products, food and water, and household items could be contributing to this rise in HDP.

Pregnancy is a period of heightened biological sensitivity to environmental chemicals. Exposure to a specific chemical can affect a pregnant person differently than it would affect someone who is not pregnant, partly because of rapid physiological changes in the body and the developing placenta.  

For instance, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs, such as phthalates, lead and cadmium, and the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, can interfere with hormone signaling and have been linked to worse maternal cardiometabolic health, including HDP. Research suggests that this link holds independent of established risk factors like obesity and age. 

Harmful chemical exposure may also increase risk of other conditions associated with HDP. This is because chemicals affect the same hormones and body systems. For example, EDC exposure has been linked to insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes and metabolic disorders like obesity. 

EDC exposure may not just be a unique risk associated with HDP, but may also be a reason why certain risk factors, like obesity and diabetes, develop in the first place. 

Reducing chemical exposure may offer a way to also reduce risk of some of these established factors before they fully develop, along with managing HDP risk after these risks are already present.

Evidence of an HDP-environmental chemical exposure connection

A growing number of scientific studies show evidence of the connection between HDP and exposure to specific environmental chemicals. The chemicals are widely used in consumer products, detected in drinking water and used in industrial applications.

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PFAS are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances widely used in personal care products, food packaging, children’s toys and household cleaners. They are known as “forever chemicals” because they can persist in the body and do not break down in the environment.

Studies have linked exposure to some PFAS and increased risk of HDP. A 2026 study of women in Puerto Rico found a mixture of six PFAS was associated with more than double the odds of developing gestational hypertension.

Similar associations between eight PFAS and gestational hypertension were also observed in a 2022 study of pregnant people in the Boston metro area. This is consistent with an older study, where researchers used data from the C8 health studies, a large court-mandated public health investigation of the forever chemical PFOA. They reported links between PFOA exposure and several health outcomes.

The Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes, or ECHO, cohort reported in a 2026 study that PFAS levels in the body were linked to higher odds of preeclampsia. ECHO is a National Institutes of Health-supported research program designed to enhance the health of children by combining data across multiple U.S. geographical sites. 

They also reported a suggestive association between PFOA and gestational hypertension risk, but the findings were not consistent among all study sites.

Phthalates

Based on EWG data, the average adult uses 12 personal care products a day. These products can expose people to hundreds of chemicals, including some, like phthalates, associated with health harms.

Phthalates are used to soften plastic or stabilize scents and are found in consumer products, including in personal care products, such as nail polish. Studies report associations between phthalates and HDP, but findings differ based on when during pregnancy exposure is measured and by the specific phthalate.

In a longitudinal cohort collecting data of women in Boston between 2016 and 2020, mixtures of phthalate concentrations detected in urine samples were associated with increased blood pressure during pregnancy.

A 2026 nested case-control study in China noted similar findings: Increased levels of phthalate mixtures in urine were associated with 1.49 times the odds of having had gestational hypertension.

A 2025 study of 291 pregnant people in Texas and Virginia found a replacement phthalate, diisononyl phthalate, was linked to higher odds of HDP – but only when exposure was measured during early pregnancy, not later.

Replacement phthalates are chemicals that became more popular in use after others were phased out due to concerns about their toxicity.

In a 2024 ECHO study of 3,430 pregnant participants across eight U.S. cohorts, researchers found that two-fold higher levels of certain phthalates in urine were associated with higher odds of preeclampsia/eclampsia and other hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Exposure to a mixture of individual phthalates was also linked to higher odds of preeclampsia/eclampsia.

Flame retardants

Flame retardants are chemicals added to electronics, furniture and building materials to slow down or stop fires. These chemicals leach off into household air and dust over time, because they are not chemically bound to the products they are added to.

Only a few studies have examined whether there is a relationship between exposure to flame retardants and HDP.

A 2023 review identified just two studies that examined the link between polybrominated flame retardants, or PBDEs, and hypertensive disorders during pregnancy. The first, a case-control study in the U.S., reported increased odds of gestational hypertension for two PBDEs, BDE-66 and BDE-47. The other, a case-control study based in Iran, reported higher levels of all PBDEs were associated with 2.19 times the odds of having preeclampsia.

PBDEs were phased out of furniture, mattresses and baby products in the mid-2000s due to concerns about their toxicity. Now companies mostly use organophosphate ester flame retardants, or OPEs, as replacements. OPEs also help make plastic more flexible and are used in vinyl flooring, children’s toys and in personal care products, like nail polish.

Evidence of an association between OPEs and HDP is mixed. A small 2021 prospective cohort study of 346 pregnant women in Cincinnati found modest associations between some OPE flame retardants in urine and higher diastolic blood pressure later in pregnancy.

A more recent 2025 study of 900 pregnant women in Boston found no link to preeclampsia, though it did find some increases in continuous blood pressure measurements.

Given how few studies exist and how inconsistent their findings are, this evidence should be considered preliminary.

Bisphenols

Bisphenol A, or BPA, has been phased out of many consumer products. But it remains in epoxy resins used to line water pipes and metal food cans, and in printed thermal receipt paper. Evidence linking BPA exposure to HDP is limited to a few studies and overall is inconclusive.

A 2016 study of 481 pregnant women living in the Boston metro area found that urinary concentrations of BPA and several phthalate metabolites were associated with increased risk of preeclampsia. But this association was not observed at all doctor visits during the study period and differed by child sex.

A 2017 nested case-control study of 173 pregnancies in China found a similar link. BPA, measured in urine samples, was associated with risk of preeclampsia.

When the European Food Safety Authority reviewed this evidence in 2023, it concluded the link between BPA and preeclampsia was “as likely as not,” meaning the evidence was not strong enough to confirm a link but also not weak enough to rule one out.

Heavy metals

People can be exposed to heavy metals like lead, cadmium and mercury through drinking contaminated water, ingestion of certain foods, particularly fish, polluted air and contaminated personal care products. Several heavy metals, including lead and cadmium, are recognized endocrine disruptors.

A 2022 review noted that heavy metals like cadmium and lead have been linked to HDP. Globally, evidence linked cadmium exposure to preeclampsia, the review found. One well-known source of cadmium is cigarette smoke.

A 2026 review linked lead exposure to gestational hypertension, and a 2018 meta-analysis identified lead exposure as a significant risk factor for preeclampsia.

It’s worth noting that heavy metal levels are present at very low levels in most everyday consumer products, and U.S. regulations set limits for lead, cadmium and other heavy metals in a range of products.

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Biomonitoring data show that levels of several once-common chemicals, like brominated flame retardants, BPA, some PFAS, and certain phthalates, have declined in the U.S. population since bans and phase-outs began, in the mid-2000s and 2010s. 

But that decline was offset by rising exposure to newer replacement chemicals with similar chemical structures, and in some cases, similar health effects. This pattern is called a “regrettable substitution.”

For example, U.S. biomonitoring data showed median BPA levels fell 15% nationwide from 2013 to 2016, but levels of its replacement bisphenol S rose 20% over the same period. 

European biomonitoring data documents the same pattern – as BPA levels fell, its replacements bisphenol S and bisphenol F rose. 

The phthalate substitute diisononyl cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylat showed a similar rising trend. And OPE flame retardants, which largely replaced PBDEs, are now detected in urine samples from over 95% of the U.S. population. 

Image

Not every chemical class follows this substitution pattern. Blood lead levels have fallen substantially since leaded gasoline and paint were phased out, without a comparable replacement taking its place. 

Concentrations of the forever chemicals PFOA and PFOS have also declined continuously since regulatory restrictions began in the early 2000s. 

Whether a chemical has been substituted or has truly declined, research continues to link even lower exposure levels to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. 

This may point to the absence of a clearly safe exposure threshold for these endocrine-disrupting chemicals. 

Or it may reflect the fact that people are rarely exposed to one chemical at a time, and the combined effect of many low-level chemical exposures may matter more than any single compound.

Research designed to study these combined, real-world mixtures, rather than one chemical at a time, is still developing and is an important direction for future work.

How to reduce exposure to concerning chemicals

Collectively, these studies suggest that exposure to environmental chemicals during pregnancy may be one contributor to the risk of developing hypertensive disorders.  

People who want to reduce their exposure don’t have to try replacing all their belongings at once. Small changes, such as swapping out one product for a safer alternative or filtering your water, can help reduce exposure to harmful chemicals.

Here are some tips:

• Find safer personal care products free from chemicals of concern by searching EWG’s Skin Deep® database or using EWG’s Healthy Living™ app. 
• Avoid products whose labels do not disclose their fragrance. Phthalates used in personal care products might not always show up on the label if they are part of a fragrance blend. The umbrella term “fragrance” or “parfum” can contain up to 100 ingredients, some of which may be chemicals associated with health harms. 
• Consult EWG’s Tap Water Database to find which contaminants are detected in drinking water around the country. EWG’s water filter guide can help consumers match a filter to the specific contaminants in a particular location’s water and individual budget. Not every filter removes every harmful chemical.
• Choose glass, porcelain or stainless steel containers, particularly for hot food or liquids, and avoid reheating foods in plastic.
• If avoiding flame retardants in mattresses is a priority, consumers should look for a mattress or crib mattress made by a company that’s transparent about how it meets fire-safety requirements and what materials it uses in products. Or look for EWG Verified® mattresses for the highest level of confidence.

 

Areas of Focus Women's Health Children’s Health Toxic Chemicals BPA Flame Retardants PFAS Chemicals Phthalates Authors Alexa Friedman, Ph.D. Guest Authors Eunice Daudu September 30, 2026

• The latest version of Transportation for America’s “Deadly by Design” report ranks congressional districts by pedestrian deaths, with the highest by far being the Arizona 3rd in Phoenix. Congress distributes billions of dollars in transportation funding to cities and states each year, but steadfastly refuses to hold those state and local agencies accountable for safety improvements.
• Almost half of parents report that their child has experienced a close call from dangerous drivers at a school bus stop or near a school, according to a survey by the Governors Office of Highway Safety. (Jalopnik)
• AAA says the average annual cost of owning an operating a new vehicle has risen more than $1,000 since last year, to nearly $13,000.
• Traffic congestion should be viewed as something motorists impose on themselves and other road users, as opposed to casting drivers as the victims. (Planetizen)
• Why do more Philadelphians die in car crashes than in comparable cities like New York, Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C.? (The Conversation)
• Private passenger rail company Brightline cut a deal with investors on a $490 million lifeline to save it from bankruptcy (Miami Herald). Brightline demonstrated the appeal of high(ish)-speed rail in South Florida, but its financial problems once again beg the question, who will pay for the infrastructure? After all, airlines don’t pay for airports (Grist).
• Orange County, Florida is seriously considering an ambitious citizen-led plan for an Orlando mass transit system combining light and heavy rail with bus rapid transit. (Central Florida Public Broadcasting)
• Both Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy and Republican challenger Mike Minogue want to suspend the state gas tax, which may be popular, but it only saves drivers a few bucks and sends the wrong message about transportation priorities. (Commonwealth Beacon)
• Dallas leaders believe the city needs a grand strategy tying together planning, transportation and infrastructure to keep up its economic momentum. (Morning News; paywall)
• Sacramento opened a new light rail station four months early. (ABC 10)
• Police have started ticketing violators in Pittsburgh’s new Oakland bus-only lanes. (TribLive)
• The Charlotte Area Transit System is implementing the first of improvements called for by last year’s transit funding referendum. (Queen City News)
• China opened four new high-speed rail lines with a combined length of about 700 miles on Monday alone. (China Daily)
• Spacing obtained the actual request for proposals Ontario issued for a construction company to physically tear up Toronto bike lanes, and it looks like retrofitting those streets for even more cars will be extremely disruptive and cost a lot of money.
• Meanwhile, cyclists in Alberta are pushing back on a similar policy, showering lawmakers with postcards. (Cycling Magazine)

The Trump Administration’s takeover of East Potomac Park is devastating for the residents of DC. East Potomac Park is home to some of the city’s best green space. Trump wants to redevelop the entirety of East Potomac into a single, PGA-caliber golf course, likely to be financially inaccessible to the majority of the course’s current demographic.

Trump’s approach reinforces elitism and promotes poor land use — the exact opposite of what an urbanist approach to green space should be.

As an urbanist, one of the most ironic qualities about me is I love golf. There’s nothing like the feeling of spending your weekend mornings outside and chasing the high of hitting a perfect shot. Yet at the same time, I often struggle with the moral conundrum of whether golf is fundamentally antithetical to the urbanist mission. There’s a world in which golf and urbanism can coexist, and DC is the best example of it, making Trump’s takeover uniquely problematic. 

Recommended A Lot of Golf Courses Should Probably Be Parks Roger Rudick April 28, 2020

Golf is a prime target for urbanists due to inefficient land-use. Other critics argue that golf courses serve a niche population who are typically older, wealthy white men.

While that may be true of many private country clubs in the suburbs, municipal golf looks quite different. It serves a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, races, and age groups. People of color and women are amongst the fastest growing groups of golfers, and the game has been shifting towards younger age groups. Cities also need green spaces, and those parks should come in a variety of shapes and sizes, whether they are traditional parks, gardens, a soccer field, or a golf course.

This shift is only possible when courses aim to grow the game and commit to accessible, affordable golf. The National Links Trust (NLT), a non-profit, 501c3 organization achieves this goal through its mission of “positively impacting our community and changing lives through affordable and accessible municipal golf.” NLT prioritizes sustainability and biodiversity in its core missions, focusing on reducing energy and water usage and ensuring that a variety of species can thrive in its golf courses.  NLT currently manages Rock Creek Golf Course, Langston Golf Course, and, for now, East Potomac Golf Links in DC.

The Langston Golf Course in DC is a historic course celebrated as a beacon of African American golf heritage. Today, the course offers free lessons and a caddie internship program for high schoolers to increase access to golf at minimal costs. Langston keeps green fees at an affordable rate.

The East Potomac Golf Course offers a similar blueprint for accessible recreation, with three affordable courses, 36 holes of golf, a driving range, several practice areas, and a mini golf course. The park surrounding the golf course is also filled with cyclists, runners, and fishers, while neighboring West Potomac Park hosts numerous recreational sports such as softball.

Cities need to prioritize these types of courses — easy access, low cost environments where people of all backgrounds can gather together.

Recommended How Rethinking the Golf Course Could Help Seniors Age in Place Tanya Snyder January 9, 2013

Yet in December, the Trump Administration terminated the lease agreement between the National Links Trust and National Parks Service for lease violations, leaving the future of East Potomac in limbo. After several months of uncertainty, NLT reached an agreement with the Department of Interior for new long-term leases at Langston and Rock Creek. NLT will temporarily manage East Potomac until the Trump Administration redevelops it.

Trump’s takeover does not shrink the game of golf. But it does capture publicly-owned land and privatizes it for use by an elite population. A park that serves thousands of DMV residents on a single day will now serve a few hundred, on a good day. On top of that, the reconstruction could cost between $20 and $49 million. Taxpayer money is quite literally subsidizing land-use for the wealthy. 

This discrepancy becomes more evident when evaluating the price of a round of golf. Right now, green fees for an 18-hole round at Langston or East Potomac cost anywhere between $34-48, depending on the day of the week. By contrast, green fees for some of the more ‘affordable’ PGA Tour courses start around $80-150 a round, while the most expensive courses can cost over a thousand dollars.

It is extremely likely that Trump’s new course will price out the average East Potomac golfer, at least if the President’s other courses are any indication. Trump’s Los Angeles golf course costs somewhere between $95-$575 a round. Using an average of $335 green fees as a benchmark for Trump’s course, and the high-end of $48 for an NLT course, a golfer would need to spend almost 600% more on green fees alone. This does not account for membership fees, caddy fees, or other expenses typical with private courses. 

What the game of golf needs, in DC and around the country, is more organizations like NLT to expand and grow the game. There should be an emphasis on sustainability and affordability, rather than exclusivity.

Within this framework, golf can thrive in an urban environment rather than be a competitor. Pairing this with access to high-quality public transportation options, such as bus routes terminating at course entrances, makes golf an urban amenity that will attract more residents to a city.

Upzoning the land around golf courses can encourage housing and businesses to open, too. The ease of access to a green space will in turn promote social and economic activity, rather than isolating golf from it. None of this is where East Potomac is headed.

The irony is not that an urbanist like me cares about preserving golf. It is that golf is not in competition with cities. The biggest threat to the game is exclusivity — which is all the Trump administration cares for. 

Lock the Gate Alliance has condemned the Independent Planning Commission’s (IPC) decision to approve a 19-year extension to the Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) coal mine, saying it exposes the failure of NSW’s planning system to prioritise community wellbeing over mining lobby interests.

A new way of simulating wind turbines in the field shows how tweaking turbine operation could unlock tens of thousands of dollars per turbine every year.

As our skies increasingly crowd with buzzing, hovering, flitting drones, spare a thought for the humble hopping robot.

Dominik Fleitmann, how did you come to study the climate using stalagmites?

This November, Cupertino voters have the chance to make sure their parks and open spaces stay just like that. 

Greenbelt Alliance proudly endorses a YES vote on Measure L, which would require two-thirds voter approval before the City could rezone any designated park, parkland, or open space for residential, commercial, or industrial use, or approve development on that land. In short, it puts the decision about Cupertino’s green space in the hands of voters, not subject to a simple council majority.

Why It Matters

Parks and open space are not just amenities. They are the places where Cupertino residents cool off during extreme heat, where stormwater is absorbed instead of flooding streets, and where kids and families get safe, free access to the outdoors. As Silicon Valley continues to face intense development pressure, the land we set aside for community and ecological health is exactly the kind of asset that can quietly disappear, parcel by parcel, without anyone getting a real say.

Measure L does not ban future changes to parkland outright. It simply raises the bar, requiring a supermajority of voters to sign off before park or open space land is converted into something else. The higher threshold protects against short-term political or financial pressure driving long-term irreversible decisions about land that belongs to the whole community. 

Measure L comes at no cost to taxpayers and gives Cupertino residents a durable, voter-backed layer of protection for parks and open space, ensuring any future development in these valuable areas has to clear a high bar and earn broad community support first. 

Protecting green space is protecting climate resilience. Vote YES on Measure L in Cupertino.

The post Vote Yes on Measure L to Protect Cupertino’s Parks and Open Space for Good appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

Smart, sustainable growth means building the housing our communities need in places that protect both people and our environment—which is why Greenbelt Alliance is proud to endorse Measure Q in Half Moon Bay.

Measure Q asks voters to approve a 99-year ground lease and related agreements between the City of Half Moon Bay and affordable homebuilder Mercy Housing. This approval is the final key to unlocking a transformational 40-unit affordable housing community specifically designed for senior farmworkers at 555 Kelly Avenue.

Why It Matters

This project represents the very best kind of infill development. Located in the heart of downtown Half Moon Bay, 555 Kelly sits just steps away from vital daily services, grocery stores, local retail, and community spaces. By placing deeply affordable housing in a walkable, central location, it’s possible to reduce reliance on personal vehicles, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and connect some of the city’s most vulnerable residents directly to their town’s core.

Equally important is climate resilience. As the coast faces increasing climate threats, this downtown site ensures senior farmworkers, the very people who have nourished our region for decades, have dignified, safe, and affordable housing in a location protected from severe climate hazards. It honors their lifelong contributions by offering a secure, comfortable space to age in place with dignity.

While a “Yes” vote affirms the City Council’s approval of the ground lease, allowing Mercy Housing California to move forward seamlessly with construction, a “No” vote blocks the ground lease and brings this long-awaited project to a screeching halt. If that were the case, it would also leave Half Moon Bay’s Housing Element in a continued state of non-compliance, exposing the city to escalating legal penalties, substantial state fines, the potential loss of critical state grant funding, and the Builder’s Remedy.

Yes on Q is the right choice for housing affordability, for climate resilience, and for the Half Moon Bay community. Vote YES on Measure Q.

 

Photo credit: Visit Half Moon Bay, Facebook Page.

The post Vote Yes on Measure Q to Unlock Affordable Housing for Seniors in Half Moon Bay appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

A recent review in Frontiers in Microbiology finds that heavy fertilizer use by rice farmers in China is limiting the ability of soil microbes to promote crop growth. The result is a greater dependency on artificial inputs, which threatens water and terrestrial ecosystems. But researchers find that integrating legumes can help mitigate these harms and help farmers use fertilizer more efficiently.

Nitrogen fixation is a natural process that converts atmospheric nitrogen into a form that plants can use. While nitrogen is vital for plant health, too much can harm ecosystems, says soil health expert Yuting Liang of the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“In flooded rice paddies, excessive nitrogen can increase nitrogen losses and nitrous oxide emissions, affecting microbial processes involved in the nitrogen cycle,” Liang tells Food Tank.

Liang notes that in contrast to conventional fertilizers, biological nitrogen fixation “supports a slower and more efficient nitrogen cycle.” But if the soil is already rich in nitrogen from fertilizers, microbes will respond by shutting the process down. “Many nitrogen-fixing microorganisms tend to reduce their activity because the need to fix atmospheric nitrogen becomes much lower,” she explains.

This leads to a paradoxical feedback loop, the study explains. The more fertilizer a farmer adds to secure a harvest, the less nitrogen the soil makes on its own, and the more fertilizer the next crop needs. Instead of helping farmers cut back on fertilizer, it encourages overuse.

“It is so connected to many problems while it is essential for food production,” Wim de Vries, a soil scientist and professor at Wageningen University, tells Food Tank.

De Vries argues the first solution is to apply less fertilizer. He points to what he calls the four-R principle: the right amount, right type, right time, and right place. “The right rate is extremely important in regions like China where they over-fertilize,” he says. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, China is the largest producer and consumer of nitrogen fertilizers and remains one of the largest rice producers globally.

Soil scientists like Mark Peoples of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization say crop diversification can help reduce reliance on artificial fertilizers.

“A diverse system is likely to be more resilient and have better environmental outcomes than a landscape dominated by highly specialized, frequent cereal cropping that is heavily reliant upon fertilizer,” Peoples tells Food Tank. He notes that legume cover crops can increase soil nitrogen availability for cereal crops like rice, suggesting that increased global and regional demand for legumes can support sustainable farming.

Liang agrees, stating, “In regions where conditions are suitable, rice-legume rotations or green manure systems can further strengthen natural nitrogen cycling and increase microbial diversity.” By planting legumes during the dry season and rice during the wet season, farms retain nitrogen-fixing microbes which support soil nutrient availability.

But to encourage farmers to plant more legumes, the demand must exist, says Adrian Leip, co-chair of the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe’s Expert Panel on Nitrogen and Food. “It’s often not the farmers who have the power to change, at least not alone, because they are constrained by contracts and value chains,” he tells Food Tank. He notes that farmers need these market signals to transition to more sustainable practices, including crop rotation.

But dietary trends seem to be moving in the opposite direction, Peoples says. He sees that more eaters are seeking animal protein over pulses and legumes while governments subsidize cereal production and fertilizers.

Leip and De Vries call for a systemic approach to change this. “It’s dietary change, it’s food waste reduction, it’s circular agriculture, and it’s improved practices,” De Vries tells Food Tank. “These are the four. If you want to reduce the problem, you need to look at all four of them. And never only one is the answer.”

Leip also underscores that these solutions must work for producers: “This should be done in a way that is not harmful for the farming community. They are keeping the land intact; if they can, they would like to make it in a way that is sustainable… [while] conserving biodiversity.”

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 Ivan Bandura, Unsplash

The post How Cover Crops Can Support Sustainable Rice Farming appeared first on Food Tank.

RUDOLPH, WISC. (September 29, 2026) — The National Audubon Society announces that Flaig Family Farm, home to the Prairie Pastured Beef business owned and operated by Carl Flaig and his family near...

If you scroll down on the list of “Carbon Majors,” the 178 producers that are responsible for most of the world’s fossil fuel emissions, you will eventually get to a company called Continental Resources. This firm is ranked around 150, well after giants like Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil, but it has still produced almost 600 million tons of carbon dioxide since 2005 alone, equivalent to the combined carbon footprint of around 2 million Americans over that same time. The founder of this company is a man named Harold Hamm, the spitting image of an American oil executive — he grew up dirt-poor in Oklahoma and worked his way into fracking riches, but he still speaks with a Southern drawl. He now uses his wealth to influence the government, raising millions of dollars for Republican candidates and funding crusades against green energy.

If you squint, the protagonist of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film Digger could pass for Hamm, or for the Hamm-like archetype that has bled into the American psyche. The film centers around an oil executive named Digger Rockwell, a Texas-accented plutocrat who has built his father’s wildcat oil company into a global concern with offshore rigs in Greenland and Alaska. As depicted by Tom Cruise, he is the ideal of the Southern businessman-ideologue, partial to monogrammed private jet seats and roaring rants about his own genitalia. Other than making money, his sole concern seems to be the welfare of his white cat Maggie, whom he is trying to keep alive against veterinary advice even as she decomposes in his arms.

Digger examines two questions. First, how much responsibility does such an individual bear for the deaths and displacements caused by global climate change? Second, what is the right way for an artist to consider the first question? If you think you already know the answers to these questions, this may be the movie for you, though I can’t promise you’ll enjoy watching it. In trying to construct a fable about the hubris of oil titans like Hamm, Iñárritu has produced a film that says nothing except what the viewer already knows. He is all too aware that political parables about corporate greed are of limited artistic value, but he can’t manage to escape the confines of parable. The result is a mess of shrieking and spittle that will leave even the most climate-conscious viewers reaching for an Advil. 

After an opening scene in which the audience is given the chance to marvel at Cruise’s physical metamorphosis into a flabby oil executive, the plot arrives with the delicacy of a tornado siren. A technician on Digger’s rig in Greenland calls to tell him that a methane leak has opened up a large crack that threatens the stability of the island’s enormous ice sheet. Before Digger can even finish a monologue about how he’s not going to shut down a billion-dollar platform because of a tiny crack, another group of company officials arrives on his doorstep to tell him that the rig has blown up and the Greenland ice sheet has already collapsed. Now a massive iceberg is headed straight for Europe, with the potential to flood the continent and kill hundreds of thousands of people. Digger confers with the president (John Goodman) to figure out what to do, and they quickly decide to keep drilling.

This opening act achieves a level of heavy-handedness that remained out of reach even for Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, the last major film to satirize those responsible for global warming, which likened climate change to a comet about to hit the earth. Digger’s proposed response to the crisis is to deploy a digital tool called the “firewall” to censor all mentions of “methane,” “iceberg,” and “climate change” from the Internet, while the president and his conservative cronies make predictable suggestions about bombing the iceberg or praying to God for deliverance. Whereas McKay opted for CNN-toned realism, Iñárritu’s aesthetics are a more interesting mix between Wes Anderson and Thomas Hart Benton — Digger’s boardroom is full of Art Deco murals depicting oil discoveries, and above the table hangs an obvious sculpture of a snake eating its own tail.

Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) meets the president in a boardroom to discuss the iceberg approaching Europe. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

The dialogue is full of jokes about climate change that will likely be catnip for the small minority of viewers who already spend most of their days thinking about it. There are references to the outsize global warming potential of methane and to a supposed “COP30 fiasco” at which the U.S. alienated its allies by withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. (In reality, they were almost happy to see us go.) There’s even a reference to thawing Arctic permafrost that will be familiar to devoted Grist readers. The vehicle for these revelations is a series of dialogues between Digger and his in-house scientist Ganesh (Riz Ahmed), each of which devolves into a fusillade of worn-out culture war tropes. Ganesh rejects Digger’s offer of delectable sashimi on the grounds that the bluefin tuna population has declined by 97 percent, “even though this administration won’t label them endangered.” He then tries the sashimi and loves it. 

Whether or not this satire provides an accurate picture of the world economy, it does not make for enjoyable moviegoing. Well over half the movie consists of people screaming their lungs out about methane or the stock market, culminating in an unbearable scene in which Digger berates the European parliament, calling them hypocrites for using his product while condemning his company. The Danish and German legislators howl at him from the benches, accusing him of genocide for allowing the iceberg to hit Europe, and Digger screams back for several minutes about how the world needs his crude. “You want me to keep producing,” he says. “You demand, and I supply!” If you’ve ever worked in climate change, participated in climate politics, or gotten into a debate about climate change on social media, the whole exchange will feel familiar, and not in a good way.

If I hadn’t been assigned to review the film, I might have walked out after the European parliament scene — not because of what Digger was saying, but just because it was ugly, loud, and unpleasant. Regardless of whether you agree with Digger or with the Europeans, who wants to listen to all that? In a Cruise-appropriate twist, the most pleasant moment of the entire film is when the U.S. Air Force scrambles a squadron of fighter jets to carpet bomb the iceberg. It’s almost the only moment in the movie where everyone shuts up. 

The movie includes a twist, or perhaps better to say a reveal, that is intended to show that Iñárritu is up to more than McKay was in Don’t Look Up. At the risk of giving too much away, this isn’t just a parable about climate change, it’s a parable about a parable about climate change. The apparent intention of this narrative complication is to ask what might be achieved by subjecting a viewer to a ham-fisted metaphor like the one the audience has just endured.

McKay’s obvious hope in Don’t Look Up was that such fables might spur people to action, and we can see how well that worked out a few years later — Donald Trump, a climate denier, received almost 80 million votes and triggered a global trend of “climate hushing,” or refusing to look up. Watching a movie about a tyrannical oil executive isn’t likely to make anyone buy an electric vehicle any more than reading the list of the largest emitters would. 

So why bother? Iñárritu seems to want to make the case for the value of chronicling our state of affairs, even if that chronicle drifts into caricature. A few guys really have gotten rich selling a product that has enabled global welfare while also threatening the continuity of that welfare. Those guys are much more inclined to continue selling their product than to stop. Isn’t there some value in preserving that truth for our descendants? During a scene whose context I won’t reveal, one character says the following: “It’s ridiculous, and it’s scary, and it’s funny, and it’s stupid. It makes no goddamn sense, but it’s what happened.” 

Be that as it may, a film still needs a heart, and Digger doesn’t have one any more than Digger himself does. Despite the shots of Cruise looking longingly at his disintegrating cat or at an oil rig sunset, it doesn’t even achieve the level of emotional resonance of a Marvel movie. It has about as much human warmth as a Twitter debate about permitting reform, and its final suggestion that stories can provide solace in times of great calamity is a classic instance of an artist telling where he should be showing. 

If Iñárritu’s point is to show through metaphor that corporate greed has abetted the climate crisis, well, he has made that point only too well. If the point is that this kind of metaphor is simplistic and of dubious political utility, he has also made that point. Even so, viewers looking for stories about the sins of big business may wish they had spent their hard-earned wages on a showing of Coyote vs. Acme, the acclaimed recent Looney Tunes revival. At least there, when the TNT crate drops, you don’t have to think before you laugh.

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline ‘Digger’ is the year’s big climate movie. This climate reporter hated it. on Sep 29, 2026.