News Feeds

File:  ltr to Congress, 76 scientists 2012.pdfResource Type: Letters

File:  ltr to Congress, 76 scientists 2012.pdfResource Type: Letters

The pricing review proposing high fixed network tariffs has got it wrong on home batteries, dynamic pricing and the impact on households.

The post Proposal for high fixed network charges is wrong on home batteries, dynamic pricing, and impact on CER appeared first on Renew Economy.

With the official start to hurricane season right around the corner, people living in the path of hurricanes are experiencing rain, wind and stormy weather. These communities are no strangers to the full extent of damage caused by destructive weather. Many have lost everything to storms and are still building their lives back after throwing away all of their belongings, boarding up broken windows, buying generators and living out of hotel rooms. 

Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry is making more money than ever before. Six of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies that are driving the climate crisis – Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and TotalEnergies – are on track to make almost $3,000 in profits every single second this year, according to a new report, as households across the world grapple with soaring energy prices and inflation, which are driving a cost-of-living crisis.

The climate crisis increases global temperatures. Rising temperatures mean hurricanes that form have the potential to bring stronger winds and heavier rain, which, in turn, means more damage. But it’s not just the fossil fuel industry that is making storms worse. Oil and gas companies cannot build their destructive projects without the same corporations that hold significant power over our financial security and daily lives: insurers, banks and investors.

Insurers

Just like how we can’t drive a car or buy a house without insurance, oil and gas corporations can’t build or operate new projects without insurance. Insurance giants like Chubb, Liberty Mutual and AIG provide insurance to fossil fuel companies so more destructive projects can be built. Insurers also take the money we pay for car, health and life insurance and invest it in fossil fuel companies. It’s estimated that insurance companies have more than $534 billion invested in coal, oil, and gas companies.

Insurers know the climate crisis is happening now and that they’re on the hook to pay for the damage it’s causing. But instead of ditching fossil fuels, they’re withdrawing coverage for communities in disaster-prone areas. In Louisiana, insurance is becoming harder to find and difficult to afford. Massive claims from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita drove large national insurance companies to scale back their coverage and remaining companies to jack up rates. Homeowners in New Orleans saw their premiums double, with some required to pay an extra $3,000 per year. After Louisiana was hit by Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Ida, and Zeta, a dozen insurers became insolvent and many others left the state. We pay more and get less protection. They do business “as usual.”

Banks

Similar to a car loan or mortgage, banks lend fossil fuel companies money that must be repaid over time with interest. Banks also give companies revolving loans or lines of credit that companies can draw from as needed, kind of like a credit card. They also help companies raise money by facilitating the sale of stocks and bonds to investors, a process called underwriting.

In 2024, the warmest year on record, JP Morgan Chase was the world’s top fossil fuel financier for the year, with $53.5 billion in fossil fuel financing. Bank of America rose two ranks to become the second biggest financier of fossil fuels globally. Over two-thirds of banks covered in the Banking on Climate Chaos report (45 banks) increased their fossil fuel financing from 2023 to 2024, with Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Barclays each financing over $12 billion more than last year.

Investors 

Investors provide the funding for fossil fuel projects by purchasing the stocks and bonds that companies issue. Institutional investors hold more than $1.6 trillion in shares and bonds across companies planning major petrochemical expansions in the U.S. Vanguard is the largest investor in fossil fuels worldwide, with $444 billion invested across the sector. The new Toxic Finance report found just five investors control nearly one-third (31%) of companies leading the U.S. petrochemical expansion: Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Capital Group, and Berkshire Hathaway.

Storms didn’t used to be this bad. It didn’t get this hot so soon. Wildfires weren’t this frequent. In fact, a new report from the UN states that the next five years are projected to be the hottest on record. Fossil fuel companies and the institutions that finance them know this, yet they won’t stop injecting their client’s money into projects that continue sacrificing communities for short-term profits. All financial institutions have a responsibility to adopt transition plans that drastically cut fossil fuel financing, including an immediate end to expansion financing. Their money would be much better spent on clean, renewable energies so we can prevent disasters before they happen.

The post Who Makes Hurricane Damage Worse? Insurers, Banks and Investors appeared first on Earthworks.

Reflexiones sobre la seguridad en una época de profunda crisis civilizatoria - Una conversación Fecha y horario * Fecha: 17 de junio, 2026 * Horario: 1pm GMT * Enlace de Registro: Aquí * Participantes: Manuel Rozental (Colombia) y Deepa Sinha (India)

Conceptualizing Security in a Time of Deep Civilizational Crisis - A conversation Date and time * Date: June 17th, 2026 * Time: 1pm GMT * Registration Link: Here * Speakers: Manuel Rozental (Colombia) and Dipa Sinha (India) * Moderation: Madhuresh Kumaralternativesalternativesalternatives

Events Upcoming events Conceptualizing security in a time of deep civilizational crisis - June 17th The first webinar will open the series with a conceptual discussion on security in a time of deep civilizational crisis. It will examine how security has traditionally been framed through the international order, the nation-state, sovereignty, militarization, and the management of threats, while asking how communities and movements are challenging this paradigm today.AlternativesalternativesT…

Eventos Próximos eventos Reflexiones sobre la seguridad en una época de profunda crisis civilizatoria Este es el primero de una serie de seminarios web que dará inicio al ciclo con un debate conceptual sobre la seguridad en una época de profunda crisis civilizatoria. Se analizará cómo se ha concebido tradicionalmente la seguridad a través del orden internacional, el Estado-nación, la soberanía, la militarización y la gestión de amenazas, al tiempo que se cuestionará cómo las comunidades y l…

Energy efficiency is a good thing—but is it being undermined by some part of human nature?

There’s a long-running debate in energy economics about whether as technology becomes more efficient, people may cancel out (or significantly decrease) energy savings because they consume more resources, not fewer.

This effect, variably known as the rebound effect or the Jevons paradox, traces way back to 1865, when the English economist William Stanley Jevons noticed that as steam engines burned coal more efficiently, Britain burned dramatically more coal, not less. Cheaper energy services, he argued, simply invite more energy use.

Few examples illustrate the Jevons paradox as starkly as the humble light bulb. A modern LED produces the same brightness as a Victorian gas lamp using less than one percent of the energy (a 1,000-fold leap in efficiency). Yet humanity now uses vastly more light than ever before: glowing billboards, 24-hour parking lots, and cities visible from space. Each efficiency gain in lighting has been met, and often surpassed, by more and more lights. Did the carbon savings we expected partly evaporate into a brighter world?

The question for the climate era is uncomfortable—but unavoidable. Nearly every national climate plan, every net-zero pledge, and every IPCC pathway leans heavily on energy efficiency as a pillar of decarbonization. How much can more efficient cars, heaters, and other appliances really help stave off climate change? 

• • • The Good News

1.  The big numbers look good. Energy efficiency has to date been one of the main drivers of emissions reductions. The International Energy Agency estimates that improvements to energy efficiency saved the world 7 gigatons of carbon dioxide from 2010 to 2022. For context, that’s more than the tailpipe emissions from 1.5 billion gas-powered passenger cars driven for an entire year. And, the IEA projects that improving fuel efficiency in vehicles, better insulation in houses, and other energy efficiency measures could deliver two-thirds of the oil demand reduction and half of the natural gas demand reduction necessary to meet net zero energy sector emissions by 2050.

2.  Jevons’ paradox is only a problem if the metric is a problem. As Adam Dorr pointed out in a blog post for the nonprofit research org RethinkX, swapping out an emissions-heavy coal plant for a more efficient solar farm may cause energy consumption to spike as prices drop, but that doesn’t mean emissions went up. We often associate energy efficiency with energy austerity. But what if a fully decarbonized economy turned that association on its head? We could use a whole lot more energy, but our emissions footprint would be undetectable. Check out Adrienne Bernhard’s piece for the BBC on “How limitless green energy would change the world.”

Source: The International Energy Agency 2026 Electricity Report

3.  A (possible) ceiling on consumption. Full-fledged rebound requires appetites without limits; in practice, energy appetites saturate. In other words, there may be a ceiling to how much energy most people actually want. A family that switches to a heat pump does not crank the thermostat to 85°F because heating got cheaper; they nudge it up a degree or two and pocket the rest. Even at a national level, at some point, enough really is—well—enough. In his New York Times article, “The Paradox Holding Back the Clean Energy Revolution,” Ed Conway cites research showing that steel and copper consumption seem to slow down as countries achieve a high standard of living.

In short, rebound may be real, but it may also be overblown within the context of carbon emissions. In fact, the strongest version of the Jevons’s claim—that efficiency raises total emissions—is, when tested against modern data, surprisingly hard to find.

• • • The Bad News

1.  AI is the wrench in the works. If ever there were a real-time Jevons experiment, it is unfolding now in data server farms in Virginia, Ireland, and Arizona. Google, for example, seems keen on energy efficiency. In their 2024 environmental report, the company reported that their latest custom processors were 2.7 times more energy efficient than the previous generation, and that they’d found ways to slash the energy required to train models by up to a thousand-fold. In their 2025 report, they highlight how improvements in hardware energy efficiency, among other things, helped them avoid two-thirds of possible emissions the previous year. And yet, that same report noted that once you include the emissions produced building and rigging up their new AI data centers, Google’s overall real-world emissions have actually risen by more than 50% between 2019 and 2024. AI systems overall were estimated to have had the same carbon footprint as New York City in 2025.

Source: The International Energy Agency 2026 Electricity Report

2.  Shipping may also have a big rebound. A 2024 study in Nature Energy found that Jevons’ may have eroded the carbon savings from regulations designed to increase fuel efficiency in long-haul trucking by more than 25 percent. “We didn’t anticipate effects of this magnitude,” Jonathan Hughes, one of the study’s authors, told Anthropocene. That’s because more fuel efficient trucking is cheaper trucking, which could encourage manufacturers to switch from the relatively cleaner, but slower rail shipping.

3.  Rebounds don’t stay in one lane. If increases in energy efficiency result in less demand from power plants for petroleum to burn, one might think this would result in a straightforward reduction in petroleum use, but not so fast. As investment management firm Van Eck pointed out in a blog post, petroleum isn’t just an energy source, it’s also a feedstock for many petrochemicals such as plastics and fertilizers. If increased energy efficiency drives down petroleum demand, basic economics suggests petroleum prices should also go down. Manufacturers might happily gobble up the cheaper feedstocks to produce more plastics and fertilizers. Considering that petrochemicals also produce emissions (around 5 percent of the US’ annual emissions), what had been a simple picture gets messier. 

 

• • • What to Keep An Eye On

1.  Autonomous vehicles. When researchers conducted a full life-cycle analysis of autonomous electric cars, they found some tell-tale signs of rebound. While autonomy cuts fuel-use emissions by about 21%, manufacturing the more complex vehicles, combined with increased travel, can surge emissions by up to 40%—and even with recycling offsetting some of that, autonomous electric vehicles end up emitting roughly 8% more greenhouse gases over their lifetime than standard electric vehicles.

2.  The Global South. Most rebound studies come from wealthy economies where appetites for light, heat, and mobility are largely saturated. In countries where billions of people are only now gaining reliable electricity, air conditioning, and personal vehicles, even modest efficiency gains may unlock enormous new demand. How the world handles that legitimate growth, and whether the energy meeting it is clean, may matter more for the global carbon trajectory than any rebound coefficient ever measured.

3.  Carbon pricing. Even where rebound is real, it is not destiny—it is a policy problem with a known fix. Inês Azevedo’s makes the point in a 2014 paper. When efficiency is paired with a carbon price, an emissions cap, or a clean-electricity standard, the freed-up money and energy cannot simply re-fuel fossil consumption, because the cap or the price is still binding. Efficiency under a carbon constraint is not Jevons’s coal mine; it is a tightening lid on a shrinking budget. The paradox, in this view, is not a law of human nature—it is what happens when you do efficiency without doing climate policy.

Top image: ©Anthropocene Magazine  

A sea of solar panels is rapidly engulfing one of the world’s largest salt deserts. By 2029, nearly 60 million panels will cover 280 square miles of India’s Rann of Kutch, extending right up to the border with Pakistan. The Khavda solar park is set to be the world’s largest and most powerful supplier of electricity from the sun, with a generating capacity of 30 gigawatts — 30 times the size of a typical coal or nuclear power station and enough to power Austria. 

With India’s economy now growing faster than China’s, Khavda epitomizes the country’s breakneck rush to electrify with solar power. Installed solar capacity in India has been growing by 40 percent a year. In March, it passed 150 gigawatts, and by 2030 is set to double again. 

Analysts say the world’s most populous nation is on the verge of becoming the first major country to power its industrialization predominantly with solar energy. 

Cheap solar is “enabling India to develop without the long fossil-fuel detour taken by the West and China,” said Kingsmill Bond, energy strategist and director at Ember, a U.K.-based think tank that tracks the world’s transition to renewable energy. “China built on coal; India is building on sun,” he said. “And what India is doing could also be mirrored in other emerging economies.” 

India’s solar revolution comes as a surprise. Just a decade ago, apart from rooftop installations and a few microgrids serving remote rural villages, solar power was virtually unknown. The government seemed hell-bent on industrializing with coal, unleashing a rising tide of carbon dioxide emissions and supercharging climate change.

Sources: Ember, Energy Institute. Yale Environment 360 / Made with Flourish

In 2015, shortly after taking office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to double coal output by 2020. And at successive international climate negotiations, his ministers pushed back angrily against demands that the country renounce the fossil fuels that drove industrialization in Europe and North America. 

“How can anyone expect that developing countries make promises about phasing out coal [when they] still have to deal with poverty reduction?” Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav asked angrily at COP26 in Glasgow five years ago, before sabotaging the conference’s planned declaration on eliminating coal from the global economy. 

But back home, policy was already changing. The country’s sunny climate made it a natural home for solar energy, and the cost of solar panels was falling fast. Ever since the Glasgow conference, India has been introducing solar energy at an accelerating rate. Last year, for the first time, more than half its installed generating capacity was from non-fossil fuel sources. 

As booming India’s electricity demand continues to grow by more than 6 percent each year, the solar trend is set to continue. According to the International Energy Agency, or IEA, about half the growth anticipated between now and 2030 will be met by solar power, and another 25 percent from other low-carbon sources, mostly wind, hydroelectric, and nuclear. 

Leading the solar surge is the country’s largest private power producer and the world’s second largest solar developer, the Adani Group. Founded in 1988 initially as a commodity importer by Gautam Adani, a long-time confidante of Prime Minister Modi and reputedly now Asia’s richest person, it is widely regarded as having benefited from Modi’s patronage. 

Eyebrows were raised in 2023 when long-standing military protocols banning all construction within 6 miles of the border with Pakistan were set aside weeks before Adani gained control of that land for the Khavda project. And in 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Adani executives of paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain lucrative supply contracts for its solar energy and hiding this from potential investors. The case was dropped this month after Adani made offers to invest in the U.S., though U.S. officials denied any link. 

Read Next Solar to overtake coal on Texas grid for the first time ever this year Julian Spector, Canary Media

Still, the fast-growing Khavda solar park, which had an installed capacity of 9.4 gigawatts as of April, is the jewel in the Adani crown. Its panels are attended by robots that dry-clean them at night to remove desert salt and dust without requiring precious freshwater. The project also includes wind turbines in the windy coastal region on the shores of the Arabian Sea, which should secure nighttime power for the grid.

India still has a long way to go to break its dependence on fossil fuels. Coal still delivers most of the country’s baseload and fuels about 70 percent of total power generation. It helps make India the world’s third-largest carbon dioxide emitter, after China and the U.S, and is a major cause of the country’s urban smogs, which are the worst in the world. But the target to double coal mining output has been quietly forgotten, and construction of coal-fired power stations has been much reduced. Coal’s share in the energy mix is set to fall below 50 percent by 2035, according to the IEA.

Still, with its enormous generating capacity, coal remains deeply entrenched. And there are other constraints on how much solar power can contribute to keeping the lights on in India. While solar last year made up 28 percent of the country’s total installed electricity-generating capacity, it accounted for only 9.4 percent of the electricity put into supply. 

Why the difference? There are two reasons. 

The first is that the country’s outdated grid cannot yet transmit all the solar power being captured in the deserts of western India to where it is needed in the urban heartlands. At times last year, almost 40 percent of the country’s solar power output did not reach customers. 

Read Next The Iran war is changing how millions of people cook — and what they eat Ayurella Horn-Muller & Naveena Sadasivam

Charith Konda, an India-based energy researcher for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, attributes this to the rapid growth of solar facilities, which has outstripped grid development. “Solar plants typically take 18 to 24 months to build, while transmission projects usually take about five years… The grid is trying to catch up.” To that end, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has committed to spending more than $100 billion on expanding the national grid by 29 percent by 2032, through a series of green energy corridors linking solar hubs to major industrial and population centers.

But a revamped grid is only part of the answer, said Debajit Palit, who researches the country’s energy transition at the Chintan Research Foundation in New Delhi. Solar also underdelivers because India lacks the infrastructure to store renewable energy to meet demand after the sun goes down and during the cloudier monsoon season.

One solution being hurriedly adopted is to use water as a battery — so-called pumped storage. This involves linking two storage tanks or reservoirs, one higher than the other.  When the grid has surplus power, that electricity is used to pump water from the bottom tank to the top tank. Then, when the grid needs extra power, it can be generated by dropping the water through turbines to the lower tank. 

Starting later this year, a 1.4-gigawatt project is expected to pump water from one of India’s largest hydroelectric reservoirs, the Gandhi Sagar on the Chambal River in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Another, with a capacity of 3 gigawatts, is set for completion near Mumbai in 2030. In January, the country’s Central Electricity Authority identified 120 potential pumped-storage sites with a combined capacity of 180 gigawatts.

Another solution to the storage problem is lithium-ion batteries. World battery prices are falling dramatically — down 58 percent since 2023, said Ember’s global electricity analyst Kostantsa Rangelova, “making round-the-clock solar electricity increasingly viable.” 

Recognizing this, the Indian government has since last year required new solar farms to install battery storage so they can supply more constant power to the grid. Adani is currently assembling the country’s biggest battery storage system at the Khavda complex — enough to discharge over a gigawatt of power to the grid for three hours every evening. 

Read Next Solar was poised to help Puerto Ricans survive blackouts — until Trump axed nearly $1B in funding Naveena Sadasivam

An additional concern is that India remains heavily dependent on China for the technology behind its solar push. While it now manufactures most of its solar panels, the silicon materials that make the photovoltaic cells largely come from China, as do three-quarters of the lithium-ion batteries essential for energy storage. 

The Indian government is working to address this reliance on its northern neighbor for the supply chain for its renewables technologies by boosting domestic manufacturing. A more long-lasting constraint may be land. 

Solar panels require a lot of space — a difficult issue in a densely populated country that has more people than China on little more than a third of the land area. In a few places, solar companies are offering farmers the option to continue cultivating below raised solar panels, so-called agrivoltaics. But elsewhere, solar facilities are evicting peasant farmers, creating angry protests. 

Occupying areas empty of people, such as the desert salt flats of Khavda, avoids disturbing people but may put wildlife at risk. The Khavda complex abuts the Rann of Kutch Wildlife Sanctuary in Pakistan, which is home to threatened species such as striped hyenas, desert lynx, jackals, and desert foxes, as well as critically endangered great Indian bustards and migrating waterfowl following the Central Asian Flyway from Siberia to the Indian Ocean. 

Read Next The Iran war is destroying oil demand. Could it also spark a shift to clean energy? Kate Yoder

Despite such drawbacks, optimists believe that mass deployment of batteries should one day allow India to meet 90 percent of its electricity demand from solar energy. “The question is no longer whether solar can power India’s electricity system,” said Rangelova, “but how quickly it can scale.”

Not all of India’s booming industries can easily banish coal and hook up to solar-powered electricity, however. One logjam is the steel industry, which requires coal to produce the intense heat needed for blast furnaces and to convert iron ore into pig iron and then steel. India has the most ambitious plans of any country in the world for increasing steel manufacturing, aiming to double production in the coming decade. “Steel is the elephant in the room for India’s decarbonization,” said Palit. 

But in other sectors, the news is better. The country is electrifying its transportation system, for instance. The 42,000 miles of broad-gauge track in India’s vast railway network have been almost entirely electrified in the past decade. Meanwhile, electric road vehicles are moving into smoggy city streets. Most rapidly, India’s ubiquitous motorised rickshaws, often called tuk-tuks, are being electrified. Some 60 percent of sales of motorized rickshaws are now electric, making India the world leader. 

The choking of oil and gas supplies from the Middle East in recent months will only further accelerate the country’s shift to electrify its transportation sector, said Konda.

Whatever the drawbacks, the rapid advance of Indian solar power continues, and marks a sharp difference from the energy path chosen by China and, until now, what has been seen by many countries as essential for their economic development. 

For years, China was notorious for building a new coal-fired power station every week. But India is avoiding that path. Its coal use is only 40 percent of that in China at a similar stage of economic development, according to Bond. Instead, it is installing solar generating capacity at almost the same rate as China once built coal plants. 

With India’s leaders aiming to complete the country’s transition into a modern industrial economy by 2047 — the centenary of its independence from Britain — this matters for the world. India’s current per capita use of electricity is only a third of the global average, a fifth of that of China, and less than a tenth that of the U.S. Closing that gap by burning coal would be ruinous for the world’s climate. Achieving it with solar power could go a long way toward saving the planet.

toolTips('.classtoolTips1','A type of rechargeable battery that functions by shifting lithium ions between two charged metal components, the anode and cathode, and is commonly used to power EVs and consumer electronics.'); toolTips('.classtoolTips4','The process of reducing the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that drive climate change, most often by deprioritizing the use of fossil fuels like oil and gas in favor of renewable sources of energy.'); toolTips('.classtoolTips8','A lightweight, silvery-white alkali metal with properties that allow it to store large amounts of energy. Lithium is a key component of many batteries, including those that store renewable energy and power electric vehicles.');

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline A first among major nations, India is industrializing with solar on May 30, 2026.

Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.

U.S. States Move To Ban Food Dyes and Additives

The USDA’s new public tracking system was updated this month to show the progress food companies are making to remove petroleum-based synthetic dyes from their products.

This federal push encourages companies to act before states implement their own restrictions but, over the past few days, several states have advanced major food safety measures to limit or ban certain food dyes and chemical additives.

In Iowa, Governor Kim Reynolds signed a sweeping health bill that bans certain artificial food dyes and additives from school meals and expands ingredient-related health regulations.

The legislation prohibits six food dyes and two additives from foods and drinks served in many K-12 schools across the state. The law is being described as one of the most prominent state-level food and health measures in the country.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in New York have advanced the “Food Safety and Chemical Disclosure Act,” which would ban additives in foods sold in the state.

Potassium bromate, one of the additives targeted in the New York bill, is commonly used to strengthen dough and improve texture in some iconic New York foods like pizza and bagels.

According to a report from The New York Times, some bakers have pushed back against the proposal, arguing the additive helps preserve the texture and consistency of traditional recipes.

However, many bakeries have taken the bill in stride and are now adjusting their family recipes to ensure a safer slice for New Yorkers.

Thailand’s THAIFEX Expo Highlights the Global Shift Away From Ultra-Processed Foods

As legislation moves forward in U.S. states, food leaders are gathering in Bangkok this week to discuss the next generation of cleaner, more sustainable foods at Thailand’s THAIFEX expo.

THAIFEX is one of Asia’s largest food and beverage trade shows and is being promoted by the Thai government as part of its strategy to position Thailand as a global food hub.

One of the primary focuses of this year’s expo is the future of alternative proteins, especially plant-based products.

Industry leaders at the expo are emphasizing a shift toward plant-based foods that are more affordable, more flavorful, and more nutritious than earlier generations of meat substitutes.

Fermentation technology is also a major theme at the conference this year, as companies look for new ways to create proteins and ingredients with fewer additives and less industrial processing.

The event reflects a broader global push to adapt food production as governments, startups, and major food manufacturers respond to concerns about climate impact, supply chain resilience, and long-term food security.

U.S.-Mexico Trade Disputes Continue to Drive Up Tomato Prices

In the U.S., trade disputes with Mexico over tomatoes are beginning to hit consumers. More than 70% of the fresh tomatoes consumed in the U.S. are imported from Mexico, making American grocery prices especially vulnerable to supply disruptions and tariffs.

Last year, Food Tank reported on the U.S.’s termination of the “Tomato Suspension Agreement.” Now, the U.S. is enforcing a 17% tariff on many fresh tomatoes imported from Mexico and American consumers are feeling the effects of rising costs.

Tomato prices recently reached an eight-year high, 23% above last year’s prices.

Supporters of the tariffs, including many Florida tomato growers, argue that Mexican producers have long sold tomatoes below fair market value, undermining domestic farmers. But industry experts warn that U.S. producers are unlikely to replace Mexico’s supply quickly enough to stabilize prices.

The situation has been further complicated by winter freezes and crop diseases across North America this year which significantly reduced tomato production on both sides of the border.

Food policy experts say the dispute underscores broader challenges facing the global food system, including climate-related production risks, water scarcity, supply chain vulnerability, and growing concerns about long-term food security and regional resilience.

Federal Decision Could Remove Bison From Public Lands

Concerns about regional resilience are also surfacing in the American West this week, where a federal decision threatening bison herds has sparked backlash from tribal nations and conservation advocates.

The recent federal decision could remove bison from public land in Montana, potentially displacing nearly 1,000 animals.

The decision centers on grazing permits administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), where officials have argued that bison are not a “productive” livestock species like cattle.

Bison help shape grassland ecosystems, support biodiversity, and maintain prairie health. They also hold deep cultural and economic importance for many Native American tribes.

In the late 1800s, federal eradication campaigns devastated the North American bison population from tens of millions to only a few hundred surviving bison.

Tribal nations and conservation groups have spent decades rebuilding herds and restoring the species to parts of its historic range.

The Coalition of Large Tribes joined protests to oppose the bison removal as a threat to tribal food sovereignty, cultural traditions, and ongoing conservation efforts. They argue the federal decision may mark worse to come for bison herds across the country.

The Hajj Brings People—and Culinary Traditions—Together

This week also marks the beginning of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world. Millions of Muslims are traveling from across the globe to Saudi Arabia, bringing with them important food traditions, ingredients, and cooking styles from their communities.

Pilgrims this week will share foods including Indonesian rice dishes, Nigerian stews, South Asian biryanis, North African couscous, Turkish desserts, and so many more regional specialties.

Food safety, refrigeration, sanitation, and supply logistics become especially critical during the pilgrimage because of the scale of the gathering and the intense summer temperatures in Saudi Arabia.

This week, thousands of farmers, workers, volunteers, and aid organizations will work to get meals safely to millions of people participating in the Hajj.

At a time of such global division, the Hajj is a reminder that food remains one of the most powerful ways people connect across borders, languages, and traditions.

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 Omer F. Arslan, Unsplash

The post Food Tank’s Weekly News Roundup: The Hajj Begins, States Move to Ban Food Dyes and Additives, and Trade Disputes Continue to Drive Up Tomato Prices appeared first on Food Tank.

Salah satu langkah yang sering dilakukan pemain adalah memperhatikan beberapa indikator teknis yang tersedia pada informasi permainan. Indikator tersebut dapat membantu memahami cara kerja sebuah slot sebelum mulai bermain.

1. Memeriksa Nilai RTP (Return to Player)

RTP merupakan persentase teoretis yang menunjukkan seberapa besar dana taruhan yang dikembalikan kepada pemain dalam jangka panjang.

Sebagai contoh, jika sebuah slot memiliki RTP 96%, maka secara teori permainan tersebut mengembalikan Rp96 dari setiap Rp100 yang dipertaruhkan dalam periode yang sangat panjang.

Banyak pemain cenderung memilih permainan dengan RTP di atas 95% karena dianggap lebih kompetitif dibandingkan slot dengan RTP lebih rendah.

2. Memahami Tingkat Volatilitas

Volatilitas menunjukkan karakter pembayaran sebuah slot.

• Volatilitas rendah: kemenangan lebih sering muncul tetapi nominalnya relatif kecil.
• Volatilitas sedang: keseimbangan antara frekuensi dan nilai kemenangan.
• Volatilitas tinggi: kemenangan lebih jarang, tetapi berpotensi memberikan hadiah yang lebih besar.

Pemahaman mengenai volatilitas membantu pemain memilih permainan yang sesuai dengan gaya bermain dan pengelolaan modal yang dimiliki.

3. Memperhatikan Fitur Bonus

Slot modern biasanya dilengkapi berbagai fitur tambahan seperti:

• Free Spin
• Multiplier
• Wild Symbol
• Scatter Symbol
• Bonus Game
• Buy Feature

Permainan yang memiliki banyak fitur bonus umumnya lebih diminati karena menawarkan variasi pengalaman bermain yang lebih menarik dan dinamis.

Cara Menemukan Slot yang Sedang Populer

Selain melihat aspek teknis, banyak pemain juga memanfaatkan informasi dari komunitas untuk mengetahui permainan yang sedang populer.

Forum diskusi, media sosial, grup komunitas, hingga ulasan dari pemain berpengalaman sering menjadi sumber referensi. Meski informasi tersebut bersifat subjektif, data pengalaman pemain dapat memberikan gambaran mengenai tren permainan yang sedang ramai dimainkan.

Namun, pemain tetap perlu melakukan evaluasi sendiri karena pengalaman setiap orang dapat berbeda tergantung waktu bermain, strategi, dan faktor keberuntungan.

Pentingnya Mengelola Modal Saat Bermain Slot Online

Salah satu kesalahan yang sering terjadi adalah fokus mencari slot gacor tanpa memperhatikan pengelolaan modal.

Praktisi industri permainan digital menilai bahwa manajemen modal memiliki pengaruh besar terhadap kenyamanan bermain. Pemain yang menetapkan batas anggaran cenderung mampu menikmati permainan dengan lebih terkontrol dibandingkan mereka yang bermain tanpa perencanaan.

Beberapa langkah yang umum dilakukan antara lain:

• Menentukan batas modal harian.
• Mengatur target kemenangan dan batas kerugian.
• Menghindari keputusan emosional setelah mengalami kekalahan.
• Menggunakan nominal taruhan yang sesuai dengan saldo yang dimiliki.

Pendekatan ini membantu menjaga aktivitas bermain tetap berada dalam batas yang sehat dan terukur.

Membedakan Fakta dan Mitos Tentang Slot Gacor

Di tengah maraknya informasi di internet, banyak mitos berkembang mengenai cara menemukan slot yang dianggap gacor.

Beberapa klaim seperti jam pasti menang, pola yang selalu berhasil, atau trik yang menjamin kemenangan sebenarnya tidak memiliki dasar teknis yang dapat dibuktikan secara konsisten.

Sistem RNG yang digunakan pada slot modern dirancang untuk menghasilkan hasil acak. Oleh karena itu, tidak ada metode yang mampu memastikan kemenangan dalam setiap sesi permainan.

Pemain sebaiknya bersikap kritis terhadap informasi yang beredar dan lebih mengutamakan data yang dapat diverifikasi, seperti RTP, volatilitas, serta informasi resmi dari penyedia permainan.

Faktor yang Membuat Sebuah Slot Banyak Direkomendasikan

Sebuah permainan slot biasanya memperoleh reputasi positif karena beberapa alasan berikut:

• RTP kompetitif.
• Fitur bonus yang beragam.
• Tampilan visual yang menarik.
• Animasi dan efek suara berkualitas.
• Potensi kemenangan yang dinilai menarik oleh komunitas.
• Pengalaman bermain yang stabil dan nyaman.

Faktor-faktor tersebut sering kali menjadi alasan mengapa suatu permainan mendapat label “gacor” dari para pemain, meskipun hasil akhirnya tetap bergantung pada mekanisme acak permainan.

Kesimpulan

Mencari slot online yang benar-benar gacor tidak cukup hanya mengandalkan rumor atau rekomendasi dari komunitas. Pemain perlu memahami aspek teknis seperti RTP, volatilitas, fitur bonus, serta karakteristik permainan secara keseluruhan. Pendekatan yang berbasis informasi dan analisis jauh lebih bermanfaat dibandingkan mempercayai mitos yang belum tentu terbukti kebenarannya.

Pada akhirnya, slot online merupakan permainan yang mengandalkan sistem acak. Oleh karena itu, pemahaman yang baik, pengelolaan modal yang bijak, dan ekspektasi yang realistis menjadi faktor penting untuk menciptakan pengalaman bermain yang lebih nyaman dan bertanggung jawab.

Headline News:

• “European Energy Receives German Hydrogen Support” • European Energy secured support under Germany’s hydrogen auction framework linked to the European Hydrogen Bank for adding 150 MW of hydrogen production capacity in Denmark. Funding of up to €228 million will support additional hydrogen production connected to its Kassø site. [reNews]

Kassø hydrogen plant (European Energy image)

• “Four EU Countries Push Brussels To Ease Carbon Market’s Pressure On Industry” • Estonia, France, Germany, and Spain are urging the European Commission to rethink part of its planned carbon market reforms, warning that some industries could face serious competitive pressure under stricter emissions rules due to take effect between 2026 and 2030. [Euronews]
• “Iran Deal Coming Soon – Because Exxon Is Running Out of Oil” • Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Neil Chapman warned that oil inventories are draining fast and could reach “really low levels” in the coming few weeks if the situation in the Middle East isn’t resolved. Naturally, if that happens prices will spike. We could be in for a real shock. [CleanTechnica]
• “Africa Is Embracing Renewable Energy” • African countries are increasingly looking to renewable energy to meet growing power demand. In 2025, African countries added a total of 11.3 GW of renewable capacity, up from 4.2 GW in 2024, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. And increasingly, renewables are displacing fossil fuels. [Yale E360]
• “Over 100 Home Heat Pumps Helped Balance Germany’s Grid For Nearly Three Years Without Affecting Comfort” • Viessmann Climate Solutions, part of Carrier Global Corporation, said it has concluded a pilot in Germany that shows residential heat pumps can actively support grid operations, according to Renewable Energy Magazine. [The Cool Down]

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

In spring, Tricolored Blackbirds stage one of California’s great birding spectacles, amassing in the tens of thousands to breed in the Central Valley. This season, the largest colony documented so...

Regulator quantifies the revenue cuts caused by the delayed start of the giant shock absorber" battery, and the impact of the catastrophic transformer failure.

The post Delays at Australia’s most powerful battery lead to a more than $90 million cut in payments appeared first on Renew Economy.

May 29, 2026 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SUWA Statement on President Trump’s Repeal of Travel Management Executive Orders – 5.29.26  Will bring unregulated motorized recreation and chaos across public lands  

Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org

Washington, DC – Friday evening, in his latest attack on federal public lands, President Trump announced the repeal of Executive Order 11644 of February 8, 1972 (Use of Off-Road Vehicles on the Public Lands), and Executive Order 11989 of May 24, 1977 (Off-Road Vehicles on Public Lands). He further directed federal land management agencies including the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service to rescind or revise their regulations implementing these Orders. Below is a statement from SUWA Legal Director Steve Bloch and additional information.  

“The reality is that there are tens of thousands of miles of dirt roads and trails in Utah’s canyon country open today to motorized vehicles. Far from motorized vehicles being kept out of public lands, it’s quite the opposite: it’s the wildlife and visitors trying to picnic or camp with their families that are being chased out at every turn,” said Steve Bloch, Legal Director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “These executive orders provided the foundation for common-sense management of motorized vehicles on public lands. They recognized the destructive impact unmanaged motor vehicles have on our public lands and required federal agencies to minimize the damage. The impacts of today’s Order will be significant, long-lasting, and devastating.” 

About Executive Orders 11644 and 11989 

Presidents Nixon and Carter issued Executive Orders 11644 and 11989 in 1972 and 1977, respectively, in response to the growing use of dirt bikes, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, and other off-road vehicles (ORVs) and corresponding environmental damage and conflicts with non-motorized recreationists. These executive orders require federal land managers to plan for ORV use to protect resources and other recreational uses. Specifically, the executive orders require that, when designating areas or trails available for ORV use, the agencies locate them to: 

(1) minimize damage to soil, watershed, vegetation, and other resources of the public lands;  

(2) minimize harassment of wildlife or significant disruption of wildlife habitats; and  

(3) minimize conflicts between off-road vehicle use and other existing or proposed recreational uses of the same or neighboring public lands.   

### 
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters from around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards a world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org. 

### 

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards a world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org. 

The post SUWA Statement on President Trump’s Repeal of Travel Management Executive Orders – 5.29.26  appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

A historic gold mine re-opened using modern technology, to scour out minerals the old-timers couldn’t get at? Twenty kilometres from Tofino? Is this the best we can hope for, a third of a century after the historic 1993 Clayoquot Summer peaceful protests put the region on the map of global ecological hotspots?

It seems that’s what the BC government wants. This spring, they issued mineral exploration permits to Vancouver-based Imperial Metals. The permits would allow Imperial to explore in the territories of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation (TFN), in Clayoquot Sound. This despite 2 years of consultation, in which TFN made it clear that mining is not a permissible activity in their territories.

The permits issued allow for 22 drill pad sites, 6 trenches, and 3 helipads in the Tranquil Creek watershed, which is designated as a Tribal Park by Tla-o-qui-aht. They will not expire until 2031. Imperial Metals also holds mineral rights on Catface Mountain (čitaapii), just 13 kilometres from Tofino.

A disaster that changed the conversation around mining in BC

Imperial Metals is notorious for the catastrophic 2014 failure of the tailings dam at their Mount Polley mine, spilling 25 million cubic metres of toxic tailings and slurry into pristine Quesnel Lake—home to a quarter of the Fraser River’s sockeye salmon. It was one of the biggest mining disasters in the world. They are currently facing 15 charges under the federal Fisheries Act in relation to this disaster. Mount Polley is located in the traditional territory of Xat’sull First Nation, near Likely BC in the Cariboo region.

“The province of BC should be respecting our vision for our territories, not issuing permits for mineral exploration without our consent and against our wishes,” said Saya Masso, Tla-o-qui-aht Manager of Lands and Resources. “We’ve seen some positive steps from the BC NDP government, but this move jeopardizes efforts towards reconciliation here in Clayoquot Sound.”

Clayoquot Action has stood united with Tla-o-qui-aht against mining since our founding in 2013, and will continue to oppose any attempts to open mines here in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Region.

Take action now. Please make your voice heard—send your letter now using our simple online tool. The letter is already written; it only takes a minute! Send the letter HERE

The post No mines in Clayoquot Sound appeared first on Clayoquot Action.