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A growing body of research is pointing to the critical, but unappreciated, role that older animals play in ensuring the survival of wildlife populations. Conservationists say the new findings should lead to policies that protect these elders and the essential knowledge they impart.

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Terry Tempest Williams is one of the most celebrated and revered American nature writers. She integrates the musicality of a poet with the passion and purpose of an activist. Terry is also an award-winning conservationist, a fierce defender of her beloved Southwestern desert landscapes.

She has authored over 20 books that are translated worldwide. Her most recent book is The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary.

Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons, author of Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, engaged with Terry at a Bioneers conference in a wide ranging conversation between two old friends.

Featuring

Terry Tempest Williams, a writer, educator, and environmental activist known for her lyrical and impassioned prose, is the author of over twenty creative nonfiction books. Her work has appeared widely, including in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Progressive, and Orion, and has been translated worldwide. Her most recent book is the The Glorians – Visitations from the Holy Ordinary (spring ’26).

Credits

• Executive Producer: Kenny Ausubel
• Written by: Kenny Ausubel
• Producer: Teo Grossman
• Senior Producer and Station Relations: Stephanie Welch
• Associate Producer and Show Engineer: Emily Harris
• Host and Consulting Producer: Neil Harvey
• Production Assistance: Mika Anami

Resources

TerryTempestWilliams.com

The Glorians – Visitations from the Holy Ordinary

Terry Tempest Williams: Noticing the Glorians in a Fractured World

Erosion and Evolution: Our Undoing is Our Becoming | Bioneers Podcast

This is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the radio and podcast homepage to find out how to hear the program on your local station and how to subscribe to the podcast.

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Transcript

Neil Harvey (Host): Standing in the lineage of the greatest nature writers, the acclaimed author, naturalist and activist Terry Tempest Williams links her deepest inner experiences with the state of the web of life. She plumbs connections: art and ecology – women and politics – democracy and social healing – wild lands and First Peoples – family and faith.

I’m Neil Harvey. This is “A Conversation with Terry Tempest Williams”

Terry Tempest Williams is one of the most celebrated and revered American nature writers. She integrates the musicality of a poet with the passion and purpose of an activist. Her tender personal reflections and intimate insights as a naturalist braid together with her keen political and spiritual insight in a voice that feels most at home in the liminal – in the space between words.

Her work and her life encompass many dimensions beyond writing. As a socially and politically engaged artist, Terry is also an award-winning conservationist, a fierce defender of her beloved Southwestern desert landscapes. She’s done everything from civil disobedience to testifying before Congress on women’s health issues, to buying gas leases to prevent the desecration of pristine and sacred lands.

She has authored over 20 books that are translated worldwide, including the masterwork Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. Her most recent book is The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary.

Terry has received numerous prestigious literary awards, and her long academic career recently included serving as writer- in-residence at Harvard Divinity School.

Terry Tempest Williams spoke at a recent Bioneers conference, where Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons, author of Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, engaged with her in a free-range conversation between two old friends.

Nina began by asking Terry to describe the story from her book Finding Beauty in a Broken World chronicling her experience making social healing mosaics in Rwanda with the artist Lily Yeh.

Nina Simons (NS): In Finding Beauty in a Broken World, you share the story of Lily Yeh’s work with barefoot artists, helping create healing places in Rwanda and globally through engaged community art creation. And in both her work and your own, my sense is that you each elevate art to a place where its healing capacity for people, society and culture is amplified in community. You wrote that finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world you find. So now, when the need to transform our culture and society is at an all-time high, and since artists often foresee the future, I wonder if you have any thoughts about the role of artists in times like this, and what you might suggest to artists whose catalytic capacity is so vital, though so often undervalued in this society.

Terry Tempest Williams (TTW): How many of you know the work of Lily Yeh? She’s a phenomenal artist. She’s now 85, almost to be 86 years old, Asian, born in Taiwan, in China, her family. I met her in 2001, after I realized September 11th, my rhetoric had become as brittle as the opposition. And I had forgotten my poetry.

And I remember being in Maine. We were at a family place. And it was high tide. I went out to a rocky point and I said prayers. And basically said to the sea: Give me one wild word and I promise I will follow. And the word that came back to me after listening was mosaic. And I thought, oh no, my life is now going to be relegated to breaking my mother’s dishes and making bad picture frames. You know? I was—I did not understand mosaic. 

And I did some research, and Lily Yeh, her name came up. She started the Village of Arts and Humanities just outside Philly, in a very tough neighborhood. And I went on a pilgrimage to meet her. And she really changed my life and showed me the aisle of angels made of mosaics, the safehouses of mosaics, how…her colleague who was—had been a former drug dealer, became a master mosaicist. And they made these beautiful murals, and it—her work has been one of placemaking around the world. 

Lily Yeh. Photo: Daniel Traub / Wikimedia Commons

She later came to Salt Lake to do a mural in one of the poorer neighborhoods that had been invisible to the community. It became highly visible with the Latina and Latino communities. And then she said, “I need to talk to you.” And she said, “Will you come with me as a barefoot artist to Rwanda?” And I said no. My brother had just died a month earlier, and I said I cannot. I did not want to be in any more death. I cannot go. And Nina, she just stared at me. And then I heard myself, and I realized if I said no, I would be saying no to my spiritual life and growth, and I heard myself say yes. And another life-changing moment. 

And, I have to tell you, here’s another lesson I learned from her. Very conscientious, you know, if I’ve got a job, I will take it seriously. So knowing we were going to go to Rwanda, I got a map, looked where it was, what it was next to. I read over 60 books, everything I could get my hands on – novels, non-fiction, government reports – went to the Library of Congress, looked at all the maps – fire maps, water maps, war maps – just to get it in my mind. And she called me and she said, “I just want to know how you’re preparing.” And so I gave her this whole list, told her what I just told you. And I said but I just don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere, but I’ve got more books to read. And I said, ‘How are you preparing?’ And there’s this long silence, and she said, “I’m meditating.” And I quit reading. And just sat with that. So she’s a real teacher. 

And I think that’s what art does for us, it bypasses rhetoric and pierces the heart, and the heart is really, I think, where all change resides. 

And I saw…the power of art, to go into communities…numb with grief, dead with grief, the bones of these women’s children were buried under trees that were still there, that they were carrying in the folds of their skirts. But when Lily got the paint out and the children took over and painted their houses – turquoise, yellow, red, animals – something lifted. And what it led to was the creation of a genocide memorial, where these women – and most of them were women – could bury their beloveds in a place of dignity. And that was Lily. 

NS: You know that conversation about Rwanda leads me to ask you, as we are both women who are childless by choice, about your decision to adopt a son, and how that’s changing you.

TTW: My hair’s white. [LAUGHTER] Louis Gakumba is our son. He was our translator in Rwanda. And so, again, Lily. You know? 

I think being a mother at 50, as you say, childless by choice… it has brought me to my knees, and I mean in the most beautiful ways, for both Brooke and me. And Louis has been our teacher. It’s been hard. I knew nothing. I still know nothing. I am a grandmother. I have two grandchildren – we do – Malka who is 8, and Shayja who is 7. Shayja loves birds. I love him. He’s constantly calling about what he sees. 

Malka, I will share this with you, since you asked how’s it changing me… When she was 5, she said to me, “Do you think I’m too black?” And I said, ‘Malka, you are beautiful.’ And I said, ‘Why do you think that?’ And she gave me her reasons. And I said, ‘Let’s look at all the beautiful Black women.’ And we looked online, and she said, “She’s black like me. She’s black like me. She’s black like me.” And then she said, “Will you show me your body?” And I have to tell you, it was the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life, was take off my clothes in front of a 5-year old. And turn around. And then, as I am standing before my granddaughter, she says, “What color is your heart?” And I said, ‘The same color as yours.’ And we’ve never had that discussion again. 

And the other day, three years later, she said, “Te Te Terry, don’t you think I’m beautiful? And I just said, ‘You are so beautiful.’ And so I think it’s what we learn together. 

Terry Tempest Williams at Bioneers 2026. Photo: Boris Zharkov

Shayja, the other day, we were up in Shenandoah, and he’s staring at me. You know? And I think, okay, this’ll come out. And he goes, “If only you were a little tanner.” And I just—you know, so we are learning about interracial family together, and it’s a beautiful thing. And Louis just wrote his memoir. It’s tough, it’s beautiful, and he said I want my children to know where they come from. And I want them to know who my ancestors are and—so we’re learning. 

And my father, who would tell you in this audience, was a true racist. And he is now 92, and he and Louis are closer than I can ever tell you. And it was on a plane from Denver to Salt Lake, and Dad and Louis were sitting together on the exit row, and a flight attendant said, “Yes, yes, yes.” And when Louis said yes, she said, “Get out, you don’t speak English.” And my father stood up and said, “Apologize. He speaks six languages. He’s smarter than anyone on this plane.” And she said, “Get out.” And my father stood up and said, “This plane will not fly until you apologize.” 

And when dad came home, I called him to see if they’d gotten home, and the flight attendant let things go, apologized. When I called my father, he was crying. And he said Terry, “I knew racism from the inside out. I never knew racism from the outside in.” And that night, he had a stroke. And I think it was such a shock that he literally was rewired. And it was Louis who took him to the emergency room, sat with him all night, and held his hand. No one holds my father’s hand. So it’s those kinds of changes, Nina. Aside from love and joy and… I’m grateful. 

Host: When we return, Terry Tempest Williams and Nina Simons explore how to marry contradictions, being species-fluid, and feeding a spider.

I’m Neil Harvey. You’re listening to the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature.

Host: If you’d like to see and hear more from Terry Tempest Williams, you can visit bioneers.org

Let’s drop back into the kitchen table conversation with Terry Tempest Williams and Nina Simons.

NS: Well, years ago, we had a conversation where you spoke of feeling drawn to marrying apparent contradictions. And it landed in me in a big way. And—

TTW: In what way?

NS: Well, in that every time I found myself encountering an apparent contradiction, I thought of you, and I thought, Huh, what does it mean to try to marry these things that seem so polarized. And…it was long before there was so much interest in non-binary gendered identities, and I found it a useful practice, to see how I could imagine them dancing together. Do you still find that resonant for you?

TTW: Every day.

NS: Yeah. [LAUGHS]

TTW: You know, living around Great Salt Lake, and living long enough to have seen her in her historic high, and now at her historic low, in retreat – and I don’t see it as retreat in the military retreat. I see it as a retreat as one goes on retreat or retreat in meditation or retreat in reflection. And I feel she’s inviting us to do the same.

So here is a saline lake that theoretically is dying, and alongside her death will be the death of the Wasatch Front – 2.5 million people if we do nothing. Not to mention the livelihood of 12 million birds. Right now, I have never seen Great Salt Lake so vibrant. I have never seen the Salt Lake area more alive with concern, with creative thinking, with young people, with artists, the Mormon Church. Great Salt Lake now has a new ally – Donald Trump. I don’t know how to deal with that, the paradox, because if I’m saying all hands on deck, that means Donald Trump’s hands too. And then I think, are we losing the lake even as we’re trying to save the lake?

I watch people who are saying it’s not called Great Salt Lake anymore, it’s the Lake. There are those that are saying this is America’s lake… I see them neutering her. And the Native people have said our Sacred Mother Lake. This is how we know her, this is how we want her dressed. I see the tribes not being brought to the table as sovereign nations, as sovereign governments. So it’s this, that and all of it. 

And the Wilson’s phalarope, which is now an endangered species, we’ve filed a petition for that species protection. The scientists on one hand say we have five years, seven years. The percentage of a saline lake ever being saved is zero.

Great Salt Lake. Photo: Patrick Hendry / Unsplash

But now, the governor, who’s on board, saying the deadline is 2034, which is the Winter Olympics. So that’s not the lake’s deadline. That’s not the phalarope’s deadline. So how do we juggle all of these things? It’s a paradox that feels like a hologram. And, yet, Great Salt Lake is directing us. 

And I think, again, what we were talking about today. If we are present, we’ll know what to do. If we’re listening to the lake, we will hear what she has to say. And, again, the elders, the different tribes, are leading the way, in my mind, and with integrity and a spiritual depth that I’m not seeing elsewhere. 

NS: I feel a tremendous connection with you and your writing through the way that you speak to and embody a quality of the feminine in your work. And the “feminine” I want to say, with quotes, because it’s such a weird word, and it’s been so malformed in our culture. And I think of When Women Were Birds. And I’ve recently begun studying the Tao Te Ching, and especially Ursula Le Guin’s version of it.

TTW: I love that.

NS: Which is so wonderful. And it’s reminding me of a long fascination that I’ve had with this quality that’s beyond binary genderism that’s about how one way of seeing how we’ve gone so wrong is the imbalance of the yin and the yang in all of us – in our culture, in our—you know, economy, in our education, in everything. I find myself reaching to expand the gender dialogue to encompass everyone and everything, and the archetypal necessity of rebalancing our inner framework. I wonder if you have any thoughts about that.

TTW: Just for the record, I’m thinking do I dare say this. You know? [LAUGHTER] I won’t have the right language, and I’m sure I will say it wrong and offend someone. But there was a moment in one of my classes, and we were—you know, the students write essays and braided essays, and gender pronouns, all of that comes up, and it’s important, and we’re all learning. And we’ve had some really powerful conversations in terms of what stories do we tell, what’s private, what’s personal, what about families, all of those. And we had an incredible conversation about queerness. And I said, ‘I think I’m queer.’ And you could have heard a pin drop. You know? And they go, “What do you mean?” And I said, ‘Well, we’ve been talking about being gender fluid. I feel I’m species fluid.’ And they got so excited. [LAUGHTER] You know? But I feel that. You know?

And I remember in An Unspoken Hunger, I talked about pansexuality in The Yellowstone: An Erotics of Place, and mentioned bison. And, you know, I think we’re so limited in terms of what we are capable of, in terms of our understanding different genders, in terms of understanding different species, and yet, if we can open ourselves and really be present with whomever we’re with, I think there is a depth of reciprocity and responsibility and empathy that is transferred. And I feel that again and again and again in the natural world. Call it serendipitous, call it the erotics of place, call it species—being species fluid. 

Talking to a person on the phone about the Say’s phoebes, that they were so beautiful. And I said, ‘I just love them.’ And then one jumped on my head. You know? And you just think, they know, you know? We’ve all had this experience.

Say’s Phoebe. Photo: Chuck Abbe / Wikimedia Commons

And it seems to me that the ultimate act of anthropomorphism is to assume that other species don’t feel, don’t communicate, don’t live and love and grieve. The exceptionalism that we have, I think, is so limiting, whether it’s our own view of gender, whether it’s our own view of the natural world, whether it’s our own view of ourselves.

So how do we keep expanding? How do we live and love with our hearts wide open, even in brokenness?

Host: The deeper story where the sacred dwells, where anything is possible.

As one of our generation’s greatest storytellers, Terry Tempest Williams engages with the world around her by building bridges between the human and other-than-human worlds.

In an excerpt from her recent book, The Glorians, she returns to the landscape she calls home, the Red Rock desert of Utah. She writes about what she calls “visitations from the holy ordinary,” moments and experiences that draw her deeper into relationship with the pulsing, thriving life that surrounds us all.

TTW: This is from The Glorians.

“‘I came from a family of repairers,’ the artist Louise Bourgeois once said, ‘The spider is a repairer. If you bash into the web of a spider, she doesn’t get mad. She weaves and repairs it.’

When I think of black widows in the desert, I wonder if this is true. Their webs are messy and hidden, not at all elegant like the orb weavers’ circular webs that spiral outward in summer fields of goldenrod. Black widows offer a warning. When their web is touched, it crackles like a witch, inspiring panic. The chaotic nest is a morgue of tightly wrapped victims that have had their blood sucked out of them, heightening the red hourglass on the female’s shiny black body.

Here in the Red Rock desert, they are everywhere – in between rocks, nestled in cliffs, and inhabiting our homes. Best to check coat pockets, behind pillows, and inside shoes. We have learned to live with them.

One summer, we had a large female, her abdomen the size of a Costco blueberry.” I wish I’d used a different metaphor. [LAUGHTER] “The size of a Costco blueberry, who lived behind our armoire in our bedroom. Brooke was out of town and I was about to leave for a longer period of time, so I left him a yellow sticky note attached to the wall close to where she would often come out to feed, and wrote: Please take care of her. X X X, T.

When Brooke returned home, he saw the note, and instead of understanding my message to mean please take her outside, he took it to mean please feed her. Which is exactly what he did for weeks. When I returned home, her abdomen was the size of a grape. [LAUGHTER]

The summer progressed, and one night, I was home alone again. It was hot and I couldn’t sleep. Rather than fight it, I decided I would listen to a group of soundscapes a friend had recently sent me as a stay against loneliness and heat-induced insomnia. One recording was from the Arctic in Alaska, one was from the rainforest in Costa Rica, and one was from Arizona Sonoran Desert. I listened to the Arctic. I didn’t think there was anything on it. I turned on the bedroom light and listened more closely. If one can hear cold, it was a faint growl. I changed CDs.

This time, I sat up with a low-wattage lamp. The rain intensified, and without thought, I started having an anxiety attack thinking there might be another flash flood, until I realized that it sounded, to my desert ear, like exactly that, a flash flood. I was two for two with no relief for loneliness or hope of a lullaby.

The final recording was of the Sonoran Desert, with giant saguaros on the cover. I placed the CD in the machine and returned to my chair. It was perfect. The familiar sounds of crickets, bat wings, and the pinpoint peeps, a band of coyotes and some insects I did not recognize. Just then, a shadow appeared on the wall. [LAUGHTER] I turned to see the black widow drawn from her hiding place by sounds of the desert night she inhabits. I was not startled, but welcomed her presence.

I sat in my chair. She was poised on the edge of her web. Together in soft light, we listened to night sounds from the Sonoran, a woman and a spider, comfortable with each other’s company.”

Thank you. Thank you so much. And let’s thank Nina for everything. [APPLAUSE]

NS: Thank you, all. Thank you, Terry, so very much. [APPLAUSE]

Host: “A Conversation with Terry Tempest Williams.”

The post A Conversation with Terry Tempest Williams appeared first on Bioneers.

China exported a record amount of solar components and photovoltaic panels last month, signalling that manufacturers are benefiting from stronger demand for clean energy technologies as the Iran war has caused oil and gas prices to soar and threatens supply shortages. 

The world’s second largest economy exported solar panels, cells and wafers capable of generating 68 gigawatts (GW) in March – the equivalent of Spain’s entire solar capacity, according to analysis of data from Chinese customs authority by global energy think-tank Ember. 

March’s volume was more than double exports in February and 49% more than the previous record set in August 2025. Three-quarters of the increase came from exports to Asia and Africa. 

As well as the Middle East conflict, a rush by Chinese manufacturers to export solar modules and cells before an export tax rebate ended on April 1 – adding 9% to solar panel costs – was a major driver of the export spike. 

• Apr 7, 2026 News Q&A: Will subsidy cuts for Chinese clean-tech exports hurt Africa’s solar boom? Renewable energy developer Karl Boyce talks to Climate Home News about China’s VAT rebate cuts and the biggest challenges for Africa’s efforts to boost energy access Read more
• Apr 21, 2026 News Fossil fuel crisis offers chance to speed up energy transition, ministers say As climate diplomacy resumes in Berlin, ministers say the Iran war-driven fuel crisis is exposing the risks of fossil dependence Read more
• Apr 21, 2026 News Solar surge kept fossil electricity flat in 2025 as China and India made ‘historic’ shift Energy think tank Ember said fossil fuel electricity fell slightly in both countries simultaneously for the first time, tipping the global balance Read more

“The volumes exported are absolutely gigantic,” Euan Graham, senior analyst at Ember, told Climate Home News. 

“We will see over the coming months how much of that was linked to the tax rebate and how much of that is additional demand – that might vary by region. But certainly a big part of this is the response to the energy crisis,” he said. 

China ends tax rebate on solar exports 

For Qi Qin, China analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, March’s export surge was most likely driven by the end of the tax rebate, which brought forward demand, with high energy prices bolstering the trend. 

“Policy deadlines can create a sharp one-month jump in export, while by comparison, higher oil and gas prices caused by the war are… more likely to support demand over the medium term rather than explain such a strong spike in one single month,” she told Climate Home News. 

Earlier this year, the Chinese government announced that the solar export tax discount was coming to an end in an effort to prevent trade disputes and cut-throat competition for low-price exports among Chinese manufacturers.

In a note at the time, Trivium China, an analysis firm that specialises in monitoring Chinese government policy, said Beijing had become frustrated with state tax resources being used to subsidise overseas consumers. “The rebate end date is all but certain to trigger one of the largest module production booms in history” to beat the April export price hike, it said.

Solar manufacturing booms outside China

Across the world, 50 countries set records for Chinese solar imports in March, while a further 60 saw the highest import levels in six months. Chinese solar exports to Africa reached 10GW last month, a 176% increase compared with the previous month while exports to Asia doubled to 39GW. 

The increase is partly driven by growing solar manufacturing and assembly capacity outside China, as countries seek to produce more of their own solar capacity as well as export panels to other markets. In October last year, Chinese exports of solar cells and wafers overtook already assembled solar panels. In March alone, Chinese solar panel exports reached 32 GW while cells and wafers exports amounted to 36 GW. 

India, which is rapidly building out a solar manufacturing industry, is increasingly importing wafers from China, which can be manufactured domestically into solar cells and assembled into panels. Chinese solar exports to India were up 141% in March compared to February. 

In Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia all imported over 1GW of solar for the first time in a single month, predominantly in the form of solar cells that are then assembled into panels. Exports to Nigeria, which is seeking to significantly ramp up its solar assembly capacity, rocketed 519% – the largest percentage increase. 

“We’ve eagerly awaited the first signs of how countries around the world are responding to the energy crisis and this is just the first piece of evidence we have. The full effects of it will be revealing themselves for months to come, both in terms of the immediate consumer response and also more structural government policy changes,” said Graham of Ember.

The post China’s solar exports reach “gigantic” record in March as energy crisis bites  appeared first on Climate Home News.

Transportation historian Peter Norton sees a pattern in the promises that autonomous vehicle companies make as they push self-driving cars into cities. Read more on Bloomberg.

PENNSYLVANIA (April 22, 2026) –  On Earth Day, when we should be focused on protecting our planet, the Trump and Shapiro administrations announced plans to extend the life of two of the dirtiest coal plants in the Commonwealth: Conemaugh Station in Indiana County and Keystone Station in Armstrong County.

Simply put, the state is extending the lives of old coal plants while cutting short the lives of the people living around them.

Originally slated to cease operations in 2028, these plants will remain open through 2032. They are a significant source of climate pollution, emitting over 5.5 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2023. They also emit tons of air and toxic pollutants like nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and mercury, which puts public health at risk and makes Pennsylvanians sick.

Clean Air Council’s Executive Director Alex Bomstein issued the following statement:

“Governor Shapiro says he is defending Pennsylvanians’ constitutional right to clean air and water, but this decision contradicts that. Key-Con had years to comply with federal wastewater rules, and now the state is extending the lives of aging coal plants while cutting the lives short of people living nearby. Pennsylvania should be accelerating the stable, affordable, renewable energy projects already in the pipeline, not doubling down on coal, more pollution, and more climate chaos to address an electricity crunch driven in part by the data centers Shapiro’s administration is promoting.”

Rally Targets Pipeline as Enbridge Begins Line 5 Reroute Construction Near Bad River SAINT PAUL, Minn. — A coalition of Indigenous water protectors and climate activists gathered outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Paul District headquarters during the Tuesday, April 21st, evening rush hour, demanding a halt to construction on the Enbridge Line […]

The post Rally Targets Pipeline as Enbridge Begins Line 5 Reroute first appeared on Indigenous Environmental Network.

The Wednesday, April 22, 2026, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features attorney Mary Stites of the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, talking about current, legal wrangling between the City of Portland and the Zenith Energy oil train terminal and infrastructure, which have violated Oregon and city agreements on numerous occasions, while constructing and transporting its fossil and renewable fuels.  We also share news, videos, and reflections on the climate-altering history of Earth Day, a second Spokane, Washington, screening of Abby Martin’s documentary about global U.S. militarism and its climate and environmental impacts, a nuclear energy informational session presented for Nez Perce tribal officials and members, a Spokane discussion about sustainable approaches to community needs, led by a Nicaragua advocate, two new, southern Idaho, methane power plants proposed by Idaho Power, and a lawsuit brought by 24 states and ten cities against federal agency repeal of the endangerment finding central to climate regulations.  Broadcast for fourteen years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online at KRFP and the Pacifica Network AudioPort, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuels projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.

Earth Day 2026 Explained — The History That Changed the World, April 21, 2026 Anand Sankar

On Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day), Abby Martin’s seminal, 2025 documentary about global, U.S. militarism…, April 20, 2026 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

Nez Perce Tribal Members are invited to attend an informational session regarding nuclear energy…, April 14, 2026 Nez Perce Tribe

Nicaragua: Doing What the People Will — A Sustainable Approach, April 21, 2026 David Brookbank

Idaho Power Applies for Natural Gas Power Plant Certificates, April 7, 2026 ChangeFlow

See also: Idaho Power Company — Application for Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity for the South Hills and Peregrine Power Plants and for an Associated Accounting Order, March 11, 2026 Idaho Public Utilities Commission

Two Dozen States, Ten Cities Sue EPA over Repeal of ‘Endangerment’ Finding Central to Climate Fight, March 19, 2026 Associated Press

The Endless Zenith Saga Continues, April 20, 2026 Locus Focus/KBOO

CommonSpirit Health has been named to the “Dirty Dozen 2026” list by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH). The annual list from NCOSH names 12 companies whose disturbing disregard for safety includes repeated and serious violations of workplace safety laws and a history of ignoring known hazards.

Oroville Hospital registered nurses, who are members of California Nurses Association and its parent union National Nurses United, will hold a rally and community event on Saturday, April 25 to demand long-term solutions to keep Oroville Hospital open and advance their Vision for a Healthy Society.

High levels of national debt in parts of the Global South could hinder efforts to move away from fossil fuels, a new report warns, as more than 50 countries gather this week in Colombia for the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels.

The report, published by the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative in the lead-up to the flagship conference, argues that the current debt architecture is trapping developing countries in a “feedback loop” in which fossil fuel revenues are needed to service debt, while fossil fuel expansion locks countries into borrowing even more.

The cycle, according to the report, leaves very little fiscal space for highly indebted countries to end their reliance on coal, oil and gas revenues, even when their leaders want to phase out fossil fuels. This is the case for some first-mover countries such as Colombia, which is hosting the conference in Santa Marta.

Amiera Sawas, one of the report’s authors and head of research and policy at the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, said the conflict in the Middle East is making this “debt injustice and fossil fuel entrapment” even more evident.

“What we have to start understanding is that both fossil fuels and debt are actually extractions from the Global South,” Sawas told the report’s launch during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings in Washington DC this month. “Many countries are paying more in debt servicing than they are getting in climate finance.”

• Apr 21, 2026 News Fossil fuel crisis offers chance to speed up energy transition, ministers say As climate diplomacy resumes in Berlin, ministers say the Iran war-driven fuel crisis is exposing the risks of fossil dependence Read more
• Apr 21, 2026 News Solar surge kept fossil electricity flat in 2025 as China and India made ‘historic’ shift Energy think tank Ember said fossil fuel electricity fell slightly in both countries simultaneously for the first time, tipping the global balance Read more

Since 2010, low and middle-income countries (LIMCs) have more than doubled their external debt, reaching an all-time high of $8.9 trillion two years ago. They paid about $415 billion in interest on that debt in 2024 – 2.4 times higher than a decade earlier.

At the same time, in some cases like Colombia, Egypt and Jordan, austerity measures agreed as part of IMF and World Bank loan programmes restrict governments from investing in cleaner sources of revenue like renewable energy, the report says.

Leading countries constrained by debt

Colombia – one of the countries leading the global call for a transition away from fossil fuels – is facing precisely such financial barriers to achieving its transition, said Camilo Rodríguez, another of the report’s authors and a research analyst with Oil Change International.

The country has halted all new oil and gas licences and published an energy transition plan estimating transition costs at about 7-10% of its GDP. Yet the government depends on fossil fuel revenues to service its $265-billion public debt, meaning it must find an alternative source of income to cover debt payments.

Rodríguez said debt “is the main barrier nowadays to promote the energy transition and the industrialisation of the economy”.

The South American country has only grown more dependent on fossil fuels over time, as they represented 36% of exports in 2001 and now account for about 52%. Austerity policies still in place after IMF loans have left very little room for investing in Colombia’s energy transition plan, the report says.

Other countries have shown similar patterns. Jordan – despite its staggering public debt equivalent to 90% of GDP – became one of the fastest-growing markets for wind, solar and electric vehicles in the Middle East region. From 2014 to 2021, Jordan went from less than 1% of its electricity generation coming from renewables to 26%, benefiting from the significantly cheaper costs of installing wind and solar power compared with adding fossil fuel capacity.

But Jordan’s high reliance on fossil fuel revenues created an incentive for policymakers to opt for expanding gas projects over renewables, and the country ended up suspending new licences for many solar and wind projects. In 2024, about 40% of government revenues were used to service debt.

“This is not marginal – it is central to the fiscal system. It creates what I would describe as structural fiscal addiction,” said Ali Nasrallah, a policy and research manager at the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. “The state depends on revenues from consumption that is economically, environmentally and socially harmful.”

Gas flaring soars in Niger Delta post-Shell, afflicting communities  

Another report by the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, published in March, argues that debt entrapment in Africa also exacerbates gender injustice. Social consequences from fossil fuel extraction and use – such as displacement of communities or health harm from pollution – can have a substantial effect on local women while, at the same time, states face constraints to increasing social spending to support them.

“African women are facing disproportionate impacts of the fossil fuel industry’s long-running legacy of violence and dispossession,” the report says. “But they are also leading the resistance to it,” it adds, with women-led coalitions in places like Uganda or the Niger Delta challenging major oil and gas projects.

Policy recommendations

As governments head to Santa Marta – where “gaps in the financial and investment system” are on the agenda – the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative recommends building international coalitions to address debt, reforming multilateral financial institutions and increasing funding commitments from donor nations.

The proposed policies include debt cancellation as a way of creating fiscal space in the Global South, ending all international finance for fossil fuel expansion, establishing a binding mechanism on debt resolution at the UN, and advancing green industrialisation to replace fossil fuel revenues.

“To dismantle carbon lock-in and debt at source, we need to recognise collectively that the escalating debt in the Global South is actually an injustice,” said Sawas of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. “We have to name the problem and be honest with ourselves – and that’s where the recommendation of debt cancellation is so critical.”

Comment: Broken debt system must be fixed to confront future climate shocks

As part of the new climate finance goal adopted at the COP29 climate summit in Baku, governments have already agreed to “remove barriers and address dis-enablers” faced by developing countries, including “limited fiscal space” and “unsustainable debt levels”.

Building on this, any plan for a global roadmap for transitioning away from fossil fuels, such as the initiative proposed at COP30 by more than 80 governments, should address the debt crisis in the Global South, Sawas said. One alternative could be financing the rollout of renewables with more public grants rather than loans, she added.

“We need to start properly funding renewable energy and diversification,” she said. “Currently it’s almost impossible for a lot of countries in the Global South to actually make the energy transition, because there’s no support structure.”

The post To phase out fossil fuels, developing countries need exit route from “debt trap” appeared first on Climate Home News.

This article Rural India is not giving up a work guarantee without a fight was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Across villages in India, protests erupted in December 2025 after the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, government scrapped one of the largest social safety nets in the world and replaced it with a watered-down version. 

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MGNREGA, guaranteed paid work to rural households. The new Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act not only drops Gandhi’s name but also steers away from the original rights-based framework that served as an economic lifeline for the roughly 30 percent of households in rural India who live in poverty. 

After Modi signed the new act into law on Dec. 20, unions and other workers’ organizations started mobilizing the rural population, running campaigns and demonstrations explaining the fine print and how it strips away the right to guaranteed employment. While the new law raises the number of days that the government will pay people to work from 100 to 125, it adds restrictions. Before, people who held job cards could apply for work whenever they needed it. Now, there is a 60-day pause period during the sowing and harvesting period. And, most concerning to advocates, work availability is now subject to a capped federal budget. 

Economist Jean Drèze said that this all amounts to a fundamental change: “The federal government now holds the discretion to give work. This dependence is a serious dilution of the principle of [guaranteed] employment, and it is bound to reduce the bargaining power of workers in private employment as well.”  

Protesters across rural India held funeral processions to lament the death of the old program. In the northwestern state of Rajasthan, women wailed, wept and thumped their chests at administrative block offices and headquarters, echoing the local custom of professional mourners, known as rudaalis.

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In other states, women composed and sang songs condemning the rebranded law. Workers also held rallies and submitted memoranda of demands at the government offices, where workers apply for job cards under MGNREGA and demand work. 

Meanwhile, a coalition of center-left political parties, including the Indian National Congress Party, launched their own nationwide agitation, which ran from Jan. 10 to Feb. 25 and included marches, sit-ins and a one-day fast. Their demands are to roll back the new law and strengthen MGNREGA, with timely work assignments and a nationwide minimum wage of $4.30 per day (currently, daily wages range from $2.50 to $4).

Coordinating the bottom-up protests is the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, or NSM, founded in 2017 — a decentralized national coalition of workers’ unions, mass organizations, NGOs, activists and public intellectuals that brought together over 30 groups across 15 states. The coalition’s demands go further than the political parties’ and include 200 days of work per adult rural worker during natural disasters and a minimum wage of roughly $9 per day, adjusted annually for inflation. 

Since December 2025, thousands of people have participated in the nationwide mobilization coordinated by NSM, consisting of creative actions from the local to the state level, including the protests at the administrative offices in January, mass demonstrations at state capitols in February, and women-led protests on International Women’s Day in March. The ongoing protests aim to apply electoral pressure to the ruling party and force the government to repeal the new act and strengthen the old one. 

At ground zero, exasperation and relentless protest

Feb. 2, which marked 20 years of the rural livelihood program, saw mass demonstrations at state capitals, district headquarters and administrative offices.

In Kumrapara Village in the eastern state of West Bengal, which lies in the Sundarbans region — one of the most vulnerable climate hotspots in the world — a group of families gathered around midday to protest the new act and discuss their exasperation over the lack of rural work for many years now. 

In March 2022 the Modi government stopped issuing MGNREGA funds to West Bengal, an opposition-led state, over financial irregularities. Last year, a parliamentary committee report observed that the suspension of funds had led to sharp increase in “distress migration and disruptions in rural development initiatives. … exacerbating economic hardships in the state.”

Life was marginally easier with work available at the villages. Now, the young men have largely left to find seasonal work in southern and western India, over 1,000 miles away from the eastern state of West Bengal where they live. 

Farmer, activist and lawyer Avik Saha said that the BJP government has been trying to throttle the MGNREGA since coming to power a decade ago. “Finally, they have been successful in dismantling the program,” he said. Their goal, he believes, is “to convert rural labor into cheap unorganized labor.” 

The original act, passed in 2005 by the Congress party, was designed to address rural poverty and unemployment. It served as a fallback option for workers in times of agrarian crisis. Numerous studies found that the act was successful in bringing money to rural households and reducing debt and hunger. The work itself built rural infrastructure and adaptation to drought and floods.  

The act was especially crucial for groups who face job discrimination, such as Dalits, Adivasis, migrant workers and women. With a quota that women make up one-third of beneficiaries and an equal-pay mandate, the act encouraged women’s participation in work outside their homes. Over the years, research has shown that MGNREGA has gone a long way in providing women with paid work and autonomy over household decisions, including children’s well-being. According to the central government’s data, women made up over 58 percent of participants in the employment program in 2025.

The protests over the act’s demise build on the years of decentralized rural protests against its erosion. Since the right-wing Modi government came into power in 2014, the act has been under threat, with funds curtailed, wage payments delayed and a hard-to-access digital attendance system leaving the poor scrambling to get work.

Workers visit their local governing body office to demand work on Feb. 2. (WNV/Ritwika Mitra)

Slogans like “Har haat ko kaam do, kaam ka pura daam do” (Give work to every hand, pay fairly for that work) have defined the protests from the early years.

“These show a movement of ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” said Nikhil Dey, founding member of the people’s organization Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, part of the NSM. “The biggest legacy is the coming together of people’s thoughts and actions, and the beautiful articulation of their demands. The slogans are an assertion of their citizenship.”

The women in the village have been protesting since funds were cut off from West Bengal in 2022 — taking to the streets, blocking roads, clanging pots and pans at local administrative offices and traveling to the state capital of Kolkata, 50 miles away. 

“The clanging of plates signaled that we need work to eat — the plate being a symbol of us securing our rice for the day,” said Nirubala Halder, a worker in her 60s who said she has gone to every protest since 2022.

Halder’s neighbor Namita Pramanick, 60, said she is still owed pay for work she did in 2021. “I cleaned ponds painstakingly for 22 days. There is no hope now to get paid or work,” Pramanick said.    

People from the village gather around Kanai Halder, an activist with the West Bengal-based agricultural workers’ organization Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samiti, another member of the NSM. “You cannot afford to lose hope now,” he tells them. “This is going to be a long battle, and we have to prepare for it. Would you rather that your young boys and husbands leave for distant lands?”

Work opportunities are drying up in Sundarbans, which has been called the cyclone capital of India, as climate change intensifies the cyclones. Seawater flooding from the storms is raising soil salinity. Guaranteed work would be a social security buffer in the village and also help climate resilience efforts like restoring mangroves and building earthen embankments to keep out tidal surges. 

“The truth is we have not protested enough,” Saha said. “In a way, we have allowed this to happen. But eventually farmers, farm workers, MGNREGA workers will be forced to come together due to economic compulsion.”

The support of political parties is key

On May Day, the NSM will protest the new act, and on May 15, the platform has planned decentralized demonstrations at work sites and administrative offices across the country. 

The workers’ organizations are learning to tap into the power of social media to spread word about the protests. 

They were inspired by another protest movement brewing in the states of north India in December — in opposition to a ruling by India’s Supreme Court that made the Aravalli hills vulnerable to mining and construction. Instagram was flooded with content. When the workers’ organizations asked the women in the villages how they knew about the protests around Aravalli, they responded by showing them Instagram reels. 

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“We realized we had never explored the potential to connect through social media. It is a smart way to form an organic decentralized movement which the government cannot clamp down on, and to get the mainstream media to pick up on it,” said Nikhil Shenoy, member of Rajasthan Asangathit Mazdoor Union, a part of NSM. 

Workers with the NSM have been recording catchy songs accompanied by puppetry to help push out word about the protests on Instagram.

Ultimately, Shenoy believes that pressure from political parties will be key to making change. With West Bengal headed for elections on April 23 and April 29, the ruling All India Trinamool Congress party has made the first plank of its reelection platform a guarantee of 100 days of work to all job card holders in the state. The party accused the ruling BJP of “betraying the people of Bengal” by withholding funds for MGNREGA.

While there has been some cooperation between the political parties and the NSM, Shenoy stressed the need for more. “The political parties have a reach which we cannot achieve,” he said. “When they are able to pick up on the pulse of the people, then the movement gets bigger. The government will only listen when it is politically hurt.”

This article Rural India is not giving up a work guarantee without a fight was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

This year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will again take place as a fully hybrid conference in both Vienna and online from May 4 to 8. This year, I'll join the event virtually for the full week, participating in the hybrid sessions from the comforts of my home. I already picked most of the sessions I plan to attend and - as meet-hopping is a lot easier online than on-site - I didn't have to pay close attention to where in the conference center they happen. This year, I submitted abstracts to two sessions and both happen to be on Monday. This suits me just fine as it means, that I can freely plan the rest of my week, picking and chosing sessions piquing my interest. This blog post provides an overview of my itinerary.

Monday morning, May 4

The very first session for me at this year's EGU meeting starts at 8:30 and will be EOS1.1 Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection in which I'll have the first of my two oral presentation slots. The session has been (co)convened by Roberta Bellini, Nuno Pimentel, Megan O'Donnell, Thomas Harvey, Ashley Akingbade and Nikos Kalivitis and will include the Angela Croome Award Lecture as well as the Katia and Maurice Krafft Award Lecture.

Science communication includes the efforts of natural, physical and social scientists, communications professionals, and teams that communicate the process and values of science and scientific findings to non-specialist audiences outside of formal educational settings. The goals of science communication can include enhanced dialogue, understanding, awareness, enthusiasm, influencing sustainable behaviour change, improving decision making, and/or community building. Channels to facilitate science communication can include in-person interaction through teaching and outreach programs, and online through social media, mass media, podcasts, video, or other methods. This session invites presentations by individuals and teams on science communication practice, research, and reflection, addressing questions like:

• What kind of communication efforts are you engaging in and how are you doing it?
• What are the biggest challenges or successes you’ve had in engaging the public with your work?
• How are other disciplines (such as social sciences) informing understanding of audiences, strategies, or effects?
• How do you spark joy and foster emotional connection through activities?
• How do you allow for co-creation of ideas within a community?
• How are you assessing and measuring the positive impacts on society of your endeavours?
• What are lessons learned from long-term communication efforts?

Based on its description this seemed to be a very good session to talk about our upcoming website relaunch and it'll be my turn for not quite 10 minutes at 10:05 to do just that in my assigned oral slot. This is the abstract I submitted a few months ago:

Relaunching the Skeptical Science website to include prebunking tools

Skeptical Science is a highly-visited website featuring 250 rebuttals of misinformation about climate change and climate solutions. Many of the rebuttals are written at multiple levels—basic, intermediate, and advanced—in order to reach as wide an audience as possible. Results from a survey we've been running on our website since November 2021 indicate that there is some room for improvements in order to make the rebuttals more robust. It is therefore rather good timing that we've been working on a complete overhaul of our website which should increase the effectiveness of rebuttals in reducing acceptance in climate myths and increasing acceptance of climate facts. A key goal of misinformation interventions is to increase reader discernment, the difference between belief in facts and belief in myths. While there was overall an increase in discernment, with the decrease in agreement with myths greater than the decrease in agreement with facts, the result that belief in climate facts decreased for at least some rebuttals is unwelcome and counter to the goal of Skeptical Science. In this presentation, we'll give a sneak peek at how the new website will look like. One important new feature will be the inclusion - where applicable - of the fallacies employed by a climate myth, so that a rebuttal on the new website will then include all three elements of a successful debunking: fact, myth and fallacy. In my presentation, I'll also highlight some of the other updated or new features this website relaunch will include.

Here is a sneak peek of my drafted presentation:

Judging by their titles and abstracts there'll be many interesting presentations in this wide-ranging session about science communication! So many abstracts were submitted that EOS1.1 was given 4 oral slots (2 each on Monday and Tuesday morning) to cover 35 oral presentations as well as 2 poster slots for a similar number of posters!

Monday afternoon, May 4

In the afternoon of EGU's first day, I'll be joining session EOS4.1 Geoethics: Linking Geoscience Knowledge, Ethical Responsibility, and Action, (co)convened by Silvia Peppoloni, Giuseppe Di Capua, Anita Di Chiara and David Crookall:

Geoscientists play a key role in providing essential information in decision-making processes that consider environmental, social, and economic consequences of geoscience work. Therefore, their responsibilities extend beyond scientific analysis alone. Global challenges, such as climate change, resource management, and disaster risk reduction, push geoscientists to expand their role beyond research and to engage ethically in public efforts.

Geoethics provides a framework for reflecting on the ethical, social, and cultural implications of geoscience in research, practice, and education, guiding responsible action for society and the environment. It also encourages the scientific community to move beyond purely technical solutions by embracing just, inclusive, and transformative approaches to socio-environmental issues.

Furthermore, science is inseparable from social and geopolitical contexts. These conditions shape what research is funded, whose knowledge is valued, with whom we collaborate, and who has access to conferences. As Earth and planetary scientists, we must consider the human and environmental consequences of our work. This is especially true in Earth observation, where many satellites have both scientific and military applications, and where scientific tools have at times enabled ecocide and resource exploitation under neocolonial systems.

This session will offer insights and reflections across a wide range of topics, from theoretical considerations to case studies, foster awareness and discussion of sensitive issues at the geoscience–society interface and explore how geoethics can guide responsible behavior and policies in the geosciences. 

I'll give an oral presentation in the 2nd part of this session at 17:15 sharing the results of the "Skeptical Science Experiment", which we recently pubished a paper about in EGU's Geoscience Communication journal:

Results of the Skeptical Science experiment and impacts on relaunched website

Skeptical Science is a highly-visited website featuring 250 rebuttals of misinformation about climate change and climate solutions. The rebuttals are written at multiple levels—basic, intermediate, and advanced—in order to reach as wide an audience as possible. Since November 2021, we have collected survey data from visitors, assessing the effectiveness of rebuttals in reducing acceptance in climate myths and increasing acceptance of climate facts. A key goal of misinformation interventions is to increase reader discernment, the difference between belief in facts and belief in myths. While there was overall an increase in discernment, with the decrease in agreement with myths greater than the decrease in agreement with facts, we also found that belief in climate facts decreased for at least some rebuttals - an unwelcome result running counter to Skeptical Science’s goals. Due to the survey design and not collecting any information about why readers selected a specific option, we can only make educated guesses about what may have led to selecting a specific option. In parallel to running the experiment on our website, we have also been working on a website relaunch project which will address some of the shortcomings already identified. One new feature will be the inclusion - where applicable - of logical fallacies used in climate myths, so that rebuttals will include all three elements of a successful debunking: fact, myth and fallacy. In my presentation, I'll also highlight some of the other updated or new features this website relaunch will include.

Here is a sneak peek of my drafted presentation:

Rest of the Week

As the rest of the week is not yet cut in stone, I'll not go into any details and will only mention a few sessions I plan to join because they've been fun in previous years or because their titles and abstracts sound interesting:

• EOS1.6 - PICO session - Up-Goer Five Challenge: Making Big Ideas Simpler by Talking About Them in Words We Use a Lot (Tuesday afternoon)
• EOS1.3 - PICO - Games for Geoscience (Wednesday afternoon)
• SC3.3 - Short course - New Toolkits – the destabilisation of science and what we can do about it (Thursday morning)

When I'm not participating in sessions or busy writing about them, I may well hang out in "Gather", the virtual conference center for anybody joining onine. It's a fun set up where you can walk around as an avatar and meet others doing the same either in the virtual pster halls or even outside in a park or on the rooftop.

Looking at the sessions I've thus far added to my personal program, I'm fairly certain that I unfortunately will not be able to make it to all of them - especially the overlapping ones! However, one advantage of pariticpating virtually is that it's possible to quickly jump from one session to another if an interesting presentation beckons! Here is what I have planned:

I plan to publish two companion articles about my presentations as well as a by now almost customary EGU diary. Should be fun!

To learn more about the conference, visit their website at egu26.eu!

This week we look at the relationship between humans and wildlife. Are we working together? PTSD is the result of climate degradation and affects all living beings in our world. Let’s explore this further.

Dear Dr. Green,

Can animals get PTSD? I think about all those animals constantly fleeing wildfires here in California and I worry. Tanya K.

Thank you for your question, Tanya.

Yes. Sadly, science has shown, wild animals can experience PTSD, a.k.a. post-traumatic stress disorder.

These studies, started in the 1990s, coined the term ecology of fear. This concept describes the ripple or domino effect that occurs when the destruction of one species negatively affects an entire biological community, animal and plant life alike.

To a degree, the ecology of fear is normal in the wild: Prey species must maintain constant vigilance for predators to stay alive. However, the introduction of new predators — or new threats — can create a state of hypervigilance, one of the most common symptoms of PTSD.

In this case we might see humans as apex predators, sometimes referred to as superpredators, although that term remains under a fair amount of debate (and it’s worth noting that it’s not related to the harmful criminal justice trope used in the 1990s). Humans are causing the decline of populations, and extinction of wildlife species, at a rate and speed that far outpaces natural wildlife predation rates, due to our technological capabilities and tendency to overexploit and undervalue the natural world.

People all too often view nature as “other,” a place outside us, “a place to go” to spend vacations and weekends — often failing to understand that we’re active, integral beings intertwined in nature.

A Brief Look at How PTSD Works in Both Humans and Animals

Brain imaging shows that humans with PTSD have remarkably altered brain structures. Trauma causes startling physical and chemical changes in the hippocampus, amygdala, telomeres, and Broca’s center that compromise the growth of new neurons (neurogenesis). The mind is unable to put traumatic memories in sequential order. PTSD patients get “stuck” in memory loops of the trauma (the past) and find it difficult to resolve the trauma; they often struggle to move forward, never have children or leave the ones they have, and separate themselves from society (the herd) by moving around restlessly.

This is a very simplistic explanation of post-trauma for the purpose of demonstrating how our trauma responses correlate to those of wildlife and can illustrate how trauma affects wildlife living in threatened natural settings and unrealistic artificial habitats.

Scientific research is increasingly showing the same neurogenesis in wildlife: Trauma stemming from the destruction of habitat, torture, threat of death, and other human-causes hardships results in permanent fear, startle effect, hypervigilance, and anxiety. The brains of animals, though differently structured from humans, react similarly to trauma (depending upon the particular species, of course).

Wild creatures can likewise experience depression, lack of interest or cessation of reproduction, or loss of direction in migratory patterns or loss of their traditional seasonal homing locations due to habitat destruction and have greatly reduced survival rates during or after anthropogenic disasters associated with climate change, such as forest fires, drought, floods, and other crises.

We’ve included some examples of scientific studies of PTSD in wildlife in the resources list below. To outline all of the studies over the past century here would be impossible but take a look for proof that PTSD between humans and wildlife is strongly correlated.

Some other examples of direct infliction of trauma on wildlife by humans include overproduction of agriculture to meet increasing human populations, overfishing, overhunting, habitat destruction, placing value on animal parts (poaching, illegal wildlife trade), hunting for social status (“trophies”, or “aphrodisiac medicines”), and keeping wild animals as “pets,” symbols of wealth and human superiority.

So, Tanya K. and other readers, what will calm your worry about wildlife and your concern they have PTSD? For starters, participation in the environmental movement — a mightily empowering endeavor. Do some research on where your current skills and talents in other fields could help prevent disasters like wildfires and protect wildlife.

We hurt ourselves, as well as the rest of the living, by “othering” wildlife. The best cure for our worry and discomfort is to get off the observation deck and into the fray.

Let me know how it goes — Dr. Green always welcomes life stories when it comes to saving the planet.

Cheers!

Dr. Green

What are you struggling with emotionally when it comes to your relationship with our planet? What are your challenges and concerns? Do you have some success stories to share with our readers?  I want to know! Maybe together we can come up with strategies that will enrich your inner—and outer life! 

See you next time!

Share your challenges and success stories by sending Dr. Green your questions using the form below:

Resources:

Ecology of Fear  (Zanette LY, Clinchy M. Ecology of fear. Curr Biol. 2019 May 6;29(9):R309-R313. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.042. PMID: 31063718).

Ecology and Neurobiology of Fear in Free-Living Wildlife (Liana Y. Zanette, Michael Clinchy. 2020. Ecology and Neurobiology of Fear in Free-Living Wildlife. Annual Review Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 51:297-318. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-011720-124613).

Wolves and their prey all fear the human “super predator” (Kasper, Katharina et al. “Wolves and their prey all fear the human “super predator”.” Current biology: CB vol. 35,20 (2025): 5111-5117.e3. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2025.09.018).

 “Predator-induced fear causes PTSD-like changes in the brains and behaviour of wild animals”. (Zanette, Liana Y.; Hobbs, Emma C.; Witterick, Lauren E.; MacDougall-Shackleton, Scott A.; Clinchy, Michael (2019-08-07). “Predator-induced fear causes PTSD-like changes in the brains and behaviour of wild animals”. Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 11474. Bibcode:2019NatSR…911474Z. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-47684-6)

Check out the Journal for Ecopsychology, a peer-reviewed journal founded in 2009 that “places psychology and mental health in an ecological context to recognize the links between human health, culture, and the health of the planet.”

Reporting on PTSD in Wildlife (just a few examples):

• • • Do Wild Animals Get PTSD? Many creatures show lasting changes in behavior and physiology after a traumatic experience
    • Humans are ‘unique super-predators’
    • The Challenges of Studying (and Treating) PTSD in Chimpanzees: Apes used in animal testing often display symptoms of psychological trauma. Wildlife sanctuaries are helping them recover. (The Revelator, April 22, 2024 – by Tim Brinkhof)
    • New research shows that elephants and other animals can suffer from PTSD
    • Do Wild Animals Suffer from PTSD and Other Psychological Disorders?

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The post Dr. Green: Can Wildlife Get PTSD? appeared first on The Revelator.

Schemes that certify wood or paper as sustainable are doing little to stem the loss of forests globally, a study finds.

Read more on E360 →

Lakes and wetlands are welcome natural oases amidst the concrete and asphalt of the urban world. In many cities, they are magnets for people seeking a chance to go birdwatching, fishing, swimming, or just use the water as a scenic backdrop.

But these spots have an invisible and unappetizing side as well. They can be hotspots of antibiotic-resistant microbes, posing a potential health risk to people coming in contact with the water.  A survey of wetlands in Chinese cities discovered levels of these microbes on par with untreated sewage, Chinese scientists reported last week in Nature Cities.

The discovery highlights the overlooked risks of what are commonly seen as urban amenities. It also points to possible ways to clean up these waterways. Rather than being a “regulatory blind spot,” these waterbodies “should serve as ‘frontline outposts’ guarding public health and ecological security, requiring our concerted efforts to ensure they serve city residents safely,” lead author Da Lin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Urban Environment wrote in an online essay discussing the research.

The scientists were first alerted to the possible problem while strolling past a wetland in a city park “bustling with human activity,” Lin wrote. While such waterbodies might look appealing, they can also serve as impromptu stormwater storage ponds, capturing runoff from nearby streets or even from overflowing sewage pipes. The scientists wondered to what degree that also turned them into magnets for antibiotic resistant bacteria, which are known to flourish in urban settings.

They collected water samples from 17 wetlands in 9 Chinese cities, filtered the water and examined the DNA left in the filters to see what viruses and bacteria were present, and whether their genes contained signs of antibiotic resistance.

The test revealed nearly 750 types of genes coded for antibiotic resistance in concentrations 9 times greater than what researchers have found in natural lakes. It was approximately the same contamination levels seen in tests of raw sewage, and roughly four times the average levels found in urban wetland elsewhere in the world, based on results from other studies.

This microbial stew included genes for resistance to sulfonamide and tetracycline, as well as genes for broader resistance to a range of antibiotics. The scientists also found traces of 67 different microbes known to infect humans, particularly from the Pseudomonas genus, which are known for having antibiotic resistance. “This data objectively demonstrates that urban wetlands have become important reservoirs” for antibiotic resistant genes, Lin wrote.

Not all wetlands were equally problematic. Waterbodies in poorer cities had higher levels of contamination with antibiotic resistant bacteria. That might be linked to weaker urban infrastructure, which enables more untreated stormwater to flow into these lakes and ponds, the scientists wrote.

That also points to possible ways to tackle the problem. A number of Chinese cities, including the capital of Beijing, have in recent years begun building nature-inspired infrastructure to better cope with stormwater. These so-called “sponge cities” use tools such as permeable pavement, landscaping engineered to soak up rainwater and, yes, wetlands meant to clean the water.

While such infrastructure can help, as the new research points out it can also create public health headaches.

To guard against these wetlands becoming more problem than solution, the scientists called for more robust monitoring and regulation of these waterbodies. Among the recommendations: Set standards for contamination levels with antibiotic resistant bacteria; create a list of high-risk wetlands; and keep the antibiotic problem in mind when designing and managing urban water spots, rather than focusing only on removing nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which can spark algae blooms.

Just as public beaches are now sometimes closed when water tests show high levels of E. coli, perhaps one day something similar might be in place for high levels of antibiotic resistance.

Lin, et. al. “Urban wetlands as hotspots of antibiotic resistomes and their potential viral transmission.” Nature Cities. April 17, 2026.

Photo by LUM3N/Freerange Stock

Kaveh Zahedi is the Assistant Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Director of FAO’s Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment. Ko Barrett is the Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Every crop, every animal and every fish has a thermal limit, the point where additional heat stops being normal weather and starts doing damage. In food systems, that threshold arrives sooner than many people realise.

For key agricultural species, the danger zone often sits between 25 and 35°C at the moments that matter most, such as flowering and reproduction. As climate change drives more days into the mid-40s°C in major breadbaskets, those limits are already being crossed. The result is lower yields, weaker livestock, stressed fisheries, higher fire risk and farmworkers – the backbone of the system – forced into unsafe conditions.

A new joint FAO-WMO report, released on April 22, shows that extreme heat is already cutting production and exposing agricultural workers to dangerous conditions. One analysis found that beef cattle mortality reached as high as 24% in some documented heatwaves. Marine heatwaves were linked to an estimated $6.6 billion loss in fisheries production. And the outlook worsens as temperatures rise. For every 1°C of warming, maize and wheat yields are projected to drop 4–10%.

US pressure puts World Bank’s climate plan at risk

Adapting to a hotter world will take long-term investment in science, technology and infrastructure if food supplies are to keep pace with demand. We will need more heat-tolerant varieties and breeds, new farming practices, and we will need to make hard choices about what can still be grown as conditions change. But we also need a plan for next season, not just 2100.

With more severe heat likely in the coming years and another El Niño poised to test unprepared systems, the priority is to move from crisis response to heat readiness. That starts with early warnings and practical measures to help farmers protect harvests, supply chains and their own safety.

Heat warnings farmers can use

Weather forecasts should give farmers time to act before extreme heat turns into loss. That is the strategy behind Early Warnings for All, the UN initiative coordinated by WMO with partners including FAO. But early warning only works when reliable observations, modelling and verification turn weather and climate data into forecasts farmers can actually use.

Cambodia’s Green Climate Fund-funded PEARL project, supported by FAO, upgraded and installed new weather stations to feed a phone-based app that sends forecasts with crop- and region-specific guidance. When forecasts exceed 38°C, alerts recommend maintaining soil moisture with mulch, shading vegetables, delaying sowing rice seeds, and shifting irrigation to cooler hours.

Soda Thai (pictured in a blue T‑shirt) receives training from a Commune Agriculture Officer on how to use the GCF‑funded PEARL Project’s agrometeorological advisory service on her smartphone. (Photo: FAO/Pisey Khun) Soda Thai (pictured in a blue T‑shirt) receives training from a Commune Agriculture Officer on how to use the GCF‑funded PEARL Project’s agrometeorological advisory service on her smartphone. (Photo: FAO/Pisey Khun)

That advice is part of a practical set of heat measures that help farmers reduce losses before extreme heat turns into crisis. In some cases, that means shading crops with cloth or solar panels, increasing water storage, installing low-cost cooling misters, or adjusting planting windows. Cattle generate heat when they eat, so feeding them in cooler hours can help.

Poultry cannot sweat, so shade is essential. Where extreme heat is becoming the norm, farmers may need to move from cattle to more heat-tolerant goats and sheep, or even switch crops. Evidence from Pakistan shows these adjustments can pay off. A FAO-GCF project field-tested the combination of heat- and drought-tolerant cotton and wheat varieties with mulching and adjusted planting windows. Over six seasons, returns reached as high as $8 for every $1 invested.

Extreme heat doesn’t only damage food in the field. It also speeds up spoilage after harvest, turning heat stress into income loss and poorer diets. An estimated 526 million tonnes of food, about 12% of the global total, is lost or wasted because of insufficient refrigeration. In Jamaica, a GCF-funded, FAO-supported programme treats cold storage as climate adaptation, using solar-powered cold storage to help smallholders keep produce market-ready when heat hits.

Protecting workers

Cold chains and toolkits matter, but they don’t protect the people doing the work. Extreme heat is one of the biggest threats to farmers’ health, driving dehydration, kidney injury and chronic disease, and taxing public health systems in the process. More than a third of the global workforce, around 1.2 billion people, face workplace heat risk each year, with agriculture among the hardest-hit sectors.

• Mar 19, 2026 Comment Middle East war is another wake-up call for fossil fuel-reliant food systems Much of the world’s food production depends on fossil fuels for fertiliser and transportation, and the crisis in the Gulf will push up prices – and, in turn, hunger Read more
• Mar 10, 2026 Comment We must invest in early-warning systems to tackle crises like Kenya’s drought With more than 3 million Kenyans facing acute hunger, better mechanisms are needed to help communities reduce devastation from future drought cycles Read more

We already know what basic protection looks like, and it is already being put into practice in Cambodia, where the extreme heat advisories are paired with advice for farmers to shift heavy work to cooler hours and ensure access to water, shade and rest breaks.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and WMO are calling for the same approach at a wider scale: adjusted work–rest schedules, access to shade and safe drinking water, training to recognize heat illness, and integrating weather and climate information into workplace risk management.

Why preparation pays

The tools to prepare for extreme heat already exist. The problem is that funding still falls far short of the scale of the risk, and rural communities are too often overlooked by the assumption that extreme heat is mainly an urban problem.

In 2023, agrifood systems received just 4% of total climate-related development finance. Without more investment, early warnings won’t reach the people who need them most, extension services will remain under-resourced, and basic protections for crops, livestock and workers will stay out of reach.

Preparing in advance is cheaper than absorbing the same losses year after year. It can stabilise production and prices now, while buying time for the bigger scientific and structural shifts agriculture will need in a hotter world.

We don’t need a new playbook. We need to use the one we already have. The FAO-WMO report lays out the risks of extreme heat. Now is the time to use that evidence to protect food systems and the people who sustain them.

The post Extreme heat is rewriting food security. The best fixes are already within reach appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Russian state nuclear enterprise Rosatom has become the most active exporter of nuclear technology in the world over the past decade. Wherever the corporation operates, it presents atomic energy development as indispensable for climate action and national sovereignty. Yet beyond building reactors, Rosatom establishes an integrated model of political and societal influence, often entrenching censorship and eschewing democratic oversight.

When Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom signs an agreement to build a nuclear power plant, it exports far more than turbines, containment domes, and fuel assemblies. Alongside engineering contracts and state-backed loans comes a broader ecosystem: educational programmes, public diplomacy platforms, youth initiatives, science centres, cultural partnerships, and communication strategies designed to shape how nuclear energy is perceived.

Over the past decade, Rosatom has become the most active exporter of nuclear technology in the world. Its reactors are under construction across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. But its expansion cannot be understood purely in terms of energy capacity or industrial success. Rosatom has evolved into a vertically integrated actor that offers governments a full package: construction, financing, fuel supply, operational management, training, and long-term service agreements. Embedded within that package is something less visible but equally strategic: soft power influence.

In many host countries, nuclear cooperation is accompanied by programmes aimed at cultivating “public acceptance,” shaping youth perspectives, and aligning local institutions with Rosatom’s long-term presence. In political environments where civic space is limited or fragile, this model can intersect with authoritarian governance structures, narrowing public debate and marginalising dissent. Rosatom presents its activities as supporting development, sovereignty, and clean energy. Critics argue that its approach often produces long-term dependencies – technical, financial, and political – while reshaping the civic landscape around major infrastructure decisions.

Weak independent oversight

Rosatom actively promotes itself as a global leader in corporate social responsibility. It highlights awards for sustainability and transparency and emphasises adherence to international anti-corruption standards. Its official narrative presents nuclear energy as a driver of national modernisation and energy independence.

Yet a closer look at where Rosatom operates reveals a pattern. Many of its flagship international projects are located in countries governed by authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes, or in states with severely constrained civic space. These political environments are not incidental. They are often conducive to large-scale infrastructure agreements that require limited public debate, minimal parliamentary oversight, and restricted independent review.

In Hungary, the Paks II nuclear project has been framed as essential for energy security. Early public protests were dispersed, and critics have long argued that the project advanced without meaningful public consultation. Despite tensions between Russia and the European Union following the invasion of Ukraine, Paks II has continued under sanctions exemptions, illustrating how deeply embedded nuclear agreements can complicate broader geopolitical positioning.

In Turkey, the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant is being built under a build-own-operate model, granting Rosatom long-term operational control. Workers protesting conditions at the site have faced police intervention, while environmental activists opposing the project have been arrested. Public access to detailed safety and financial information remains limited.

Many of Rosatom’s flagship international projects are located in countries governed by authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes, or in states with severely constrained civic space.

In Kazakhstan, public hearings on proposed nuclear expansion have reportedly restricted critics’ participation. In Bangladesh, the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant has been accompanied by allegations of corruption and concerns raised by civil society groups about emergency preparedness infrastructure. Rosatom has rejected corruption allegations and, in some cases, threatened legal action in response to claims.

The most extreme case is Ukraine. During Russia’s occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, employees were detained, interrogated, and reportedly subjected to coercion and abuse. While this situation is not directly comparable to commercial nuclear projects abroad, it underscores how nuclear infrastructure can become entangled with state power in coercive contexts.

Across these cases, one pattern recurs: nuclear projects often advance in environments where independent oversight is weak and dissent carries political risk.

Manufacturing Public Acceptance

Rosatom’s strategy does not rely solely on executive agreements. It systematically invests in shaping public narratives around nuclear energy. In multiple countries, memoranda of understanding include commitments to “form a positive public attitude” toward nuclear power. Around project sites, Rosatom supports networks of aligned NGOs, expert councils, grant initiatives, and public forums that present themselves as platforms for dialogue and consensus.

The messaging surrounding these projects often follows strikingly similar patterns across different regions. In Hungary, the Paks II project has been promoted as “key to Hungary’s energy future” and essential for “energy security”. In Turkey, the Akkuyu plant has been framed as a step toward “technological sovereignty” and “new energy for a powerful Turkey”. In Bangladesh, the Rooppur project is regularly justified through the language of “energy independence” and the claim that development “cannot happen without nuclear energy”. Similar narratives appear in Kazakhstan, where nuclear expansion has been promoted as a “path to stability”, and in Egypt, where the El Dabaa project is framed as a matter of “national pride” and a source of “clean electricity”. In Rwanda, nuclear cooperation has been described as a way of “leapfrogging to modernity,” while in several African states cooperation agreements are presented as tools for national development.

Large-scale events such as Atomexpo, World Atomic Week, and regional nuclear forums position Rosatom as a convener of global legitimacy. These gatherings feature government officials, regulators, and industry-aligned experts discussing nuclear energy as indispensable for climate action and national sovereignty. Independent environmental organisations and critical voices are often marginal or absent, while company-aligned NGOs and expert councils that operate under the language of dialogue, sustainability, and climate action are fully supported. Initiatives such as “Mission Impact” are presented as inclusive platforms bringing together youth, experts, and industry leaders to shape a sustainable future.

This narrative framing is consistent: nuclear energy is presented as clean, modern, and essential; alternatives such as decentralised renewables, energy efficiency, or demand reduction are rarely foregrounded. Over time, repetition across multiple forums and countries can create the impression of an emerging global consensus.

Rosatom’s Information Centres on Nuclear Energy (ICNE) represent another layer of this strategy. By 2026, 27 such centres operate across Russia and partner countries including Bangladesh, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, and Egypt. These centres function as high-tech educational spaces offering interactive exhibits, science competitions, youth festivals, and virtual plant tours.

Officially, they are designed to promote science education. In practice, they embed nuclear energy within local narratives of modernisation and progress. By linking atomic technology to national pride and technological sovereignty, they help transform complex industrial agreements into symbols of national achievement.

Exporting governance practices

Critics argue that Rosatom exports more than nuclear hardware. It also exports governance practices. Large-scale nuclear projects require centralised decision-making, restricted information flows, and strong executive coordination. In democratic systems with robust oversight, such projects can face lengthy public scrutiny. In more centralised systems, they can move forward with fewer obstacles.

Where civic space is limited, opposition to nuclear projects can be framed as anti-national or anti-development. In Bolivia, legal frameworks have restricted the operating space of NGOs critical of extractive and infrastructure projects. In Egypt, public protest around major state projects is effectively banned. In Myanmar, nuclear cooperation agreements have been signed under military rule, including memoranda referencing the promotion of a positive public attitude. Rosatom has signed cooperation agreements with nearly 20 African countries, the majority of which have repressive governmental systems.

The interplay between nuclear expansion and constrained civic environments raises questions about whether the technology’s governance requirements reinforce existing authoritarian tendencies. While Rosatom does not create these political systems, its projects often align comfortably within them.

Building a generation of atomic advocates

Youth engagement is perhaps the most forward-looking component of Rosatom’s soft power strategy. The corporation funds scholarships and educational programmes that bring students from partner countries to Russia to study nuclear engineering and related disciplines. Participants receive technical training, internships, and access to professional networks that frequently lead into Rosatom-linked projects at home.

Within Russia, the Rosatom Corporate Academy and youth science competitions cultivate early identification with the nuclear sector. International youth forums such as the International Youth Nuclear Forum in Obninsk and the BRICS Youth Energy Summit reinforce this professional pathway.

Rosatom has also extended its presence into global youth policy spaces. Representatives associated with Rosatom-supported initiatives have organised and participated in side events at the United Nations Economic and Social Council Youth Forum and during UNFCCC climate conferences. In these arenas, nuclear energy is framed as central to sustainable development and decarbonisation.

Such engagement is presented as empowering young leaders. Yet it also embeds nuclear advocacy within influential international platforms where youth participation carries moral authority. Over time, this may help normalise a particular model of energy transition – one in which centralised, state-backed nuclear infrastructure plays a dominant role.

Rosatom’s global expansion is not simply an industrial story. It is a political and societal one. By combining reactor construction, state-backed financing, fuel supply, long-term operational control, narrative management, and youth engagement, Rosatom has built an integrated model of influence. In many partner countries, this model operates within political environments where public scrutiny is limited and dissent carries risk.

Rosatom’s global expansion is not simply an industrial story. It is a political and societal one.

Nuclear energy projects, by their nature, create decades-long commitments. When those commitments are bundled with soft power instruments – public information centres, aligned civil society platforms, elite training pipelines, and international forums – the result is not merely energy infrastructure, but institutional alignment.

As nuclear energy regains prominence in global climate discussions, the governance dimension of these projects deserves equal attention. The question is not only whether nuclear power can reduce emissions, but how decisions are made, who shapes public understanding, and what forms of political dependency accompany the technology.

In the case of Rosatom, reactors are only part of the story. The rest is built through influence carefully constructed, globally networked, and designed to last as long as the plants themselves or even longer.

This article originally appeared on the website of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung as part of a dossier marking 40 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It is republished here with permission.

This is a guest blog by Nicole Pita, Programme Manager at IPES-Food, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, a global think tank and expert group guiding action for sustainable food systems around the world.

If you’ve been feeling like your grocery bills keep climbing, you’re not alone. In the United States, families are paying nearly 25% more for food than they did in 2020. In Germany, food costs 43% more than five years ago, while in Mexico and Brazil prices have jumped 42% and 50%. Now experts are warning of a looming food price crisis as a result of the global energy price spikes triggered by the US and Israeli war on Iran. 

Why is this happening? Ultimately, it’s because our food systems run on fossil fuels, and every time there’s a crisis – a pandemic, a war, a drought – we all pay the price. At the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) we have outlined this in our report, Fuel to Fork. 

Food systems consume 15% of global fossil fuels. Source: Global Alliance for the Future of Food. (2023). Power shift: Why we need to wean industrial food systems off fossil fuel.

 

How is our food connected to fossil fuels?

Food systems consume 15% of all fossil fuels globally. From chemical fertilizers and diesel tractors to long-distance transport and cooking gas, fossil fuels power every step of producing, processing, and consuming food. When oil and gas prices spike, food prices follow. 

Food, fertilizer and fossil energy prices are deeply interlinked.
Source: Levi, IMF Primary Commodity Price Index.

This fossil fuel dependence creates a triple threat. First, it makes food vulnerable to oil price spikes. Second, it drives climate breakdown, causing droughts and floods that destroy harvests. Third, a handful of corporations control the system and profit enormously every time there’s a crisis. 

This isn’t a new problem, but it’s getting worse. During the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions pushed food prices up. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, energy, fertilizer, and wheat prices soared, driving grocery bills higher. Each time, pushing millions of people into hunger, especially in the world’s poorest and most vulnerable regions.

Now, as war erupts in the Persian Gulf, it’s happening again. Global oil and fertilizer prices have increased by 50% since the war began. Food prices haven’t spiked yet – but they will. One-third of crude oil and one-third of fertilizers all normally pass through shipping routes now blocked by the conflict. Even if the war ended tomorrow, it would take months for supply chains to recover. 

The shocks of COVID and the Ukraine war accounted for nearly half of all grocery price increases in the US and 35% of price increases in the EU over the past five years. During 2021-2022 alone, 45 million more people went hungry because they couldn’t afford food.

There’s another reason food keeps getting more expensive: the fossil-fueled climate crisis. Droughts in the US Midwest and Canada destroyed harvests in 2022. Floods in India and South Asia pushed up rice prices in 2023 and 2025. The climate crisis is affecting crop production itself, making food harder to grow. The irony is that food systems produce one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, making them both a victim and a driver of the crisis.

A carefully designed system built to stay dependent on fossil fuels

Fossil fuel dependence in food systems didn’t happen by accident. Governments and funding institutions pushed farmers toward growing commodity crops for export using chemical fertilizers made from fossil fuels. Today, governments spend close to $800 billion per year supporting this chemical-intensive agriculture, while sustainable farming gets only a fraction of that support. 

And corporate lobbyists are spending hundreds of millions to keep it that way. In Europe alone they spend at least €343 million per year on lobbying – with fossil fuel and agribusiness firms increasing their spending since 2020. Companies like Shell and Bayer follow the same playbook: delay action, weaken regulations, protect profits. 

This fossil fuel-dependent system ends up being incredibly profitable for a few corporations. Just a handful of corporations control how food is produced, transported, and sold. They set the prices and we have no choice but to pay them. And when crises hit, they exploit the chaos.

During COVID and the Ukraine war, the largest fertilizer companies hiked prices far beyond their actual costs. Grain traders, food manufacturers, and retailers did the same. In the US, corporate profiteering accounted for 54% of food price increases between 2020 and 2021. During a food price crisis, while families struggled to afford food, these corporations posted record earnings.

These three problems feed each other. Fossil fuel dependence creates vulnerability to shocks. Climate chaos makes food scarce. And corporate concentration lets companies exploit both for profit. Breaking this cycle means completely reconfiguring the way we grow, process, and consume food.

A better, more affordable food system is already taking root

Another food system is possible – one that’s resilient to shocks, protects the climate, and works for people instead of corporate profits. Across the world – from Cuba to India to France – millions of farmers have already transitioned to agroecology, sustainable farming that doesn’t depend on fossil fuels or chemical inputs. These farmers build fertility naturally by planting beans that enrich soil, rotating crops, and composting waste instead of buying chemicals. Studies show these farms match or exceed conventional yields, can be profitable for farmers, and feed communities better. 

The transition takes time and farmers need support, but it makes farming systems more resilient rather than vulnerable to price shocks. It’s also clearly needed as part of the fight to tackle the climate crisis. 

The solutions exist, what’s missing is the political will. Governments have the tools to make food affordable right now while building a better food system for the future. Here’s what must happen:

• Tax the corporations that profit from crises. Windfall taxes on fossil fuel and agribusiness firms could immediately bring down costs for consumers and farmers.
• End the subsidies that keep us locked into dependence. Stop giving billions to fossil fuel corporations and chemical-intensive agriculture. Redirect that money to renewable energy and sustainable farming.
• Invest in local and regional food systems that don’t depend on long, fragile supply chains vulnerable to shocks, as outlined in our IPES-Food report Food from Somewhere. 

If we want to stabilize food prices, we have to break food’s dependence on fossil fuels. Otherwise, every new crisis will keep showing up at the checkout.

Ending fossil fuel addiction isn’t just about climate – it’s about making food affordable.

Governments won’t change course unless we demand it. Tell your leaders: End fossil fuel subsidies and tax polluters. Invest in renewable energy and sustainable, chemical-free farming. 

The post Out of Pocket: the real cost of fossil fuels on our groceries appeared first on 350.

Once again, Ontario has introduced legislation aimed at weakening municipal development standards. Bill 98 is the latest attempt to curtail the authority of municipalities to set requirements for new developments that reflect the needs of the...

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