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

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

Disclaimer: This article is commentary and satire based on publicly reported information. It includes opinion, criticism, and parody. Site wide disclaimer also applies.

Shell, previously known as Forthdeal Limited, subsequently as Royal Dutch Shell plc, and now hiding in plain sight as Shell plc after ditching the disgraced Royal Dutch moniker, has reportedly marched back into the headlines with another sermon from the high altar of hydrocarbons: oil markets, we are told, may take “a year, if not longer” to return to equilibrium.

Translation for ordinary mortals: buckle up, keep paying, and please admire the corporate gravitas while the till keeps ringing.

According to Reuters, Shell chief executive Wael Sawan warned that restoring balance to the crude oil market after the Iran/Persian Gulf disruption will not be a quick job. The Wall Street Journal also reported Sawan’s broader message: oil and gas prices may keep rising even after the immediate conflict eases, because the world’s hunger for energy is still growing, easy resources are harder to find, and governments are now treating energy security as national security.

And there it is: the grand new wrapping paper for the old fossil-fuel gift basket.

Energy security. National security. Resilience. Long-term systems. A more complex world. The language sounds statesmanlike, almost noble, until one remembers that the same market turmoil causing headaches for consumers, airlines, industries, and governments can also become a very handsome earnings environment for a supermajor with global trading arms, LNG exposure, upstream barrels, and enough corporate polish to turn a geopolitical crisis into a strategy deck.

Shell’s own Q1 2026 results presentation said the company delivered adjusted earnings of just under $7 billion amid “heightened volatility.” It also reported more than $17 billion of cash flow from operations excluding working capital. In plainer English: while the world sweated over energy shocks, Shell was hardly wandering the desert with an empty begging bowl.

The latest Sawan message is therefore a neat little performance. On one side, Shell sounds the alarm about fragile energy systems and depleted buffers. On the other, it positions itself as the indispensable adult in the room: the company that can trade, ship, drill, liquefy, optimise, and profit its way through the turbulence.

The public gets warnings. Investors get reassurance.

Sawan’s point that oil-market equilibrium may take a year or more is not, on its face, absurd. A major supply shock through the Gulf, especially involving the Strait of Hormuz and disrupted regional flows, can drain inventories, distort shipping, trigger emergency releases, hammer refiners, and raise the cost of everything from aviation to chemicals. Even when fighting stops, tankers do not teleport, infrastructure does not heal overnight, and inventories do not refill by magic.

But the political usefulness of this narrative should not be missed. If a crisis makes hydrocarbons look scarce, strategic, and irreplaceable, it also strengthens the case for more fossil investment, more LNG expansion, more upstream development, and more tolerance for the old industry argument: yes, yes, the energy transition is lovely, but not too fast, not too disruptive, and certainly not at the expense of shareholder returns.

Shell’s official transition messaging says it supports a “balanced and orderly” transition, aims for net zero by 2050, invests in low-carbon energy, and wants to provide energy today while building the system of the future. Yet the company also says it is keeping oil production stable and growing LNG. That is Shell’s favourite two-step: one foot in the climate brochure, the other planted firmly in the hydrocarbon cash register.

Sawan’s WSJ theme — energy security is national security — is especially convenient. Once energy becomes “national security,” criticism of oil and gas expansion can be made to sound naive, unpatriotic, or detached from reality. Never mind that climate security, consumer affordability, industrial resilience, and the long-term cost of fossil dependence are also national security issues. The phrase is powerful because it narrows the debate to supply, supply, supply — and who better to provide supply than the companies already profiting from the shortage?

This is how the oil majors win the room. First, they warn that the system is fragile. Then they remind everyone that only they understand it. Then they suggest that any serious government must keep them close, keep projects moving, and keep capital flowing. Finally, they call the whole thing realism.

Meanwhile, ordinary people get the bill in petrol, diesel, heating, freight, food, air fares, and inflation. Shell gets to appear grave, responsible, and indispensable — a sort of corporate firefighter standing heroically beside a blaze from which its own business model has long benefited.

There is also a delicious irony in Shell talking about equilibrium. This is a company whose legal identity has been through more costume changes than a pantomime villain: incorporated as Forthdeal Limited in 2002, renamed Royal Dutch Shell plc in 2004, then renamed Shell plc in 2022 after the grand simplification exercise. Apparently, balance is very important — especially when it involves balancing public concern, shareholder value, and the optics of dropping a tarnished old title.

The serious point is this: Sawan is probably right that the oil market will not simply snap back overnight. But Shell’s role is not that of neutral weather forecaster. Shell is not merely observing the storm; it is a giant ship built to sail profitably through it.

The company’s message to governments is clear: energy security requires companies like Shell. Its message to investors is clearer still: volatility can be opportunity. Its message to the public, dressed in softer language, is the oldest one in the oil business: keep calm and keep paying.

Spoof Shell PR/Spin Section

Shell plc Statement — Extremely Serious Voice Edition

At Shell, previously known as Forthdeal Limited, then Royal Dutch Shell plc, and now simply Shell plc because shorter names travel better through controversy, we recognise that energy security is national security, economic security, shareholder security, bonus security, and, where appropriate, reputational-security-through-careful-wording.

Our CEO Wael Sawan has responsibly warned that restoring oil-market equilibrium may take a year, if not longer. This should not be interpreted as us enjoying higher prices. We are merely responsibly positioned to generate resilient value from a challenging macro environment of unfortunate global tightness.

We remain committed to the energy transition, provided it is balanced, orderly, commercially attractive, compatible with stable oil production, supportive of LNG growth, and not unduly disruptive to the sacred quarterly distribution rhythm.

Shell will continue helping the world navigate volatility by being very large, very integrated, very necessary, and very available for meetings with governments.

We understand the pain consumers feel at the pump. We also understand trading margins, upstream cash flows, LNG arbitrage, and the importance of disciplined capital allocation.

Together, we can build a lower-carbon future — at a responsible pace, with a robust hydrocarbon foundation, and preferably with Shell in the middle of every sentence.

Spoof Bot-Reaction / Comment Section

@BarrelBot9000:
BREAKING: Oil giant discovers that oil shortage may be bad for consumers but strategically fascinating for oil giants.

@TransitionGoblin:
Shell’s energy transition strategy: one solar panel in the brochure, one LNG tanker in the bank account.

@ForthdealFanClub:
Never forget the glow-up: Forthdeal Limited to Royal Dutch Shell to Shell plc. Same fossil opera, shorter programme notes.

@PumpPricePeasant:
Lovely to hear equilibrium may take a year. My wallet has entered a disorderly transition.

@SecuritySloganBot:
Energy security is national security. Climate security is apparently a footnote in 8-point font.

@InvestorWhisperer:
Consumer crisis detected. Reclassifying as “heightened volatility” and routing to earnings call.

@CarbonNeutralByEventually:
Shell says the future is low carbon, but the present remains extremely billable.

@HydrocarbonHamster:
The wheel keeps spinning, the barrels keep moving, and somehow the hamster is paying £1.80 a litre.

@CrisisMonetisationUnit:
Please do not call it profiteering. The preferred term is “resilient integrated portfolio performance amid geopolitical complexity.”

@NationalSecurityNarrator:
When households cannot afford energy, it is a cost-of-living crisis. When oil companies discuss it, it becomes a strategic framework.

Shell Boss Warns Oil Pain Could Drag On for a Year — As Shell Sits Pretty in the Crisis Chair was first posted on June 10, 2026 at 7:48 pm.
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The short letter below was sent to Governor Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson this morning.

June 10, 2026

Honorable Josh Stein
Governor of North Carolina

Cc: Attorney General Jeff Jackson

Subject: World Court Requires Your Urgent Action vs Duke Energy as Wars Accelerate a Global Shift Away from Fossil Fuels

Dear Governor Stein,

As North Carolina communities brace for hurricane and heatwave season and scientists escalate their warnings that global warming is passing limits deemed critical for human survival, two major transitions now underway provide a vital opportunity for a genuine phase out of fossil fuels. Both require your personal action and would finally begin to shift North Carolina from being a key driver of climate change to joining those doing all possible to avert ecological and social chaos.

1)    The United Nations overwhelmingly supported a World Court decision stating that governments – including governors such as yourself – have a legal obligation to act in response to the climate crisis and, in Greenpeace International’s words, to “regulate businesses on the harm caused by their emissions.” Only the US and 7 other countries opposed the measure.

2)    Although the ongoing wars in the Middle East continue to cause horrific suffering, energy experts see ironic implications for the climate crisis. The prolonged disruption of oil and methane gas markets – which has accelerated since the Russia-Ukraine war began – is boosting “demand destruction,” a permanent shift to renewable energy sources that was already well-underway in many parts of the world – but not in North Carolina.

In other words, the world community is gradually becoming more clearly delineated between climate leaders and corporate laggards and their enablers. A clean energy transition is underway in many nations; globally, renewable power sources grew fast enough to meet all new electricity demand in 2025 without an increase in generation from fossil fuels.

Despite the encouraging progress in many countries, broader leadership is still gravely needed – and legally required, according to the UN’s World Court – to ensure that polluting corporations in rich countries don’t “wring every last drop of profit … even if it destroys the earth while denying their impending obsolescence,” as journalist Rebecca Solnit writes.

As you well know but have not acknowledged publicly, Duke Energy executives are planning the largest US expansion of gas-fired power generation, an enormous 12,300 megawatts. Scientists have for several years pressed you to lead a major change in Duke’s climate-wrecking trajectory: its gamble of public dollars on fossil fuels and failure-prone nuclear plants and suppression of solar and wind.

Duke Energy’s latest pause in developing large scale solar has been wrongly characterized as an “order” by the NC Utilities Commission. As you know, Duke has long dominated our state government and has traditionally gotten nearly everything it wants from the captive regulators.

Together, Duke Energy leaders and regulators continue to limit large-scale solar. Even worse, they continue to block the vast and virtually untapped potential for local solar-plus-storage (SPS) even though it could readily replace current and future fossil fueled electricity in the state; as NC WARN’s Sharing Solar proposal shows, rooftop/parking lot SPS would be the fastest, cheapest and most equitable way to replace coal and gas.

We urge you once again to use your enormous public voice to be honest with the people of our state: stop joining Duke Energy in claiming that NC has curbed greenhouse gas emissions. That gross deception hinges on ignoring the super-potent heat-trapping methane that is central to Duke Energy’s ongoing expansion of climate- and community-wrecking fossil fuels.

This is a golden opportunity for you to finally provide hope to those being buffeted by extreme weather events and soaring power bills – two sides of the same coin fueled by Duke Energy’s business model of building high-cost, high-risk power plants that are not needed.

Governor Stein, dozens of scientists, hundreds of businesses and nonprofits and leaders of communities being devastated by extreme weather have called for you to act. Now the UN World Court has required you to take action, and its order is enforceable in North Carolina.

Instead of continuing to escalate our criticism, NC WARN remains eager to join with you to help this state do our genuine duty to counter the escalating threat to all life on Earth.

Sincerely,

Jim Warren
Executive Director

The post Letter: World Court Requires Governor’s Urgent Action vs Duke Energy as Wars Accelerate a Global Shift Away from Fossil Fuels appeared first on NC WARN.

Tribal and conservation groups today sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop a land trade that would hand 715 acres of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in south Texas to SpaceX. In exchange for these lands, SpaceX is giving 683 acres to the Service.

Under the law, any exchanges of wildlife refuge lands must result in net conservation benefits to both the individual refuge where land will be exchanged and the wildlife refuge system as a whole. The wildlife habitat that SpaceX has sought to take ownership of has been degraded by SpaceX’s expanding operations and failed rocket launches. In its decision last week, the Fish and Wildlife Service chose to give those lands to SpaceX in exchange for fewer acres of private lands, the majority of which will be added to a separate wildlife refuge.

This land deal resulting in the loss of more than 700 acres of a national wildlife refuge is one of the largest exchanges of land in the refuge system’s history outside the state of Alaska.

“Our protected public lands are being gifted for the benefit of the world’s richest man, who could trash them while playing with his exploding rockets,” said Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge was built by decades of conservation work and funded by millions of taxpayer dollars to protect our vulnerable wildlife like ocelots and piping plovers. We’re not letting Trump and his political cronies lock the American people out of Texas’ cherished public lands just to give Elon Musk another payday.”

Today’s lawsuit alleges that the Fish and Wildlife Service violated the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 by taking action that will permanently reduce and degrade the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. In approving the transfer, the Service also violated the National Historic Preservation Act by giving away hundreds of acres of a National Historic Landmark. The transfer approval also violated the National Environmental Policy Act.

Congress created this wildlife refuge in 1979 to protect its diverse wildlife, including rare species like ocelots, aplomado falcons, and migratory birds such as piping plovers, red knots, green jays and Altamira orioles. The refuge protects some of the best remaining habitat in the United States for the endangered ocelot.

In 2014 SpaceX chose the nearby Boca Chica area as the location of a rocket launch site and a test site, and it has rapidly expanded its operations and activities in the area. This included numerous rocket launches, some of which have resulted in catastrophic explosions that have propelled debris for miles onto refuge lands, including concrete and metal.

“Elon Musk has built his explosive SpaceX facility in the middle of a major wildlife corridor home to endangered and threatened species like ocelots and wetlands. There was never supposed to be space rockets blowing up here,” said Bekah Hinojosa, a Brownsville native, and co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network. “Our community opposes these latest hostile land grabs by SpaceX of our wildlife habitat and Boca Chica beach. This habitat land is meant to be preserved for future generations, not for billionaires to find later and destroy.”

In the years following SpaceX’s arrival, it has vastly expanded its operations around the wildlife refuge, increasing manufacturing facilities and adding a second launch pad. In 2025 the Federal Aviation Administration authorized SpaceX to conduct 25 Starship launches per year — a fivefold increase from the previous limit. Launch failures have triggered explosions and wildfires on refuge lands and scattered chunks of concrete and metal more than 6 miles from the launch pad.

Post-explosion surveys have revealed environmental damage to nearby lands on the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. A 2024 study found that after one launch every single monitored shorebird nest near the launch site suffered egg damage or loss. Instead of taking any enforcement actions or working with SpaceX to reduce or eliminate its harm to the refuge, the Service accepted the damage to the lands and now points to the supposed lowered conservation value as justification for the land exchange.

The refuge lands being transferred to SpaceX also include significant portions of the Palmito Ranch Battlefield National Historic Landmark, which is the site of the final battle of the Civil War. Even though the site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and protected as a historic landmark, these historic lands would be privatized and SpaceX could choose not to preserve their historic values or limit public access to the battlefield.

“The refuge is a national public treasure with immense ecological and cultural value. The tract being swapped to SpaceX, whose arrival here has been an unmitigated disaster, will permanently sever the very heart of the wildlife corridor established by Congress in 1979,” said Mary Angela Branch, board member at Save RGV. “This corridor, running along the Rio Grande River, is prime wildlife habitat, and nothing gained in this ‘swap’ will be equal. This will be a huge loss. The federal government should protect our public land for future generations, not turn them into hellscapes for soon-to-be trillionaire corporate interests.”

The proposed land exchange was first made public in March 2026, but records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show internal agency planning began as early as April 2025. In those discussions with the regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Service developed “the most expedited schedule possible” for completing a transfer and recommended hiring additional staff to meet what they described as an “optimum timeframe.” This request came when Musk was leading his Department of Government Efficiency and publicly threatened to fire federal workers who failed to justify their jobs to him.

“SpaceX has been a nightmare of a neighbor to the Lower Rio Grande Valley wildlife refuge for years, callously harming wildlife that call these special places home,” said Jordahl. “It’s shameful and insulting that this sweetheart deal has been rammed through just to placate another billionaire in Trump’s orbit. We’ll fight this outrageous sell-out of our public lands with everything we’ve got.”

“This refuge is sacred to me and to the Carrizo/Comecrudo People,” said Juan Mancias, member of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas. “Our ancestors have lived with this land, these waters, and these migration pathways since time immemorial. We are not separate from this place — we are of this continent, and our connection to it cannot be bought, exchanged, or erased. The transfer of these sacred lands to SpaceX continues a long history of colonial dispossession and tribal erasure. We have survived centuries of colonial genocide, and we will continue to resist every attempt to erase our existence, our culture, and our responsibilities to the land. We are still here, and we will continue this fight for as many years and generations as it takes.”

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the Center for Biological Diversity, Save RGV, The Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas, Inc, and South Texas Environmental Justice Network.

Plaintiffs are represented by Center for Biological Diversity attorneys Marc Fink, Brandon Jones-Cobb and Ivan Ditmars.

On Wednesday, Demand Progress launched AI Money Watch, a new website that tracks campaign spending from Leading the Future, an AI Super PAC bankrolled by co-founders from OpenAI and Andreessen Horowitz. AI Money Watch launches as President Donald Trump, his Big Tech allies and congressional leaders are once again trying to push legislation that would ban states and localities from enforcing laws that regulate AI.

• Visit AI Money Watch

Leading the Future is poised to spend tens of millions of dollars on elections to kill regulatory safeguards for AI. They are doing this by spending money to support anti-AI safeguard candidates and attacking pro-AI safeguard candidates. AI Money Watch uses public FEC filings to show how much Leading the Future is spending on elections across the nation and lets Americans spread the word on X and Instagram. The website also flags which candidates have been endorsed by Leading the Future.

“AI Money Watch cuts through the dark money blizzard and shows you how some of the biggest names in AI are trying to buy politicians who will kill AI safeguards and attack anyone who dares to fight back,” said Demand Progress Action AI Policy Advisor Colin McGlynn. “AI chatbots have been accused of flirting with children, discouraging people in distress from seeking help and even offering instructions on how to plan a mass shooting—and billionaire AI CEOs are doling out millions to kill any safeguards that would stop this. With AI Money Watch, Americans can see which candidates the biggest AI Super PAC is buying, who they are trying to stop and how much they are spending.”

Katherine Matos Meza

Ask 2,000 Canadians what they think about geothermal energy, and most will answer with a shrug.  

That shrug is loaded with meaning to Katherine Matos Meza, a Cascade Institute researcher studying public perceptions of geothermal.  

When she and Carlos Gorraez Meraz, a collaborator at Royal Roads University, recently asked 2,603 people in western Canada to share their impressions of the clean-energy option, the predominant response was a vague, fuzzy familiarity.  

That’s both good news and bad news, according to the new report they co-authored, Deep Listening: Assessing the social acceptance of geothermal energy in Alberta and British Columbia. 

“Public perceptions around geothermal are still forming,” says Matos Meza. “That’s a great opportunity to engage people, to educate them, to help them understand the important role geothermal energy could play in ensuring clean, secure, and affordable electricity for Canadians.” 

Recent advances have made geothermal energy — clean, inexhaustible power extracted from hot rock kilometres below the surface — a powerful addition to the mix of technologies like wind and solar.  

But of all the energy sources Matos Meza asked about in a survey of Albertans and British Columbians last year, geothermal had the lowest familiarity. Acceptance is moderate and opinions are soft. People have not yet decided what to make of geothermal because, in general, they’ve barely heard of it.  

For Matos Meza, that gap in understanding is simultaneously a big opportunity and a flashing red warning.  

“Right now, they’re subject to misinformation, or to other actors who might give them negative insights.” 

Matos Meza contributes research to all of Cascade’s programs — geothermal, polycrisis, democracy — thanks to her background in stakeholder mapping, survey design, and environmental impact assessment. She has worked in both the public and private sectors, and holds a master’s degree in Environment and Management from Royal Roads University. She also built the data behind the Polycrisis Community Map, which links researchers working on the world’s interlocking crises.  Her study of public acceptance of geothermal is aimed at helping entrepreneurs, policymakers, and communities realize the environmental, financial, and social benefits of the technology.  

Matos Meza says the key finding of her research is that there’s still time to positively shape public perceptions of geothermal, whereas perceptions of other energy forms are tougher to budge.  

Carlo Gorraez Meraz of Royal Roads University.

A second part of the research, currently ongoing, includes qualitative analysis of the survey’s open-ended question about perceived risk. Open-ended questions like these are about more than tallying yes and no answers, says Matos Meza. 

“From there we can identify information gaps, emotional threats, technical concerns, structural distrust. And we can do it at an early stage, before concerns harden into positions.” 

This is where Matos Meza’s work plugs into Cascade’s overarching mission. The Institute sees geothermal energy as a “high-leverage intervention” to address the polycrisis — a single push that can simultaneously address climate heating, energy insecurity, and economic inequalities.    

Matos Meza understands that technological transitions are also social ones. Without social acceptance, the advancement of this promising but underdeveloped clean energy resource could stall. With strong social acceptance, geothermal can be part of the positive snowball effect the Cascade Institute calls a virtuous cascade.  

“Perceptions are evolving fast,” she says. “The sooner people are introduced to the benefits of geothermal energy, the better.” 

That’s why she believes we need to investigate social acceptance now, while the ground for growing public perceptions is still fertile: “My goal is to understand the forces shaping social acceptance of geothermal well enough that we can actually address them through effective and transparent communication.” 

The post Researchers use “deep listening” to gauge geothermal sentiments appeared first on Cascade Institute.

Summer is almost upon us, and with it comes opportunities to enjoy what our planet has to offer — or enhance your understanding of the environmental issues that affect us all.

We’ve collected several great new books about birds, reptiles and amphibians, green gardening, and climate change. They offer wonderful insights into the natural world and how to enjoy and protect it.

We’ve also paired some of these books with related reads for young people, so kids and adults can explore and discuss the beauty and important challenges facing our wildlife and environment together IRL.

We’ve adapted the books’ official descriptions below, and the link in each title goes to the publisher’s page. You can also find any of these titles through your local bookseller and library.

 

Eco Revolution: Climate Justice, Community, and the Fight for Our Planet

by Maya Penn

With 15 years of hands-on experience, award-winning environmental activist Maya Penn writes resoundingly about the ever-growing threat of the climate crisis, putting the world on notice that we’ve not only entered into a once-in-a-generation era of social and environmental justice advocacy but a deep-rooted overlap between environmental crises and inequities.

This book chronicles sustainability history and highlights unsung eco-warriors, offering solutions for a more sustainable and equitable world, exploring our collective connection to the natural world through inherited ecology and Traditional Ecological Knowledge passed down through Indigenous cultures, which used naturally occurring ecosystems to create thriving, functional societies and how this now translates to our modern understanding about sustainability.

Penn looks at the current green movements around the world and how they have discovered new approaches to sustainable living, and how we can use our creativity to bring about real change. Penn also looks at the future — and how we can remain optimistic in the midst of crisis.

 

Owls: Nocturnal Birds of Prey From Around the World

by David Alderton

Owls have been a source of fascination and awe throughout history. In Indian folklore owls represent wisdom and helpfulness, while in Ancient Greece they were seen as a good omen if sighted before a battle. Today owls are often kept as pets by bird lovers and can be found in woodland and forests from the Canadian Arctic to the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. Full of fun facts and expert insights, Owls introduces these iconic birds in all their variety. Did you know that owls can rotate their necks 270 degrees, or that an owl’s ears are asymmetrical? Or that owls are considered apex predators? Or that the tiniest owl in the world is the elf owl, a mere five inches tall, while the largest North American owl is the great gray owl at 32 inches tall? Or that barn owls swallow their prey whole — skin, bones, and all — and they eat up to 1,000 mice each year?

With chapters divided into type of owl — barn and grass owls, typical owls, snowy, horned and eagle owls, wood owls, pygmy owls, and owlets and nesting — this book examines these superb aerial hunters in over 200 vivid photographs.

 

Cold-Blooded Murder: Reptiles and Amphibians on the Brink of Extinction

by Craig Stanford

Around the world reptile and amphibian species are facing grave threats to their survival: Habitat destruction due to logging, agriculture, development, commercial exploitation and wildlife trade, to say nothing of climate change. Examples include Galápagos giant tortoises slaughtered for meat, pets and decorative items, Caribbean rock iguanas driven to the brink of extinction by invasive species such as cats and dogs, commercial exploitation of the ploughshare tortoise, severely threatened by poaching for the illegal pet trade, and the critically endangered Cuban crocodile for its valuable skin.

In Cold-Blooded Murder, Craig Stanford tells the stories of dozens of endangered reptiles and amphibians, depicting the ecological roles and unique characteristics of each species. He takes readers on a globe-spanning journey, revealing the diversity and beauty of the creatures with whom we share our world. He also highlights conservation projects that are protecting critically endangered animals, sharing inspiring success stories while acknowledging the challenge of saving species. This gripping and poignant book shows why we should be fascinated by reptiles and amphibians — and strive to prevent their extinction.

 

The Gardener’s Mindset: A Gardening Book Connecting With Nature Through Plants

by Stephen Orr

A reflection on being a gardener, this absorbing collection of essays and photographs by the former editor-in-chief of Better Homes and Gardens examines the restorative power of gardening while recounting Orr’s own challenges in the garden, offering advice on growing green things.

This book helps readers understand not just how to garden but how to think about it. Orr brings his musings and practical advice to gardeners everywhere, no matter what skill level. Gorgeous photographs and easy projects range from cultivating a color scheme to building a wildlife habitat, and Orr gives practical advice on how to cultivate plants that stay resilient in the face of climate change.

On Eating: The Making and Unmaking of My Appetites

by Alicia Kennedy

Author and journalist Alicia Kennedy’s captivating new book is a deeply personal work that asks: Can we eat and cook in a way that’s true to ourselves, roots us in the places we call home, and helps define our politics and ethics? Guided by curiosity and a hunger for flavor and experience, she posits that we don’t have to choose between what is delicious and what can sustain our planet and ourselves.

On Eating is not only a provocative bildungsroman and a celebration of desire but a challenge to each of us to consider our own relationship with food and how our need to eat — to live — affects the world.

 

Insect Safari: Exploring the Wondrous World of Everyday Bugs

by Margie Patlak

Join veteran science writer Margie Patlak on a fascinating adventure as she explores the ever-more-astounding world of insects — all in her own backyard. It started when she took a close-up snapshot of a bee in her backyard; that was the start of a years-long passion for cataloging and understanding the tiny creatures that were all around her. This book showcases the superpowers, alien anatomies, and striking untold behaviors and thinking abilities of bugs hidden in plain sight in backyards, parks, gardens, and even in the flowerpots that dot city courtyards and balconies.

Even more intriguing is the book’s reporting on the plethora of recent scientific findings revealing there’s more to the inner lives and behaviors of insects than people ever thought possible. Who knew wasps use tools and recognize faces, bees play with balls and do math, ants invented farming way before we did, and even fruit flies mull over their mating choices? These findings reinforce the notion that we aren’t the only intelligent beings on Earth and tease people’s curiosity about the alien life right here on their own planet.

 

Healing the Land Teaches Us Who We Are: How Indigenous Cultural Resistance Can Restore the Earth, Recover Community, and Create Sustainable Futures

by Maceo Carrillo Martinet, Ph.D.

Rooted in Indigenous wisdom and a four-element framework, this book invites readers to rediscover and re-embody the truth that caring for ourselves and caring for the living Earth are one and the same. Find how climate solutions are still possible and already exist, practiced by communities around the world. Explicitly decolonial, this book offers a framework rooted in reciprocity, resistance, and kinship with the living Earth and is built around four elements:

1. 1. Water: How ancient Indigenous water-harvesting technologies are vital for sustaining water, land, and community.
   2. Earth: How successful community land stewardship continues to support ecological health and human life in spite of colonial desecration.
   3. Fire: How “Indigenous fire” — frequent, low-intensity burns rooted in deep cultural relationship — functions as a crucial medicine for restoring forest health, preventing wildfires, and sustaining cultural and environmental resilience.
   4. Air: The profound connection between linguistic diversity and biodiversity — and how language can be nurtured to heal and awaken humans.

Combining these four elements shows us how enduring human and ecological systems are built upon the interconnectedness of collective action, cultural appreciation, and diverse, restorative relationships with nature.

 

Noticing: Intimate Encounters With the Natural World

by Richard Louv

Long beloved for his insightful, inspiring nature writing, Richard Louv returns with his most personal book yet. Noticing is about discovering who you are by exploring the natural world. Louv shows how, by tapping into the 30 or more human senses, readers can develop skills — sensory, scientific, artistic, and spiritual —to see and experience the other worlds of nature.

Through personal essays, rich with descriptions of the California wilderness around his home in the most biodiverse county in the nation, Louv draws on wisdom from influences as far-reaching as neuroscience, nature photography, Indigenous traditions, and mindfulness to foster what he calls “bio enchantment.” He offers a new, deeper understanding of what it means to see a tree, know a fox, and to become fully human.

Books for young people to explore this summer, including titles that can be paired with the selections above.

Who’s Making That Big STINK?!

by Darrin Lunde, illustrated by Erica J. Chen

Ages 3-7

Ew! Who smells like rotten eggs and smelly feet? Yuck! Whose burps smell like cow poop? Find out which animals stink (and why) in this reeky, cheeky guessing game. Animals make all sorts of smells for all sorts of reasons. Can you guess the stinker from its stink? Simple clues and laugh-out-loud art make this guessing game perfect for rowdy read-aloud times. Fun facts from a world-class zoologist reveal the science behind the stink. Readers are introduced to the striped skunk, the stink bird, the musk ox, the corpse flower, the bombardier beetle, the sea hare, and the binturong.

 

Plastic Problem: 60 Small Ways to Reduce Waste and Help Save the Earth

By Aubre Andrus, illustrated by Dynamo Ltd Illustrator

Ages 6 to Grown-ups

Learn how to transform yourself from a plastic polluter to a plastic patroller with this practical, easy-to-understand book. Actions are big and small, so what can you do to address climate change? It’s time to step up and end our toxic relationship with plastic. It’s actually easy when you do it in small steps. Whether it’s buying in bulk, bringing reusable bags to the grocery store, or using zero-waste toothpaste, this guide offers advice on the practical ways to minimize your plastics footprint. This guide not only shows you how but why it’s worth investigating our relationship with plastics. A great book for adults and children to work together making changes instead of gaming or doomscrolling.

 

Owls (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 1)

By Laura Marsh

Ages 4-6

National Geographic presents young readers with an exploration of the feathery world of adorable owls. Follow these curious-looking creatures through their wooded habitats, and learn how owls raise their young, hunt, and protect themselves. Beautiful photos and carefully leveled text make this book perfect for reading aloud or for independent reading.

Pairs well with Owls: Nocturnal Birds of Prey From Around the World

 

The Ultimate Book of Reptiles: Your Guide to the Secret Lives of These Scaly, Slithery, and Spectacular Creatures!

by Ruchira Somaweera and Stephanie Warren Drimmer

Age 8-12 years

Sink your fangs into the hidden worlds of these scaly and sensational creatures with leading reptile scientist and National Geographic Explorer Dr. Ruchira Somaweera as your guide.

Meet the coolest cold-blooded animals ever. From lizards to snakes, turtles to crocodiles, something called a tuatara, and even enormous prehistoric reptiles (think real-life sea monsters!), you’ll discover what makes a reptile a reptile; how these creatures live, hunt, hide, and raise their young, and the wild adaptations that make them so unique. Learn which snake is the most venomous on the planet and which are surprisingly gentle creatures, which reptile is born with a highly developed third eye in its forehead, and which one is so tiny it could balance on the tip of your finger — plus loads of super important conservation information and impactful ways to join the fight to save endangered reptile species right from home.

Pairs nicely with Cold-Blooded Murder: Reptiles and Amphibians on the Brink of Extinction

 

Amphibians and Reptiles: A Compare and Contrast Book

by Katharine Hall

Ages 4-9

What makes a frog an amphibian but a snake a reptile? Both classes may lay eggs, but they have different skin coverings and breathe in different ways. Pages of fun facts will help kids identify each animal in the class like a pro. Using stunning photographs and simple nonfiction text to get kids thinking about the similarities and differences between these two animal classes, this picture book includes a four-page For Creative Minds section in the back of the book and a 67-page cross-curricular Teaching Activity Guide online. Amphibians and Reptiles is vetted by experts and designed to encourage parental engagement. Its extensive back matter helps teachers with time-saving lesson ideas, provides extensions for science, math, and social studies units, and uses inquiry-based learning to help build critical thinking skills in young readers.

Pairs nicely with Cold-Blooded Murder: Reptiles and Amphibians on the Brink of Extinction

 

Force of Nature

by Melissa Clark

Ages 12-18

This fresh, smart, funny young adult book asks the question: What if Mother Nature was a teenage girl? Chloe Lovejoy is a straight-C student, a girl with a crush on the cutie from chorus, an all-powerful being responsible for taking care of the planet … or perhaps all three. Chloe finds out on her 16th birthday, when she unexpectedly inherits the role of Mother Nature from her grandmother. Overwhelmed, when the unthinkable happens and Grandma is gone, Chloe is left to oversee the natural laws of the world all by herself.

A unique coming-of-age story about a teen girl rising to the occasion, even when she feels completely in over her head.

Pairs nicely with The Gardener’s Mindset: A Gardening Book Connecting With Nature Through Plants

Make your sunny days (and rainy days) this spring and summer fun and engaging for yourself and those young people in your life. You can find hundreds of additional environmental book recommendations in the “Revelator Reads” archives.

Let us know what you’re reading: Drop us a line at comments@therevelator.org

The post New Environmental Books: Spring-to-Summer Reads to Brighten and Enlighten appeared first on The Revelator.

The closure of Investors for Paris Compliance has prompted renewed debate about whether investor pressure on climate ever really mattered. 

Critics argue that shareholder resolutions rarely succeeded, that companies continue to produce oil and gas, and that governments and state policies ultimately matter more than investors. 

There is truth in some of those observations. But they also miss where investor influence is most visible. 

The strongest evidence is not found in annual general meetings. It is found in capital allocation. 

Geology dictates what is in the ground. Capital expenditure dictates what comes out. 

For decades, oil companies were rewarded for growth. Investors celebrated reserve additions, production increases and large-scale project development. The assumption was simple: future demand would be higher than today, so more reserves meant more value. Over the past decade that assumption has become far less certain. 

Investors began asking different questions. What if oil demand growth slows? What if electric vehicles scale faster than expected? What if renewable power becomes cheaper? What if some reserves prove less valuable than markets assume? 

Carbon Tracker’s work on stranded assets, our analysis of whether O&G production plans aligned with IEA net-zero scenarios, helped bring these questions into the mainstream of investor debate. Divestment campaigns and broader climate narratives reinforced them.  

As confidence in future demand weakened, investors became less willing to fund growth at any cost. Demand uncertainty, a wider climate context and declining confidence in long-dated projects helped shift investor priorities towards capital discipline, a theme we set out in Carbon Tracker’s landmark report Blueprint for an Energy Transition in 2015. As investors increasingly prioritised capital discipline over growth, behaviour across the sector started to change. 

Following the shale boom, oil companies were pushed to prioritise free cash flow, dividends and share buybacks over aggressive expansion. This shift is now visible across much of the listed oil industry: reserve replacement rates have fallen, exploration spending has declined, shareholder distributions have risen, and consolidation has accelerated. Many companies increasingly resemble mature cash-generating businesses rather than growth businesses. 

In 2023 Goldman Sachs noted that since 2014, “concerns around future demand and stranded assets had contributed to a sharp reduction in oil industry resource life, which it estimated had fallen from more than 50 years in 2014 to around 23 years.”  

Whether one agrees with every aspect of that analysis is almost secondary. Even critics of climate-focused investing increasingly acknowledge that investor expectations changed. 

The question is not whether investor pressure worked. If investor pressure had no influence, we might expect companies to continue pursuing reserve growth as aggressively as they did during the commodity supercycle.  

A more searching question is:  if projects became more economic, why were fewer sanctioned? And why did reserve life continue to fall?  

The answer lies at least partly in changing investor preferences and expectations, as well as better knowledge of the risks involved. 

At the same time, the debate itself has evolved. 

Ten years ago, much of the discussion revolved around scenarios, forecasts and long-term climate targets. Critics could dismiss these as hypothetical. 

Today the transition is increasingly observable. Decreasing oil company capital expenditure is measurable. Declining reserve replacement is measurable. Rapidly increasing buybacks and dividends are measurable. And on the other side of the ledger, surging electric vehicle sales are measurable. Global-scale industrial wind and solar deployment is measurable. Battery manufacturing is growing at exponential rates. 

The argument is becoming less about what might happen and more about what is already happening.

Investor pressure by itself will rarely determine the outcome. But it helped change what investors considered valuable. And when investors change what they value, companies eventually change how they behave. 

The balance sheets and capital allocation decisions of the oil industry suggest that the process is already under way. 

That does not mean the work is finished. As transition trends become more visible, debates increasingly focus on what those trends mean for competitiveness, industrial policy, security and investment decisions. The risk is not a lack of evidence, but a failure to respond to it. 

To hear more about the evidence, read our ‘Quiet Retreat’ and our interview on the topic with Christiana Figueres on Outrage & Optimism.

The post Does Investor Pressure Matter? Look at What Oil Companies Are Actually Doing appeared first on Carbon Tracker Initiative.

There’s some good news growing along the coasts of countries around the world.

Mangrove forests, the imperiled ecosystems championed for their ability to store carbon and protect land from storm-driven flooding, are bouncing back.

These woodlands that thrive at the soggy boundary between land and sea suffered alarming declines through much of the 20th century, chopped down chiefly to make way for fish ponds, rice paddies and other kinds of agriculture. But in the last decade, mangroves have been gaining ground, erasing nearly all of the losses since 1980, according to research recently published in Science.

“After decades of loss, we’re finally seeing a global turning point for mangroves,” said Zhen Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher at Tulane University and lead author of the study.

Zhang and colleagues used computer programs to comb through 40 years of satellite images from around the world. The distinctive way mangrove forests reflect light enabled them to train the computers to pick out this vegetation and track its ebb and flow over time.

The analysis revealed that in much of the world, years of loss began changing course in recent decades. Between the 1980s and 2010, global mangrove forests shrank from around 155,000 square kilometers to 152,000 square kilometers, a loss equal to half of Rhode Island. While that might not sound like a lot, mangroves often grow in relatively narrow coastal strips, so their coast-protecting benefits are outsized compared to their overall dimensions.

Since 2010, forests have rebounded to nearly 154,000 square kilometers, almost enough to recover from the losses dating back to the 80s.

 

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“While some mangroves are still being lost, this could make them a rare conservation success story and an important source of optimism for climate action,” said Daniel Friess, a co-author who heads The Mangrove Lab at Tulane.

The greatest gains have come in southeast Asia, home to roughly a third of the world’s mangrove forests. The region gained more than 1,000 square kilometers of mangroves since 2010, the researchers found. Forests have begun bouncing back in other parts of Asia, South America and the Middle East as well.

While the reasons for the rebound vary from place to place, the researchers say many of the gains appear to be from forests colonizing terrain created by abandoned aquaculture ponds and from mudflats emerging along shorelines as sediment builds up. That is coupled with efforts to plant new mangrove forests, as governments and conservation groups have come to better appreciate their benefits.

In Indonesia, once a center for mangrove declines, the recent gains appear to be linked to increased awareness and restoration on the heels of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, coupled with increased legal protections and management, the authors reported.

It’s not all good news, however. Some regions continue to lose ground, notably in Africa. There, mangroves have declined in recent years in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, the continent’s largest mangrove system, due at least in part to damage from oil pollution.

And some places that are making gains still haven’t recovered from previous losses. Myanmar has witnessed a 10% increase in mangrove forests since 2010. But that still leaves it with a net 29% decline since the 1980s.

The tree’s remarkable ability to quickly colonize land suggests that rather than pursuing tree-planting projects, conservation work might be better spent protecting existing forests and the earth-building dynamics that create mudflats, the authors noted. The trees can then spread on their own. Sometimes the most important thing humans can do for restoring nature is get out of the way.

Zhang, et. al. “Unexpected expansion and regrowth in Earth’s mangrove forests over the past four decades.” Science. June 4, 2026.

Photo by Kristin Hoel on Unsplash

QRIS dirancang sebagai standar pembayaran nasional yang memungkinkan berbagai aplikasi pembayaran saling terhubung dalam satu ekosistem. Hal tersebut memberikan fleksibilitas lebih tinggi dibandingkan metode transfer konvensional.

Beberapa keuntungan yang sering dirasakan pengguna antara lain:

• Proses transaksi berlangsung dalam hitungan detik.
• Mendukung berbagai aplikasi e-wallet dan mobile banking.
• Mengurangi risiko kesalahan input data pembayaran.
• Antarmuka sederhana sehingga mudah digunakan oleh pemula.
• Verifikasi pembayaran cenderung lebih cepat.

Kombinasi kemudahan tersebut membuat metode pembayaran berbasis QR semakin populer di kalangan pengguna yang mengutamakan efisiensi.

Slot QRIS Terpercaya Mengutamakan Keamanan Transaksi

Selain faktor kecepatan, keamanan menjadi salah satu alasan utama mengapa banyak orang memilih platform yang menyediakan pembayaran melalui QRIS. Platform yang memiliki sistem transaksi terpercaya umumnya menerapkan perlindungan data pengguna, enkripsi informasi, serta proses validasi pembayaran yang lebih baik.

Pengguna juga disarankan untuk memastikan bahwa platform yang dipilih memiliki layanan pelanggan responsif, informasi transaksi yang transparan, dan sistem pembayaran yang bekerja secara stabil agar pengalaman penggunaan menjadi lebih nyaman.

Proses Pembayaran Lebih Efisien untuk Aktivitas Sehari-hari

Efisiensi menjadi nilai tambah yang sulit diabaikan. Dengan QRIS, pengguna cukup membuka aplikasi pembayaran favorit, memindai kode yang tersedia, memasukkan nominal sesuai kebutuhan, lalu melakukan konfirmasi.

Tidak diperlukan lagi proses berpindah aplikasi untuk menyalin nomor rekening atau melakukan pengecekan manual secara berulang. Bagi sebagian orang, langkah sederhana ini dapat menghemat waktu sekaligus meningkatkan kenyamanan dalam bertransaksi.

Di era digital saat ini, kemudahan seperti tersebut menjadi salah satu faktor penting dalam memilih platform dengan sistem pembayaran modern.

Tips Memilih Platform Slot QRIS yang Terpercaya

Sebelum menggunakan layanan apa pun, ada beberapa hal yang patut diperhatikan agar pengalaman transaksi berjalan lebih aman dan nyaman.

1. Pastikan Sistem Pembayaran Jelas

Platform yang baik biasanya memberikan informasi lengkap mengenai metode pembayaran, langkah transaksi, serta estimasi waktu pemrosesan.

2. Perhatikan Reputasi Layanan

Cari ulasan dari berbagai sumber mengenai kualitas pelayanan, stabilitas sistem, dan pengalaman pengguna lain untuk memperoleh gambaran yang lebih objektif.

3. Cek Dukungan Customer Service

Layanan pelanggan yang aktif selama jam operasional atau bahkan 24 jam dapat membantu menyelesaikan kendala transaksi dengan lebih cepat.

4. Gunakan Metode Pembayaran Resmi

Selalu lakukan pembayaran melalui kanal resmi yang disediakan platform dan hindari membagikan informasi pribadi kepada pihak yang tidak dikenal.

Inovasi Pembayaran Digital Membawa Pengalaman yang Lebih Praktis

Integrasi QRIS dalam berbagai layanan digital menunjukkan bagaimana teknologi mampu menyederhanakan proses pembayaran. Pengguna kini dapat menikmati transaksi yang lebih cepat tanpa harus menghadapi prosedur yang rumit.

Tidak mengherankan apabila slot QRIS terpercaya dengan proses pembayaran yang lebih efisien semakin banyak dicari karena menawarkan kombinasi antara kemudahan, fleksibilitas, dan pengalaman transaksi yang praktis. Selama pengguna tetap memilih platform yang memiliki sistem transparan dan menjaga keamanan data, metode pembayaran berbasis QR dapat menjadi solusi modern yang mendukung kebutuhan transaksi digital secara lebih efektif.

Former US science envoy calls out Australia's push for gas, but is amazed that renewables have succeeded at all, given the wall of money arrayed against it.

The post “We’re afraid to make that transition:” Ex-Biden official goes toe-to-toe with big Australian gas players appeared first on Renew Economy.

Solar energy just provided more electricity in the United States than coal for the first time on record — marking a milestone for the rise of renewables in America. 

While gas and nuclear plants still lead the country’s energy mix, solar contributed 12.8 percent of the nation’s electrons in May, according to an analysis of government data by Ember, an energy think tank. Coal, meanwhile, provided just 12.2 percent. Just five years ago, solar was less than half of its current levels and coal was at 20 percent. 

“Overtaking coal for the first month on record shows just how far solar has come, from a niche contributor to the third-largest and fastest-growing source of power in the U.S. electricity system,” said Nicolas Fulghum, senior data analyst at Ember, in a press release. “From Texas to California, markets across the U.S. are betting on solar to meet rising power needs.”

The turnaround comes even as political headwinds have shifted against renewable energy. 

Last summer, Congress passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which rolled back enormous swaths of former President Joe Biden’s landmark climate change legislation, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. And President Donald Trump has actively sought to hinder renewable energy development, even offering to pay at least one oil company $1 billion to stop building its offshore wind projects. 

The latest electricity data comes the same month that the Trump administration announced $700 million in funding for investments in the coal industry. It included money for what would be the country’s first new coal-fired power plants in 13 years — sourced from funds previously dedicated to reducing the country’s dependence on fossil fuels, not deepening it. 

“Today we’re taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful coal,” said Trump, who campaigned on the coal-friendly slogan ‘dig, baby, dig.” 

Ember’s analysis found that coal generation in May was actually up slightly from April, when it hit an all-time low. Its share of the grid will also likely tick up in the summer, as cooling needs peak. But the steady downward trend over the last several years suggests that even all the president’s men might not be able to put the coal industry back together again. 

“Spending $700 million to bail out the coal industry is like throwing a lifeline to a ship that has already sunk,” Lena Moffitt, executive director of the environmental group Evergreen Action, told the Associated Press. Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association disagreed, telling the AP that coal generation helps shield consumers from the impacts of volatile energy prices and supply challenges exacerbated by AI.

Regardless of what coal does, experts believe the solar market will continue its upward march. While installations dropped in 2025 compared to 2024, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association, it still accounted for more than half of all newly installed electricity capacity. Even MAGA influencers are promoting it. 

“We’re going to just keep seeing more and more renewables brought onto the grid,” said Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy at the Sierra Club. “That’s good for people’s wallets, it’s good for their health, it’s good for the planet.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline For first time, Americans are getting more of their electricity from solar than coal on Jun 10, 2026.

Mayor Mamdani’s executive budget added $95.9 million in new money to build out pedestrian and bike greenways over the next five years — an infusion welcomed by advocates who nevertheless cautioned that the funds are not enough to fulfill New York’s growing need for car-free paths.

The city routinely takes more than a decade to roll out new greenways, which serve both as recreational spaces and key transportation corridors. When those greenways finally open, however, the city often allows them to slowly deteriorate by delaying or entirely foregoing basic maintenance, such as fixing sinkholes and repairing cracks.

“Projects that were funded many, many years ago, it takes such a long time to actually implement them,” said Hunter Armstrong, executive director of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative. “We just cut the ribbon on a project a couple of weeks ago that was years in the works,” he added, referring to a project on Sunset Park’s waterfront.

Significantly, the new money for the Department of Transportation will pay for capital construction of greenways, which refers to projects that involve hardened infrastructure — not the usual paint and flimsy plastic bollards. The transportation-focused mayor also gave the agency some $200 million over the next four years to quickly build out bus and bike lanes and public realm upgrades as part of the Streets Master Plan.

Cycle of disrepair

Past mayors treated greenways as an afterthought and let crumbling sections languish, from the country’s first bicycle path on Ocean Parkway to the nation’s busiest one on the Hudson River Greenway.

This cycle of disrepair forces city leaders to spend costly political capital to fund overdue renovations, whose costs rise as conditions worsen over time. During those renovations, the Parks Department and DOT have repeatedly refused to repurpose excess car lanes for safe passage, and instead directed cyclists onto unsafe detours for months on end. New sections of greenway still require years to install.

For example, the city recently wrapped up a stretch of two-way bike paths along one mile of Brooklyn’s Third Avenue that took 14 years to finish – as long as it took to construct the Brooklyn Bridge in the 19th century. Another proposal has already broken that record: a two-way raised bike path on three blocks of Commercial Street in Greenpoint will finally break ground sometime in 2028 – 16 years after city officials identified the route for upgrades in 2012.

These projects, like a $217-million esplanade stretching for eight blocks along the East Midtown waterfront, carry sky-high price tags. “Unfortunately the cost of these projects does add up, so ideally there will be ways to efficiently and wisely spend this money,” said Armstrong.

The greenway bucks come as a $7.25 million federal grant for greenways is set to run out next year. Under Mayor Eric Adams, the city spent that grant on planning new routes across the five boroughs but never provided a timeline or funding for the proposals, which included paths along the Bronx’s Harlem River and the western Queens waterfront.

Federal grant money yielded this plan in 2023. to add 40 miles of greenways.

DOT said the new cash will help turn those proposals into reality. “This historic investment gives NYC DOT the largest budget in its history, including the biggest-ever funding pool for bus and bike projects,” agency spokesperson Vin Barone told Streetsblog. “That means more staff and additional capacity to deliver for all New Yorkers for years to come.”

Mamdani’s executive budget labels the new funds as “Bike Network Development 2030.” The money is dedicated to greenways now, but City Hall spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said the mayor could repurpose it for non-greenway bike lanes that are more immediately, pressing.

Still, the funding amounts to a small drop in the city’s $124.7 billion annual fiscal spending plan. The NYPD, by contrast, plans to spend nearly the same amount on overtime this summer alone, as Commissioner Jessica Tisch deploy cops on 12-hour shifts to patrol events like the upcoming FIFA World Cup and the celebrations around the United States’s 250th anniversary.

Capital woes

The Parks Department controls the majority of greenways and has its own $674-million pot of money for some longstanding greenway-related projects and spanning to mid-2034, according to agency rep Chris Clark.

But the agency does not have the staff and resources to realize its projects at a faster pace, according to the city’s greenspace advocates. Amid continuous budget cuts recent years, the agency hemorrhaged dozens of project managers, landscape architects and engineers.

“[These are] the very people who would be facilitating, if not spearheading, the capital projects that people want to see happen,” said Adam Ganser, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks. “The agency has been somewhat notorious in their ability to do capital projects, but it’s hardly their fault when they don’t have the staffing to do them.”

For example, the East River Esplanade alone has a $358.4 million budget for its renovation, but it has been crumbling into the water for years. “The funding has been there for a long time, but the project just continues to languish with no leadership or urgency,” Ganser said. “They’re in a tough spot because they don’t have the resources to push forward the literally hundreds of millions of dollars that have been advocated.”

Like other city agencies that perform capital work, Parks must submit new projects to an extensive design, procurement and construction process. This inevitably requires Parks to correspond and collaborate with other entities — such as DOT, ConEd and National Grid — whose infrastructural assets overlap with their own.

But most bureaucratic friction actually arises in the intermediate stage where Parks solicits and chooses third-party contractors to construct projects. This stage is layered with city and state regulations, whose architects originally designed them to prevent city leaders from corruptly favoring their cronies. In practice, these rules slow down routine work, a former senior Parks official argued.

“Procurement sucks. So much of it is out of the agency’s hands. It’s really hard to reform procurement on a simple agency level,” said Sam Biederman, who was the agency’s chief of staff during the late de Blasio administration and now runs a communications consultancy. “I get the point of not wanting this thing to be corrupt – I’m from Chicago – but the effect of all these decades and decades of laws … is to catastrophically slow down the procurement process.”

Former Mayor Eric Adams convened a task force to improve the capital process, and the new administration should look into reforms, and fund planning staff at Parks to be able to advance projects, according to Ganser.

“It is fixable and it would require both that the agency just decide that this is going to be their top priority… and then having the mayor and the administration focus on the procurement and capital process citywide,” he said.

Parks’s greenway repairs heavily rely on the goodwill of local elected officials to allocate their own discretionary funds for projects. In 2019, the agency finally began renovating a mile of the historic Ocean Parkway malls. That project cost more than $4 million over five years, after officials secured funds from then-Council Member Mark Treyger and Eric Adams, who was still Brooklyn’s borough president at the time.

The agency lacks the budget to maintain its vast portfolio of greenways, playgrounds, pools, boardwalks and miscellaneous greenery in a state of good repair, so officials have relied on lengthy and expensive capital projects rather than routine maintenance.

“Because the agency doesn’t have the money to maintain, it almost becomes part of a strategy,” Ganser said. “The only way they get these things repaired is if they become capital projects. It’s the most expensive way to do this. It doesn’t make any sense.”

The circumferential loops of Central Park and Prospect Park offer two vivid counterexamples. These drives are relatively well-maintained because they fall under the jurisdiction of DOT and its robust road resurfacing program — a legacy of those paths allowing car traffic until 2018, when former mayor Bill de Blasio banned motor vehicles from both.

Consequently, advocates have repeatedly urged the city to reassign greenway maintenance to DOT. Conversely, some advocates have argued for Parks to take over trimming greenery along DOT’s greenways, a task with which the latter agency has struggled.

The missing one percent

On the campaign trail, Mamdani vowed to increase Parks’s budget to one percent of the city’s overall spending plan, but he has allocated only around 0.55 percent, or $685.4 million, in his annual budget.

“I am going to take the mayor at his word that he is going to get to one percent in his first term,” said Ganser. “It’s a difficult budget year. At the same time, the Parks Department budget is a tiny fraction over the overall city budget, so there’s no reason we can’t make significant progress.”

The city should select a few projects to show how they can speed up implementation, said Jon Orcutt, a safe streets advocate and former DOT policy director under the Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations. “Pick a couple of projects already in the pipeline… and try to make them models for speeding them up,” he said.

The city should finally link three existing greenways in southern Brooklyn, Ocean Parkway, Shore Parkway, and the Jamaica Bay Greenway, by installing a bikeway on overly-wide Neptune Avenue and the Cropsey Avenue bridge.

How about filling in this gap in southern Brooklyn’s greenway network?

“Let’s use some of the Mamdani political capital honeymoon period to finally connect these three routes that have sat there with this big gap in the middle since the time of Robert Moses,” Orcutt said.

• One reason why American roads are so deadly is that we let habitually bad drivers keep driving no matter how many wrecks they cause. (Everyone Is Welcome)
• One way to keep such drivers off the road is passive drunk driving detection technology that, if it detects alcohol on the driver’s breath, won’t let them start the car. A provision in the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill required all new cars to have it within five years. But now Congress might block its implementation. (Love of Place)
• A new Federal Transit Administration dashboard will measure how “family friendly” transit systems are. (Metro)
• Crowdsourcing can help cities find broken sidewalks and fix them. (Next City)
• An NYU study found that bike lanes increase bikeshare ridership, especially among riders over 60. (Planetizen)
• Beloved Chicago bike planner Riley O’Neil was killed by a truck driver while riding his bike when he swerved out of an unprotected bike lane to avoid being doored. (Tribune, Streetsblog Chicago)
• Austin businesses are preparing to relocate to make way for light rail construction (KVUE). But the project still faces financial headwinds even after it was cut back from 20 miles to 10 (Free Press).
• High-speed rail would generate billions of dollars in property tax revenue for Arlington and Fort Worth, Texas. (KERA)
• Portland transit agency TriMet could be entering a doom loop. (Willamette Week)
• Jersey City is doing 100 quick-build traffic safety projects, while Hoboken is creating 25 all-way stops (NJ.com). Famous for going nine years without a traffic death, Hoboken did it in part simply by using cheap plastic bollards to daylight intersections (Carscoops).
• Kansas City is beefing up transit service for the World Cup. (KCTV)
• Celebrities are popularizing bike dates in New York City. (Times)
• Yes, it is possible to move an entire apartment’s worth of furniture by bike. (streets.mn)
• Dentures, wedding gowns and an ankle bracelet are among the strangest things people left in an Uber over the past year. (Mashable)

Australia's huge and growing fleet of home batteries are delivering "enormous benefits" to grid, even without being connected to VPPs, AEMO chief says.

The post Passive home batteries deliver “enormous benefits” to the grid, says AEMO – even if not orchestrated in VPPs appeared first on Renew Economy.

Malaysia infrastructure giant buys into one of the biggest solar and battery hybrids in Australia, with a view to making it even bigger to accommodate data centres.

The post Malaysia giant buys solar and battery project in coal country, with eye on data centres appeared first on Renew Economy.

Batteries – big, small and in-between – are "fundamentally changing" the electricity system – while also changing the outlook for AEMO's grid blueprint.

The post Big and small batteries “fundamentally changing” the grid, and its planning blueprint, says AEMO boss appeared first on Renew Economy.

Registered nurses and caregivers at Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, Calif., will hold a strike vote and picket on Thursday, June 11, to protest management’s refusal to address patient care and safe staffing issues. Nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional, a Prime Healthcare facility.

The world’s first undersea data centre has begun operating off the coast from Shanghai, powered by offshore wind and using seawater for cooling.

The post China opens world’s first undersea data centre, powered by offshore wind turbines appeared first on Renew Economy.