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Headline News:

• “California, Nevada, And Arizona announce temporary plan to save water from Colorado River” • Absent a longer term deal on how to share a key water source in the US West, three states say they’ll cut back to prop up reservoirs in a short-term agreement following the driest winter on record. The plan is to save up to 44 billion cubic feet of water through 2028. [ABC News]

Colorado River (Steve Gribble, Unsplash, cropped)

• “Europe’s Airlines Face Jet Fuel Shift As Safety Concerns Grow” • The EU’s Aviation Safety Agency warned Europe’s aviation sector that potential shortages of domestic aviation fuel could force airports and airlines to adapt to a different type of fuel across regions. The problem is that such a change would require heightened safety measures. [Euronews]
• “Review Finds ‘No Infrasound Harm Risk'” • Green Power Sweden commissioned a review, which finds that infrasound from wind turbines does not have a negative impact on nearby residents. The audit by Akustikkonsulten and Akustikverkstan concludes that recent research claims suggesting harm are not supported by the broader body of evidence. [reNews]
• “After Months Of War With Iran, People Across The US Say They’re Feeling The Strain Of High Gas Prices” • The war in Iran is inflicting economic pain across the US as many Americans report struggling with higher costs, particularly the record rise in gas prices. Nearly a quarter of Americans polled said they are falling behind financially. [ABC News]
• “So Much For The War On Solar Power: 4-GW Factory Coming To The US” • President Trump’s war on wind turbines goes on, but his efforts to stop solar power have fallen flat. A case in point is the SEG Solar. Despite the U-turn in federal energy policy, SEG just announced the addition of a new 4-GW solar module factory to its US portfolio. [CleanTechnica]

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

Banyak pemain awalnya mengira popularitas PGSOFT cuma tren sesaat. Namun faktanya, popularitas mereka justru terus naik dan berhasil bersaing dengan provider besar yang lebih dulu menguasai pasar slot digital global.

Lalu apa sebenarnya yang membuat PGSOFT begitu cepat melejit?

Visual Game yang Beda dari Provider Lain

Salah satu alasan paling jelas ada pada kualitas visual yang mereka tampilkan. Saat banyak provider slot masih memakai desain klasik dan monoton, PGSOFT datang membawa konsep yang terasa lebih modern dan mirip game mobile premium.

Pengguna yang pertama kali mencoba game mereka biasanya langsung menyadari detail animasi yang lebih hidup. Mulai dari efek kemenangan, desain karakter, hingga transisi permainan dibuat sangat halus. Bahkan beberapa pemain menyebut pengalaman bermain slot PGSOFT terasa seperti memainkan game RPG ringan di smartphone.

Fenomena ini cukup menarik karena mayoritas pemain slot online saat ini berasal dari generasi pengguna mobile. Mereka tidak hanya mencari peluang menang, tetapi juga pengalaman visual yang nyaman dilihat dalam waktu lama.

Beberapa judul seperti Mahjong Ways, Lucky Neko, dan Treasures of Aztec bahkan sempat viral di media sosial karena tampilannya yang dianggap “lebih niat” dibanding game slot biasa.

Adaptasi Mobile yang Sangat Stabil

Faktor lain yang membuat PGSOFT cepat diterima pasar adalah optimalisasi mobile yang sangat baik. Banyak provider lama awalnya fokus pada desktop, sementara PGSOFT sejak awal sudah bermain di jalur pengguna smartphone.

Hal ini terasa penting karena tren konsumsi hiburan digital sekarang memang bergeser ke perangkat mobile. Berdasarkan pengamatan komunitas pemain slot online di Asia Tenggara, mayoritas pemain mengakses permainan langsung dari ponsel mereka, bukan komputer.

PGSOFT memanfaatkan perubahan perilaku itu dengan sangat efektif. Loading game relatif cepat, navigasi sederhana, dan ukuran tampilan otomatis menyesuaikan layar. Bahkan pada koneksi internet standar sekalipun, game mereka masih bisa berjalan cukup mulus.

Bagi pemain kasual, kenyamanan seperti ini sering kali jadi alasan utama untuk kembali bermain.

Sistem Permainan yang Mudah Dipahami

Tidak semua pemain slot menyukai mekanisme permainan yang rumit. PGSOFT tampaknya memahami hal tersebut. Mereka menghadirkan pola permainan yang sederhana tetapi tetap terasa menantang.

Banyak game mereka memakai konsep multiplier, free spin, dan combo win yang mudah dimengerti pemain baru. Namun di saat yang sama, sistem itu tetap memberikan sensasi yang menarik bagi pemain lama.

Menurut beberapa content creator game digital, salah satu kekuatan PGSOFT adalah kemampuan mereka membuat permainan terasa cepat dipahami tanpa kehilangan unsur hiburan.

“Pemain sekarang ingin game yang langsung bisa dinikmati tanpa harus membaca aturan panjang,” ujar salah satu streamer slot Asia yang cukup aktif membahas provider game digital di platform live streaming.

Komentar seperti ini cukup sering muncul karena tren hiburan modern memang bergerak ke arah instan dan praktis.

Viral karena Media Sosial dan Live Streaming

Tidak bisa dipungkiri, media sosial punya pengaruh besar terhadap naiknya popularitas PGSOFT. Potongan video kemenangan besar dari game mereka sangat mudah ditemukan di TikTok, Facebook, hingga YouTube Shorts.

Format permainan PGSOFT memang cocok untuk konten pendek. Efek animasi kemenangan yang besar, suara dramatis, dan tampilan warna mencolok membuat video gameplay terlihat menarik saat muncul di timeline pengguna.

Fenomena ini kemudian menciptakan efek viral berantai.

Semakin banyak orang melihat konten kemenangan, semakin tinggi rasa penasaran mereka untuk mencoba permainan yang sama. Strategi ini secara tidak langsung membuat nama PGSOFT terus muncul di berbagai platform digital tanpa perlu promosi berlebihan.

Bahkan beberapa analis industri game digital menyebut keberhasilan PGSOFT bukan hanya soal kualitas game, tetapi juga kemampuan mereka membaca pola distribusi konten era media sosial.

Tema Game Dekat dengan Pasar Asia

Hal lain yang sering dianggap sepele tetapi sebenarnya sangat penting adalah pemilihan tema permainan. PGSOFT cukup cerdas menghadirkan tema yang dekat dengan budaya Asia, terutama pasar Asia Tenggara.

Tema seperti keberuntungan, naga, kucing hoki, mahjong, hingga nuansa festival oriental terasa lebih familiar bagi pemain regional. Kedekatan emosional ini membuat game mereka lebih mudah diterima dibanding provider yang memakai tema terlalu western.

Selain itu, desain karakter mereka juga dibuat lebih ringan dan tidak terlalu serius. Ada sentuhan fun yang membuat pemain merasa lebih santai saat bermain.

Strategi lokal seperti ini terbukti efektif. Banyak pemain merasa game PGSOFT “lebih relate” dibanding slot klasik dengan desain lama yang terasa kaku.

RTP dan Volatilitas Jadi Perbincangan

Di komunitas pemain slot online, pembahasan soal RTP dan pola permainan hampir selalu muncul. PGSOFT termasuk provider yang cukup sering dibahas karena dianggap punya ritme permainan yang menarik.

Sebagian pemain menyukai volatilitas game mereka yang dinilai seimbang. Tidak terlalu lambat, tetapi juga tidak terlalu ekstrem. Kombinasi ini membuat pemain tetap merasa punya peluang mendapatkan kemenangan tanpa harus bermain terlalu lama.

Walaupun setiap hasil permainan tetap berbasis sistem acak, faktor psikologis pemain tetap berpengaruh besar. Ketika sebuah game dianggap “sering kasih kejutan”, popularitasnya biasanya meningkat sangat cepat di komunitas.

Inilah yang terjadi pada beberapa game PGSOFT yang mendadak viral hanya karena sering muncul dalam konten kemenangan pemain.

Dukungan Teknologi dan Update Konsisten

Salah satu indikator penting dalam industri game digital adalah konsistensi update. PGSOFT termasuk provider yang aktif merilis game baru secara rutin.

Mereka tidak hanya mengandalkan satu judul viral, tetapi terus menghadirkan variasi permainan dengan konsep berbeda. Strategi ini menjaga pemain agar tidak cepat bosan.

Selain itu, pembaruan fitur dan perbaikan bug juga tergolong cepat dibanding beberapa provider lain. Dari sisi teknis, hal ini menunjukkan bahwa mereka serius membangun reputasi jangka panjang, bukan sekadar mengejar hype sesaat.

Beberapa pengamat industri bahkan melihat PGSOFT sebagai contoh provider yang berhasil menggabungkan kualitas visual, kenyamanan pengguna, dan strategi pemasaran digital dalam satu paket lengkap.

Popularitas yang Kemungkinan Masih Akan Naik

Melihat tren saat ini, popularitas PGSOFT tampaknya belum akan berhenti dalam waktu dekat. Kombinasi desain modern, adaptasi mobile, gameplay ringan, dan efek viral media sosial membuat mereka punya posisi kuat di pasar slot online global.

Di tengah persaingan industri hiburan digital yang semakin ketat, PGSOFT berhasil memahami satu hal penting: pemain modern tidak hanya mencari permainan, tetapi juga pengalaman hiburan yang cepat, visual menarik, dan mudah dibagikan di media sosial.

Karena alasan itulah, nama PGSOFT kini bukan lagi sekadar provider biasa, melainkan sudah menjadi bagian dari tren besar dunia slot online modern.

On April 17 and 18, 2026, we commemorated the International Day of Peasant Struggles with a festival of resistance: meetings, protests against the EU-Mercosur agreement, film screenings and discussions, tributes, festive moments, etc.

The post Belgium: A look back at the 2026 Peasant Struggles appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

FracTracker documented early construction and demolition activity at the former Homer City coal plant, now being redeveloped into a fracked gas-powered AI and high-performance computing campus in Indiana County, Pennsylvania.

The post From Coal Plant to AI Campus: FracTracker Documents Construction at Homer City appeared first on FracTracker Alliance.

Mary Purdy, an integrative and eco-minded Registered Dietary Nutritionist, is the former Managing Director of the Nutrient Density Initiative. Her work integrates personal well-being and ecological health. As a dietary educator, she connects the dots between farming practices, food systems and individual health. Mary is also an adjunct faculty at the Master’s Program in Sustainable Food Systems at The Culinary Institute of America. She is a podcaster and author of “Serving the Broccoli Gods” and “The Microbiome Diet Reset.” This article is an edited transcript of her talk at a recent Bioneers Conference.

The concept of One Health states that humans and our health are inextricably connected to the health of the environment, of our fellow animals, of bees, birds, and are interdependent. The cornerstone of those relationships is the soil. Currently, the industrial way that we are producing food is contributing to greenhouse gases and biodiversity loss. It is using enormous amounts of land, using and contaminating freshwater, contributing to eutrophication which is killing our marine life, eroding our soil, and is a leading cause of soil contamination and air pollution. We’re losing habitats for people and animals. And a lot of this is disproportionately affecting BIPOC and marginalized populations.

Along with all of that collateral damage, the food system is producing, in large proportion, foods that don’t support health and well-being. Half of all Americans are diabetic or prediabetic. About 40% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer and one third of teenagers are prediabetic.  Needless to say, we have a serious health crisis on our hands.

The majority of calories come from ultra processed foods, which sometimes is the only food accessible or affordable to people. A large chunk of the protein that we consume comes from industrial processed animals. Agriculture uses over one billion pounds of pesticides every single year, and we have increased the use of synthetic fertilizer 800 percent compared to 50 to 75 years ago. If we want to change this system, we should look at corporate farms and large agribusinesses that promote the practices that degrade our environment and make us suffer. 

But I don’t want to blame the farmers. I want to honor and uplift them. Farmers are doing incredible work and getting paid very little money for it. But the question is: “Why have we been farming this way?” The main reason is that yield is emphasized over quality of food. There’s a reliance on government subsidies that incentivize farmers to continue to use industrial practices. There’s security in using agrochemicals which have been in use for a long time. There’s a lack of time, resources, and education.

The current system does not provide the basic minimum nutritional needs of vitamins A, C, E, D, K or minerals. We’re not getting enough fiber. We’re not getting enough omega 3 fatty acids. We’re definitely not getting enough polyphenols to help support our health and well-being.

Why is this? Because food grown in the industrial system is less nutritious, in other words the food is not nutrient dense. The Nutrient Density Initiative defines nutrient-dense foods as foods that are rich in the vitamins, minerals, fiber, healthy fats, and polyphenols that research has shown to be beneficial for human health. And that these foods are also free of ingredients that we know degrade our health – agrochemicals, pesticides, additives, etc. All of these nutritional qualities are absolutely influenced by the way that we grow our food and the agricultural practices that are used.

Nutrients drive every chemical reaction in your body. The production of neurotransmitters in your brain and your gut are driven by nutrients. The creation and function of your immune system is driven by nutrients. The synthesis of your liver that is trying to neutralize all the toxins that regularly come into your body are driven by nutrients. So our brain and our body are functioning in accordance with the nutritional value of that food that we give it.

We are what we eat, kind of. The idea that food is our medicine isn’t always true, although it should be. The USDA has documented a significant decline in the nutritional quality of food over the past 50 years. There are up to 25 to 50 percent less vitamins and minerals, depending on the crop, than there were 5 decades ago. There are lower levels of polyphenols and omega 3 fatty acids in a lot of the foods that should be high in them. The science is really clear about this.

Food and nutrition start in the soil; 95 percent of our food is grown or raised on soil. When the soil is healthy, humans tend to be healthier. Soil health and fertility directly influence the nutritional quality of food. Healthy soils provide those essential nutrients. Soils are the medium in which food is grown and determines the quality and flavor of food. So when nutrition is deficient in the soil, there is less uptake by the plant of those nutrients.

Graphic by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) via Creative Commons

So, what is healthy soil? There are different definitions. I will characterize three. The first one is having a diverse community of a large number of microorganisms in the soil. Second is soil organic matter, which is made up of decomposed plants and animals that provide living plants with nutrition. And lastly, it is a well-developed structure so the soil is able to withstand floods, droughts and erosion by retaining water. Good soil structure also allows plant roots to reach deep into the soil and gather more nutrients.

Soil health is not only one of the strongest pathways to improve the quality of nutrition, but it also increases soil’s capacity to sequester carbon and support healthier ecosystems.  

The plant is not acting alone. Plants depend on soil microbes for their health. There’s a wonderful symbiotic relationship with the plant and soil microorganisms. The plant’s roots only go so far, so plants need help. The microbes provide that help by bringing minerals and other nutrients to the root zone in exchange for carbohydrates that the plants provide to the microbes. Beneficial microbes suppress the pathogenic microbes that we don’t want in the soil. And they are key for helping the plant synthesize the compounds called polyphenols, which have wonderful antioxidant properties and also provide flavor to the plants.

Polyphenols have a really positive influence on human health. When we don’t get enough polyphenols, people become more susceptible to all different kinds of diseases.

Additionally, polyphenols are a prebiotic feeding the beneficial microbes in our gut. Flavonoids are a type of polyphenol and flavones are a class of flavonoids that contribute to aroma and flavor. There is a strong connection between flavor and nutrition.

When we eat a carrot or a piece of spinach that has not been excessively washed or heated, along with it, you are ingesting some of the microorganisms from the plant’s microbiome which helps support our gut microbiome.

But when synthetic fertilizers are used to grow crops, that hinders the formation of the plant’s roots going further down into the ground to take up nutrients. Additionally, when we use synthetic chemical fertilizers year-after-year, there is a depletion of nutrients in the soil. Microbial diversity is reduced. It reduces phytochemical production, as well as things like vitamin C and trace minerals in plants. Chemical fertilizers are also bad for the environment. They run off of the farm into waterways contaminating drinking water.

And then there’s pesticides. Pesticides also reduce the soil microbial diversity. When people get exposed to pesticides, whether that’s direct exposure or from residues, there’s a higher incidence of endocrine disruption issues, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases. A lot of farmers are struggling with Parkinson’s disease. Birth defects, respiratory illnesses, cancers are also caused by pesticides. Needless to say, farm workers are on the front lines of exposure to toxic chemicals. So there’s a serious environmental injustice issue around pesticides.

Pesticides are having a negative impact on the human gut microbiome and inhibit phytochemical synthesis. A plant under stress normally creates phytochemical compounds as an immune response to protect themselves when it is exposed to things like pests, predators and adverse weather conditions. When we eat the plant, we get the benefit of the phytochemicals which make our immune system strong as well. However, if a pesticide is used to protect the plant, the plant doesn’t have to produce those immune-enhancing compounds.

Phytochemicals, which is the family name for different polyphenols, are associated with better cardiovascular health, better brain health, better blood sugar balance, improved lung function, better immune health, less incidents of cancer, as well as a healthier and diverse gut microbiome.

In contrast to an industrial chemical approach to farming, there are practices – whether we call them regenerative, conservation, organic, common sense, or traditional – that build the health of the soil and, as a result, grow more nutritious crops: reducing the disturbance to the soil by using low or no tillage, having a lot of biodiversity on the farm or garden, keeping the ground covered with cover crops or mulch, using compost, rotating crops, eliminating chemicals, and integrating livestock into the fields. It’s not just about using one or two of these practices, it is the whole suite that increases soil health and grows more nutritious crops.

And the good thing is that they also have planetary benefits. When we garden or farm, whether it is large scale or small scale, we are helping to elevate the ability of the soil to sequester carbon, which is key for the climate crisis. These practices also help provide pollinator habitats and reduce environmental harm in general.

There’s a huge variation between the nutrient density of plants that come from different farming systems, but in general, when we see more of these agroecological practices in play, we see higher levels of vitamins, minerals, beta carotene, etc. and lower levels of heavy metals.

The Nutrient Density Initiative works with Edacious, a nutrition analysis food lab. We had a number of our members, who use these practices, send in samples of their produce and meat products and had Edacious compare them to the conventional versions of the same product.

Peaches tested from Frog Hollow Farm had over 200% higher vitamin C compared to the conventional peaches, much higher iron levels, much higher alpha carotene, and a number of other vitamins and minerals were much higher. While we may not be able to say definitively that we will always get the same results, data like this suggests a link between the positive benefits of soil health and the nutritional density of plants.

The regeneratively grown citrus that we tested had higher amounts of flavones, and higher total value antioxidant levels when compared to conventionally grown samples.

We also looked at dairy. An Alexandre Family Farms dairy product, when compared to a conventional product, had a much more favorable omega 6 to 3 ratio which is very important for inflammation and other immune functions. It also had higher protein and higher levels of certain nutrients such as calcium, B2, and phosphorus.

The Rodale Institute did a side-by-side trial comparing butternut squashes grown conventionally and with regenerative methods and found that regenerative butternut squash had higher total polyphenols, and higher levels of carotenoid levels.

We conducted a pilot protein project. Nutrient Density Initiative members sent in chicken and beef products, and once again compared them to conventionally grown counterparts. We found higher amounts of omega 3s, lower amounts of overall fat including saturated fat, more balanced omega 6 to 3 ratios, more protein per serving, and no heavy metals detected in the products raised with the regenerative practices.

These are small trials, there’s always going to be variation depending on environment, depending on species or varietal of food, etc. I want to make sure that, at this point, I am not making grandiose claims, but that data we have collected so far is clearly demonstrating that when the soil is healthy, we’re going to produce crops with higher nutritional density.

So when and if possible, we can be citizen eaters. Support organic and regenerative farmers who are using the practices that I mentioned, let your grocer know that you want nutritious food, choose minimally processed food, if you can. Let your politicians know food nutrition is an issue you care about. Ask them to support a Farm Bill that actually protects soil health and biodiversity, and rewards the farmers for doing regenerative practices.

The post The Path to Good Health is Made of Soil appeared first on Bioneers.

Dan Kittredge is an organic farmer in Massachusetts following in the footsteps of his parents who are organic farming movement pioneers. As a farmer, he became interested in the flavor and aroma of food, and turned his attention to researching the complexities of food quality and nutrient density. Dan has worked with researchers, NGOs, and farmers in India, Russia, and Central America. In 2010, he founded the Bionutrient Food Association to educate and empower people to make healthy food choices based on research and science. This article is an edited transcript of Dan’s talk at a recent Bioneers Conference.

My parents were back-to-the-land homesteaders starting in the early 1980s. They bought land and built a farm. Their day job was running the Northeast Organic Farming Association, commonly referred to as NOFA. They wrote some of the first organic standards in the country and produced a conference; that was their day job, but their lifestyle was the farm.

After working on their farm through my teens and 20s, I got married and realized I needed to make a living. Like a lot of farmers, I wasn’t able to because the farm suffered with pest pressure and disease pressure. So I started studying beyond the organic rubric because organic was not providing me the success I was looking for. I looked to nature and saw plants flourishing, but didn’t see plants flourishing in my fields.

I did a lot of research and shifted my farming practices, still staying within an organic framework. I got to a point where pests were dissipating, diseases were dissipating, yields were going up, flavor was going up, shelf life was going up, cost of production was going down, and I was making a living farming, working 20 hours a week. At that point, I felt obliged to start talking about what I was learning. I knew the permaculture, biodynamic and agroecology communities, but none of them were focusing on the nutritional caliber of food, so in 2010, I founded an organization called the Bionutrient Food Association, focusing on the nutritional quality of food as the objective.

By quality, I’m talking about flavor, aroma, and nutrient value, not aesthetics and uniformity, which is how a lot of food is defined by the industry today. Our initial work for a number of years focused on education: conferences, courses, workshops, etc. We found a lot of success in educating people about how nature evolved things to grow, as opposed to a narrow focus on NPK fertilizers and soil pH, which are the things that people are taught in universities about agronomy. We decided to teach people how nature has been growing plants for hundreds of millions of years, and as we did that, we found success across multiple ecosystems, with various scales, and with different crops, and tried to figure out a way to bring that to scale.

Economics is a powerful force in today’s age. Our goal was to figure out how to align economic incentives with ecological benefits and human health benefits. If we could provide a dynamic where people buying food could differentiate between a higher and lower nutritional content of, for example, carrots, our supposition is that people will choose the higher and leave the lower quality on the shelf. The work we’ve been doing for the last eight years from a research standpoint is characterizing that variation, identifying what causes it, and developing ways to assess it.

Dan Kittredge

From a foundational standpoint, our vision is to go beyond labels and certifications. It’s not about if you are organic or not, if you are regenerative or not, if you are local or not. We want to give people the ability to actually measure the nutrient levels of the food in real time, and the science with which you would do that is called spectroscopy. That’s how the Hubble space telescope works. It’s how the James Webb telescope works. We can read the atmosphere of a planet 10,000 light years away and determine that it has methane in it. If we can do that, we should be able to tell what a carrot a few millimeters away is made up of.

We built our first handheld meter in 2017 and our first lab a year later. We had people send in carrots and spinach from across the U.S., from grocery stores, farmers’ markets and farms, organic, and non-organic. We wanted to survey the supply chain, to find out how much nutrient variation there is. In 2019, we set up our second lab in California at Chico State University. That year in both of our labs in Michigan and Chico State, we had farmers send in crops from the field in triplicate. They would harvest the crops, they would pull samples of the soil, and they would answer management data questions: What was the variety? When did you plant it? How did you prepare the soil? What’s your fertility program? So we could overlay nutrient variations in food against managing practices and causal factors against soil metrics to see what patterns we could find.

In 2020 we set up our third lab in Europe. Farmers sent in crops from their fields for testing and citizen scientists sent in crops from grocery stores and farmers’ markets. We tested samples for four years – 10,000 crop samples, 25 different crops, hundreds of farms, from four continents – to understand the nature of the supply chain and what causes nutritional variation in foods. All the data is available on the Bionutrient Food Association website and is in the public commons.

As an example, let’s look at sulfur, which is an element or nutrient the body needs to function. In carrots, the lowest level we found was 8.41mg per 100g. The highest level was 33.19. That’s a 4x variation. If we assign 100 to the highest level, the vast majority of the samples were between 20 and 40 out of 100. Most carrots have relatively low levels of sulfur in relation to what they could have.

Phosphorous in carrots, we found an 8x variation. Most carrots tested in the 27th percentile. The vast majority of the sample sets were below the 50th percentile. Most crops have relatively low levels of nutrients in them in relation to what they could have. There is a presumption that all food is uniform. We have found that that is absolutely not the case.

What about antioxidants? Antioxidants are known to protect cells against free radical damage and help prevent disease. Antioxidants are measured in FRAP (Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power) units. In carrots, 4.92 FRAP units per 100 grams is the lowest we found, 195 is the highest we found. That’s a 40 to 1 variation.

In the old days, before they invented pharmaceuticals, medical practitioners talked about medicinal plants, which have intense flavor and aroma that are associated with compounds such as polyphenols, terpenoids, and alkaloids which promote good health.

Humans have evolved with a capacity to discern relative nutrient levels in food through flavor; a whole bunch of our DNA is associated with discerning nutrient levels with our noses and our tongues. It’s the high flavonoid compounds that are understood to be anti-cancer, anti-diabetes, and protect against heart disease, etc.

Our testing showed a 20x variation in flavonoids. Most samples were in the 7th percentile. The vast majority of the samples were below the 20th percentile. Almost everything out there in the supply chain is relatively poor in relation to what’s possible.

What causes that variation? Some people say genetics. We tested different carrot varieties–Napoli, Bolero, Nantes, Mokum. We found a wide range in nutrient levels in the same crop variety, and have not found any connection between genetics and nutrient levels.

Then we tested soil type and have not seen any connection between soil type, bioregion, or climate zone, and nutrient levels.

Some people say point of purchase: we tested crops from farm stands, CSAs, farmers markets, home gardens, and stores and saw quality variation in all categories. We see variation everywhere. None of these dynamics is sufficient to predict quality.

Based on our testing, regenerative, organic, biodynamic, and permaculture also do not seem to, from a scientific standpoint, connect to increased nutrition. None of these various individual factors seem to correlate with increased nutrient levels.

The first question we started with was: What is the spectrum of nutrient variation? We found that the spectrum of nutrient variation was large. Second question: What causes it? What seems to cause it is functionality of the biological system, not individual practices or certifications. Third question: Can you build a handheld, consumer priced, flash-of-light nutrient meter at a consumer price point?  

We published the answer to that question in a peer-reviewed journal called Nature: Scientific Communications. The Bionutrient Food Association developed a handheld spectrometer, which is open source technology, to prove the concept. You can flash a light in the store on a vegetable or fruit and get a reading of its nutrient density and discern relative quality. Because nutrient density is associated with flavor, that may be helpful in encouraging your children to eat more fruits and vegetables.

From our research we now know that nutrient variation exists. And we can go beyond labels, certifications, and claims to measure it on a continuum of 1 to 100. That way consumers can make choices based on the nutritional quality of the food.

The challenge is to arrive at an accepted definition of nutrient density for different foods. We focused on beef first because it has a larger ecological footprint than any other food on the planet. More acres of land are used to produce beef than anything else. The hypothesis is if cows eat what they have evolved to eat rather than an unnatural diet of grains, they will be healthier, the land will be healthier, and the people who eat them will be healthier.

Agriculture has a significant effect on climate and ecosystem function, and if we can inspire a shift in the way the land is managed to improve its function that will have beneficial impacts for everyone. In researching beef, we looked at a number of different metrics: in the soil, management practices, feed stocks, and assessments of the microbiome of the animals. Our thesis is that there’s going to be patterns between soil function, ecosystem function, animal welfare, and human health. We are using a scientific method to look for the patterns of nature.

Finally we did human trials. Feed humans this meat and see what happens to them. Take the data from the meat, and the microbes, and the management, and the human health trials, give it to statisticians, and see what patterns they can find.

This is where we’re at right now. It looks like there are eight biomarkers that predict overall system function. Those eight biomarkers are measured and scored 1-100 and that information becomes public. Our understanding is that sensors to measure nutrient density can be built into phones; the cameras in your phone could be a spectrometer. Chinese phone companies have already built spectrometers into the backs of phones. Consumers will be able to test the food at point of purchase. Food can be tested by the grower or in the supply chain. We can have a completely open dataset sharing and learning, where the market can be incentivized to focus on nutrition as opposed to volume and aesthetic.

We feel that this project is important enough that one small NGO should not be doing it solely. A broad coalition of allies should be working on this globally. We’ve proposed a treaty on the definition of nutrient density. We engaged in a listening tour on six continents, and met with nutritionists, agronomists, chefs, corporations, government people, farmers, and eaters and asked them to tell us what you think about our plan. This is a process we think could potentially have a massive impact on the planet, and we welcome peoples’ engagement.

The feedback I’m getting from some of the biggest global food corporations is they want help to transform their supply chain before the public knows about this. They want to get ahead of this before they are threatened by it. We’ve done our market research, we understand that consumers want flavor, nutrition, and are concerned about the well-being of their children. So this is an economic advantage for any food company that is a first mover in the space.

Working in harmony with nature seems to be the best way forward to accomplish the goal of optimizing nutrient density in food. The question is how do we align economics with that, and how do we empower the transition. Most people have been trained in a reductionist paradigm, but they need to be supported in that transition to a holistic perspective. Some of the simplistic talking points such as if you cover crop, all will be well, is detrimental. It is incomplete and it is reductionist. You have to optimize soil health, which is all the levels of life in the soil. There are many tools in the toolbox, cover cropping is one, minimal tillage is one, biochemistry is one. Farmers must be empowered with a full toolbox, without dogmas and empiricism to support them in the process.

We are in the process of collecting the metadata to share and learn together in a mycelial fashion.

Our organization has been educating farmers for 18 years about how to work with nature. We’ve got hundreds of hours of content on our YouTube page, freely available. Now we teach courses. It takes a shift of consciousness required to understand that you are serving nature, you are in right relationship with nature, not that you’re applying practices. If you think that you can go out and do one practice and that’s all it takes, you’re missing the point. The biggest issue is understanding your role in the process.

It’s a shift in paradigm from recommending practices to humble, gentle listening and service. It’s a shift of perspective from a colonized approach to a more Indigenous perspective. The colonized perspective is thou shalt grow a cover crop; thou shalt use compost. In contrast, the Indigenous perspective is: I’m in service to the land, what does it need now? And only when we can get into that place of humility should we expect to be proper stewards.

The post Not All Food is Created Equal appeared first on Bioneers.

As the legal battle continues over access to Mifepristone, commonly known as the abortion pill, National Nurses United demands an end to what nurses say is “an all-out class war against health care for women.” On May 4, the Supreme Court restored nationwide access to mifepristone by mail, pausing until at least May 11 a lower-court ruling in Louisiana v. FDA that had restricted it.

As extreme weather worsens, FEMA Review Council recommendations weaken federal disaster response and shift costs to states

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. —  The Trump Administration’s FEMA Review Council released yesterday its final report of recommendations to overhaul FEMA. These recommendations, which include privatizing the National Flood Insurance Program, increasing qualifying thresholds for disaster aid, and responding to fewer major disasters, leave states, localities, and tribal governments to navigate climate-fueled catastrophes with fewer federal resources.  

FEMA is the backbone of the nation’s disaster response system. As the climate crisis drives more frequent, unpredictable, and destructive disasters, the need for preparation and response from all levels of government and vulnerable communities has never been greater. At this critical moment, communities need lawmakers to strengthen FEMA’s capacity to prepare and respond to emergencies, not weaken or restrict the very resources that save lives and help communities recover. 

Gabrielle Walton, the Federal Campaigns Coordinator at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, issued the following statement: 

“The FEMA Review Council’s proposed changes fail to offer the needed certainty that the government will provide aid when Americans need it most.  As drought grips the county, hurricane season approaches, and the climate crisis worsens, extreme weather events, communities need a government that commits to enhancing safety and preparedness, not one that proposes restricting access to critical, life-saving resources. The Council’s proposed reforms would leave states, localities, and disaster survivors with less funding and fewer resources to prevent, mitigate, and respond to disasters. Congress must take the lead in creating comprehensive FEMA reforms that will protect our communities as the climate crisis worsens.”

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Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the first grassroots organization dedicated exclusively to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in the Chesapeake Bay region. Founded in 2002, CCAN has been at the center of the fight for clean energy and wise climate policy in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC and beyond.

The post Trump’s FEMA Reform Proposal Would Leave Communities to Face Climate Disasters Alone appeared first on Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Maryland Public Service Commission asked staff to conduct further analysis despite evidence that ending gas line extension allowances would provide $1 billion in savings to gas customers over next decade

 

BALTIMORE, MD —The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) today delayed finalizing regulations to end gas line extension allowances (LEAs), preventing gas customers from having to pay for the expansion of the gas system to new homes and businesses. When finalized, the new rules are expected to save Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) and Washington Gas Light (WGL) customers nearly $1 billion in the next decade. The Commission asked staff to conduct further analysis, with an unclear timeline for when the Commission will make a decision, adding to advocates’ concern that regulator delays from the PSC are putting customer savings at risk.

“The analysis is already in: allowing gas utilities to pass on the cost of new gas lines to their existing customers unfairly drives up energy bills and locks us into polluting fossil fuels for decades to come. Maryland gas customers shouldn’t have to wait a day longer for regulators to take action to address rapidly rising gas delivery rates,” said Emily Scarr, Senior Adviser at Maryland PIRG Foundation. “Whether it’s finalizing rules to save customers $1 billion or ending multi-year ratemaking, the Commission is creating a habit of unnecessary delays that harm customers and benefit utilities.”

Under the draft regulations, new customers and developers can still choose to connect to the gas system, but will be responsible for the cost of doing so. The hearing comes just weeks after the Maryland General Assembly rejected attempts by housing developers and gas utilities to prevent the PSC from finalizing rules to end LEAs.

“Today’s decision by the Public Service Commission is disappointing and continues to place burdens on front-line communities and Marylanders already struggling to pay costly energy bills,” said Sari Amiel, Staff Attorney at Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program. “Ongoing reliance on costly gas infrastructure impacts our health and financial well-being, while utility companies reach record profits. We will continue advocating for the state to move away from reliance on fossil fuels and towards more affordable and efficient clean energy.”

Initially petitioned for by the Office of the People’s Counsel (OPC), the rulemaking is the first to come from the “future of gas” proceeding, a venue for short and long-term gas planning. The proceeding aims to protect customers from skyrocketing costs by smoothing the transition away from gas heat and appliances and the outsized infrastructure costs that come with it. 

“Seeing the commission delay such an important consumer protection at the 11th hour is exceedingly disappointing. Gas utilities use line extension allowances to boost their profits while locking in decades of pollution and costs,” said Bryan Dunning, Senior Policy Analyst at Center for Progressive Reform. “Each day we delay, utilities are incentivised to further build out the gas system, undermining state climate goals.” 

For decades, existing gas customers have covered some or all of the costs to extend gas lines to new customers, driving up delivery rates and adding to utility profits over a decades-long payback period. Connecting a home to the methane gas system hooks it onto fossil fuels for years, contributing to climate pollution in the state and creating new risks for deadly explosions.

“Maryland gas customers shouldn’t be incentivising housing developers to build housing with dual fuel sources, when electric heating is safer, cleaner, and more affordable for renters,” said Monica O’Connor of Grassroots Maryland Legislative Coalition’s Climate Justice Wing. “Today’s decision by the PSC to delay the end of incentives for new gas lines not only fails to align regulatory policy with fiscal prudency, but sets back our state climate goals.”

In 2025 alone, BGE planned to spend $103.5 million on gas pipeline expansion, costing customers $397 million, while Washington Gas Light (WGL) planned to spend $56.25 million, costing customers $238 million.  Utility spending on gas pipelines has caused energy bills to rise in Maryland. Since 2010, Baltimore Gas & Electric and Columbia Gas customers have seen their delivery rates more than triple, far outpacing the rate of inflation, due to excessive gas utility spending. This rise in delivery costs is why BGE gas customers now pay $2 to BGE for delivery for every $1 they spend on gas. A recent analysis found that gas delivery charges account for more than 60% of the average Maryland customer’s gas bill.

“We’re very frustrated to see the Commission needlessly delay a clear action to align state climate goals, consumer protections, and lower gas ratepayer costs,” said Brittany Baker, Maryland Director of Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “We need strong leadership from the PSC to act in the best interest of ratepayers and transition Maryland off the gas distribution system. Today, they missed the mark.”

The Upgrade Maryland campaign is calling on the PSC to swiftly finalize regulations to end LEAs, both to protect customers from the rising costs of the gas system and to ensure utility regulation is in line with state climate policy.

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Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the first grassroots organization dedicated exclusively to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in the Chesapeake Bay region. Founded in 2002, CCAN has been at the center of the fight for clean energy and wise climate policy in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC and beyond.

The post Advocates Warn Utility Regulators’ Decision to Delay Puts Customer Savings at Risk appeared first on Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

We reject the US-Israel War on Iran. We stand in solidarity with all those fighting back against the US’ escalating aggression – unnecessary, avoidable, and already unleashing profound destruction in global energy and food systems.

As fertilizer and energy prices surge, smallholder food producers bear the brunt of skyrocketing production costs, while large industrial agriculture corporations are positioned to capture windfall profits. This crisis has once again demonstrated that industrial agriculture is unable to reliably feed the world, echoing the disruptions seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Industrial agriculture – marked by fossil fuel-based synthetic fertilizers, import-dependence, export-orientation, deforestation driven global commodity chains – is fundamentally ill-equipped to cope with the recurrent shocks that now define our global reality. 

At the same time, the environmental costs of this system are becoming impossible to ignore. The widespread use of synthetic fertilizers drives ecosystem degradation, contaminates waterways, fuels harmful algal blooms, harms wildlife, creates dead zones in aquatic ecosystems, and contributes to soil degradation and biodiversity loss. Fertilizers are also responsible for some of the most dangerous agricultural emissions, releasing potent greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and methane. 

Far from enhancing resilience, fertilizer-dependent industrial agriculture is actively undermining the ecological foundations on which food security depends. Fertilizers don’t feed people; they sustain an extractivist approach to food production where nearly half of the world’s grain, instead of feeding millions of hungry mouths in the Global South, is diverted to animal feed, propping up global industrial livestock production. 

The current crisis is a long-overdue indictment of the very foundations on which food economies are built, and a critical opportunity for transformation. What we are facing is no longer simply a matter of urgency. It is a question of survival. The continued reliance on fertilizer-intensive industrial agriculture is neither sustainable nor resilient. 

We must urgently phase out this model and transition toward equitable, humane and agroecological food systems, an approach based on food, land, and water recognised as fundamental rights–not mere commodities- that puts people, animals and our environment at the center. It can restore ecosystem health, reduce dependence on fossil-based inputs, and build resilient and locally adapted food systems. Only by making this shift can we secure true food security through food sovereignty and ensure that nutritious, affordable food remains accessible to all.

The post Statement: US-Israel War on Iran is Having Devastating Impact on Agriculture in Global South appeared first on Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.

This article Mothers are the most underestimated force for change was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

When Trump won the first time in 2016, I drank shots of tequila in front of my computer and then passed out in anguish. When Trump won in 2024, I couldn’t do that. This time around, I was a mom. 

By afternoon on election day, the red shifts on the map became overpowering — and yet I still had to pick up my son from childcare. I had to get him dinner, sing songs in the bathtub and make up stories for his stuffed animals. I still had to create a world that was joyous, delicious and full of love even though I was horrified by the political present.  

This is a very particular muscle I have had to build since becoming a mother. It’s different than building a practice of hope. It’s beyond feelings and all about the tangible needs of life. It’s being able to turn hope into something physical even when deeply worn down. Moms, aunties, grandmothers and other caretakers — we have to pull ourselves off the couch and make the sandwiches and brush the hair. 

Every day, in the face of whatever the greater world holds, we build our own pockets where injustices are righted, love is given and joy is present. We calm down tantrums with love and humor. We teach lessons on sharing and taking turns. This complicated dynamic mothers must hold, of nurturing children while social injustice rages, is something I’ve seen resonate across social media recently, with many women commenting on the realities of keeping children loved and happy while the world burns. 

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Mothers are the everyday weavers of utopia. Philosophers, journalists, tech experts, Hollywood writers and pundits may throw up their hands and proclaim that our species is doomed, and yet in millions of homes around the world, mothers and caregivers are ensuring that on the contrary, we do live in a world of joy where resources are shared. The past few years of being a new mom have taught me we need to do more than survive; the real magic comes with what we co-create with our children — the evidence that a better world is possible. 

One of the unique aspects of motherhood is that, even while you’re dealing with the immediacy of food, shelter, joy, love, raising a human also means having one foot in the future. The writer and healer Prentis Hemphill said in a recent podcast episode, “Children as Sacred,” that “our culture actually seems to be anti-children and to me therefore anti the future. … What a child compels you to do is create, what a child compels you to do is nurture, to plant a seed, to think about what will grow beyond your life.”

This is no small feat, and might be one of the most underexamined sources of social change out there. Mothers are inherent futurists, just as gardeners are. Even when our children are in the womb, we have to be mindful of every chemical we come in contact with and what it could do to their development down the line. When our kids are growing up, we are constantly aware of how much of their future self is molded from the compendium of all the lessons we teach them. 

“Almost all of parenting is digging really deep for reserves when you are out of it,” said Jenny Zimmer, the co-executive director of the group Mothers Out Front. “Like you’re out of energy, you’re out of time, you’re out of patience, you’re exhausted, and you’re still finding the reserves to set [your kids] up for success.” 

It is this deep commitment to not just hoping for a better future, but knowing that it is formed through the actions we choose today, that directly links what we do now to what will become.

A better future is being built by the everyday work of caretakers to instruct the next generation that love and goodness can exist.

There’s nothing quite like the early years of motherhood for forcing people to realize they can’t do it all on their own. If you try to do all the things yourself, you will quickly break. It is with the village, the community that life gets a bit easier. “Mothers can do more because we know how to work together,” Zimmer noted. 

My formative activist years were working with the Burmese pro-democracy movement, and I remember witnessing women’s meetings where heavy discussions were held on moving aid to refugee camps, or monitoring elections — all while someone’s baby was being passed around from woman to woman. A group of women would chop up fruit to share, and others would help clean up. Communal care was the fundamental driver that allowed more women to step into leadership and peace-building. 

In Minneapolis and other cities besieged by ICE recently, it’s regularly mothers who are organizing food to deliver to those in need, raising money for affected families, forming safety patrols at kids’ schools and participating in ICE watches. Ashley Fairbanks helped start the group Stand with Minnesota, which is a center point of a lot of the mutual aid. In a recent interview with The Guardian, she said “We’re building a helper reflex where, instead of encountering a problem and saying that we can’t do anything, we’re just trying to do it.” 

There is so much to learn from mothers in Minnesota who are showing that the future can be better — by moving their anguished bodies to attend protests, deliver diapers and pick up their neighbors, and showing our children and our communities that we can operate with more humane ways of being. 

America does not have the best track record with positive visions of the future. The vast majority of films set in the future are dystopian, with a stalwart hero making their way through techno-fascism. In fact, when I tried to find films with a positive vision of the future, where humanity was able to come together and create something better — it’s pretty much just the “Star Trek” movies and “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” and even in those the vision of the future Earth is limited (“Star Trek” mostly takes place off Earth, and “Bill & Ted” gives us just a  few minutes’ glimpse of the peaceful future). 

What we need are the mother-filled stories of creation. How from small seeds, wondrous things can be born. Constructing a better future won’t come from some miracle technology that propels us forward. It comes from the everyday work of caretakers to instruct the next generation that love and goodness can exist.

Two directly opposed worldviews vying with each other in America right now are the much-publicized, hyper-individualized ideology of pseudo-macho tech oligarchs, and the quieter reality of mothers leaning into collective movements for a better world. A patriarchal worldview tells us that social change comes through highly publicized “wins” or technological silver bullets. 

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In my conversation with Zimmer, she spoke about how working with mothers has shifted her understanding of what social progress looks like. “I had to reframe victory in my mind from a big win to basically like a journey. There’s always going to be opposition,” she said. “And so when I think about bringing my kids into organizing spaces with me, it’s less that I want them to see my team win something. And it’s more that I want them to see that a good life is spent in a collective project of trying to make things good for everybody.”

A mother’s commitment is incalculable. Rebecca Solnit wrote to me that the concept of motherhood comes down to the idea that “there is a superpower in being absolutely unshakably committed to something/someone morally and in every other way, to your last breath, and because that commitment wants to see goodness all around, doesn’t it manifest goodness?” The future of this planet is being deeply shaped every day by caretakers moving forward with love and an unfeigned commitment to a better future. Once we recognize this for the superpower it is, we can build more systems that embrace its potential. 

If we start accepting that mothers are a powerful force for good, then we need to support systems that can scale their engagement. Mexico City has built 15 “Utopias,” large community centers aimed to take some of the burden off of low-income caregivers. Bogota, Colombia is experimenting with manzana del cuidado, or care blocks, which support caregivers by clustering services together. Many other countries are enacting policies like extended maternity and paternity leave, subsidized child care and health care benefits that help mothers be more able to engage with public life. 

It would be hugely beneficial to society if instead of isolating and limiting people who have a “helper reflex” superpower, we instead built more ways to expand the utilization of this skillset. Mothers are a crucial force for change, not only in our homes and communities, but on a much wider scale — if they have the support they need to unleash their superpowers.

This article Mothers are the most underestimated force for change was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

In a filing made public on Friday, ABC accused Federal Communications Commission regulators of violating its free-speech rights and called out FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for attempting to punish the broadcaster for airing political content that displeased the Trump White House.

The FCC had reportedly ordered Houston station KTRK-TV, which ABC owns and operates, to file a formal request asking whether The View qualified for the Equal Time Rule exemption when it booked an interview with Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico. The request wasn’t warranted as the FCC had specifically granted The View this exemption in a 2002 order.

The Equal Time Rule, under Section 315 of the Communications Act, requires that broadcast stations provide equal access and airtime to all legally qualified political candidates if they permit any one candidate to use their facilities. The rule does not apply to bona fide newscasts, news interviews, news documentaries or on-the-spot news events (like political debates).

“The Commission’s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly,” reads ABC’s filing. “It is therefore imperative that the Commission act quickly to assure broadcasters that it will uphold its long-established standards protecting broadcasters’ good faith news judgment in including political candidates in bona fide news programming.”

ABC has not always defended its free-speech rights. In December 2024, the company paid $15 million to resolve a meritless Trump defamation lawsuit against the network and its anchor George Stephanopoulos. In September 2025, Disney decided to temporarily suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night program after Chairman Carr threatened to take action following comments the comedian made during his opening monologue.

Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González said:

“I’m pleased that ABC has finally learned that bullies don’t stop when companies cower in a corner. The FCC chairman has blatantly and repeatedly abused his power to silence speech that displeases Trump. This doesn’t just violate the First Amendment rights of broadcasters on the receiving end of Brendan Carr’s tactics; it also harms the broadcasters’ audiences. People deserve access to diverse viewpoints over the airwaves, and the ways in which ABC and other broadcasters have repeatedly capitulated to the administration has chilled free expression and access to information.

“Chairman Carr’s overreach is startling and unpopular across the political spectrum. After Donald and Melania Trump demanded that ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel for making a joke they didn’t like, Carr announced that he would conduct an early review of ABC’s broadcast licenses — an abuse of power that Senator Ted Cruz and people of all political stripes condemned. I urge ABC and its parent company Disney to continue fighting for free speech. Doing anything less deprives audiences of the diversity of viewpoints that are critical to the health of a democracy.”

ABC is accusing the Federal Communications Commission of violating the First Amendment and chilling press freedom, in a regulatory filing in its dispute with the FCC over whether “The View” is a bona fide news program exempt from the agency’s equal time requirement.
The following can be attributed to Freedom of the Press Foundation Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern:

“We commend ABC for standing up for itself and the First Amendment. The legal theories the FCC asserts against broadcast licensees are frivolous and unconstitutional, and FCC Chair Brendan Carr knows it, but he hopes broadcast licensees will nonetheless self-censor rather than pick a fight.

“It’s about time news outlets start telling Carr and his Donald Trump lapel pin to kick rocks. Otherwise, he’ll continue manufacturing bogus pretexts to harass and jawbone licensees that air content his boss doesn’t like. News outlets should be emboldened after seeing The New York Times, Media Matters, The Washington Post, and others go on offense against the administration in court and win. Carr won’t stop until a judge forces him to, and hopefully ABC plans to make that happen, both here and in Carr’s equally ridiculous retaliatory license renewal proceeding in response to comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes.”

Demand for key grid hardware has soared since 2019, due to large load growth, integration of new energy generation resources, and investment to modernize the aging grid. This demand is driving up equipment lead times and prices. In fact, if you need a large power transformer, you may have to wait up to four years. The stakes are high for American businesses and consumers: the grid supply chain crunch is already impacting utility bills, threatening reliability, and stalling critical projects, from power plants and data centers to new housing construction.

While recent investment announcements in domestic grid component manufacturing will help ease shortages in the coming years, these developments on their own are not enough to secure America’s grid supply chain. Policymakers can leverage a range of proven industrial policy tools to boost the capacity, coordination, and competitiveness of US grid component manufacturing. Addressing the gridlock is an opportunity to reinvigorate domestic manufacturing, strengthen US energy security, improve energy affordability, and propel economic growth.

The post Solving the Gridlock: America’s Electric Supply Chain Opportunity appeared first on RMI.

For over a decade, the biomass industry has sold a lie. They’ve been lying to Southern communities and decision-makers. This is especially true of the UK company Drax. They’ve violated […]

The post Communities Across the South Unite Against Drax first appeared on Dogwood Alliance.

Registered nurses at Bay Area Kaiser facilities will hold a rally at Kaiser San Francisco Medical Center on Monday, May 11, to protest Kaiser’s plan to terminate nurses who are DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, recipients waiting for the federal government to renew their work documents.

Every spring and fall, millions of migratory birds cross the American continent along major natural corridors known as flyways. These flyways connect ecosystems, economies, and cultures from the...

Emails obtained by Public Domain and Fieldnotes show the Interior department worked closely with Continental Resources to secure drilling permits in Converse County, Wyoming, despite a court injunction restricting new drilling on public land there. Continental Resources supplied the Bureau of Land Management with a playbook to bypass environmental restrictions meant to protect the county’s groundwater, and the BLM has since rushed to issue over 70 permits to Continental using the loophole.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum received $250,000 in campaign donations from Continental Resources, which is controlled by billionaire oil tycoon Harold Hamm, when he ran for president in 2023. Burgum has also received around $50,000 in oil royalties from land he leased to Hamm’s company.

“This reminds me of the days of the Bush-Cheney administration’s massive push to drill the West, when it was obvious that the oil industry was calling the shots when it came to public land management,” Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, told Public Domain. “But we never had such direct and obvious proof that oil corporations were giving the orders, and BLM officials at the highest levels were obediently carrying them out.”

CWP says goodbye to executive director

In the latest episode of the Center for Western Priorities’ podcast, The Landscape, we say goodbye to former Executive Director Jennifer Rokala. In a conversation with the entire CWP team, Jen reflects on the highs and lows of leading CWP for 11 years, what she’s most proud of, and what gives her hope for the future of America’s public lands. Listen now wherever you get podcasts or watch on YouTube.

Quick hits How many federal public lands jobs did the Mountain West lose?

KUNC

Congressman seeks probe of $11 million no-bid contract for Park Service fountain revamp

E&E News

Opinion: Pikes Peak region’s outdoors future depends on LWCF funding

Colorado Sun

Navajo Nation residents push back on possible copper mine

KNAU

How controlled burns can help save taxpayers billions

Grist

This fight unfolding in southern Utah could have implications for states trying to take over federal lands

Bloomberg

Shared ground: Coalition forms to promote affordable housing on public lands

Deseret News

Wildfire is an increasing threat to the West’s recreation economy, according to new research

The Conversation

Quote of the day

Proposed budget cuts and growing bureaucratic obstacles are threatening to slow or stop LWCF-funded projects across the country… Whatever your politics, that should concern you. LWCF has never been a partisan program. It was built on a bipartisan foundation and has delivered results under presidents and Congresses of both parties for 60 years.”

—David Leinweber, founder of Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance, Colorado Sun

Picture This

@Interior

Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge offers a chance to unplug from the stresses of daily life and reconnect with Minnesota’s tallgrass prairie.

Photos by Mike Budd / USFWS

Feature image: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum (left) and oil tycoon Harold Hamm (right); Source: Burgum photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia, Hamm photo by david_shankbone via Flickr

The post Interior bypasses court injunction at behest of oil donor appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

On Monday, we partnered with Wells Fargo workers to deliver union gift bags to 200+ bank branches across the country. The gift bags included coffee, candy – and an invitation for workers to learn about the union by talking with unionized bank workers.

The goal? Support more bank workers getting involved in the fight to unionize Wells Fargo.

But, maybe you’re wondering why we, a climate coalition, are spending our time supporting worker power. So I thought I’d use this month’s newsletter to explain our strategy.

Over 150 years of labor organizing has demonstrated that organizing workers can be an incredibly effective strategy, one capable of moving corporations in huge and meaningful ways. We’ve even glimpsed this within the climate movement. 

In 2019, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice organized more than 8,000 Amazon employees around climate demands, and nearly 2,000 employees walked out of work to join a climate strike. In response, the company committed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040, announced the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund, and ordered 100,000 electric delivery vehicles.  

Yes, there’s still a heck of a lot of work to be done to make Amazon a responsible social actor, but those were remarkable victories – and they wouldn’t have happened without a critical mass of organized workers.

So, that’s part of the reason we’re supporting workers’ fight for a union. By building with bank workers, we can build the power to win real concessions from Wells Fargo. But it’s about much more than that, too.

We’re living in an age of truly grotesque wealth inequality. America’s richest twelve billionaires are now worth $2.7 trillion, their combined wealth quadrupling since 2020. And while your average school teacher (or bank worker) pays around 25% of their income in taxes, Jeff Bezos pays a true tax rate of 1%.

This level of inequality is poisoning our politics. In 2024, just 300 billionaires and their families were responsible for $3 billion in political spending, making up nearly 20% of all political spending in federal elections. 

This is what oligarchy looks like: a small number of billionaires buying politicians and reaping the rewards. It’s why we got Musk’s DOGE, which literally killed hundreds of thousands of people and stole the data of every living American. It’s why Trump’s budget bill cut taxes for billionaires while spiking healthcare premiums for everyday Americans. 

And it’s, in part, why tackling the climate crisis is so damn hard. Many of MAGAs largest donors are billionaires from the oil and gas industry. In 2024 alone, the fossil fuel industry contributed $445 million to support Trump and his climate denier buddies.

Which brings me back to why a climate group is supporting a labor union struggle like the Wells Fargo Workers United campaign: we can’t tackle the climate crisis without taking on the billionaire class and the wealth inequality poisoning our political system. 

And you know what the single greatest antidote to extreme wealth inequality is? It’s labor unions.

So, yes, we’re supporting the union fight at Wells Fargo because we think it’s a good strategy to win on climate in the long run. 

But more broadly, building a fighting labor movement is perhaps the greatest antidote to the power of the billionaire class that’s undermining our democracy and our ability to tackle the climate crisis. 

So, if you know anyone who works at Wells Fargo, pass it on: they can get in touch with a union organizer here. 

In Solidarity
– Alec Connon, Stop the Money Pipeline coalition director

 

News & Updates from the Coalition

–  Stop the Money Pipeline celebration and online gala: you’re invited!

On Thursday, May 21st, we’re hosting Brighter Futures: An online celebration and fundraising gala for Stop the Money Pipeline! It’s gonna be great!

RSVP here and join us Brighter Futures. Together, we’ll celebrate our progress, build community, and help fund a fighting climate movement.  

– Holding Elon Accountable

On April 14th we launched the Investigate DOGE campaign with our partners at Communications Workers of America and Tesla Takedown. 

DOGE destroyed vital government agencies, left 300,000 dedicated public servants jobless, exposed the personal data of nearly every American, and resulted in hundreds of thousands of needless deaths. But accountability is coming. Sign the petition to call on Congress to investigate Elon Musk and the DOGE Bros, and receive all the updates about the campaign. 

–  Big update from the Insure our Communities New York campaign

Very big update in the Insure our Communities New York campaign: Senate Insurance Committee Chair, Jamal Bailey, has signed on as the new lead sponsor of the Insure our Communities Act.

This is a huge deal. Not only is Senator Bailey the Chair of the Insurance Committee and therefore a critical vote, but he is also widely considered a frontrunner for the Senate Majority Leader position. We’re very excited to build on this progress and work with Senator Bailey’s office to advance this landmark bill. 

– And progress in Connecticut, too!

For 3+ years now, our partner, Connecticut Citizens Action Group (CCAG) has been campaigning for a bill called Insuring Connecticut’s Resiliency. The bill would place a surcharge on  insurance premiums paid by fossil fuel companies, and use the money to pay for climate programs.  On March 13, when the bill was introduced into the Environmental Committee, we joined many others in voicing support of the bill. 

Despite the short legislative session, CCAG and allies secured a huge win: the bill passed out of the Environmental Committee and the Appropriations Committee with an overwhelming majority vote. Next year will hopefully be the year the bill gets pushed over the finish line.

– Now that’s a lotta emails

The Spanish bank, Santander, is the world’s largest funder of fossil fuel expansion in Latin America. So, after Santander ignored European and Latin American campaigners’ requests for a meeting, we organized a coalition of groups to flood their top executives’ email inboxes with messages. So far, 33,000 people have sent more than 530,000 emails. I reached out to their Global Head of Sustainability, Lara de Mesa, to request a meeting yesterday – I’ll let you know what we hear back. 

– No immunity for Big Oil

Big Oil companies have knowingly fueled catastrophic climate damages for decades — but they lied about the danger to protect their profits. Now, as communities are taking action to make polluters pay, Congress has introduced a bill that would give the fossil fuel industry blanket immunity from any laws or lawsuits that could hold them accountable.

Call your Member of Congress here to demand No Immunity for Big Oil.

– How your pension votes matters

In the world of campaigning against the financial industry, spring is what we call shareholder season. That’s because this is the time of year major companies hold annual meetings to vote on critical issues, including hundreds of climate-related proposals that shape their sustainability practices. One of the best ways we can push them to act is through public pension funds, which invest trillions of our tax dollars and have a significant voice in these shareholder meetings.

Our partners at the Sierra Club have done great work flagging critical climate votes for pension funds – and you can sign their petition to pension managers here. 

– Seattle’s First Peoples’ Climate Fund

In Seattle, STMP Steering Committee member and Mazaksa Talks co-founder Matt Remle, played a key role in winning the First Peoples’ Climate Fund, a new funding source to fund Indigenous-led climate adaptation and mitigation efforts in the region.  

– And to finish: a goofy photo…

Finally, to close out this month’s newsletter, here’s a goofy photo of me and my buddy, Tushar, outside a Wells Fargo branch. Remember, if you know anyone who works at Wells Fargo, let them know: they can get in touch with a union organizer here.

The post May Newsletter: Unions, inequality, and the climate crisis. appeared first on Stop the Money Pipeline.

Click the icon at the bottom right to view the issue full screen. March 2026

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