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If your community is thinking about building a renewable energy project, you will need to make important decisions around who owns and profits from the project. This guide will walk you through the basics of project ownership covering topics such as:...

Welcome to CELDF’s America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective, an ongoing series this year.

The post CELDF’s What is America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective appeared first on CELDF - Community Rights Pioneers - Protecting Nature and Communities.

In the United States, public lands have often been treated like they exist for one main purpose: extraction. The actions of this administration treat them as if it’s public, it’s “available.”

Although that idea isn’t always said directly or out loud, it shows up clearly in how decisions get made, especially in national forests, where roadbuilding is usually the first step toward things like mining, large-scale logging, and other forms of industrial extraction that permanently reshape the landscape.

That pattern is exactly what the Roadless Rule was designed to help fix. It protects some of the last large, intact national forests from new road construction and large-scale development.

Today, that protection is again being targeted by the Trump administration, with efforts underway to roll it back nationwide. If that happens, tens of millions of acres of national forests could be opened to new roads and industrial use. Many of these areas are among the least fragmented forests left in the country.

It’s also no coincidence that this is unfolding alongside a broader restructuring at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Forest Service itself, where staffing, capacity, and decision-making authority have been under sustained pressure and internal change. Weakening the Roadless Rule at the same time the agency responsible for managing these lands is being reshaped compounds risk across the entire system, reducing both the guardrails on the landscape and the institutional capacity meant to defend it.

Alaska Wilderness League is no stranger to this fight. For years, we’ve worked alongside Tribal governments, local communities, and conservation partners to resist repeated attempts to open forests to clear-cutting and new roads, especially in places like the Tongass and Chugach. Because what’s at stake is whether these ecosystems remain intact long enough to function at all, supporting climate stability, salmon runs, and the communities that depend on them.

Photo: Alaska Wilderness League

And to understand why this fight keeps coming back, you have to understand what roads actually do to a forest in the first place.

The Roadless Rule

As Dr. Seuss’s Lorax once said, “It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become,” and a road in a forest can change everything.

By the end of the 20th century, national forests already contained more than 380,000 miles of roads. That network fundamentally reshaped how these ecosystems function. It disrupted wildlife habitat, cutting ecosystems into smaller and more isolated patches. It altered salmon systems through sedimentation, stream channel changes, and blocked access to spawning grounds. It changed how water moves through entire watersheds in ways that continue long after roads are no longer actively used.

Figure: Selva N., Hoffmann M.T., Kati V., Kreft S., Ibisch P.L. (in press). Emerging topics in Road Ecology. Roadless areas. In: M. D’Amico, R. Barrientos, F. Ascensão (Eds). Road Ecology: Synthesis and Perspectives. Springer. Still in press.

The Roadless Rule is one of the most significant conservation actions taken for national forests in modern U.S. history. In 2001, after years of scientific analysis, public comment, and environmental review, the U.S. government finalized the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protects 58.5 million acres of National Forest land, about a third of the entire Forest Service system. The rule prohibits most new road construction in those areas and significantly limits large-scale timber harvests in these landscapes, recognizing that once fragmentation begins, it rarely ever stops.

Take Action The Tongass and Chugach National Forests

Nowhere is that pressure more visible than in Alaska.

The Tongass National Forest is the largest temperate rainforest in the world, covering about 17 million acres in Southeast Alaska. It contains old-growth forests, salmon-bearing rivers, and coastal ecosystems that support extraordinary biodiversity. Within it, the Roadless Rule protects more than 9 million undeveloped acres, over half the forest, keeping these landscapes intact and connected, rather than divided by industrial access. These areas are critical for salmon habitat, subsistence use, and not to mention stores 8-10 percent of carbon in the U.S.

Tongass National Forest (Photo: Alaska Wilderness League)

The Chugach National Forest spans about 5.4 million acres in southcentral Alaska and includes glaciers, fjords, and river systems shaped by ice and meltwater. Its roadless areas protect headwaters that feed salmon-producing watersheds flowing into Prince William Sound and the Copper River Delta. What happens upstream here determines the health of entire coastal ecosystems downstream.

Chugach National Forest (Photo: AWL Staff / Mladen Mates)

Together, these roadless areas are functioning systems that support fisheries, climate resilience, and watershed stability. And because they remain unfragmented, they still have the capacity to adapt. That capacity disappears the moment a road gets built. Which is why these places have been a target for decades.

A Long History

The Roadless Rule has never been politically stable. Since its creation, it has been repeatedly challenged in court, revised through administrative action, and targeted for exemptions or repeal. In the early 2000s, it was replaced with a state-by-state petition system that was later struck down in federal court, restoring nationwide protections. Each attempt has followed the same arc: weaken the rule, open the door, then face legal and public pushback that forces it back into place.

In 2020, the Trump administration removed Roadless protections from the Tongass explicitly and exclusively, opening millions of acres of old-growth forest to potential roadbuilding and timber harvest. In 2023, that decision was reversed by the Biden administration under a new federal review process, restoring protections once again.

And outside of Alaska, the same vulnerability exists. Roadless areas stretch across Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, California, and other states, often serving as the last remaining large, unbroken forest landscapes in regions already heavily developed.

Which brings us to the largest attempt yet to unwind these protections at scale.

The Current Rollback Effort

In 2025, the USDA began the process of removing the Roadless Rule nationwide. If finalized, it would eliminate protections for 58.5 million acres of national forest and allow new road construction in areas that have been protected for more than two decades.

The public comment period for this proposal was 21 days, a grossly short amount of time for something that would change our national forests forever. Despite that, over half a million public comments were submitted opposing the rollback.

If the rule is eliminated, it would remove the legal restriction on road construction in currently roadless areas, effectively turning “protected by policy” into “open season for industrial development.” In practice, that unlocks industrial logging, mining access, and long-term fragmentation of landscapes.

In Alaska, that means it would reopen roadless portions of the Tongass and Chugach, including old-growth forests and remote watershed headwaters that have remained intact for decades. And in other parts of the U.S., it would apply to inventoried roadless areas that currently function as some of the least disturbed forest ecosystems left.

The Roadless Area Conservation Act (RACA)

In response to these rollbacks is a piece of legislation called the Roadless Area Conservation Act (RACA).

Reintroduced in 2025, RACA would codify Roadless Rule protections into law, ending the cycle of administrative reversal that has defined this issue for more than 20+ years. Instead of protections shifting every time leadership changes, it would lock them into statute, placing the baseline of protection beyond the reach of executive reinterpretation.

If passed, the Act would:

• Make protections permanent for roadless areas
• Prohibit new road construction in these areas, with limited exceptions
• Reduce the risk of future rollbacks tied to political change
• Provide long-term stability for forests, wildlife, and watershed health

Since its reintroduction, Alaska Wilderness League has helped build bipartisan momentum behind the bill, working across constituencies to make clear this is not a regional issue or a partisan one. It’s about whether intact public lands remain intact.

What’s Next

Roadless areas include some of the largest remaining connected forest landscapes in the entire National Forest system. These are places where ecosystems still function, where wildlife can live freely without disruption, salmon systems still run from headwaters to ocean, and forests still store carbon and regulate water the way they have for centuries.

The window for shaping the outcome of the Roadless Rule rescission is not closed. A draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and proposed rule will result in another public comment period sometime in Spring 2026.

This isn’t just a fight for the Tongass or Chugach. It’s a fight for every roadless forest in the National Forest system, for every Tribal nation whose treaty rights depend on healthy ecosystems and federal stewardship being upheld, and for every community whose economies and identities are tied to functioning watersheds and intact wildlands.

Our National Forests are not a renewable resource in any meaningful human timeframe. What’s lost here is lost for generations, if that. And what’s dismantled now will take far longer to rebuild than it took to remove.

We’ve done this before, and we will keep showing up, through every rollback attempt and every effort to chip away at what’s already been secured.

Take Action

The skies over Rowe Sanctuary have grown noticeably quieter in recent weeks, as the calls of sandhill cranes drift north with the spring migration. With their departure, I find myself reflecting on...

May 3rd Online Event – The American Chestnut: A Conversation with Environmental Historian Dr. Donald Davis Thoreau Farm, May 3rd at 2pm Eastern Register to watch on Zoom Presented by the Thoreau Alliance Before 1910, the American chestnut was one of the most common—and cherished—trees in the eastern United States. Its rot-resistant wood framed barns […]

Editor’s note: This article is a joint publication of SEJournal and The Revelator.

Like a lot of journalists, I love writing underdog stories.

For me, though, covering an underdog story might mean reporting about red wolves — or wolf spiders or wolfsnails.

For more than 20 years, I’ve been on the extinction beat, writing stories about rare or endangered species, the people trying to understand what’s threatening them or how to save them, and the plants and animals it’s now too late to save.

Along the way I’ve written more species “obituaries” than I ever imagined I might.

Most recently I collected the stories of more than 30 species declared extinct in 2025. Many of these disappearances were caused by the same factors that threaten people around the world: climate change, pollution, development, income inequality, and introduced diseases.

But at the same time, I’ve written about species recoveries, rediscoveries, conservation victories (big and small), scientific breakthroughs, and the very human efforts behind them all.

That’s one of the secrets of the extinction beat: You’re writing about animals and plants, but at the same time you’re really writing about people — at their worst and at their best.

Yes, it’s a difficult beat, one with more bad news than good. But looking back at the past couple of decades, I can see several reasons why I’ve stuck with it.

Writing About Extinction Is (Believe It or Not) Hopeful

I’ve said this several times over the past few years: Writing about extinction is an inherently hopeful act.

That might seem like a disconnect, but here’s the truth: Although I’ve covered hundreds of extinctions, I’ve written or edited thousands of articles about species surviving, often with the help of scientists and conservationists, sometimes through their own tenacity.

Even the negative stories — the tales of population declines or disappearances, the new threats that emerge, the projections of climate change — only happen because people are looking into those problems. And the discovery of a problem is the first step toward a solution.

That’s another secret of the extinction beat: While the word “extinction” implies a finality, the journalism surrounding it is rarely about “the end.” Instead, it’s often about preventing that end.

We write about what has been lost, what’s being lost, to ensure we have the knowledge and the collective will to prevent further declines or the next extinction.

Every story is potentially a lesson in what to protect and a road map for how to do it better.

Extinction Is About People

Behind every endangered species is a spider’s web of scientists, activists, and local communities whose lives are intertwined with that animal or plant.

Telling their stories and describing their passions or dramas brings a relatability to stories about species who can’t speak on their own — which might otherwise be more challenging when writing about unfairly maligned creatures like snakes, insects or parasites.

When we write about a species on the brink, we’re often also writing about the people who refuse to let it go — the ones who spend their lives in remote habitats, in labs or in the halls of government, fighting for creatures who will never know their names or who few people will ever see.

And that’s another secret about the extinction beat: These people can also be the underdogs of your story. They’re the ones fighting the system, often against seemingly impossible odds.

Extinction Is About Culture

Our societies are built upon observations of the natural world. When that world unravels, so does human culture.

Take sports, for example. How many teams are named after rapidly disappearing species? Or employ animals as their anthropomorphic mascots? What would the Detroit Tigers be without actual tigers?

Or go deeper, into our religions, fables, creation stories, idioms, slang, pop culture. They’re all deeply rooted in the natural world and in the ecosystems that we inhabit.

When a species goes extinct, it isn’t just a biological loss; it’s a cultural one. We lose a piece of the world that informed our ancestors’ stories and our children’s imaginations.

Writing about extinction is, in many ways, an act of cultural preservation. We’re helping to prevent the “extinction of experience” — where we even forget the way things once were.

Plants and Animals Can’t Tell Their Own Stories

One major reason why endangered species are underdogs is that they can’t tell their own stories — at least, not directly. They can’t explain to indifferent humans how their habitats are changing or advocate for their right to exist.

As journalists we act as their translators, bringing the dangers they face into the light for a world that might otherwise overlook them — and in the process, perhaps, we provide a new lens to help our readers understand the threats we all face.

Plastic pollution is an obvious example. The photos of sea turtles with plastic straws up their noses helped change behavior for many people.

More broadly, can describing the threats a species faces from climate change, PFAS pollution, or wildfires help readers understand that those threats are coming for them, too?

Every Species Is Amazing

Let’s step back from the doom and gloom and remember that just about every species has something amazing about it. A certain biological function, unique vocalizations, mating habits, feeding behaviors, migratory feats …

A recent paper found that conveying the awe about nature can inspire pro-environmental behaviors, such as helping and supporting conservation efforts. Even extinct species had unique qualities that we can recognize and mourn.

Think of chimpanzees. How much more endangered would they be today if Jane Goodall hadn’t spent years studying their behavior and bringing that story to the world (with the help of many journalists)?

As an aside, one of the most frustrating things about covering extinct and endangered species is the dearth of good photos for many of them. But when you finally find the right image? That can often sell your story as well as your words.

If Not Me, Who Else?

I often ask myself: If I don’t cover these stories, who else will?

Despite the stakes, extinction stories remain chronically underrepresented in environmental journalism and in the broader media landscape. We’re saturated with political commentary, influencer videos and sports analysis, but the literal disappearance of life on Earth often struggles to find space on the front page — let alone manage to reach eyeballs through social media algorithms.

But I’m always surprised. My stories do find readers, and they make a difference. They’ve inspired fundraisers, petitions, podcasts, and even a death-metal album. They’ve been cited in lawsuits and the Federal Register. They’ve brought “thank you” emails from readers around the world, many of whom have found ways to explore their grief for a disappearing world, or who have found their own ways to participate in conservation.

And so, as I do whenever I talk about this subject, I’ll now turn my question around: Why not you?

Joining the extinction beat is not just a professional choice. It can be a deeply rewarding and emotional journey, a chance to stand out from the pack, an opportunity to tell unique stories and a way to make a difference.

Reporting stories about species teetering on the brink of extinction allows you to tap into local expertise, explore your own regional culture and highlight species who exist in your own backyard. Or you can focus on faraway animals who rank high in our popular culture, or even species who few people realize even exist.

From a practical standpoint, you won’t be competing with 1,000 other climate journalists for the same headline. Instead, you may find new, vital angles that resonate with readers on their own emotional levels — and keep them coming back for more.

And in a world where journalism itself is an endangered species, that may be one of the best reasons of all.

Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. Previously in The Revelator

Why Don’t We Hear About More Species Going Extinct?

The post Why I Write About Extinction appeared first on The Revelator.

A tool for understanding the relationship between capitalism and nature and how to change it

Source

John Deere, an American agricultural, construction, and forestry equipment manufacturer, is opening new facilities in the United States and rehiring some of its laid-off workforce. But these moves, make a modest dent in the thousands of U.S. jobs the company has cut in recent years while Deere’s sizable global presence continues to expand.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump announced that John Deere will open two new U.S. facilities—a distribution center near Hebron, Indiana, and a manufacturing site in Kernersville, North Carolina.

According to a press release from Indiana Governor Mike Braun, the company plans to invest US$125 million to construct and equip a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution center on 234 acres near Hebron. In North Carolina, Deere is putting US$70 million toward expanding its Kernersville plant, which will take over excavator production previously based in Japan.

John Deere estimates that each site will generate about 150 jobs, underscoring the company’s intent to continue driving U.S. innovation and jobs, says John May, Chairman and CEO of John Deere.

Deere has also pledged to invest US$20 billion in U.S. manufacturing and is reinstating some previously laid-off employees including 146 employees in Waterloo, 24 in Dubuque, and 75 in Davenport.

But the new facilities and limited callbacks make only a modest dent in the significant losses across Deere’s U.S. operations in recent years. John Deere, an American company with deep midwestern roots, began making substantial lay-offs in October 2023, when the company fired 225 production employees from a plant in East Moline, Illinois.

In 2024, Deere cut 2,167 jobs across key facilities, including nearly 1,000 in Waterloo and hundreds more in Davenport, Dubuque, Ankeny, Ottumwa, Moline, and East Moline. Layoffs continued into 2025, with over 500 workers let go in Iowa alone.

Deere says that about 80 percent of the equipment it sells in the U.S. is manufactured domestically. Nevertheless, its international operations remain integral to its business model and supply chain.

International markets are a major driver of Deere’s revenue, providing nearly half of its consolidated net sales and revenues. The company employs 75,000 people worldwide, but more than half are abroad: only 30,000 employees are located in the U.S.

The company manufactures equipment and components throughout a global network, producing backhoes and planting equipment in Brazil, tractor engines and combines in Argentina, crushers and sprayers in Germany, feederhouses in France, cotton harvesters in China, and tractor screens in India.

And Deere continues to expand internationally, prompting scrutiny over how the company balances U.S. manufacturing with global production. The company recently announced that they’re moving their skid steer and track loader manufacturing from Dubuque, Iowa, to a new facility in Ramos, Mexico, and confirmed plans to build a US$55 million plant in Nuevo León to manufacture mini track loaders and mini wheel loaders.

Trump has said Deere’s new facilities as a win for U.S. manufacturing, announcing the projects at a January rally and on social media. The White House also highlighted Deere’s U.S. projects as part of a list of new investments during Trump’s second term as evidence of the President’s “unwavering commitment to revitalizing American industry.”

However, the groundwork for both projects had been laid in 2024 under the Biden-Harris administration. Deere’s planned expansion in Kernersville was first announced in 2024, according to Reuters.

Plans for the Indiana site trace back to a land acquisition that same year, which details the purchase of a 234-acre undeveloped parcel in northwest Indiana that “will be the future site of a 1.2-million-square-foot John Deere warehouse/distribution.” When asked about the timing, the company noted that some of these plans had been disclosed earlier.

Deere has indicated that its long-term strategy will continue “regardless” of political developments in the U.S.. But policy changes under the Trump-Vance administration are proving expensive. According to The Wall Street Journal, Deere incurred roughly US$600 million in tariff-related costs in its 2025 fiscal year and expects that figure to climb to about US$1.2 billion this year.

The broader equipment manufacturing sector is also facing headwinds: output and employment have declined from 2022 levels, according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, prompting concerns about the long-term trajectory of U.S. production. “The path that we are on is leading us to less manufacturing in the United States,” says Kip Eideberg, the Association’s Senior Vice President of Government and Industry Relations.

The workers being called back represent a small but significant reprieve for communities hit hard by recent layoffs. “When those layoffs are announced, it doesn’t just throw the family—it throws an entire town into confusion and chaos and worry,” explains Charlie Wishman, President of the Iowa AFL-CIO.

But for many others, the damage remains: Deere’s sweeping changes to its U.S. workforce have sparked both uncertainty and outrage, leaving hundreds of families questioning how they will pay rent, put food on the table, and find new sources of income.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Chris Robert, Unsplash

The post Can New Deere Jobs and Facilities Offset Years of Layoffs? appeared first on Food Tank.

This commemoration represents a critical moment to reaffirm and strengthen the human rights of peasants, while also reflecting on the long history of their struggles against deep-rooted structural challenges.

The post Indonesia: On Indonesian Peasants’ Rights Day, SPI Calls for Revision of the Peasants’ Rights Law appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

The research report is based on study involving 150 surveys and 80 in-depth interviews with families, prioritizing the participation of women and diverse rural and Indigenous populations.

The post Argentina: MNCI Somos Tierra presents its research report on “Rural Women, Care and Climate Crisis” appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

“We’re sick and tired of a system in which a few wealthy corporations have the legal right to pollute our water, poison our communities, and destroy the climate,” says chief petitioner Michelle Holman, a resident of Lane County who is also part of the watersheds group. “We’re pushing back. We’re ready for the fight."

The post Press Release: Earth Destroying Corporations Flood Lane County Election with Dark Money appeared first on CELDF - Community Rights Pioneers - Protecting Nature and Communities.

Headline News:

• “The National Science Board Purge Is A Warning About American Decline” • The members of the National Science Board were dismissed by email from the Presidential Personnel Office. Nature reported that members of the board, which was founded by Congress in 1950, were given no explanation for their termination. [CleanTechnica]

Work in science (ThisisEngineering, Unsplash)

• “US Renewable Capacity Set For 80 GW Rise” • Large solar, wind, and battery storage are projected to add over 80 GW of new generating capacity in the US by February 2027. Renewable energy’s share of total utility-scale capacity is expected to rise from 33.4% to 36.6% over the period, the US Energy Information Administration said. [reNews]
• “Nordex Earnings Surge In ‘positive’ Q1” • Nordex Group reported EBITDA of almost €131 million in the first quarter of 2026, up 64% year on year. The company said this corresponded to an EBITDA margin of 8.2%, compared to 5.5% in the same period last year, reflecting continued margin improvement. Sales reached €1.6 billion in the quarter. [reNews]
• “China’s Renewable Energy Capacity Reaches 2,400 GW By End-March” • China’s renewable energy sector continued its rapid expansion in the first quarter of 2026. New installations accounted for the largest part of overall power capacity growth, according to a press briefing by the country’s National Energy Administration. [CGTN]
• “Providence, Rhode Island Is Ready To Decarbonize” • Mayor Brett Smiley hopes to position Providence as a national leader in the green economy. The Mayor and a group of stakeholders have announced a $3 million proposal to unveil the city’s first green revolving fund, designed to dedicate City funds to renewable energy and decarbonization. [CleanTechnica]

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

Book sold on Amazon: “John Donovan, Shell’s nightmare” Information downloaded from Copilot on 27 April 2026 in response to the initial prompt: John Donovan Shell book summary

**John Donovan’s book *Shell’s Nightmare: My Epic Feud with the Unscrupulous Oil Giant Royal Dutch Shell* recounts his decades‑long battle with Shell, centered on alleged intellectual‑property theft, aggressive legal disputes, corporate espionage, and his later role as a prominent critic running the watchdog site RoyalDutchShellPlc.com.** [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4) [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4)

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### Overview of the Book
The book tells the story of **John Donovan**, co‑founder of the UK promotions agency Don Marketing, whose company created major forecourt promotional games for Shell in the 1980s and early 1990s. After a long period of successful collaboration, Donovan alleges that Shell repeatedly **stole his company’s promotional concepts**, triggering a conflict that escalated into a multi‑decade feud. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4) [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4)

### Key Themes and Events

#### 1. **Intellectual Property Disputes**
Donovan claims Shell misappropriated confidential promotional ideas his company had pitched. These disputes led to **six High Court actions**, a County Court case, and proceedings before the **World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)**—all of which were ultimately settled by Shell. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4) [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4)

#### 2. **Defamation and Legal Battles**
At one point, Shell allegedly displayed **defamatory posters** about Donovan and his father at Shell Centre in London. The Donovans sued for libel twice; both cases were settled out of court. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4) [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4)

#### 3. **Corporate Espionage and Surveillance**
The book describes episodes of **cloak‑and‑dagger activity**, including Shell’s admission that an undercover agent had been used. Donovan reports a period marked by **threats, burglaries**, and surveillance targeting him, his solicitor, and key witnesses. He later discovered that senior Shell figures were linked to a corporate intelligence firm that counted Shell as a client. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4) [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4)

#### 4. **Rise of a Global Watchdog**
Donovan eventually launched **RoyalDutchShellPlc.com**, a non‑profit site dedicated to publishing insider leaks, documents, and investigations about Shell. Shell attempted to seize the domain but lost. The site has since been cited in **dozens of books** and over **100 major news articles**, and has been used by NGOs, journalists, and government investigators. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4) [Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com](https://royaldutchshellplc.com/2026/01/26/profile-of-shells-nightmare-john-donovan-extracted-from-amazon/)

#### 5. **Media Coverage and Public Impact**
A TV documentary about Donovan’s campaign aired internationally, and his work has been referenced by outlets such as the **Financial Times**, **Wall Street Journal**, and **Reuters**. His website has been credited with influencing public scrutiny of Shell’s environmental and corporate practices. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Donovan-Shells-nightmare-UNSCRUPULOUS-ebook/dp/B01E7NYPM4) [Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com](https://royaldutchshellplc.com/2026/01/26/profile-of-shells-nightmare-john-donovan-extracted-from-amazon/)

—

Why the Book Matters
The book is both a **corporate‑whistleblower narrative** and a case study in how a single individual leveraged documentation, persistence, and the internet to challenge one of the world’s largest oil companies. It highlights issues of **corporate ethics**, **power imbalance**, and the role of independent watchdogs in holding global firms accountableAbout: John Donovan, Shell’s nightmare Downloaded from Copilot 29 April 2026 – Added below same day

John Donovan’s book chronicles his decades-long feud with Royal Dutch Shell, detailing battles over stolen intellectual property, corporate espionage, and his efforts to expose Shell’s activities and hold the company accountable.

Overview
John Donovan, co-founder of the sales promotion agency Don Marketing, initially had a decades-long, mutually beneficial relationship with Shell, creating successful promotional campaigns for their petrol sales worldwide. This partnership lasted over a decade with massive promotions involving millions of pounds and international reach
Amazon
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Turning Point
The conflict began when Shell executives repeatedly misappropriated Donovan’s intellectual property. What started as a business dispute escalated into decades of legal battles, including High Court actions, a County Court case, and proceedings at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Shell also engaged in alleged corporate espionage against Donovan and his associates
Amazon
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. These secretive operations included infiltration attempts orchestrated by Shell-linked intelligence firms
Amazon
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Activism and Public Campaigns
In response to Shell’s actions, Donovan launched the non-profit website royaldutchshellplc.com, exposing alleged corporate misdeeds, environmental violations, and problematic projects including Sakhalin-II in Russia and Prelude FLNG in Australia. His publications, often based on insider documents, had substantial financial and reputational impact on Shell. The book details his contribution to Shell losing its majority share in Sakhalin-II, as the evidence he supplied helped Russian authorities intervene
johndonovan.website
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Themes and Incidents
Corporate espionage and legal battles: Shell attempted to suppress Donovan through covert operations, but he continued publishing detailed accounts of their tactics
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Intellectual property disputes: Donovan emphasizes how Shell allegedly took ideas and innovations from Don Marketing without proper acknowledgment or compensation
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Environmental and ethical reporting: Through his website, Donovan advocated for transparency on Shell’s environmental impact and safety issues
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Media and government engagement: The book recounts Donovan’s interaction with journalists, NGOs, and government officials, including the Russian environmental regulator Oleg Mitvol. His actions prompted extensive media coverage and public scrutiny of Shell
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4 Sources
Structure
The book is organized chronologically, covering:
Donovan’s early career in petrol retailing and promotions.
Successful collaborations with Shell followed by the escalation of conflicts.
Detailed court cases, WIPO proceedings, and legal settlements.
The establishment of his website and whistleblowing campaigns.
Analysis of Shell’s historical and contemporary corporate behavior, including WWII-era associations and modern projects
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2 Sources
Significance
Donovan’s account serves both as a personal memoir and investigative chronicle, highlighting how an individual can challenge a global corporation. His work illustrates the interplay of business ethics, corporate power, legal systems, and environmental responsibility
Amazon
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In essence, John Donovan, Shell’s Nightmare provides an in-depth narrative of a man’s campaign to defend his intellectual property, expose corporate malpractice, and hold one of the world’s largest energy companies accountable, blending legal drama, corporate intrigue, and whistleblowing activism.

RELATED INFORMATION FROM AMAZON. 

His ebook tells the truly extraordinary story of a series of incredible battles in an epic feud between him and the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell.

It all stemmed from the repeated theft of intellectual property by Shell.

Donovan was chairman of a sales promotion agency, Don Marketing, that devised spectacularly successful forecourt promotions for Shell on an international basis. Many involved budgets of several million dollars. A mutually beneficial relationship lasted for over a decade.

This was followed by two decades of acrimony involving six High Court actions, a County Court case and proceedings via the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

At one stage Shell displayed posters at the Shell Centre in London defaming John Donovan and his father Alfred. The Donovan’s sued Shell for libel. One of two libel actions they brought against Shell. Both were settled out of court, as were all of the other court actions. Shell also lost the case decided by the WIPO.

On a number of occasions Shell resorted to cloak and dagger activity and was cornered into admitting in writing the activities of one undercover agent. This was at a time when the Donovan’s were besieged by sinister activity involving threats against them and when a series of burglaries were carried out at the homes of their main witness, their solicitor and at their own home.

Unbeknown to the Donovan’s titled Shell directors were the spymasters, directors and major shareholders of a corporate intelligence spy firm which had Shell as a client, and still does.

For more than a decade, John has operated a Shell focussed non-profit website which operates under the domain name royaldutchshellplc.com which Shell unsuccessfully attempted to seize.

A TV documentary feature about John Donovan and his website, which has cost Shell billions of dollars, as widely reported, has been broadcast in many countries, with a related news article published in ten languages. His activities have been the subject of over 100 news articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters etc. and references to his website appear in almost 40 books.

Amazon segment ends

Media coverage update: link list of over 500 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission website etc. all containing references to Donovan’s legendary Shell focussed websites, or website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing Donovan’s Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of over 100 books also containing references to Donovan’s non-profit websites and/or related activities. Includes links to Donovan’s famed ongoing Bot War with Shell and to his so-called radioactive Shell archive.

Copilot book summary of “John Donovan, Shell’s nightmare” was first posted on April 27, 2026 at 10:20 am.
©2018 "Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at john@shellnews.net

Ofcom 'investigating climate denial' Channel News Catherine Early 27th April 2026 Teaser Media

As the war in Iran squeezes the global supply of oil and gas, countries are looking to source more solar power. China, the world's biggest producer of solar equipment, saw its exports double in March, reaching a new record high.

Read more on E360 →

Exploratory drilling began this past week at the Rochford Mineral Exploration Project in the central Black Hills.  This is an effort to mine graphite at Pe’ Sla, which is a significant cultural and ceremonial landscape that has been used by indigenous people for many generations – and that is still used for those purposes.  Last … Continue reading GRAPHITE DRILLING BEGINS AT LIEN PROJECT AT PE’ SLA

 by David Spratt, first published at Pearls&Irritations

Australia’s defence and foreign policy settings are focused on geopolitical rivalry, while far greater systemic risks – especially climate disruption – receive little strategic attention.

Blinded to the greater risks, the Albanese Government and the security commentariat have spent four, unrelenting years making the case that China is the biggest threat to Australia’s future.

Defence and foreign policy, encapsulated in the AUKUS agreement, tie Australia to a nation currently engaged in what the historian Timothy Snyder calls “Superpower Suicide”: “a systematic undoing of American power by Americans” in which “fighting a war for no reason we can name, losing it, and covering our defeat with genocidal and apocalyptic propaganda” had led to ”rapid and catastrophic decline as the result of specific choices in the last year”.

The AUKUS cargo cult – with Labor, the LNP and One Nation marching arm in arm – means the Parliament and the nation have spent little time even considering what may be the greatest threats to our future.

In risk management, there are potential events so destructive that they are termed catastrophic because of their capacity for human death or suffering on a massive scale, such that societies may never fully recover. This may be called existential risk or in actuarial terms, the “risk of ruin”, which colloquially in financial and gambling circles is the risk of “losing everything”. Catastrophic events include nuclear war, climate change, biosecurity threats including pandemics, and disruptive digital technologies.

Every year the World Economic Forum surveys private and public sector global leaders on the big risks. The 2025 WEF Global Risk Report lists the ten most severe risks on a 10-year horizon. The top four, and five of the ten, are related to climate-change and nature degradation: extreme weather, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, critical change to Earth systems, natural resource shortages, and pollution.

Of the other five, three are digital disruption: misinformation and disinformation, adverse outcomes of AI technologies, and cyber espionage and warfare. Rounding out the top ten are inequality and social polarisation. State-based armed conflict and geoeconomic confrontation don’t make the top ten, though they are in short-term (two-year) listing.

So is China or climate disruption the biggest threat? Global leaders understand what the Australian Government denies.

What would climate-disruption look like on a geo-political scale, given the warming is accelerating and is likely to exceed 3 degrees Celsius? Two decades ago, American security analysts noted that  “nonlinear climate change will produce nonlinear political events… beyond a certain level climate change becomes a profound challenge to the foundations of the global industrial civilisation that is the mark of our species”.

They produced a 3-degree scenario, in which “the internal cohesion of nations will be under great stress, including in the United States, both as a result of a dramatic rise in migration and changes in agricultural patterns and water availability. The flooding of coastal communities around the world, especially in the Netherlands, the United States, South Asia, and China, has the potential to challenge regional and even national identities. Armed conflict between nations over resources, such as the Nile and its tributaries, is likely and nuclear war is possible.”

In Chatham House’s Climate change risk assessment 2021, the security think-tank found that impacts likely to be locked in for the period 2040–50 unless emissions rapidly decline – which they are not – include a global average 30 per cent drop in crop yields by 2050, and the average proportion of global cropland affected by severe drought exceeding 30 per cent a year. They concluded that cascading climate impacts will “drive political instability and greater national insecurity, fuelling regional and international conflict”.

The consequences of climate disruption will strike everywhere. Last November, Iceland designated the potential collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) a national security concern and an existential threat, so that it could plan for worst-case scenarios and preventative action.

A disturbing new research paper finds it is likely that AMOC will have slowed by half this century, and scientists fear it is close to a tipping point. Peter Ditlevsen of the University of Copenhagen calls AMOC collapse a going-out-of-business scenario for north-west European agriculture. In addition, the monsoons that typically deliver rain to West Africa and South Asia would become unreliable, and huge swaths of Europe and Russia would plunge into drought.

AMOC collapse would challenge European foundations, including the viability of nations and states, and of the EU and NATO, moving climate from the realm of environmental and culture wars to the heart of the matter: human security, social breakdown, mass displacement and death.

And it is not a security threat par excellence in 50 years time, but right now, as the Icelandic Government has recognised, because systemic changes now under way will make such an outcome inevitable unless the world applies strategic focus, resources and collective political will to trying to avert such a catastrophe right now.

Yet a search of Hansard finds no mention of AMOC in either house of Australia’s Parliament, from any MP or Senator, over the term of the Albanese government. That is depressing, but not unexpected. The government ordered a climate and security risk assessment from the Office of National Intelligence when it came to power, and immediately suppressed the report, refusing to articulate ‘frankly terrifying’ security risks.

And of course AMOC is but one in an array of climate-security risks: the northern quarter of Australia – where the government is spending billions upgrading military bases – will become unliveably hot in three or four decades from now. And declining crop yields: researchers estimate that beyond 2°C warming, which is perhaps only 15 years away, “the declines in suitable areas for the 30 crops [analysed] become more pronounced – in some cases approaching and passing 50 per cent”.  That in itself would cause global chaos. There are scores more, including Himalayan water wars, mass people displacement, and drowned states.

A recognition that climate poses an existential – and perhaps the most pressing – risk to Australians’ future would mean that any Australian foreign policy, defence or strategic review would place it at the centre of concern. Instead the government has done the opposite, barely giving climate a token tick in such recent documents.

Epitomised by the tedious performances of the Defence Minister, Australia is doggedly pressing on with its “America first, Earth last” strategy. But this moment requires clarity about the existential nature of the climate threat to humanity’s future; and a collective regional commitment to strategic action.

A version of this op-ed was first published in The Moscow Times.

For the past 40 years, the wastes of the Chernobyl site have stood as a monument to human arrogance, the danger of secrets, the plodding ineptitude of repressive regimes, and the catastrophes that occur when they all intersect.  At a remove of four decades—and after the production of an enormous scientific and cultural literature on the disaster—it’s tempting to say we’ve learned our lesson.

The word “Chernobyl” itself has passed into our collective lexicon as synonym for catastrophe, and the UN a decade ago designated April 26—the day in 1986 that Chernobyl’s No 4 reactor exploded—as an international Day of Remembrance, a dark honor that the disaster’s anniversary shares with the likes of the Holocaust and the transatlantic slave trade.

Surely—we terribly wish to say as a civilized society—we’ve put this sort of thing behind us. Right?

A Russian military drone that blew a hole in the dome protecting the world from the No 4 Reactor’s still-highly radioactive entrails suggests otherwise. In fact, as the ruby anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident arrives this Sunday, we’re discovering newer ways to endanger nuclear power plants—this time by making them targets of war.

Since its invasion of Ukraine commenced in February of 2022, Moscow’s troops have invaded and attacked the Chernobyl site, bombed a research reactor at Kharkiv’s Institute of Physics and Technology in Ukraine’s east, and taken over Europe’s largest civilian nuclear power plant, the six-reactor Ukrainian facility at Zaporizhzhia, claiming the facility as Russian property.  All the while, Russian supersonic missiles continue to whiz within mere kilometers of not just Chernobyl, but Ukraine’s operating Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant as well.

What’s more, all of this is becoming quite routine. In recent weeks, Washington—the same world capital that was aghast at Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian nuclear facilities—targeted Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant in an attack of its own. The rest of the world meanwhile is more or less powerless to stop it. Indeed, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency—with its vague mandate to encourage and oversee the safe and peaceful use of atomic energy—is empowered by its governing body (which includes representatives from Russia and the US) to do little more than be officially horrified. It is a posture that’s’ unequal to what’s at stake.

A view of the New Safe Confinement structure in 2016.

The Chernobyl disaster remains one of the defining moments in the twilight years of the Soviet Union. Moscow sought to obscure the disaster while quietly evacuating more than 116,000 people from the area surrounding the plant in the days after the reactor exploded. It would be Swedish authorities who finally pierced Moscow’s official silence when they announced mysterious spikes in their own radiation monitoring systems. What they detected was a plume of radioactive material ejected into the atmosphere, causing a public health emergency across Europe and leading to a skepticism toward nuclear energy that would last decades.

It was in the long shadow of the catastrophe that the Bellona Foundation was born. Founded in Norway in the years following the disaster, we emerged from a growing recognition that nuclear risks did not respect national borders, and that independent scrutiny of nuclear safety—particularly within the former Soviet Union—was urgently needed. What began as a response to secrecy and contamination in the wake of Chernobyl has since evolved into decades of work tracking nuclear hazards, advocating for transparency and environmental rights—and nearly single-handedly spearheading the cleanup of generations radioactive waste and nuclear hazards in Russia’s northwest.

The human toll of the Chernobyl explosion was likewise obscured. Officially, it stands at 31 dead—a figure many experts say is ludicrously low. In the following years, hundreds of people involved with quelling the disaster’s effects fell ill, and many eventually died. Cancer rates, especially for thyroid cancer, increased in areas heavily exposed to radiation. In later interviews, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president on whose watch the Chernobyl accident occurred, would identify the catastrophe as one of the most important factors hastening the Soviet collapse.

Forty years after that calamity, Moscow itself has wrought renewed disaster at Chernobyl. In the opening days of its invasion, Russian troops overran the Exclusion Zone—the 2,6000-square-kilometer area around the plant where radiation levels remain high and public access is limited—where their tanks and transports churned up radioactive dust. Soldiers looted and vandalized workshops necessary to the ongoing decommissioning of not only the No 4 reactor, but the plant’s three remaining reactors as well, the last of which was finally shut down in 2000.

An apartment building in the abandoned city of Pripyat, where Chernobyl’s workers lived, as seen in 2006.

The soldiers dug trenches and set fires in an area known as the Red Forest—a gnarled expanse of irradiated woodland—scorching some 14,000 hectares of land, filling the air with so much radioactive smoke that it was unsafe for firefighters to quell the blazes. Hundreds of Chernobyl workers and technicians who oversee the site’s sprawling network of spent fuel storage facilities and the enormous effort to dismantle the radioactive remnants of the exploded No. 4 reactor, were held hostage onsite.

Looting and petty destruction by Russian troops was general. Computers, dosimeters, lab tools, firefighting equipment and even appliances were stolen. Office doors were ripped off hinges, windows smashed, walls spray-painted with graffiti. Human excrement was left behind on control panels as a calling card.

After a month of marauding—and amid reports of radiation sickness among its troops—Russia abruptly withdrew on March 22, 2022, and, in a bizarrely official ceremony, handed control of the plant back to the Ukrainians. According to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, which has financed much of the Chernobyl cleanup work since the original 1986 disaster, the Russian Army’s destructive adventure in the world’s most famous radioactive wasteland left behind some €100 million in damage.

That, however, would not be the end of it. A drone attack on Chernobyl, coming in February of 2025, ruptured the so-called New Safe Confinement, a €1.5 billion dome that has protected the No 4 reactor since 2016. Designed to replace the crumbling concrete sarcophagus poured over the remains of the reactor by Soviet liquidators, the dome houses the still ongoing removal of 200 tons of molten nuclear fuel left inside.

It’s an enormous—and enormously complicated—structure. Standing as tall as a football pitch is long and weighing more than 31,000 tons, the New Safe Confinement is the world’s largest movable object. The sarcophagus it now shelters was never built to last. By the mid-1990s, cracks had opened, leaks had formed, and the whole brittle shell was sagging under its own weight.

To avoid being exposed to radiation, the new dome structure was built about a half a kilometer away from the sarcophagus, then moved into place on rails. In addition to the securing the melted fuel, the structure protects the outside environmental from some 30 tons of highly contaminated dust and 16 tons of uranium and plutonium that continue to release high levels of radiation.

In places, the structure measures about 12 meters between its inner and outer shells, and the space between them is kept at low humidity to prevent corrosion. The outer shell keeps out the elements. The inner shell is designed to contain the radioactive dust inside the structure, especially when the cranes that are set up within it start dismantling the sarcophagus and the damaged reactor before safely disposing of the waste in smaller containers.

Ukrainian specialists overseeing the cleanup had aimed to start that dismantlement stage this year, but the drone attack has made that impossible. According to those Bellona has spoken to, none of that work can move forward until a full repair process has been completed—which is not expected until 2030.

Makeshift repairs, meanwhile, are keeping radioactive dust inside the shelter, and, almost miraculously, no radiation spikes have been recorded since the initial attack. But ongoing Russian strikes around the Chernobyl site continue to threaten the now-enfeebled structure, which the EBRD estimates will cost some €500 million to fully repair.

Naturally, the IAEA has warned again and again against such attacks and wrung its hands over the apparent normalization of military aggression against some of the most sensitive industrial sites constructed by man. But the composition of its board of governors, and its enforced apolitical stance, prevent it from censuring, or even naming, the obvious culprits. Because of this, the international body is little more than a paid mourner at the funeral of the rules-based international order.  From the attacks on Chernobyl, to the seizure of Zaporizhzhia, to the US strike on Bushehr, the agency can do little but express “deep concern.”

This paralysis of deep concern was what we had 40 years ago when a radioactive cloud of hidden origin darkened the skies over Europe and turned hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens into refugees from their own government’s secrets. One would hope that 40 years of staring into the rubble of one of humanity’s biggest mistakes would have brought us more wisdom and enlightenment.

That it hasn’t is partially a failure of collective imagination. After Chernobyl, we thought we’d seen the worst thing that could happen to a nuclear power plant. No one—not world governments, not the designers of Chernobyl’s New Safe Confinement, not the IAEA—ever accounted for deliberate military attacks on civilian nuclear power stations. It was unthinkable.

Now that it’s not, we must work together—NGOs, governments, and people alike—to make it unthinkable again. As an organization, Bellona has proposed beginning the conversation on what, exactly, international oversight for the safety of nuclear power plants should look like. It’s clear that we need a transnational agency that has the authority to do more than offer hopes and prayers when nuclear plants become military targets.

Such a system would have to emerge from the international community itself, but the time for that discussion has clearly arrived. Until it does, however, we’re left exactly where we were in 1986, watching helplessly as disaster unfolds.

The post After Chernobyl we said ‘never again.’ Then came the war. appeared first on Bellona.org.

A listing of 28 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 19, 2026 thru Sat, April 25, 2026. Stories we promoted this week, by category:

Climate Change Impacts (10 articles)

• A more troubling picture of sea level rise is coming into view Scientists have uncovered a “blind spot” in the research on rising seas, revealing that tens of millions of people thought safe from coastal flooding are at risk of inundation. Grist, Fred Pearce, Apr 18, 2026.
• Wildfires used to 'go to sleep' at night. Climate change is turning them into prime burning hours Phys.org, Seth Borenstein, Apr 18, 2026.
• The Guardian view on Japan`s cherry blossom: when spring slips out of time | Editorial A 1,200-year dataset shows the ‘peak bloom’ is arriving earlier. Global heating is unsettling nature’s rhythms – and their cultural meaning The Guardian, Editorial, Apr 19, 2026.
• Lost millennium of Galapagos deep-sea corals linked to major Pacific climate shift Phys.org, University of Bristol, Apr 20, 2026.
• State of the climate: Strong El Niño puts 2026 on track for second-warmest year The first three months of 2026 have been the fourth warmest on record, with each successive month surpassing historical averages by a greater margin. Carbon Brief, Zeke Hausfather, Apr 21, 2026.
• What`s driving the catastrophic wildfires in Georgia Drought conditions have been worsening for months in the Southeast. Now tens of thousands of acres are burning, displacing people and destroying dozens of homes. Grist, Emily Jones, Apr 22, 2026.
• As Climate Disasters Create an Insurance Crisis, a California Bill Seeks to Make Fossil Fuel Companies Pay Premiums “have gone through the roof” and insurers have been leaving the state as the costs of disasters soar amid worsening extreme weather. Inside Climate News, Steven Rodas, Apr 23, 2026.
• Hot, dry and hurricane-scarred: How climate change fueled wildfires in Georgia and Florida Widespread drought in the Southeast is largely to blame for the fires, but their spread has also been fueled by leftover debris from past hurricanes that swept across the region. NBC News, Denise Chow, Apr 24, 2026.
• The “grim news” that isn’t making headlines Dr Gilbz on Youtube, Anna Gilbert, Apr 24, 2026.
• The Next El Niño Could Lock Earth Into a Hotter Climate The Pacific heat pulse is temporary, but scientists warn that its climate impacts are not. Inside Climate News, Bob Berwyn, Apr 25, 2026.

Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation (3 articles)

• Clean energy pushes fossil-fuel power into reverse for `first time ever` Renewable energy has overtaken coal to become the world’s largest source of electricity in 2025, according to thinktank Ember. Carbon Brief, Molly Lempriere, Apr 20, 2026.
• Why Climate Work Is Community Work State of the Planet, Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht, Apr 23, 2026.
• Transition risk: The human cost of net zero Stranded assets and ghost factories The Climate Brink, Andrew Dessler, Apr 23, 2026.

Climate Law and Justice (3 articles)

• Climate Change, the Courts and US policy - a Critical Perspective From a Former Judge of the UK Supreme Court Climate Law Blog, Robert Carnwath, Apr 22, 2026.
• Republicans introduce extreme bill to ban lawsuits against Big Oil forever HEATED, Emily Atkin, Apr 23, 2026.
• Criminalisation of climate protesters in UK is counterproductive, research finds Study of 1,300 campaigners finds arrests, fines and jail terms increase determination of activists to take direct action The Guardian, Damian Carrington, Apr 25, 2026.

Miscellaneous (3 articles)

• Big Oil Breaks Everything The planet, our democracy, our courts... The Crucial Years, Bill McKibben, Apr 19, 2026.
• 2026 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #16 A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 12, 2026 thru Sat, April 18, 2026. Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler, John Hartz and Doug Bostrom, Apr 19, 2026.
• EGU2026 - My plans for attending virtually The European Geoscience Union's General Assembly will take place from May 4 to 8 in Vienna and online. Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler, Apr 22, 2026.

Climate Science and Research (2 articles)

• Madagascar's ancient baobabs store 700 years of climate secrets-what they reveal The Conversation, Estelle Razanatsoa, Lindsey Gillson, Malika Virah-Sawmy, Apr 20, 2026.
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #17 2026 2026''s 17th edition of Skeptical Science's weekly climate research introduces a new regular feature: scoreboarding citations of previously listed articles. Skeptical Science, Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack, Apr 23, 2026.

International Climate Conferences and Agreements (2 articles)

• Revealed: Scientists tell Colombia fossil-fuel transition summit to `halt new expansion` Countries attending a first-of-its-kind fossil-fuel summit have been asked to consider “action recommendations” such as “halting all new fossil-fuel expansion” and “reject[ing] gas as a bridging fuel”, according to a preliminary scientific report seen by Carbon Brief. Carbon Brief, Daisy Dunne, Apr 20, 2026.
• New global panel aims to accelerate move away from fossil fuels Scientists and economists will help countries develop plans to reduce dependence on oil, gas and coal The Guardian, Jonathan Watts and Fiona Harvey, Apr 25, 2026.

Health Aspects of Climate Change (2 articles)

• This Growing Climate Threat Could Be Increasing Your Blood Pressure Lede: A growing body of research suggests that saltwater leaching into freshwater supplies is increasing the risk of human health problems. Inside Climate News, Kiley Price, Apr 21, 2026.
• Pollen season in UK and mainland Europe extended by climate breakdown Research finds global heating has already lengthened the pollen season in addition to worsening heatwaves and droughts The Guardian, Ajit Niranjan, Apr 22, 2026.

Climate Education and Communication (1 article)

• The really big picture, in four pictures If you had to explain climate change in 10 seconds, what would you say? Climate Trunk, John Lang, Apr 22, 2026.

Climate Policy and Politics (1 article)

• Q&A: What Magyar`s defeat of Orbán in Hungary means for climate and energy The right-wing populist Hungarian government led by Viktor Orbán has suffered a landslide electoral defeat to the centre-right Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar. Carbon Brief, Josh Gabbatiss, Apr 17, 2026.

Public Misunderstandings about Climate Solutions (1 article)

• Trust, Media Habits, and Misperceptions Shape Public Understanding of Climate Change Most Americans are concerned about climate change, but they don’t think most others share that concern. That quiet misunderstanding is one of the biggest barriers to climate action in the United States. This report explores how trust in information, media consumption patterns, and perceptions of others shape how people think about climate change. The findings point to a striking paradox: while many Americans trust the information they encounter and are concerned about climate change, they believe others are far less concerned and less able to recognize accurate information. ecoAmerica, Marryam Ishaq , Apr 09, 2026.

If you happen upon high quality climate-science and/or climate-myth busting articles from reliable sources while surfing the web, please feel free to submit them via this Google form so that we may share them widely. Thanks!

Ian Angus introduces his new book, joined by Helena Sheehan, Inea Lehner, and David McNally, and Jess Spear

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