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Reuniones cerradas entre gobiernos dejan fuera a organizaciones observadoras de las discusiones sustantivas sobre el futuro tratado, advierten 26 organizaciones de la región.

Agosto de 2026— Organizaciones de la sociedad civil de América Latina y el Caribe denuncian la falta de espacios de participación efectiva en las negociaciones del Tratado global de plásticos y alertaron sobre el impacto que esta situación tiene en la transparencia y legitimidad del proceso.

Las organizaciones, que siguen las negociaciones desde 2022, señalan que durante 2026 los jefes de las delegaciones gubernamentales han participado en reuniones denominadas “informales” para discutir aspectos sustantivos del tratado, mientras que las organizaciones observadoras no han tenido acceso a estos espacios.

En su lugar, han sido convocadas a reuniones virtuales con la Presidencia del Comité Intergubernamental de Negociación (INC, por sus siglas en inglés), encabezada por el embajador Julio Cordano, en las que el principal mecanismo de interacción disponible es un chat.

“El Tratado Global de Plásticos no puede, bajo ningún concepto, crear nuevas zonas de sacrificio, ni consolidar las ya existentes, zonas que están marcadas por la opacidad y por decisiones que han sido tomadas al margen de la ciudadanía y los observadores velan para que esto no ocurra. Mantenerlos al margen de las reuniones de delegados y delegadas no es una simple decisión procedimental: es un acto político que profundiza la brecha entre quienes deciden y quienes padecen las consecuencias. Si el tratado aspira a ser justo, debe ser participativo desde su raíz”, explica Cecilia Bianco de la organización Taller Ecologista de Argentina. 

Según las organizaciones, esta modalidad les impide aportar oportunamente evidencia científica independiente, conocimientos técnicos y experiencias de comunidades y territorios afectados por la contaminación por plásticos, así como conocer y contribuir al debate sobre las posiciones que los gobiernos llevan a la mesa de negociación.

También expresaron preocupación ante la solicitud de la Presidencia del INC de que las organizaciones observadoras designen representantes únicos. Consideran que esta medida podría limitar la diversidad de voces y reducir la variedad de aportes científicos, técnicos y territoriales disponibles para las delegaciones.

Las organizaciones sostienen que la falta de participación sustantiva representa una regresión respecto de los estándares alcanzados anteriormente en el propio proceso de negociación y resulta contraria a los principios de democracia ambiental, particularmente aquellos relacionados con transparencia, acceso a la información y participación pública establecidos en el Acuerdo de Escazú.

“Hemos insistido en que el Acuerdo de Escazú representa un referente de progresividad para nuestra región. Por ello, resulta preocupante que, mientras América Latina y el Caribe han avanzado en reconocer estándares más altos de transparencia, acceso a la información y participación pública, las negociaciones del tratado global sobre plásticos estén adoptando modalidades que restringen los espacios de participación que la sociedad civil había tenido en etapas anteriores del proceso. Este cambio representa una regresión en términos de participación y transparencia, particularmente cuando se trata de una negociación que definirá respuestas frente a una crisis ambiental y de salud pública de alcance global.

Esta situación resulta aún más paradójica en una región profundamente afectada por el Colonialismo de la Basura, que históricamente ha recibido y soportado una parte desproporcionada de los impactos de la contaminación por plásticos y de los desechos generados por otros países”, afirma Larisa de Orbe de la organización Acción Ecológica de México.

Ante esta situación, las organizaciones hacen un llamado al presidente del INC, embajador Julio Cordano, y a la Mesa directiva para que restablezcan mecanismos que garanticen una participación directa, efectiva y significativa de las organizaciones observadoras en todas las etapas de la negociación.

Las organizaciones sostienen que un tratado global sobre los plásticos sólo podrá ser legítimo, sólido y ambicioso si se construye mediante un proceso transparente, inclusivo y respetuoso de los principios de la democracia ambiental.

Organizaciones firmantes

Acción Ecológica México; Alianza Resíduo Zero Brasil; Alianza Basura Cero Chile; Alianza Basura Cero Ecuador; AMAR Asociación de Defensa del Medio Ambiente; Libérate del Plástico; Centro de Tecnologías Aplicadas de Argentina; CESTA, Amigos de la Tierra (El Salvador); Coalición Ciudadana Antiincineración (Argentina); Colectivo Ecologista Jalisco (México); Colectivo Tz’unun Ya’ (Guatemala); El Poder del Consumidor (México); FAS (Panamá); FUNAM (Argentina); Fundación Agua Clara (Venezuela); Fundación PlastiCo. Proyecto (Ecuador); Alianza Global para Alternativas a la Incineración (GAIA); Manos Abiertas La Bandada (Argentina); Mingas por el Mar (Ecuador); Organización Ecologista Piuke (Argentina); RADA (Chile); RAPAL (Uruguay); Red Dominicana de Estudios y Empoderamiento Afrodescendiente (República Dominicana); Taller de Comunicación Ambiental (Argentina); Taller Ecologista (Argentina); Toxisphera Asociación de Salud Ambiental (Brasil).

Contactos de prensa: 

Camila Aguilera, GAIA, camila@no-burn.org  | +56 9 8913 6198

María Fernanda Pérez R., BFFP, mafe@breakfreefromplastic.org | +58 424 210 8017

The post Organizaciones de América Latina y el Caribe denuncian exclusión de lasociedad civil en las negociaciones del Tratado global de plásticos first appeared on GAIA.

The version of record of this op-ed was published in The Hill Times on September 2, 2026. 

By Peter Massie (Director, Geothermal Energy Office, Cascade Institute) and Jax Jacobsen (Communication Lead, Geothermal Energy Office, Cascade Institute)

Whitehorse sits atop a promising geothermal resource—maybe one of Canada’s best, and developing geothermal energy would strengthen this country’s national security by strengthening relations with Arctic allies.

Northern territories and cities desperately need affordable energy. At the same time, Canada’s armed forces require a steady and inexpensive source of power to patrol and protect the North.

Continue reading.

The post Canada has an energy conundrum in the north: geothermal energy is the answer appeared first on Cascade Institute.

Today’s jobs report shows the economy added 162,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%. Job gains averaged just 31,000 per month over the past year and labor force participation remains near recent lows at 61.6%.

Today’s noisy report offers little guidance for policymakers navigating the difficult waters of persistent inflation and a sluggish labor market that continues to look fragile under the hood. Those looking for a clear indication of a labor rebound will be left disappointed. Restaurants and bars drove more than one-third of job growth over the past month, and back-to-school season hiring drove roughly one-fourth. Wage growth slowed further in August, falling to 3.1% over the past year for private sector workers, the weakest in four years and below last month’s inflation rate. As Trump continues to impose new tariffs and wage his war on Iran, fueling inflation, working families are stretching paychecks to the brink. The average duration of jobless spells is 26.3 weeks – up more than a week from July – and nearly 2 million Americans have been unemployed for more than six months.

Groundwork Collaborative’s Vice President of Policy, Advocacy, and Research, Elizabeth Pancotti, released the following statement:

“Policymakers should look past the noise of today’s jobs report. Hiring remains concentrated in limited sectors of the economy. Worse, gains in the health care industry, which has propped up the job market for the past two years, have stagnated as we stare down the economic effects of the Republican budget law’s Medicaid cuts. Minimal wage gains continue to be drowned out by rising prices stemming from Trump’s war in Iran and ever-changing tariff regime. While this month’s report may look like the labor market has turned the corner, make no mistake – Trump’s economy is on life support.”

Deep-pocketed tech companies and mission‑critical defense customers are emerging as the earliest adopters of advanced reactors, but utilities see potential if siting and cost recovery issues can be resolved.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza during the conflict that broke out in October 2023 has wrecked progress towards adapting the enclave to climate change and left two million Gazans vulnerable to heatwaves, drought and disease, the Palestinian Authority (PA) said in a new climate plan submitted to the United Nations.

Palestine’s third nationally determined contribution (NDC), uploaded to the UN climate body’s website this week, says that while “the aggression on the Gaza Strip did not make the climate worse”, “it removed the housing, water and sanitation systems, health facilities, energy networks, roads and livelihoods through which people absorb a climate they were already struggling with.”

The 91-page document lists the types of infrastructure it says Israel has destroyed and notes how the destruction will worsen the impacts of climate change. It says the bombing of hospitals and rising hunger have make it harder for Gazans to cope with the health impacts of climate-driven heatwaves and waterborne diseases.

On beaches of Gaza and Tel Aviv, two tales of one heatwave

The destruction of water tanks, boreholes and desalination plants, meanwhile, have left Gazans struggling with the effects of water shortages and drought, while mass unemployment reduces people’s ability to afford climate-driven price rises. The erasure of most of the Strip’s homes makes it more difficult for people to avoid the sun’s increasing heat, the NDC said.

Many Gazans are now living in the ruins of collapsed buildings or in makeshift shelters and tents that offer little or no protection from high temperatures.

A displaced Palestinian child fills water containers on July 2, 2026 in Gaza City, Gaza. (Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)

Palestine’s previous goals to cut emissions and adapt to climate change in Gaza, expressed in its last NDC five years ago, were based on a pre-war baseline that “no longer describes anything that exists”, the NDC says. Progress made since 2021 has now been destroyed, it adds.

Green reconstruction of Gaza

Instead of continuing to aim for these adaptation and emissions-reduction goals, the PA is now calling for the green reconstruction of Gaza. It says buildings should be constructed again in an energy-efficient manner with solar panels and served with modern water, waste and transport systems.

While the PA, controlled by the Fatah political party, continues to claim legitimate control of Gaza, the strip was effectively governed by Fatah’s rival Hamas between 2007 and the recent war. Control is now split between Israel and the political wing of Islamist militant group Hamas, after a US-backed ceasefire took effect in October 2025, although a UN-backed committee plans to take over. 

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The United Nations, European Union and World Bank have jointly estimated that Gaza needs $71.4 billion of investment in the next two years to recover and build back. This process should be Palestinian-led, they said in April.

But US President Donald Trump has said the US should “take over” and “own” Gaza and redevelop it as the “Riviera of the Middle East”. Israel’s right-wing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel should control the territory with civil administration managed by Palestinians favourable to Israel.

With occupation, targets conditional

In the other part of Palestine, the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority carries out some government functions, but ultimate control rests with Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967. 

Because Israel controls planning in most of the West Bank, the NDC argues that the PA cannot pursue all the climate projects it wants. In addition, Israel restricts the movement of PA officials, making data collection difficult, and controls the West Bank’s electricity supply meaning that the PA cannot control whether it comes from dirty or clean sources of energy.

Given this situation, the NDC says that all of Palestine’s new climate targets are conditional but it will aim to reduce emissions 12.8% below a business-as-usual baseline by 2035 and 17.1% by 2040. If the Israeli occupation ends and Palestine regains full sovereignty over its land and resources, it will aim for reductions of 15.1% and 19.1% by 2035 and 2040 respectively under an “independence pathway”.

That could allow, for example, for greater electrification and reducing emissions per unit of growth, the document said.

To achieve the 2035 emissions-reduction target and adapt to the impacts of climate change, the PA says it needs $8.6 billion in total. This funding would be spent on measures like encouraging solar farms and rooftop solar and scaling up solar water heating to cover four-fifths of households. To complement the planned increase in solar power, the authority wants to modernise the electricity grid and install battery storage.

In the transport sector, it aims to promote the uptake of electric vehicles, develop bus rapid transit corridors and scrap old polluting trucks and buses. In Gaza in particular, it wants to deploy 66 electric buses when the conflict ends.

A bus rapid transit system in Sao Paulo (Flickr/EMBARQ BRASIL)

To adapt to climate-driven drought, the NDC includes initiatives to reuse wastewater through treatment plants, build desalination plants in Gaza to remove salt from seawater, and promote irrigation for farmers.

The new climate plan was prepared by Palestine’s Environment Quality Authority, with support from the United Nations Development Programme and the governments of Britain and Spain.

The United Nations recognised Palestine’s statehood in 2012 and it joined the UN’s climate convention and signed the Paris climate agreement – which requires countries to submit more ambitious NDCs every five years – in 2016.

The Israeli foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. But in late 2024, then Israeli climate envoy Gideon Behar told Climate Home News that the war and the resulting environmental destruction in Gaza was the fault of Hamas.

The post Palestine: Israel’s bombing has left Gaza vulnerable to climate change appeared first on Climate Home News.

“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up-to-date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.

As exciting events continue in Philadelphia, learn how you can get around to major summer 2026 events without a car, or being stuck in traffic with GoPhillyGo: Car-Free Routes Map!

Image Source: The Inquirer

The Inquirer: SEPTA gets $13.3 million from D.C. for new Silverliner Regional Rail train cars – A $13.3 million federal grant is going to SEPTA to help replace the 223 Silverliner IV train cars that were pulled from service last year. After being in service for half a century and several fires, the train cars were pulled for safety inspections and repairs. The grant is part of the Rail Vehicle Replacement Program, and work will begin in the Fall. 234 new cars will be built, at an estimated cost of $2 billion.

Image Source: The Inquirer

ABC 6: More than 330K drivers ticketed along Broad Street since speed camera enforcement began: PPA report – Speed cameras have been capturing driver data along Broad Street since November 2025 at 15 locations. Drivers exceeding 11 miles over the speed limit are fined starting at $100, and the Philadelphia Parking Authority released a report on violations through March 2026. In total, more than 330,000 drivers were ticketed along the Broad Street corridor.

Image Source: WPXI

CBS Pittsburgh: $82M in federal grant money will help Pittsburgh Regional Transit purchase new light-rail vehicles – Pittsburgh Regional Transit is receiving over $82 million in grant funding. The funding will be used to purchase new vehicles for the light-rail system, the “T.”. 45 new vehicles will be replacing old cars on the T, and will feature a more modern interior and on-vehicle wheelchair lifts.

Other Stories

Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Lawmakers wrestle with the proliferation of e-scooters on Pa. roadways

WHYY: Philadelphia Cycling Classic returns, reconnecting fans and cyclists with longtime traditions

The Inquirer: New speed cameras in West and North Philadelphia will start warning drivers on Monday

WPXI: Bicyclists flock Pittsburgh’s streets for 33rd annual Pedal PGH fundraiser

Pittsburgh City Paper: Lawrenceville’s guerrilla crosswalks are a white-striped call for change

Philadelphia Today: IBX Partners with Philly Bike Ride for One of the City’s Signature Fall Traditions

The U.S. Forest Service announced Wednesday it will close 23 research stations across more than a dozen states, as part of a restructuring that has already cost the agency roughly 6,000 employees. Forty-one other facilities originally slated for closure will stay open after pushback from Congress and local communities, and the agency says 95 employees at the shuttered sites will be relocated rather than laid off.

Associate Chief Chris French said the move will save USFS about $16 million and that the cuts wouldn’t affect ongoing science. But forest researchers see it differently. “It’s just madness to me that we would decide that we’ve learned everything and shut these places down,” Elizabeth Leger, a biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, told the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists when the closures were first proposed in April. One anonymous Forest Service biologist said: “You can’t manage wildfire, invasive species, if you don’t know what changes are occurring in those dynamics.”

An office in Albuquerque that will be closed currently employs six scientists and conducts research on Southwestern grasslands and riparian ecosystems and restoration and sustainability in the Middle Rio Grande Basin ecosystem, according to the USFS. The station closures are happening as the agency moves its headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City and shutters regional offices in Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Portland.

Schultz’s timber ties shape Roadless repeal

Companies and clients U.S. Forest Service chief Tom Schultz once worked for as a lobbyist and executive stand to benefit directly from the Roadless Rule rollback, according to Mother Jones and Public Citizen. Schultz spent years leading Idaho’s Department of Lands before becoming vice president at Idaho Forest Group, one of the country’s largest lumber producers. Schultz went on to lead the Federal Forest Resource Coalition, a trade group representing timber purchasers in 37 states, where he told Congress in 2022 the Forest Service should let states manage more federal timber sales and bypass detailed environmental reviews.

Quick hits Trump administration says agencies may stop working with the Smithsonian

CNN | Washington Post | The Atlantic | NBC

We need to work together to save our public lands, says Backcountry Hunters & Anglers president

RideApart

Judge halts data center construction on public land

Nevada Current

US Forest Service chief with industry ties pushed for more logging on public lands

Mother Jones | Public Citizen

Postcards for public lands: Greater Yellowstone Coalition launches campaign to protect 45 million acres

Local News 8

Local advocates discuss border wall construction impact on public lands, wildlife

Arizona Luminaria

Pyrograzing turns ordinary livestock into fire prevention heroes, so why isn’t it used on public lands more often?

The Conversation

Opinion: Trump’s destruction of public lands will be a damning part of his legacy

The Cap Times

Quote of the day

Eroding the Forest Service follows the same logic driving rollbacks across federal agencies: prioritizing extraction over stewardship.”

—Lois Parshley, Public Citizen

Picture This

@SaveOurParksUSA

Let us know how you feel about Doug Burgum directing your park fees to Trump’s gold horses, Reflecting Pool, and other DC vanity projects as other desperately needed park fixes and maintenance get shelved. https://bit.ly/4ch7aLr

 

Feature image: The Caldor Fire burned over 200,000 acres in the Eldorado National Forest and other areas of the Sierra Nevada; USDA Forest Service photo by Preston Keres

The post Forest Service to close 23 research stations nationwide appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

Thematic and Working Groups Report Radical Democracy and Autonomy Thematic Group The Radical Democracy and Autonomy Thematic Group has been advancing several interconnected strands of work, building conceptual depth, organisational pathways, and stronger networking for collective learning, action and solidarity..GTAGTAGTAAlternativesGTAalternativesalternativesalternativesGTAGTAMASSAMASSAMASSAGTAweaversendorsersGTAweaversGTAGTAAlternatives

When people imagine the front line of antibiotic resistance, they may see a hospital where antibiotics are overprescribed, or a feed lot where cattle are pumped full of these drugs. They probably won’t picture a cornfield. But a new study suggests that crop fields may be an important battleground for fighting antibiotic resistance. And the way we farm will decide who wins.

The new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that high-intensity farming, typical of the U.S. Corn Belt, produced soil microbiomes that were more likely to transmit antibiotic-resistant pathogens to humans, compared to lower-intensity farming methods. In other words, modern farming may contribute to drug-resistant infections, which kill up to 4.7 million people per year, worldwide.

To find out how farming methods affect this risk, researchers compared the soil microbiomes from four widely used farming schemes: high-intensity corn cropping with heavy tilling, synthetic fertilizers, and non-antibiotic biocides to combat pathogenic fungi; two medium-intensity cropping schemes, with reduced biocides and tilling, and use of cow manure to reduce or eliminate synthetic fertilizers; and low-intensity grazing rotated with no-till cover crops, with only intermittent biocides, manure, or synthetic fertilizers.

The team analyzed the microbiomes of soils from these farming schemes, as well as the manure used in the medium-intensity fields. Using metagenomics, they quantified the abundance and diversity of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), mobile genetic elements (MGEs) capable of transferring these resistance genes from one species of bacteria to another, and known human pathogens capable of receiving those resistance genes.

 

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It was hardly surprising that the manures used to fertilize crops contained plentiful ARGs and MGEs. But once those manures were spread on fields, most of the bacteria harboring them failed to take hold—out-competed by the diverse microbiomes present in the medium-intensity fields. As a result, ARGs and MGEs were actually less abundant in these medium-intensity soils, compared to soils from high-intensity fields that received no manure at all.

The team estimated the relative risk that a pathogen could acquire an ARG and infect humans. They found the risk of transmission significantly higher for high-intensity compared to medium-intensity fields.

They attribute these results to two factors in the high-intensity fields: lower bacterial diversity, less likely to out-compete bacteria with ARGs, and environmental stress due to synthetic fertilizers, biocides frequently containing copper or other heavy metals, and tilling—potentially favoring bacteria with ARGs and MGEs.

Intensive farming is already known to have plenty of costs—such as high greenhouse emissions from synthetic fertilizers and runoff that pollutes rivers, coastal waters, and lakes. But these new findings suggest that it also has another, unrecognized cost: facilitating the spread of drug-resistant pathogens that could harm humans.

Conversely, the authors write, “soil and crop management practices could be strategically leveraged to limit the onward spread of drug-resistant pathogens.”

Nickodem, et al. “Soil management practices shape the abundance, diversity, and spread of antimicrobial resistance.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2026.

Image: Based on TopMicrobialStock/iStock.com. ©Anthropocene Magazine

Pasar game digital punya logika mirip industri kreatif: produk dengan fungsi serupa tetap harus memiliki identitas agar tidak tenggelam di antara kompetitor. Joker Gaming membaca situasi tersebut lewat pendekatan visual pada Slot Maxwin. Alih-alih membuat layar sekadar penuh efek, identitas permainan dibangun lewat karakter, simbol, transisi, warna, serta respons animasi. Hasilnya terasa berbeda meski konsep gulungan masih familier.

Dari kacamata ekonomi digital, visual memiliki nilai lebih besar daripada urusan estetika. Tampilan berfungsi sebagai alat diferensiasi produk. Ketika puluhan game muncul dalam satu katalog, desain membantu pengguna mengenali sebuah judul dalam hitungan detik. Bisa dibilang, perhatian menjadi “mata uang” pertama sebelum pemain memahami fitur lebih jauh.

Joker Gaming Membawa Diferensiasi ke Pasar Slot Maxwin

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Pengguna mobile punya waktu terbatas untuk melihat satu kartu game. Judul, thumbnail, karakter utama, serta warna dominan harus bekerja cepat. Jika tampilannya terlalu generik, sebuah permainan mudah kelewat. Sadis memang, tetapi begitulah ekonomi perhatian bekerja.

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Slot Maxwin Tidak Lagi Bertumpu pada Tampilan Klasik

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Bagi audiens Gen Z, pendekatan ini cukup relevan. Mereka terbiasa dengan aplikasi berisi transisi cepat, visual padat, serta informasi singkat. Tampilan game akhirnya bersaing bukan cuma dengan sesama permainan, tetapi juga dengan seluruh ekosistem hiburan mobile.

Long-tail keyword seperti “perubahan visual Slot Maxwin Joker Gaming” atau “fitur Slot Maxwin dengan desain modern” muncul secara alami dari perubahan kebutuhan pencarian. Pengguna tidak selalu mencari nama permainan saja. Mereka juga ingin memahami ciri, mekanisme, dan pengalaman visualnya.

Desain Ramai Tetap Membutuhkan Hierarki

Lebih banyak efek tidak otomatis menghasilkan antarmuka lebih baik. Terlalu banyak kilatan, ikon, angka, serta animasi justru dapat meningkatkan beban visual.

Joker Gaming perlu menjaga hierarki informasi agar simbol utama, tombol kontrol, saldo, serta fitur permainan tetap mudah ditemukan. Prinsipnya sederhana: dekorasi menarik perhatian, sedangkan struktur membantu pengguna memahami layar.

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Fitur Joker Gaming Membentuk Nilai Tambah Produk

Dalam ekonomi produk digital, nilai tambah muncul saat konsumen merasakan perbedaan nyata antara satu pilihan dengan alternatif lain. Pada permainan, nilai tersebut dapat berasal dari tema, audio, navigasi, mekanisme bonus, maupun cara sebuah fitur diperkenalkan.

Joker Gaming dapat menggunakan animasi sebagai penanda saat mekanisme tertentu aktif. Efek visual lalu bekerja sebagai feedback, bukan ornamen kosong. Pengguna memperoleh sinyal mengenai perubahan kondisi permainan tanpa harus membaca teks panjang.

Pendekatan tersebut membuat fitur Slot Maxwin lebih mudah dikenali. Namun visual tidak mengubah prinsip dasar hasil permainan menjadi sesuatu yang bisa diprediksi. Efek dramatis tetap perlu dibedakan dari informasi mengenai aturan dan mekanisme.

Efek Visual Bukan Indikator Hasil Berikutnya

Bagian ini sering tercampur dalam percakapan komunitas. Animasi tertentu kadang dianggap sebagai kode, pola, atau sinyal menuju hasil berikutnya.

Secara logis, tampilan antarmuka berfungsi menyampaikan kondisi ronde saat ini. Kilatan layar, perubahan suara, atau gerakan karakter tidak layak dijadikan dasar untuk memastikan hasil selanjutnya tanpa dokumentasi mekanisme resmi.

Bagi pembaca, pemisahan tersebut penting. Pengalaman visual boleh terasa intens, tetapi interpretasi tetap perlu berpijak pada aturan permainan.

Ekonomi Perhatian Membuat Provider Harus Punya Identitas

Katalog digital menciptakan paradoks kecil. Pilihan bertambah, tetapi waktu pengguna untuk menilai setiap pilihan justru makin pendek. Provider akhirnya harus memenangkan perhatian sebelum berbicara soal kedalaman fitur.

Joker Gaming melalui sentuhan visual pada Slot Maxwin memperlihatkan bagaimana identitas dapat dibangun dari detail kecil. Thumbnail menjadi pintu masuk, karakter menciptakan pengenalan, animasi memberi respons, sedangkan antarmuka menjaga informasi tetap terbaca.

Perubahan ini menjelaskan kenapa hasil presentasinya terasa berbeda tanpa harus menganggap visual sebagai penentu hasil permainan. Dalam pasar hiburan digital, desain bekerja sebagai pembeda produk dan alat komunikasi. Ketika identitas visual kuat bertemu struktur antarmuka rapi, Slot Maxwin tidak sekadar terlihat lebih modern. Produk juga memperoleh posisi lebih jelas di tengah persaingan provider yang makin padat.

Headline News:

• “US Forest Service Closing 23 Research Facilities As Part Of Reorganization Under Trump” • The US Forest Service is closing 23 research stations in more than a dozen states as part of an organizational overhaul under President Donald Trump that is intended to trim costs and concentrate the agency’s resources in Western states, officials said. [ABC News]

New Hampshire (Cate Bligh, Unsplash, cropped)

• “EU Heavy-Duty Vehicle Transition Needs Renewed Political Momentum” • Europe’s road transport sector is under growing pressure. The crises triggered by the wars in Iran and Ukraine have pushed diesel prices sharply higher reinforcing concerns over Europe’s energy security. Extreme weather is increasingly disrupting transport operations. [CleanTechnica]
• “El Niño To Be ‘Very Strong’ And Last Until February, UN Climate Agency Warns” • El Niño is set to become “very strong” in the months ahead, with the weather phenomenon near certain to persist through to February, the UN climate agency warned. The World Meteorological Organisation said El Niño would peak towards the end of this year. [Euronews]
• “It’s Game On As Ford Fathom Steals Thunder From Tesla Cybercab Launch” • The Ford Fathom electric pickup truck seems aimed to steal market share from industry leader Tesla one way or another. News broke around the Fathom right in the middle of the leadup to a major promotional event for the Tesla Cybercab robotaxi in Texas. [CleanTechnica]
• “France Had Its Hottest Summer Since Records Began Over A Century Ago, Environment Minister Says” • According to the national weather agency Meteo France, the summer of 2026 had an average temperature of 24°C. That is 3.6°C above the normal average, and 0.9°C higher than the record set in 2003, when the average was 2.7°C above normal. [Euronews]

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

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Solar power generation in the UK reached a new record over the summer of 2026, as temperatures across the nation soared, according to new analysis by Carbon Brief. 

Collectively over June, July and August, solar farms and rooftops generated 8.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in the UK*, as shown in the chart below. 

Speaking to Carbon Brief, Chris Hewett, chief executive of trade association Solar Energy UK welcomed the new record, adding that it was driven by “clear skies and continued growth in deployment”. 

This surge in generation took place amid the hottest summer on record in the UK, with five heatwaves between May and August.

Summer 2026 was the sixth sunniest on record, with more than 620 hours of sunshine, according to the Met Office. England and Wales – which experienced the most extreme heat – saw their second-sunniest summers on record. 

June 2026 was the hottest June in England since records began in 1884, according to Met Office data, while Wales and the UK as a whole experienced their second-warmest June. 

It was the driest July for England and Wales since records began in 1836, with some parts of London seeing no rain at all in the month, while Wisley in Surrey had no rain for 62 days. 

In England, temperatures peaked at 38.1C at Kew Gardens in London on 13 August. 

According to the Met Office, this summer’s record mean temperature was made 130 times more likely by climate change.  

Amid these hot and sunny months, solar power generation increased 23% from the same period in 2025. This is double the level of solar generation over the summer of 2021, according to Carbon Brief analysis. 

While solar panels can be affected by periods of extreme heat, the longer hours of daylight and higher levels of irradiation over the summer more than offset any efficiency losses. 

June, July and August all saw solar set new monthly records for solar generation – July saw the highest solar generation in a calendar month ever, with 3.3TWh meeting 15% of overall electricity demand for the month. 

As of the end of August, the total UK solar generation in 2026 stood at 17TWh – 13% higher than the same point in 2025. 

The number of solar farms and rooftop installations has grown substantially in recent years, helping to boost generation. Domestic rooftop solar accounts for around 29% of total capacity.

In 2025, the UK’s solar capacity reached 21 gigawatts (GW) by the third quarter of the year, according to UK government figures. This is a jump of 3GW, or 18%, year-on-year, as Carbon Brief reported in January. 

(Capacity is the maximum output possible from an electricity generation, whereas generation is what was produced over a certain time period, such as a day, month or year.)

According to the University of Sheffield, the installed solar capacity is now nearly 24GW. 

This includes nearly 172,000 solar installations that have been fitted across the UK since the start of 2026, according to recent government figures. In July alone, more than 19,800 rooftop solar panels were installed – the equivalent of one installation every two minutes. 

In total, nearly 1.7m households in the UK now have solar panels installed. 

Over 26 heatwave days this summer – periods of at least three days when temperatures exceed the Met Office’s county-level heatwave temperature threshold – UK households with rooftop solar panels avoided an estimated £86.7m in electricity costs, according to analysis by Utility Bidder.

Talking about the surge in solar generation this summer, Hewett says: 

“[It] not only kept bills down for people with solar and batteries in their homes, but helped keep overall power prices much lower than they would have been if Britain had been relying on more gas generation during the day”.

Despite the record generation, no new half-hourly solar power output record was set in the summer of 2026. This still stands at 15.2 megawatts (MW) on 23 April 2026.

* This article refers to the UK throughout, but strictly relates to the island of Great Britain, made up of England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is part of the separate, all-Ireland electricity system.

related Factcheck: 10 flaws in the Conservative report on ‘cheap power’ 20.08.2026 Renewables Q&A: What is ‘long-duration energy storage’ – and why does the UK need it? 19.08.2026 Electricity Q&A: What does China’s 15th ‘five-year plan’ for renewables mean for climate change? 29.07.2026 China policy Analysis: Wind and solar power overtake fossil fuels in Germany for first time ever 28.07.2026 Energy

The post Analysis: UK solar power hits record high over summer 2026 appeared first on Carbon Brief.

There’s no question that, when it comes to the future of food and agriculture, “business as usual” doesn’t work.

At major global events like Climate Week NYC, which coincides with the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, we need to keep the pressure on leaders to act—but we can’t keep having the same conference-room conversations over and over again. We need to show the world that food and ag are key solutions to the climate crisis—but we need to move toward urgent, lifesaving action.

I’m so excited to share the six days of food and agriculture programming that Food Tank and our partners are bringing to New York City during Climate Week NYC, all hosted at WNYC–NPR’s The Greene Space and livestreaming around the world, from September 20–25.

To break out of our routines and break down walls, you’re invited to our “All Things Food and Agriculture” Film Festival. You’re invited to our friend and renowned food expert Marion Nestle’s 90th birthday party. You’re invited to events that place a strong focus on the future, highlighting the next generation of farmers and grappling with educating the next generation of eaters. You’re invited to help us bridge the food movement with the arts, as we invite acclaimed Broadway performers and musicians to raise the emotional stakes.

In short: You’re invited to a series of Food Tank Summits that bring together more than 225 luminary speakers and performers—countless diverse visionaries, creative thinkers, and problem-solvers.

And if you’re unable to join us in person, nearly every event will be livestreamed, with videos immediately posted after the event concludes. You can find livestream links—and a way to set up notifications—via our YouTube page HERE. I’ll also send out reminder emails that include livestream links, so you won’t miss a moment.

Check out our full schedule by scrolling down or CLICKING HERE. 

Our Climate Week events are selling out quickly! If you want to bypass the waitlist on a sold-out event, Food Tank members get access to special promo codes. You can join at FoodTank.com/Join.

There’s no way we could do this alone, so a big thank-you to all our 2026 event co-hosts: American Farmland Trust; Amy’s Kitchen; Arrell Food Institute; Bel US; Bonterra; CARE; CookUnity; Diestel Family Ranch; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Food Planet Prize; Future Food Institute; Global Traceability Framework for Beef and Leather; Groundswell; Halter; Handsome Brook Farms; The Henry Ford; James Beard Foundation; Mill; New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy; New York University; Northstar Recycling; NRDC; Once Upon a Farm; Organic Center; Organic Valley; Organic Voices; Pilot Light; RAAPID; Restaurant Technologies; Rockefeller Foundation; Rodale Institute; Stonyfield; Strong Roots; Support + Feed; Kat Taylor, President of TomKat Foundation; United Nations Environment Programme; and Whole Foods Market.

Here’s the lineup, with links to secure your spot:

Sunday, Sept. 20

EVENING: “Putting Farmers First: How Young Farmers are Shaping the Future of Food,” with Whole Foods Market. 6:30PM reception; 7–8:30PM program. Register HERE.

The evening will explore how the next generation of farmers is shaping the future of food, the barriers they continue to face, and the investments, partnerships, and policies needed to ensure they can thrive. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Jason Buechel, Whole Foods Market; Tristen Buettel, Broadway Actor, Singer, and Dancer; Amalia Colón-Nava, Dirtbaby Farm; Cullen Curth, Pianist, Music Director, and Conductor; Emily Grant, Rise and Shine Acres; Michelle Hughes, National Young Farmers Coalition; Sarah Jones, Jones Farms Organic; DeVonne Jackson Perez, Brooklyn-based Urban Farmer and Sustainability Educator; Caitlin Leibert, Whole Foods Market; Brita Lundberg, Lundberg Family Farms; Becca Millstein, Fishwife; Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, Whole Foods Market; Anna Turrell, Mars Snacking; and many more to be announced soon!

Monday, Sept. 21

MORNING: “Solving Food Waste is a Key Solution to the Climate Crisis,” with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Food Planet Prize, NRDC, Restaurant Technologies, CookUnity, and Mill. 9AM breakfast and musical guest; 9:30AM program; 11AM lunch. Register HERE.

The morning will bring together leaders from across the food value chain to explore innovative solutions, successful partnerships, and scalable strategies that are preventing waste before it happens, recovering surplus food, and creating a more circular food system. Confirmed speakers and performers include: María Bengochea, CookUnity; Veleké Brown, E-RoadMap Corporation (Operation No Food Gap); Cullen Curth, New York City-based Pianist; Julie Gehrki, Walmart Foundation; Diana Geseking, Restaurant Technologies; Robert Jones, Culinary Institute of America; Matthew Jozwiak, Rethink; Madeline Keating, NRDC; Martin Krause, UN Environment Programme; Nathan Lucrezio, Broadway Actor; Adalberto Maluf Filho, Brazil’s National Secretary for Urban Environment, Water Resources and Environmental Quality; Emily Norford, Food Planet Prize; Lou Pieh, Mill; Gwyneth Rampton, Compass Group USA; U.S. Representative Andrea Salinas, Oregon’s 6th Congressional District; Tia Schwab, C40 Cities; Jackie Suggitt, Walmart; and many more to be announced soon!

AFTERNOON: “Mission Driven Brands Sustainability Summit.” 1:30PM lunch and musical guest; 2PM program; 3:30PM reception. If you work in this space, register HERE.

This annual event convenes leaders from across the food, retail, and hospitality sectors to explore how businesses can drive meaningful environmental and social impact. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Jordan Catalana, Tapestry Foundation; Stephen Cronk, Maison Mirabeau and The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation; Dana Cowin, Progressive Hedonist; Ryan Fielding Garrett, New York City-based Composer, Music Director, Orchestrator, and Musician; Ann Marie Hourigan, Whole Foods Market; Mark Kaplan, Wholechain; Shawna Laczko, Northstar Recycling; Elaina Leibee, Erewhon Natural Food Market; Peter McGuinness, Bel US; Sarah McMullin, Target Owned Brands; Daniel Quadrino, Broadway Actor; Rob Samuels, 8th-Generation Whisky Maker, Maker’s Mark; Beatrix Scolari, Bonterra Organic Estates; Jason Weller, JBS; and many more to be announced soon.

EVENING: “All Things Food and Agriculture” Film Festival, with TomKat Foundation; Halter; The Rockefeller Foundation; The Henry Ford; and Groundswell. 6:30PM doors and musical guest; 7PM program; 8:30PM reception. Register HERE.

This special event will showcase powerful short films and documentaries highlighting the people, innovations, and ideas transforming our food system. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Xiye Bastida, Re-Earth Initiative; Brandon Burks, Broadway Actor, Singer, and Dancer; Elijah Caldwell, OBIE Award-winning Actor, Singer, Pianist, and Music Director; Sara Farley, The Rockefeller Foundation; Andrew Fraser, Halter; Spence Medford, The Henry Ford; Kacie Scherler-Abney, Fifth-Generation Rancher; Zach Scherler-Abney, Scherler-Abney Land & Cattle; Jennifer Sherman, Alice Waters Institute; Kat Taylor, TomKat Ranch and TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation; Rebecca Harrell Tickell, Director and Producer, Groundswell; and Haven Worley, Director, Irish Farmers: A Love Story.

Tuesday, Sept. 22

MORNING: “Thriving Farms and Ranches,” with American Farmland Trust. Register HERE.

We’ll explore solutions that empower farmers and ranchers while building a more sustainable and secure food system for future generations. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Hillary Barile, Rabbit Hill Farms; Amanda Beal, Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry; John Chester, Farm Lore Films; Oliver English, Common Table Creative; Simon English, Common Table Creative; Heidi Exline, American Farmland Trust; Tim Fink, American Farmland Trust; Olivia Fuller, Fuller Farm; Dominick Grant, Dirt Capital Partners; Will Harris, White Oak Pastures; Brooks Lamb, Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator; Caitlin Leibert, Amazon Worldwide Grocery; Bianca Moebius-Clune, PhD, American Farmland Trust; Jenny Lester Moffitt, American Farmland Trust; Heather Oppel, General Mills; Madison Claire Parks, Broadway Actress; John Piotti, American Farmland Trust; Karen Ross, California Secretary of Food and Agriculture; Deydra Steans, S3 Legacy Ranch; Kat Taylor, TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation; Jeff Tkach, Rodale Institute; Noah Turner, Broadway Music Director; and many more to be announced soon.

AFTERNOON: “Nourishing the Future: How Farming Practices Shape the Food We Eat, the Health We Build, and the Longevity We Seek,” with Diestel Family Ranch. Begins 1:30PM. Register HERE.

Through farmer stories and more, we’ll examine why the next frontier in food systems may be measuring value not just by cost, yield, or convenience, but by nourishment. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Elder Raymond Bryant, San Antonio Million Gardens Project; Melissa Clark, The New York Times and NYT Cooking; Heidi Diestel, Fourth-Generation Farmer, Diestel Family Ranch; Mercedes Diane Griffin Forbes, Forbes Food & Ag; Clair Rachel Howell, Broadway Performer; Anne Marie Hourigan, Whole Foods Market; Noah Turner, Broadway Music Director; Chef Andrew Zimmern; and many more to be announced soon!

EVENING: “People-Focused. Climate-Friendly. Food-Forward New York City,” with Support + Feed, Strong Roots, and the NYC Mayor’s Office. Begins 6:30PM. Registration page HERE.

What does people-focused, climate-friendly, and plant-forward urban food policy look like? Confirmed speakers and performers include: Maggie Baird, Support + Feed; Maria Caputo, New York-based Composer; Emma Curtis, Strong Roots; Kaitlyn Davidson, Broadway Actor; Shyria Donawa, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygeine; Ora Kemp, New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy; Kevin Nakagawa, Open Doors; Norman Priester, NYC Department of Corrections; Siddhartha Sanchez, New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy; and many more to be announced soon!

Wednesday, Sept. 23

ALL DAY: “The Roots of Organic: From Soil to Shelf,” with Organic Valley, Once Upon a Farm, Handsome Brook Farms, Stonyfield, Amy’s Kitchen, and in collaboration with Organic Voices, the Organic Center, and the Rodale Institute. More info and registration for this all-day event is HERE.

Confirmed speakers and performers include: Benjamin Bartley, UNFI; Alexis Bramley, Organic Trade Association; William Brinkerhoff, Soil Scientist, Chef, and Science Communicator; Marcia Brown, POLITICO; Amy Bruch, Cyclone Farms; Duron Chavis, Happily Natural Day and Sankofa Community Orchard; Taylor Clayton, Adams Group; Cullen Curth, Pianist, Music Director, and Conductor; Beatriz Daim, Tradin Organic; Kathleen Davis, Science Friday; Matthew Dillon, Organic Trade Association; Abianne Falla, CatSpring Yaupon; Tracy Favre, Handsome Brook Farms; Ryan Fielding Garrett, Broadway Music Director; Christopher Gergen, Regenerative Organic Alliance; David Gonthier, University of Kentucky; Alison Grantham, Grow Well Consulting; Stephanie Grotta, Target; Taylor Hurd, Singer-Songwriter; Chef Johanna Hellrigl, AMA and 2026 James Beard Award Semifinalist; Celia Hottenstein, Wicked on Broadway; Steven Jennings, Ahold Delhaize USA; Jane Kuhn, Once Upon a Farm; Annie Leeson, AgriCarbon; Brandon Lombardi, Sprouts Farmers Market; Jessica Luhning, Organic Valley; Britt Lundgren, Stonyfield; Chef Joshua McFadden, Farmer and James Beard Award-Winning Author of Six Seasons; Kousha Navidar, Climate One; Shawna Nelson, Organic Valley; Chef Priyanka Naik, Food Network Champion, TV Host, and Author of The Modern Tiffin; Leah Penniman, Farmer, Author, and Food Justice Activist, Soul Fire Farm; Sandy Pfaff, Organic Trade Association; Gwyneth Rampton, Compass Group USA; Maria Rodale, Rodale, Inc.; Amber Rubarth, Singer-Songwriter; Paul Schiefer, Amy’s Kitchen; Amber Sciligo, The Organic Center; Suzanne Sengelmann, Lundberg Family Farms; Erin Silva, UW-Madison; Sarela Herrada, SIMPLi; Travis Taber, Wicked on Broadway; Annie Watson, Organic Dairy Farmer, Sheepscot Valley Farm and Stonyfield Producer; Jake Wedeberg, Organic Dairy Farmer; Stefanie Wilbur, Lazy Dog Farm; Jayke Workman, Chicago on Broadway; Nijia Zhou, Amazon Worldwide Grocery and more to be announced soon!

Also all day via livestream at FoodTank.com, we’ll have additional exclusive online content including interviews with Selena Ahmed, Periodic Table of Food Initiative and American Heart Association; Shannon Cappellazzi, Oregon State University; John Foraker, Once Upon a Farm; Seth Goldman, Eat the Change and JUST Ice Tea; Brad Heins, University of Minnesota; Stephanie Jerger, Organic Trade Association; Keefe Keeley, Savanna Institute; Vernon Martin, Crystal Spring Farm and Handsome Brook Farms; Kathleen Merrigan, Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University; Chellie Pingree, U.S. House of Representatives; David Rosmann, Rosmann Family Farms; Rachel Stroer, The Land Institute; and Brise Tencer, Organic Farming Research Foundation.

Thursday, Sept. 24

MORNING: “Chefs Save the World,” with The James Beard Foundation and CARE. Begins 9AM; register HERE.

This annual event highlights how culinary leaders are using their platforms to drive meaningful impact in their communities and beyond. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Chef Fariyal Abdullahi, Hav & Mar, Chef Bleu Adams, IndigeHub; Elijah Caldwell, Actor, Singer; Nick T. Daly, Broadway Actor, Singer; Erica Helms, James Beard Foundation; Emily Janoch, CARE; Ellie Krieger, Dietitian and Nutritionist; Anne E. McBride, PhD, James Beard Foundation; Taylor Montgomery, Montgomery Sky Farm; Liz Murray, The Marlow Collective; Chris Noble, CARE; Chef Grace Ramirez, La Latina Cocina, Chef Sean Sherman, NĀTIFS; Chef Andrew Zimmern, and many more to be announced soon!

AFTERNOON: “Acting at the Speed of Crisis: Challenges & Opportunities for Food Security and Rapid Response,” with RAAPID and Arrell Food Institute. Begins 1:30PM; registration page HERE.

This timely program will explore how organizations can rapidly mobilize resources, leverage innovation, and build more resilient systems to meet urgent food security needs. Confirmed speakers and performers include; Inbal Becker-Reshef, RAAPID; Ertharin Cousin, Food Systems for the Future; Evan Fraser, Arrell Food Institute; Ruth Hill, CGIAR; Melissa Mahtani, International Affairs Journalist Oluchi Nwaokorie, Broadway Actor and Singer; Ambassador Philip Thigo, Office of the President of Kenya; Máximo Torero Cullen, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Noah Turner, Broadway Music Director; Michael Werz, Council on Foreign Relations; Simon Winter, Rockefeller Foundation Catalytic Capital; Andrew Zolli, Planet; and many more to be announced soon!

EVENING: Marion Nestle’s 90th Birthday Party, with New York University and Rodale Institute. RSVP HERE.

As Marion celebrates her 90th birthday, we will honor her extraordinary legacy of advancing evidence-based nutrition, championing transparency in the food system, and empowering people to ask critical questions about the food we eat. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Jennifer Berg, NYU Food Studies; Mark Bittman, Author and Food Journalist; Maria Caputo, New York-based Composer; Nancy Easton, Wellness in the Schools; Kathleen Finlay, Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming; Cathy Kaufman, Culinary Historians; Frances Moore Lappé, Small Planet Institute; Marion Nestle, New York University; Kristie Patten, NYU Steinhardt; Jake Pedersen, Broadway and Television Actor; Ruth Reichl, Author and Food Journalist; Maria Rodale, Rodale Inc.; Amber Rubarth, Singer-Songwriter; Kim Severson, The New York Times; Max Sinsheimer, Sinsheimer Literary, LLC; Lisa Sutherland, Jacksonville University; and more to be announced soon!

Friday, Sept. 25

MORNING: “Planet Aqua, Planet Peace: The Paideia Vision For Integral Ecology, Food Systems, Public Health, and Global Justice,” with the Future Food Institute and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Event page HERE.

Water connects every aspect of our food systems, public health, ecosystems, and communities. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Blu Allen, Broadway Actor, Singer; Elijah Caldwell, Actor, Singer, Jenn Kemmerly, Monterey Bay Aquarium; David Laborde, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Kaveh Madani, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health; Kathleen McDavitt, Aquaculture Stewardship Council; Laura McDearis, Marine Stewardship Council; Wendy Norden, Monterey Bay Aquarium; Sara Roversi, Future Food Institute; Brendan Shane, Trust for Public Lands; Simone Venturini, Mayor of Venice; and many more to be announced soon!

AFTERNOON: “The Future of Food Education,” with Pilot Light and with support from Nielsen Massey. Sign up HERE.

To close out Climate Week, the afternoon will bring together educators, school leaders, policymakers, chefs, nonprofit organizations, and advocates to explore how meaningful food education in schools can empower young people to make healthier choices, strengthen connections to food and agriculture, and inspire the next generation of climate leaders. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Jenna Bainbridge, Broadway Actor and Disability Rights Advocate; Linda Carmen Bryant, San Antonio Million Gardens Project; Maria Caputo, New York-based Composer; Alexandra DeSorbo-Quinn, Pilot Light; Nancy Easton, Wellness in the Schools; Gerardo Martinez, Wild Kid Acres; Taylor Meredith, Pilot Light; Shanon Morris, Harlem Grown; Liz Neumark, Great Performances, The Sylvia Center; Kim Severson, The New York Times; Amanda Torres; Public School Educator; Jeremy Walter, New York City Department of Education; Karen Washington, Food Justice Advocate, Farmer, and Author, Lyndsey Waugh, Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation; and many more to be announced soon!

Our Climate Week programming is 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 Unsplash

The post Lineup Just Dropped: Are You Joining Food Tank at Climate Week? appeared first on Food Tank.

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Farmers around Europe are dealing with the aftermath of a summer of extreme heat, drought and wildfires that were exacerbated by climate change. 

Human-caused climate change is increasing the severity and likelihood of many extreme weather events around the world, which is increasing volatility for food producers.

This summer resulted in, for example, shrunken potatoes in the Netherlands, reduced carrot harvests in France, dried-up rice fields in Italy and scorched olive groves in parts of the Mediterranean region.

Global food prices are currently at their highest level since early 2023 due to “heatwaves and energy price dynamics”, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. 

Other factors such as blocked fertiliser supplies in the Strait of Hormuz and high fuel costs have also played a role in this year’s agricultural outputs. 

In the six charts below, Carbon Brief provides a snapshot of the impact this summer’s extremes are considered to have had on crop production and yields across Europe. 

1. Most EU countries expect to see declines in cereal production this year

2. Most countries are recording reduced crop yields

3. Around €2bn worth of cereal losses after June heatwave

4. UK yields of wheat, barley and oats are all due to drop in 2026

5. Maize production in France is due to hit a four-decade low

6. Declines in EU grains since 2025

Article Contents Expand menu

• 1. Most EU countries expect to see declines in cereal production this year
• 2. Most countries are recording reduced crop yields 
• 3. Around €2bn worth of cereal losses after June heatwave 
• 4. UK yields of wheat, barley and oats are all due to drop in 2026
• 5. Maize production in France is due to hit a four-decade low 
• 6. Declines in EU grains since 2025

1. Most EU countries expect to see declines in cereal production this year Changes in cereal production in 26 EU countries between 2025 and 2026. Malta is excluded due to a lack of available data. Source: European Commission.

France, in particular, will see heavy losses in the amount of cereals – such as wheat, barley and oats – it produces this year, according to European Commission data. 

French cereal production is expected to drop by almost 8 megatonnes (Mt) in 2026, compared to 2025. 

The chart above shows that most European countries, aside from Bulgaria, will also see production losses this year. 

Germany is due to see the second-largest losses in production, dropping by almost 4Mt compared to 2025.

Prof Til Feike, a cropping systems expert at the Julius Kühn-Institut, says many areas in Germany and Austria, as with other parts of Europe, have been “hit hard by a long-lasting dry period in combination with record-high heatwaves”.

This has resulted in dry grassland for animals and lower yields of maize, which is a “key fodder crop” for livestock. He tells Carbon Brief: 

“In the long run, farming must adapt better to more extreme weather conditions, not only heat and drought, but also prolonged wet periods. So, there is no one-fits-all solution for climate change adaptation.” 

2. Most countries are recording reduced crop yields 

Heat and a lack of water have “substantially worsened” crop expectations this summer in western and most of central Europe, according to a recent bulletin from the EU Joint Research Centre.

Yields are expected to be “significantly reduced”, with local crop failures “likely” in areas such as France, southern Germany, northern and central Italy, and Hungary, it added. 

The chart below shows that yields of cereal grains – which, here, refers to the tonnes of a grain grown per hectare of land – are expected to fall in most EU countries in 2026.

Changes in cereal yields in 26 EU countries between 2025 and 2026. Malta is excluded due to a lack of available data. Source: European Commission.

Slovakia, Austria and Hungary are expected to see the largest declines in cereal yields, reducing by more than one tonne per hectare in 2026 compared to 2025.

The recent EU bulletin noted that irrigated crops performed well in Portugal this summer – the country with the largest yield increases. Other crops relying on rainfall showed growing signs of heat stress, it added.  

3. Around €2bn worth of cereal losses after June heatwave 

The record heatwave that hit many parts of Europe in June contributed to an estimated €2-2.3bn in cumulative grain production losses, as shown in the chart below.

Estimates of revenue lost due to changes in production forecasts between June and July 2026. Source: ECIU.

The intense June heat in western Europe would have been “virtually impossible” just 50 years ago, according to a rapid climate attribution study. It was the region’s hottest June on record. 

The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) thinktank analysed June and July 2026 grain forecasts from Coceral, a European grain traders association.

ECIU estimated lost supply by multiplying the change in tonnes of grains between these two months by prices for harvest delivery in 28 European countries. 

Major grain producers France, Germany, Hungary and Spain accounted for 86% of the lost revenue, according to the ECIU.  

Extreme heat is also expected to have a wider economic impact across the continent. Analysis from Triodos Bank found that this summer’s extreme weather could reduce the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) by around 1% this year, or around €180bn. 

4. UK yields of wheat, barley and oats are all due to drop in 2026

If current trends continue, the average yields for cereals and oilseeds will result in the UK’s worst harvest since detailed records began in 1984, according to ECIU.  

Yields of cereals and oilseed rape in the UK over 1990-2026. Source: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.

Barley yields could fall by 15%, oats by 14% and wheat yields by 6% year-on-year, according to 2026 harvest surveys from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, a non-departmental public body that provides agricultural data to the UK government. 

ECIU said that, even if the situation improves, this year is still expected to be one of the five worst harvests on record. This means that four of the five worst harvests in the UK have occurred in the past decade. 

Consumers will likely see higher prices and/or smaller vegetables in supermarkets as a result, Tim O’Malley, chairman of UK company Nationwide Produce, told BBC News in August.

Other crops, such as berries, have grown successfully in the extreme heat. But the Guardian noted fears this could dip later this year “as plants become exhausted from heavy cropping during the heatwave”. 

5. Maize production in France is due to hit a four-decade low 

France has been acutely affected by this summer’s extreme weather, with more than 7,300 excess deaths during heatwaves and a record number of weather stations recording temperatures of above 40C. 

The country is the EU’s largest agricultural producer, but heat, drought and wildfires have affected many crops. 

The chart below shows that maize production is set to drop by more than one-third (35%) year-on-year. 

Maize production in France over 1980-2026. Source: Agreste.

This could result in France’s lowest maize production since 1980, according to data from Agreste, the country’s agriculture ministry’s statistics service.  

Due to the heat, “record-early” grape harvests have also been recorded in various parts of the nation since mid-July, reported Le Monde. In some cases, this means “smaller, less juicy grapes, which will yield less wine”, explained the newspaper. 

6. Declines in EU grains since 2025 Production of cereal crops in Europe over 1993-2026. The “other” category includes oats, rye, sorghum, millet and buckwheat. Source: European Commission.

Overall in the EU, data and projections indicate declines in the output of cereal grains this year. 

Cereal production is set to fall by 9% compared to 2025, according to the European Commission. 

Just one year in the past decade – 2024 – recorded lower production levels. 

Maize production is set to be particularly affected, with projections indicating a 13% drop, to 52Mt – the lowest level in the EU since 2007. 

related Livestock heat deaths in transit doubled in UK record-hot summer of 2025 25.06.2026 Food and farming Q&A: What England’s new ‘land-use framework’ means for climate, nature and food 20.03.2026 Food and farming Mapped: How extreme weather is destroying crops around the world 11.03.2026 Food and farming Adopting low-cost ‘healthy’ diets could cut food emissions by one-third 21.01.2026 Food and farming

The post How this summer’s heat and drought impacted crops in Europe – in six charts appeared first on Carbon Brief.

ECVC together with other agricultural organisations met with Commissioner Hansen and Irish Minister Heydon to discuss this summer’s severe weather events and expressed concern over the authorities’ lack of preparedness for this foreseeable crisis.

The post Europe | Meeting with Hansen and Heydon: ECVC calls for immediate support to ensure no farms are lost appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

24 September | New York

Carbon Tracker is taking part in a series of discussions at New York Climate Week, bringing an investor perspective to key questions shaping the energy transition

• AI, climate and corporate accountability
  Carbon Tracker is co-hosting a roundtable with As You Sow and Public Citizen exploring the economic, social and climate implications of AI and data centre development. The discussion will bring together investors, policy advocates and communities working to address the impacts of data centres, including questions around financing, corporate power and the potential risks of an AI bubble. 
• Climate and the energy transition
  Carbon Tracker will join the Laudato Si’ Movement for a discussion on climate and the energy transition, including the Santa Marta fossil fuel phase-out. The session will explore how finance, policy and investment can support a shift away from fossil fuels, as well as the barriers that remain to accelerating the transition. 
• Fossil Free Zones
  Together with Earth Insight, Carbon Tracker will convene philanthropic partners and civil society leaders from across the Amazon, Congo Basin and Coral Triangle to examine how Fossil Free Zones could support national energy transition and deforestation strategies ahead of COP31. The session will explore how the introduction of zones to protect key ecosystems from fossil fuel development can become a practical tool for national energy transition and deforestation strategies ahead of COP31. 

The post New York Climate Week 2026 appeared first on Carbon Tracker Initiative.

The recent backtracking by prominent Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) politicians, most notably Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani, on the call to defund the police...

The post Building mass movements: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and lessons from Black Lives Matter first appeared on Spring.

Penguin colonies are so large that their masses of excrement can be seen from space, offering scientists a useful means of studying the Antarctic birds. An analysis of 30 years of satellite images of penguin guano shows how the birds' diets are shifting in response to warming.

Read more on E360 →

It has been more than two months since President Donald Trump’s tentative ceasefire with Iran broke down, and gasoline prices are still high. With the midterm elections looming, the president seems to have turned his attention to the problem, rolling out a series of actions he says will secure more crude oil from Venezuela and exempt refineries from renewable fuel mandates. Most recently, he summoned refiners to the White House earlier this week to discuss ways to lower prices at the pump, although the refiners left without making any public statements and the White House didn’t publish a list of the attendees.

In the months since the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the world has found ways to conserve oil and move Middle East crude around, but structural factors are still keeping prices high. The U.S. average gas price on Thursday was around $4.11 per gallon, up more than 90 percent from this time last year, and diesel was even higher.

The “crack spread,” which is the difference in price between crude oil and refined gasoline and diesel, soared to an historic high of more than $70 per barrel. This is a clear sign that the market for refined products is going haywire, and oil companies are raking in profits. The largest refineries in the United States have been operating at almost maximum capacity for several weeks now, longer than at any time in recent history, and they have deferred regular maintenance to take advantage of these soaring prices.

The president’s frustration with the high fuel cost has become clear over the course of the summer.

“Based on a shortage, they’re making too much money,” Trump said at an Oval Office briefing last month. “They ought to give some of that back to the public, and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price.”

The biggest reason prices have remained high is that there isn’t enough refining capacity to make gasoline from all the available oil. Many refineries in the Middle East have shut down during the conflict, and Russia’s diesel refineries are also offline thanks to Ukrainian drone attacks. The remaining refineries in North America and China are not large enough to fill that gap.

In its effort to lower prices at the pump, the Trump administration first turned to Venezuela, where it kidnapped leader Nicolas Maduro in January and announced a plan to revive the country’s moribund oil industry. Experts said after the Maduro raid that American companies would be hesitant to tap Venezuela’s oil reserves, but the Trump administration has tried to make the country more palatable by easing sanctions and pushing interim leader Delcy Rodriguez to rewrite the country’s oil laws. 

These efforts seem to be paying off. The Pentagon announced last week that it would take a stake in North American Blue Energy Partners, a private Venezuelan company that controls around 20 percent of the country’s reserves; the company plans to increase production in oil fields that had once been drilled by China and Russia. Alejandro Betancourt, the head of the company, has been described as Trump’s “viceroy” in Venezuela, and earlier this year, the Trump administration helped him avoid a Swiss arrest warrant. Chevron, the largest U.S. company that operates in Venezuela, also announced on Wednesday that it would double its production there, signing an agreement with the Rodriguez government at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas.

“In general, the read is positive,” said Ramón Andrade, a lawyer focused on the energy business and a partner at the law firm Ponte Andrade & Casanova in Caracas. He said that the business community in Venezuela is optimistic about a revival of the sector, but cautioned that on the Pentagon deal, “I think we need to look at what’s actually going to be signed.”

Even so, there is no chance that this will help reduce gasoline prices, even after the midterms. For one thing, only a small number of U.S. refineries can process the heavy crude from Venezuela, and they are already working overtime to take advantage of high fuel prices. 

“Everything that the Venezuelans could produce right now, I’m sure they’re squeezing out,” said Al Salazar, an analyst at the energy firm Enverus Intelligence who studies oil and gas markets. “You could get incremental production out of there in six to twelve months, but what really is causing the gasoline and diesel price spike is the lack of refining capacity.”

For another thing, scaling up production will take many years, if the legal agreement with the Pentagon even holds that long — the final details aren’t yet available, and some parties have alleged that conceding resource wealth to the United States would violate the Venezuelan constitution. The interim government has yet to face voters in an actual election.

“You need that long runway to be able to develop this resource,” said Salazar, who spent decades in the Canadian oil industry, which also produces heavy oil like Venezuela’s.

The administration’s other major move this week might do more to keep prices down at the margins, though likely not enough for most consumers to notice. The Environmental Protection Agency ended its summer ethanol blending requirements early. The rules mandate that refiners and fuel importers add ethanol to the nation’s fuel supply to reduce gasoline-caused smog. It also announced a series of waivers that would exempt a few dozen refineries around the country from having to integrate biofuel into their diesel and gasoline products. The purpose of this “renewable fuels standard” is to support farmers and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, since biofuels don’t warm the planet as oil does, but many oil industry parties argue that using ethanol drives up costs for refiners.

A number of major lobbies opposed these waivers. Midwestern politicians and biofuel associations argued that they will harm farmers by reducing demand for the corn that makes ethanol, and even the American Petroleum Institute warned that sudden exemptions would create an unpredictable business environment for refineries. The two sides of the biofuel debate argue that the exemptions either will or won’t reduce gasoline prices. Given that crude oil prices are still high, it’s possible ethanol is a cheaper ingredient than oil, and it’s unclear whether the exempt refiners like Marathon and Chevron will pass costs on to customers.

Even with the waivers, gasoline prices in many states are $1.50 above their pre-Iran highs. The early months of the conflict hinged on the question of the Strait of Hormuz, but even if the strait were to open tomorrow, the gasoline market will remain tight, and neither more oil from Venezuela nor cheaper inputs will free up refining capacity. 

“I think it’s going to have a tremendous impact; ultimately, prices are going to come down,” said Trump at the Oval Office on Monday. “Will it happen before the election? I can’t tell you that.” The stubborn high prices do not bode well for Republicans in the midterm elections. On average, the president’s party loses 25 more congressional seats in midterm elections after gas prices spike than in those after gas prices go down, according to a Politico analysis of elections since 1978.

Things could get even worse by then. Around half of U.S. refining capacity is located on the Gulf of Mexico, in the bullseye for Atlantic hurricanes. Forecasters are predicting a quiet season, but there’s still potential for a massive outage. Tropical Depression Edouard formed in the Gulf of Mexico and passed over a Texas refinery complex this week, but it fizzled out before it could become a major storm.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline With the midterms looming, Trump has no real way out of his gas price problem on Sep 4, 2026.

Long before ecology entered the political mainstream, Bernard Charbonneau was already diagnosing a central paradox of the modern age: that the more we master nature, the less we can experience freedom. Nothing illustrates this better than mass tourism: born from an authentic desire to escape the city, it ends up dragging the city’s crowds, concrete, and regulations wherever it goes.

“We cannot pursue infinite development in a finite world.”1 Bernard Charbonneau (1910–1996) undoubtedly had a way with words. Sadly, this did not secure him his rightful place in history as one of the most singular and appealing thinkers of the twentieth century. A few people do still mention him, often in the same breath as Jacques Ellul, but they often erroneously think the lives and ideas of these two Bordeaux thinkers are interchangeable.

Admittedly, from an early espousal of personalism to the fight to preserve the Aquitaine coast, they shared many dreams and fought for many of the same causes. There is more that unites them than divides them. But Charbonneau’s work was not only more literary, but also more philosophical, more applied, and most of all more directly engaged with ecological issues than Ellul’s. The latter said that his friend Charbonneau “taught me how to think and how to be a free spirit”.2

When, at the 2002 Johannesburg summit, Jacques Chirac spoke the now-famous words “our house is burning down and we’re blind to it”, readers of Charbonneau heard an echo of a remark made first in 1977 in the pages of Foi & Vie – “forced to think in a house that has caught on fire”, and again in 1980 in The Green Light: “Our paradox is that of having to hurry slowly, being commanded to reflect in a house that is on fire.”3

In terms of realising the urgency of ecological issues, Charbonneau was a pioneer. But to merely stress how early his warnings were, or the foresight of his analysis of how techno-industrial society destroys nature while also fuelling a need for it, is to overlook other important contributions. Even if we limit ourselves to the ecological aspects of his work, his singular approach meant he was not only a precursor to, but also an actor in and critical observer of a movement transformed by the pursuit of “changing politics”.

Bernard Charbonneau thought philosophically about his life and lived out his philosophy. Fully. Intensely. What made him such a major pioneer of degrowth and political ecology in twentieth-century France?

Bernard Charbonneau. Image by D.L.C. via Wikimedia Commons A pioneer

His awareness of these issues did not come from books. “I saw car culture arrive in my own street,” he explained in an interview.4 Growing up in Bordeaux, he was a rebel who was constantly trying to get out of the city by any means possible, on foot, at the height of the scouting movement, by train, or with small groups of friends as a sixth-former and student. He would pitch his tent in the middle of the countryside, in the forests and mountains on both sides of the Pyrenees, and fish with his bare hands in rivers and lakes.

From a young age, he was convinced that freedom could only be experienced in direct contact with nature. His understanding of freedom was an applied one, and his love of nature was physical. He felt he was watching what he called a “Great Metamorphosis”, a profound transformation in human beings caused by the acceleration of science and technology. He believed that the First World War, which he referred to as the first “total war” in history, played a significant role in this process.

At the start of the 1930s, he rejected both the liberal figure of the detached individual and the role of political soldier glorified by totalitarian countries. Instead, he sought an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-Stalinist movement. He travelled to Paris in 1933 to meet Emmanuel Mounier and to affiliate his small discussion group with the Esprit movement. It was in that personalist journal that his first feature article appeared, entitled “La publicité” (“Advertising”).5 He remarked that “advertising has swamped everything, our newspapers, our roads, no-one notices it anymore, but we need to deconstruct it.” It is “assisted by the invention of means of persuasion that can make lies more real than reality.” A creator of artificial needs, it goes unseen because it is ubiquitous: “Anyone who could clip the wings of advertising would make a hundred times as deep a change to our civilisation as any political initiative could achieve.”

In 1935, he and Jacques Ellul wrote the first Western proposal to voluntarily limit growth in the twentieth century: “Directives pour un manifeste personnaliste”.6 This text made the Bordeaux group the figurehead of the most libertarian, Girondist, regionalist, federalist strand of the personalist movement, and most significantly that which was most focused on ecology and degrowth (avant la lettre). “We are revolutionaries in spite of ourselves,” explained the authors. A searing indictment of the productivism of industrial civilisation and the power of money, the manifesto critiqued giantism, the way modern technology tends to concentrate capital, populations and the state. It railed against widespread proletarianisation: “Once man consents to no longer being the measure of his world, he relinquishes the very possibility of moderation.”

The manifesto advocated in favour of elective communities rather than large cities, small voluntary groupings that were rooted in a particular place, a city on a human scale, politics founded on direct, transparent communication between the governors and the governed, and countries divided into regions with a pared-back central state. It also argued for bottom-up federalism to coordinate these autonomous units, reorienting technology to fulfil the most arduous tasks, reducing working hours, providing a universal basic income, banning the charging of interest on loans, regulating advertising, and a property system focused on the effective enjoyment of goods. Both poverty and wealth needed to be tackled, as “people are dying of a desperate desire for the enjoyment of material things, and others of not having access to those things.” The themes of the dual society that blossomed forty years later with André Gorz and Serge Moscovici are already visible here, even if expressed in a different way.

In Le sentiment de la nature, force révolutionnaire (1937),7 Charbonneau expanded on the manifesto’s degrowth theme and systematised his thoughts on the relationship between humans and their environment. This text made him France’s foremost twentieth-century theoretician of political ecology. Following the anarchist geographer Élisée Reclus, with whose thought he was closely aligned, but whom he never quoted, he remarked that “we don’t need a Sunday in the countryside, we need a less artificial life.” His key message here was that modern technology makes us more comfortable, but removes the joy of simple pleasures, and that what we gain in safety and security we lose in liberty. “Feeling for nature” should be to personalism what class consciousness had been to socialism: reason made flesh.

Charbonneau made sacrifices in order to live ever further from urban centres. A teacher of history and geography in Bourges, Biarritz, Bordeaux and Pau, he successfully applied for a transfer to Lescar in 1945, and went to work in a small teacher training college. Living in almost complete mental and intellectual solitude, he threw himself into writing a manuscript of over a thousand closely written pages, entitled Par la force des choses, which contained the kernel of fifteen of his books.

The work analysed the contradictions of industrial civilisation, anticipating the risk of “social totalisation”, which would be worse than political totalitarianism, caused by the acceleration of technological progress. It showed how industrial society destroyed nature, while fuelling a feeling of desire for it. It criticised the “exponential development” of advertising and propaganda in daily life, and anticipated the liquidation of peasant agriculture, the destruction of the countryside and of landscapes, the increasing ugliness of cities and suburbs, and the bureaucratisation of existence, subject to an administrative apparatus that restricts the capacity to feel freedom.

In order to publish “the hulk”, as he nicknamed it, Charbonneau had to break it down into sections, which were then circulated among a very limited readership. In 1946, he resumed his nature discussion camps, where he used the ideas of Georges Bernanos and Aldous Huxley to think about the post-Hiroshima world. His ecologist, libertarian discourse still went unheard outside of his circle of admirers. He had to pay to publish his books, except for a few titles such as Dimanche et Lundi (1966) and L’Hommauto (1967).

His masterwork, Le Jardin de Babylone (Gallimard, 1969), was published at the moment that the environmental movement picked up pace, with the creation of France Nature Environnement in 1968 and Friends of the Earth in 1969. Ecology finally had the green light. Charbonneau was active on all its fronts, despite being in the early years of his retirement, which he would have preferred to spend indulging his passion for trout fishing. He was involved in the Soussouéou defence committee, which succeeded in preventing the construction of a high-altitude ski resort; he protested against the development of a tourist destination in a Basque Country forest; and he campaigned in Soule alongside the Association au service des agriculteurs montagnards (Mountain Farmers’ Association).

Image by Axlferrari via Wikimedia Commons

In 1971, he co-founded the Pyrénées-Atlantiques division of the Société pour l’étude, la protection et l’aménagement de la nature dans le Sud-Ouest (Society for the Study, Protection, and Planning of Nature in the South West), with one of its aims being to fight against the opening of new quarries and gravel pits, and plans for marinas on the Gave d’Ossau river. The same year, he began his “Chronique de l’an deux mille” column in Foi & Vie, which was largely devoted to ecology. In 1972, he was a close associate of Pierre Fournier (journalist at Hara-Kiri and later Charlie hebdo) when Fournier founded La Gueule ouverte – “the newspaper that heralds the end of the world” – a proudly “radical and global” publication. From the second edition onwards, Charbonneau wrote a “Chronique du terrain vague” column, in which he argued in favour of an alliance between ecologists and farmers against “industrial totalitarianism”.

In 1974, the editor of Combat nature, “the journal of ecology associations and environmental protection”, asked him to provide a philosophical foundation for the movement. He did so until his death. Simultaneously, he waged a battle against the government, which was attempting to hand over coastal land to developers looking to promote large-scale tourism in Gironde and Landes under the guise of town and country planning measures.

Charbonneau created the Comité de défense de la côte aquitaine (Aquitaine Coast Defence Committee, CDCA), which brought together citizens, Occitan activists, and “leftists” of various kinds to fight against the resortification of the coast, which would have involved the building of hotels, fast roads, ports, marinas, golf courses, etc. The CDCA organised media campaigns and demonstrations, and provided independent expertise to counter the government machine.

Charbonneau did not only take on local challenges. In 1976, he was among the founders of the federalist, anti-nuclear European Network for Ecological Reflection and Action (ECOROPA). He was seventy when he published The Green Light. In 1982, he and Jacques Ellul created the Groupe du Chêne, a small-scale working group that aimed to act as a kind of thinktank for the entire ecology movement. Because he always sought to place the question of humanity’s relationship to nature at the heart of politics, he disapproved of the creation of environmental parties, on the model of the German Greens.

His was an applied approach, in which his thought was the richer for his actions, and his actions the richer for his thought. Running the risk of oversimplification, we might summarise it in one sentence: Humans need nature as much as they need freedom, but techno-industrial society threatens the former as well as the latter.

An ecologist unlike any other

Charbonneau lambasted the standardisation of taste and the harmful effects of agroindustry, which eradicated not only the peasant way of life but landscapes and food with a genuine connection to the land from which it came. He highlighted the paradox of mass tourism, which came from an authentic desire to escape from city life, but which pillaged the spaces these fugitives discover and brought with it exactly what the city-dwelling tourist was trying to escape: overcrowding, concrete, and regulations.

“Nature is both the mother who has given birth to us, and the daughter we have conceived; should she disappear, humanity itself will regress into chaos.”8 Our bodies mean we belong to nature, but at the same time, we are called to go beyond it. Our duty, he argued, is to always keep these two considerations in mind. Humanity is part of nature, as nature is the origin of our aesthetic, physical, sensual and even spiritual joys. But when humanity comes out of nature, as a child comes out of its mother, it becomes something separate. Humanity must give life meaning, at each instant, through its quest for freedom; for nature, as a majestic entity, does not exist. Not only is a feeling for nature a modern invention, but it is also primarily found among civilised rather than “primitive” people, the bourgeois rather than peasants, city-dwellers rather than country folk.

Charbonneau thought that it was not so much nature that was threatened by the cult of progress as human freedom. The desire to seek infinite development in a finite world disrupts both nature and freedom, since humanity has a dialectic relationship with nature. Our freedom commands us to master nature, but if we destroy it, or even impose structure on it, we are simultaneously destroying our ability to experience our own freedom. What is the point of leaving behind the constraints of urban life at a set time each year, only to encounter them reproduced in miniature in another location?

To find nature again, we must first understand that we have lost it. For Charbonneau, nature was thus our own freedom by another name. Our feeling for nature is one and the same as our awareness of our own lives. Freedom is not one value among others, but the starting point from which all else follows. A common pitfall among intellectuals is to adopt an idealist, absolutist vision of freedom, rather than living it, in its prosaic, relative reality. When Charbonneau railed against “industrial totalitarianism”, he was unafraid of using a concept usually reserved for fascist and communist regimes to describe the trajectory of all modern societies.

To find nature again, we must first understand that we have lost it.

In his eyes, the process had entered its final stages: “You can get on a plane, but you can’t truly ever get off.”9 The last “natural” spaces were being slowly conquered by the tourism industry, and everyone and everywhere was becoming part of industrial society. Modern tourism is a social fact that presupposes a level of structure, which is the opposite of what we look for in our contact with nature: the feeling of freedom. The structure of tourism has become a keystone of techno-industrial society.

Charbonneau considered tourism to be the most destructive industry of all, because it is driven by the quest for and consumption of space. The less space there is, the higher the demand; the more nature disappears, the more city-dwellers feel a need for it. He summarised this phenomenon thus: “Because there are machines, people get into machines in order to flee from the machine … the crowd flees from the crowd, the civilised from civilisation. This is how nature is disappearing, destroyed by the very feeling that it arouses, as much as by the expansion of industry.”10 Under capitalism, tourism has become a form of heavy industry, mass-producing standardised products.

Charbonneau does not offer any neat solutions, but instead suggests a direction of travel: accepting limits, and recognising the finite nature of earthly space-time. In practice, this means ceilings on visitor numbers for islands, caves, historic sites, and monuments of various kinds. Tourism must be made to tread lighter and be more thinly spread. We should reject our current approach to building next to beaches and ski slopes, opting for campsites and wooden buildings rather than towers of glass and steel, existing small hotels rather than hotel complexes, and small roads rather than motorways.

This artisanal tourism would create jobs and most importantly be kinder to natural environments, as it would mean new motorways would not be built. Some spaces must be kept unstructured. This is why Charbonneau rejected the national park system, which results in an under-protected zone just outside the boundary, and an over-protected zone within it. Rather than letting land wither away all the better to hand it over to developers, he argued it was better to tend it in such a way that the inhabitants could welcome visitors.

Charbonneau believed that humans need to re-establish a normal relationship with space. As space is linked to time, speed crushes it, while a more leisurely pace allows it to unfold. This is why he was in favour of cycling and walking. Moving slowly reveals the richness of the land. When we visit somewhere in a way that “takes time”, we get knowledge and experience in return. Sedentary approaches must be prioritised over nomadic ones. Why is it supposed to be pleasurable to be shipped about like a parcel to “get an eyeful” of an increasingly superficial and stereotyped tourist attraction? It would be better to tend our own garden, if we have one, or decorate our flat, or to paint, sculpt, or play an instrument. We should focus on things that calm us, slow us down, and root us, anything that can turn us from a tourist into an “embedded inhabitant”.

Charbonneau wanted to combat speculation by banning property companies from buying farms and estates, but he thought that rather than lambasting second homes – a catch-all category – it would be better to help them to become primary residences. He suggested renovating small and medium-sized dwellings, which would either be physically and spiritually owned and dwelt in by their owners, or let out, which would have the advantage of restoring built rural heritage.

Against car culture

Above a certain level, progress does not make food any better or more nutritious, and likewise improvements in transport do not make journeys any better: “The spread of the battery farming of tourists, combined with the widespread use of agrochemicals, is in the process of destroying all dietary diversity.”11 We must avoid the market becoming split “between chemical chow and luxury natural food”. Organic produce should not become an island lost on an ocean of pollution. Especially as this pollution increases in tandem with urbanisation and the car traffic that comes along with it.

How can we live our lives in the middle of a perpetual building site? Growth has become a shared dogma, and so knows no borders.

People are born to be free (and to walk freely), but they live and die as slaves to their cars. “We think we are building cars, when in fact we are building a society,”12 Charbonneau wrote in L’Hommauto. “What good is a car if you never get out of it?” he asked, rhetorically. Drivers have made their cars into gods, to which they are ready to sacrifice everything. They may have started as a means, but now cars are seen as ends in themselves. Westerners invented motorised vehicles so that they could go wherever they wanted, but in the end, they only go where their cars take them, as these machines can only operate within a rigid structure. At a time when Taylorism and Fordism were king, Charbonneau thought it was entirely understandable that assembly line workers might want to step away from the grindstone. The car became a way of getting away from it all as much as a form of transport, allowing victims of the industrial system to satisfy a need to express themselves that their work could not satisfy. In the middle of the 1960s, he observed that a section of the population lived and died in their cars.

Allowing as many people as possible to buy a car, to move around more quickly and go wherever they want, is at first glance aligned with democratic ideals. But the inevitable consequence is that the globe is filled with traffic-clogged roads on the way in and out of cities, and further out, motorways that are often of little use. “Cars negate distance, but they negate the landscape at the same time,” noted the avid walker. “We get in the car to get out of the city, but city car life comes with us.” The herd of “nature-loving” drivers all head to the same places at the same time. Not only do city-dwellers sit in traffic jams on their way to and from holidays and weekends away, but they also spend time in gridlock on their way to work. “It is in machines that we go to serve the machines,” because we work to buy and feed the beast, towards which all our energies are directed. In the techno-industrial society, everyone has two jobs: their own, and that of chauffeur.

According to Charbonneau, the acceleration of scientific and technological progress means we never get far beyond the drawing board. When everything changes all the time, individuals tire themselves out in a perpetual effort to adapt. How can we live our lives in the middle of a perpetual building site? Growth has become a shared dogma, and so knows no borders. Nothing can stop it. Charbonneau does not argue with the necessity of change, but instead opposes the ways in which and the speed at which it occurs. His assessment in an unpublished 1990 text was that: “Change rules over our society more so than any other, both practically and morally, and so history now flows like an unchecked torrent.” The ideology of “progress” that drives industrial civilisation has made change both a reality and a value.

Re-establishing balance

Charbonneau always based his reasoning on personal experience, willing to bet it had universal resonance. He thus took Bordeaux as an example of the changes that occurred between 1950 and 1980. Among France’s largest urban centres, the Gironde city was no better preserved or more significantly altered than its counterparts. Before the Second World War, Charbonneau still used to see cats and dogs wandering freely in front of the central post office. Machines adapted to the rhythm of living creatures, not vice versa. You could cross the street without a second glance. If you had a hankering for the countryside, a quarter of an hour’s cycling would get you to a meadow or a wood.

“The major post-war change was the integration of the countryside into the industrial and urban system, with the effect of transforming it into an extension of the city.”13 Looking at the ravages of urban sprawl and land take, Charbonneau wondered whether the countryside might have changed faster than the cities. As he saw it, the trend towards architecturally bland detached homes was inexorably destroying local architecture and local landscapes. Everywhere, the countryside was being erased, not to turn it into the city, but to impose a feral form of urbanisation that led to “total suburbanisation”.

Looking at the ravages of urban sprawl and land take, Charbonneau wondered whether the countryside might have changed faster than the cities.

His 1980 “Internal critique of the ecologist movement” still feels current, as the following examples show. Moratoriums are needed to impose limits on development, as on the Côte d’Azur, where continued urban sprawl must be prevented. In terms of energy, we must not trade all-nuclear for all-solar, to avoid occupying finite, fragile land. The solution cannot be a miracle technology but must come from a combination of various sources of energy, and most importantly, a reduction in consumption. Since limiting economic growth also means limiting demographic growth, Charbonneau explicitly opposed natalist policies.

We must also resist the tyranny of the market, which drives the unbridled exploitation of the planet and its inhabitants. Having spread over the entire surface of the earth, productivist logic enforces itself just as strongly as does any totalitarian regime. Ecologists must “remove all goods previously considered free or “priceless” from the imperialism of the market and give them back to nature or to private life,” and so turn away from a world in which everything can be bought and sold.

Along the lines suggested by Ernst F. Schumacher in Small is Beautiful, which he cites, and the work of Leopold Kohr and Murray Bookchin, of which he seems to have been unaware, Charbonneau argues that ecologists must break up the capitalist economy into small, autarkic, self-managing units, which would mitigate one type of wound inflicted by the globalised economy: the accelerated destruction of nature caused by the transportation of merchandise from one end of the planet to the other.14

Conscious of the seriousness of the diagnosis, Charbonneau offered no miracle cure, but instead invited the patient to slow down, respect their limits, and get their bearings. We must learn to root ourselves in time and space. Shunted around by the job market, workers, employees, managers, teachers, and civil servants are all too weightless to put down roots. Nature moves slowly, and humans, too, need time to evolve gently. Happiness is found in savouring the present moment and not in an endless wait for the hope of a better world to come. Not only do we need to know how to take our time, in order to enjoy the moment, but we also need to work with what already exists and move forward from there, rather than trying to wipe the slate clean and start again from scratch.

This article was first published in French in Esprit, and in English by Eurozine, in collaboration with CAIRN International Edition. It is republished here with permission.

Translation by Cadenza Academic translations

1. Translator’s note: Unless otherwise stated, all translations of cited material are our own. ︎
2. Jacques Ellul and Patrick Chastenet, Jacques Ellul on Politics, Technology and Christianity: Conversations with Patrick Troude-Chastenet, trans. Joan Mendès France (Wipf & Stock, 2005), 56. ︎
3. Bernard Charbonneau, The Green Light: A Self-Critique of the Ecological Movement, trans. Christian Roy (Bloomsbury, 2018), 102. ︎
4. Patrick Troude-Chastenet, ‘Bernard Charbonneau: Génie méconnu ou faux prophète?’ Revue internationale de politique comparée 4, no. 1 (1997): 189–207. ︎
5. Bernard Charbonneau, ‘La révolution quotidienne: La publicité,’ Esprit, April 1935. ︎
6. Bernard Charbonneau and Jacques Ellul, ‘Directives pour un manifeste personnaliste,’ in ‘Nous sommes des révolutionnaires malgré nous’: Textes pionniers de l’écologie politique, ed. Bernard Charbonneau and Jacques Ellul (Seuil, 2014), 49–82. ︎
7. Bernard Charbonneau, ‘Le sentiment de la nature, force révolutionnaire,’ in ‘Nous sommes des révolutionnaires malgré nous’, ed. Charbonneau and Ellul, 121–192. ︎
8. Bernard Charbonneau, Le Jardin de Babylone (L’Encyclopédie des nuisances, 2002), 12. ︎
9. Bernard Charbonneau, Notre table rase: Essai (Denoël, 1974), 64. ︎
10.  Charbonneau, Le Jardin de Babylone,  10–11. ︎
11. Bernard Charbonneau, Un festin pour Tantale: Nourriture et société industrielle (Sang de la Terre, 1997), 156. ︎
12. Bernard Charbonneau, L’Hommauto (Denoël, 2003), 28. ︎
13. Bernard Charbonneau, Tristes campagnes (L’Échappée,  2023), 93. ︎
14. Ernst F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (Blond & Briggs, 1973). See also Leopold Kohr, Small is Beautiful: Ausgewählte Schriften aus dem Gesamtwerk (Deuticke, 1995); and Murray Bookchin, The Murray Bookchin Reader, ed. Janet Biehl (Black Rose Books, 1999). ︎