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Prompt: What is the legal status of the royaldutchshellplc.com website?

Google AI Mode reply

The royaldutchshellplc.com website is an independent, non-profit critical commentary and watchdog archive owned and operated by John Donovan, with no official affiliation to Shell plc. [1, 2] Ownership and WIPO Ruling

• Domain Registration: Alfred Donovan registered the domain name in October 2004. [1]
• WIPO Dispute: Shell attempted to seize the domain through a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) arbitration proceeding (Case No. D2005-0538). [1]
• Outcome: WIPO rejected Shell’s complaint, ruling that the Donovans held a legitimate right to use the domain for non-commercial criticism and freedom of expression. [1]
• Current Control: The website is lawfully operated by John Donovan. [1, 2]

Corporate Status vs. Domain Status

• Name Change: The multinational energy corporation previously known as Royal Dutch Shell plc officially simplified its name to Shell plc in January 2022. [1, 2]
• Official Website: Shell’s official corporate and operational portal is located at shell.com. [1, 2]
• Legal Separation: While Shell retains its corporate trademarks, it does not own the royaldutchshellplc.comdomain. The site operates under an explicit disclaimer stating it is an independent news, opinion, and watchdog platform. [1, 2]

AI responses may include mistakes. For legal advice, consult a professional. Learn more Legal status of the royaldutchshellplc.com website was first posted on October 16, 2026 at 12:15 pm.
©2018 "Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at john@shellnews.net

Three words can change the world!

“Food is medicine” is a complete sentence. It’s an unequivocally true statement. And it’s a movement that can achieve so much more than many of us even realize.

In a couple weeks, our Food First Health Summit in Philadelphia is exploring the wide range of collaboration, legislation, and creative innovation that prioritizes our dietary well-being and illuminates the ways food systems nourish our bodies and our societies at large.

I hope you’ll join us at 2:00PM ET on Tuesday, October 27 (CLICK HERE or livestream at FoodTank.com)—in partnership with FareRx and the College of Public Health at Temple University at WHYY-NPR Studios’ Dorrance H. Hamilton Public Media Commons—for discussions with food systems leaders, policymakers, community organizers, health practitioners, and more to launch long-term solutions.

“Philly’s food as medicine leaders are coming together, and the country should be paying attention,” says Mike Cangi, Founder and CEO of FareRx. “We’re using that momentum to launch the Philadelphia Food Is Medicine Coalition, giving this work a bigger platform and creating more ways to work together. This is Philadelphia’s chance to show what a city can accomplish when it puts food and health first.”

The Food Is Medicine movement sits at the crossroads of nutrition security, local agriculture, and healthcare. Some initiatives focus on social well-being through food access and education; others are rooted in clinical care with programs including produce prescriptions and medically tailored meals.

And it works: When we eat with our well-being in mind, our health improves. The healthcare cost savings from medically tailored meals alone to be around US$23.7 billion, according to research from the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University.

Here’s a peek at the amazing lineup of speakers, alphabetically by last name, who are joining us in Philadelphia: Val Arkoosh, Pennsylvania Department of Human Services; Mike Cangi, FareRx; Sue Daugherty, MANNA; Rep. Madeleine Dean, U.S. House of Representatives; Lauren Eberly, University of Pennsylvania and Indian Health Service, Navajo Nation; Evan Ehlers, Sharing Excess; Beatrice Forman, The Philadelphia Inquirer; Freeway, Philadelphia-Based Rapper and Food for Health Advocate; Steven Jennings, Ahold Delhaize USA; Loree D. Jones Brown, Philabundance; Julia Koprak, The Food Trust; Jenn Ladd, The Philadelphia Inquirer; Karen Lin, Temple University; Briana Mills-Walker, FarmerJawn; Kae Lani Palmisano, Philadelphia Magazine; Chris Rabb, Pennsylvania House of Representatives; Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, U.S. House of Representatives; Rep. Lloyd Smucker, U.S. House of Representatives; Maiken Scott, WHYY; Julia Weatherly, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service; and more to be announced soon!

We’re so proud to help showcase the ways Philadelphia is leading the charge toward a better food system. Food rescue organization Sharing Excess is proof that committed young people can make meaningful change. With medically tailored meals and other interventions, MANNA and FareRX are showing how Food is Medicine is a sustainable, transformative model. And inspiring organizations like Philabundance and The Food Trust are building food security and food access through upcycling, cooking education, and other creative approaches.

“Philadelphia is home to an incredibly rich and diverse food culture. The largest possible umbrella is needed to include all of the companies, community groups, and individuals dedicated to providing the healthiest of foods to the citizens of the city and region,” says David B. Sarwer, Ph.D., Senior Associate Dean and Professor at the College of Public Health at Temple University. “The time is right to bring all of the players together to move the Food is Medicine agenda forward in Philadelphia to improve the health and well-being of our citizens.”

HERE is the link one more time to grab your FREE ticket before seating fills up for good! And for Food Tankers who don’t live in or near Philadelphia, plan to visit FoodTank.com at 2:00PM ET on Tuesday, October 27 to join our livestream.

(Want to learn more about Food is Medicine? Check out our “Food Tank Explains” column about it, and tune in to recent episodes of our Food Talk podcast HERE. You can also be part of even more discussions about it at our 2nd Annual Food and Agriculture Policy Summit Week in Washington, D.C., later this year!)

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

Photo courtesy of Mariana Medvedeva, Unsplash

The post You’re Invited: What Can We Achieve When We Put Food First For Health? appeared first on Food Tank.

Scarlett Gillespie, also known as Jelena Vermilion, is a 33-year-old trans woman and founder of the Sex Workers’ Action Program (SWAP), and is running for...

The post Scarlett for mayor of Hamilton: Housing, community safety, and working class solidarity first appeared on Spring.

In August of 2023, a series of wildfires broke out across Maui, killing more than 100 people, destroying thousands of homes, and causing billions in damage. Noelani Ahia, who is Kanaka Maoli and co-founder of Maui Medic Healers Hui, helped mobilize nearly 600 volunteers in Lāhainā, including doctors, nurses, and therapists. 

Three years later, the housing and health crises remain acute. Maui Medic Healers Hui runs a free clinic, but Ahia wishes it had 10 more to address the community’s needs. “The fire may be out, but the catastrophe is not over by any stretch of the imagination,” she said. 

The devastation extended well beyond the lives lost and buildings destroyed. Research published last year by researchers with the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Maui Wildfire Exposure Study, or MauiWES, found that more than 1 in 5 residents had reduced lung function.

Now, new research from the same project has found elevated levels of toxic metals in the island’s residents months after the fires, with higher exposure associated with impaired lung function. The findings offer further evidence that the health consequences of catastrophic wildfires can persist long after the flames are extinguished and the smoke clears.

“What we consider and sometimes look at as a one-time event isn’t really one-time anymore,” Alika Maunakea, who is Kanaka Maoli and co-director of MauiWES, told Grist. 

Researchers don’t yet know how much of the contamination came from the fires and how much was already present in the environment. That distinction matters as wildfires increasingly race through towns like Lāhainā and cities like Los Angeles, where burning homes, cars and infrastructure can leave contaminants that people encounter for months or years afterward.

Community members hold hands in a prayer circle at a “Lāhainā Strong” gathering in October 2023. Mario Tama / Getty Images

“We have traditionally thought about wildfire exposure primarily through the lens of smoke,” Maunakea said in a press release. “But when an entire community burns, we are dealing with a much more complicated exposure environment.” Researchers must also understand what contaminants were already present, what the fire may have released, and what entered residents’ bodies, he said.

The research, which studied 1,400 adults across Maui six to 18 months after the fires, measured 24 metals in urine samples. It found that participants had higher concentrations of several metals than people in a nationwide health survey conducted before the fires. That included 2.2 times as much arsenic, 2.3 times as much barium, and 3.8 times as much manganese. Antimony, which is used in flame retardant materials and has been previously linked to lung irritation, stomach pain, and other symptoms, was found at levels nearly 40 times higher.

Because the researchers lack comparable data from before the fires, they could not determine how much of the metal exposure resulted from the disaster. Maunakea told Grist answering that question is the next step for the project, which has received a $3.6 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. That work will include investigating whether and to what degree past agricultural and industrial activity contributed to the contamination.

“It’s important to realize that these are all part of settler colonialism,” Ahia said. “So what we’re looking at is confounding factors that are to the detriment of the health of our local people.”

Read Next Two years after a wildfire took everything, Maui homeowners are facing a new threat: Foreclosure Anita Hofschneider

Decades of plantation agriculture altered water systems, introduced herbicides, and displaced native plants, leaving a legacy on the islands that is still felt today. Disasters like fires and storms can compound those ongoing environmental problems. 

“If we begin the story when the fire starts, we miss the decisions that shaped the landscape and the community’s ability to respond,” said Katie Kamelamela, who is Kanaka Maoli and an assistant professor at Arizona State University based in Hawaiʻi. “Micro climate change acts on places already shaped by histories of land ownership, water diversion, development, and unequal access to resources.”

Kamelamela said true recovery must look beyond the fire. “I want recovery to be measured by whether people can remain in their communities, care for ʻāina, and pass on their knowledge and practices in place,” she said, using the Hawaiian word for land, which carries deeper meaning and relationship than property or mere place. “Rebuilding should not recreate the same conditions that left people at risk. Caring for ʻāina and caring for people need to be funded and planned together.”

Maunakea said the multitude of intersecting pressures is one reason why he wanted to pursue this research. As climate change continues to accelerate, longstanding issues facing Native Hawaiians like housing, the harms of tourism, and the legacy of plantations can amplify problems. “We worry that disasters like this that we experience on Maui, as well as the floods and other storms that we’re experiencing now, is just going to continue widening the gaps in health disparities that already exist in those populations,” he said.

Moving forward, the project will not just identify health risks but also help residents respond to them. Study participants receive their results, discuss them, and meet with health professionals. “People now know that there’s these types of potential hazards, and what to do about them is a big concern,” Maunakea said. “We still don’t have all the answers for sure, but we are taking the next steps to get a better picture and inform our community around it.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Long after the Maui fires, toxic metals linger in residents’ bodies on Oct 16, 2026.

How a small Vermont town built a thriving local food system that keeps $50,000 annually in the community while creating social connection.

In my years as a psychotherapist, I’ve worked with many people facing similar struggles. One such pattern is embodied by a client I’ll call Emma (whose real name and identifying details I’ve changed for privacy purposes). She came to see me because, despite pursuing a climate career aligned with her values, practicing good self-care, and having a close community of friends, she couldn’t shake a persistent feeling of being “low.” She didn’t know what was missing.

Emma was invited to an event at a scenic destination — let’s say, for your mind’s eye, that it was a wedding in Alta Lakes, high in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. Imagine a scene something like this: The cool scent of spruce and fir drifted through the open windows, along with the thin, mineral clarity of mountain air. Now and then two owls traded low hoots through the dark, and something slapped in the water out on the lake. 

Emma lay listening for a long time. For reasons she couldn’t name, tears began to slide down her face, and soon she was sobbing.

She wasn’t sad or upset. She described a welling up of joy, a sort of homecoming moment — a deep remembering that felt familiar yet beyond the reach of words. It was, she said, like “drinking clear, cool water when you didn’t know you were thirsty.”

Ask a Climate Therapist tackles your questions about how to navigate the emotional side of climate change, with leading climate-aware therapist Leslie Davenport. Have a question? Ask it here!

Emma spent most of her workday in an office building. She loved to run, but usually on city streets with a podcast playing in her ears, or on a gym treadmill. Like most of us, she lived by a daily routine whose steady stream of input kept her separate from the natural world. She cared for nature, but it was cognitive, not visceral. 

Our work focused on integrating what had lifted her mood during that experience in Colorado and keeping that connection alive in her everyday life.

We don’t need to go to the mountains to touch the living world within and around us. For Emma, it started small. She left her earbuds at home on some runs and let the wind and birdsong keep her company. She began each morning with a moment at the window watching the sky before opening her laptop. At lunch she found a beautiful tree in a nearby park and made it her regular spot to pause and sit, watching it change through the seasons.

I was reminded of Emma, and the other clients I’ve seen who were similarly feeling the sorrow of this detachment, when I read a question that came through the Ask a Climate Therapist form: “Why is it that working with animals and tending to plants helps process the grief, anxiety, and depression?” 

This question-asker found the answer that Emma and others were seeking, but wanted to understand the “why” behind it. I can point to some of the science that backs this up: Compounds released by trees can boost the activity of our immune cells. Stroking an animal lowers stress hormones and can raise oxytocin. But I would also say that we don’t need academic journals to know these things. We feel better working with plants and animals because we can sense directly how life flourishes as a complex, interwoven system that we’re part of. When you water a garden or care for an animal, you’re practicing a form of reciprocity that’s also a way of caring for the future. 

And so for you, reader of this column — wherever you may be at in your journey of connecting with, caring for, and feeling a sense of belonging in the natural world — remember that engaging with nature brings more than just joy; that restoration of connection actually supports and sustains your ability to do the larger work. 

Below, I offer just a few practices to begin to cultivate that more mindful relationship. I would love to know about your regular practices, too. How do you create moments of connection and kinship with nature in your daily life? Reply to this email or reach out to lookingforward@grist.org to share them with the Grist team, and with me.

Practice tips:

There are many ways to cultivate an awareness of our place in the living world. 

1. Listen to the mp3 “We are Nature” — a free resource I created to accompany my book, Transforming Climate Anxiety — for a guided experience of connection.
2. Take a daily sensory pause. Once a day, stop for one minute and notice what’s alive around you: Take the temperature of the air on your skin, notice a bird call or the smell after a rain. As you breathe, remember that the Earth’s trees and plants created the oxygen you’re taking in, and that your exhale feeds them in return.
3. Tend something — and say thank you. Water a plant, fill a birdfeeder, or care for a patch of garden. Reciprocity is how we take our place in the web of life: We receive and we give back.
4. Leave the earbuds at home from time to time. Try a walk or run with the wind, neighborhood sounds, and your own breathing as the soundtrack.

In this with you, 
Leslie

I’m Leslie Davenport, a licensed therapist, educator, speaker, consultant, and internationally recognized voice on the emotional and psychological dimensions of climate change. If you’ve got a question about climate and mental health, please consider submitting it for a future column. Submit a question for a future Ask a Climate Therapist column More from Ask a Climate Therapist

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  Licensed therapist Leslie Davenport offers advice to two readers facing paralysis from different points in their climate journeys.

• Ask a Climate Therapist: How do I avoid getting trapped in the system I hope to change?

  A young engineer has a vision for changing their industry, but worries about slowly becoming a cog in the machine. Therapist Leslie Davenport offers advice for staying creative.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Advice from a climate therapist: Touch grass. (No, really.) on Oct 16, 2026.

Earlier this month, after a series of stops and starts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced changes to a long-running program that is supposed to help farmers and rural small businesses stand up renewable energy projects. 

The new rules, set to go into effect today, October 16, effectively make any solar power development ineligible for funding through the Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP. It’s the latest of multiple rollbacks by the second Trump administration that advocates say are essentially making the program unusable.

Installing solar systems on farmland can cost tens of thousands of dollars upfront, which many agricultural producers may not have or may be reluctant to spend, given their low profit margins. REAP has long provided financial support to farmers to build out renewable energy systems on their land. 

These projects often provide multiple benefits to participants. First, they can help lower utility bills for agricultural producers and rural businesses by providing their operations with additional power. But farmers and business owners are also able to sell excess energy back to the grid. By cutting costs or padding revenue, these systems can be a lifeline at a time when farmers are facing escalating costs for things like fertilizer, fuel, labor, and seeds, making it difficult to make ends meet. 

Research shows investing in renewable energy can also be an economic driver in rural parts of the country. “All of these things lined up,” said Matt Russell, the executive director of the Iowa Farmers Union, an independent organization representing family farmers. So for the Trump administration to “shift away from those kinds of win-win-win investments is very disappointing,” he added.

The Iowa Farmers Union is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last month against the USDA, alleging that previous changes to REAP were already harming rural communities by severely restricting solar development under the program. (The lawsuit was filed on September 28, just days before the agriculture department published its new rules.) 

The lawsuit takes aim at changes made to REAP in August 2025, following an executive order by President Donald Trump the previous month stating that taxpayers would no longer “subsidize expensive and unreliable energy sources like wind and solar.” Although the executive order did not instruct the USDA to do anything in particular, the office within the agriculture department that administers REAP changed the criteria for applicants such that most solar projects would become ineligible for grants or loan guarantees. 

Part of the plaintiffs’ argument is that such a move violates the REAP statute. Lawmakers created REAP in 2008 as part of that year’s farm bill by combining two existing programs that sought to develop renewable energy and increase energy efficiency. “Rather than complying” with this mandate, “the agency has decided to completely ignore what Congress told them to do,” said Michael Youhana, an attorney at Earthjustice, the nonprofit environmental law group representing the plaintiffs. “In fact,” he added, the USDA is doing “the opposite of what Congress told them to do” by promoting the use of fossil fuels over renewables. 

The lawsuit also alleges that these anti-solar moves from the USDA violate the Administrative Procedure Act, which essentially requires agencies to show that regulatory decisions were made through careful consideration. The USDA says “that they’re taking this action to protect farmland from being gobbled up by solar systems,” said Youhana. “But farmers are voluntarily applying for REAP, and they’re doing it because solar gives them all kinds of really great financial benefits that the agency has completely ignored.”

The USDA told Grist it “will not comment on pending litigation.” In an email to energy news site Utility Dive, a representative for the USDA said that under the Biden administration, “fertile farmland that should be feeding America” was used instead to produce solar power. “Those days are over. USDA will not actively participate in repurposing farmland historically used to sustain this country’s abundant food supply.”

Grist has previously reported on how the USDA’s abrupt freeze of REAP grants in the early days of Trump’s second term created confusion and chaos for small farmers who had already spent tens of thousands of dollars on energy upgrades. In March 2025, the agency released that grant money but asked participants to voluntarily revise and resubmit their applications without any mention of climate change. That summer, the USDA announced the anti-solar policy over which Earthjustice, along with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, are suing.

But the switch-ups didn’t stop there. A year later, in March 2026, the USDA effectively paused REAP as a whole, announcing it would suspend further grant awards until the program rules were rewritten to comply with Trump’s executive order from the year before. 

This month, on October 1, the department published its final rule changes. They state that solar or wind projects on cropland involving “any component made in a country named as a foreign adversary” are no longer eligible for funding through REAP. Because so many parts of solar power systems are manufactured in China, this effectively means an end to any new solar development on farms through the once-popular USDA program. 

Another change drags out the timeline for receiving funding; applicants must now have energy systems up and running for one year in order to be considered eligible for reimbursement. 

These changes “more deeply entrench the anti-solar policy we’ve challenged in our lawsuit,” said Youhana. While “federal investments in renewable energy projects could help to offset rising energy costs, making life more affordable for farmers and the broader American public alike,” he added, the USDA seems to be moving in the opposite direction.

Russell argued that further restricting funding sources like REAP will only lead to the further consolidation of the agricultural industry, where only the biggest, wealthiest operations can survive, and the little guys suffer without adequate public support. 

“It’s like stacking the deck against family farms, and entrepreneurial businesses in small towns that are trying to bootstrap themselves,” he said. “It’s picking winners and losers, and the losers are the very kinds of farms and businesses and communities that I think the vast majority of American taxpayers think that they’re investing in.”

This story has been updated with the USDA’s response to Grist’s request for comment.

Editor’s note: Earthjustice is an advertiser with Grist. Advertisers have no role in Grist’s editorial decisions.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump just effectively killed a popular solar energy program for rural America on Oct 16, 2026.

A movement to reshape the structure of taxation in the U.S. is gaining steam.

Trump clearly represents an unmitigated disaster for the steady state, with consequences that include rolling back decades of progress in gender equality, contraceptive access, and the lower birth rates that result.

Coal was on the way out. That’s how it looked last year, anyway, when the International Energy Agency forecast that global demand for the dirtiest fossil fuel had plateaued and was poised to start declining. But this year hasn’t gone as expected. The agency recently projected that coal consumption will climb to a record high of 8.94 billion metric tons in 2026. Headlines have declared that coal is “back in fashion” and making a “comeback.”

So what changed? Blame it on the war in Iran, which choked off a chunk of the world’s oil and gas supply in the Strait of Hormuz and thrust the world into an energy crisis. Many countries turned to coal as a replacement. “The main thing is that coal is going up because gas is going down,” said Daan Walter, who leads strategy research on the future of energy for the think tank Ember. 

As for the idea that there’s a revival of coal, energy experts aren’t convinced. “I think it’s important to distinguish between a small short-term bump in coal use and a genuine resurgence of the coal industry,” said Christine Shearer, a coal analyst at Global Energy Monitor, which tracks coal plants and other energy projects. According to some experts, there’s a more convincing case that the crisis will accelerate the adoption of renewables and clean technology.

Nearly every country around the world agreed to “phase down” coal at an international climate conference in Glasgow five years ago. Coal is the dirtiest source of electricity, releasing more carbon and more air pollutants, for every unit of energy generated, than oil or natural gas. 

Mining companies and right-leaning politicians are using the energy crisis to argue for more coal. In June, the International Energy Agency said that investment in coal reached its highest level in 14 years. David Crisafulli, the premier of the Australian state of Queensland, recently said he’d welcome proposals for new coal-fired power stations to power Anthropic’s AI data centers. The mining company Northback is now working to reopen a former mine in Alberta, Canada, that closed almost 60 years ago, based on recent projections that the world will be in need of coal in the next decade as well as the prospect of profits. 

“There’s a big sugar rush right now,” Walter said. But soon enough, the sugar crash may set in, perhaps in the years before these projects are completed. “They’re all rushing in, and they are all making, I think, reckless business plans,” he said. 

The other half of the story is that the oil and gas crunch has also pushed countries toward renewables and clean technology, perhaps permanently destroying demand for oil. President Donald Trump and Israel’s attack on Iran in February sent oil and gas prices skyrocketing so high that some journalists compared it to putting a tax on carbon. It was the second oil shock in recent years, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and as a result of this unpredictability, countries are viewing wind and solar as a more secure option than fossil fuel imports. 

Read Next It’s official: Data centers are slowing America’s shift away from coal Jake Bittle

The world is also seeing increased demand for electricity, for powering AI data centers as well as more AC units as temperatures rise. But much of this additional demand is being met by wind and solar. This growth in clean power has been one of many factors cushioning the economic effects of the oil shock so far, the International Monetary Fund said in a report on Monday, though it warned that the world was nearing the “limits of resilience” to withstand future shocks.

It almost creates a sense of whiplash to see headlines that the world is entering an “age of electricity” alongside others saying that coal is on the upswing. Yet both can be true. “The immediate response to an energy crisis can be more fossil fuel use, even as the longer-term response is to reduce dependence on those fuels altogether,” Shearer said. 

Take India. This week, the head of its power sector said the country might be forced to add much more coal-fired power capacity than planned, driven by growing demand and lower hydroelectric output thanks to weaker monsoon rains. At the same time, India is aggressively building clean energy. The country has quadrupled its renewable capacity to about 300 gigawatts over the past decade, meaning that it’s well ahead of schedule for meeting its climate targets under the Paris Agreement. 

Coal boosters might celebrate their industry’s growth over the next handful of years. But coal is simply taking up a larger share of the energy generated from fossil fuels, a slice that’s on track to shrink compared to other energy sources, Walter said. He likened it to being the most powerful man on the Titanic. “It’s a great party to have for a couple of hours, but then you’re going down with the ship.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Is coal really making a comeback? on Oct 16, 2026.

Burnham's life and death decision Channel Comment brendan 16th October 2026 Teaser Media

The battery industry is about to witness another change in chemistry and technology. Valo Energy CEO Peter Fath explains why. Plus: All the news from a busy week.

The post Energy Insiders: Grid scale sodium batteries are on their way appeared first on Renew Economy.

• Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy may have nine kids, but the self-described “fertility president” tying transit funding to birth rates is not going to help families that fled cities for car-centric suburbs — nor will it help struggling parents who can barely afford a metro card, let alone a car. (Vox)
• Another of the Trump administration’s priorities is to spend billions of dollars completing an interstate highway system that was actually finished in 1992. (Transportation for America)
• FedEx is spending $300 million on 2,000 electric delivery trucks, but could save almost three times that much on diesel fuel. (Electrek)
• In the face of fiscal uncertainty, too often cities make short-sighted cuts, like deferring maintenance on transportation infrastructure, that lead to long-term problems. (Governing)
• New Trump administration press secretary Katie Zacharia was cited multiple times in Los Angeles for distracted driving. (L.A. Material; registration required)
• Climate change is causing a Southern California coastal Amtrak line to collapse into the Pacific Ocean, and it could cost $5 billion to fix. (Los Angeles Times)
• Austin’s main street, Congress Avenue, is getting a major bike- and pedestrian-friendly makeover. (My San Antonio)
• The Detroit city council is urging the Michigan DOT to prioritize safety on Gratiot Avenue, a major six-lane thoroughfare. (Bridge Detroit)
• MARTA was expected to roll out new train cars before the World Cup came to Atlanta, but they still haven’t arrived. (Fox 5)
• A Salt Lake City business owner who almost ran over a cyclist is now on a crusade to get rid of a new bike lane. (KSL)
• Mass Transit explains how a small New Mexico transit system is shooting for zero emissions.
• Uber is testing robotaxis in Manchester, England. (The Guardian)
• A new European initiative will help up to five cities tackle transportation inequality. (Cities Today)
• Police are arresting Toronto demonstrators trying to stop the Ontario government from ripping up bike lanes. (CTV News)

What good is a “walkable” city if average people can’t afford to live in it?

That’s just one of the questions asked by this provocative new video from Safe By Design, which argues that even the urbanist darlings of Europe can fall short of their potential when “design, governance, and affordability failures” get involved.

And while livable streets policy itself isn’t responsible for, say, the wave of tourists overwhelming Barcelona or collapsing pedestrian walkways in Naples, it is an interesting reminder that the conversation about building great places can’t stop at the edge of the sidewalk.

Watch this video YouTube.

Ultra-processed food affects metabolism and brain activity, even with the same nutrients Anthony Lacey October 16, 2026

It’s not just poor nutrition that links ultra-processed food to health harms, a new study finds. 

The body’s response is also determined by the amount of processing the food has gone through, which changes the way we get energy from food.

Researchers at Virginia Tech gave 32 study participants two different meals three days apart. The meals had the same amount of calories and nutrients, but one was ultra-processed and the other wasn’t. 

Participants had a greater insulin response after eating the ultra-processed meal, meaning their bodies were working harder to regulate their blood sugar. Their brain activity also changed when they looked at pictures of ultra-processed foods, or UPF.

How the study measured UPF metabolism

In the study, published recently in Nature Metabolism, the researchers wanted to find out whether a meal of ultra-processed food would be metabolized, or used for energy, differently than a meal of minimally processed food.

The researchers designed two 300-calorie meals whose nutrition matched: They were nearly identical in calories, carbs, fat, fiber, protein, sodium and water content.

The ultra-processed meal included portions of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, deli turkey, veggie chips, instant mashed potatoes, cereal and a cookie. These foods are not always ultra-processed, but the brands used in this study were.

The minimally processed meal was made from banana, dried cranberries, cheese and egg.

Participants ate the meals three days apart. Before and after each meal, they entered a metabolic chamber – an airtight room that measures calories burned based on the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the chamber.

Researchers found that the ultra-processed meals led to higher insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar, and lower use of carbohydrates for energy.

How the study measured brain activity

The study also assessed whether the two meals would activate the brain in different ways.

Researchers later showed participants pictures of ultra-processed and minimally processed foods while they received a specialized brain scan called a functional MRI. Some of the food pictured was the same food used in the study’s meals.

One key finding: Ultra-processed food caused different responses in the area of the brain related to motivation and reward.

That might mean that, in addition to variations in how our bodies use food for energy, the ways the brain thinks about and values food fluctuates depending on how processed it is.

Science is showing that food processing can affect health

Some researchers say nutrition, not processing, makes ultra-processed food harmful to health. It’s true that ultra-processed foods are often high in added sugar and saturated fat, and low in beneficial nutrients like fiber and protein.

But this isn’t the first study to show that processing plays a role. In 2019, the first randomized controlled trial showed that an ultra-processed diet led to greater calorie intake and weight gain than a minimally processed diet – even when they had the same nutritional profile.

What’s more, many researchers who have critiqued the main classification system for ultra-processed food have received food industry funding.

What you can do 

It’s not practical for most people to avoid all ultra-processed food – they’re widely available, affordable and appealing for consumers. Research has even shown that food companies took tips from the tobacco industry to create products with maximum pleasure and appeal.

The federal government has failed to regulate ultra-processed food. States like California are taking the lead, recently enacting a law establishing a “non-ultra-processed” label for foods sold in California stores.

Until change comes to your state, you can use EWG’s Food Scores, which rates more than 150,000 products on nutrition, ingredients and processing and flags UPF for you. 

Shoppers on the go can also use EWG’s Healthy Living app to find non-UPF options at the grocery store.

Areas of Focus Ultra-Processed Foods Family Health Authors Sarah Reinhardt, MPH, RDN October 16, 2026

Fossil fuel interests spent $1.2 million on Meta ads in the last three months, a wall of money the renewables industry met with near silence.

The post Anti-renewables groups still spending big on Meta – and met with near silence by green energy industry appeared first on Renew Economy.

We have had an eventful first few weeks of fall! Thank you to everyone who came to our Candidate Forums. A combined 200 people were educated at these forums and helped make them a big success. Thank you to our co-sponsors, to the great moderators from the Portland Mercury, and to the candidates. In case you missed out, you can now watch the Forums on our Youtube, thanks to KBOO Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein!

Click here to watch District 3 Forum Click here to watch District 4 Forum Photo Credit: Dana Schot

Ballots have now been sent out to voters and there are only 20 days until Election Day. If you want to fill out your ballot together with others in the 350PDX community, join us at a Ballot Filling Party on Tuesday, October 27 at 6:00pm at our Climate Justice Workshop (3639 N Mississippi Ave). This will be a casual space to be with others where you can hang out while you individually fill out your ballot, ask questions about ranked choice voting, and view our Voter Guide. There will be pizza! Please RSVP to Dineen so we get enough food: dineen@350pdx.org.

——————————————————————————————————————————- Welcome Amanda!

Last month, 350PDX welcomed Amanda Conroy to the team as our new Director of Development! For close to two decades, Amanda has led development and marketing efforts for mission-driven organizations across California and Oregon. A passionate nonprofit leader, she specializes in relationship-based fundraising, strategic communications, and building organizational cultures rooted in philanthropy and community impact. Read more about Amanda here.

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Energy Justice Team: Celebrate CEI Hub Policy Wins!

Thanks to great collaboration among community-based organizations, Bureau of Planning and Sustainability staff, and the leadership of Councilors Green, Pirtle-Guiney, Kanal, Koyama Lane, and Clark, Portland City Council is set to pass a Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub Policy with many of the amendments our community coalition suggested! We’re ensuring the CEI hub is safer and less risky in the future than it is currently, and we also started a plan for drawing down the amount of fuel stored at the hub. There will be one more vote on the final draft of this policy on or around Nov. 5, incorporating approved amendments. We want to see this whole package passed as amended with no changes — feel free to let your councilors know this!

This CEI Hub Policy is stronger because you participated — through public comments, rallies, phone calls and emails to councilors, questions at town halls, and much more this year — and for the last decade! THANK YOU! This policy instructs staff to return to City Council next September with a modified drawdown plan based on the companies’ data about tank fill levels, so we’ll keep working on this in 2027, and beyond, until this area is safer.

Speak Up to Support Healthier Buildings for a Healthier Climate!

Portland is taking a major step toward decreasing building emissions and increasing regional climate resilience through a new policy: Climate and Health Standards for Existing Buildings. Buildings account for nearly half of Portland’s greenhouse gas emissions, and this policy would address the largest of these (>20,000 square feet) to create healthier homes, lower emissions, and provide greater transparency and protections for renters. This is big!

October 20 at 2:00 pm there’s a public hearing in the Housing & Permitting Committee, and community voices matter. Show your support through testimony!

• Modify and send this email to City Council

• Use this toolkit to draft a written or verbal public comment

Support No Immunity for Big Oil

We’ve been involved in various strategies at the local, state, and national levels to hold Big Oil companies accountable.

In September, a No Immunity for Big Oil resolution passed the Portland City Life Committee! It will likely come to the full City Council this month. This resolution states that it’s vitally important to continue to have the right to take Big Oil to court, and support legislation such as the Make Polluters Pay coalition’s climate superfund bill.

Now, federal lawmakers and the American Petroleum Institute are trying to give polluters immunity from accountability. Our Members of Congress have the opportunity to stand against this by indicating their opposition to these immunity bills, and a resolution in Portland gives them extra backing.

 You can help by: 

• Urging your US Senator and Representatives to give No Immunity to Big Oil (Sen. Merkley and Reps. Bonamici and Dexter have already made statements in opposition to such immunity bills)

• Encouraging City Council to pass the No Immunity for Big Oil resolution

Fight for the Right to Breathe

On October 29, a Right to Breathe policy will have its first hearing in the Community & Public Safety Committee. This will prohibit the use of chemical weapons (such as tear gas) in Portland. You may recall the Action Night we had in February about the environmental and public health concerns around tear gas and other chemical weapons (where we premiered this incredible and informative short film, “Gas Me, Teddy”), and this has been an ongoing issue 350PDX has worked on since we signed onto a lawsuit in 2020. In addition to concerns around rights of free speech and assembly, chemical weapons pose health problems for our rivers, trees, and wildlife. Check out our Take Action page for this and other current actions you can take today, and read more about this policy and the overall concerns around chemical weapons here.

Reach out to dineen@350pdx.org and cherice@350pdx.org to get plugged into the Energy Justice Team. We work on everything from fighting data centers, Zenith, and the CEI Hub to advocating for PCEF and transportation justice!

 Forest Defense Team:

This week the Forest Defense Team joined forces with organizations and community members from across Portland to say NO to PGE logging of Forest Park’s ancient trees. On Wednesday, we attended a rally at City Hall and hosted a watch party at the 350PDX workshop!

Last year, Portland City Council voted unanimously to deny PGE’s permit to log five acres of Forest Park. Now, PGE and the City of Portland reached a backroom agreement to allow PGE to seek a new permit. We need another unanimous vote opposing this permit from City Council!

The Forest Defense Team meets on the first and third Monday of each month, alternating between virtual and in-person meetings. Our next meeting will be on October 19 from 6 – 7:30 PM. Reach out to tyler@350PDX.org for details.

Art Team:

Are you attending No Kings this Saturday? Make sure to stop by and say hi to our puppeteers this weekend as they bring joyful activism to the Vote Early Rally downtown. Interested in becoming a last minute Puppeteer? Email: arts@350pdx.org.

Last month, the Art Team hosted the Forest over Profits conference for a combined Art Build! We also screen printed small flags that were used by the Energy Justice Team at City Council to fight for better CEI Hub regulation, saying, “Rose City wants our river back!”

In an exciting update, our team leads have introduced monthly planning meetings in addition to our regular art builds. These meetings are an opportunity to meet the team in a more relaxed setting and a chance to help us brainstorm our plans for the next art build. The planning meetings will be on the last Wednesday of every month while our regularly scheduled art builds will continue as usual on the second Sunday.

• Next Planning Meeting: Wednesday, October 28, 6-7:30 PM
• Next Art Build: November 8, 1-4 PM

Meetings are held in the 350PDX workshop (3639 N Mississippi Ave). RSVP to arts@350pdx.org.

Book Club:

The 350PDX Book Club meets every month on the first Wednesday of the month at 6:30PM. Every other month is in person and the others are virtual. Reach out to books@350PDX.org with any questions or to join our list, and please RSVP so we can inform you of any meeting changes.

We are in the process of deciding our next few books! Email Kami and Lizy at books@350PDX.org to recommend a read (all genres welcome) or to sign up to vote.

Save the date for our upcoming discussions:

• TBD November meeting

• Wednesday, December 2 at 6:30 PM (in person; fiction) — book to be selected in October

• Wednesday, February 3 at 6:30 PM (in person; nonfiction)

Milwaukie Advocates for Climate Justice:

The Milwaukie Neighborhood Team has two events this month. We hope folks will join us and help spread the word!

Last Saturday, October 10, we hosted our kick-off potluck event with a featured presentation and guided conversation on how to reduce fossil fuels facilitated by our friends on the SW Neighborhood Team. We enjoyed connecting with people in Milwaukie who are interested in learning more about climate justice and getting involved, and those who are already passionately engaged!

Next Monday, October 19, we will be hosting a PGE Rate Increase workshop with Citizens Utility Board from 6:00-8:00PM. This workshop will take place at the Ledding Library Community Room (10660 SE 21st Ave, Milwaukie) directly after our abbreviated monthly meeting from 5:30-6:00 PM.

The MAC team meets monthly on the 3rd Monday from 5:30 – 6:30 PM at Milwaukie City Hall — all are welcome! To get connected, sign up here or email MAC@350pdx.org.

Washington County Team:

The Washington County Team invites all to our next monthly online meeting at 6:30 PM on Tuesday October 13. We are currently working on getting out the vote and defending democracy, and look forward to catching up with each other online.

We always welcome newcomers to our events and to our (mostly) monthly online meetings (6:30 PM on the second Tuesday of the month). For the link, join us here or contact us at 350washco@gmail.com.

Southwest Neighborhood Team:

The 350PDX Southwest Neighborhood Team includes neighborhoods on the south and west sides of Portland. We work together to raise awareness of the climate emergency.

Our street corner demonstrations continue weekly in October every Friday from 4:00 – 5:00 PM at SW Terwilliger & SW Taylor’s Ferry. Some parking is available in the Chez Jose and Anytime Fitness lot, or reach us via bus or bike.

Our monthly meetings happen on the third Monday of the month. To get involved, please contact Pat Kaczmarek at patk5@msn.com.

Before closing our newsletter, a few reminders:

• Check out our Take Action page, which we update regularly. It includes actions that may not be in our newsletter.
• Join the 350PDX community Slack channel! This is a great way to stay connected on an ongoing basis. Contact to info@350pdx.org and we can add you.
• 350PDX is still searching for a wonderful, new home. Please reach out to info@350PDX.org if you have ideas for a space where we can have meetings, our arts team can create show-stopping puppets, and more!

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Thank you for reading our monthly newsletter. We hope to see you soon!

With gratitude,

Amanda, Cherice, Dineen, Jessica, Maeve, and Noelle

The post 2026 October Newsletter! appeared first on 350PDX: Climate Justice.

Australian Renewable Energy Agency says the country can still become a major solar PV manufacturer, says deal with new supplier in the pipeline.

The post Australia can still become a giga-scale solar manufacturer, says Arena, as it flags new local PV maker appeared first on Renew Economy.

Birmingham, Mich. (Oct. 15, 2026) — Don Burlett of Oakland Bird Alliance, an Audubon affiliated chapter in Oakland County Michigan, was presented with Audubon Great Lakes’ 2026 Alan Dolan Great...

Caltrans will have to measure its highway projects against regional climate goals, and the state’s metropolitan planning agencies will update those plans every eight years instead of four, under a bill Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last month.

Senate Bill 1087, authored by Sen. Christopher Cabaldon (D-West Sacramento), updates the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008, better known as SB 375. The new law requires each region to plan housing, transportation and land use together to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. It also extends the law’s emissions targets through 2045 and changes the conditions some regions must meet to receive state transportation funds. The bill passed the Senate 31 to 9. Supporters, including regional planning agencies and environmental groups, say it will shift the focus from planning to building projects.

Senate Bill 1087, authored by Sen. Christopher Cabaldon (D-West Sacramento), updates the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008, better known as SB 375. The new law streamlines regional planning requirements, extends greenhouse gas reduction targets through 2045, and strengthens the connection between state transportation funding and regional climate plans.

The legislation was sponsored by a coalition of regional planning agencies and environmental groups, with support from more than 80 organizations, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the regional planning agency for the nine-county Bay Area.

“We’re proud to have supported SB 1087. SB 375 established the idea that California needs to plan for housing, transportation, and land conservation together to meet its climate goals. Nearly 20 years later, SB 1087 starts to move that framework beyond planning by pushing the state to align its transportation investments with regional plans and putting more focus on getting the right projects built,” said Lesley Beatty of Climate Plan, a sponsor of the bill.

That shift from planning to implementation is central to the new law.

…more of this. Lead image: Caltrans. This image: City of Los Angeles From regional plans to projects

SB 375 requires California’s metropolitan planning organizations to develop Sustainable Communities Strategies as part of their regional transportation plans. These strategies coordinate land use, housing and transportation investments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks.

Under SB 1087, metropolitan planning organizations will prepare their strategies every eight years instead of every four, with a progress report after four years. The change is intended to reduce duplicative work and administrative costs while maintaining accountability for progress toward emissions-reduction goals.

The legislation also extends the framework’s greenhouse gas reduction targets through 2045, bringing regional planning into closer alignment with the state’s long-term climate goals. It increases transparency around the California Air Resources Board’s process for setting emissions-reduction targets and reviewing regional strategies.

The Southern California Association of Governments, which develops regional transportation and land-use plans for six counties, said the changes will give regional agencies and local governments more flexibility and certainty while helping them focus on implementation.

“SB 1087 refocuses the sustainable communities strategy on its core purpose to align housing, transportation, and climate,” said SCAG Executive Director Kome Ajise. “We believe these reforms will give regional agencies and local governments more certainty, flexibility, and tools to turn planning into real action.”

For Southern California, the changes could free up resources to advance projects included in its regional plan, Connect SoCal. The law does not guarantee funding for any particular project, but it changes how regional plans are developed and connected to implementation.

Opposition from Business Groups

The Orange County Business Council (OCBC) was one of the leading groups opposed to the legislation. In a statement released while the legislation was moving through committee, the group said it supported modernizing SB 375 but objected to CARB’s expanded role in reviewing regional strategies, warning that the changes could limit regional flexibility and raise concerns about regulatory transparency and stakeholder participation.

While debates over regional autonomy and state oversight are legitimate, SB 1087 does not give CARB control over local zoning or housing approvals. Instead, it strengthens coordination between regional climate plans and state transportation investments while reducing the administrative burden of planning. That balance is central to the law’s effort to turn California’s climate goals into real-world results.

Caltrans must better align with regional goals

One of SB 1087’s biggest changes is that it makes it easier for California to ensure state transportation spending supports regional climate goals.

The law requires Caltrans to consider measures of success that help advance the goals of the California Transportation Plan. It also changes the rules for some state transportation funding programs to better connect which projects get money with the goals in regional plans.

The changes are especially important in regions whose plans fall short of state greenhouse gas reduction targets. In those areas, projects seeking money through programs such as the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program and the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program must meet additional requirements tied to reducing emissions or addressing barriers to meeting regional targets.

The goal is to reduce the chances that state money goes to transportation projects that undermine regional climate plans, while still allowing projects that meet the law’s requirements to move forward.

The law does not prohibit highway projects outright. Its impact will depend on how state agencies apply the new requirements and select future transportation investments. But it creates a stronger statutory link between regional climate goals and decisions about which projects receive state support.

“For the first time, SB 1087 also requires Caltrans to better align state planning with regional goals—which should yield fewer highway boondoggles and more safe streets on which people of all ages and abilities can travel,” said Zak Accuardi of the Natural Resources Defense Council, another sponsor of the legislation.