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We checked 12 fast food chains for ultra-processed ingredients. Only one had none Anthony Lacey August 20, 2026

Fast food chains – think popular places like KFC, McDonald’s and Pizza Hut – can be quick and easy places to grab a meal. And many of us do.

U.S. families get almost a third of their calories from somewhere other than home.

But if you’re looking to eat less ultra-processed food, or UPF, eating out can be a challenge. 

Diets high in UPF have been linked to many poor health outcomes, including Type 2 diabetes, depression, heart disease and even early death. 

Unlike companies that sell packaged food, restaurants aren't required to post ingredient lists. And the food industry has pressured the government to delay a much-needed definition of UPF, which could support policies that help people make healthier choices.

EWG took a closer look at the menus from 12 of the top fast food spots in the U.S. to help families on the go find less-processed options:

• Arby’s
• Burger King
• Chick-fil-A
• Chipotle
• Dominos
• KFC
• McDonald’s
• Panera
• Pizza Hut
• Subway
• Taco Bell
• Wendy’s

There was one surprising standout: Chipotle’s food menu contains no ultra-processed ingredients.

Some of the other places offer a few non-UPF options, if you know how to look for them.

53 ingredients, none ultra-processed

Because fast food chains aren’t required to make ingredient lists public, our review was limited to the most recent information available online. It isn’t a comprehensive look at all fast food – but it does suggest that some chains, like Chipotle, are better than others when it comes to ultra-processed food.

Every menu item at Chipotle is made from some combination of 53 total ingredients. That includes the flour used to make tortillas, vegetables for guacamole and salsa, and seasonings to prepare beans, rice, meat and poultry. It also includes the rennet and cultures used to make cheese. 

That doesn’t mean you should make every meal a burrito bowl. Depending on which ingredients you choose, nutrients like sodium and saturated fat can quickly climb above the average adult’s recommended daily limit. 

But if you keep those caveats in mind, you can get a good amount of nutrients, vitamins and minerals from whole food sources.

Other less-processed options

At most other fast food restaurants, it’s harder to find a meal that isn’t ultra-processed.

That’s because industrial ingredients are a cheap way to mass produce flavorful foods with long shelf lives. They also help create consistency – the reason a Big Mac in Los Angeles tastes the same as a Big Mac in Kansas City.

But some options are better than others:

Soups, salads and grain bowls that aren’t built on highly processed breads

Most burger buns, pizza crusts and sandwich breads at fast food chains are made with highly processed, enriched flour with low nutritional value. They may also contain potentially harmful chemicals like azodicarbonamide, or ADA, potassium bromate and TBHQ.

Chicken, fish and tofu that hasn’t been breaded – or beans

Sandwich meat and pizza toppings like pepperoni or sausage are ultra-processed and have been strongly linked to higher cancer risk. Most breaded or fried chicken and fish fillets at fast food restaurants are ultra-processed because of the way they’re prepared.

Basic dressings and seasonings like olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper

Dressings, dips and sauces are common sources of artificial colors, flavors, emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners and other additives. Chick-fil-A’s fat-free honey mustard dressing alone has more than 20 different ingredients. You can also try just using less.

Some sides and breakfast items

Many restaurants also offer minimally processed sides like applesauce, fruit, corn on the cob and house or side salads (not including dressing).

Panera’s breakfast menu offers Greek yogurt with berries and steel-cut oats with strawberries and pecans, made mostly of minimally processed foods, though each has added sugar.

Drinks like water, black coffee, and unsweetened iced teas

Most sodas and other sweet drinks – including specialty coffee drinks – are either high in added sugar or contain artificial sweeteners like aspartame or sucralose. Taco Bell’s dirty sodas can have more than 100 grams of added sugar, which is double the recommended daily limit.

When it comes to food, being basic is a good thing. When in doubt, look for foods you recognize and flavors you could probably create in your own kitchen.

For some help eating healthier

It’s not practical for people to avoid every ultra-processed food. There’s a reason our food supply is full of them: They’re widely available, affordable, appealing for consumers and extremely profitable for companies. 

The Food and Drug Administration isn’t helping – at least not yet. It has repeatedly failed to regulate ultra-processed foods and has delayed an official definition of UPF. Instead, in August it sent a white paper on defining UPF for White House pre-publication review, several steps removed from a formal definition that could support policies like front-of-package labeling and school nutrition standards.

But you can start simple by making a few healthier swaps. Check if your favorite restaurants post ingredient lists and nutrition facts. Look for more whole foods and avoid longer lists of ingredients you wouldn’t find in a home kitchen.

When it comes to grocery shopping, you can check 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.

Finally, follow Fed UP! – a new coalition of scientists, researchers and public health advocates dedicated to exposing the harms of UPF.

Areas of Focus Food Ultra-Processed Foods Authors Sarah Reinhardt, MPH, RDN Guest Authors Adam Levin (EWG communications intern) August 20, 2026

• The Trump administration is repealing a ban on roads in millions of acres of public land managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Allowing greater access by motor vehicles could disrupt numerous environmentally sensitive habitats. (Field and Stream)
• Traffic engineers could take advantage of aviation technology to detect and deter conflicts at intersections. (ITS International)
• The CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority blames increasing regulation for slow progress on the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco line, 20 years in the works. (Fresno Bee)
• As the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority electrifies its trains, should it go with tried-and-true overhead wires or cutting-edge battery technology? (Commonwealth Beacon)
• A spike in serious crime on Charlotte Area Rapid Transit last year coincided with a drop in ridership (WCNC). Meanwhile, North Carolina’s state auditor is calling for gates or turnstiles at every light rail station to improve security and fare collection (Queen City News).
• Atlanta transit riders want the same impeccable service MARTA offered during the World Cup to continue on. (Appen Media)
• Amtrak’s Mardi Gras line along the Gulf Coast has served 150,000 passengers in its first year, twice the initial projection. (Transportation for America)
• Seattle shattered a record for bike and scooter trips across the Fremont Bridge in July, a sign that the pandemic dip is over. (Seattle Bike Blog)
• Stephanie Nahkleh argues that a car-centric zoning code, not greedy developers, is to blame for Santa Fe’s ugly sprawl. (We Can Have Nice Things)
• Smart Growth America highlights a quick-build road diet in Winchester, Kentucky.
• Lloyd Alter says he expected a Canadian appeals court to overturn a ruling calling Doug Ford’s anti-bike lane policy unconstitutional, but he didn’t expect the judge to sound like such a car-brained jerk. (Carbon Upfront!)
• A Dutch town built a chain-driven ferry for cyclists and pedestrians to pull themselves across a river. (Core 77)
• In Tokyo, visitors can ride on one of the few streetcars that survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima. (Japan Today)

EWG: California’s extreme heat, soaring utility bills make cooling unaffordable for millions Anthony Lacey August 19, 2026

SACRAMENTO – California is experiencing more frequent and dangerous heat days, but sky-high utility bills mean millions of people can’t afford to run air conditioning that could keep them safe, a new Environmental Working Group report finds. 

EWG is calling on policy makers to prioritize solutions like customer-sited solar electric devices that can drastically lower or eliminate annual utility costs for air conditioning. 

Heat advisory days defined as “extreme” or “major” – those threatening the health of anyone without cooling or hydration – jumped an average of 55% statewide over the last two decades, the report shows. Increases in the number of these days ranged from 30% to 145% depending on the region.

At the same time, California families are spending $4 billion a year on home air conditioning, adding$95 to $800 to annual utility bills. Almost 7 million ratepayers are already in some form of utility debt and paying some of the highest electricity bills in the U.S.

The result is an impossible choice for many households: Either risk the harmful effects of exposure to extreme heat or get needed cooling relief and fall further behind on utility bills.

“California is getting hotter and many families throughout the state can’t afford to stay safe from the heat because electricity is so expensive,” said Josh Wink, EWG fellow and report co-author. “Californians shouldn’t have to pick between making ends meet or suffering the health threats of extreme heat, but that’s the situation millions are now in.”

Heat risk is rising fast

EWG found California counties averaged 191 days, or 52.3%, of the year that the National Weather Service defines as experiencing major or extreme heat risk. 

These days put people at risk of heat stroke, severe dehydration, mental health challenges, and other forms of heat injury. Even “minor” hot days can threaten the safety of heat-sensitive people, although the major and extreme days are of the biggest concern.

The increase in these days over the last 20 years includes:

• San Francisco: 145% increase
• Sacramento County: 111.4% increase
• Santa Clara County: 100% increase
• Riverside County: 58.1% increase
• Fresno: 54.6% increase
• San Diego County: 40.2% increase
• Los Angeles County: 30.8% increase

Rising heat isn’t just an inland problem. Traditionally mild coastal regions are also seeing steep jumps in major and extreme heat days, though the range varies significantly. For example, San Francisco saw 2 days on average compared to 42 days in San Bernardino County, with other areas falling somewhere between both ranges.

While coastal communities experience less frequent extreme heat, they are also the least equipped to cope with the soaring heat. Only 70% of these communities have home air conditioning compared to 92%in inland counties, according to U.S. Census data. In some areas, like San Francisco, it’s as low as 35%.

Renters also lack equal access to air conditioning. Statewide, 64% of two- to four-bedroom apartment units have air conditioning, EWG found, compared with 80% of single-family homes statewide. 

“The negative effects of climate change, such as extremes of heat, wildfire smoke, and air pollution are associated with early pregnancy loss, preterm births, preeclampsia, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and stillbirth,” said Dr. Hayley Miller, an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at University of California, San Francisco.

“Heat stress symptoms in pregnant patients do overlap with common pregnancy complications like nausea, muscle cramps, rashes, nosebleeds, dehydration, even contractions similar to preterm labor symptoms,” Miller added.

Access to a vital resource

“We often hear from our partners who do home visits for asthma about families having to choose between opening their windows to cool their homes but allowing the smoke in and impacting their child's asthma or keeping their windows closed so their child can breathe, but suffering from unsafe temperatures in the house,” said Brandon Kitagawa, Senior Policy Associate with Regional Asthma Management & Prevention, a project of the Public Health Institute. 

“To be clear, making homes resilient to extreme heat will be difficult. It will require significant investment in building retrofits and eliminating barriers to implementation, but the benefits for our communities’ health and wellbeing is worth it. 

“We will need every tool at our disposal to address this challenge, so we are happy to see the state considering steps to make the adoption of balcony solar easier in California, as it would reduce the cost of using air conditioning, particularly when it is most needed,” added Kitagawa.

According to U.S. Census data, 78.61% of California households statewide have access to air conditioning devices at home, but that prevalence varies widely by dwelling type and region. 

“No matter where someone lives in California, they are facing heat risks that would have been unimaginable two decades ago. Many are in homes not built for this kind of heat,” said Wink.

Even though home cooling is a vital resource, ever-increasing utility bills mean some residents opt against using air conditioning to prevent making the bills even worse. An estimated 7 million Californians are behind on their bills.

Clean, reliable solar power can help

Customer-sited solar electric generating devices – whether rooftop solar or smaller balcony solar systems – are a proven way to bring down or even fully cover cooling costs, EWG’s research shows. 

A typical residential rooftop solar system generates enough electricity to cover a home’s central air conditioning needs for a year. Even a balcony plug-in solar system can help, producing enough power to offset the electricity that a window air conditioning unit needs.

But red tape makes it hard for many Californians to access solar. That’s why EWG is supporting SB 868, introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco). If enacted, it would cut through those barriers and make it easier for renters and homeowners to get these systems. The bill cleared the Senate in May and is pending in the Assembly.

“Access to balcony solar is a no-brainer in terms of lowering people's costs, increasing generation of clean, renewable energy, and just giving people the ability to control at least part of their energy future,” said Wiener. “So it's really important and I'm really excited that we're almost at the finish line.”

EWG recommends that state policymakers prioritize expanding access to residential solar of all types and sizes in response to the extreme heat.

NOTE: EWG hosted a virtual press briefing on the new analysis featuring Josh Wink, Dr. Hayley Miller, Brandon Kitagawa and Sen. Scott Weiner. The recording of the event can be found here.

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The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action. Visit www.ewg.org for more information.

Areas of Focus Energy Renewable Energy Family Health California Balcony and rooftop solar could cover home cooling costs, if policy makers prioritize access Press Contact Alex Formuzis alex@ewg.org (202) 667-6982 August 19, 2026

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is moving from a future consideration to a near-term strategy question for corporate sustainability teams. Our new primer, Ready, Set, Remove: Planning your company's path to carbon removal, is designed to help companies...

Corporate climate commitments have matured over the past decade, but the tools most companies rely on are showing their limits. Traditional carbon credits face rising scrutiny from regulators, investors and civil society, and the approaching net-zero...

This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler and Zeke Hausfather

Global temperatures are predicted to soar due to theEl Niño event that is currently ramping up. Most forecasts predict that 2027 will set records, with the global average temperature reaching levels we would not expect until the late 2030s.

This plot, from the Washington Post and one of us (ZH), shows how 2027’s temperatures could rise to levels expected in 2037.

To what extent does this upcoming El Niño give us a preview of what the climate will be like a decade or two from now?

What is El Niño?

Here’s what one of us (AD) wrote in his climate textbook:

The best-known example of unforced variability in our climate is the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (referred to by scientists as ENSO). El Niño events, which make up the warm phase of ENSO, occur every few years and last a year or so, and alternate with cooler La Niña events. These ENSO events are associated with large-scale shifts of rainfall and temperature patterns around the globe, and these have enormous consequences for humanity. Some regions see more rainfall during an El Niño, and some see less; some regions experience warmer temperatures than normal, while others are cooler.

Here’s something Kevin Trenberth wrote about ENSO (from a not-yet-published article):

ENSO is the dominant mode of interannual climate variability. It is a natural phenomenon arising from coupled interactions between the atmosphere and ocean in the tropical Pacific Ocean. El Niño events occur roughly every two to seven years and each event has its own character. Surface tropical winds create changes in sea temperatures that determine where the main tropical convection and storm activity occur, and thus further change the winds.

ENSO redistributes heat and moisture around the globe and regulates temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, which cools mainly from increased evaporation. The added atmospheric moisture is realized in rainfall and as latent heat in the atmosphere, which contributes to a general warming of the global atmosphere and global mean surface temperature that peaks a few months after a strong El Niño event. ENSO underpins seasonal climate prediction, and has major impacts and strongly influences ecosystems, economies, and society.

The global picture

This figure from AD’s textbook shows global average temperature measured by satellite and color coded by phase of ENSO. It is clear that, when you are in an El Niño, the Earth’s global average temperature rises dramatically:

Thus, from a global average perspective, the framing of “El Niño is a time machine” is correct. Indeed, one of us (ZH) has been using this analogy to try and explain 2027’s El Niño-fueled global average temperatures, which may equal what the long-term trend predicts the temperature of 2037 will be.

The catch

The catch is that the future world that has been warmed by greenhouse gases and a present-day world that has been temporarily warmed by El Niño can have the same global-average temperature while having significant differences in the impacts of this warming.

The reason is that the two kinds of warming come from different physical processes. Greenhouse-gas-driven global warming (hereafter, GHG warming) results from greenhouse gases trapping heat that would otherwise escape to space, leading to an accumulation of energy in the Earth system, which in turn leads to increasing temperatures.

El Niño is different. To a first approximation, it is better thought of as a redistribution of heat already in the climate system. During El Niño, changes in winds in the tropical Pacific allow warm water that had been stored below the surface in the West Pacific to spread eastward and warm the surface. That warming then propagates to the rest of the planet.

Those different mechanisms leave very different fingerprints.

Temperature

Here is the pattern of long-term warming, calculated from Berkeley Earth data:

The first thing to notice is that greenhouse warming really is global warming. Almost every spot on the planet is experiencing long-term warming. There are well-understood spatial variations in the rate of warming: e.g., land has warmed faster than the oceans because of water’s high heat capacity.

Any individual year, of course, will not look like this because a single year’s pattern is the combination of GHG warming and random variability from ENSO and an alphabet of other modes of variability (PDO, NAO, etc.).

The strength of an El Niño is measured by the average temperature in the tropical Pacific (the black box in the figures below), which we refer to as the ENSO index, with units of degrees Celsius.

We can regress the global average temperature against the ENSO index, which tells us that the globe warms about 0.08°C for every degree increase in the ENSO index. The forecast is for the ENSO index to reach +3.9°C in November 2026, which implies approximately +0.3°C of (temporary) global warming in the following year1. This additional ENSO warming is the reason that 2027 will be a record breaker and a preview of a greenhouse-warmed world of the late 2030s.

We can also estimate the spatial pattern of the global warming due to El Niño by regressing the ENSO index against the temperature at each grid point (at two lags, zero and 6 months):

slope of regression of temperature at each grid point vs. ENSO index. (left) regression with zero lag, (right) temperatures lag ENSO index by 6 months

As you can see, the El Niño warming pattern is very different than the GHG warming pattern. It is definitely not global; instead, a large fraction of the warming occurs in the tropical Pacific. And some regions actually cool during an El Niño.

So while the global average temperature in 2037 may equal that of 2027, the warming will be distributed differently. You should therefore not expect your local conditions in 2027 to equal your local conditions in 2037.

Precipitation

As temperatures shift in response to an El Niño, the distribution of rainfall also shifts.

Observational records of precipitation aren’t as good for this type of calculation, so for these plots I am using ten members of the CESM1 Large Ensemble. Here is the long-term change in precipitation between the early 20th century and the late 21st century:

There is a broad increase in global precipitation, which makes physical sense. Surface energy balance requires evaporation to increase as the globe warms, so precipitation, which must balance evaporation, must also increase.

But, as with temperature, the increase is not distributed evenly. Some regions will see very large increases in precipitation while others get drier. Many of the drying regions are in the subtropics, including parts of the Mediterranean, southern Africa, Australia, and the Americas.

Now compare that with the rainfall response to El Niño, calculated the same way as the temperature response above:

There are similarities between the responses to GHG warming and ENSO — but also important differences, particularly at high latitudes and in the tropics.

Other differences

The differences extend beyond temperature and precipitation. For example, consider hurricanes. During an El Niño, the distribution of hurricanes changes in significant ways:

adapted from Trenberth, K. E., 2007: Warmer oceans, stronger hurricanes. Scientific American, July, 2007, 45-51.

Thus, a future greenhouse-warmed climate of 2037 with exactly the same global-average temperature as 2027 but in an ENSO-neutral state (neither El Niño nor La Niña) would be expected to have more Atlantic hurricanes than El Niño-enhanced 2027 would.

The same logic applies to droughts, floods, heat waves, and many other climate impacts.

So is El Niño a preview of the future?

Yes, in a limited sense.

The coming El Niño may temporarily push global-average temperatures to a level that will not occur during (ENSO-neutral) conditions for another decade or two. In that sense, it really is a glimpse of the future.

But it is not a true time machine. It does not provide a full picture of what the Earth will actually look like a decade hence.

The future greenhouse-warmed Earth of 2037 will contain more energy than today’s Earth. Its oceans will be warmer, its land will be warmer, and the underlying changes in temperature and precipitation will be driven by persistent greenhouse forcing rather than the temporary rearrangement of heat associated with ENSO.

So while the 2027 El Niño may well help us gain some insight into what a hotter planet looks like, we should avoid thinking this is the climate of the future.

We thank Kevin Trenberth for his comments on a draft of this post.

Code to reproduce the figures is here.

1 This is a back-of-the-napkin calculation. If you want a high-quality estimate, you need to do the regression at a range of lags and use that to do a full-year calculation.

Join the Clean Air Council and Feet First Philly to learn more about the Public Space Enhancement Mini-Grant Program on Tuesday, August 25th, at 12 pm E.T.

Hear from members of the selection committee, from previous awardees, and others all about the application and awarding process!

Register for the free webinar at bit.ly/MiniGrantWebinar

The webinar will also be recorded and posted online afterwards, so follow along to see it if you can’t make it on 8/25!

The Indonesian Peasants’ Union (SPI) expresses its deepest condolences and solidarity following the earthquake that struck the East Nusa Tenggara/Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) region on Saturday (15/8/2026).

The post Indonesia : SPI Calls for Solidarity for Victims of the NTT Earthquake appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Today, news outlets reported that Donald Trump plans to nominate White House Domestic Policy Deputy Director Dr. Heidi Overton — an anti-abortion extremist who celebrated the Supreme Court overturning the right to abortion — to serve as his Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner. The FDA plays a critical role in safeguarding the health of people across the country, including by making science-based decisions about medication abortion, birth control, and other essential reproductive healthcare.

Overton has an extensive anti-abortion record. She celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade as a “huge victory,” and has advocated for the politicization of government agencies to help advance a nationwide anti-abortion agenda. She previously worked at America First Policy Institute, an extreme conservative think tank made up of former Trump administration officials, where she authored a brief pushing disinformation about the safety of medication abortion and calling for additional, medically unnecessary restrictions on access to mifepristone.

Overton’s nomination comes as the FDA rushes to advance a politically motivated, sham “study” of mifepristone, and remains under close scrutiny from anti-abortion groups and leaders who relentlessly demand that the agency takes decisive action to restrict access to medication abortion care.

Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:

“Donald Trump is trying to put an anti-abortion extremist in charge of any agency that could seriously undermine reproductive healthcare—including the agency that could roll back access to mifepristone nationwide. Heidi Overton celebrated the fall of Roe, spread junk science about medication abortion, and openly called for remaking the FDA to serve a political agenda instead of the health of the country. Her nomination is another alarming step in Trump’s plan to weaponize every part of the federal government to restrict abortion nationwide.”

If confirmed, Overton would succeed Martin Makary, who resigned as FDA Commissioner in May. Initial reports of Makary’s departure from the FDA emerged just after a meeting between White House staff and anti-abortion groups, who expressed frustration the FDA has not sufficiently wielded its power to ban mifepristone outright. Anti-abortion groups then shifted their demands to acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas, who called anti-abortion leaders within hours of being appointed and said that accelerating the review was his top priority.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With populations of grassland birds continuing to decline and the nation’s cattle herd at its smallest size in more than 70 years, legislation introduced last week in the...

WISCONSIN (August 19, 2026) — At a perilous time for America’s grasslands and the birds that depend on them, the National Audubon Society is proud to recognize seven Wisconsin farms and ranches...

More than a century ago, American families could flip through a Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog, pick out a house, and have nearly everything they needed to build it delivered to them at an affordable price. Tens of thousands of Sears homes are still standing today – a testament to an era when a starter home could be both attainable and built to last. Today, as more Americans are priced out of the housing market, Groundwork Collaborative released a new proposal to revive the Sears home model for the 21st century.

The Modern Sears Home: Resurrecting the Affordable American Starter Home for a New Generation, authored by Groundwork’s Noah Ball-Burack, Emily DiVito, and Alex Jacquez, outlines a federal initiative to deliver, over eight years, 500,000 high-quality factory-built homes directly to American families across the country for under $215,000.

Today, the national median home price hovers above $400,000, and the starter home – what used to be the first rung on the ladder to economic security – is all but extinct. In some communities, starter homes can cost $1 million or more, putting homeownership further out of reach for many families.

The Modern Sears Home Program would deploy the federal government’s purchasing power, land access, and ability to finance and site homes at scale to bring the cost of new, high-quality homes within reach. Furthermore, by guaranteeing demand for hundreds of thousands of factory-built homes, the program would also give private manufacturing firms the certainty they need to expand production, lower production costs, and increase housing supply. By bringing affordable homes directly to communities where the private market has fallen short, the Modern Sears Home Program could expand homeownership in rural areas and open the door for families who have historically been shut out of the housing market.

The idea has vast public support. New polling shows that three in four voters support the Modern Sears Home Program and the proposal enjoys broad support across party lines, including 80% of Democrats, 72% of Independents, and 74% of Republicans. Additionally, 69% of voters, including majorities across party lines, say the program would make homeownership feel more attainable.

By some estimates, Sears sold more than 70,000 catalog kit homes during the 20th century, many of which are still standing today in states like Ohio, Illinois, New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Groundwork’s Senior Advisor for Economic Policy, Emily DiVito, shared the following:

“For too many families, homeownership has gone from a milestone to a mirage. Decades of under-building have left us with an affordable housing shortage that’s pricing people out of their communities. Policymakers must pursue creative, tangible, and lasting solutions that bring homeownership back into reach. The Modern Sears Home program does just that.”

Lindsay Owens, President and CEO of Groundwork, reacted:

“I grew up in a Sears Home, and I know the comfort and stability these houses offer the families who live in them. That’s something far too many families can’t count on anymore, as Wall Street and corporate landlords squeeze every last penny out of homeowners and renters alike. Reviving the promise of a Sears home is a chance to make quality and affordable housing the rule, rather than the exception.”

In the paper, the authors write:

“Sears offered these homes for profit. The federal government – with greater resources, lower borrowing costs, and unmatched power to scale – can do it better...[with] the kind of public ambition that once sent 30,000-piece home kits rattling on rail cars across the country to families who otherwise thought homeownership a distant aspiration...The Modern Sears Home program is that ambition made actionable.”

The North American plains bison stands as a symbol of both rampant devastation wrought by colonizing powers and of the potential to bring a species back from the brink of extinction.

The legacy of that destruction, and the promise and perils of the recovery, are indelibly etched in the DNA of the survivors and their ancestors, according to research just published in Science.

“Ancient DNA is rewriting the story of one of America’s most iconic conservation successes,” said Beth Shapiro, a University of California Santa Cruz researcher and the paper’s senior author. The new results show “both what the 19th-century collapse actually did to bison genomes and what a smarter, genomically informed path forward could look like.”

For millennia, an ocean of bison numbering in the millions swept across the center of North America, shaping ecosystems and the Indigenous peoples who lived there. But by the early 20th century, there were just a few hundred left, their numbers depleted by overhunting, habitat loss and systematic slaughter sanctioned by the U.S government to help subjugate bison-dependent tribes.

Since then, conservation work by some of these same tribes, and others, has led to a modest recovery. Today, more than 20,000 bison live in the wild, largely in protected land such as Yellowstone National Park. More than 400,000 are raised for commercial uses such as meat.

But the recovery has been dogged by questions. Since current bison are descended from such a small population, have they lost genetic diversity or become inbred? Did a quixotic attempt to breed bison with domesticated cattle irreversibly tamper with their genetics? Similarly, did a decision to move thousands of plains bison into the territory of wood bison break down the genetic wall between the closely-related species?

To answer these questions, Shapiro and colleagues turned to the latest scientific tools for deciphering a species’ history in its DNA. They collected samples from 115 ancient bison, dating back as much as 20,000 years and as recently as 100 years ago, when the last survivors of the slaughter remained. They also gathered tissue from 45 modern-day bison.

When they sequenced the genomes, the results offered both good news and cautionary lessons about the current state of bison conservation.

 

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Among the ancient samples, the genetics of plains bison were remarkably similar regardless of their location. That suggests a genetic flow across the landscape relatively uninhibited by geography. By contrast, today’s wild plains bison are confined to small pockets of land. There are at least four groups with distinct, shared genetic fingerprint that differs from the other groups.

The findings point to the need for managing the remaining bison more as a single herd, the authors write. Given the geographic barriers, that could mean using modern reproductive techniques to help blend the DNA of these different herds, much as modern cattle are carefully bred using tools such as artificial insemination.

While this points to the potential risks of continuing with traditional management methods, the findings also show reasons to be hopeful. Although the modern herds are distinct from each other, collectively they contain levels of genetic diversity similar to their ancestors.

Fears of contamination from cattle also appear to be overblown. The analysis turned up traces of livestock DNA in roughly a third of the modern-day bison genomes. That means the majority of bison hadn’t been tainted. And in those that did contain evidence of cattle, it represented less than 2% of their genomes.

The news is slightly more complicated for wood bison, the larger relative of the plains bison that lives in Canada’s boreal forest. In the 1920s, the Canadian government moved around 7,000 plains bison into Wood Buffalo National Park, which at the time was home to the last surviving 1,500 wood bison.

The legacy of that transplant remains today. The study showed that wood bison are genetically distinct – having diverged from plain bison approximately 3,000 years ago. But it also revealed that today’s wood bison carry significant plains bison DNA. The individual wood bison genomes were between 7% and 64% from plains bison.

Despite this, the results show “that wood and plains bison are substantially distinct and should continue to be managed separately,” said Parks Canada bison ecologist Greg Wilson, a coauthor of the study.

Now, thanks to DNA, bison managers have a clearer roadmap for moving forward, and the tools to know if they are veering further off course.

“Until now, managers didn’t have a genetic baseline for what ‘healthy’ bison diversity looked like before the 20th-century collapse and management,” said Shapiro. The new study “is a great example of using ancient DNA to facilitate management decisions in the present.”

Oppenheimer, et. al. “Paleogenomic insight into the collapse, recovery, and management of American bison.” Science. Aug. 6, 2026.

Photo: Getty Images for Unsplash

Several critical water bills that we are tracking at Restore the Delta were heard in the Legislature this week – here are some key updates. 

SB 872 Passes Through Committee

SB 872, a bill that would create a dedicated fund to address two major threats to California’s water supply, aging levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and sinking canals in the State Water Project (SWP), passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee with unanimous approval. 

We’re excited by the bill’s passage of this hurdle, as it nears final approval by the legislature. Thank you to Senator McNerney for advancing legislation that prioritizes safeguarding California’s water supplies, protecting critical infrastructure, and preparing the state’s water system for future challenges. SB 872 continues to an Assembly floor vote before it returns to its house of origin for reconciliation.

We encourage you to call your Assemblymember, urging their “aye” vote on SB 872.

Please find and call your representative to tell them:

You support advancing legislation that prioritizes safeguarding California’s water supplies, protecting critical infrastructure, and preparing the state’s water system for future challenges.

AB 2218 Passes Through Committee

AB 2218, a bill that seeks to address inequities in California water policy inflicted on California Native tribes, passed the Senate Appropriations Committee AB 2218 continues to a Senate floor vote before it returns to its house of origin for reconciliation.

As California faces growing climate-driven challenges, policymakers and communities increasingly recognize that equitable and sustainable water management must incorporate Tribal rights, traditional ecological knowledge, and Tribal governance. AB 2218 directs state agencies to strengthen consultation with Tribes during water rights investigations and develop policies that address water related harms resulting from state-sanctioned termination, removal, and assimilation of California Native American tribes.

We encourage you to call your Senator, urging their “aye” vote on AB 2218.

Please find and call your representative to tell them:

• Recognizing historical wrongs and considering solutions does not substitute concrete actionable plans to remedy historical inequities on California Tribes. 
• Healthy rivers, resilient fisheries, and thriving landscapes are inseparable from the cultural and subsistence practices that have guided stewardship for generations.

AB 2026 is Held in Appropriations 

In another positive development, AB 2026 was held in Senate Appropriations, effectively killing the bill for this legislative session. AB 2026 is not the narrow groundwater recharge measure its supporters describe. Instead, it creates broad new pathways to divert already-over allocated surface water, weakens public and environmental review, and shifts risk onto rivers, Delta communities, salmon, Tribes, and existing water users.

Restore the Delta supports responsible groundwater recharge, but AB 2026 is the wrong approach. We will continue to advocate for groundwater recharge policies that are guided by science and administered through the State Water Board’s established regulatory framework, not through broad statutory shortcuts that bypass water-rights, fish and wildlife protections, and the public interest.

CLICK TO FIND AND CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES 

The U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday moved forward with its plan to repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule, threatening the fate of 44.7 million acres of national forest. The proposal, published in the Federal Register today, would strip road-building bans from roadless areas in every state except Idaho and Colorado, which have their own separate rules, and would handle the 9.4-million-acre Tongass National Forest in Alaska through a related executive order.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins framed the repeal as a wildfire measure, but a group of wildland fire experts wrote to Rollins last year warning that wilderness areas have the lowest number of wildfire ignitions of any forest type. New roads tend to be associated with more human-caused fires, not fewer.

The public has already weighed in on this matter when USDA first floated this repeal last August. Out of 625,000 comments submitted during a preliminary comment period, 99 percent opposed it, according to a CWP analysis. Colorado College’s 2026 Conservation in the West poll found that two-thirds of voters across Western states oppose building new industrial roads in undeveloped public lands for mining, oil and gas development, or timber harvests.

Public comments on the new proposal are due by September 21.

Minnesota governor moves to shield the Boundary Waters from mining

Four months after Congress voted to lift a 20-year federal mining ban in the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed an executive order Tuesday directing state agencies to halt new leases, permits, and environmental review for nonferrous mining in the Rainy River Headwaters Watershed, covering roughly 350 square miles. A poll conducted for Save the Boundary Waters last August found that 57 percent of Minnesota voters oppose sulfide-ore copper mining in the watershed, compared with 23 percent in favor, and that 68 percent statewide want permanent legislative protection to be a top priority.

Quick hits Trump admin announces intent to move forward with Roadless Rule repeal

NOTUS | E&E News | The Hill | New York Times | Associated Press | Flathead Beacon | Oregon Capital Chronicle | The Guardian | More Than Just Parks | KNAU | Colorado Public Radio | Statesman Journal | GearJunkie | Center for Western Priorities [press release]

Walz executive order moves to block copper mining near the Boundary Waters

MPR News | E&E News | Wes Siler’s Newsletter

Opinion: When the bulldozers move before Tribal consent

Native News Online

Border wall expansion brings protests to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, other Arizona locations

KJZZ | 13News | KOLD [photos]

Proposed changes to rules that protect historic sites ignite pushback in Colorado

Colorado Sun

A watchdog says Yosemite is using Flock cameras. The National Park Service is pushing back

Outside | 404 Media

Native fish displaced in lower Dolores after drought, fire

Durango Herald

‘Extreme Motus’ all-terrain wheelchair now available to rent at Zion National Park

ABC4

Quote of the day

I just think that every American should be free to visit our national parks without their location being traced and tracked by the federal government. Wild places are at the core of American freedom and nobody should be afraid to visit them.”

—Anonymous NPS park ranger, 404 Media

Picture This
@coparkswildlife

Science at work ✅ Antero Reservoir – Our salvage

It’s no easy feat to corral, capture and then transport nearly 1,000 trout in a few hours –– especially when they’re mostly 18+ inches long and weigh several pounds. But, our aquatic biologists, hatchery, state park and local staff did just that earlier this summer.

During the last stages of draining the reservoir, it became crunch time to salvage as many fish as we could. First, we had to wait for the water level to be perfect –– low enough to safely work in the dam’s outlet channel, but high enough to still hold fish. Once the remaining fish were concentrated in the outlet channel, there was just enough room to work with block nets, holding pens and electrofishing equipment.

In the waist-high pool of water, our teams temporarily stunned the fish so they could be caught and consolidated into holding net pens. The fish were then taken to hatchery trucks waiting nearby, and driven to Eleven Mile State Park.

 



Featured photo: Trillum Lake, Oregon Mt. Hood National Forest. USFS<

The post Forest Service moves to repeal Roadless Rule despite 99 percent public opposition appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

You can’t win them all, but a new bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario is winning pedestrians and cyclists on both sides of the US-Canada border.

The bicycle and pedestrian path on the brand new Gordie Howe International Bridge opened on Aug. 5 — nine days after the bridge itself opened, and despite President Trump’s threatening to hold up its opening earlier this year amid deteriorating relations and trade disputes with the country’s northern neighbor.

“It is quite the game-changer,” remarked Chris Palmer, one of more than 3,400 visitors of the path on its opening day. “It is … a remarkable political phenomenon. It was a great experience.”

So great, in fact, that bridge officials temporarily closed the path to manage the massive inaugural crowd.

Drivers must pay to cross the 1.5-mile span, but access to the car-free portion is free and open to the public year-round. Visitors can explore scenic trails and protected bike infrastructure at both ends of the trip — neatly documented in an online map created by the Detroit Greenways Coalition, a Michigan-based bike advocacy organization.

The Gordie Howe Bridge has one of the only bikable crossings between the US and Canada.

The president, meanwhile, spent the better part of the year leveraging the Gordie Howe in US-Canada relations — and succeeded in delaying its opening by a month. The Canadian government, which funded the entirety of the project, disinvited US officials from the bridge’s opening.

All that drama failed to put a damper on the thrill of a new bike connection for Detroit-Windsor locals.

Recommended ‘Big Brother’ At U.S. DOT: Bike Lanes Aren’t Just ‘DEI,’ They’re Also Unsafe Gersh Kuntzman July 17, 2026

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” said Todd Scott, the executive director of the Detroit Greenways Coalition.

Scott has advocated for the inclusion of bike and pedestrian access on the bridge since 2009, when the Gordie Howe Bridge — named for the Canadian-born star player for the Detroit Red Wings hockey team — was little more than a hypothetical. But when Canada first sought public input on the bridge’s design, the two most common responses were requests for biking and walking access.

“I have to imagine that [the bridge’s planners] are super glad with their decision,” said Scott.

The cable-stay bridge contains a twelve foot pedestrian and bike pathway, connecting the US and Canada.

Seventeen years later, both sides of the border have significantly upgraded their waterfronts to include bike routes, protected lanes and car-free trails.

On the Detroit side, the under-construction Joe Louis Greenway circles the city with nearly 30 miles of car-free routing. Pedestrians and bike riders can use the greenway to connect virtually anywhere in the city upon its completion in the early 2030s. Six new miles are expected to open by the end of this year. The route will connect directly to the Gordie Howe Bridge, extending its benefits across the border.

“‘This is one, I think, of the most important urban trail projects in the country,” said Scott.

The Gordie Howe Bridge has spurred infrastructure investments throughout Detroit.

The ride across the Gordie Howe rivals the extensive infrastructure upgrades on each of its ends.

“You’re riding over a piece of art,” Scott said. “It just looks stunningly beautiful.”

Americans aren’t the only ones celebrating the newly-opened link.

“It was absolutely thrilling,” said Lori Newton, the former executive director of Bike Windsor Essex, which spearheaded advocacy for the bike trail on the Canadian side. “It changes the whole view and the whole feeling of the neighborhoods that it goes through.”

Pedestrians and cyclists have advocated for nearly two decades for a path across the Detroit River.

The ride across was particularly impactful for Newton, who has spent several years advocating for the path alongside Scott and whose cyclist husband passed shortly before the bridge’s opening.

“He would be so excited that I was going up there for a ride with Todd,” she said.

Newton and Scott’s longtime partnership reflects one of the more extraordinary benefits of the newly-established car-free route. Windsor and Detroit have long celebrated a close relationship, but after the US tightened border security following the Sept.11 attacks, the two cities’ relationship weakened.

The new bridge represents a new day for the two cities. The inclusion of a car-free lane on the Gordie Howe promises immense economic benefits for the entire Great Lakes region — which won over otherwise bike-skeptical politicians and business leaders.

“There wasn’t a fight … it was building a business case,” Newton said.

Recommended Study: Bicycling Generates $365 Million in Economic Activity in Iowa Angie Schmitt January 26, 2012

And the largest benefits of the trail are those still yet-to-be seen.

Local advocates hope to see new tourism and local investment as a result of the bridge. Newton hopes bridge will bring a wider array of people onto bikes, particularly seniors searching for an accessible way to stay mobile.

“Cycling is more than 20 guys in Lycra on bikes zooming past,” she said.

By KAY MATTHEWS

A group of about 20 people went on the forestry tour of the work being done in the Vallecitos/Chamisal area by leñeros and local contractors as part of the Rio de Las Trampas Watershed Planning Project. We started at the leñero 56-acre site near the Transfer Station, which is managed by the Las Trampas Land Grant.

The first stop was in largely ponderosa pine, which was thinned to favor the larger trees with clumps of juniper left for wildlife. The leñeros are required to take all of the woody material down to a diameter of three inches. The resulting slash is lopped and scattered along the ground for future treatment with a masticator. This is an alternative to burning that is being implemented in both the leñero and contractor sites. The Rio de Las Trampas Watershed Planning Project that oversees the thinning and provides the funding,* determined that using a masticator is actually more cost effective than burning. There are downsides with masticating, however: it essentially moves fuels around and can suppress slow burning embers if a fire does move through the area. But community people have long expressed their fears of prescribed burning, so mastication is the preferred alternative

Leñero unit of ponderosa pine

The second stop was in another ponderosa pine area thinned by the contractor Conley’s Lumber Mill, based in Española. The company contracted the project to another company that hired immigrant labor from Michoacan. J.R. Logan, who oversees the contractors, said they had done excellent work. The contractor was paid $1,400 to thin—the same prescription as the leñero site—and $800 an acre to pile the slash. The slash will also be masticated. The wood is left on the ground for the community to gather.

Ponderosa pine contractor site

Priscilla Lopez, asistente; Doug North, mayordomo; Wilbert Rodriguez; Rachel Bean, Forest Stewards Guld; Arnold Lopez, Las Trampas Land Grant

Doug North and Priscilla Lopez, mayordomo and asistente of the leñero project, encourage people to come get the firewood.

The third stop was also in a ponderosa pine contracted area (Wood Sharks) but has a different prescription. Here an initial entry leaves 200 trees per acre with a pattern of six or seven clumped trees with clearings in between. The contractor is making wind rows of the slash piles that will be burned by the Forest Service. The cost of this contract is $3,000 per acre for everything. There will need to be maintenance entries every five to ten years.

J.R. Logan, Taos Soil and Water Conservation District; Judy Goldberg, recording; Peggy De’Scoville, State Forestry

The fourth stop was in another leñero site, this time of predominantly piñon/juniper. Here the prescription also calls for clumped stands where the natural root system exists. This provides for wildlife cover as well as open space for grass growth and snow accumulation in the winter. The slash will be masticated, except for some that will be spread out along the access road. Everyone on the tour agreed that this made much more sense than the kind of Wildland/Urban/Interface (WUI) thinning along the highway and was aesthetically more pleasing.

Piñon/Juniper leñero site

There are many more acres of piñon/juniper in the project area. Approximately 40 more are slated for leñeros while project managers will determine how the rest should be treated or  left alone. Caron National Forest Planner Peter Rich was on the tour and explained that in Forest Service terms, piñon/juniper is treated with WUI mandates as demonstrated by the thinning along SH 76, while ponderosa pine is treated as forest restoration. In terms of fire suppression, total fire suppression in piñon/juniper is mandated because of its high severity burn capabilities, while ponderosa pine has a better chance for “managed fire” because of the possibility of low intensity, on-the-ground burns. This led to a discussion of whether there can be any “managed fire,” or what is colloquially referred to as “let it burn.” In the conditions that exist today—extreme drought exacerbated by no winter snowfall, megafires, and an ever increasing climate crisis—the protocol is essentially total suppression. In a situation such as the current Frijoles Fire, which is burning uncontrolled in the Pecos Wilderness, suppression amounts to air drops and fire breaks along the borders of the adjacent communities.

* Partners include the Rio de Las Trampas Forest Council, the Carson National Forest, Taos County, Forest Stewards Guild, Taos Soil and Water Conservation District, State Forestry, and Ecotone Landscape Planning.

 

The #NoKXL Solar Barn built in the path of the Keystone XL pipeline in 2013. (Photo: Mary Anne Andrei)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 18, 2026

“It’s never being built”: Bold Founder Jane Kleeb Responds to Trump Statement on Keystone XL Pipeline

Hastings, NE — Jane Kleeb, the founder and executive director of Bold Nebraska, the grassroots organization that organized landowner opposition to defeat the Keystone XL pipeline project, responded on Tuesday to a statement from President Trump announcing a “deal” with Canada that the project “may be awoken from the grave!”:

“It’s never being built. Americans don’t want a foreign export pipeline using eminent domain on farmers and ranchers. We’ve killed Keystone XL three times. We will do it again. Trump should focus on infrastructure that will actually bring costs down,” said Jane Kleeb, Founder and Executive Director at Bold Alliance.

Kleeb also spoke out back in April, when developers South Bow and Bridger jointly announced plans to revive parts of the defunct Keystone XL pipeline route with a new proposal:

“You can rename it, rebrand it, repackage it — Keystone XL will never be built. For 13 years, a foreign oil corporation used the power of eminent domain to bully American landowners to take their land, all for Big Oil’s private gain. We refused to back down. We took them to court and fought to return those easements to farmers and ranchers. Keystone XL has no route, no easements, and no support in Nebraska,” said Jane Kleeb, Bold Alliance Founder and Executive Director.

An op-ed co-authored by Bold Alliance attorney and energy policy advisor Paul Blackburn, and longtime pipeline fighter and advocate Kenny Bruno published in April further lays out the reasons why this project will never be built: “Keystone XL By Any Other Name Will Be Just As Crudely Sour.”

About Bold’s Easement Action Teams:
The Easement Action Teams are a project of the Bold Education Fund. The EATs work with local communities to provide immediate legal representation to landowners facing pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. Our first priority is to protect landowners’ property rights and water. We believe landowners should have the ultimate right of what does and does not happen on their land. We stand against the use of eminent domain for private gain. (https://easementteams.org) The first landowners legal co-op formed was the Nebraska Easement Action Team, which successfully organized landowners to fight the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, and currently works with landowners fighting carbon pipelines in the state. (https://neeasement.org)

About Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub:
The Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub, a project of the Bold Education Fund, provides technical, legal, story telling and organizing assistance to any community fighting pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure, with the goal of protecting the land and water. (https://pipelinefighters.org)

About Bold:
The Bold Alliance and Bold Education Fund are coordinating state-based groups with our Pipeline Fighters Hub and landowner legal groups called the Easement Action Teams to stop pipelines from using eminent domain for private gain. (https://boldalliance.org)

# # #

In 2024 a team of scientists with a dry sense of humor announced the name of a newly discovered but extinct species: the obliterated whitefish.

Extinction is deadly serious, but you have to admit that’s a brilliant name for a species — a name that makes us sit up and take notice of the fact that we wiped that creature out of existence.

Wordplay like that, along with other forms of comedy and satire addressing critical issues, can cut through the crap and make us think about things from angles we hadn’t considered.

They can also help release some of the damned tension and get us out of our seemingly endless cycles of doomscrolling.

Plus, sometimes it feels like laughter itself is an endangered species. In a world where political lampoons, criticism of authority, and free speech are increasingly under threat — just look at the void left by the end of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show — we need the edginess of humor more than ever.

The Revelator isn’t a comedic publication, but over the past nine years we’ve used humor more often than most other environmental publications to mock, educate, inform, or blast through the noise. Obviously all humor is subjective — one person’s comedy is another’s tragedy, or a demagogue’s perceived insult — but here are some of our favorites:

Living Will Template for Critically Endangered Species by Elizabeth Preston — Satire wielded like a scalpel.

Wasted Water: The Crappiest Places in America — Literally by Dipika Kadaba — Visuals that go a long way toward making a distasteful story more palatable.

Pattie Gonia: Nature’s Warrior Queen by Gabrielle Faust — This climate-fighting drag queen is a hoot (and a force of nature).

Critical Critters Call for Gonzovationists — Artist Ralph Steadman and writer Ceri Levy make us laugh while worrying about extinction.

Global Warming Funnies — An interview with cartoonist Tom Toro discussing humor as fuel for resistance. (For ongoing Tom Toro cartoons, subscribe to our newsletter.)

Time to Let This Conservation Jargon Go Extinct? — In which I mock some overused but underdeveloped language to make a point or six.

A Cartoonist Finds Hope Amid the Apocalypse(s) — A dual interview with Peter Kuper about his two new environmental books.

A Gulf of Misunderstanding by Karl Meyer — A journalist blasts righteous anger as President Trump tries to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico.

Here There Be Monsters (Made of Coal, Plastic and Pesticides) — Artists Laura and Gary Dumm challenge viewers with images of pop-culture monsters facing ecological collapse.

Comics for Earth: Eight New Graphic Novels About Saving the Planet and Celebrating Wildlife — The reviews aren’t so funny, but check out the books.

‘Three Rivers of Woe’ — David Quammen on Climate Change, Extinction, and Epidemics — Okay, I’ll admit it, this one doesn’t sound like a laugh riot, but Quammen (a bestselling author) talks about the value of humor in getting readers to care about environmental issues. (Similarly, wildlife journalist Jason Bittel discussed the role of humor in his writing when I interviewed him about his book, Grizzled.)

Let’s Rename the Day After Thanksgiving ‘Extinction Friday’ — Commercialism seen through the lens of its inanity.

Let’s Put More Effort Into Investigating and Prosecuting Environmental Crimes — Sometimes the photo accompanying an article serves an extra purpose.

A Steal of a Deal: How Ranchers Take Advantage of Public Lands by Dipika Kadaba and John R. Platt — A fun video on an unfun practice.

The Earth Reviews Her Activists by Rev. Billy Talen — One of many essays we’ve published by this singular activist, who headlines an artistic activist group and choir. Talen, whom we’ve also interviewed, and his partner Savitri D are masters at using confrontational humor.

Finally, here are some book columns that include a few tomes satirizing the people and systems causing climate change and other environmental problems:

• • Summer Reads: Lost Birds, Pummeled Pumas and Climate Anxiety
  • Revelator Reads: 15 Random Books That Every Environmentalist Should Read
  • 12 Environmental Novels We’re Reading This Fall
  • ‘We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us’ — December’s Most Important Environmental Books

What are your favorite examples of using humor to help the planet? Send your suggestions to comments@therevelator.org — and look forward to (or look out for) more satire or outrage from us in the weeks ahead.

Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy.

The post Laugh in the Face of Doom and Gloom appeared first on The Revelator.

O dzisiejszych problemach możemy mówić w kategoriach społecznych, że zatraciliśmy się w konsumpcjonizmie, nacjonalizmie i wzroście gospodarczym. Ale możemy też ujmować je jako doświadczenie osobiste, jako separację i odcięcie się od naszej rodziny i przyjaciół.

Z Edouardem Gaudotem, autorem „Les sept piliers de la Cité” („Siedmiu filarów miasta”) i Adamem Ostolskim rozmawia Jamie Kendrick.

„Siedem filarów miasta” zaczyna się od obserwacji, że żyjemy w świecie rozpadających się przekonań i brakuje nam głębszego poczucia sensu. Co skłoniło cię, aby opis sytuacji, ujmowanej na ogół jako kryzys gospodarczy, demokratyczny czy ekologiczny, przenieś na głębszy, niemalże duchowy poziom?

Edouard Gaudot: W jakimś punkcie życia każdy z nas napotyka kryzys, który zmusza do zadawania pytań i rodzi potrzebę przebudowania siebie. Podobną podróż odbywają również społeczeństwa. Jest wiele znaków, że coraz więcej osób nie odnajduje w dzisiejszym świecie poczucia sensu i w efekcie bardzo trudno jest nam zbudować cokolwiek jako zbiorowość.

Wspólne przekonania rozpadają się. Niektóre uległy zniszczeniu. Utrata sensu w demokratycznych społeczeństwach jest moim zdaniem kluczem do dzisiejszego kryzysu. Widzę przed nami trzy drogi. Pierwsza to odbudowanie przekonań, które nas kiedyś łączyły, powrót do korzeni. Druga możliwość to rezygnacja ze wspólnych znaczeń – ale nihilizm nie jest dobrą receptą na budowę wspólnoty. Trzecią opcją byłaby zmiana sposobu myślenia, kształtującego naszą praktykę polityczną. I o to właśnie apeluję.

Adam Ostolski: Moje odczytanie tej książki idzie w przeciwnym kierunku. W tym, co piszesz, Edouardzie, najbardziej inspiruje mnie zaproszenie, aby nie zamykać się w tym przytłaczającym poczuciu kryzysu i zwrócić większą uwagę na to, co już mamy. Przede wszystkim, jesteśmy żywi, co zbyt łatwo przyjąć za oczywistość. Żyjemy i dzielimy ze sobą ten świat. A także, czy nam się to podoba, czy nie, dzielimy wiele przestrzeni w obrębie świata. Mamy przyjaciół i rzeczy, o które się troszczymy. Potrafimy zmieniać się i nie musimy grzęznąć w naszych wierzeniach. Możemy wątpić w źle działające instytucje i być nimi rozczarowani, ale nawet w tym jest wielki potencjał. Nawet na gruzowisku małe roślinki zapuszczają korzenie i przygotowują grunt dla nowych gatunków. Twoją książkę odczytuję jako gest otwarcia, poszukiwanie twórczego potencjału w obecnej sytuacji, jakkolwiek jest ona bolesna.

EG: To jest lekcja „Gwiezdnych wojen”: zawsze gdy zdaje się, że ciemność zwyciężyła, pojawia się wybuch światła. Ilekroć myślisz, że dobro zatriumfowało nad złem, pozostaje jakaś drobinka zła, która zaczyna kiełkować w ciemnościach.

Dekonstrukcja – innymi słowy, kryzys, który obecnie przeżywamy – była konieczna, abyśmy dotarli do kresu tego doświadczenia i dzięki temu mogli dowiedzieć się, czym jesteśmy, gdzie jesteśmy i kim jesteśmy. To jest podróż tak samo niezbędna dla jednostki, jak dla zbiorowości.

O dzisiejszych problemach możemy mówić w kategoriach społecznych, że zatraciliśmy się w konsumpcjonizmie, nacjonalizmie i wzroście gospodarczym. Ale możemy też ujmować je jako doświadczenie osobiste, jako separację i odcięcie się od naszej rodziny i przyjaciół. Takie doświadczenie może być niewiarygodnie wzbogacające, jednak nie nadaje się na fundament dla projektu zbiorowego. Refleksji nad doświadczeniem siebie brakuje mi we wszystkich współczesnych nurtach politycznego myślenia. Oczywiście potrzebujemy polityki dla zbiorowości, ale nie można ignorować tego, jak zbiorowość wiąże się z tym, co osobiste.

Twoja książka nie jest siedmiopunktowym programem czy manifestem. Co masz na myśli, mówiąc o „siedmiu filarach”?

EG: W rzeczy samej, programy są dla komputerów, nie dla polityki. W mojej książce usiłuję przedefiniować intelektualne, polityczne i duchowe ramy, w jakich uprawiamy politykę. Potrzebujemy zmiany w trzech obszarach. Chodzi o polityczną relację, jaką utrzymujemy sami ze sobą, polityczną relację w odniesieniu do innych oraz polityczną relację wobec planety. Tego właśnie dotyczy moje „siedem filarów”.

Dwa pierwsze filary wyznaczają konieczne, lecz niewystarczające warunki zmiany. Pierwszy z nich – niezbywalność życia – oznacza, że nie możemy zignorować niczego, co żywe. Potrzebujemy zmienić nasz sposób widzenia świata i nasze podejście do wszelkich żyjących istnień – nie tylko ludzi, lecz także zwierząt, roślin, rzek – zmierzając w stronę zrozumienia biosfery. Drugi filar, wypływający z tych samych źródeł, wymaga zmiany naszego postrzegania własności. Rywalizujemy o zasoby niczym dwie pchły sprzeczające się o to, która posiada psa. A przecież to my naprawdę należymy do Ziemi, nie odwrotnie. Jak by powiedział Mały Książę, nie powinniśmy tylko używać rzeczy, lecz także sami być użyteczni dla tego, co posiadamy.

Gdy już zmienimy te dwie perspektywy, możemy przejść do sedna, czyli zmiany politycznej. Tego dotyczy trzeci, czwarty i piąty filar w książce. Filar trzeci wiąże się ze zmianą gospodarki. Obecnie jesteśmy pożywką dla maszyny, która nie ma z nami nic wspólnego. Obojętnie, czy nazwiemy to kapitalizmem, neoliberalizmem czy konsumpcjonizmem. Ta machina przejmuje kontrolę nad naszym życiem i wcale nam nie służy – to my jej służymy. Potrzebujemy więc ekonomii nastawionej na życie. Nie chodzi po prostu o gospodarkę okrężną czy cofnięcie wzrostu gospodarczego, lecz o bardziej zasadniczą przemianę tego, jak wszystko produkujemy, od żywności po odpady i z powrotem.

Kolejny krok to zmiana naszej relacji z innymi. Polityczną formą dla inności może być tylko demokracja. Oznacza to, że nie tylko potrzebujemy odnaleźć się w równej wolności, równej godności i wzajemnym uznaniu, lecz także nauczyć się być „wolni razem”, to znaczy. wolni „z” innymi raczej niż wolni „od” innych. Zapożyczam tu sformułowanie Carla Schmitta, modyfikując jednak bez żalu związane z nim rozróżnienie „przyjaciel-wróg”. Zamiast wypierać tę opozycję albo nieustannie skupiać się na wrogu, powinnyśmy zwrócić większą uwagę na przyjaciela.

W piątym filarze chodzi o zmianę naszych relacji politycznych, nie tylko z innymi ludźmi i z planetą, lecz także z samymi sobą. Ekologię postrzegam jako ścieżkę duchową. Ekologia to nie tylko nauka i jest także czymś więcej niż polityką. Chodzi w niej także o zmianę sposobu widzenia świata i siebie, o bycie częścią czegoś większego. Otwarcie się na to może przypominać inicjację religijną bądź duchową. Masz objawienie i zaczynasz rozwijać swoją wiedzę, doświadczać złożoności. Aż w końcu docierasz do pojmowania świata jako całości, nie jako czegoś odrębnego – dochodzi do połączenia nauki i świadomości.

Z inną gospodarką, inną demokracją oraz nową relacją do siebie i świata docieramy do dwóch ostatnich filarów: anarchistycznego rządzenia i świadomości planetarnej. Przez anarchistyczne rządzenie rozumiem taką organizację instytucji, w której od hierarchicznego układu władzy przechodzimy do relacji o znacznie bardziej poziomym charakterze. Nie chodzi mi o to, żeby nie było instytucji, chodzi raczej o ład bez władzy, nieograniczony do jednego miasta czy miejsca. Zwieńczeniem tego wszystkiego jest filar siódmy – świadomość planetarna. Podążając za Bruno Latourem, kończę na wizji Europy, na duchu europejskim jako projekcie pojednania, dzięki któremu nasze wzajemne relacje opierają się na prawie i współpracy zamiast na sile.

AO: Największym atutem, a zarazem pewną słabością twojego podejścia jest właśnie to skupienie na duchowości. Duchowość może oczywiście istnieć bez religii. Ale nie jest wówczas możliwa do utrzymania w dłuższym okresie, ponieważ nie wytwarza tradycji. A jeśli buduje wspólnoty, to najczęściej są to niewielkie sekty.

Napięcie między duchowością a religią jako kształtującą wspólnotę ludzi instytucją jest równie dawne jak sama religia. W doświadczeniu jednostki duchowość może się obyć bez religii, ale nie jest wówczas istotna politycznie. W tym kontekście warto też przyjrzeć się pojęciom herezji i ortodoksji oraz relacji między nimi. Zarówno herezja, jak i ortodoksja potrzebują wspólnoty ludzi, którzy podzielają pewne wierzenia, ale nie zgadzają się między sobą w kwestii tego, jako owe wspólne wierzenia interpretować.

Wracając do kwestii bliższych sprawom politycznym, żyjemy w świecie wielu religii, co jest bardzo dobre. Nie chcemy, aby to się zmieniło. Większość ludzi, gdy odkrywają dla siebie jakąś formę duchowości, robi to w ramach którejś z wielu różnych tradycji. Jeśli więc chcemy przełożyć tę duchową wizję na coś bardziej praktycznego, to potrzebujemy – z zachowaniem niezbędnej delikatności – pomyśleć o tym, jak uruchomić i zorganizować polityczne myślenie o religii w sposób, który posunie nas naprzód.

Jakiś czas temu na zjeździe socjologicznym przysłuchiwałem się sesji na temat „alternatywnych stylów życia”. Justyna Kajta przedstawiała wyniki swoich badań biograficznych nad działaczami skrajnej prawicy w Polsce. Jednym z odkryć było to, że badani przez nią młodzi mężczyźni deklarowali, że wolą życie pożyteczne od życia szczęśliwego. Pomyślałem wtedy: „Kurczę, potrafię się w tym rozpoznać. Nie podzielam ich poglądów politycznych, ale i w moim życiu chodzi przecież o coś więcej niż mnie samego”. Potrzebujemy duchowości nie tylko po to, by odkryć i opanować siebie, lecz także po to, by siebie przekroczyć. Z tego samego powodu potrzebujemy tradycyjnych zorganizowanych religii, z różnorodnością sposobów, w jakie odnoszą się do sfery publicznej i polityki.

EG: Patrząc historycznie, ruchy skrajnej prawicy na swój sposób próbują ponownie wnieść wartości duchowe w materialistyczny świat. Tak właśnie czytam choćby „Fight Club” – zarówno książka, jak i film mają silny rys faszystowski. Lecz tym, co nadaje im taki charakter, nie jest ani przemoc, ani wątek paramilitarnej organizacji popełniającej sabotaż. Główny bohater, Tyler Durden, daje młodym mężczyznom poczucie przekroczenia swoich ograniczeń i przekroczenia życia zdefiniowanego przez konsumpcjonizm i brak odwagi. Przesłanie jest głęboko faszystowskie i silnie duchowe.

Skrajna prawica odwołuje się do tej tęsknoty za czymś większym niż ja. Poza nią jedynym nurtem myśli politycznej apelującym do tego samego pragnienia jest ekologia. To dlatego uważam, że XXI wiek będzie konfrontacją między ekologią, która wykracza dalece poza ramy partii zielonych, a skrajną prawicą. Jasna i mroczna strona naszego stulecia to zielona wizja świata stojąca naprzeciwko wizji brunatnej.

Czy nie ma ryzyka, że to zainteresowanie sobą i nacisk na duchowość funkcjonuje jako forma ucieczki? Że gdy nie udało nam się zmienić świata, siadamy pod drzewem i próbujemy zacząć od zmiany siebie? A może odwrotnie, to poprzez dążenie do utopii – przez politykę, która może zmienić świat – zmieniamy również siebie?

EG: Nie chodzi o „najpierw ja”, lecz o „również ja”. Nie powinniśmy mylić utopii z idealizmem. Ideały, choćby nieosiągalne, są tak częścią polityki, jak i rozwoju osobistego. Tym, co zmienia człowieka, jest zmaganie się z trudnościami, by coś osiągnąć – zaprawić się w sporcie, opanować język. Ważny jest wysiłek, a nie ostateczny cel.

W pełni zgadzam się, że przemiana siebie, jeśli nie wiąże się z jakimś projektem zbiorowym, jest tylko samorozwojem. I szczerze mówiąc nie jest to aż tak potrzebne światu. Z drugiej strony projekty polityczne nie mogą ignorować jednostki. Aby zadbać o innych, musimy czuć się dobrze ze sobą. Ktoś, kto sam się o siebie nie troszczy, nikomu nie pomoże. To jak procedura bezpieczeństwa w samolocie: najpierw sam załóż maskę tlenową, potem pomagaj innym.

Więc tak, samorozwój musi się łączyć z czymś większym. Historia pokazuje, że kolektywne projekty, które nie troszczyły się o jednostki, okazywały się w końcu skrajnie złe, przeważnie totalitarne. Nie chcemy zbiorowiska jednostek, które mają za nic społeczeństwo, i nie chcemy społeczeństwa przekonanego, że samo wie najlepiej, co jest dla wszystkich dobre.

AO: Dla mnie punktem wyjścia do troski o siebie jest dostrzeżenie innych i wyjście im naprzeciw. Przemiana siebie nie musi zaczynać się od wewnątrz, jej katalizatorem mogą być wyzwania związane z obecnością innych ludzi, z którymi łączyć nas może przyjaźń, antypatia, wspólna praca, pożądanie czy cokolwiek innego.

To samo dotyczy naszej kolektywnej wizji siebie jako społeczeństwa. W Twojej książce jest wspaniały fragment poświęcony laickości, gdzie wyjaśniasz, jak to pojęcie stało się obecnie we Francji narzędziem kolektywnego samopotwierdzania raczej niż otwartości, której początkowo miało służyć. Ucieleśnieniem tego jest polityka Macrona. Jego wystąpienia na temat „islamskiego separatyzmu” pokazują, jak polityczne elity we Francji próbują rozwiązywać szereg problemów, od bezpieczeństwa narodowego przez edukację aż po politykę zagraniczną za pomocą ustawodawstwa dotyczącego religii. Jest w tym głęboka ironia, że dzieje się to w państwie, które uważa samo siebie za ostoję świeckości.

Francuskie kłopoty to przykład problemu, z którym mierzą się dziś wszystkie zachodnie demokracje. Jesteśmy zaaferowani pytaniami o to, kim naprawdę jesteśmy, jakie jest moje prawdziwe imię i jak mogę wyegzekwować je od świata, a także jakie jest poprawne imię innego. Czy można go nazwać imieniem tego właśnie narodu, tej właśnie płci, czy tą właśnie inną etykietą?

Ta kwestia wyrasta z tradycji religii abrahamicznych: judaizmu, chrześcijaństwa i islamu. Troska o prawdziwe „ja” – na poziomie indywidualnym i zbiorowym – a także o to, jak poprawnie można nazywać innych znalazła się dziś w centrum zmagań politycznych po lewej i po prawej stronie. Religie monoteistyczne, zwłaszcza w powiązaniu z duchowością, są niezbędne i pomocne w budowaniu demokratycznej sfery publicznej, ale mają swoje ograniczenia. Potrzebujemy również inspiracji tradycji nie-abrahamicznych jako swoistego kontrapunktu, który pozwoliłby nieco poluzować to kurczowe przywiązanie do kwestii tożsamości.

W książce postulowane są trzy zasady dla współczesnej polityki. Po pierwsze, chodzi o zachowanie, ochronę i przywrócenie naturalnej równowagi i warunków życia. Po drugie, o poszerzanie wolności, o ile nie kłóci się to z zasadą pierwszą. Po trzecie wreszcie, o powiększanie dobrostanu materialnego, o ile nie jest to sprzeczne z dwiema pierwszymi zasadami. Ale ludzie już przecież wzburzyli „naturalny porządek rzeczy” dogłębnie i na wiele sposobów. Czy nie powinniśmy raczej zaakceptować naszego sprawstwa, zamiast silić się na odbudowę równowagi w przyrodzie?

EG: Niektóre z naszych największych osiągnięć zawdzięczamy temu, że potrafimy w przemyślany sposób wycofać się z ingerencji w przyrodę. Myślę na przykład o rezerwatach morskich czy niektórych parkach narodowych, gdzie pozwalamy dzikiej przyrodzie, by sama odzyskała równowagę. Czasami najlepszą formą sprawczości w odniesieniu do przyrody jest pozostawienie jej w spokoju – przykładem takiego myślenia jest choćby unijne rozporządzenie o odbudowie zasobów przyrodniczych (Nature Restoration Law). Nie znaczy to, że mamy się odsunąć ze świata, jak chcieliby zwolennicy nurtu ekologii głębokiej. Jesteśmy częścią tego stworzenia i tej równowagi. Ale musimy się nauczyć, jak unikać zaburzania równowagi w przyrodzie, jak szanować i podtrzymywać ją.

My, ludzie, jesteśmy organizmami, a każdy organizm to w istocie organizacje rozmaitych procesów równowagi. Aktualne wyzwanie polega na tym, byśmy ponownie włączyli się świat, tak abyśmy mogli kształtować go jako organizmy, a nie manipulować nim jako pochłaniające wszystko mechanizmy. To wymaga „sprawczości”, ponieważ wycofanie się to za mało. Potrzebujemy zreformować nas samych. Dlatego właśnie uważam, że ekologia jest formą duchowości.

Tak że istnieje przestrzeń na ludzkie działanie. Chodzi o wycofanie się tam, gdziekolwiek to możliwe, lecz również przez reformację, gdziekolwiek i kiedykolwiek to możliwe – przy założeniu, że nie mówimy o geoinżynierii czy terraformowaniu Ziemi.

AO: Ludzie są także częścią ekosystemu. Nie powinniśmy na przykład myśleć o wycofywaniu się z terytoriów, gdzie równowaga w przyrodzie zależy od obecności ludzi. W miejscach, gdzie zabroniono społecznościom rdzennym kontrolowanego wypalania lasów, efektem często są megapożary.

Z drugiej strony, kiedy dajemy więcej luzu naturze, możemy też trochę poluzować oczekiwania wobec społeczeństwa. Wiemy, że bardzo dużo można uzyskać dzięki temu, że po prostu pozwolimy drzewom rosnąć czy zostawimy przestrzeń na niezakłócony rozwój ekosystemów morskich. Dodatkowa korzyść jest taka, że nie musimy poświęcać aż tyle uwagi temu, jak namówić wszystkich do weganizmu czy powstrzymać ludzi przed podróżami lotniczymi. Oznacza to, że moglibyśmy zmniejszyć presję na nasze style życia i ograniczenia nakładane na nas jako jednostki i społeczności.

Oczywiście nasze style życia wymagają reformy. Ale możemy zrobić to w sposób bardziej organiczny, jeśli nie traktujemy tego jako jedynego rozwiązania. Mechanizmy można naprawiać, ale organizmy zdrowieją. To, co można naprawić, trzeba naprawić. Lecz również potrzebujemy stworzyć – zarówno dla ludzkich społeczności, jak i ekosystemów – przestrzeń, której potrzebują dla uzdrowienia.

Co chcielibyście, żeby czytelnik wyniósł z tej książki?

AO: Polityczne etykiety są często używane jako obelgi. Myślę, że to błąd. Konserwatyzm jest szlachetną tradycją polityczną, dającą cenną perspektywę na człowieka i społeczeństwo, ale ma również ciemną stronę. Tak samo liberalizm, socjalizm, feminizm czy ekologizm – każda z tych tradycji wnosi coś cennego do naszego rozumienia człowieka i społeczeństwa i oferuje wspaniałe wizje wspólnego życia. Ale każda z nich ma też swoją ciemną stronę.

Wyobraźnia ekologiczna może wzbogacić nasze myślenie o demokracji. Ekologiczne myślenie o demokracji nie polega na tym, aby poprawiać czy naprawiać innych, narzucać im nasz sposób myślenia i zmuszać do akceptowania jedynie słusznych rozwiązań. Przeciwnie, chodzi o myślenie o tym, jak uwzględnić te różnorodne glosy w taki sposób, aby nie były krzywdzące dla innych. To duże wyzwanie, ze względu na wpisaną w każdą ideologię polityczną jej ciemną stronę. Ale to także szansa na zbudowanie wspólnego świata.

Nie powinniśmy zaczynać od tego, co mówi prawo, jaka jest prawda, czy jakie jest właściwe rozwiązanie. Punktem wyjścia powinno być pytanie o to, jak mogę dzielić ten świat, to państwo, tę Unię Europejską czy to miasto z ludźmi, którzy są ode mnie inni. Znalezienie równowagi nie jest oczywiście, na przekór pewnym modelom ekonomicznym, równoznaczne ze stabilnością. W przyrodzie równowaga jest zawsze dynamiczna, ciągle się zmienia.

To jest moim zdaniem lekcja z tej książki. Możemy uczyć się od konserwatystów, liberałów czy jakiejkolwiek innej tradycji bez utraty własnego kompasu. To daje nam szansę na zbudowanie świata, w którym możemy żyć razem. Dla mnie to jest właśnie istotą ekologii w polityce.

EG: Chciałbym zaprosić czytelnika do refleksji nad sobą. Myślę, że zawsze powinniśmy pielęgnować umiejętność wątpienia i pogłębiać nasze rozumienie siebie. Podczas gdy ciemna strona wszelkich światopoglądów sprowadza nas do dogmatyzmu, introspekcja zakłada pragnienie bycia lepszym – nie tylko w sensie lepszego funkcjonowanie, lecz bycia lepszą istotą żywą. Dla różnych osób oznaczać to będzie coś innego: udział we mszy, medytację, działalność humanitarną czy co komu w duszy zagra. To nie przypadek, że jedną z największych lekcji zachodniej filozofii jest wciąż aktualne „Poznaj samego siebie”.

Z języka angielskiego przełożył Adam Ostolski.