Public Policy

Illegal Miners Face The Fire

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The G.E.F. burns mining camps as part of a long-running counteroffensive against environmental depredation. “Wherever they go, the miners destroy everything,” Felipe Finger, the unit’s leader, says. Photographs by Tommaso Protti for The New Yorker

Thanks to Jon Lee Anderson, as always, for his reporting from the danger zone that Brazil’s Amazon forest too often is:

The Brazilian Special-Forces Unit Fighting to Save the Amazon

As miners ravage Yanomami lands, combat-trained environmentalists work to root them out.

Roberto Cabral, a founder of the G.E.F., attends to a puppy discovered in a camp after miners fled.

In a clearing in the Brazilian Amazon, I stood with a group of armed men, discussing a viral TikTok video. The video, shot from a helicopter full of illegal miners, showed a vast stretch of rain forest, with dense foliage extending in all directions. The only sign of human habitation was below: a dirt circle surrounded by fanlike lean-tos made of wooden poles and palm fronds. It was a maloca, a traditional compound of the Yanomami, an Indigenous group that inhabits a remote territory in the rain forest of northern Brazil. Continue reading →

Responding To A Red Alert

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Another reason to subscribe to Bill McKibben’s newsletter:

How Not to Act in an Emergency

Forget AI–we need some human intelligence

We’re getting right to the nub now.

Yesterday the World Meteorological Organization officially certified 2023 as the hottest year in human history. Just to put on the record here what should have been the lead story in every journal and website on our home planet:

Andrea Celeste Saulo, secretary general of the WMO, said the organisation was now “sounding the red alert to the world”.

The report found temperatures near the surface of the earth were 1.45C higher last year than they were in the late 1800s, when people began to destroy nature at an industrial scale and burn large amounts of coal, oil and gas.

Last year’s spike was so scary that NASA’s Gavin Schmidt—Jim Hansen’s heir as keeper of NASA’s climate record—wrote in Nature this week that it raised the most profound possible implications. Please read his words slowly and carefully: Continue reading →

McKibben On Responsibility & Accountability

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Vermont’s capitol city, underwater in epic July flooding that wrecked most of Montpelier’s retail district

Holding the responsible accountable is part of Bill McKibben’s objective; he also provides sunshine. Subscribe to this newsletter if you can:

You flood it, you pay for it.

States are considering ‘climate superfund’ laws to hold Big Oil accountable

One prong of the climate fight involves installing so much renewable energy that fossil fuel use actually declines dramatically—a few places are finally showing that’s possible, like sunny Germany which last week said emissions in 2023 dropped more than ten percent. Continue reading →

Solar’s Impressive Portion Of USA Energy Supply Increase

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Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

Thanks to Tik Root, Senior Staff Writer at Grist:

Solar hits a renewable energy milestone not seen since WWII

With supply chains finally open, solar provided most of the nation’s new electricity capacity last year.

Solar accounted for most of the capacity the nation added to its electric grids last year. That feat marks the first time since World War II, when hydropower was booming, that a renewable power source has comprised more than half of the nation’s energy additions.  Continue reading →

First Nations’ Food Sovereignty

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Delphine Lee

Thanks to Mother Jones for this:

Tribal Nations Are Taking Back Their Food Systems

A new farm bill program aims to undo centuries of federal mismanagement.

The farm bill is one of the most important but least understood pieces of US legislation, and it’s overdue for renewal. Continue reading →

McKibben Discusses The Future With John Kerry As He Moves On

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“There’s a lack of knowledge, a lack of due diligence, a lack of basic education on the issue of climate,” John Kerry says.Photograph by Alain Jocard / AFP / Getty

With a transition this important, and especially when McKibben has a conversation like this one it is worth two posts in a row:

John Kerry Thinks We’re at a Critical Moment on Climate Change

As he steps down from office, the first Presidential envoy on the climate says that we have made progress, but we’re not moving fast enough.

He’s been perhaps most closely involved in negotiations with the Chinese government, in particular with his longtime interlocutor Xie Zhenhua, who retired in December at the age of seventy-four. One of Xie’s last encounters with Kerry came last December at the cop28 climate talks in Dubai, where Xie’s eight-year-old grandson presented Kerry with a card for his eightieth birthday. Continue reading →

When Embarrassment Really Means Shame

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Alex Wong / Getty

The sentiment is appreciated, but we should use the stronger word, shame, in describing the feeling many of us share:

Goodbye to America’s First Climate Envoy

John Kerry believes the world can still limit global warming, even if U.S. climate politics are “embarrassing.”

The smallest hint of frustration had crept into John Kerry’s voice. We were talking about international climate diplomacy, which for the past two years has been Kerry’s job as the U.S. special presidential envoy on climate, a role President Joe Biden created to signal his commitment to the issue. Continue reading →

Arizona Youth Climate Coalition

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(Photo credit: kevin dooley / CC BY 2.0)

Thanks to Yale Climate Connections for this:

High schoolers helped develop Tuscon’s climate action plan

They may not be able to vote yet, but they’re already having an influence.

In the past few years, young people have made headlines with their fight against climate change. Continue reading →

AI’s Energy Appetite

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Inside the Guian Data Center of China Unicom, which uses artificial intelligence in its operations. TAO LIANG / XINHUA VIA GETTY IMAGES

For all of technology’s contributions to conservation, energy consumption is one of the downsides. Thanks to David Berreby and Yale e360 for this:

As Use of A.I. Soars, So Does the Energy and Water It Requires

Generative artificial intelligence uses massive amounts of energy for computation and data storage and billions of gallons of water to cool the equipment at data centers. Now, legislators and regulators — in the U.S. and the EU — are starting to demand accountability.

Two months after its release in November 2022, OpenAI’s ChatGPT had 100 million active users, and suddenly tech corporations were racing to offer the public more “generative A.I.” Pundits compared the new technology’s impact to the Internet, or electrification, or the Industrial Revolution — or the discovery of fire.

Time will sort hype from reality, but one consequence of the explosion of artificial intelligence is clear: this technology’s environmental footprint is large and growing. Continue reading →

Capturing Carbon In Trillions Of Tons Of Soil

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Thanks to Yale Climate Connections for sharing Max Graham’s article at Grist:

How much carbon can farmers store in their soil? Nobody’s sure.

Advocates say the long-awaited farm bill could help fix that.

Dirt, it turns out, isn’t just worm poop. It’s also a humongous receptacle of carbon, some 2.5 trillion tons of it — three times more than all the carbon in the atmosphere. Continue reading →

Is That Safari In Tanzania A Good Use Of Your Money?

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Brian Otieno

This guest opinion, written by Professor Robert Williams of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona, and published in the New York Times, should make you think twice about the safari that might be on your bucket list:

Over 600,000 tourists travel to Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area each year, and many will catch a glimpse of the Great Migration: the famed trek of more than one million wildebeests and thousands of zebras, gazelles and other animals crossing over the Mara River into Kenya and back again. Continue reading →

Pause On Terminals for LNG Export

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Activists protest against fossil fuels and in particular fracking and liquefied natural gas, or LNG, on day eight of the UNFCCC COP28 Climate Conference at Expo City Dubai on December 8, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The news was hailed weeks ago as a big deal. Yale Climate Connections takes the proclomation a step further:

Why Biden’s pause on new LNG export terminals is a BFD

The administration’s move puts a spotlight on a potent climate-warming gas: methane, the main ingredient in natural gas.

Natural gas has long been touted as a “bridge fuel” to a clean energy future that gets all its power from renewable sources like wind, solar, and geothermal power. Continue reading →

Investing Patagonia’s Proceeds In Conservation

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Greg Curtis, the former deputy general counsel of Patagonia, is responsible for giving away huge sums of money to causes that are aligned with Patagonia’s history of environmental activism. Adam Amengual for The New York Times

When news broke about the company’s future, we were in awe; since then we heard little so this is a welcome update:

Patagonia’s Profits Are Funding Conservation — and Politics

$71 million of the clothing company’s earnings have been used since September 2022 to fund wildlife restoration, dam removal and Democratic groups.

A little more than $3 million to block a proposed mine in Alaska. Another $3 million to conserve land in Chile and Argentina. And $1 million to help elect Democrats around the country, including $200,000 to a super PAC this month.

The site of the Kalivac Dam on the Vjosa River in Albania, where Holdfast has funded a major conservation project. Andrew Burr/Patagonia

Patagonia, the outdoor apparel brand, is funneling its profits to an array of groups working on everything from dam removal to voter registration.

In total, a network of nonprofit organizations linked to the company has distributed more than $71 million since September 2022, according to publicly available tax filings and internal documents reviewed by The Times. Continue reading →

A 20-Minute Read On Problematic Forest Management Policies

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Elizabeth Kolbert always carries out her duty, which often makes it difficult to savor life’s small pleasures or even big victories without considering the law of unintended consequences. Give 20 minutes of your time to this one:

The Perverse Policies That Fuel Wildfires

Strategies intended to safeguard forests and homes have instead increased the likelihood that they’ll burn.

The provincial government of Alberta defines a “wildfire of note” as a blaze that could “pose a threat to public safety, communities or critical infrastructure.” Continue reading →

Victorious, For Now, Reining In LNG

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When Bill McKibben announces victory, savor it but stay vigilant:

A Massive Win, and What It Means

For Once, Big Oil Takes It on the Chin

I wrote you two days ago with provisional good news—it looked as if the long and deep fight to rein in runaway LNG export growth had scored a huge victory. Continue reading →

Dismantling Regulation

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Bins of squid waiting to be packaged in Cape May. In a good week, Mr. Bright said his boats can bring in $100,000 worth of herring. Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times

You can read the story or click the photo of William Bright below right to hear an explanation of how his case may be the end to regulation as we know it.

A Fight Over a Fishing Regulation Could Help Tear Down the Administrative State

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday over whether to overturn a key precedent on the power of executive agencies.

On a blustery fall morning in southern New Jersey, the weather was too rough for the fishing boats at the center of a momentous Supreme Court case to set out to sea.

William Bright, a fisherman in New Jersey. He is the lead plaintiff in a case that could undermine the power of executive agencies, a long-sought goal of the conservative legal movement. William Bright, a fisherman in New Jersey. Photo: Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times

A herring fisherman named Bill Bright talked about the case, which will be argued on Wednesday and could both lift what he said was an onerous fishing regulation and wipe out the most important precedent on the power of executive agencies, a long-sought goal of the conservative legal movement.

As workers cleaned squid and the salt air whipped over the docks, Mr. Bright, who has been fishing for 40 years and whose family-owned company is one of the plaintiffs, said he recognized the impact the case could have. Continue reading →

Bitcoin Keeps Getting Dirtier & Cheerleaders Keep On Cheering

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Chart: Matthew SparkesSource: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance Created with Datawrapper

We already knew it was dirty. But it keeps getting dirtier and the guys who cheerlead unfettered “innovation” come across as celebrating the dirty as the unavoidable cost of progress. Something’s gotta give:

Skull of Satoshi, a sculpture by Benjamin Von Wong highlighting the environmental impact of bitcoin. VonWong/Skull Of Satoshi/Greenpeace blog.vonwong.com/skull/

Should nations try to ban bitcoin because of its environmental impact?

Bitcoin miners seem unwilling to take action to curb the cryptocurrency’s energy and water use – so some campaigners argue that it is time for governments to intervene

The amount of electricity used to mine and trade bitcoin climbed to 121 terawatt-hours in 2023, 27 per cent more than the previous year. Continue reading →

The Alternative, Reviewed

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Nick Romeo has a new book coming out, and the Guardian recommends it, tentatively. It is up to all of us to answer the reviewer’s doubts through our choices and actions:

The Alternative by Nick Romeo review – moral substitutes for the free market model

A survey of the global alternatives to the current economic system makes for an enlightening, inspiring read, but you’re left wondering why such initiatives have failed to take hold

Anti-capitalist street art in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. Photograph: Soma/Alamy

I wrestled with how to approach this review. On the one hand, The Alternative brings together an appealing range of ways people across the west are imaginatively and determinedly contesting the givens in today’s capitalism. There is an ache for better – for more just ways of organising the way we work and adding more meaning to our lives. Continue reading →

Rishi’s Wrong, Skidmore’s Right

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Chris Skidmore said he could ‘no longer condone nor continue to support a government that is committed to a course of action that I know is wrong’. Photograph: Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA

We rarely applaud those on the right side of the political spectrum when it comes to environmental issues. Most have been on the wrong side of history with regard to climate change. When one stands up and challenges the status quo, applause applause:

Chris Skidmore resigns Conservative whip over Sunak’s oil and gas licence plan

Former minister also resigns as an MP, which will trigger byelection in his Kingswood constituency

A former Conservative minister has announced he is resigning as an MP in protest at the party’s dash for oil and gas, setting up an awkward vote for the prime minister on the issue on Monday and an even more difficult byelection within weeks. Continue reading →

Avocados & Michoacán

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An avocado farm in Yoricostio, Michoacán. All photographs from Mexico, August 2023, by Balazs Gardi for Harper’s Magazine © The artist

A decade ago we thought we should source from Harper’s more, but its blog no longer exists to read the whole story that prompted that idea. Still going strong after 173 years of publication, this recent article in the magazine helps us understand what is wrong with one of our favorite farm products:

Forbidden Fruit
by Alexander Sammon

The anti-avocado militias of Michoacán

Phone service was down—a fuse had blown in the cell tower during a recent storm—and even though my arrival had been cleared with the government of Cherán in advance, the armed guard manning the highway checkpoint, decked out in full fatigues, the wrong shade to pass for Mexican military, refused to wave me through. My guide, Uli Escamilla, assured him that we had an appointment, and that we could prove it if only we could call or text our envoy. The officer gripped his rifle with both hands and peered into the windows of our rental car. We tried to explain ourselves: we were journalists writing about the town’s war with the avocado, and had plans to meet with the local council. We finally managed to recall the first name of our point person on the council—Marcos—and after repeating it a number of times, we were let through. Continue reading →