Ecologies
posted 2025-07 to 2025-09
A reading list (roughly in reverse chronological order) of contributions to the common pool of news/analysis/resources.
— a readers travelogue ::: to bear witness
The Future Is Coming and It's (Literally) Sunny
Notes on the Solar Revolution
from Meditations in an Emergency (Rebecca Solnit)
"Two things are striking about the Trump Adminstration's tying itself to fossil fuel and particularly to affirmative action for coal, welfare for coal, bailouts for coal. One is that it's a losing game in the long run, because renewable energy is just better in every way--profoundly cheaper, profoundly cleaner, more universally available, far quicker to install. More universally available means you can hook up your own house as people from Australia to Pakistan have done, and make your own power to run your home; you can achieve the kind of energy independence talked about as a national goal or make it a personal goal, even run your electric car off your roof.
"Propping up fossil fuel is like propping up white supremacy: the future of the USA is a nonwhite majority, and the future of the human race is renewable energy. You can batter it and badge it and try to roll time itself backward, but you can't in the long term stop the renewable revolution. You can just make things worse in the short term, so that some planet-destroyers can grab a few more dollars. Bill McKibben spoke about all this on tour for his exhilarating new book Here Comes the Sun, a glorious compendium of solar facts and possibilities, a big-picture overview of where we're at and where we could go.
"The solar revolution means that power can be decentralized, democratized, distributed far more justly. So it makes perfect and hideous sense, given the nostalgia of authoritarians for their version of a golden age (of exclusion, exploitation, and inequality ), to tie themselves to the past, with the heavy anchor of all fossil fuel's problems. Because the other reason team Trump loves fossil fuel is because it's so inherently anti-democratic (and deeply tied to authoritarian regimes from Russia to Saudi Arabia and some autocratic left regimes, such as the Maduro regime in Venezuela)."
Take Action to Protect Our National Forests
from Audubon Action Center
"The Roadless Rule is one of the most significant conservation measures adopted to protect the national forests of the United States. It prohibits industrial logging and most road building within intact areas of our public forests.
"Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, Cerulean Warblers, and Western Tanagers are just a few of many species residing in roadless areas that benefit tremendously from their protection. For more than two decades, the Roadless Rule has protected much of our last remaining wild national forests—but now the U.S. Forest Service is planning to repeal the policy.
"We cannot afford to lose protections for some of the last remaining intact public lands we have."
Wild Forests on the Chopping Block
Logging and mining could tear down 45 million acres of our national forests
from Environment Minnesota
"The U.S. Forest Service has formally begun to rescind the 2001 'Roadless Rule' which protects 58.5 million acres of wild areas in national forests across 38 states and Puerto Rico. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins initially announced plans to roll back these forest protections on June 23 at the Western Governor’s Association Meeting. To begin the official process, the agency will post a 'Notice of Intent' to the Federal Register on Friday, at which point a 21-day public comment period will commence."
The Interrelated Threats of Climate Change & Democracy
with David Orr
from Move to Amend
"Join the Ecology Network for a powerful conversation with David Orr, author of Democracy in a Hotter Time and founder of The Oberlin Project. In this talk, David explores the urgent need to confront climate change and corporate power while building democratic institutions that truly serve people and the planet.
"This is a space focused on the relationship between corporate power and environmental catastrophe. We’re interested in gathering with folks who, like us, want an end to corporate destruction of the Earth for-profit and to create alternatives for a truly livable world."
‘We’re still in the dark’
A missing land defender and the deadly toll of land conflict on Indigenous people
from the Guardian
"Julia Chuñil is one of 146 land defenders who were killed or went missing last year, a third of them from Indigenous communities.
"Chuñil is one of 146 land and environmental defenders who were killed or disappeared around the world last year, according to a report by the campaign group Global Witness. About a third of those, like Chuñil, were from Indigenous communities – a heavy toll for groups who collectively make up just 6% of the global population.
"She spent years campaigning to secure land rights over the site for her community. But the site’s nominal owner, the descendant of settlers, refused to relinquish control. He wanted the site for logging – Chile is a major supplier of wood to the US – and he wanted rid of Chuñil. Before she vanished, Chuñil told supporters: 'If anything happens to me, you already know who did it.'
"Global Witness started documenting cases of killings and disappearances of land and environmental defenders in 2012. Since then it has collated a total of 2,253 cases. For the past decade, the most dangerous place has been Latin America. In 2024 it accounted for 82% of cases, including 45 Indigenous people.
"'Land conflict is at the heart of violence against defenders, and Indigenous peoples are paying the highest price,' said Javier Garate, a senior policy adviser at Global Witness. 'Communities with ancestral connections to land often form the frontline of resistance when their territories come under threat from exploitation and encroachment. But despite their critical role, they are frequently denied recognition and justice, and subjected to serious danger for defending their rightful lands.'"
E.P.A. To Stop Collecting Emissions Data From Polluters
The data, from thousands of coal-burning power plants, oil refineries, steel mills and other industrial facilities, is the country’s most comprehensive way to track greenhouse gases
from the NYTimes
"The Environmental Protection Agency moved on Friday to stop requiring thousands of polluting facilities to report the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases that they release into the air.
"The E.P.A. proposal would end requirements for thousands of coal-burning power plants, oil refineries, steel mills and other industrial facilities across the country. The government has been collecting this data since 2010 and it is a key tool to track carbon dioxide, methane and other gases that are driving climate change.
"The Friday announcement followed months of efforts by the Trump administration to systematically erase mentions of climate change from government websites while slashing federal funding for research on global warming."
Mining Threats to the BWCA
A giant Chilean mining conglomerate wants to mine near the Boundary Waters, threatening this beloved destination
from Environment Minnesota
"Twin Metals, a mining company that is a subsidiary of the giant Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta, has long pushed to build an underground mine for copper, nickel and precious metals near Ely, just south of the Boundary Waters. Pollution from this mine, if it is ever built, would directly contaminate the water that runs into the Boundary Waters wilderness area.
"Mining of sulfide minerals can produce toxic pollution. These operations produce a sulfuric acid byproduct created when the minerals are exposed to air or water. This acid mine drainage decreases water pH, leeches harmful metals and can cause extremely damaging downstream effects. Specifically, acid runoff from sulfide-ore copper mining can harm fish and animals that live in or near the water, significantly degrade water quality, and cause toxic soil contamination."
Codifying the Rights of Nature
The Growing Indigenous Movement
from Geneva E. B. Thompson
"On May 9, 2019, the Yurok Tribal Council passed a resolution declaring the rights of the Klamath River and provided a legal avenue for the Klamath River to have its rights adju- dicated in Yurok Tribal Court. The Yurok Tribe’s goal in passing the resolution was to secure the highest protections for the Klamath River in direct response to its imperiled health
"For many indigenous nations, the advo- cacy for a healthy environment is deeply intertwined with the protection of traditional, historical, and cultural lifeways and practices. This connection between the environment and indigenous lifeways has been in place since time immemorial and will continue to be an important and sacred connection well into the future.
"any Native nations are finding that one remedy to regaining cultural and ecological health, safety, and security is to develop laws, policies, and legal systems that will strengthen their ability to prosecute bad actors that continue to commit ecological colonization and genocide in ancestral territories."
US Taxpayers Will Pay Billions in New Fossil Fuel Subsidies Thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill
from Wired
"The Trump administration has already added nearly $40 billion in new federal subsidies for oil, gas, and coal in 2025, a report released Tuesday finds, sending an additional $4 billion out the door each year for fossil fuels over the next decade. That new amount, created with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act this summer, adds to $30.8 billion a year in preexisting subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. The report finds that the amount of public money the US will now spend on domestic fossil fuels stands at least $34.8 billion a year.
"The increase amounts to 'the largest single-year increase in subsidies we’ve seen in many years—at least since 2017,' says Collin Rees, the US program manager for Oil Change International, an anti-fossil fuels advocacy organization and author of the report.
"The US has been subsidizing fossil fuel production for more than a century. Many of the tax subsidies logged in the report—including a tax break passed in 1913 that allows companies to write off large amounts of expenses related to drilling new oil wells—have been on the books for decades.
"That cycle is continuing in the new administration. Fossil fuel companies spent millions of dollars getting Trump elected last year; one report from the advocacy group Climate Power puts the total number at $445 million. Those companies are seeing benefits as the administration pursues an aggressive deregulatory agenda, hobbles renewable energy projects and downplays the importance of climate change. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the president has taken to calling oil CEOs following their appearances on TV.
"'It’s no secret that Trump and the Republicans are on the side of the fossil fuel industry and very much vice versa,' says Rees."
Millions of People Depend on the Great Lakes’ Water Supply. Trump Decimated the Lab Protecting It.
from ProPublica
"Cutbacks have gutted the staff at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Severe spending limits have made it difficult to purchase ordinary equipment for processing samples, such as filters and containers. Remaining staff plans to launch large data-collecting buoys into the water this week, but it’s late for a field season that typically runs from April to October.
"Multiple people who have worked with the lab also told ProPublica that there are serious gaps in this year’s monitoring of algal blooms, which are often caused by excess nutrient runoff from farms. Data generated by the lab’s boats and buoys, and publicly shared, could be limited or interrupted, they said.
"That data has helped to successfully avoid a repeat of a 2014 crisis in Toledo, Ohio, when nearly half a million people were warned to not drink the water or even touch it."
We Were Made for This
"We live and die by stories, are fed and freed by the good ones, trapped and sometimes quite literally killed by the bad ones"
from Meditations in an Emergency (Rebecca Solnit)
"Twenty years ago, on August 29, 2005, a huge hurricane hit the Gulf Coast. New Orleans's levees failed, as had been predicted, and much of the city went underwater. Although the authorities had issued a mandatory evacuation order, they had provided no resources to the many who were too poor to evacuate. They were left behind. The levees broke, the city flooded with water polluted by sewage and by the oil refineries all around, the power went out, supplies were scarce. Almost immediately after the storm hit and the city flooded, mainstream news organizations and government leaders began cooking up stories about those mostly poor, mostly Black people who were left in the city--racist stories that they were marauding hordes, murderous gangs, rampaging looters.
"The fictional stories about savage mayhem had real consequences. The flooded city was essentially sealed off, and thousands were trapped in the hot, befouled, broken city. Across the Mississippi from New Orleans, the sheriff of Gretna and his men literally pointed guns at those who tried to walk across the bridge to dry land. The federal government prevented rescuers from entering the city. The police chief decided protecting retail goods was more important than people.
"FEMA, the Federal Emergency Response Agency, had been rendered incompetent by nepotistic appointments and a right-wing government convinced that terrorism was the only threat that mattered. FEMA officials suspended search and rescue operations, claiming it was too dangerous, and the police shot at a significant number of unarmed Black people, maiming and killing some of them.
"There is a story about human nature that serves authoritarianism well: the idea that we are either too feckless or too vicious to function in the absence of strong authority backed by the threat of violence"
"...we have great agency, including the ability to stop telling a particular story...maybe to notice what the story does, whether it helps or hinders..."
Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon
from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
"Martha, the Passenger Pigeon, passed away on September 1, 1914, in the Cincinnati Zoo. She was believed to be the last living individual of her species after two male companions had died in the same zoo in 1910. Martha was a celebrity at the zoo, attracting long lines of visitors. When she was found dead on the floor of her cage that afternoon, she was immediately frozen into a 300-pound block of ice and shipped by fast train to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, where her body was carefully preserved as a taxidermy mount and an anatomical specimen. The Passenger Pigeon had been the most abundant species of bird in North America only decades earlier. Its extinction helped to inspire our modern conservation ethic."
Collapse of Critical Atlantic Current is No Longer Low-Likelihood
Scientists say ‘shocking’ discovery shows rapid cuts in carbon emissions are needed to avoid catastrophic fallout
from the Guardian
"The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) is a major part of the global climate system. It brings sun-warmed tropical water to Europe and the Arctic, where it cools and sinks to form a deep return current. The Amoc was already known to be at its weakest in 1,600 years as a result of the climate crisis.
"The research found that if carbon emissions continued to rise, 70% of the model runs led to collapse, while an intermediate level of emissions resulted in collapse in 37% of the models. Even in the case of low future emissions, an Amoc shutdown happened in 25% of the models.
"Scientists have warned previously that Amoc collapse must be avoided 'at all costs'. It would shift the tropical rainfall belt on which many millions of people rely to grow their food, plunge western Europe into extreme cold winters and summer droughts, and add 50cm to already rising sea levels."
Writing Letters to the Editor
from Defend Research
"General guidance
- "Find the venue: Identify the newspapers in your community and get the details on their requirements.
- "Make it local: Your letter should respond to a recent article or event impacting your community; local connections to national issues must be clearly established.
- "Foreground the major points: make your most important points in the first paragraph, knowing that letters may be edited and that readers may be skimming.
- "Focus on impact: use your personal experiences and/or local statistics to illustrate the local significance."
- Keep it short: Letters should be about 150-300 words, as they are often edited for space or clarity; being concise gives you more control over your message.
- Identify yourself: News outlets will not print anonymous letters, so use your name, how you are connected to the community (resident, teacher, city employee, etc.), and any relevant professional affiliation."
Tell the USDA to Keep Their Hands OFF the Roadless Rule!
Writing Prompt
- Deadline
- September 19
Tell the U.S. Department of Agriculture to keep their hands OFF the Roadless Rule! America's roadless areas are far too important for wildlife, fish, and clean water to be handed over in a sweetheart deal to the timber, mining, and oil and gas industries.
Stop Keetac Sulfate Pollution and Protect Wild Rice
from Water Legacy
- Public Meeting:
- September 3, 6:00–7:30pm
- Where:
- Iron Trail Motors Event Center
919 6th Street South
Virginia, MN - Deadline for comments:
- September 22, 4:30pm
Your Comments to the MPCA are Needed to Restore Wild Rice and Protect Fish from Keetac Mine and Tailings Basin Pollution!
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is requesting public comments by September 22, 2025. Please use the guidance below to submit your comments to the MPCA.
Please also join us and speak up at a public meeting on September 3, 2025 from 6-7:30 pm in Virginia, MN
Drastic Cuts to Renewable Energy
from Heather Cox Richardson
"Just days before Labor Day, a holiday designed to celebrate the importance and power of American workers in the United States, the Transportation Department cancelled $679 million in funding for offshore wind projects, and the Department of Energy announced it is withdrawing a $716 million loan guarantee to complete infrastructure for an offshore wind project in New Jersey.
"Reversing the shift toward renewable energy not only attacks attempts to address the crisis of climate change and boosts the fossil fuel industry on which some of Trump’s apparent allies depend, but also undermines a society based on the independence of American workers. In 2023, about 3.5 million Americans worked in jobs related to the renewable energy sector, and jobs in that sector grew at more than twice the rate of those in other sectors in what was a strong U.S. labor market. The production of coal, which Trump often points to as an ideal for American jobs, peaked in 2008. Between then and 2021, employment in coal mining fell by almost 60% in the East and almost 40% in the West, leaving a total of about 40,000 employees.
"Another cut last week sums up the repercussions of the administration’s attack on renewable energy. On August 22 the Interior Department suddenly and without explanation stopped construction of a wind farm off the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island that was 80% complete and was set to be finished early next year. As Matthew Daly of the Associated Press noted yesterday, Revolution Wind was the region’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm. It was designed to power more than 350,000 homes, provide jobs in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and enable Rhode Island to meet its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2033.
"The Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut expressed their dismay at the decision, noting that Revolution Wind employed more than 1,000 local union workers and is part of a $20 billion investment in 'American energy generation, port infrastructure, supply chain, and domestic shipbuilding and manufacturing across over 40 states' by Ørsted, a Danish multinational company."
How Plants and Fungi Trade Resources Without a Brain
Over the past few decades, scientists have come to increasingly appreciate plant intelligence
from NPR
"A billion years ago, there were no plants on land. Plants managed to expand from the oceans by trading with fungi and microbes, who could break rocks down into nutrients they needed.
"This led to a 90% reduction in CO2 levels," says Kiers. "We owe our atmosphere, we owe our forests, we owe our grasslands to this partnership."
"(Mycorrhizae are still responsible for drawing down so much CO2 each year—the equivalent of 1/3 the emissions from fossil fuels—that Kiers co-founded an organization, SPUN, to "protect the underground" the same way we protect the Amazon Rainforest and biodiversity hotspots like the Galapago.)
"'I do think there's something to be said about intact networks,' she says. 'They really offer a lot of resilience.'"
Not just electricity — water supplies will be taxed by data centers
from Minnesota Reformer
"One large-scale data center can consume as much water as 12,000 households, according to the the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
"...proposed mines, factories and data centers threaten to deplete the underground aquifers that supply up to 40% of the Great Lakes’ volume — and drinking water reserves for nearly three-quarters of Minnesotans."
BlackRock’s bid for Minnesota Power worries consumer advocates
from Minnesota Reformer
"A private equity buyout of the electric utility serving large swathes of northern Minnesota could weaken its finances and jeopardize its compliance with Minnesota’s carbon-free power standard — while raising rates and reducing reliability for more than 150,000 customers, administrative law judge Megan J. McKenzie said on July 15. McKenzie’s lengthy report called on the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission — or the PUC — to reject the proposed deal."
Line 3 protester convicted of felony granted new trial because of prosecutorial misconduct
from Minnesota Reformer
"An anti-pipeline demonstrator convicted of a felony is entitled to a new trial after the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the prosecutor’s repeated misconduct robbed her of a fair trial.
"The decision is the latest rebuke of Garrett Slyva, a former Aitkin County assistant attorney who oversaw numerous since-dismissed prosecutions of Line 3 protesters including prominent Ojibwe activist Winona LaDuke."
Data Center Download — Water
from MCEA
"Proposals for data centers are popping up all over the state. In some cases, cities aren't even revealing if large industrial proposals are for data centers at all, using non-disclosure agreements to keep communities in the dark. In response we've started making information requests for communications between the cities and companies that they're legally obligated to provide.
"In fact, as it stands, these data centers don't need to apply for their own water withdrawal permits at all. Instead, they are using a permit that the city already has, and asking the city to apply for larger withdrawals. From the outside, it may look as if the city needs more water for residents and businesses, but in fact, a single user has come in and doubled the demand.
"This also creates a perverse incentive for cities to compete against each other to market their water resources to attract these facilities, and disincentives cooperation among cities to plan for sustainable regional water use. With at least 10 data centers proposed on the outer edges of the Twin Cities, and no scrutiny of individual permits or analysis of the cumulative effects of these large increases, this is an unsustainable situation that will harm Minnesota's water resources."
Calling All Radical Artists
from Honor the Earth
"We're inviting Indigenous and Black artists across the globe to help us envision a Sovereign Indigenous Future — a future that has grown beyond colonization, genocide, imperialism, prisons, white supremacy, ableism and all the other modern systemic oppressions.
"We're collecting digital submissions of original artworks across various media that respond to this prompt: what does a Sovereign Indigenous Future look like?"
E.P.A. to Stop Updating Popular Database After Lead Scientist Criticized Trump
from NY Times
"The database, which helps companies calculate their greenhouse gas emissions, will continue under a consortium that includes Stanford University.
"The Environmental Protection Agency said it would stop updating research that hundreds of companies use to calculate their greenhouse gas emissions after the agency suspended the database's creator because he had signed a letter criticizing the Trump administration's approach to scientific research.
"The researcher, Wesley Ingwersen, is leaving the E.P.A. to pursue his work at Stanford University. He was one of 139 E.P.A. employees suspended and investigated by the agency after signing the June letter, which charged that Mr. Trump's policies 'undermine the E.P.A. mission of protecting human health and the environment.'
Capitalism is Illegal
from Progressive International
"This year, Earth Overshoot Day fell on 25 July—the date by which humanity has already used up more resources than the planet can regenerate in an entire year. Two days earlier, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a historic ruling: states are legally obliged to stop this planetary overshoot, and to hold those responsible to account. In effect, the world's highest court has confirmed what movements across the world have long insisted: the climate crisis is not just a political failure. It is an economic and a legal one. And the system driving it—capitalism—is, by every meaningful measure, illegal.
"In an unanimous advisory opinion issued on 23 July, the 15 judges of the ICJ found that: The 1.5°C limit is not just a target—it is a legal threshold; all states have binding legal obligations to prevent 'significant harm' to the environment; fossil fuel production, consumption, and subsidies may constitute 'internationally wrongful acts'; and wealthy countries have additional legal responsibilities to lead the fight against climate change.
"Importantly, the Court affirmed that climate inaction is a breach not only of environmental treaties but of general international law and human rights law. In the words of Professor Jorge Viñuales of Cambridge University, the Court 'essentially sided with the Global South and small island developing states.'"
Extra! Extra! 7/27
from Chop Wood Carry Water
"The United Nations reported a global shift toward renewable energy, passing a "positive tipping point" where solar and wind power will become even cheaper and more widespread."
"Liberal group Protect Our Care is launching a $525,000 radio ad campaign attacking Republicans for threatening Medicaid coverage for rural Americans. The ads are running in Arizona, Florida, California, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington."
"A diverse group of faith leaders, college students, grandmothers, retired lawyers and professors has been showing up at immigration courts across the nation to escort immigrants at risk of being detained for deportation by ICE agents."
"The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has announced a new program to deliver hot meals, groceries and prescription medicines to immigrant parishioners amid ongoing ICE raids."
"In a landmark ruling, the International Court of Justice declared that failure to act on climate change can be an "internationally wrongful act"—meaning countries could face legal consequences for harming the planet."
Data Center Download
from Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
"Right now, some of the world's largest tech companies are quietly planning massive data centers across Minnesota. These facilities could use as much electricity as every home in our state combined, consume millions of gallons of water daily, and operate with minimal public oversight."
"Across the state, these facilities are moving forward without comprehensive environmental review or meaningful public input."
"Before we hand over our water, energy, and natural resources to Big Tech, Minnesotans deserve answers to four essential questions:
- Energy - Where will the electricity come from?
- Water - Would our ground and surface waters be protected?
- Materials - Would these operations drive more appeals for mining?
- Community Impact - How would neighbors be affected?"
In Honor of Joanna Macy, 1929-2025
Rebecca Solnit
"The woman that was Joanna Macy is gone. And still here as books, teachings, in students, friends, and through broad influence even beyond those who know her and her work. She's a tree that's fallen; she's a tree that trees have grown out of; she's now part of the past, but also she fed and nourished and loved and guided a possible future, a hopeful and demanding future, demanding in that we would have to change ourselves and our society to make it.
"It's almost strange to think about her integrity, her compassion, her generosity at a time when the news is full of stories about cruel and corrupt men and the wreckage they've strewn all around them, but she's a reminder that their opposite is also present in the world and even in the nation; the same society produced them both. Joanna Macy is gone. Joanna Macy is with us in a thousand ways..."
A Guide for State and Local Governments to Protect People Financially in the Lead-up to and Aftermath of Climate Disasters
from Equitable & Just Insurance Initiative
"In a world of increasingly severe and frequent climate disasters, state and local governments need to be prepared to protect the public with emergency interventions. Hurricanes, wildfires, floods and more create not just physical and emotional devastation but also undermine economic and financial security for months or years after disasters strike. Recent examples like the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires have made clear what’s at stake for the financial health of a community if policymakers don’t act quickly to provide new resources and protections. These demands are critical to protect communities, homeowners, renters, insurance policyholders, and the general public."