Green Futures

The Dangers of Solar Panels

See this ProPublica article for more info

Protests and lawsuits from Native American tribes and other local groups stopped a graphite mining operation in South Dakota that was going forward without appropriate environment review.

I know most people don't know this but it really is true. You could write entire books on any number of the medical revolutions going on in the biosciences (aka life sciences) right now, and indeed people have.

These are just a few overviews and cross-selections of writing on that progress.

--

^via Dædalus, journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

^via The Economic Times, India, November 12, 2025

^via The Nobel Prize (official website and organization), November 13, 2025

^via Harvard Magazine, October 2, 2024

^via Gladstone Institutes, February 12, 2025

--

I know things are hard, and so often that's all you hear about, because bad news spreads so much faster.

But for all the challenges out there, I promise you: we are currently learning and discovering and developing genuinely game-changing things in the fields of health, medicine, and biology right now.

As William Gibson put it: “The future has arrived — it’s just not evenly distributed yet.”

Levels of some of the most dangerous Pfas compounds have dramatically fallen in Canadian seabird eggs, which the authors of a new peer-reviewed study say illustrates how regulations are effective.

Researchers looked at Pfas levels in the eggs of northern gannets in the St Lawrence Seaway basin over a 55-year period. Pfas levels shot up from the 1960s through the peak of the chemicals’ use in the late 1990s and early aughts, then fell.

The fall coincides with several developments – facing regulatory scrutiny, the chemical giant 3M, which is one of the largest producers of Pfas, began moving away from Pfos, among its most common and toxic compounds. By 2015, major chemical makers reached an agreement with the US Environment Protection Agency to phase out Pfos and Pfoa, the latter a similarly problematic compound.

Raphael Lavoie, a co-author and ecotoxicologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, called the findings “good news”.

“We see this incredible rise to a peak where concentrations seem to be higher than toxicological threshold for those birds, then it really decreases in a nice way,” Lavoie said. “The regulations are having a good effect.”

The paper details how Pfas production increased sharply between 1969 and the mid-1990s, driven by widespread applications from firefighting foams to stain guards, as well as various manufacturing processes. With virtually no regulatory oversight, the chemicals rapidly accumulated in the environment, exposing wildlife like the northern gannet. The birds faced high risk as the St Lawrence received water pollution from the upper midwest manufacturing centers around the Great Lakes. The chemicals reached levels in the eggs that suggested ecotoxicological risks, Lavoie said.

As the dangers of the most commonly used Pfas came into focus around this time, the US, Europe and Canada each ratcheted up regulatory pressure with proposed regulations or risk actions. The United Nations similarly targeted Pfos, and the compound was also listed in the 2009 Stockholm convention, which requires signatory countries to restrict its production and use. In recent decades, militaries and other users of firefighting foam switched to Pfas-free products, or stopped using the chemicals during training exercises, which has significantly reduced water pollution.

However, it is not all good news. The chemical makers moved to a newer generation of smaller Pfas, and those also present risks to the environment and wildlife. The levels of those compounds have probably grown, and the study found one example of a shift, but the new Pfas are more difficult to measure in bird eggs because they do not accumulate in wildlife as much, Lavoie said.

You can view more here.

Renewables reached almost half of global electricity capacity in 2025

Text and image from this Reuters article:

From the article:

There is growing evidence that citizens are capable of grappling seriously with environmental limits when given the opportunity. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has documented hundreds of citizens’ assemblies on climate worldwide. Analyses of such processes show that participants frequently endorse sufficiency-oriented measures, particularly in sectors like transportation. For example, a national citizens’ climate convention in France came up with a creative solution by proposing limits on domestic flights where less-polluting rail alternatives existed. Deliberation does not eliminate disagreement, nor does it guarantee ambitious outcomes. But it makes trade-offs visible and contestable. It shifts sustainability from a project of compliance to one of collective self-rule. In this sense, sufficiency is not only an environmental proposal but a democratic test. Sufficiency is often framed as a call to live with less. In reality, it is a demand to decide together what we truly need to live well on a finite planet — which, for some, in fact means living with more. Technology and economic modeling can help us understand what is physically possible, but they cannot tell us what is socially acceptable or morally just. Those judgments belong in the public realm.

You have to understand that nature does not work in the same timeframe as ours. Protecting and restoring ecosystems is RIDICULOUSLY inexpensive and requires very little industrial technology; shovels and saplings are not exactly high-tech. But it takes time and long-term projects with people determined to do it. Maybe we are too focused in our "we want it now" thinking, but what you see today is not what you may see in 10, 20, 50, even 80 years if you live that long.

This article talks about this very much in the "see? ecology can help the economy too!" tone that unfortunately is sort of necessary to convince people in the current capitalist system. But I don't want you to focus on this right now.

I want you to KNOW how doable this is. How inexpensive this is, how POSSIBLE THIS IS. That people working and loving the land and nature they live in is possible. That these projects WORK, THEY DO restore and preserve ecosystems. That humanity is neither a plague that destroys everything or a passive bystander on its own destruction but that these are actual things that can be, are, and will be implemented, backed by actual science and results. This is not empty #hopecore #hopepunk feel good stuff, these are things you can learn about, even work towards, and you can most certainly demand they are part of our society.

This orange peel story was huge years ago: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/a-fruitful-experiment-in-land-conservation/

Beavers reintroduced to historic wetlands improve them at such a level that we can see the improvements from space: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/nasa-satellites-reveal-restoration-power-of-beavers/

Africa is successfully slowing desertification and restoring historic farming soil with their Green Wall project: https://welcomeafrica.org/en/africa-combats-desertification-with-a-belt-of-life/

There has even been success at regrowing coral reefs--something which I am old enough to be told was impossible. But people have been hard at work for decades since then, and this is one of the results: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240308123248.htm

REPAIRING THE DAMAGE IS ENTIRELY WITHIN THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY.

After ten years of dreaming, eight years of government support, six years of fundraising (we needed $50,000,000!), and five years of construction, the Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu Government Hospital finally saw its first patients on February 14th.

13 babies were born at the MCOE that day. Several were admitted to the NICU, the first in Sierra Leone's history. The MCOE is already radically transforming the kind of maternal and infant care available in eastern Sierra Leone.

Five thousand babies will be born at the MCOE this year. 5,000 more will be born there next year, and the year after that, and the year after that--hopefully for decades. The healthcare workforce of the entire nation will grow stronger because the MCOE is a teaching hospital training the next generation of Sierra Leonean nurses, midwives, and doctors.

From the article:

In a world where the scale of plastic pollution can feel overwhelming, 2025 brought a milestone worth celebrating: The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch nonprofit dedicated to removing plastic from marine environments, pulled more than 25 million kilograms of waste from global waters last year alone. That’s over 55 million pounds or about 2,000 garbage trucks’ worth of plastic that is no longer drifting through our oceans. The achievement brings their cumulative haul to more than 45 million kilos (99 million pounds) since operations began.

In addition to removing huge amounts of plastic waste from the ocean, Ocean Cleanup is also now focusing on devices to collect plastic trash from rivers.

A recent analysis by Ocean Cleanup found that 80% of ocean plastic comes from just 1,000 (1%) of rivers. Stopping plastic at the source so it never even gets to the ocean is significantly easier and cheaper--especially when there are a relatively small number of rivers to focus on for the biggest impact.

The half-circles are called zaï! They're a traditional farming practice in the Sahel desert, and their introduction + reintroduction can be largely credited to Yacouba Sawadogo, the man linked above! He reintroduced and innovated on the zaï on his own farm in the 1980s, and did extensive outreach (along with scientist Mathieu Ouédraogo) to encourage other farmers to adopt them as well.

He also promoted the use of cordons pierreux, which are basically just lines of rocks to reduce erosion, preserve sediments, and increase water absorption.

Adoption of a plant-rich “planetary health diet” could prevent 40,000 early deaths a day across the world, according to a landmark report.

The diet – which allows moderate meat consumption – and related measures would also slash the food-related emissions driving global heating by half by 2050. Today, a third of greenhouse gas emissions come from the global food system and taming the climate crisis is impossible without changing how the world eats, the researchers said. Food production is also the biggest cause of the destruction of wildlife and forests and the pollution of water.

The diet is flexible, allowing it to be adapted to local tastes, and can include some animal products or be vegetarian or vegan. However, all versions advise eating more vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes and whole grains than most people in the world currently eat. In many places, today’s diets are unhealthy and unsustainable due to too much meat, milk and cheese, animal fats and sugar.

People in the US and Canada eat more than seven times the PHD’s recommended amount of red meat, while it is five times more in Europe and Latin America, and four times more in China. However, in some regions where people’s diets are heavily reliant on starchy foods, such as sub-Saharan Africa, a small increase in chicken, dairy and eggs would be beneficial to health, the report found.

Severe inequalities in the food system must also be ended to achieve healthy and sustainable diets, the researchers said. The wealthiest 30% of the world’s population generates more than 70% of food-related environmental damage, it found. Furthermore, 2.8 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet and 1 billion are undernourished, despite enough food being produced globally. The food system is also failing the 1 billion people living with obesity, the report said.

The report recommends shifting taxes to make unhealthy food more costly and healthy food cheaper, regulating the advertising of unhealthy food and using warning labels, and the shifting of today’s massive agricultural subsidies to healthier and more sustainable foods.

“What we put on our plates can save millions of lives, cut billions of tonnes of emissions, halt the loss of biodiversity, and create a fairer food system,” said Prof Johan Rockström, who co-chaired the EAT-Lancet Commission that produced the report. “The evidence is undeniable: transforming food systems is not only possible, it’s essential to securing a safe, just, and sustainable future for all.”

“This is not a deprivation diet,” said Prof Walter Willett of the Harvard TH Chan school of public health, and another commission co-chair. “This is something that could be delicious, aspirational and healthy. It also allows for cultural diversity and individual preferences, providing flexibility.”

The report, published in the Lancet, was produced by 70 leading experts from 35 countries and six continents. It builds on the 2019 report that introduced the PHD, but includes new evidence of the health benefits of the diet.

“We have been able to look at this diet in relation to health outcomes such as total mortality, diabetes, respiratory diseases, heart disease, stroke, etc and we found very strong inverse relationships” said Willett. The diet was also linked to reduced cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

Overall, the researchers estimated global adoption of the PHD could prevent 15m early deaths a year in adults. The estimate did not include the impact of the diet reducing obesity, meaning it is probably an underestimate.

Dr Marco Springmann from UCL in the UK and an author of the report said the differences between the PHD and current diets vary: “What needs to be reduced differs a lot. In low income countries, it’s the starchy foods and grains, whereas in high income countries it is animal-sourced foods, sugar, saturated fats, and dairy. It’s insane how much dairy is consumed in Europe and North America.”

The data underlying the report is available online and can be used to tailor different planetary health diets for the tastes of people in specific countries and of different ages. The website also shows how much the diets reduce deaths, improve nutrition, and cut environmental impacts. “Hopefully this will lead to more science-based policymaking,” said Springmann.

Moving diets towards the PHD could be achieved by helping consumers make better everyday choices, said Prof Line Gordon, director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, for example by shifting taxes to make healthy foods cheaper, and putting warning labels on unhealthy foods. “But it is not just about getting prices lower, it’s also about bringing purchasing power up so that people can afford a healthier diet” she said.

“Our recommendations are grounded in scientific evidence and real-world experience,” Gordon said. “Changes are already under way, from school meal programmes to regenerative agriculture and food waste reduction initiatives.” England banned price promotions on unhealthy foods on Wednesday and will ban advertising such foods online.

Alongside a shift in diets, the report calls for other changes to the food system, including cutting the loss and waste of food, greener farming practices, and decent working conditions, as a third of food workers earn below living wages.

This year’s U-turn in federal energy policy aside, it is not possible to stop the march of renewable energy innovation in the US, as amply illustrated by the latest iteration of the North American Agrivoltaics Awards program. The NAAA program is yet another sign that the agrivoltaic movement is transitioning from a patchwork of demonstration projects into a full fledged job-creating, farm-saving machine poised for widespread adoption, helping to sustain the nation’s agriculture industry through challenging times while adding more clean kilowatts to the electricity grid.

The United Nations has added an area the size of Bolivia to a network of special land and seascapes with the aim of ensuring they remain places where Man can anchor himself to his national and global ecosystem.

Much like the way UNESCO nominates places to become World Heritage Sites, the organization’s Man and Biosphere Program nominates UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. The network of these areas has now grown to 785 sites in 142 countries, totaling 5% of the planet’s landmass.

Again, like World Heritage Sites, each year new potential Biosphere Reserves are submitted as candidates by UN member states, and may be then added to the Reserve Network. With this year’s addition of 26 new sites, it means that one million km² of natural areas have been brought under protection just since 2018—equivalent to the size of Bolivia.

“With nearly thirty new designations this year, our World Network of Biosphere Reserves has reached a major milestone, now protecting 5% of the planet. Within these reserves, new ways of balancing nature conservation with sustainable livelihoods are being forged every day. UNESCO will continue to mobilize states, scientists, civil society, and local and Indigenous communities to continue this positive momentum,” said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.

6 countries received the designation of their first Biosphere Reserve this year, including Angola, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Iceland, Oman, and Tajikistan, while São Tomé and Príncipe becomes the first state to have its entire territory designated as a Biosphere Reserve.

In addition to these 6, new reserves have also been designated in Albania, China, Ethiopia, France, Greece, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mongolia, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and Sweden.

They also safeguard some of the planet’s richest and most fragile ecosystems. They harbor a significant share of global biodiversity including more than 60% of terrestrial vertebrate species, 12% of mapped mangroves, 10% of salt marshes, and 8% of the world’s seagrass meadows.

Many iconic American landscapes are also Biosphere Reserves, including the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, the Southern Appalachians, and the Channel Islands.

They foster local and community initiatives and serve as learning grounds for younger generations, through educational program tailored to schools as well as to local and indigenous communities.

UNESCO cannot designate Biosphere Reserves itself, and the job of policing and maintaining them falls on the nations that nominate areas—often national parks—to become reserves.

They are not created for the purpose of returning land to a wild state, or even from removing activities like agriculture, but are governed in a way that Man and the biosphere he needs to survive can do so for as long as we humans live on this planet—striking a balance between the needs of the land and the needs of the humans living on it.

The governance aspect combines activities in the natural and social sciences with a view to drafting management and development plans that will improve human livelihoods while safeguarding natural and managed ecosystems.